of them forbade his tribe from fighting them and told them of what he had seen—except for two men. This is the meaning of His saying, Exalted is He: “And Allah had already taken a covenant from the Children of Israel, and We raised among them twelve leaders.

“And Allah said, ‘Indeed, I am with you,’” meaning: I will support you against your enemy. He then resumed the statement, saying: “If you establish prayer,” O assembly of the Children of Israel, “and give zakah, believe in My messengers, and support them,” that is, aid them. It is also said: honour and venerate them; “and lend Allah a goodly loan”—it is said that this means giving zakah, and it is also said that it means spending upon one’s family—“I will surely remove your misdeeds from you, and I will surely admit you into gardens beneath which rivers flow. But whoever among you disbelieves after that has indeed strayed from the right way,” that is, he has missed the intended path—the path of [truth] (1). The middle of everything is its midpoint.

“So for their breaking of their covenant, We cursed them and made their hearts hard. They distort words from their proper places and have forgotten a portion of that of which they were reminded. You will continue to discover treachery from them, except for a few of them. So pardon them and overlook them. Indeed, Allah loves those who do good.” (13)