And this stems from their limited understanding and failure to reflect upon the verse. There is no contradiction in it, whether in its apparent or underlying sense, its wording or its meaning. For He spoke of the hypocrites and those with sickness in their hearts who shrank back from jihad, saying:

“Wherever you may be, death will overtake you, even if you are in lofty towers. If good befalls them, they say, ‘This is from Allah’; but if evil befalls them, they say, ‘This is from you.’”

They say this to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, meaning: “Because of the religion you commanded us to follow, and because we abandoned our former ways, these evils have befallen us, for you commanded us to do what brought them about.”

The evil things, then, are calamities; and it was he who commanded them to perform the deeds they supposed had caused those calamities. Their statement, “from you,” includes the calamities of jihad that lead to defeat, because he commanded them to undertake jihad. It also includes calamities affecting their livelihood, which they superstitiously attributed to him as a bad omen, meaning: “This is a punishment upon us because of your religion.” Pharaoh’s people likewise regarded Moses and those with him as bad omens. Similarly, the people of the town said to the messengers:

“We regard you as a bad omen.”

And the disbelievers of Thamūd said to Sālih and his people:

“We regard you and those with you as bad omens.”

Thus, concerning whatever befell them—warfare, upheaval, wounds, killing, and other things inflicted by the enemy—they would say: “This is from you, because you commanded us to perform the deeds that brought it about.”

They would say of both these and calamities from heaven, “They are from you,” meaning: “Because we obeyed you and followed your religion, we have suffered these