Overall meaning : You should know, believers, that the ruling regarding whatever booty you take from the unbelievers after defeating them is that one-fifth of it belongs to Allah, the Messenger, his close relatives from the clan of Hashim and the clan Al-Muttalib, the orphans, the needy and the travellers who cannot afford travel expenses to return to their homelands. As for the remaining four fifths of the booty, they belong to the fighters. This they must observe if they believe in Allah Almighty and the Qur’anic verses He revealed to His servant Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, on the day when truth was distinguished from falsehood—the day when believing and unbelieving armies met in battle at Badr. Allah has power over all things, for He gave you, Muslims, victory over the unbelievers despite their huge numbers compared to yours.
Remember that day, believers, when you were at the nearer end of the Valley of Badr, the closest to Madinah, and they were at its farthest end, while the camel-riders guarding the trade caravan of the Quraysh were below you on the coastal plain. Had you and the idolaters mutually made an appointment to meet at a certain time and place for battle, you would not have been able to hold to the appointment. But Allah made such an encounter possible without any previous appointment so that He would accomplish a matter He had decreed to be done, so that those who were to perish on that day would perish after evidence had been established against them and those who were to survive would survive after evidence had been established for them. Surely Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing.