Overall meaning : Allah, Glorified be He, warns the faithful against showing obedience to the unbelievers. If they do, He cautions, they will end up forsaking their religion and becoming unbelievers, and thus bring ruin upon themselves in this life and in the life to come. The unbelievers will by no means support them, He states. He alone can support and help His believing servants, for He is the best of helpers.
He further mentions that He will cast terror into the hearts of the unbelievers for associating partners with Him, for which He has sent down no authority. Their abode in the hereafter will be the Fire, and evil indeed is the wrongdoers’ abode.
The Almighty then reminds the believers of the victory He promised He would grant them over their enemy at the he Battle of Uhud. They did rout them at first, but then they suffered a disastrous defeat once they lost heart, disagreement arose between the archers and they disobeyed the orders of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. They were suddenly put to rout after Allah had brought them within sight of the victory for which they were longing and they had just started experiencing the joy of vanquishing the enemy. Some of the believers sought the worldly life, and so they left their positions in which the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had posted them and went down to collect their share of the booty; some others, however, desired the reward in the hereafter, and so they maintained their assigned positions. Then Allah put the believers to the test by turning them away from the unbelievers who seized the favourable opportunity and subdued them. This was a divine test to distinguish the obedient from the disobedient. Allah surely pardoned them and did not let the enemy to wipe them out completely; they suffered defeat and some of them were killed. Allah is gracious to the faithful.
He further reminds them of the moment they fled in panic, paying no heed to anyone, while Allah’s Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was at their rear exhorting them to stand firm and stop fleeing. They left him behind and did respond to his call, and so Allah inflicted distress on them when the cry was raised that Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was killed. This distress was indeed far greater than that of letting victory and war booty slip thorough their fingers and thus suffering casualties and injuries. Such distress was so intense that it made them forget all manner of distress they had previously suffered.
Then after the immense distress the faithful had strongly felt, Allah sent down on them inner peace and reassurance: restful sleep which had overtaken them. As for the hypocrites in their midst, they were so anxious about their lives and their own safety that they did not sleep a wink. They harboured ill thoughts of Allah—entertaining the wrong thought that the Almighty would not support His servants, saying that they had no say in the matter and that they had no choice but to go into battle. So Allah instructs His Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, to say to them, ‘All power of decision rests with Allah alone.’ They also concealed in their hearts what they did not reveal to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, by complaining to one another, ‘Had we had any say in the matter, we would not have left Madinah, nor would any of us have been killed.’
Whereupon Allah instructs His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, to say to them that even if they had remained in their homes, those of them who were destined to be slain would surely have gone out to their place of death. Allah had only fulfilled His decree to test what was in their hearts and distinguish the good from the evil in them, for He knows the innermost secrets of people’s hearts.
The Almighty then states that those who fled the battlefield on that day only did so because Satan made them slip because of some of their sins, reassuring them that He has pardoned them; for He is All-Forgiving, All-Clement.