Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)
42 When you were on the nearer side,1
and they 2 on the farther side,
while the caravan was below you,
and had you agreed together on an encounter,
you would have certainly failed to keep the tryst,3
but in order that Allah may carry through
a matter that was bound to be fulfilled,
so that he who perishes might perish
by a manifest proof,
and he who lives may live on
by a manifest proof,
and Allah is indeed all-hearing, all-knowing.
43 When Allah showed them 4 to you
as few in your dream,
and had He shown them as many,
you would have lost heart,
and disputed about the matter.
But Allah spared you.
Indeed He knows well what is in the breasts.
44 And when He showed them to you
— when you met them [on the battlefield] —
as few in your eyes,
and He made you [appear] few in their eyes
in order that Allah may carry through
a matter that was bound to be fulfilled,
and to Allah all matters are returned.
45 O you who have faith!
1 That is, on the side of the valley nearer to Madinah.
2 That is, the army of the polytheists of Makkah.
3 Or ‘you would not have kept the tryst.’
4 That is, the enemy troops.
