۞ Allah was well pleased with the believers when they swore allegiance unto thee beneath the tree, and He knew what was in their hearts, and He sent down peace of reassurance on them, and hath rewarded them with a near victory; 18 And much war booty which they will take. And ever is Allah Exalted in Might and Wise. 19 Allah has promised you much booty that you will take [in the future] and has hastened for you this [victory] and withheld the hands of people from you - that it may be a sign for the believers and [that] He may guide you to a straight path. 20 He also promises you other spoils which you have not yet taken, but Allah has encompassed them. Allah has power over everything. 21 Had the unbelievers fought against you at that time, they would have turned their backs (in flight), and would have found none to protect or help them. 22 such being God's way which has ever obtained in the past - and never wilt thou find any change in God's way! 23 It was He who restrained their hands from you in the heart of Makkah, and your hands from them, after He had given you victory over them, as God sees all that you do. 24 They were those who disbelieved, and hindered you from the Sacred Mosque, and hindered the detained offering that it should arrive at the goal thereof. And had it not been for believing men and believing women whom ye knew not, and that ye might have trampled on them, and thus there might have befallen you crime on their account unwittingly. But this He did that He might bring into His mercy whomsoever He will. Had they been distinguished one from another, surely We had tormented those who disbelieved among them with a torment afflictive. 25 When the unbelievers fostered a sense of honour in their hearts, a sense of pagan honour, God sent down a sense of tranquility on His Apostle and the believers, and obliged them to an act of self-restraint, for they were deserving and worthy of it. God is cognisant of everything. 26