O People who believe! Remember the favour of Allah upon you when some armies came against you, so We sent against them a windstorm and the armies you could not see; and Allah sees your deeds. 9 When they came upon you from above you and from below you, and when the eyes grew wild and the hearts reached to the throats, and you were harbouring doubts about Allah. 10 [for] there and then were the believers tried, and shaken with a shock severe. 11 And when the hypocrites and those in whose hearts was a disease began to say: Allah and His Apostle did not promise us (victory) but only to deceive. 12 It was there that a group of them said, "People of Yathrib, turn back for there is no place for you to stay." Another group, asking for the Prophet's permission, said, "Our homes are defenseless." In fact, they were not defenseless. They only wanted to run away. 13 Now if their town had been stormed, and they had been asked [by the enemy] to commit apostasy, [the hypocrites] would have done so without much delay 14 Yet they had made covenant with God before that, that they would not turn their backs; and covenants with God shall be questioned of 15 Say: "Of no gain will be your running away if you run from death or being killed, even then you will enjoy the good things of life but only for a while." 16 ۞ Say: "Who is he who can protect you from Allah if He intends to harm you, or intends mercy on you?" And they will not find, besides Allah, for themselves any Wali (protector, supporter, etc.) or any helper. 17 God certainly knows those among you who create obstacles (on the way that leads to God) and those who say to their brothers, 'Come quickly to us' and very rarely take part in the fighting. 18 They reduce the help towards you; so when a fearful time comes, you will observe them looking at you with eyes rolling like one enveloped by death; then when the time of fear is over, they begin slandering you with sharp tongues in their greed for the war booty; they have not accepted faith, therefore Allah has nullified their deeds; and this is easy for Allah. 19 They think the confederates have not departed. Indeed, if the confederates should come again they would sooner be in the desert among the Bedouins asking news of you. If they were among you, they would fight but a little. 20