۞ Certainly was Allah pleased with the believers when they pledged allegiance to you, [O Muhammad], under the tree, and He knew what was in their hearts, so He sent down tranquillity upon them and rewarded them with an imminent conquest 18 and the booty which they received from it (the Battle). God is Majestic and All-wise. 19 Allah has promised you many gains that ye shall acquire, and He has given you these beforehand; and He has restrained the hands of men from you; that it may be a Sign for the Believers, and that He may guide you to a Straight Path; 20 And other gains (there are), which are not within your power, but which Allah has compassed: and Allah has power over all things. 21 If those who deny the truth were to fight you, they would certainly turn their backs; then they would find neither protector nor helper: 22 This is the law of God, effective as before: You will not find any change in the law of God. 23 It was He who restrained their hands from you and your hands from them in the hollow (Hudaibiah) of Mecca after He had given you victory over them. Allah sees the things you do. 24 They are the ones who disbelieved and barred you from the Inviolable Mosque and prevented the animals you had designated for sacrifice from reaching the place of their offering. If it had not been for the believing men and believing women (who lived in Makkah and) whom you did not know, and had there not been the fear that you might trample on them and unwittingly incur blame on their account, (then fighting would not have been put to a stop. It was stopped so that) Allah may admit to His Mercy whomsoever He pleases. Had those believers been separated from the rest, We would certainly have inflicted a grievous chastise-ment on those of them [i.e. the Makkans) who disbelieved. 25 Whereas the disbelievers had set up in their hearts an obstinacy – the same obstinacy of the days of ignorance – so Allah sent down His solace upon His Noble Messenger and upon the believers, and decreed upon them the words of piety, and they were more deserving and suitable for it; and Allah is the All Knowing. 26