There has certainly been for you in the Messenger of Allah an excellent pattern for anyone whose hope is in Allah and the Last Day and [who] remembers Allah often. 21 When the believers saw the confederates, they said, "This is what God and His Messenger have promised us. Surely the promise of God and His Messenger has come true." It served to increase them in faith and submission. 22 Among the believers are men who have been true to their covenant with Allah [i.e. they have gone out for Jihad (holy fighting), and showed not their backs to the disbelievers], of them some have fulfilled their obligations (i.e. have been martyred), and some of them are still waiting, but they have never changed [i.e. they never proved treacherous to their covenant which they concluded with Allah] in the least. 23 In order that Allah may reward the truthful for their truthfulness, and punish the hypocrites if He wills, or give them repentance; indeed Allah is Oft Forgiving, Most Merciful. 24 Allah sent back the unbelievers in their rage, and they gained no good. Allah spared the believers from fighting, surely Allah is the Strong, the Mighty. 25 And He brought those of the People of the Scripture who supported them down from their strongholds, and cast panic into their hearts. Some ye slew, and ye made captive some. 26 And He caused you to inherit their land and their homes and their properties and a land which you have not trodden. And ever is Allah, over all things, competent. 27