۞ INDEED, well-pleased was God with the believers when they pledged their allegiance unto thee [O Muhammad] under that tree, for He knew what was in their hearts; and so He bestowed inner peace upon them from on high, and rewarded them with [the glad tiding of] a victory soon to come 18 and [of] many war-gains which they would achieve: for God is indeed almighty, wise. 19 God has promised you many future gains, and He has given you these in advance; and He has restrained the hands of men from harming you, so that it may be a sign for the believers, and so that He may guide you to a straight path. 20 Besides these, there were other gains which you could not receive, but God has full control over them. God 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 the wont of God, as in the past before, and thou shalt never find any changing the wont of God. 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 It was the disbelievers who kept you from the Sacred Mosque and prevented your sacrificial offering from reaching its proper place. God would not have kept you from fighting the disbelievers, had there not been believing men and women (among them) whom you did not know and whom you might have unknowingly harmed. God did this because He grants mercy to whomever He wants. Had they been distinguishable from the believers, We would certainly have punished them with a painful torment. 25 While those who deny the truth made it a prestige issue [in their hearts], the bigotry of the days of ignorance, God sent His tranquillity down on to His Messenger and believers and firmly established in them the principle of righteousness, for they were indeed better entitled to it and more worthy of it. God has full knowledge of all things. 26