۞ 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 they took many spoils, and Allah is the Almighty, and the Wise. 19 [O you who believe!] God has promised you many war-gains which you shall yet achieve; and He has vouchsafed you these [worldly gains] well in advance, and has stayed from you the hands of [hostile] people, so that this [your inner strength] may become a symbol to the believers [who will come after you,] and that He may guide you all on a straight way. 20 And there were (other spoils) which you were unable to take. Allah has encompassed it already, Allah is powerful over all things. 21 Had the unbelievers fought you they would have turned their backs and not found a protector or helper. 22 (Such has been) the practice (approved) of Allah already in the past: no change wilt thou find in the practice (approved) of Allah. 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 These it was who disbelieved and debarred you from the Inviolable Place of Worship, and debarred the offering from reaching its goal. And if it had not been for believing men and believing women, whom ye know not - lest ye should tread them under foot and thus incur guilt for them unknowingly; that Allah might bring into His mercy whom He will - If (the believers and the disbelievers) had been clearly separated We verily had punished those of them who disbelieved with painful punishment. 25 Whereas they who are bent on denying the truth harboured a stubborn disdain in their hearts - the stubborn disdain [born] of ignorance - God bestowed from on high His [gift of] inner peace upon His Apostle and the believers, and bound them to the spirit of God-consciousness: for they were most worthy of this [divine gift,] and deserved it well. And God has full knowledge of all things. 26