۞ 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 much war booty which they will take. And ever is Allah Exalted in Might and Wise. 19 God has promised you many spoils to take; these He has hastened to you, and has restrained the hands of men from you, and that it may be a sign to the believers, and to guide you on a straight path, 20 And other (victories and much booty there are, He promises you) which are not yet within your power, indeed Allah compasses them, And Allah is Ever Able to do all things. 21 Had the unbelievers fought against you at that time, they would have turned their backs (in flight), and would have found none to protect or help them. 22 such being God's way which has ever obtained in the past - and never wilt thou find any change in God's way! 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 It was they who were bent on denying the truth, and who debarred you from the Sacred Mosque and who prevented your offering from reaching its place of sacrifice. And had it not been for the believing men and believing women [in Makkah] whom you might unwittingly have trampled underfoot, and on whose account you might have, unknowingly, become guilty, [God would have commanded you to fight it out with them; but He ordained it thus] so that He may bring whoever He will into His mercy. If they [the believers] had been clearly separated, We would have punished those who were bent on denying the truth with a painful punishment. 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