۞ 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 Allah has promised you plenty of booty which you will take, and has bestowed this to you quickly, and restrained peoples’ hands from you; and in order that it may be a sign for the believers, and to guide you on the Straight Path. 20 And He promiseth another victory, over which ye have as yet no power. Allah hath surely encompassed it; and Allah is over everything ever Potent. 21 And if those [Makkans] who disbelieve had fought you, they would have turned their backs [in flight]. Then they would not find a protector or a helper. 22 Such has been the course of Allah that has indeed run before, and you shall not find a change in Allah's course. 23 It is He who restrained their hands from you, and your hands from them, in the hollow of Mecca, after that He made you victors over them. God sees the things 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 When those who disbelieved had put into their hearts chauvinism - the chauvinism of the time of ignorance. But Allah sent down His tranquillity upon His Messenger and upon the believers and imposed upon them the word of righteousness, and they were more deserving of it and worthy of it. And ever is Allah, of all things, Knowing. 26