۞ Certainly Allah was well pleased with the believers when they swore allegiance to you under the tree, and He knew what was in their hearts, so He sent down tranquillity on them and rewarded them with a near victory, 18 And the many spoils that they were to take. God is all-mighty and all-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 there are yet other [gains] which are still beyond your grasp, [but] which God has already encompassed [for you]: for God has power over all things. 21 And if those who disbelieve fight with you, they would certainly turn (their) backs, then they would not find any protector or a helper. 22 Such is Allah's Way that has come down from the past. Never shall you find any change in the Way of Allah. 23 And it is He who withheld their hands from you and your hands from them within [the area of] Makkah after He caused you to overcome them. And ever is Allah of what you do, Seeing. 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