Surah Ali 'Imran, Ayah 142

The Wisdom Behind the Losses Muslims Suffered During Uhud

Allah states to His believing servants who suffered losses in the battle of Uhud, including seventy dead,

قَدْ خَلَتْ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ سُنَنٌ

(137... Many similar ways (and mishaps of life) were faced before you), for the previous nations who followed their Prophets before you, they too suffered losses. However, the good end was theirs, and the ultimate defeat was for the disbelievers. This is why Allah said,

فَسِيرُواْ فِى الاٌّرْضِ فَانْظُرُواْ كَيْفَ كَانَ عَـقِبَةُ الْمُكَذِّبِينَ

(so travel through the earth, and see what was the end of those who denied). Allah said next,) (3:137 end...)

هَـذَا بَيَانٌ لِّلنَّاسِ

The second verse that follows gives consolation to Muslims from another angle. It has been said that if Muslims were wounded or hurt in that particular battle, so also were those fighting against them. If seventy Muslim men were martyred with many wounded, is it not that they had condemned an identical number of their enemies to Hell, and wounded many, a year ago? Then, in this very battle, many a men from the enemy ranks were killed and wounded initially. So, when the text says:

إِن يَمْسَسْكُمْ قَرْ‌حٌ فَقَدْ مَسَّ الْقَوْمَ قَرْ‌حٌ مِّثْلُهُ ۚ وَتِلْكَ الْأَيَّامُ نُدَاوِلُهَا بَيْنَ النَّاسِ

If you receive a wound, they have received a similar wound. And such days we rotate among the people..

It guides us to another important principle and rule of procedure.

In this mortal world, the customary practice of Allah Almighty is to cause the days of hardship and ease, pain and comfort, suffering and peace occur among people by turns. If, for some reason, a falsely-motivated power succeeds in getting a short-lived upper hand, the group motivated by the truth should not lose heart and come to think that, from this point onwards, they are always doomed to nothing but defeat. Instead of taking this negative attitude, they should rather go about finding out the causes of that defeat, and once they have discovered those, they should take corrective measures and eliminate all possibilities of repeating those mistakes. In the end, the group motivated by the truth shall emerge as the ultimate victor.

Accepting faith amounts to making a pledge to lead one’s life according to God’s commandments. God has promised the believers success in this world and Paradise in the next. Besides this, He will confer upon those who have suffered rejection in this world, the foremost honour of being chosen as witnesses in His court. And it will be on the basis of their evidence that the eternal fate of all human beings will be decided. But one will not receive this status merely on the strength of verbal claims to have embraced the faith; each individual will have necessarily to prove his genuineness in terms of the patience he has exercised on earth and his struggle for the cause of God. Difficulties and obstacles will be placed by others in the path of the believer in both cases, that is, whether he wants to base his personal life on faith and belief or stand before others as a witness of the religion of God. Persevering in God’s cause while facing all odds and difficulties along the way is a form of struggle, or jihad, while standing by one’s pledges and never taking an emotional step are a form of patience, or sabr. Whichever group struggles while remaining patient and peaceful will be successful in this world of God as well as in the Hereafter. It is people such as these who are deserving candidates for Paradise.