۞ Indeed Allah was truly pleased with the believers when they swore allegiance to you beneath the tree – so He knew what was in their hearts – He therefore sent down peace upon them, and rewarded them with an imminent victory. 18 And the many spoils that they were to take. God is all-mighty and all-wise. 19 Allah promiseth you much booty that ye will capture, and hath given you this in advance, and hath withheld men's hands from you, that it may be a token for the believers, and that He may guide you on a right path. 20 He also promises you other spoils which you have not yet taken, but Allah has encompassed them. Allah has power over everything. 21 And if those who disbelieve join battle with you they will take to flight, and afterward they will find no protecting friend nor helper. 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 They are the ones who disbelieved and barred you from the Inviolable Mosque and prevented the animals you had designated for sacrifice from reaching the place of their offering. If it had not been for the believing men and believing women (who lived in Makkah and) whom you did not know, and had there not been the fear that you might trample on them and unwittingly incur blame on their account, (then fighting would not have been put to a stop. It was stopped so that) Allah may admit to His Mercy whomsoever He pleases. Had those believers been separated from the rest, We would certainly have inflicted a grievous chastise-ment on those of them [i.e. the Makkans) who disbelieved. 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