۞ Allah was much pleased with the believers when they swore fealty to you under the tree. He knew what was in their hearts. So He bestowed inner peace upon them and rewarded them with a victory near at hand 18 And the many spoils that they were to take. God is all-mighty and all-wise. 19 Allah has promised you many gains that ye shall acquire, and He has given you these beforehand; and He has restrained the hands of men from you; that it may be a Sign for the Believers, and that He may guide you to a Straight Path; 20 Besides these, there were other gains which you could not receive, but God has full control over them. God has power over all things. 21 And if the disbelievers were to fight you, they will turn away and flee, and then they will not find any supporter nor any aide. 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 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 When those who disbelieve had put in their hearts a zeal, the zeal of paganism, then Allah sent down His tranquillity upon His apostle and upon the believers, and kept them fixed on the way of piety, and they were worthy thereof and meet therefor; and Allah is of everything ever Knower. 26