There has certainly been for you in the Messenger of Allah an excellent pattern for anyone whose hope is in Allah and the Last Day and [who] remembers Allah often. 21 When the believers saw the Confederates they said, 'This is what God and His Messenger promised us, and God and His Messenger have spoken truly.' And it only increased them in faith and surrender. 22 Among the believers are men who have been true to their covenant with Allah [i.e. they have gone out for Jihad (holy fighting), and showed not their backs to the disbelievers], of them some have fulfilled their obligations (i.e. have been martyred), and some of them are still waiting, but they have never changed [i.e. they never proved treacherous to their covenant which they concluded with Allah] in the least. 23 God will certainly reward the truthful ones for their truthfulness and punish or pardon the hypocrites as He wishes. God is All-forgiving and All-merciful. 24 Allah sent back the unbelievers empty-handed, their hearts seething with rage. Allah sufficed the believers in their fight. Allah is Most Powerful, Most Mighty. 25 And those of the people of the Scripture who backed them (the disbelievers) Allah brought them down from their forts and cast terror into their hearts, (so that) a group (of them) you killed, and a group (of them) you made captives. 26 and He made you heirs to their lands, and their houses, and their goods - and [promised you] lands on which you had never yet set foot: for God has indeed the power to will anything. 27