يَحْسَبُونَ ٱلْأَحْزَابَ لَمْ يَذْهَبُوا۟ وَإِن يَأْتِ ٱلْأَحْزَابُ يَوَدُّوا۟ لَوْ أَنَّهُم بَادُونَ فِى ٱلْأَعْرَابِ يَسْـَٔلُونَ عَنْ أَنۢبَآئِكُمْ وَلَوْ كَانُوا۟ فِيكُم مَّا قَٰتَلُوٓا۟ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا
Yaḥsabūna'l-aḥzāba lam yadhhabū, wa in yaʾti'l-aḥzābu yawaddū law annahum bādūna fi'l-aʿrābi yasʾalūna ʿan anbāʾikum, wa law kānū fīkum mā qātalū illā qalīlā
"They suppose the confederated groups have not gone. And if those groups were to come again, they would wish to be out in the desert among the bedouin, asking from afar for news of you. Even if they were among you they would fight but little."
The word ٱلْأَحْزَاب occurs twice in this verse and once in the twenty-second. The sūra takes its name from here.
And that the word comes with the definite article (al-) is worth noting: groups the addressee knows and recognises. The verse is not introducing them, it is recalling them.
حَسِبَ — root ح-س-ب. To count, to reckon; and from this "to suppose" — to make a reckoning in the mind.
The state the sentence describes is a psychological fact worth recording: the danger has passed, but the fear has not. The person still behaves as though the threat were there.
And this may look like a contradiction with the nineteenth verse — there it was said that the fear had gone and the tongues had sharpened. There is no contradiction; the two verses speak of two different layers: the outward behaviour shows that the fear has gone (19), while the inward reckoning still counts the threat (20).
That is, the verse says this: the courage of the tongue and the reckoning within are not the same thing. I record it as my own reading.
بَادُون — singular بَادٍ. Root: ب-د-و. To come into view, to appear; and bādiya — the desert, the open country (the place where everything is visible because it is treeless). Badawī is from the same root.
ٱلْأَعْرَاب — this word was treated in detail at al-Ḥujurāt, and the finding recorded there holds here too: aʿrāb does not mean "the Arabs"; it means the bedouin, that is, those who live a nomadic life. The same note was entered at al-Fatḥ as well. I rely on that treatment.
This is a critical note in view of the method (Method): the word names not an ethnic group but a way of living. And the verse does not condemn that way of living; it records the desire of the person who wants to flee there.
The position desired is not merely "to be far off". The verse adds a detail: to be far off and to ask for news.
نَبَأ — root ن-ب-أ. And it was treated as the name of a sūra at al-Nabaʾ. What was recorded there: a nabaʾ is not an ordinary piece of news; it is important news, news with consequences.
That is, the person described is following the event. He is not indifferent. Far off but curious; safe but informed.
This is a portrait worth recording, and it has a modern counterpart: standing outside the event and watching the event. The verse depicts this as a desire: to be safe and at the same time to be counted as inside what is happening.
I record this as my own reading; its ground is the joining in one sentence of bādūna (far off) with yasʾalūna ʿan anbāʾikum (asking for news).
| Verse | The construction | What is little |
|---|---|---|
| 14 | mā talabbathū bihā illā yasīrā | The delay would have been little |
| 16 | lā tumattaʿūna illā qalīlā | The enjoyment will be little |
| 18 | lā yaʾtūna'l-baʾsa illā qalīlā | Their coming to the fighting is little |
| 20 | mā qātalū illā qalīlā | Their fighting would have been little |
Four notes of "little". And this repetition says something: the verses describe not an absence but an insufficiency. No one is entirely absent; everyone is present to some degree. And the sūra's measure is not presence or absence but quantity.
And this prepares the twenty-first verse that comes immediately after: uswa ḥasana. Against what is insufficient, a measure is set.