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ʾa-wa-lammā ʾaṣābatkum muṣībatun qad ʾaṣabtum mithlayhā qultum ʾannā hādhā qul huwa min ʿindi ʾanfusikum ʾinna llāha ʿalā kulli shayʾin qadīrun
What, when an affliction visits you—while you have inflicted twice as much—do you say, ‘How is this?’! Say, ‘This is from your own souls.’ Indeed Allah has power over all things.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah 'Ali-Imran, Verse 165
165. "Yet, when a disaster befalls you while you have certainly afflicted (the fow) with twice as much, you say: ' Whence is this?' Say: 'It if from your own selves'. Surely Allah is All-Powerful over all things."
When seventy persons from Muslim troop were killed in the Battle of 'Uhud and Muslims were defeated, they asked each other why they were defeated. The Lord tells them they had afflicted the enemy with twice as many in the Battle of Badr the previous year. They killed seventy people of them and captured seventy men from them, too. Besides that, the failure of that year was for their own disunity and inactivity, and that they did not obey their commander.
Explanations
1. When judging, consider both the bitter and sweet aspects. (Do not think of the failure of 'Uhud alone and forget the triumph of Badr).
2. In searching for the factors of failure, begin with the innate, spiritual and mental factors; and then go to follow other factors.
3. Allah is powerful over all things, but we must obtain the necessary conditions and eligibilities of enjoying it.
4. Do not imagine that to be only Muslim is enough for winning the battle and, consequently, in every failure use the question of 'why' and how, "Whence is this?", but beside Faith, it is necessary that the military rules, and divine way be paid attention to.