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wa-lammā raʾā l-muʾminūna l-ʾaḥzāba qālū hādhā mā waʿadanā llāhu wa-rasūluhū wa-ṣadaqa llāhu wa-rasūluhū wa-mā zādahum ʾillā ʾīmānan wa-taslīman
But when the faithful saw the confederates, they said, ‘This is what Allah and His Apostle had promised us, and Allah and His Apostle were true.’ And it only increased them in faith and submission.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Al-’Ahzab – Verse 22
22. “And when the believers saw the allies, they said: ‘This is what Allah and His Messenger promised us, and Allah and His Messenger spoke the truth; and it increased not in them but faith and submission.”
Formerly, in verse 12, we recited that the hypocrites and those in whose heart was a disease counted the promises of the Messenger of Allah a delusion, while, in this noble verse, the believers consider them the truth. In this holy verse, the Qur’an refers to the state of the true believers and says:
Which promise was it that Allah (s.w.t.) and His Messenger (S) had promised? Some commentators have said that this promise refers to the saying that the Prophet (S) had said before announcing that soon the tribes of Arab and the Muslims’ different enemies would unite with each other and come to attack them, but finally Muslims would be victorious. When the believers observed the attack of the clans they became sure that it was that very promise of the Prophet (S).
They said:
“Now that the first part of the promise has taken place, the second part of it, that is triumph, will surely happen, too.”
So, their faith and submission increased in them. Another thing is that in Surah Al-Baqarah, No. 2, verse 214 Allah had told the Muslims:
In brief, they had been told that they would be seriously tried by different hard examinations, and observing the clans, they understood the statement of Allah and His Messenger (S) and thus their faith increased. These two commentaries, of course, do not contradict with each other, specially with regard to the fact that, in principle, one of them is Allah’s promise and the other is the promise of the Prophet (S) both of which have been mentioned in the verse under discussion, and this matter seems completely appropriate.