Al Anfāl

وَإِمَّا تَخَافَنَّ مِنْ قَوْمٍ خِيَانَةً فَانْبِذْ إِلَيْهِمْ عَلَىٰ سَوَاءٍ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ الْخَائِنِينَ

وَلَا يَحْسَبَنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا سَبَقُوا ۚ إِنَّهُمْ لَا يُعْجِزُونَ

58 . “And if you fear treachery from a people, break off (the covenant) with them in like manner. Verily Allah does not like the treacherous.”
59 . “And let not those who disbelieve suppose that they have excelled (the Muslims): verily they shall not weaken (you).”

The Qur'anic term /’anbio/is derived from /nabaoa/ which means ‘to throw’, here it means: ‘then throw their covenant back to them’. That is, from before they should announce and cancel the covenant so that they would not be seized unawares and you, too, would not have acted cowardly. The holy phrase /’ala sawa’ /either means ‘behaving correspondingly’, viz. in the same manner that they think of plotting and breaching promise, you may cancel the covenant, too. Or, it means the clear canceling of the -covenant, or having a just behaviour toward the enemy.¹

The verse is about the situation where there are some evidences upon the enemy's plot for invasion. So, in order to avoid it, precedence in canceling the covenant should be performed. The performance of canceling the covenant is just when behaving correspondingly. The verse says:

And take the control of everything so vigorously that infidels do not think that they have preceded you. The verse; says:

But, infidels cannot gain anything through treachery. The verse continues saying: