Lessons of Defeat and Brokenness (Reflections on the Verses of Al Imran 2)

(Here you are loving them but they are not loving you)

Allah expresses wonder at the believers' love for the hypocrites! While the hypocrites hate them!

"And in it is wonder at the two states combined; the wonder is at the believers' love for them while they hate the believers"

So you should not love someone who hates you.

(And Allah had certainly fulfilled His promise to you ..) He promised you victory at the Battle of Uhud, and this promise was conditional on obedience, so when you disobeyed, there came the breaking and the defeat. For victory comes only through obedience.

There is no eternal victory!

Victory at the start of the battle, then complacency, then breaking

So a great victory turns into a crushing defeat upon disobedience

(Then after distress, He sent down upon you security [in the form of] drowsiness, overcoming a faction of you, while another faction worried about themselves) The believer, even in times of defeats and calamities, has a wondrous tranquility in him, while the hypocrite is worried about himself: he cannot sleep from the intensity of terror

What do you do after a battle you were defeated in?

You move on -with the blessing of Allah- to another battle

(Those who responded to Allah and the Messenger after injury had struck them) Despite the wounds (the injury) that struck them at the Battle of Uhud, while they were heading back, returning to Medina, the Messenger ﷺ commanded them to go out to the Battle of Hamra al-Asad, so they responded and obeyed.

The Battle of Uhud: on Saturday

And the Battle of Hamra al-Asad: on Sunday, in Shawwal

The return is not tomorrow or after four months,

Let me learn the lessons!

No! This is not the way to deal with failure: learning from failure is instant: now, when it happens, then advance to a battle on the next day.

One night to absorb the lessons, analyze and think, and tomorrow morning you carry them out

The illusion of the enemies: the illusion of their strength and might, this is from Satan, who casts whispers into your chest to frighten you and weaken your resolve, then when you meet them you find them to be nothing as long as you are God-fearing and a believer (That is only Satan who frightens [you] of his supporters. So fear them not, but fear Me, if you are [indeed] believers) "So if he tempts you and makes you imagine things, then rely on Me and resort to Me, for I am sufficient for you and will give you victory over them" - Ibn Kathir

And there is nothing better than saying: Sufficient for us is Allah, and [He is] the best Disposer of affairs.

— Shoroog Almehmadi