059

This is a chapter (surah) from the Quran — specifically Surah Al-Hashr (The Exile/Emigration), Chapter 59 — a scripture of Islamic revelation in the classical Arabic prophetic tradition, presented here in 19th-century English translation. The chapter's primary subject is the expulsion of the Banu Nadir, a Jewish tribe of Medina, framing their banishment as divine punishment for opposing God and the Prophet Muhammad, and drawing theological lessons from it. A significant portion addresses the distribution of war spoils from this expulsion, establishing that such wealth belongs to God, the Prophet, and the poor — explicitly to prevent its concentration among the already-rich. The chapter also condemns the hypocrites of Medina who promised the Banu Nadir solidarity but abandoned them, characterizing these allies as cowardly, disunited, and spiritually hollow. Notably, the surah closes with one of the Quran's most concentrated sequences of divine names and attributes — King, Holy, Peace-Giver, Creator, Fashioner — functioning as a theological climax that reframes the preceding political narrative within cosmic divine sovereignty. The text is distinctive for its tight weaving of immediate historical polemic (a specific military-political event) with universal eschatological stakes, insisting that earthly outcomes are direct expressions of divine will.

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