فَمَهِّلِ الْكَافِرِينَ أَمْهِلْهُمْ رُوَيْدًا
Famahhili alkafireena amhilhum ruwayda
So give a respite to the disbelievers. Deal you gently with them for a while.


fa [so] - in response to their disbelief and oppression against you and My planning against them...

Mahal (tamheel [taf'eel/the process of - giving someone extra extensions in their deadline. (i.e. if someone is in debt and you do tamheel, you are extending their deadline to hand in the payment.)


Allah tells His Messenger to go easy on the disbelievers for a little while, and the irony is that this surah is a Makkan surah when it's Allah's Messenger whose actually going through the hardship!


Some scholars of tafsir/explanation mention that Allah means (to His Messenger); Don't get busy about avenging them, don't pray against them.


The irony; The Muslims are being oppressed, so Allah is telling His Messenger that He is encompassing the disbelievers (i.e. ready to punish them), but He tells us Messenger to be be relaxed on the disbelievers and give them abit of extra time - so you shouldn't make du'a against them (i.e. for their destruction like Prophet Nuh and Musa did). This equals to Allah's Messenger being in power, because if he prays against them - they will be destroyed.

We also learn the power of du'a in this surah.


Amhil (if'aal) [completion] - this is repeated for emphasis, and means 'let it go entirely', don't worry about it at all.


So when small things happen, let it go. Just let it go, because Allah has made His plot.



But Allah doesn't keep this permanent letting go a permanent thing, He says 'Ruwayda' at the end. Give them a 'little bit more time (the letter Ya between the Rawd signifies "little" i.e. Umayr is used for a 'little'
Umar)' . So give them a ' [ruwayd] 'little' extra time...

Because Allah has already designed the plan for Hijrah (migration to Medinah), and the battles of Badr, Uhud, Ahzab etc. in the future.

However weak you think you are, the truly believers are always in a situation of power.


The power of the du'a of Allah's Messenger would have been sufficient to wipe the Quraysh out, but Allah told His Messenger to be patient for a while because of His future planning.