8:15

Salaam all,

Ya ayyuha allatheena amanoo itha laqeetumu allatheena kafaroo zahfan fala tuwalloohumu aladbara

The Aya says:
O you who attained faith when you face the ones who rejected marching for battle then do not give them your backs.

My personal note:
The Aya says that the people of faith should not run away when and if their enemies are marching for battle and they happen to face them. It ordered them to stay steadfast and fight rather than run.

This is something that applied to the context of the situation of that battle and therefore cannot be taken as an absolute. There are examples of Muslims retreating in battle against the Ghassanids, although in an orderly rather than a haphazard fashion, at the time of the Prophet and they were not blamed for that retreat and there are even more times when they avoided the fighting altogether. However, the message is that if it is time for battle and both groups amassed and marched then do not run away at the time of the battle but stay steadfast.
There is a reminder that Muslims are not supposed to fight unless under the banner of a Muslim leader of a legitimate Muslim state, army against army rather than haphazard attacks against non combattants of any gender and any religion.

Translation of the transliterated words:
Ya ayyuha: O you
Allatheena: those who
Amanoo: made themselves safe/ attained faith
Note: the root is Hamza-M-N and it means safe or safety. AMANOO is an action that is derived from the root and that is completed. It means: the action of making the object (not mentioned and therefore the subject and the object can be the same entity here) become safe happened by the subject (third person plural). So, it ends up meaning: they made themselves safe.
Itha: when/ if and when
Laqeetumu: you met/ you faced
Note; LAQEETUM is derived from the root L-Qaf-Y and it means receiving as a concept which would be understood more specifically according to the sentence. Concrete uses of the word are a female that gets pregnant easily, therefore she received the sperm well. It is also used for the birds that hunt because they receive the prey easily and so forth. LAQEETUM is an action that is completed. It means: the action of meeting face to face with the object (Allatheena Kafaroo= those who rejected) happened in the conditional or is to happen in the conditional by the subject (second person plural).

Allatheena: those who
Kafaroo: rejected (Allah and His message)/ discarded
Note: the root is K-F-R and it means cover or bury in the ground, as in put the seed in the ground and cover it. This is then used conceptually for many purposes as in discarding and rejecting as well as burying. KAFARO is an action that is completed. It means: the action of rejection or discarding of the object (not declared, but understood from the context to point to God and/or the message) happened by the subject (third person plural).
Zahfan: marching (for battle)
Note: the root is Z-Ha-F and it means the slow move on the back or the stomach as in the crawl of the infant or the dragging of someone on their back. It is also used for armies marching because it carries with it the slow deliberate move of the armies and so on and that is what the context tells here. ZAHFAN means marching to battle
Fala: then not
Tuwalloohumu: you (plural) give them/ turn around/ move yourselves/ direct towards them
Note: TUWALLOO is derived from the root W-L-Y and it means direction or following direction with some guarantee. It comes close to guardianship. WALI is either the one who is a guardian or the one who receives guardianship of another or both. TUWALLOO is an action that is being completed or will be completed. It means: the action of dirceting oneself is happening or will be happening by the subject (second person plural). In this context the directing is in the form of movement away towards the subject (HUM= them).

Aladbara: the behinds/ the backs
Note: the root is D-B-R and it means the end of an entity in a conceptual manner. This could be the behind of the entity or it could be the conclusion of a matter or business and so forth. ALADBARA means the behinds and that points to the backs.

Salaam all and have a great day.

Hussien