The 365 · Verses · Day 160 · Patience
Internal quarrel = lost wind. Ṣabr = Allah with you.
Qur'an Quran 8:46
وَأَطِيعُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُۥ وَلَا تَنَـٰزَعُوا۟ فَتَفْشَلُوا۟ وَتَذْهَبَ رِيحُكُمْ ۖ وَٱصْبِرُوٓا۟ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ مَعَ ٱلصَّـٰبِرِينَ
“Obey God and His Messenger, and do not quarrel with one another, or you may lose heart and your spirit may desert you. Be steadfast: God is with the steadfast. (Abdel Haleem)”
Svenska: Och lyd Gud och Hans Sändebud och undvik tvister och osämja; de skulle komma ert mod att sjunka och er trosvisshet att försvagas. Och håll stånd! Gud är med de uthålliga. (Knut Bernström)
The story
Ibn Kathīr: the verse was revealed in the context of Badr (the surah's name is al-Anfāl, the spoils of Badr). The Prophet ﷺ established discipline-of-obedience and absence-of-internal-quarrel as the structural prerequisites for victory. The defeat at Uḥud was attributable in part to the archers' internal disagreement (some left their post; others stayed). The verse generalizes this lesson: any community's strength depends on internal cohesion + external steadfastness; quarrel breaks cohesion, lack of ṣabr breaks steadfastness.
In the language
Tafshalū: lose-heart-and-fail. Tadhhab rīḥukum: the structural metaphor of departing-wind. The Arabs used rīḥ for both literal wind and figurative strength/fortune. The verse pairs the two: lose your wind, lose your fortune. Cross-ref Q 49:9 (the ethics of internal Muslim conflict-resolution) and Q 3:103 (hold to the rope of Allah; do not become divided).
Why this verse
Q 8:46 names the structural triad of community-strength: obedience to Allah and the Messenger ﷺ, avoidance of internal quarrel, and ṣabr. The verse explicitly warns: internal quarreling produces fashal (loss of heart) and dhahāb ar-rīḥ (loss of strength/wind). The metaphor is military: an army's rīḥ (the wind that fills its sails) departs when the soldiers fight each other. The closing affirmation: maʿa aṣ-ṣābirīn (with the patient): the special divine companionship reserved for the patient.
Bring it into today
Apply to family, masjid, organization, ummah-level. Internal Muslim quarrels are structurally weakening; even when each side has a legitimate point, the act of quarreling produces fashal. The discipline: prioritize unity-of-action over winning-the-argument. The classical scholars: even when you are right, leaving the argument when it threatens unity is structurally meritorious.
A reflection to carry
The verse pairs internal-cohesion (no quarrel) with external-steadfastness (ṣabr) as the dual structural requirements of community-strength. Quarrel breaks cohesion; lack of ṣabr breaks steadfastness. The closing promise (Allah's special companionship) is the structural guarantee for those who hold both.
Read the longer reflection
Ibn Kathīr treats this verse as the structural Quranic charter of community-strength. The verse names three operational disciplines: (1) taʿāt (obedience); (2) absence of internal quarrel; (3) ṣabr. The combined effect: a community that obeys, does not split internally, and endures externally, is structurally invincible by Allah's promise. The Prophet's ﷺ community at Madinah was built on this charter; the early Muslim victories from Badr through the Conquest of Mecca were structurally grounded in the believing community's adherence to these three. Modern Muslim community life is often broken by internal quarrels; the verse names the operational consequence: fashal and rīḥ-departure. The structural cure: prioritize unity-of-action even at cost of winning specific arguments. The classical scholars: every Muslim should have personal disciplines for not-quarreling internally, including: the three-day rule (Day 116 Tazkiyah), the better-of-them-initiates-salām discipline, the leave-arguing-even-when-right rule (Day 109 Tazkiyah).
Sources: Ibn Kathir. The Qur'an and its translation are verified; the scholarship is retold faithfully in our own words and credited to its sources, never reproduced verbatim.
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