The Quran

152

وَلَقَد صَدَقَكُمُ اللَّهُ وَعدَهُ إِذ تَحُسّونَهُم بِإِذنِهِ ۖ حَتّىٰ إِذا فَشِلتُم وَتَنازَعتُم فِي الأَمرِ وَعَصَيتُم مِن بَعدِ ما أَراكُم ما تُحِبّونَ ۚ مِنكُم مَن يُريدُ الدُّنيا وَمِنكُم مَن يُريدُ الآخِرَةَ ۚ ثُمَّ صَرَفَكُم عَنهُم لِيَبتَلِيَكُم ۖ وَلَقَد عَفا عَنكُم ۗ وَاللَّهُ ذو فَضلٍ عَلَى المُؤمِنينَ

Muhammad Asad

AND, INDEED, God made good His promise unto you when, by His leave, you were about to destroy your foes¹ - until the moment when you lost heart and acted contrary to the [Prophet's] command,² and disobeyed after He had brought you within view of that [victory] for which you were longing. There were among you such as cared for this world [alone], just as there were among you such as cared for the life to come:³ whereupon, in order that He might put you to a test, He prevented you from defeating your foes.⁴ But now He has effaced your sin: for God is limitless in His bounty unto the believers.

Lit., "when you were destroying them": a reference to the opening stages of the battle of Uhud. Regarding the promise alluded to, see verses 124-125 of this surah.
Lit., "you disagreed with one another regarding the [Prophet's] command" - an allusion to the abandonment of their post by most of the archers at the moment when it seemed that victory had been won (see note 90 above).
Out of the fifty Muslim archers less than ten remained at their post, and were killed by Khalid's cavalry. It is to them, as well as the few Companions who went on fighting after the bulk of the Muslims had fled, that the second part of the above sentence refers.
Lit., "He turned you away from them".