172الَّذينَ استَجابوا لِلَّهِ وَالرَّسولِ مِن بَعدِ ما أَصابَهُمُ القَرحُ ۚ لِلَّذينَ أَحسَنوا مِنهُم وَاتَّقَوا أَجرٌ عَظيمٌMuhammad Asadwho responded to the call of God and the Apostle after misfortune had befallen them.1 A magnificent requital awaits those of them who have persevered in doing good and remained conscious of God:Lit., "after injury had afflicted them". Most of the commentators assume that this is an allusion to the losses sustained by the Muslims at the battle of Uhud. It is, however, probable that the implication is much wider, the more so since this passage connects directly with the preceding verses which speak, in general terms, of the martyrs who die in God's cause. There is a distinct tendency on the part of most of the classical commentators to read minute historical references into many Qur'anic passages which express ideas of a far wider import and apply to the human condition as such. Verses 172-175 are an instance of this. Some commentators are of the opinion that they refer to the fruitless expedition to Hamra' al-Asad on the day following the battle of Uhud, while others see in it an allusion to the Prophet's expedition, in the following year, known to history as the "Little Badr" (Badr as-Sughra ); others, again, think that verse 172 refers to the former and verses 173-174 to the latter. In view of this obvious lack of unanimity - due to the absence of a really authoritative support, either in the Qur'an itself or in authentic Traditions, for any of these speculative assumptions - there is every reason for concluding that the whole passage under consideration expresses a general moral, rounding off, as it were, the historical references to the battle of Uhud and the lessons to be drawn therefrom.