'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : (if ye help him not) if you do not help muhammad (pbuh) by going forth with him to the battle of tabuk, (still allah helped him when those who disbelieve) the disbelievers of mecca (drove him forth, the second of two) i.e. the messenger of allah and abu bakr; (when they two) allah's messenger (pbuh) and abu bakr, may allah be well pleased with him, (were in the cave, when he) the prophet (pbuh) (said unto his comrade) abu bakr: (grieve not) o abu bakr. (lo! allah is with us) and he will help us. (then allah caused his peace of reassurance) his tranquillity (to descend upon him) upon his prophet (and supported him) helped him on the day of badr, at the battle of the troops and also on the day of hunayn (with hosts ye cannot see) i.e. with angels, (and made the word) the religion (of those who disbelieved the nethermost) blameworthy and defeated, (while allah's word it was that became the uppermost) triumphant and praiseworthy. (allah is mighty) in retribution against his enemies, (wise) in helping his friends.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : if you do not help him, that is, the prophet (s), [know that] god has already helped him, when the disbelievers drove him forth, from mecca, that is, they made him resort to leaving, when they desired to kill him or imprison him or banish him at the council assembly — the second of two (thāniya ithnayn: this is a circumstantial qualifier), that is, one of two, the other being abū bakr: in other words, just as god helped him in such a situation, he will not forsake him in another; when (idh substitutes for the previous idh) the two were in the cave — a breach in the mountain called thawr — when (idh substituting again), he said to his companion, abū bakr — who, upon perceiving the [sound of the] feet of the idolaters [nearby], had said to him, ‘if one of them should merely look below his feet, he will definitely see us!’ — ‘do not despair; verily god is with us’, assisting [us]. then god sent down his spirit of peace upon him, his reassurance — some say this means upon the prophet, others, that it means upon abū bakr — and supported him, that is, the prophet (s), with legions, of angels, you did not see, [both] in the cave and in the locations in which he fought battles; and he made the word of those who disbelieved, that is, the call to idolatry, the nethermost, the one vanquished, and the word of god, that is, the profession of his oneness (shahāda), was the uppermost, the one prevailing and triumphant. and god is mighty, in his kingdom, wise, in his actions.
