This volume of al-Mizan comprises of the exegesis of the entire Sūrah al-Anfāl (Chapter 8).
As usual in the Qur’anic text, Sūrah al-Anfāl provides a supra-human perspective on the Battle of Badr. Rather than providing a beginning-to-end narrative, it highlights key events that have a moral component, and the role of the metaphysical and the unseen: faith and unfaith, the miraculous, and the divine hand. A more human sort of account—people, places, dates, and names—emerges in the exegesis, which draws heavily upon narrative and historical reports. Thus, it is in the exegesis that the Battle of Badr is outlined with the sort of detail that humans demand from a story. It is in the exegesis that we learn who did what, who said what, and who composed which poetry. Participants range from the Prophet, to his tiny band of followers, to his well-known enemies like Abū Jahl, to lesser-known folk whose names require digging to determine the correct vowelling of.
Then there are the Muslim converts in Mecca forced to fight against the Prophet, the angels, and Iblīs. Quite a crowd! Should one wish to learn more about the Battle of Badr, ʿAllamāh’s exegesis of this chapter is an excellent starting place—especially since, as usual, ʿAllāmah integrates both Sunni and Shiʿi narrations and viewpoints into his discussion.
