[1952] This passage highlights yet another means, of the many enumerated here, of how Divine intervention was decisive in the battle’s result.
[1953] God showed the Messenger (ﷺ) a vision during his sleep in which the Deniers appeared fewer than their actual number (cf. al-Ṭabarī, Ibn Kathīr, al-Saʿdī). This vision heartened the Believers, because it was interpreted as a glad harbinger; an enemy being ‘few in number’ is a symbol of weakness and failing (cf. Ibn ʿĀshūr).
[1954] God Knows one’s inner thoughts; whisperings, fears and trepidations (cf. Ibn ʿAṭiyyah, Ibn Kathīr, al-Saʿdī): “He knows the treachery of eyes and that which chests conceal” (40: 19).