Transliteration:( Laa yuqaatiloonakum jamee'an illaa fee quram muhas sanatin aw minw waraaa'i judur; baasuhum bainahum shadeed; tahsabuhum jamee'anw-wa quloobuhum shatta; zaalika biannahum qawmul laa ya'qiloon )
“They will not even fight [45] against you together, save in fortified [46] towns or from behind walls. Their fighting between themselves is severe [47]. You may think of them as one body, but their hearts are disunited [48]. That is because they are a people who have no sense.”
They do not have the courage to openly engage the believers in battle. Even when united, they fear confrontation, as their hearts are filled with cowardice. Despite all outward preparation, they cannot withstand a face-to-face fight with the Muslims.
The People of the Book and hypocrites of Madina Shareef never had the courage to fight the Muslims in open warfare. After the Battle of the Trench, when the disbelievers broke their treaties, the Muslims responded.
In response, the Banu Quraizah hid inside their homes, and the Banu Nazeer were eventually exiled. The Jews took shelter behind walls and doors, just as Allah foretold. Once cornered and helpless, Banu Quraizah were executed and Banu Nazeer were banished from Madina.
This verse only refers to the People of the Book in Madina. Therefore, there is no contradiction with the fact that Christians and Jews fought major battles with Muslims during the caliphate of Hazrat Umar Farooq (RA).
They would fight with intensity. But when they face the Muslims, due to the mercy and support of Allah, they become timid and weak. The strength they show against each other disappears when it comes to confronting the truthful believers.
But it is only for the sake of expediency. In reality, they are deeply divided and have no real unity among them. Their hearts are filled with mutual hatred.
Hence, believers must never trust the apparent unity of disbelievers. Their alliance is temporary and superficial, and the internal sectarian divisions and hostility among them can be clearly witnessed even today.
The tafsir of Surah Hashr verse 14 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Hashr ayat 11 which provides the complete commentary from verse 11 through 17.
(59:14) They will never fight against you as a body (in an open battlefield); and if they fight against you they will fight only in fortified townships or from behind walls. Intense is their hostility to one another. You reckon them united while their hearts are divided.[25] That is because they are a people devoid of reason.
25. This refers to the second weakness of the hypocrites. The first weakness was that they were cowardly. They feared the men instead of fearing God and had no higher aim of life before them like the believers, which might impel them to fight for it even at the cost of life. And their second weakness was that they had no common tie between them except hypocrisy, which might unite them together into a strong band. The only thing that had brought them together was that they were all feeling highly upset at the flourishing leadership and rule of Muhammad (peace be upon him), who was an outsider in their city, and at the warm reception and help which their own compatriots, the Ansar, were giving to the Emigrants. Because of this jealousy they wanted them to join hands together and in conspiracy with the enemies of Islam of the surrounding areas should somehow put an end to this alien power and authority. But apart from this negative objective there was no positive common aim to unify them. Each of their chiefs had his own separate band, each craved for his own leadership. No one was sincere to the other, but each bore such jealousy and malice for the other that they could neither forget their mutual enmities nor desist from harming the other fatally even while facing those whom they regarded as their common enemy.
Thus, at the outset, even before the battle against the Bani an-Nadir took place, Allah analyzed the internal state of the hypocrites and informed the Muslims that there was no real danger from their side; therefore, they should not feel alarmed at the rumors that when they lay siege to the Bani an-Nadir, the leaders of the hypocrites would attack them from the rear with two thousand men, and also bring the Bani Quraizah and the Bani Ghatafan along against them. All this was empty boasting which would be exposed at the very beginning of the trial.
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