A third word is صابرون which means steadfast. This is to explain why the outnumbering is not an issue.
One question that ought to jump to the reader's mind when he or she reads the words
إن يكن منكم عشرون صابرون (if there is twenty of you steadfast), is:
What if there isn't? Certainly 8:65 does not answer that question. So, is the question answered elsewhere? I say yes, in 8:66. The way I see it is that 8:66 reinforces the contingency of 8:65, namely, steadfastness, but associates more troops with it. Why? In order to hammer the point which, as I read it, is:
"Fighters for the cause of God, with faith and steadfastness will prevail despite their numbers."
That point is made by 8:65-66 this way,
- If there are twenty very steadfast troops of the believers fighting in the way of God, He will cause them to prevail over two hundred of their enemy.
- If there are a hundred steadfast troops of the believers fighting in the way of God, He will cause them to prevail over two hundred of their enemy.
- Otherwise, without steadfastness, imbalance of troop numbers may not be aided by God!
This is backed up earlier in the Quran a number of times, for instance,
And
Consider this parable. A manager says to his employees, "If ten of you stay all night working, we can finish the project by tomorrow's deadline. I know, however, that this is not so, because I know some of you have to leave. Thus I'd like fifty of you to stay till midnight. We will then finish the project."
Such statement teaches the employees
what it takes to finish a project that is running late.