يَعْلَمُونَ ظَٰهِرًا مِّنَ ٱلْحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا وَهُمْ عَنِ ٱلْءَاخِرَةِ هُمْ غَٰفِلُونَ
Commentary:
The verse means to say that the knowledge of disbelievers is confined to the material side of this world and they are ignorant of things spiritual. The implication is that if disbelievers cannot understand how a people (the Romans) who had been completely broken and had lain exhausted and prostrate a few years back won a smashing victory over their powerful foe (the Persians) and how a handful of Muslims with no experience of war and having no arms and ammunition, succeeded in defeating a powerful army of the Quraish, three times their number, it is because the disbelievers’ knowledge is limited to an understanding of the physical causes of the incidents, but the causes of the defeat of the Persians and that of the Quraish lay deeper and were more spiritual than material or mundane.
The knowledge of disbelievers is limited to an understanding of the physical causes of the incidents, but the causes of the defeat of the Persians and that of the Quraish lay deeper and were more spiritual than material or physical.