"And if anything of your wives has escaped you to the disbelievers"—those between whom and you there is no treaty—"then you retaliated," meaning: then you obtained spoils of war.

Muhammad said: The meaning is: the outcome was in your favor, so you obtained spoils.

"Then give those whose wives have gone"—meaning: from among the Companions of the Prophet—"the like of what they had spent, and fear Allah in whom you are believers." Thus, when they obtained spoils of war, they would give the husband his wife's dowry, which he had offered to her, from the entirety of the spoils, and then the spoils would be divided afterwards. That was then abrogated, along with the treaty and the ruling, by His saying: "And know that anything of booty that you capture, to Allah belongs its fifth, and to the Messenger."