saying: Our Messenger (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said to us: "What do you think about them?" We said: "O Messenger of Allah, we do not have the capacity to fight the people; we only went out for the caravan." Then [the verse] was revealed: "And when Allah promised you one of the two parties, that it should be yours," and our hearts were at ease when Allah promised one of the two parties, and the party was the caravan.

The second view:

8815 - Muhammad ibn Yahya narrated to us, al-'Abbas ibn al-Walid informed us, Yazid ibn Zuray' narrated to us, Sa'id ibn Qatadah narrated to us regarding His saying: "When Allah promised you one of the two parties, that it should be yours," the two parties were: one of them was Abu Sufyan, who approached with the caravan from the Levant, and the other party was Abu Jahl ibn Hisham with the gathering of Quraysh.

His saying, the Almighty: "And you wished that the one not having the thorn would be yours"

8816 - Abu Sa'id ibn Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Qattan narrated to us, Zayd ibn al-Hubab narrated to us, Ibn Lahi'ah narrated to us, Yazid ibn Abi Habib narrated to us that Aslam Abu 'Imran narrated to him, he said: I heard Abu Ayyub saying: Our Messenger (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said to us while we were in Medina and it had reached him that the caravan of Abu Sufyan had approached. Then [the verse] was revealed: "And when Allah promised you one of the two parties, that it should be yours, and you wished that the one not having the thorn [would be yours]," and the thorn (al-shawka) means the enemy.

8817 - My father narrated to us, Yahya ibn Sulayman al-Ju'fi narrated to us, Ibn Wahb narrated to me, Ibn Lahi'ah narrated to me from Yazid ibn Abi Habib that Aslam Abu 'Imran al-Tujibi narrated to me that he heard Abu Ayyub al-Ansari saying: Our Messenger (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said to us: "And when Allah promised you one of the two parties, that it should be yours, and you wished that the one not having the thorn would be yours," and the thorn means the fighting men, and the one not having the thorn means the caravan.

8818 - My father narrated to us, 'Abd al-'Aziz ibn Munib narrated to us, Abu Mu'adh al-Nahwi narrated to us, 'Ubayd ibn Sulayman narrated to us from al-Dahhak regarding His saying: "And you wished that the one not having the thorn would be yours," it is the caravan of Abu Sufyan. The companions of Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) wished that the caravan were theirs and that the fighting had been diverted away from them.

8819 - Muhammad ibn al-'Abbas, the freed slave of Banu Hashim, narrated to us, Muhammad ibn 'Amr narrated to us, Salamah narrated to us from Muhammad ibn Ishaq, Muhammad ibn Ja'far ibn al-Zubayr narrated to me from 'Urwah ibn al-Zubayr: "And you wished that the one not having the thorn would be yours," meaning the spoils without war.