125بَلىٰ ۚ إِن تَصبِروا وَتَتَّقوا وَيَأتوكُم مِن فَورِهِم هٰذا يُمدِدكُم رَبُّكُم بِخَمسَةِ آلافٍ مِنَ المَلائِكَةِ مُسَوِّمينَMuhammad AsadNay, but if you are patient in adversity and conscious of Him, and the enemy should fall upon you of a sudden, your Sustainer will aid you with five thousand angels swooping down!"1As is evident from the next verse, the Prophet's allusion to God's aiding the believers with thousands of angels signifies, metaphorically, a strengthening of the believers' hearts through spiritual forces coming from God (Manar IV, 112 ff., and IX, 612 ff.). A very similar announcement - relating to the battle of Badr - occurs in 8:9-10, where "one thousaand" angels are mentioned. As regards these varying numbers (one, three and five thousand), they would seem to indicate the unlimited nature of God's aid to those who are "patient in adversity and conscious of Him". It is reasonable to assume that the Prophet thus exhorted his followers immediately before the battle of Uhud, that is, after three hundred men under the leadership of 'Abd Allah ibn Ubayy had deserted him and some of the others "almost lost heart" in the face of the greatly superior enemy forces.