5ما قَطَعتُم مِن لينَةٍ أَو تَرَكتُموها قائِمَةً عَلىٰ أُصولِها فَبِإِذنِ اللَّهِ وَلِيُخزِيَ الفاسِقينَMuhammad AsadWhatever [of their] palm trees you may have cut down, [O believers,] or left standing on their roots, was [done] by God's leave,1 and in order that He might confound the iniquitous.I.e., to facilitate the military operations against the strongholds of the Banu 'n-Nadir ('Abd Allah ibn Masud, as quoted by Zamakhshari et al.). It should, however, be noted that apart from such stringent military exigencies, all destruction of enemy property - and, in particular, of trees and crops - had been and continued to be prohibited by the Prophet (Tabari, Baghawi, Zamakhshari, Razi, Ibn Kathir), and has thus become an integral part of Islamic Law.