What is the interpretation of Allah's saying: "Have they not seen that We set upon the land, reducing it from its borders?"

Scholars differed in interpreting "نَنْقُصُهَا مِنْ أَطْرَافِهَا" (we gradually diminish it from its outlying regions) into several opinions, including: the land being opened for Muslims after the land, or its ruin, or the Muslims' triumph over the polytheists, or the decrease of its people and its blessings, or the decrease of souls and fruits, or the death of scholars and righteous people.

Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir, Al-Sa'di, and Ibn 'Uthaymeen favored the interpretation that it refers to the triumph of Islam over polytheism, and the conquest and subjugation of the lands of the disbelievers. Thus, "أَطْرَافِهَا" (its outlying regions) means its peripheries and sides that Muslims gradually conquer.