[3:160] If God helps you, then none can overcome you; but if He forsakes you, then who is there who can help you after Him? Therefore on God let the believers rely.
His help to the believers is by granting success to the bodily forms (ashbāḥ), and then by granting realization to the spirits (arwāḥ).
It is said God helps you by supporting the outward aspects of things (ẓawāhir) and by guiding the innermost hearts (sarāÌir).
It is said the help will only be against the enemy and the worst enemy you have is the lower self (nafs) between your two sides. The help against the lower self is that its claims of strength will be routed by the guardians of His mercy until the armies of cravings scatter upon the attacks of the assemblies of combatants. The friendship of God will remain, purified from the doubts of the pretensions which are the qualities of being human, and the cravings and desires of the souls which are the effects of veiling and obstacles of separation.
If He forsakes you: The forsaking is the abandonment of those who are disobedient, for those whom He helps He holds back from pursing the objectionable and those whom He forsakes He gives free rein and entrusts them to the evil of their free choice. Such a one's state comes apart in the torrents of cravings, so he wanders one way without shame and than another way without respect. Surely, when the Real releases someone and does not take him by the hand, and deserts him, there is no protector for him.
Therefore on God let believers rely in finding security with the sincerity of supplication and lowering the garment of pardon over the defects of sin by the purity of seeking refuge and disclaiming any strength or power.
It is said in the event of [His] help He said then none can overcome you. However, in the event of being forsaken, He did not say 'then there is no helper for you' but rather said by way of hint and reply then who is there who can help you after Him?. There is a subtlety here with respect to the niceties of the properties of speech.