AL FATH (The Victory)
In the Name of God,1 the Gracious, the Merciful 2
1 Truly we have granted you a clear victory:
2 May God forgive your past and future sins.3 May he fulfil his favour to you, and guide you on the straight way;
3 And that God may help you with powerful help.
4 It is he who sent down tranquillity into the hearts of the believers, that they may add faith to their faith; for to God belong the forces of the heavens and the earth; and God is full of knowledge and wisdom;
5 That he may admit the men and women who believe, to gardens beneath which rivers flow, to dwell in them forever, and remove their ills from them; and that is, in the sight of God, the highest achievement,
6 And that he may punish the hypocrites, men and women, and the polytheists, men and women, who imagine an evil opinion of God. On them is a round of evil: the wrath of God is on them: he has cursed them and got hell ready for them: and evil is it for a destination.
7 For to God belong the forces of the heavens and the earth; and God is exalted in power, full of wisdom.
8 We have truly sent you as a witness, as a bringer of glad tidings, and as a warner:
9 In order that you may believe in God and his Messenger, that you may assist and honour him, and celebrate his praises morning and evening.
10 Truly those who pledge allegiance to you do no less than pledge allegiance to God: the hand of God is over their hands: then anyone who violates his oath, does so to the harm of his own soul, and anyone who fulfils what he has covenanted with God, God will soon grant him a great reward.
11 The desert Arabs who lagged behind will say to you: We were engaged in looking after our flocks and herds, and our families: do you then ask forgiveness for us. They say with their tongues what is not in their hearts. Say: Who then has any power at all to intervene on your behalf with God, if his will is to give you some loss or to give you some profit? But God is well acquainted with all that you do.
12 No, you thought that the Messenger and the believers would never return to their families; this seemed pleasing in your hearts, and you conceived an evil thought, for you are a people lost.
13 And if any believe not in God and his Messenger, we have prepared, for those who reject God, a blazing fire!
14 To God belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth: he forgives whom he wills, and he punishes whom he wills: but God is oft-forgiving, most merciful.
15 Those who lagged behind will say, When you march and take booty, permit us to follow you. They wish to change God’s decree: Say: Not thus will you follow us: God has already declared beforehand: then they will say, But you are jealous of us. No, but little do they understand.
16 Say to the desert Arabs who lagged behind: You shall be summoned against a people given to vehement war: then shall you fight, or they shall submit. Then if you show obedience, God will grant you a goodly reward, but if you turn back as you did before, he will punish you with a grievous penalty.
17 No blame is there on the blind, nor is there blame on the lame, nor on one ill: but he that obeys God and his Messenger, God will admit him to gardens beneath which rivers flow; and he who turns back, God will punish him with a grievous penalty.
18 God’s good pleasure was on the believers when they swore allegiance to you under the tree: he knew what was in their hearts, and he sent down tranquillity to them; and he rewarded them with a speedy victory;
19 And many gains will they acquire: and God is exalted in power, full of wisdom.
20 God has promised you many gains that you shall acquire, and he has given you these beforehand; and he has restrained the hands of men from you; that it may be a sign for the believers, and that he may guide you to a straight path;
21 And other gains there are, which are not within your power, but which God has compassed: and God has power over all things.
22 If the unbelievers should fight you, they would certainly turn their backs; then would they find neither protector nor helper.
23 Such has been the way of God already in the past: no change will you find in the ways of God.
24 And it is he who has restrained their hands from you and your hands from them in the midst of Mecca, after that he gave you the victory over them. And God sees well all that you do.
25 They are the ones who denied revelation and hindered you from the sacred mosque and detained the sacrificial animals from reaching their place of sacrifice. And there were believing men and believing women whom you did not know, that you were trampling down and on whose account a crime would have accrued to you without your knowledge. He will admit to his mercy whom he will. If they were apart, we would certainly have punished the unbelievers among them with a grievous punishment.
26 While the unbelievers got up in their hearts the rage of ignorance, God sent down his tranquility to his Messenger and to the believers, and made them stick close to the command of self-restraint; and well were they entitled to it and worthy of it. And God has full knowledge of all things.
27 Truly did God fulfil the vision for his Messenger: you shall enter the sacred mosque, God willing, with minds secure, heads shaved, hair cut short, and without fear. For he knew what you knew not, and he granted, besides this, a speedy victory.
28 It is he who has sent his Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth, to proclaim it over all religion: and enough is God for a witness.
29 Muhammad is the Messenger of God; and those who are with him are strong against unbelievers, but compassionate among each other. You will see them bow and prostrate themselves in prayer, seeking grace from God and his good pleasure. On their faces are their marks, the traces of their prostration. This is their comparison in the Taurat.4 Their comparison in the Injil5 is like a seed6 which sends forth its blade, then makes it strong; it then becomes thick, and it stands on its own stem, filling the sowers with wonder and delight. As a result, it fills the unbelievers with rage at them. God has promised those among them who believe and do righteous deeds forgiveness, and a great reward.
- God, in Arabic allah, referring to the one true God, as opposed to an idol or “god.” It is the Arabic equivalent of elohim and eloah (Hebrew), alaha (Syriac), and theos (Greek), all of which accurately translate into English as “God.” This translation choice is consistent with respected English Quran translations including those of A. Yusuf Ali (original edition), S.H. Nasr (Study Quran), T.B. Irving, and T. Itani (Clear Quran). ↩︎
- the Gracious, the Merciful, the highlighting of God’s grace and mercy predates the Quran, coming down from the many hundreds of references in the Taurat, Zabur, and Injil. A few samples follow:
Taurat, Exodus 34:6 — …YAHWEH, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth.
Zabur 145:8 — YAHWEH is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great loving kindness.
Taurat, Joel 2:13 — Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to YAHWEH your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.
Taurat, Yunus 4:2 — …I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you relent of doing harm.”
Injil, 1 Timothy 1:2 — …Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and AL-MASIH ‘ISA our Lord.
Injil, Hebrews 4:16 — Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace for help in time of need. ↩︎ - 48:2 According to this verse, the Prophet had sins like any other man which needed forgiveness. It is a commonly held error that prophets are sinless. For more on this subject see Lesson Two of the study course “The Testimony of the Holy Quran.” See also Surah 40:55 and 47:19. ↩︎
- 48:29 Taurat, derived from Torah (Hebrew) which means “instruction” or “teaching.” Depending on context, Taurat can refer to,
1. The whole Hebrew Bible contained here under the title Taurat, equivalent to what Jews today call Tanakh, and what Christians call the Old Testament.
2. The revelation given to Prophet Musa, that is, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, sometimes called the Pentateuch. Pentateuch is a Greek word meaning “five books” and includes Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. These five books are attributed to Prophet Musa himself. This is the traditional and most common meaning given to Taurat or Torah.
3. The Law of Musa found within the Pentateuch, with its hundreds of rules and regulations covering many aspects of daily life for the people of Israel. The most famous of these laws are the Ten Commandments, found in Exodus 20. ↩︎ - 48:29 Injil, derived from Euangel (Greek) and means “good news” or “Gospel” (old English for ‘good news’). Depending on context, Injil can refer to,
1. the whole Christian New Testament containing 27 books,
2. the first 4 books of the New Testament, that is, the Injil or Gospel ccording to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, or,
3. the message or “good news” of forgiveness of sins through ‘ISA AL-MASIH, revealed in the holy Injil (or New Testament). ↩︎ - 48:29 Prophet ‘ISA Ibn Maryam taught in the Injil a story about a seed much like the story related here. Luke 13:18,19 says, “He said, ‘What is the Kingdom of God like? To what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and put in his own garden. It grew, and became a large tree, and the birds of the sky lodged in its branches.'” ↩︎