A Walk Through Surat al-Fath

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

Sūrat al-Fatḥ is one of the rare suras revealed whole, all at once, unlike, say, al-Baqarah, which came down across some nine years. It is classed as Madanī because it came after the Hijrah, though it descended neither in Makkah nor Madinah but on the road back from al-Ḥudaybiyyah. Dr. Qadhi walks its main verses.

❧A clear victory, and forgiveness (48:1-5)

It opens: "Innā fataḥnā laka fatḥan mubīnā. Li-yaghfira laka Allāhu mā taqaddama min dhanbika wa mā ta'akhkhar..." (إِنَّا فَتَحْنَا لَكَ فَتْحًا مُبِينًا ۝ لِيَغْفِرَ لَكَ اللَّهُ مَا تَقَدَّمَ مِنْ ذَنْبِكَ وَمَا تَأَخَّرَ, "Indeed We have granted you a clear victory, that Allah may forgive you what preceded of your sin and what will follow..."). Dr. Qadhi notes the link: grief and anguish expiate sins, and al-Ḥudaybiyyah brought the Prophet ﷺ grief; and honor bestowed likewise forgives. Verse 5 adds that the purpose is to admit the believing men and women into gardens beneath which rivers flow (جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ).

❧The pledge, and the exposed hypocrites (48:10-18)

Of those who pledged: "yadu Allāhi fawqa aydīhim" (يَدُ اللَّهِ فَوْقَ أَيْدِيهِمْ, "the hand of Allah is above their hands"), the pledge given directly to Him. Then Allah foretells, before the Prophet ﷺ even reaches Madinah, exactly what the Bedouins who stayed behind will say, "sayaqūlu laka al-mukhallafūn...", that their wealth and families kept them busy, saying with their tongues what is not in their hearts; the truth being they assumed the Prophet ﷺ and the believers would never return alive. A miracle, Dr. Qadhi notes: they would quote the sura's words without knowing they were quoting it. Verse 18 then declares Allah's pleasure with the believers who pledged under the tree, "laqad raḍiya Allāhu ʿani al-mu'minīna idh yubāyiʿūnaka taḥta al-shajarah" (لَقَدْ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذْ يُبَايِعُونَكَ تَحْتَ الشَّجَرَةِ), He knew their hearts, sent down tranquillity, and rewarded them with a near victory (the coming Khaybar).

❧The counterfactual, and the hidden believers (48:22-25)

Had Quraysh actually fought, "walaw qātalakumu alladhīna kafarū" (وَلَوْ قَاتَلَكُمُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا), they would have turned and fled and found no protector, though they outnumbered the Muslims: Allah's knowledge of a future that never occurred, and how it would have gone. Verse 25 rebukes Quraysh for barring the Muslims and their sacrificial animals from the Sacred Mosque (وَصَدُّوكُمْ عَنِ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ), and reveals why no battle was permitted: there were believing men and women in Makkah, still hiding their faith, whom the Muslims might have killed unknowingly and grieved over, so Allah stayed the fighting to spare them.

❧The dream affirmed, and the portrait of the Companions (48:27-29)

Allah reaffirms the dream, "laqad ṣadaqa Allāhu rasūlahu al-ru'yā bil-ḥaqq... latadkhulunna al-masjida al-ḥarām" (لَقَدْ صَدَقَ اللَّهُ رَسُولَهُ الرُّؤْيَا بِالْحَقِّ... لَتَدْخُلُنَّ الْمَسْجِدَ الْحَرَامَ, "you shall surely enter the Sacred Mosque," heads shaved, in security). The sura closes with one of only two places in the Qurʾān stating "Muḥammadun rasūlu Allāh" (مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ), then a portrait of the Companions with him, firm against disbelief, merciful among themselves, marked on their faces by prostration (سِيمَاهُمْ فِي وُجُوهِهِمْ مِنْ أَثَرِ السُّجُودِ), likened to a strong crop that delights the farmer who planted it. Dr. Qadhi adds a point of trivia: verse 29 is one of only two verses in the Qurʾān containing every letter of the Arabic alphabet.