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Namely, the moral victory achieved by the Truce of Hudaybiyyah, which opened the doors to the subsequent triumph of Islam in Arabia (see introductory note, which explains many allusions to this historic event found in the subsequent verses).
This Medinian sûrah takes its name from the clear triumph (i.e., Treaty of Ḥudaibiyah) in verse 1. The Prophet (ﷺ) and 1400 of his companions travelled to Mecca to perform the minor pilgrimage (’umrah) in 6 A.H./628 C.E. He (ﷺ) sent ’Uthmân ibn ’Affân to let the Meccans know that the Muslims had come in peace, only to visit the Sacred House. When the Meccans delayed ’Uthmân, the Prophet (ﷺ) thought they might have killed his envoy. So he (ﷺ) called upon the faithful to pledge allegiance to him under a tree at Ḥudaibiyah in the outskirts of Mecca. Shortly after, ’Uthmân returned safely and a peace agreement was signed by the Muslims and Meccan pagans, stating in part that the Muslims would have to return to Medina and come back next year for ’umrah. The Treaty of Ḥudaibiyah is described as a clear triumph since it established peace, temporarily diffused the tension between the Muslims and the Meccan pagans, and gave the Muslims plenty of time to spread awareness and understanding of their faith. Thousands from different tribes accepted Islam during that truce.
This is best referred to the Treaty of Hudaibiya, for which see the Introduction to this Sura. By this Treaty the Makkan Quraish, after many years of unrelenting conflict with Islam, at length recognised Islam as (what they thought) an equal power with themselves. In reality the door was then opened for the free spread of Islam throughout Arabia and thence through the world.
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Lit., "so that God might forgive thee all that is past of thy sins and all that is yet to come" - thus indicating elliptically that freedom from faults is an exclusive prerogative of God, and that every human being, however exalted, is bound to err on occasion.
Sc., "to a fulfilment of thy mission", which the Truce of Hudaybiyyah clearly presaged.
See footnote for 47:19.
See n. 4428 to xi. 55, and Cf. xlvii, 19. Any mistakes of the past were now rectified, and any future ones prevented by the free scope now offered, by the act of the Quraish Pagans themselves, to the recognition and free promulgation of Islam.
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Three objects or results of the Treaty are mentioned: (1) forgiveness, which is equivalent to Mercy, (2) fulfilment of the dignity of Prophethood with the dignity of an effective and recognised position in Arabia; (3) opening up a straight way leading to Islam, by access to Makkah from next year, Makkah being the symbolic centre of Islam. These three are summed up in the comprehensive phrase "powerful (or effective) help".
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I.e., endowed them, although they were few and practically unarmed, with calm courage in the face of the much more powerful forces of the enemy.
Lit., "so that they might add faith to their faith, seeing that God's are . .", etc. Since the latter is obviously a parenthetic clause, I have transposed it in my rendering in order to make the meaning clear.
The results were achieved by tranquillity, calmness, and cool courage among the 1400 to 1500 unarmed men who accompanied the Prophet to Hudaibiya and who were threatened with violence by the excited Quraish leaders of Makkah.
It is a casuistical question to ask. Are there degrees in Faith? The plain meaning is that believers will see one Sign of Allah after another, and with each their Faith is confirmed. During all the long years of persecution and conflict they had Faith, but when they see their old enemies actually coming out to negotiate with them, their Faith is justified, fulfilled, and confirmed: and they turn in gratitude to Allah.
There are visible forces which you see in the physical world. Men fight with armed forces, and the Muslims had to defend themselves with arms also, and not without success.
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This clause is coordinated to the previous clause, "'That they may add Faith to their Faith". The intervening words, "For to Allah...and Wisdom" are parenthetical. The third coordinate clause comes in the next verse, "And that He may punish...". The skeleton construction will be, "Allah sends down calm courage to Believers in order that they may be confirmed in their Faith; that they may qualify for the Bliss of Heaven; and that the evil ones may receive the punishment they deserve."
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I.e., who deny His existence or man's responsibility to Him, or offend against the concept of His oneness.
i.e., that Allah will not support His Prophet (ﷺ) and that misfortune will befall the believers.
They will be encircled (or hemmed in) by Evil.
That is, deprived them of His Grace, on account of their continued rejection of it.
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These words are repeated (with a slight change) from the parenthetical clause in verse 4. to emphasize the assertion as a substantive proposition, that fighting and visible forces in the physical world are not the only forces with which Allah works out His Plan. The invisible forces are more important as they were at Hudaibiya. The slight difference is instructive; in the parenthetical clause, Allah's Knowledge was emphasized, and in the substantive clause it is Allah's Power. Knowledge plans, and Power executes.
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The Prophet came in order to establish Faith in Allah and true worship. We can view him in three capacities: (1) as a witness to help the weak if they were oppressed and check the strong if they did wrong; (2) as a giver of the Glad Tidings of Allah's Grace and Mercy to those who repented and lived good lives; and (3) as one who warned sinners of the consequences of their sin. A) The words "assist and honour" refer to the Prophet (peace be on him) whereas in the phrase "celebrating praise" clearly the reference is to Allah.
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Lit., "at morn and evening", i.e., at all times.
Another possible translation: “… so that you ˹all˺ may believe in Allah and His Messenger, support ˹His cause˺, revere, and glorify Him morning and evening.”
The Prophet came in order to establish Faith in Allah and true worship. We can view him in three capacities: (1) as a witness to help the weak if they were oppressed and check the strong if they did wrong; (2) as a giver of the Glad Tidings of Allah's Grace and Mercy to those who repented and lived good lives; and (3) as one who warned sinners of the consequences of their sin. A) The words "assist and honour" refer to the Prophet (peace be on him) whereas in the phrase "celebrating praise" clearly the reference is to Allah.
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This refers, in the first instance, to the pledge of faith and allegiance (bay'at ar-ridwan) which the Muslims assembled at Hudaybiyyah gave to the Prophet (see introductory note). Beyond this historical allusion, however, the above sentence implies that as one's faith in God's message-bearer is to all intents and purposes synonymous with a declaration of faith in God Himself, so does one's willingness to obey God necessarily imply a willingness to obey His message-bearer.The phrase "the hand of God is over their hands" does not merely allude to the hand-clasp with which all of the Prophet's followers affirmed their allegiance to him, but is also a metaphor for His being a witness to their pledge.
In the Hudaibiya negotiations, when it was uncertain whether the Quraish would treat well or ill the Prophet's delegate to Makkah, there was a great wave of feeling in the Muslim camp of 1400 to 1500 men. They came with great enthusiasm and swore their fealty to the Prophet, by placing hand on hand according to the Arab custom: see paragraph 3 of the Introduction to this Sura. This in itself was a wonderful demonstration of moral and material strength, a true Victory: it is called Bai'at ur Ridhwan (Fealty of Allah's Good Pleasure) in Islamic History. They placed their hands on the Prophet's hand, but the Hand of Allah was above them, and He accepted their Fealty. 'Alaihu is an archaic form for 'Alaihi.
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Lit., "who were left behind": i.e., the bedouin belonging to the tribes of Ghifar, Muzaynah, Juhaynah, Ashja', Aslam and Dhayl, who, although allied with the Prophet and outwardly professing Islam, refused under various pretexts to accompany him on his march to Mecca (which resulted in the Truce of Hudaybiyyah), since they were convinced that the Meccans would give battle and destroy the unarmed Muslims (Zamakhshari). The excuses mentioned in the sequence were made after the Prophet's and his followers' successful return to Medina; hence the future tense, sayaqul.
Implying that the excuses which they would proffer would be purely hypocritical.
Lit., "has anything in his power [that could be obtained] in your behalf from God": a construction which, in order to become meaningful in translation, necessitates a paraphrase.
When the Prophet started from Madinah on the Makkah journey which ended in Hudaibiya, he asked all Muslims to join him in the pious undertaking, and he had a splendid response. But some of the desert tribes hung back and made excuses. Their faith was but lukewarm, and they did not want to share in any trouble which the Makkah might give to the unarmed Muslims on pilgrimage. Their excuse that they were engaged in looking after their flocks and herds and their families was an after-thought, and in any case made after the return of the Prophet and his party with enhanced prestige to Madinah.
They said this with their tongues, but no thought of piety was in their hearts.
Their false excuse was based on a calculation of worldly profit and loss. But what about the spiritual loss in detaching themselves from the holy Prophet or spiritual profit in joining in the splendidly loyal feelings of service and obedience which were demonstrated at Hudaibiya? And in any case they need not think that all their real and secret motives were not known to Allah.
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Implying that the real sympathies of those bedouin were with the pagan Quraysh rather than with the Muslims.
Their faith was so shaky that they thought the worst would happen, and that the Makkan Quraish would destroy the unarmed band. In their heart of hearts they would not have been sorry, because they were steeped in wickedness and rejoiced in the sufferings of others. But such persons will burn in the fire of their own disappointment.
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Implying that He may forgive even the most hardened sinners if they truly repent and mend their ways: an allusion to what the Prophet was to say according to verse {16}.
Evil must inevitably have its punishment, but there is one way of escape, viz., through repentance and the Mercy of Allah. Allah's Justice will punish, but Allah's Mercy will forgive; and the Mercy is the predominant feature in Allah's universe: "He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful."
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Lit., "set forth to take booty": i.e., any expedition other than against the Quraysh of Mecca, with whom the Prophet had just concluded a truce. This is generally taken as an allusion to the forthcoming war against the Jews of Khaybar (in the year 7 H.), but the meaning may well be more general.
Evidently a reference to 8:1 - "All spoils of war belong to God and the Apostle" - which, as pointed out in note [1] on that verse, implies that no individual warrior can have any claim to the booty obtained in war. Moreover, fighting for the sake of booty contravenes the very principle of a "war in God's cause", which may be waged only in defence of faith or liberty (cf. surah {2}, note [167]), "until there is no more oppression and all worship is devoted to God alone" (see 2:193 and the corresponding note [170]). It is to these principles, too, that the Prophet's anticipated answer mentioned in the sequence, refers.
I.e., in the first verse of Al-Anfal, which was revealed in the year 2 H. (see preceding note).
Those who pledged allegiance at Ḥudaibiyah were promised by Allah that the spoils of war obtained from the Tribe of Khaibar would be exclusively theirs.
Meaning, you only say so to deprive us of our share.
Now comes out another motive behind the minds of the laggards. The journey for pilgrimage had no promise of war booty. If at any future time there should be a promise of booty they would come! But that is to reverse Allah's law and decree. Jihad is not for personal gain or booty: see S. viii. and Introduction to S. viii., paragraph 2. On the contrary Jihad is hard striving, in war and peace, in the Cause of Allah.
Not thus: i.e., not on those terms; not if your object is only to gain booty.
See viii. 1, and n. 1179.
The desert Arabs loved fighting and plunder and understood such motives for war. The higher motives seemed to be beyond them. Like ignorant men they attributed petty motives or motives of jealousy if they were kept out of the vulgar circle of fighting for plunder. But they had to be schooled, and they were schooled to higher ideas of discipline, self-sacrifice, and striving hard for a Cause.
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This is evidently a prophecy relating to the future wars against Byzantium and Persia.
Lit., "before", i.e., at the time of the expedition which resulted in the Truce of Hudaybiyyah.
This refers to Hawâzin and Thaqîf, two pagan Arab tribes.
While they are reproached for their supineness in the march which led to Hudaibiya, where there was danger but no prospect of booty, they are promised, if they learn discipline, to be allowed to follow the Banner of Islam where (as happened later in the Persian and Byzantine Wars) there was real fighting with formidable and well-organised armies.
Cf. xxvii. 33.
There may be neither fighting nor booty. But all who obey the call to Jihad with perfect discipline will get the Rewards of the Hereafter. The blind, the maimed, and the infirm will of course be exempted from active compliance with the Call, but they can render such services as are within their power, and then they will not he excluded from the reward.
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These three categories circumscribe metonymically all kinds of infirmities or disabilities which may prevent a person from actively participating in a war in God's cause.
This latter applies, by obvious implication, to such as are unable to participate in the fighting physically, but are in their hearts with those who fight.
There may be neither fighting nor booty. But all who obey the call to Jihad with perfect discipline will get the Rewards of the Hereafter. The blind, the maimed, and the infirm will of course be exempted from active compliance with the Call, but they can render such services as are within their power, and then they will not he excluded from the reward.
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I.e., at Hudaybiyyah (see introductory note).
Most of the commentators assume that this relates to the conquest of Khaybar, which took place a few months after the Truce of Hudaybiyyah. It is probable, however, that the implication is much wider than that - namely, a prophecy of the almost bloodless conquest of Mecca in the year 8 H., the victorious establishment of Islam in all of Arabia and, finally, the tremendous expansion of the Islamic Commonwealth under the Prophet's immediate successors.
The conquest of Khaibar in 7 A.H./628 C.E.
The noun from the verb radhiya is Ridhwan (Good Pleasure); hence the name of this Bai'at, Bai'at ur Ridhwan, the Fealty of Allah's Good Pleasure: see n. 4877 to xlviii. 10.
The great ceremony of the Fealty of Allah's Good Pleasure took place while the holy Prophet sat under a tree in the plain of Hudaibiya.
Or tested: see n. 4855 to xlvii. 31.
Sakina=Peace, calm, sense of security and confidence, tranquillity. Cf. above xlviii. 4, and n. 4869. The same word is used in connection with the battle of Hunain in ix. 26, and in connection with the Cave of Thaur at an early stage in the Hijrat: ix. 40.
The Treaty of Hudaibiya itself was a "speedy Victory": it followed immediately after the Bai'at.
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Sc., "of what is to come to you in the hereafter".
Thus Razi.
Or the spoils of Khaibar.
The gains so far seen from the Bai'at and their calm and disciplined behaviour were certainly great: in the rapid spread of Islam, in the clearance from the Sacred House of the idolatrous autocracy, and in the universal acceptance of the Message of Allah in Arabia.
The first fruits of the Bai'at were the victory or treaty of Hudaibiya, the cessation for the time being of the hostility of the Makkan Quraish, and the opening out of the way to Makkah. These things are implied in the phrase, "He has restrained the hands of men from you."
Hudaibiya (in both the Bai'at and the Treaty) was truly a sign-post for the Believers: it showed the solidarity of Islam, and the position which the Muslims had won in the Arab world.
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