Al-Fath

I have given you, O Messenger, a clear victory by the Treaty of Hudaibiyya.

So that Allah may forgive you for your sins before this victory and after it and complete His favour on you by assisting your religion and guiding you to a straight path, in which there is no crookedness, which is the straight path of Islam.

Allah will help you against your enemies with a mighty assistance that no one can remove.

Allah is the One Who sent down stability and tranquility into the hearts of the believers so that they increase in faith over and above their faith. To Allah alone belongs the forces of the heavens and the earth, He supports with them whoever of His servants He wishes. Allah knows the interests of His servants and He is Wise in the assistance and support that He gives.

To enter those men and women who have faith in Allah and in His Messenger into gardens with streams flowing under their palaces and trees, and obliterate from them their wrongdoings and not take them to task for it. That which has been mentioned - about the attainment of the objective of Paradise and removal of the dreaded culpability for wrongdoings - in the sight of Allah is a great success that no other success can come close to.

And to punish the hypocrites, male and female, and to punish those men and women who ascribe partners to Allah, and who think that Allah will not assist His religion and not raise His word, and that fortune will turn against the believers, but fortune turned against them. Allah became angry with them because of their disbelief and evil thought and He expelled them from His mercy and prepared for them in the afterlife Hell, which they will enter to remain there forever. What a miserable place of return for them!

To Allah belong the forces of the heavens and the earth. He supports with it whoever of His servants He wishes. Allah is Mighty Whom none can overcome; Wise in His creation, estimation and planning.

I have sent you - O Messenger - as a witness to give testimony against your nation on the day of resurrection, and as one to give good news to the believers of the victory and empowerment Allah has prepared for them in the world, and of the bliss He has prepared for them in the Hereafter, and to warn the disbelievers of the humiliation and defeat at the hands of the believers that He has prepared for them in the world, and the painful punishment awaiting them that He has prepared for them in the Hereafter,

in the hope that you have faith in Allah and have faith in His messenger, and you revere and honour His messenger, and that you glorify Allah at the beginning and at the end of the day.

Those who pledge the allegiance of Al-Ridwan to you, O Messenger, to fight the idolaters of Makkah, are only pledging allegiance to Allah, because He is the One Who instructed them to fight the idolaters and He is the One Who will give them recompense. The hand of Allah is over their hands at the time of the pledge and He is aware of them. Nothing of theirs is hidden from them. Whoever breaks his pledge and does not fulfil the promise he made with Allah to assist His religion, then his breaking his pledge and promise is to his own detriment. Allah is not harmed by that. Whoever fulfils his promise to Allah to assist His religion, Allah will grant him a great reward, which is Paradise.

Those desert Arabs whom Allah had kept behind from accompanying you, O Messenger, on your journey to His House will say to you when you reproach them: ‘Taking care of our wealth and looking after our children kept us busy from going out with you. So ask for forgiveness from Allah on our behalf for our sins.’ They say with their tongues what is not in their hearts by asking the Prophet (peace be upon him) to seek forgiveness for them; because they have not repented from their sins. Say to them: No one can do anything for you against Allah, if He intends good for you, or if He intends bad for you. Rather, Allah is well aware of what you do. Nothing of your actions is hidden from Him no matter how much you try to conceal it.

The excuse of being preoccupied with taking care of your wealth and children as presented by you was not the reason for remaining behind going out with him. Rather, you thought that the Messenger and his companions will all die and they won't return to their families in Madina. Satan also made this seem fine in your hearts and you had an evil thought about your Lord that He will not help His prophet. You were a ruined people because of the evil thought that you had about Allah and because of your remaining behind His messenger.

The person who does not have faith in Allah and His Messenger is a disbeliever. I have prepared on the Day of Resurrection for those who deny Allah a blazing fire by which they will be punished.

To Allah alone belongs the control of the heavens and the control of the earth. He forgives the sins of those of His servants whom He wills and enters them into Paradise through His grace. He punishes those of His servants whom He wills out of His justice. Allah forgives the sins of those of His servants who repent to Him and He is merciful towards them.

Those whom Allah had kept behind - when you, O believers, set off to take the spoils of Khaybar which Allah had promised you after the Treaty of Hudaibiyya, will say: ‘Let us go out with you to get some of it.’ These people who were left behind want to change, by this request of theirs, Allah’s promise that He made to the believers after the Treaty of Hudaibiyya to give them alone the spoils of Khaybar. Say to them, O Messenger: You will never follow us to those spoils, because Allah has promised us that the spoils of Khaybar are only for those who were present at Hudaibiyya. They will say: Your preventing us from following you to Khaybar is not an instruction from Allah, but because you are jealous of us. The matter is not as these people who were left behind claim. Rather, they do not understand Allah’s instructions and prohibitions except a little, and therefore they have fallen into going against Him.

O Messenger! Say to those bedouins who failed to travel to Makkah with you, testing them: “You will soon be called to fighting against a strong, courageous group of people whom you shall either have to fight in the path of Allah, or they may enter into Islam without a fight. If you obey Allah in Him inviting you to fight them, He will give you a good reward, i.e. Paradise, but if you turn away from His obedience, just like you turned away from travelling with the Messenger to Makkah, He will inflict a painful punishment on you.”

There is no sin on a person excused due to blindness, disability or illness if he fails to fight in the path of Allah. Whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger, He will enter him into gardens under the trees and palaces of which rivers flow; whilst whoever turns away from their obedience, Allah will inflict a painful punishment on him.

Verily, Allah was pleased with the believers when they were giving their oaths to you at Ḥudaybīyyah i.e. Bay‘at Al-Riḍwān under the tree. Allah knew of the faith, sincerity and honesty in their hearts and sent down tranquility on their hearts. And He rewarded them for it with a victory in the near future i.e. the victory over Khaybar, as consolation for them missing out on being able to enter Makkah.

And He also granted them with many spoils that they took from the people of Khaybar. Allah is the Almighty whom no one can overcome; the Wise in His creation, decree and management.

O believers! Allah promises you of acquiring many spoils in future Islamic victories, but He has given you the spoils of Khaybar in advance and stopped the hands of the Jews when they intended to capture your families after you. And He has done this so that these advanced spoils become a sign for you of the help of Allah and His support for you. And Allah guides you to a straight path in which there is no deviance.

And Allah promises you with spoils you have not yet been able to attain. Allah alone is capable of letting you acquire them; they are part of the plans and knowledge of Allah. Allah is capable of everything; nothing is outside His ability.

O believers! If those who disbelieved in Allah and His Messenger were to fight you, they would turn their backs, defeated and fleeing. They would not find any guardian who would take care of their matter, nor any helper who would help them in fighting against you.

The believers being victorious and consequent defeat of the disbelievers is established in every place and era; it is a divine custom of Allah prevalent in the nations that have passed before these rejectors. O Messenger! You will not find any change in the divine custom of Allah.

He is the one who prevented the hands of the idolaters from getting to you when approximately seventy men came at Ḥudaybīyyah, intending to cause you harm. He stopped you from them; you did not kill them or cause them any harm. Rather, you freed them after Allah made it possible for you to capture them. And Allah is watchful over your actions; none of your actions are hidden from Him.

They are the ones who disbelieved in Allah and His Messenger, and stopped you and the sacrificial animals from Al-Masjid Al-Ḥarām. The animals remained barred from reaching the Ḥaram where they were to be sacrificed. Had it not been for a few believing men whom you did not know were believers, and by killing the disbelievers you could have killed them also, and incurred sin and had to pay blood money unknowingly, Allah would have allowed you to liberate Makkah so that He may enter into His mercy whoever He wished i.e. the believers in Makkah. If the disbelievers were distinguished from the believers in Makkah, Allah would have definitely punished those who disbelieved in Him and His Messenger with a painful punishment.

Remember when those who disbelieved in Allah and His Messenger harboured in their hearts the pride of ignorance; an ignorance that was linked to desires and not the truth. They haughtily rejected the entrance of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) into Makkah the year of the treaty of Ḥudaybīyyah, fearing and blaming him that he would overpower them and take control over it. Therefore, Allah sent down tranquility from Himself upon the His Messenger and upon the believers so their anger did not lead to them confronting the idolaters with the same actions. Allah made the believers firm upon the statement of truth, i.e. ‘There is none worthy of worship except for Allah’, and kept them firm upon fulfilling its rights which they fulfilled. The believers were more worthy of this statement than others, and more deserving of it because of the goodness within their hearts that Allah knew of. And Allah is aware of everything; nothing is hidden from Him.

Verily, Allah truly made the dream of His Messenger a reality; He showed it to him in his sleep and he them informed his companions of it. The dream was that he and his companions were entering the sacred house of Allah in safety from their enemies, with some of them having shaved their heads and some having only trimmed their hair, indicating the completion of their acts of pilgrimage. O believers! Allah knows some advantages that you did not know of, and so instead of making the dream a reality by letting you enter Makkah that year, He will give you a victory in the near future i.e. the signing of the treaty of Ḥudaybīyyah and the conquest of Khaybar that followed it at the hands of the believers who had witnessed Ḥudaybīyyah.

Allah is the one who sent His Messenger Muhammad (peace be upon him) with a clear message and a true religion: the religion of Islam, so that He may make it prevail over all its opposing religions. Allah has testified to that, and He is sufficient as a witness.

Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and his companions are strict against the combatant disbelievers and merciful, affectionate and friendly among themselves. O onlooker! You will see them bowing and prostrating, seeking from Allah that He grace them with forgiveness, a generous reward and that He becomes pleased with them. Their mark is on their faces as a result of prostrating in obedience to Allah. That is how they have been described by the Torah: the book that was revealed to Moses (peace be upon him). As for their mention in the Gospel which was revealed to Jesus, it is that they are likened in their assisting one another and perfection like crops that have emerged as small, then strengthened and stood straight up, pleasing the farmers with their strength and perfection. It is so that the disbelievers are angered by the strength, steadfastness and perfection they see within them. And Allah has promised those of the companions who have faith in Him and do good deeds forgiveness for their sins - they will not be taken to account over them, and a great reward from Himself i.e. Paradise.