Verses 10–15
48. Al-Fath · The Victory
Madinan29 verses
إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ يُبَايِعُونَكَ إِنَّمَا يُبَايِعُونَ ٱللَّهَ يَدُ ٱللَّهِ فَوْقَ أَيْدِيهِمْ ۚ فَمَن نَّكَثَ فَإِنَّمَا يَنكُثُ عَلَىٰ نَفْسِهِۦ ۖ وَمَنْ أَوْفَىٰ بِمَا عَٰهَدَ عَلَيْهُ ٱللَّهَ فَسَيُؤْتِيهِ أَجْرًا عَظِيمًۭا
48:10Indeed those who swear allegiance to you, swear allegiance only to Allah: the hand of Allah is above their hands. Then whosoever breaks his oath, breaks it only to his own detriment, and whoever fulfills the covenant he has made with Allah, He will give him a great reward.1
سَيَقُولُ لَكَ ٱلْمُخَلَّفُونَ مِنَ ٱلْأَعْرَابِ شَغَلَتْنَآ أَمْوَٰلُنَا وَأَهْلُونَا فَٱسْتَغْفِرْ لَنَا ۚ يَقُولُونَ بِأَلْسِنَتِهِم مَّا لَيْسَ فِى قُلُوبِهِمْ ۚ قُلْ فَمَن يَمْلِكُ لَكُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ شَيْـًٔا إِنْ أَرَادَ بِكُمْ ضَرًّا أَوْ أَرَادَ بِكُمْ نَفْعًۢا ۚ بَلْ كَانَ ٱللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرًۢا
48:11The Bedouins who had stayed back [from joining the Prophet in his ‘umrah journey to Makkah] will tell you, ‘Our possessions and families kept us occupied. So plead [to Allah] for our forgiveness!’ They will say with their tongues what is not in their hearts. Say, ‘Whether He desires to cause you harm or desires to bring you benefit, who can be of any avail to you against Allah[’s will]? Indeed Allah is well aware of what you do.’2
بَلْ ظَنَنتُمْ أَن لَّن يَنقَلِبَ ٱلرَّسُولُ وَٱلْمُؤْمِنُونَ إِلَىٰٓ أَهْلِيهِمْ أَبَدًۭا وَزُيِّنَ ذَٰلِكَ فِى قُلُوبِكُمْ وَظَنَنتُمْ ظَنَّ ٱلسَّوْءِ وَكُنتُمْ قَوْمًۢا بُورًۭا
48:12Rather, you thought that the Apostle and the faithful will not ever return to their folks, and that was made to seem decorous to your hearts; you entertained evil thoughts, and you were a ruined lot.
وَمَن لَّمْ يُؤْمِنۢ بِٱللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِۦ فَإِنَّآ أَعْتَدْنَا لِلْكَٰفِرِينَ سَعِيرًۭا
48:13Those who have no faith in Allah and His Apostle [should know that] We have prepared a blaze for the faithless.
وَلِلَّهِ مُلْكُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۚ يَغْفِرُ لِمَن يَشَآءُ وَيُعَذِّبُ مَن يَشَآءُ ۚ وَكَانَ ٱللَّهُ غَفُورًۭا رَّحِيمًۭا
48:14To Allah belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth: He forgives whomever He wishes, and punishes whomever He wishes, and Allah is all-forgiving, all-merciful.
سَيَقُولُ ٱلْمُخَلَّفُونَ إِذَا ٱنطَلَقْتُمْ إِلَىٰ مَغَانِمَ لِتَأْخُذُوهَا ذَرُونَا نَتَّبِعْكُمْ ۖ يُرِيدُونَ أَن يُبَدِّلُوا۟ كَلَٰمَ ٱللَّهِ ۚ قُل لَّن تَتَّبِعُونَا كَذَٰلِكُمْ قَالَ ٱللَّهُ مِن قَبْلُ ۖ فَسَيَقُولُونَ بَلْ تَحْسُدُونَنَا ۚ بَلْ كَانُوا۟ لَا يَفْقَهُونَ إِلَّا قَلِيلًۭا
48:15[In the near future] when you will set out to capture booty, those who stayed behind [in this journey] will say, : ‘Let us follow you.’ They desire to change the word of Allah. Say, ‘You will never follow us! Allah has said thus beforehand.’ Then they will say, ‘You are envious of us.’ Indeed, they do not understand but a little.3
Tafsir
Commentary on this passage
Verse 10
1.The caravan of the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s.) reached a place called Hudaihiya with the intention of performing Umrah and the news of their arrival reached Mecca. In Mecca Abu Sufyan raised an army under the command of Khalid bin Walid. The Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s.) told Umar to go and inform them that they have come with the intention of performing Umrah and not to wage a war against the Meccans. However Umar excused himself saying that he feared for his life. Now the Prophet told Uthman, the beloved member of Abu Sufyan’s family to carry out the instructions. When Uthman did not return for a long time it was rumoured that he has been killed. There was a turmoil among the companions so the Prophet took allegiance from them that none would flee. The allegiance was taken under a tree. The Almighty liked this allegiance and it was called the allegiance of the tree or the allegiance of Rizwan. On the other side Urwah bin Masood the representative of the infidels returned to his group and said : I have not seen such obedient followers in the courts of Caesar, Kisra and Najjashi as have seen the people of Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) to be. Thus it would be better if a peace treaty can be signed with them. The infidels agreed to sign a peace treaty. Ali (a.s.) prepared the document and the infidels contested every point. At last the following terms were decided upon : (i) The Muslims would return this year without entering Mecca. (ii) The next year they would stay in Mecca only for three days. (iii) Hostilities would be stopped for ten years. (iv) If a person from the infidel side comes to the Muslims he would be returned and if it is vice versa the infidels would not be obliged to return him. Umar was enraged on this clause and he did not like it at all and he had a historical type of doubt in prophethood.
Umar has himself confessed that he had never had such a great doubt in his life. The Almighty Allah saved the Prophet from this danger also and the treaty was at last finalized and Islam was bestowed with a manifest victory.
Footnotes
Explanations of words and phrases in these verses
Benefit
Inventing excuses is a common malady of people. Sometimes they blame the creation of polytheism to the forefathers, they give excuse of their homes being unprotected in order to avoid going for Jihad, or the beauty of Roman women or makes the wives and children as excuses, and sometimes he presents cowardice as precaution, shows greed to be foresight, unjustified daring to compromise, weakness of self for shame, running away from responsibility to lack of clarity and short-comings to pre-destination.
- 1
Here ‘Alayh’ is preferred to Allah. And in presence of Ala the pronoun is with a ‘raf’, which is a sign of perfection of eloquence which is proof that in Quran it is not possible to alter a single vowel and it is read in the same way as it was revealed. No one has the right to correct it even under the common rules.
- 2
Mukhlefeen Aaraab are those people who had not consented to go with the Prophet (s.a.) that if infidels do not come back alive from Mecca who would put his life in danger? After this when there was hope of booty in Khyber they agreed to accompany him.
- 3
According to commentators these benefits denote the booties of Khyber because after the treaty of Hudaibiya the very next battle was of Khyber and the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s.) distributed the booty only among those who has participated in Hudaibiya.
Benefit
It should be clear that if one has a bad opinion ahout himself it is a means of progress and with regard to the believer it is a haraam act and with Allah it is the root of all evil. Just as Ali (a.s.) has said: Miserliness, cowardice and greed are gathered together in expecting bad from Allah.