A Sūrah Dearer Than the World

Next is Sūrat al-Fatḥ. This sūrah was revealed on the way back from al-Ḥudaybiyah; it was revealed in its entirety then. When it was revealed, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) sent someone to call ʿUmar. When ʿUmar heard that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was calling him, he was afraid that it might be some āyāt revealed reprimanding him for what he had done: I went back, thinking that something had been revealed about me. He was afraid. And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told him that he had received āyāt better than everything in the world: tonight a sūrah has been revealed to me that is dearer to me than the world and everything in it — innā fataḥnā laka fatḥan mubīnā. This narration of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb is in al-Bukhārī (4177). And then ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him) asked the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), a-wa fatḥun huwa? — is it an opening? The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: yes; by Him in whose hand is my soul, it is an opening.

Now, an explanation of the meaning of fatḥ, and of the meaning of the word naṣr. Fatḥ is opening. In Arabic, its original meaning is used when something locked is opened: that is fatḥ. So when a key is put into a lock and unlocks it, that is called fatḥ. This meaning was borrowed to mean also a land being opened, because the land is locked against the army and is now opened. It is not as though one just walks into the territory of the enemy; it is locked; it is locked in one's face, and one has to fight to open it. Therefore the word fatḥ is used for a victory that involves taking over land, while naṣr can be used for victory in a battle. So, for example, speaking of the victory of Badr, one says intaṣarnā fī Badr, we were victorious at Badr; but one does not say fataḥnā Badr, we opened Badr, because that was just a battlefield; it was not opened. But one can say fatḥ Khaybar or fatḥ Makkah: Makkah was opened, because there was land taken over in the process. So this is the difference in meaning between fatḥ and victory: fatḥ has an additional meaning over victory, and that is the taking of land.

So the question is: how could al-Ḥudaybiyah be a fatḥ when no land was taken? One of the mufassirūn says it was called a fatḥ because it is the event that led to the opening of Makkah: it was because of al-Ḥudaybiyah that Makkah was opened. And Ibn Masʿūd said: you consider the opening to be the opening of Makkah, but we used to consider the opening to be al-Ḥudaybiyah. Why was it an opening? Al-Zuhrī says: al-Ḥudaybiyah was the greatest of the openings. That is because the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) came to al-Ḥudaybiyah with a force of fourteen hundred, and when the truce was reached, people started mixing with each other, and they learned and heard about Allah, and anyone who wanted Islam was able to embrace it. There was no more threat, no more fear, in becoming Muslim. So by the time those two years were over, the Muslims entered Makkah with an army of ten thousand.

So see how the Muslims multiplied in two years. Thirteen years in Makkah, and then six years until al-Ḥudaybiyah — a total of thirteen and six, nineteen years — and the number was fourteen hundred. In just over two years the number jumped from fourteen hundred to ten thousand. This is the blessing of Ṣulḥ al-Ḥudaybiyah: it gave the Muslims a chance to practise daʿwah, because it was a time when there was no risk in becoming Muslim, and Muslims could travel freely; there was no fear, so the daʿwah spread. In Makkah, even though there was no fighting, the Muslims were persecuted, and that is why the daʿwah had a difficult time spreading. Now the Muslims had the ability to speak with the people, and the people could freely listen to Islam.

Verily, We have granted you a manifest victory, so that Allah may forgive you your faults of the past and those to follow. So Allah gave Muḥammad victory, and this victory would be the moment in which Allah forgave Muḥammad (peace be upon him) all of his sins. Now, what sins did the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) commit? This needs to be put into perspective. The status of a messenger is very high, and so shortcomings that come from them — which, for us, would seem like doing a great good deed — because of the high status of the prophets, what is referred to here as sins could be things that are not appropriate to the high status of prophethood, and these are the things Allah (swt) forgives. We should not understand these to mean sins literally. It is different from what we understand sins to be. And that He may complete His favour upon you, and guide you on the straight path. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was already guided; what is meant here is that more laws of the Sharīʿah were going to be revealed, and the āyāt would continue to be revealed to Muḥammad (peace be upon him), and that is the guidance. And that Allah may give you a mighty victory: this mighty victory is the opening of Makkah and what came after it — all of the other victories the Muslims enjoyed after that, because of the blessing of Ṣulḥ al-Ḥudaybiyah.