Thanks to Almighty Allah Who sent His Book that promises help and glad tidings to Muslims all over. Praise and Allah’s Mercy be on His prophet Muhammad (SAW) for his patience and confidence in his creator. We continue from where we left in the last issue of this magazine by saluting all brothers struggling to revive the Ummah.
The Holy Qur’an foretold the future in Al-Fath surah with the verse “Verily, We have given you (O Muhammad (SAW)) a manifest victory”. The 27th verse of the same surah reads “Indeed, Allah shall fulfil the true vision which He showed to His Messenger (SAW) in very truth. Certainly, you shall enter Al-Masjid-al-Haram; if Allah wills, secure, (some) having your heads shaved, and (some) having your head hair cut short, having no fear. He knew what you knew not, and He granted besides that a near victory”. [i.e. the Prophet (SAW) narrated to his companions that he saw a dream that he has entered Makkah along with them, having their (head) hair shaved and cut short and they were circumambulating Kaaba]. So, when the companions of Prophet Muhammad (SWT) set of for Makkah, they assumed that Hajj will be performed that very year as envisaged by that verse of the Qur’an above. To the contrary, the polytheists of Makkah prevented the Muslims from performing both umrah and circumambulation of Kaaba. But this also paved the way for the signing of the Hudaybiyya peace treaty. Among other things, this peace treaty forbade Muslims from performing umrah the very year it was signed but made provisions for them to return for umrah the subsequent year. The judgement passed by one of the articles of the treaty was apparently against the Muslims, thereby demoralizing them completely. Upon that, Umar (RA) raised an objection by asking the following “didn’t you give us the news that we shall enter [Baytullah] the house of Allah and circumambulate the Kaaba?” the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) answered by saying “Yes, I did, but did I say it will be this year?” Umar (RA) answered by saying “No.” “In that case you will be there, and you will be circumambulating the Kaaba as well” added prophet Muhammad (SAW). Just like Umar (RA), many of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) were not happy with the Hudaybiyya treaty. Soon after their arrival at Madinah from Hudaybiyya the following verse of the Qur’an was revealed, “Verily, [O Muhammad,] We have laid open before thee a manifest victory”. The Holy prophet broke the good news to his companions by saying that “in my opinion, the verse that was revealed to me tonight is better than the whole world together with all that it contains”. Most of the Qur’an commentators agree that this verse is directly related to the treaty of Hudaybiyya. The treaty was a victory to Muslims because it had compelled the Polytheists of Makkah to sit at a negotiating table with the Muslims, even though one of the articles of the treaty appeared to be totally against the Muslims. The end result of the treaty is a victory to Muslims. This also marks the beginning of the victories of the Muslims that will last till the end of the world. That is the reason why the verse said “Verily, [O Muhammad,] We have laid open before thee a manifest victory”. This implies that “We have paved the way for victories for you and you will be conquering more lands from now onwards”. İbn Mas’ud stated that “the victory mentioned in the verse means conquest of Makkah, but to us it also meant the peace treaty of Hudaybiyya.
In fact, the victory did come and Muslims got the privilege of preaching Islam to the pagans of Makkah. They succeeded in winning the hearts of some of the pagans and converted them to Islam. Furthermore, they had succeeded in averting the potential attacks of the pagans of Makkah. This was turned into an advantage by making these new converts target Khaybar. The conquest of Khaybar mentioned above was punctuated by the 27th verse that reads “Fath-u qarib” meaning victory of the near future. Two to three months after the treaty of Hudaybiyya was signed Khaybar was conquered.
The 18th verse of the surah reads “Allah was pleased with all those who paid allegiance to you under that tree. Allah knew what was in their heart and he made peace and tranquility descend on them. He gave them the ‘near victory’ thereafter”. This verse was referring to the victory at Khaybar, didn’t this materialize. The 19th and the 20th verse mentioned that more spoils of war will be given to them. This materialized exactly in the manner mentioned by the verse during the conquest of Khaybar. The Qur’an had foretold the future correctly one more time. The spoils of war collected at Khaybar was distributed to only those who paid allegiance to the prophet at Hudaybiyya. This indicated that the conquest of Khaybar was a direct consequence of the peace treaty of Hudaybiyya. The treaty that seemed to be against the Muslims was actually a victory in disguise. Everyone else thought the treaty of Hudaybiyya was a loss to the Muslims but the prophet said it was a victory. One of the companions of the prophet said “Oh the Prophet of Allah, do you call this treaty a victory?”. “By Allah this is a victory without any doubt” was the answer given by the Prophet (SAW). Didn’t this materialize? Isn’t this another proof that the Holy Qur’an is the word of Allah?
A lot of Qur’an commentators agree that the 1st verse of the Al-Fath surah was related to the treaty of Hudaybiyya, the other commentators are of the view that the verse was referring to the conquest of Makkah. If this is the case, then “Fath-u Mubeen” (plain victory) was referring to the victory at Makkah. This hitherto unknown news was revealed in the 6th year of the migration to Madinah and almost two years later the conquest of Makkah took place. Isn’t this another proof that Qur’an is the word of Allah?
The second verse reads “… and to complete His favor upon you”. This verse is another source of good news about the events in the future to the Holy Prophet (SAW) and his companions. That means, Muslims will be able to live in security without fear and that they will be able to bring about the formation of Islamic civilization as well. Furthermore, freedom will be theirs and they will continue to be stronger. Without any of these, the benefits promised to the Holy Prophet will be incomplete.
Didn’t all these take place in the Holy prophet’s life time? Isn’t this another miracle of the Holy Qur’an?
The third verse reads “And [that] Allah may aid you with a mighty victory”. This means Allah (JJ) was going to give the prophet honorable victories.
The “Fathu-n Mubeen” mentioned in the first verse of the Al-Fath surah not only informs us about the treaty of Hudaybiyya but also gives as news about the conquest of Makkah and Khaybar as well. This is because the verse essentially gives information on the beginning of the victories that Allah (JJ) was going to give to Muslims.
In the 21st verse of Al-Fath Surah Allah (JJ) said “And [He promises] other [victories] that you were [so far] unable to [realize] which Allah has already encompassed. And ever is Allah, over all things, competent”. This was a clear indications that Muslims would be victorious at the battle of Makkah as well as the other battles that will be fought elsewhere. It also meant that “apart from the victory of the treaty of Hudaybiyya and the near victory We are going to give at Khaybar, more victories will follow suite”. As rightly mentioned in the 21st verse, the Muslims at that time didn’t have the strength to fight and conquer Makkah. But they were able to do that only two years later. The word “encompass” was used in the verse, lo and behold, the Muslims encompassed Makkah and conquered it. None of the people of Makkah had pre-information about the conquest till the whole of Makkah was encompassed by the soldiers of Islam. The people of Makkah were astonished to see about ten thousand lit torches surrounding them in the darkness of the dawn. Allah (JJ) indicated that Makkah was going to conquered not through bloodshed but through besieging. Didn’t this happened the way Qur’an had mentioned?
The 28th verse of Al-Fath surah reads “It is He who sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth to manifest it over all religion. And sufficient is Allah as Witness”. It will be superior to all religions and ideologies due to the academic and technical proofs it had provided. It will also be physically superior due to the victories. It also meant that all religions and ideologies waging war against Islam will be vanquished. History proves this. Muslims had conquered and taken control of almost half of the world and this had started in the era of Prophet Muhammad (SAW). Islam had become superior to all religions. Though we lost this dominance two centuries ago, Islam is still progressing in our days. The coming of Prophet Isa (Jesus) (AS) and the other narrations of the hadith are also clear indications that Muslims will become stronger again and Islam will dominate all other religions one more time.
As indicated in the first few verses of Al-Fath surah, spoils of war will be acquired at Khaybar and Makkah. The acquisition of spoils of war at Iran and the Byzantine meant these regions had been conquered as well. This shows that the information given by the last few surahs had materialized. All beliefs, systems and ideologies are religions and Allah (JJ) will make his religion superior to all systems and civilizations. The religion was given to the Holy prophet not for the sake of preaching only but dominate all other religions and become the way of life of mankind.
The 11th verse of Sad surah said “(As they denied Allah’s Message) they will be a defeated host like the confederates of the old times (who were defeated)” and this was referring to the conquest of Makkah. That means they would be defeated over and over on the same land and Makkah will be conquered. It can also be interpreted as marking the beginning of the defeat of the pagans and polytheist with Bedir as the starting point. Didn’t this materialize?
As foretold in the verses of Al-Fath and Sad surahs, the As-Saffat surah also foretold the good news in the verses 170-175 and it goes as follows: “But (now that the Qur’an has come) they disbelieve therein (i.e. in the Qur’an and in Prophet Muhammad SAW, and all that which he brought, the Divine Revelation), so they will come to know! And, verily, Our Word has gone forth of old for Our slaves, the Messengers, That they verily would be made triumphant. And that Our armies, they verily would be the victors. So, turn away (O Muhammad SAW) from them for a while, and watch them and they shall see (the punishment)!” this verse was revealed during the Makkah period, and it promised the Muslims victory and threatened the polytheist of Makkah with defeat. This warning came at the time when Muslims were being treated mercilessly by the polytheist of Makkah and a good number of these Muslims were compelled to migrate due to unbearable hardships. At that time, many believed that this movement for the cause of Allah (JJ) will come to an end. Despite the bad conditions in which the Muslims found themselves, these verses promised the Muslims superiority and threatened the polytheist with dire consequences. Didn’t this materialize later on?
Allah’s covenant will be valid for us too if we fulfill its conditions. We sometimes suffer defeat for one of the following reasons: 1. the sins we committed, 2. Not fulfilling the conditions for victory, 3. Trial from Allah, 4. Preparation for future victory. The term “army” in the preceding verse implied the following: 1. We should be army ourselves, 2. Whatever we do should be for the sake of Allah, 3. We should implement all what Allah had ordained. It cannot be said that some of the prophets that came to pass without victory or martyrdom did not receive Allah’s help. Allah had verily assisted them. They were very successful as far as moral issues are concerned, their contemporaries were punished by Allah, the superstitions of their contemporary infidels were eradicated completely, righteousness prevailed. On the other hand, physical victory is directly related to the purification of souls, struggling against the infidels in the cause of Allah (JJ) and being worthy of it.
Verse 179 of As-Saffat surah said “And watch and they shall see (the torment)!”. Lo and behold, about 15 years later Makkah was conquered. A couple of years later Byzantine lands and Iran were defeated. Hasn’t the foretelling of the future by Qur’an comes true again.
We will stop from here with the hope of continuing in the next issue with the other proofs showing that Qur’an is the words of Allah.
