بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِإِذَا جَآءَ نَصْرُ ٱللَّهِ وَٱلْفَتْحُ ١ وَرَأَيْتَ ٱلنَّاسَ يَدْخُلُونَ فِي دِينِ ٱللَّهِ أَفْوَاجاً ٢ فَسَبِّحْ بِحَمْدِ رَبِّكَ وَٱسْتَغْفِرْهُ إِنَّهُ كَانَ تَوَّاباً ٣
In the name of Allah, All-Merciful, Most Merciful
(1) When Allah’s help and victory have arrived
(2) and you have seen people entering Allah’s deen in droves,
(3) then glorify your Lord’s praise and ask His forgiveness. He is the Ever-Returning.
God Almighty says: When the victory of Allah comes
"When" is a conditional particle for the future, and the operative verb is then glorify.
"Victory" means aid and triumph over the enemy.
"The conquest" refers to the conquest of Mecca, or the conquest of lands.
Announcing this before it occurred is one of the signs of prophethood—if we say the verse was revealed before the conquest, which is the view of the majority.
The meaning is: When victory comes to you from Allah, and you prevail over the Arabs, and Mecca or the rest of the Arab lands are opened to you, then increase in glorification and seeking forgiveness—as preparation for meeting Him, or as gratitude for blessings.
The expression of the conquest's occurrence as "coming" signals that it will arrive imminently.
It is also said: This verse was revealed during the days of Tashreeq at Mina during the Farewell Pilgrimage, and the Prophet ﷺ lived after it for eighty days. In that case, the word "when" is used considering that some of what falls within its scope—namely, seeing people enter in crowds—had not yet fully elapsed.
The conquest of Mecca took place on the tenth of Ramadan, in the eighth year of Hijrah, with the Prophet ﷺ accompanied by ten thousand from the Muhajirun, Ansar, and Arab tribes. He stayed there for fifteen nights. Upon entering, he stood at the door of the Kaaba and said:
"There is no god but Allah alone, with no partner. He fulfilled His promise, aided His servant, and defeated the confederates alone."
Then he said: "O people of Mecca, what do you think I will do to you?" They said: "Good—a generous brother, and the son of a generous brother." He said: "Go, for you are free."
So the Prophet ﷺ set them free, though Allah had given him power over them by force, and they were legally his spoils. For this reason, the people of Mecca were called "the freed ones" (Tulaqa'). Then they pledged allegiance to him upon Islam, and he set out to face Hawazin.
Then God says: and you see the people meaning: you perceive them—or know them— entering into Allah's deen i.e., the deen of Islam, the only religion attributed to Him.
The clause, on the first interpretation, is a circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl) of "the people"; on the second, it is a second object of "you see".
in droves is a circumstantial qualifier of the subject of "entering"—meaning they enter group after group. A whole tribe would enter, a whole people, after they used to enter one by one.
That is because the Arabs used to say: "If Muhammad prevails over the Sanctuary—and Allah had already protected it from the people of the Elephant—then you have no power against him." So when Mecca was conquered, they came to Islam in crowds without fighting. Many embraced Islam after the conquest—so many that seventy thousand accompanied him in the expedition to Tabuk.
Abu Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Barr said: "The Prophet ﷺ did not die while any Arab remained a disbeliever." It has also been said that the number of Muslims at his death was 114,000.
So when you see what has been mentioned of victory and conquest, then glorify your Lord's praise—meaning say "Subḥānallāh" (Glory be to Allah) in gratitude to Him, or do salat to Him—and ask His forgiveness—in humility and self-effacement, or persist in seeking forgiveness. He is ever—and has always been—returning; plentiful in accepting tawba.
Lady 'A'ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) reported that the Prophet ﷺ, when Mecca was conquered and the Arabs embraced Islam, would frequently say: "Glory be to You, O Allah, and with Your praise; I seek Your forgiveness and repent to You," interpreting the Quran by that—meaning this very surah.
He once told her: "I see it only as a sign of my approaching end."
Al-'Abbas and 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with them) interpreted it likewise in his presence, and he confirmed their view. Ibn 'Abbas and others took this same stance.
The indication for the seeker (ishārat):
When victory comes to you, O seeker, from Allah—empowering you to break the habits of your lower self and granting you mastery over it—and the conquest which is entering the station of annihilation (fanā') and the manifestation of the secrets of realities, and you see people entering the path of Allah in droves—then glorify your Lord's praise, i.e., declare Him far above perceiving otherness or duality in His dominion, and ask His forgiveness for perceiving the existence of your own self.
Al-Qushayrī said: "It is said that 'victory' from Allah means that He annihilated him from himself, removed from him the rulings of human nature, and purified him from inner turbidity. As for "the conquest," it is that He raised him to the station of nearness, singled him out with the characteristics of intimacy, clothed him in the garment of unification, and made known to him from the perfection of knowledge that which all of creation thirsted for."
Al-Wartajabī said: "'then glorify your Lord with praise'—i.e., glorify Him with His praise, not with yours—so glorify Him with the praise with which He has praised Himself, and seek His forgiveness for your own praise, your thanksgiving, your deeds, and your knowing, for all of these are caused (contingent); because the description of temporal things is unfitting for the beauty of the All-Merciful. Indeed, He is ever-accepting of repentance from helplessness in grasping the reality of His holiness, and from the admission of ignorance concerning the knowledge of the reality of His existence."
And may the blessings of Allah be upon our Master Muhammad and his family.
