Surah Fath and The Mother of the Islamic Sciences

You can see the need for a sophisticated appreciation of the Seerah when you contemplate certain parts of the revelation. 

The Quran was revealed over 23 years precisely because it was meant to be a training manual that created the best society of people that had ever walked this Earth. So much so that in the prior scriptures, at the conquest of Mecca,  they are called ten thousand saints. 

Literally the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. And that is precisely why an appreciation of the Seerah read alongside the Quran, in detail, can produce in you those highs and lows that created that society. 

For the Quran was unlike any other revelation sent to mankind, from before. 

Not only was it revealed over 23 years and in stages, in response to events that happened during that incredible time. 

But it was also a Recitation (lit. Quran) whereas all others were physical books sent down. 

And furthermore there are I believe only three instances in which the Quran talks, or talked about, future events excluding the akhira (the afterlife: the day of decision, heaven and hell). 

The first has already occurred, and that too simultaneously with the battle at Badr- S. Rum (Rome). The other two have yet to occur and are only hinted at in the Quran: Dabat al-Ard (the creature of the Earth), and the return of Nabi Isa (as) (Jesus (as) who in the first was sent to announce the coming of Muhammed (saw), and in the last will come to confirm his truth). 

More than any other revelation the Quran concerns itself with the creation of that justly balanced society of people, and not with future prophesies. 

Indeed the revelation practically always descended after the fact of what had happened, so that the Muslim community could be instructed in the correct appreciation and interpretation of those events. 

In the accounts of the Seerah that we have of the battle of Badr, where 300 scantily equipped companions overcame 1000 well equipped Quraysh, we saw the first instance of the angels coming to fight alongside the believers. 

However, two years later, at Uhud where 700 of our braves faced 3,000 Quraysh fighters, there is no account of the angels coming to fight alongside us. 

It is because Uhud was a lesson that needed to be learnt, and thus afterwards the Messenger (saw) informed us that for the believers the mountain of Uhud is like a mountain of gold, precisely because it was there that we were defeated. 

And we learnt our lesson well. 

That victory is not in the win. 

That we fight not for glory, nor for booty, but simply to make God’s word the highest in the land. 

A lesson that we can see the companions learnt well, for at the conquest of Mecca  they were disciplined and took it, that holy city held by Quraysh, peacefully. 

And the Messenger (saw) did not captain that army, but entered it on his camel, Qaswa, with whom he had left it around eight years earlier whilst flying from it under threat of death, with his head bowed and in humility. 

The revelation of S Nasr, that commands such humility came after the conquest of Mecca. And yet the companions had already learned the lesson. 

Then to revisit the treaty of Hudabiyyah and the revelation of S Fath, with only a superficial understanding of the Seerah does poor justice to both. 

For Huddabiyyah was the turning point in the long conflict between Quraysh and, the great grandson of their most noble chief (Hashim): Muhammed (saw). 

There the believers felt humiliated because of the one sided nature of one term of the agreement that stipulated that:

1- If any of Quraysh (having ostensibly become Muslim) come to Medina then they will have to be repatriated back to Quraysh in Mecca (to suffer both torture and oppression at the hands of their disbelieving families). 

2- But if any of the Medinese come to Mecca, then they would not have to be returned. 

 But God wanted to teach the Muslims to to take the long view. 

And so whilst returning from this pivotal treaty God revealed S Fath, the Victory, and called it a “clear” victory. 

So that the companions there would be forced to consider the impact of Hudabiyyah. 

And they learned well. 

For it Is not for naught that the Sunnah of our Messenger (saw); that he never broke and that we likewise will never break any treaties once concluded; is central to understanding the dilemma posed by the missing BasmaAllah in S Taubah. 

And when you think deeply about what Hudabiyyah achieved then you will be awed by the clarity of its decisiveness. 

For with Hudabiyyah that long conflict within the Arabian peninsula where Quraysh were the aggressors and Medina was always on the back foot, took a decided turn. 

Now Medina was on par with Mecca. And the tribes of the Arabian peninsula were free to make alliances with either side. 

It is these alliances that led to a full Year of Peace in which the true and pure message of Islam found ample audience within that peninsula. And where the miracle of the Quran could be heard most everywhere. 

And then it is those same alliances that deemed that when the allies of Quraysh eventually broke the treaty, the way was paved for the conquest of Mecca, both from a morally higher ground and in peace. 

Then for someone now to suggest that the victory mentioned in S Fath related to the conquest of Mecca, which at that time was an unknown, is simplistic at best. 

For God wanted to train the companions to think deeply and not be superficial. 

Then we too should likewise also think deeply about things and not be superficial. 

And that is why the Quran is structured as it is. And that is why it at times hints at things and leaves it for the reader to deliberate and find their answers for themselves. 

For Ali (ra) had his own chronological Quran burnt after the compilation of the Quran under the stewardship of Uthman (ra), precisely because he knew that that was how it was meant to be. 

That every verse would pose a question of the occasion of revelation, over the 23 years when Heaven and Earth where combined during the lifetime of our blessed Messenger (saw). 

There was a time when the mother of Islamic sciences was considered to be Tafseer ul Quran, the grappling of it and with it. 

But unfortunately we live not in that time. 

Today we have scholars who tell us both what and how to think. And yet we forget that the Quran was protected from full interpretation during the lifetime of our Messenger (saw), then how can we erroneously hold that it is has been fully explained, now?

Indeed Allah t’ala is the best of protectors, who has protected even the Quran and allowed it to remain a challenge to this day. 

May Allah t’ala bless those that grapple with it daily. Aameen.   

Knowledge is sought through study and contemplation, not through lectures, nor talks, nor this above. 

END. 

I intend to try once again to set up a Tafsir group in the style of Abu Haneefa’s (rh) methodology of how he constructed his circles. If interested please DM for more information.