110- AN-NASR
HELP
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE COMPASSIONATE, THE MERCIFUL
# When God’s Help and Victory come, # and you see mankind entering God’s religion in throngs, # hymn the praise of thy Lord, and seek forgiveness from Him. Truly He is Ever Relenting.
Commentary
1. When God’s Help and Victory come
Many commentators read this verse in the past tense, in which case Victory is taken as an allusion to the conquest of Makkah in 8/630 (Āl, Q, Qu, Ṭ; which some Muslims believe was foreshadowed in Deuteronomy 33:2 and Song of Solomon 5:10). Others read it as an allusion to the Treaty of Ḥudaybiyah in 6/628 (see the introduction to Sūrah 48; Āl). When read in the future tense, this verse is seen by many as an allusion to the conquests by which Islam spread beyond the borders of Arabia after the death of the Prophet (Āl, Q). It also has a continuous meaning, as attaining Paradise is the final victory. In this vein, alBaqlī writes, “The Victory (fatḥ) is the opening (infitāḥ) of the doors of arrival and the unveiling of the lights of Beauty and Majesty.”
2. and you see mankind entering God’s religion in throngs,
Some say that mankind indicates the Arabs in general; others say it indicates a large group from Yemen who had recently accepted Islam (Āl). When the sūrah is taken as a reference to the conquest of Makkah, it denotes the many tribes that had been reluctant to enter Islam as long as the Prophet’s own city remained beyond his dominion. Then when it was conquered, this final obstacle was removed and they entered Islam in throngs. Before the conquest, people had entered one or two at a time, sometimes a few more, but afterwards tribes from all regions of Arabia entered en masse
3. hymn the praise of thy Lord, and seek forgiveness from Him. Truly He is Ever Relenting.
According to some, the meaning of hymn the praise in this verse is “pray” (Q). This may follow from the fact that Muslims, following the wont of the Prophet, recite various formulas of praise and glory during both the bowing and the prostrations of prayer, formulas such as “Glory be to Thee, O God, our Lord, and praise unto Thee, our Lord. O God, forgive me” (Q). In general, the verb sabbaḥa, translated throughout as glorify or glorifies (e.g., 57:1; 59:1; 61:1; 62:1), when combined with ḥamd (“praise”) as hymn the praise (lit. “glorify the praise”; cf. 15:98; 20:130; 32:15; 40:7, 55; 42:5; 50:39; 52:48), indicates the recognition that God is beyond all that anyone can attribute to Him (see 57:1c). The Divine Name “the Relenting” is also coupled with the Merciful in several verses (see 2:37, 54, 128, 160; 4:16, 64; 9:104, 118; 49:12). God is portrayed as relenting unto human beings throughout human history, beginning with Adam and Eve (see 2:37c), and every revelation can be seen as a form of God’s relenting. The word for human repentance and for Divine relenting are the same in Arabic (tawbah; verbal form tāba/yatūbu). It thus represents a subtle reciprocity between Divine action and human action, as in 5:39: But whosoever repents (tāba) after his wrongdoing, and makes amends, God will relent (yatūbu) unto him. Though human beings can play some role in seeking their own forgiveness, ultimately it is God Who must first turn to human beings, as in 9:118: Then He relented unto them, that they might repent; see 2:37c and the essay “Translating the Quran.”
(Source: The study Quran, by Sayyed Hossein Nasr and 4 others)
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