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CHAPTER CX.: ENTITLED SURAT AL NASR (ASSISTANCE). Revealed at Madína. - Mohammed, The Quran, vol. 4 [1896]

Edition used:

A Comprehensive Commentary on the Quran: Comprising Sale’s Translation and preliminary Discourse, with Additional Notes and Emendations (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, and Co., 1896). 4 vols.

Part of: The Quran, 4 vols.

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CHAPTER CX.

ENTITLED SURAT AL NASR (ASSISTANCE).

Revealed at Madína.

INTRODUCTION.

This chapter has all the appearance of being a fragment of a Madína Sura. It may, however, have been composed at Makkah, as stated by Muslim, i. 446, and by Waqkídi, who says it was composed after the battle of Hunain. Noëldeke’s opinion is that it was composed when Muhammad was about to march against Makkah, and when he could count with certainty on the successful issue of the campaign. The chapter therefore records Muhammad’s anticipation of the success of his religion.

Probable Date of the Revelation.

The date of this chapter, according to the views expressed above, is about a.h. 8.

Principal Subject.

verses
Command to praise God for the victory of Islám1-3

IN THE NAME OF THE MOST MERCIFUL GOD.

R .

∥ (1) When the assistance of God shall come, and the victory; (2) and thou shalt see the people enter into the religion of God by troops; (3) celebrate the praise of thy Lord, and ask pardon of him; for he is inclined to forgive.

[(1) ]Victory, i.e., “when God shall cause thee to prevail over thine enemies, and thou shalt take the city of Makkah.”—Sale.

See notes on chap. xlviii. 1 and 18. This verse corresponds in sentiment with xlviii. 1-3, and probably belongs to the same date. The style and matter are Madínic.

[(2) ]By troops. “Which happened in the ninth year of the Hijra, when Muhammad having made himself master of Makkah, and obliged the Quraish to submit to him, the rest of the Arabs came in to him in great numbers, and professed Islám.”—Sale, Baidháwi.

See a similar expression in chap. xxxix. 71, 73, a late Makkan Sura, containing Madínic passages.

[(3) ]Ask pardon of him. “Most of the commentators agree that this chapter was revealed before the taking of Makkah, and suppose it gave Muhammad warning of his death; for they say that when he read it al Abbás wept; and being asked by the Prophet what was the reason of his weeping, answered, ‘Because it biddeth thee to prepare for death;’ to which Muhammad replied, ‘It is as thou sayest.’ And hence, adds Jaláluddín, after the revelation of this chapter, the Prophet was more frequent in praising and asking pardon of God, because he thereby knew that his end approached: for Makkah was taken in the eighth year of the Hijra, and he died in the beginning of the tenth.”—Sale.

Muhammad is here again described as a sinner. See notes on chaps. ii. 253, iv. 105, ix. 43, xl. 57, xlvii. 21, and xciii. 7.