Tafseer of The Victory · Al-Fath · 48:24
And it is He who withheld their hands from you and your hands from them within [the area of] Makkah after He caused you to overcome them. And ever is Allah of what you do, Seeing.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: And He it is who restrained their hands from you and your hands from them, in the heart of Mecca, after He had given you the victory over them; and Allah sees what you do (48:24).
The Exalted, whose praise is sublime, says to His Messenger ﷺ and to those who took the Pledge of Good Pleasure (bayʿat al-riḍwān): And He it is who restrained their hands from you — that is, that Allah restrained the hands of the polytheists (mushrikīn) who had set out against the army of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ at al-Ḥudaybiya, seeking a moment of heedlessness in order to fall upon them by surprise. But the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent out [a troop] and they were brought to him as captives. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ set them free and bestowed a favor upon them and did not kill them. Then Allah said to the believers: He it is who restrained the hands of these polytheists from you, and your hands from them, in the heart of Mecca, after He had given you the victory over them.
And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, the reports have been transmitted.
* Mention of the report concerning that:
Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Shaqīq narrated to us, he said: I heard my father saying: al-Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid reported to us, he said: Thābit al-Bunānī narrated to me, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mughaffal, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was sitting at the foot of a tree at al-Ḥudaybiya, and against his back rested a branch of the branches of the tree, and I lifted it from his back. And ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, may Allah be pleased with him, was before him, and Suhayl ibn ʿAmr, who was the spokesman of the polytheists. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to ʿAlī: Write: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful (bismillāhi al-raḥmāni al-raḥīm). Then Suhayl held back his hand and said: We do not know the Most Gracious (al-Raḥmān); write in our agreement what we know. So the Messenger of Allah said: Write: In Your name, O Allah (bismika allāhumma). So he wrote it. Then [the Prophet] said: This is what Muḥammad, the Messenger of Allah, has agreed upon with the people of Mecca. Then Suhayl held back his hand and said: We would have wronged you had you really been a messenger; write in our agreement what we know. He said: Write: This is what Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib has agreed upon — and I am the Messenger of Allah. Then thirty young men came out against us, armed, and they charged at us. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ supplicated against them, and Allah took away their sight. We rose against them and seized them. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to them: Have you come out under anyone's safe-conduct? He said: Then he set them free. He said: Then Allah revealed And He it is who restrained their hands from you and your hands from them, in the heart of Mecca, after He had given you the victory over them.
Ibn Ḥumayd narrated to us, he said: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ narrated to us, he said: al-Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid narrated to us, on the authority of Thābit, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mughaffal, who said: We were with the Prophet ﷺ at al-Ḥudaybiya at the foot of the tree of which Allah speaks in the Qurʾān, and there was a branch of the branches of that tree on the back of the Prophet ﷺ, and I lifted it from his back. Then he mentioned something similar to the report of Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī, on the authority of his father.
Ibn Ḥumayd narrated to us, he said: Salama narrated to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, he said: someone whom I do not suspect narrated to me — on the authority of ʿIkrima, the freedman of Ibn ʿAbbās — that Quraysh had sent out forty or fifty men of theirs, and had ordered them to roam around the army of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in order to overpower one of his companions. But they were taken captive and were brought before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He granted them pardon and let them go free, although they had thrown stones and arrows into the army of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Ibn Ḥumayd said: Salama said: Ibn Isḥāq said: Concerning that He said And He it is who restrained their hands from you and your hands from them... the [rest of the] verse.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr narrated to me, he said: Abū ʿĀṣim narrated to us, he said: ʿĪsā narrated to us; and al-Ḥārith narrated to me, he said: al-Ḥasan narrated to us, he said: Warqāʾ narrated to us — both together — on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, who said: The Prophet of Allah arrived to perform the ʿumra, and his companions seized some people from the Sacred Precinct (al-ḥaram) who were heedless. The Prophet ﷺ let them go free, and that is the victory in the heart of Mecca.
Muḥammad ibn Sinān al-Qazzāz narrated to us, he said: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿĀʾisha narrated to us, he said: Ḥammād ibn Salama narrated to us, on the authority of Thābit, on the authority of Anas ibn Mālik, that eighty men from the people of Mecca descended upon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and his companions from the mountain of al-Tanʿīm at the dawn prayer (ṣalāt al-fajr) in order to kill them. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ seized them and granted them their freedom, and Allah revealed And He it is who restrained their hands from you and your hands from them... to the end of the verse.
And Qatāda used to say concerning this what Bishr narrated to us, he said: Yazīd narrated to us, he said: Saʿīd narrated to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying: And He it is who restrained their hands from you and your hands from them... the verse. He said: the heart of Mecca is al-Ḥudaybiya.(1) It is said that [a man named Ibn Zunaym] climbed the mountain pass of al-Ḥudaybiya, and the polytheists shot him with an arrow and killed him. Thereupon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent out horsemen, and they brought him twelve horsemen of the unbelievers. The Prophet of Allah ﷺ said to them: Do you have a covenant with me? Do you have protection (dhimma) from me? They said: No. Then he set them free, and Allah revealed concerning that the Qurʾān And He it is who restrained their hands from you and your hands from them... up to His saying sees what you do.
And others said concerning that what Ibn Ḥumayd narrated to us, he said: Yaʿqūb al-Qummī narrated to us, on the authority of Jaʿfar, on the authority of Ibn Abzā, who said: When the Prophet ﷺ set out with the sacrificial animals (hady) and arrived at Dhū al-Ḥulayfa, ʿUmar said to him: O Prophet of Allah, do you wish to enter a people who are at war with you, without weapons and without horses? He said: Then he sent to Medina, and he left there no horse and no weapon without carrying it along. When he approached Mecca, they prevented him from entering, and he advanced until he arrived at Minā and descended there. Then his scout came [with the report] that ʿIkrima ibn Abī Jahl had set out against us with five hundred [men]. He said to Khālid ibn al-Walīd: O Khālid, this is your cousin who has come to you with the cavalry. Then Khālid said: I am the sword of Allah and the sword of His Messenger — and on that day he was named the Sword of Allah — O Messenger of Allah, send me wherever you wish. Then he sent him with cavalry, and he met ʿIkrima in the mountain ravine and put him to flight until he had driven him into the walls of Mecca. Then he returned a second time and put him to flight until he had driven him into the walls of Mecca. Then he returned a third time until he had driven him into the walls of Mecca. Then Allah revealed And He it is who restrained their hands from you and your hands from them... up to His saying a painful punishment. He said: Thus Allah restrained the Prophet from them, after He had given him the victory over them, for the sake of a remnant of Muslims who were still among them — after He had given him the victory over them — out of aversion that the cavalry should trample them in ignorance.
And His saying and Allah sees what you do. The Exalted, whose praise is sublime, says: and Allah sees your deeds and their deeds; nothing of that remains hidden from Him.
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Footnotes:
(1) Perhaps something has dropped out here. In Ibn Kathīr it is stated on the authority of Qatāda: "It was mentioned to us that a man named Ibn Zunaym climbed the mountain pass, etc."
