Al-Fath · Madani · ayah 18 of 29

Al-Fath 48:18

۞ لَّقَدْ رَضِىَ ٱللَّهُ عَنِ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذْ يُبَايِعُونَكَ تَحْتَ ٱلشَّجَرَةِ فَعَلِمَ مَا فِى قُلُوبِهِمْ فَأَنزَلَ ٱلسَّكِينَةَ عَلَيْهِمْ وَأَثَـٰبَهُمْ فَتْحًا قَرِيبًا

“Certainly was Allāh pleased with the believers when they pledged allegiance to you, [O Muḥammad], under the tree, and He knew what was in their hearts, so He sent down tranquility upon them and rewarded them with an imminent conquest[1514]”

Saheeh International

Essence

Under a tree forgotten within a year, Allah saw the hearts of those who pledged, and His pleasure with them is recited still.

A reflection

Fourteen hundred hands, and one man behind his camel

From the outside, the line under the tree looked the same all the way along. Man after man came forward and put his hand in the Prophet's hand ﷺ. Some fourteen hundred of them. An onlooker would have counted hands and called it unanimous.

Sahih Muslim preserves the exception. Jabir said they all pledged, except one man, al-Jadd ibn Qays. He hid himself under the belly of his camel. One classical commentator notes simply that he was a hypocrite and did not pledge.

Now read the ayah again. Allah was pleased with the believers when they pledged to you under the tree. So He knew what was in their hearts. The ayah does not praise the crowd. It praises the believers, and it reaches beneath the hands to the hearts.

This is what shrinks the ego. We spend a great deal of effort on how we look in the line. Our pride lives in the visible: the reputation, the attendance record, the photograph from the right event. A doorbell camera records everything on the porch. It cannot record why the visitor came.

Allah's knowledge is not like that camera. He knows the hand and what moved it. He knew the man pressed against his camel, and He knew the hearts of fourteen hundred others, each one separately. No one in that line could impress Him, and no one could hide from Him.

That should make us humble about our own appearance of faith. The question is never only whether I was in the line. It is what He found in my heart while I stood there.

Does Allah need pledges, then, like a ruler anxious for loyalty? The ayah answers itself. Everything in it flows towards the believers: pleasure, calm, a near opening. 'Whoever strives, strives only for himself; Allah is free of need of the worlds' (29:6).

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.