Al-Fath · Madani · ayah 29 of 29

Al-Fath 48:29

مُّحَمَّدٌ رَّسُولُ ٱللَّهِ ۚ وَٱلَّذِينَ مَعَهُۥٓ أَشِدَّآءُ عَلَى ٱلْكُفَّارِ رُحَمَآءُ بَيْنَهُمْ ۖ تَرَىٰهُمْ رُكَّعًا سُجَّدًا يَبْتَغُونَ فَضْلًا مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ وَرِضْوَٰنًا ۖ سِيمَاهُمْ فِى وُجُوهِهِم مِّنْ أَثَرِ ٱلسُّجُودِ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ مَثَلُهُمْ فِى ٱلتَّوْرَىٰةِ ۚ وَمَثَلُهُمْ فِى ٱلْإِنجِيلِ كَزَرْعٍ أَخْرَجَ شَطْـَٔهُۥ فَـَٔازَرَهُۥ فَٱسْتَغْلَظَ فَٱسْتَوَىٰ عَلَىٰ سُوقِهِۦ يُعْجِبُ ٱلزُّرَّاعَ لِيَغِيظَ بِهِمُ ٱلْكُفَّارَ ۗ وَعَدَ ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّـٰلِحَـٰتِ مِنْهُم مَّغْفِرَةً وَأَجْرًا عَظِيمًۢا

“Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allāh; and those with him are forceful against the disbelievers, merciful among themselves. You see them bowing and prostrating [in prayer], seeking bounty from Allāh and [His] pleasure. Their sign is in their faces from the effect of prostration [i.e., prayer]. That is their description in the Torah. And their description in the Gospel is as a plant which produces its offshoots and strengthens them so they grow firm and stand upon their stalks, delighting the sowers - so that He [i.e., Allāh] may enrage by them[1518] the disbelievers. Allāh has promised those who believe and do righteous deeds among them forgiveness and a great reward.”

Saheeh International

Essence

A name struck from a treaty opens this closing ayah, which draws the believers as a crop: one grain, then shoots, then a standing field.

A reflection

The name he rubbed out with his own hand

Shortly before this ayah was heard, the same words were rubbed out of a document.

At al-Ḥudaybiya, the treaty with Quraysh was being written down. ʿAli, the Prophet's cousin, was the scribe. He wrote: this is what Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, has agreed. The Quraysh side objected at once. If we knew you were the Messenger of Allah, they said, we would not have fought you. Write Muhammad, son of ʿAbd Allah.

The Prophet ﷺ told ʿAli to erase it. ʿAli answered that he was not the one who would erase it. So the Prophet ﷺ erased it with his own hand. Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim both record the scene.

Now hear the surah's last ayah as the men on the road home heard it. Its first words are the words his hand had wiped away. Muḥammadun rasūlu Allāh: Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. No condition, no clause, no countersignature from Quraysh.

The ayah before it ends: and Allah suffices as a witness (48:28). One commentary reads that line as comfort for believers stung by the deleted title. It adds an image. If a king declares, 'This is my envoy', the denial of the whole world changes nothing. An envoy's standing comes from the one who sends him, not from those he is sent to.

That is also why the Prophet ﷺ could let the title go so lightly. A man whose rank rests on other people's recognition fights for every letter of it. A man whose rank is written by Allah can rub out a line of ink to win a peace.

The name Muhammad appears four times in the Quran. Only here does it stand in this plain sentence, the second half of the testimony of faith. It entered the Book in the same season it was struck from a treaty.

There is a lesson in the order. The erasing came first, and the writing second. What you give up for Allah's sake at a negotiating table is not lost. It may be waiting to be written somewhere no hand can reach.

The full entry has 7 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.