سورة النصر

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): It is narrated from Zayd: When إِذا جاءَ نَصْرُ اللهِ وَ الْفَتْحُ [When the help of Allah and the victory comes] was revealed, the noble Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) said: "O Ali (peace be upon him)! O Fatima (peace be upon her)! The help of Allah and the victory have come, and I see people entering the religion of Allah in throngs, so I glorify my Lord with His praise and seek His forgiveness, for He is ever the Accepter of repentance. O Ali (peace be upon him)! Indeed, Allah has decreed jihad upon the believers in the tribulation that will occur after me." Ali ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon him) said: "O Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family)! How shall we wage jihad against the believers who, in their trial, say 'we have believed'?" The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) said: "When they act by their own opinion in matters of religion, jihad must be waged against the innovations that occur in the religion; for there is no place for interpretation by personal opinion in the religion, and the commands and prohibitions of the religion are from Allah."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Imam Rida (peace be upon him) said: I heard my father narrating from his father: The first surah that was revealed was بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحیم اقْرَأْ بِاسْمِ رَبِّکَ [In the name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful. Read in the name of your Lord], and the last surah that was revealed was إِذا جاءَ نَصْرُ اللهِ وَ الْفَتْحُ [When the help of Allah and the victory comes].

Ali ibn Ibrahim (may Allah have mercy on him): إِذَا جَاءَ نَصْرُ اللهِ وَالْفَتْحُ [When the help of Allah comes and the victory] was revealed at Mina during the Farewell Pilgrimage. Thereupon the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) said: "The news of my death has come to me." Then he went to the Masjid al-Khayf, gathered the people, and said: "May Allah grant radiance to a man who hears my words, retains them, and conveys them to those who have not heard them."

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) — Muhammad ibn Umar ibn Ali (peace be upon him) narrated from his father, from his grandfather (peace be upon him): When the verse إِذا جاءَ نَصْرُ اللهِ وَ الْفَتْحُ [When the help of Allah and the victory comes] was revealed to the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family), he said to me: "O Ali (peace be upon him), indeed the help of Allah and the victory has come, so you will see people entering the religion of Allah in throngs. Glorify your Lord with praise and seek His forgiveness — indeed He is ever ready to accept repentance. O Ali (peace be upon him), Allah has made jihad obligatory upon the believers in the fitna (trial) that will occur after me, just as He had made jihad against the polytheists at my side obligatory upon them." I said: "O Messenger of Allah, what is that fitna concerning which Allah has made jihad obligatory upon us?" He said: "The fitna of a people who bear witness to لا إِلهَ إِلَّا اللهُ [there is no god but Allah] and that I am the Messenger of Allah, yet who oppose my sunnah and cast aspersions on my religion." I said: "O Messenger of Allah, then on what grounds shall we fight them, given that they bear witness to لا إِلهَ إِلَّا اللهُ [there is no god but Allah] and to your being the Messenger of Allah?" He said: "On account of their introducing unprecedented matters and innovations into the religion, their departing from my command, and their deeming lawful the shedding of the blood of my kindred." I said: "O Messenger of Allah, you had given me the glad tiding of martyrdom; ask Allah to hasten it for me." He said: "Yes, I had given you the glad tiding of martyrdom, so how will you be when this is dyed from this?" — and he gestured with his hand to my head and my beard. I said: "O Messenger of Allah, now that you have given me such glad tiding, this is no longer a place for patience but a place for glad tidings and gratitude." He said: "Yes. So prepare yourself for the dispute and the struggle, for you will contend with my ummah." I said: "O Messenger of Allah, show me the way of victory [over them]." He said: "When you see a people who have turned aside from guidance towards misguidance, then contend with them [for the victory shall be yours], for guidance is from Allah and misguidance is from Satan. O Ali (peace be upon him), indeed guidance is following the command of Allah, not following the desires of the self and one's own opinion. It is as though I see you facing a people who have interpreted the Qur'an [away from its meaning] and clung to shubuhat (ambiguous, twistable matters), and have deemed lawful wine under the name of grape-juice, short-measuring under the [pretext of paying] zakat, and bribery under the name of a gift or offering." I said: "O Messenger of Allah, so when they do such things, what are they? Are they apostates who have turned back from the religion, or people of fitna and trial?" He said: "They are people of fitna, wandering perplexed and bewildered within it, until justice overtakes them." I said: "O Messenger of Allah, is that justice from us or from other than us?" He said: "Rather from us. By us Allah opened [the religion], and by us He shall bring it to its close; through us Allah joined hearts together after shirk (polytheism), and through us He shall join hearts together after fitna." I said: "Praise be to Allah for what He has bestowed upon us from His bounty."

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) — Ali ibn Ibrahim (may Allah have mercy on him) said: إِذا جاءَ نَصْرُ اللهِ وَ الْفَتْحُ [When the help of Allah and the victory comes] was revealed at Mina during the Farewell Pilgrimage (Hijjat al-Wada). Then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) said: "The news of my death has come to me." Then he went to the Masjid al-Khayf and gathered the people and said: "May Allah help the one who hears my words and commits them to memory and conveys them to those who have not heard them. For many a bearer of fiqh (understanding of religion) is not himself a faqih (jurist), and many a bearer of fiqh conveys it to one who is more understanding than himself. There are three things regarding which the heart of no Muslim is treacherous: making one's deeds sincere (ikhlas) for the sake of Allah, sincere counsel toward the leaders (imams) of the Muslims, and adherence to their community; for the call of those (leaders) encompasses all who are behind them. O people! I am leaving among you two weighty things (al-Thaqalayn); so long as you hold fast to them, you will never go astray and never stumble: the Book of Allah and my kindred, my Ahl al-Bayt. The Kind and All-Aware — exalted and glorious be His remembrance — has informed me that these two shall not separate from each other until they meet me at the Pool (Hawd) like these two." And he brought his two index fingers together. "And I do not say like these two" — and he brought his index finger and middle finger together — "for one of these two is superior to the other."

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) — Abdullah ibn Masud said: When this Surah was revealed, the noble Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) would frequently say: "Glory be to You, O Allah, and praise be to You. O Allah, forgive me, for indeed You are the Oft-Relenting, the Most Merciful!" (Baqarah / 128)

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) — Ahmad narrates this in the book Musnad, the twenty-fourth hadith: After the revelation of the verse إِذا جاءَ نَصْرُ اللهِ وَ الْفَتْحُ [When the help of Allah and the victory comes], which was after the return from the Battle of Hunayn, the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) would frequently say "Subhan Allah" (Glory be to Allah) and "Astaghfir Allah" (I seek forgiveness from Allah), and he said: "O Ali (peace be upon him)! That which was promised to me has come, and people are entering the religion of Allah in throngs. No one is more deserving of my station than you; for you accepted Islam before all others, you are my kinsman and son-in-law, and the mistress of the women of the worlds is your wife. Before this, when the Quran was being revealed, Abu Talib (may Allah have mercy on him) passed the test well and exerted great effort, and I am eager to repay that in regard to his son."

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): Whoever recites Surah إِذا جاءَ نَصْرُ اللهِ وَ الْفَتْحُ [When there comes the help of Allah and the victory] in a recommended or obligatory prayer, Allah will give him victory over all his enemies, and on the Day of Resurrection He will raise him with a clear and eloquent decree which Allah has brought out from within his grave, and in it (the decree) is a document of safety [for him, so that without fear he may] pass over the bridge stretched over Hell, and [no harm from] the Fire and the roaring of Hell [will reach him], and on that Day he will not pass by anything except that it gives him glad tidings and informs him of the good things before him, until he enters Paradise; and in this world, so many doors of good will be opened to him that he never wished for nor ever imagined.

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): Whoever recites this Surah is given a reward like the reward of one who was present with the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) on the day of the conquest of Mecca; and whoever recites it in a prayer and recites it after al-Hamd in his prayer, his prayer is accepted from him in the finest manner of acceptance.