Surah Al-Fath: Thematic English Translation (Mustafa Çevik)

O Prophet! We have opened for you the way to a great conquest. As in the past, so today and in the future, Allah will support you with His help. In the face of the strength that will emerge, those who associate partners with Allah and deny the truth will no longer be able to accuse you with slanders such as lying, madness, sorcery, and mischief-making. At the same time Allah will complete the rulings of the religion of Islam He sent with you, forgive your past sins, and open the gates of victory.

So that the believers’ faith might grow still stronger and their trust in the Prophet continue, Allah has granted calm and inspiration to their hearts. All the armies of the heavens and the earth belong to Allah and move at His command. Allah’s knowledge is boundless, and in His every ruling there is absolute rightness and wisdom.

Allah will settle the believing men and women who do their utmost to live by the order of life that is His call in Gardens through which rivers flow, where they will remain forever. This is the greatest gain and happiness.

Allah has cursed the men and women who associate partners with Him, who deny the truth, and the hypocrites, who think ill of Him. Because of these thoughts of theirs He will punish them in Hell with the punishment they deserve. What an evil place that is!

The armies of the heavens and the earth belong to Allah and move at His command. Of course Allah has power to send them against the deniers and the hypocrites. (Allah wishes to punish them by your hands and so reward you with Paradise. As for the others, their destination in the Hereafter will be Hell.)

O Prophet! We have appointed you too as a witness and an exemplary practitioner who counsels and warns people. Give those who follow Our call the good news of Paradise, and warn those who turn away and persist in ingratitude of Hell, so that they cannot say, “The call never reached us; we knew nothing of the truths.”

So, O people! Believe in the call the Prophet makes through the Quran in Allah’s name, turn to living it and fulfilling what it requires, and so show your reverence for Allah and never let His greatness slip from your minds, morning and evening.

O Prophet! Those who pledge allegiance to you, taking your hand in theirs and giving their word of loyalty that they will take Allah alone as God and obey you, have in truth pledged allegiance to Allah. Allah’s hand is over their hands. Whoever breaks his word acts against himself and wrongs himself. And whoever keeps the word he gave Allah and fulfills his responsibilities, for him there is a great reward.

O Prophet! The Bedouin who, thinking it would be dangerous for them, held back in fear and did not set out on the campaign with you will say to you when you return from the campaign, “Our property, our work, and our families kept us from coming with you, so ask Allah to forgive us.” In truth they are saying with their tongues what is not in their hearts. Say to them: “If Allah wills to do you some harm, who can stand in His way? Surely no one can. Allah knows what is in your hearts, what you do, and what you fail to do when you should. In fact you thought that the Prophet and the believers who set out on the campaign with him would never return safe and sound to their families, and this thought pleased your hearts. Because of this attitude you have become among those who deserve to be punished.”

Let those who do not trust Allah and His Prophet and do not respond to His call know well that a raging, blazing fire has been prepared for them in Hell.

Sovereignty over the heavens and the earth belongs to Allah. (Dominion is His.) He forgives whom He deems worthy and punishes whoever deserves it. He is merciful and forgiving. The Bedouin who did not join the campaign on which you set out to fight because of their cowardice will say to you, regarding a campaign in which they sense you will win victory and spoils, “Give us leave, so that we too may join this campaign.” To these and others like them who, without a lawful excuse, did not join the battle and later wish to join an easily won battle, say: “You will never come with us, for Allah has made known His ruling concerning such attitudes of people like you.” At this they will say, “No, Allah made known no such ruling. You say this because you begrudge us the spoils out of envy,” and so they seek to change Allah’s word. Alas, they want to understand the truth in whatever way suits them.

O Prophet! Say to them: “Soon you will be called to fight against a very strong, aggressive people; if you dare to fight them until death, or until they surrender, and join us, Allah will give you a fine recompense and reward you. But if, as you did before, you hold back from this call too and invent baseless excuses, Allah will deprive you of what you hope for and punish you with a severe punishment.”

There is no responsibility on those who cannot see, those who cannot walk, and the sick for being unable to join the battle. Whoever responds to the call of Allah and His Messenger and strives (jihad) against the aggressors who associate partners with Allah and deny the truth, Allah will settle in Gardens through which rivers flow. And whoever turns away from this call and keeps far from it will be struck with a great punishment.

O My Messenger! Allah was well pleased with the believers who pledged allegiance and gave you their word beneath that tree to follow you; knowing their sincerity, He brought their hearts to peace and calm, and moreover He will reward them with a victory soon to come and grant them much spoil. Allah is the Possessor of supreme power and judgment. He has power over everything.

O you who believe! Allah promises you many victories and spoils in the future too. Moreover, so that you might grow stronger still, He has held your enemies’ hands back from you and gained you time. These are among the proofs of Allah’s promise of help to the believers. Allah is the helper and protector of those who strive heart and soul for His call.

He will also graciously bestow on you many more victories and spoils, known to Allah, which you have not yet been able to gain today. Allah has power to do everything He wills.

O you who believe! If those who associate partners with Allah and deny the truth meet you in battle, they will suffer defeat and be forced to turn their backs and flee. What is more, they will find neither friend nor helper. But Allah is the helper of the believers, and this is the law Allah has applied from of old in supporting and helping the believers. You will never find any change in Allah’s law.

O you who believe! It is Allah who, after giving you the upper hand over some of your enemies without fighting, held their hands back from you and your hands back from them. Allah has power over everything, and He sees and knows what you do.

In fact, those who associated partners with Allah and denied the truth, who prevented you from visiting the Masjid al-Haram and sacrificing your animals there, had deserved to be fought and punished; but you might have trampled believing men and women in Mecca whom you did not know, and so made a grave mistake and taken on a burden of guilt. That is why Allah did not permit you to enter the city by fighting, and prevented it. Allah ordained it so to protect His believing servants. Had those believers been singled out and separated from them, Allah would have punished those who associate partners with Him and deny the truth by your hands, and made them suffer a painful punishment.

The stubborn ingrates who refuse to live by the order of life that is the reason for their creation have planted in their hearts the arrogance and insolence of the Age of Ignorance and conditioned themselves to it. But Allah granted peace and calm, as a divine gift, to the hearts of His messenger and of the believers, and strengthened their sense of responsibility toward Allah. For they were worthy of it.

Allah knows best who is worthy of what.

Allah will fulfill His messenger’s dream, and when the day comes you will, by Allah’s leave, enter in safety the Masjid al-Haram you long for so much, some of you with heads shaved and some with hair cut short, and visit the Kaaba. Allah knows best its time too. He knows what you do not know. Before this visit Allah will soon grant you another victory as well.

It is Allah who has sent the prophets and their Books as a guide, so that they may show the superiority of Islam, the true religion, over other religions (orders). And He suffices as witness to this.

Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. And the believers who believe in and hold fast to the call he makes in Allah’s name are uncompromising, heads held high, resolute, and strong against those who associate partners with Allah and deny the truth. Among themselves these believers are most compassionate, merciful, and humble toward one another. You always see them bowing and prostrating before Allah’s commands alone and performing their prayers. Their sole aim is to win His good pleasure by striving to live by the order of life that is the reason for their creation. You recognize them by the peace, happiness, honor, and strong bearing in their faces that prostrating to Allah alone gives.

The description of those believers in the Torah and the Gospel is this: they are like a seed that puts forth a shoot. Allah brings out that shoot and strengthens it, and the shoot stands upright on its stem in a way that delights the one who grows it. In just this way Allah makes the believers strong, firm, honorable, and fine.

Allah condemns those who are hostile to the believers to their rage, rancor, and envy. Allah will treat those who turn to His call and fulfill their responsibilities with His mercy and compassion and forgive them.