What is Victory

Quickly catch them and kill them. Kill all of them. Before they get close to Makkah. But Rasul (صلى الله عليه وسلم) found out because he had sent some scouts. He found out that Khalid is coming this way. So the Muslims went the other way. And they ended up in the place called Hudaybiyyah.

The Political Dilemma of Makkah

Let me tell you why the Quraysh didn't want them to get close. The Quraysh, what did they have all around the Ka'bah? Idols. And each of these idols is from a different tribe. Some idols are for the people of Ta'if. Some idols for the people of somewhere else. Different tribes. All of their idols are sitting in Makkah.

And why does everybody respect Makkah? Why does everybody respect the Quraysh? Because they hold the idols. And also because they take care of people who come and give, and do the tawaf and do the hajj. And why do they have respect? Because if somebody comes unarmed to Makkah to do hajj, even if it's a hajj of shirk, even if they come for that, then the Meccans will take care of them. And that is the only reason all of Arabia respects Makkah.

So if the Muslims are coming for hajj, and they are unarmed, and the Quraysh attack them, then they will lose the respect of all of the Arabs. And all of the Arabs are already angry with Makkah, because Makkah told them to leave their homes, and come out and kill all the Muslims. But did they get to kill the Muslims? No. And is it cheap to gather an army or expensive? It's very expensive.

So all the tribes spent a lot of money to come and try to attack the Muslims, but that failed. And now they've all gone back, and are they ready to listen to Makkah again, to Quraysh again? No, like you wasted our time and money. We went out there for nothing. We're not listening to you people again.

The Oath Under the Tree

The Muslims stop at Hudaybiyyah. Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) sends somebody inside. He sent Uthman (رضي الله عنه) inside as an ambassador. We're coming to make hajj, we're not gonna fight. We're just coming to make hajj.

But they arrest Uthman. They're panicking, they don't know what to do. And they arrest him, and the rumor spreads that they killed him. The rumor spread that the Quraysh have killed Uthman (رضي الله عنه)

So these Muslims are in Hudaybiyyah, and they get the news, they get the rumor, that Uthman has been killed. But the truth of it is, Uthman has not been killed, he has only been arrested. But when the Prophet hears that Uthman has been killed (رضي الله عنه), he gets very upset. And he gathers all of the Muslims, and he asks them to take an oath of allegiance, under a tree.

He calls them and says, you have to pledge to me, that we will take revenge for the murder of Uthman. We're going to go into Makkah, and we're going to take revenge for what they did to Uthman. Now he's going to take this oath from the people who came for war, or came for Hajj. So do they have weapons or no? No, they only have the knife, the small knife that they use to slaughter the animal. That's all they got.

They have no shields, they have no bow and arrow, they have no spears, and they're going to go inside the most heavily armed weapons depot city in all of Arabia, and that is Makkah. They're going to go inside Makkah, to take revenge for Uthman. Do the Muslims agree? They agree. All the Muslims who agree, they also know, what are the chances? Are we going to win or are we going to get killed? So we're ready to be killed. We're ready to die.

The Treaty of Hudaybiyyah

Now the Muslims are ready to go kill. And when the Quraish find out the Muslims are ready to go into war, they say, No, no, no, no, we didn't kill Uthman. We just arrested him. You can have him back. Take him back, take him back. Calm down.

Now the Muslims were already ready to fight, but then they calmed down. Then they said, Okay, let us come make hajj. No, no, no, you can't make hajj. You can't make hajj. Let's make a treaty. It's called the treaty of Hudaybiyah. Sulh Hudaybiyah. Let's make a treaty.

And if you know anything about this treaty, you know that all of the terms in this treaty go against the Muslims. Every one of them goes against the Muslims, and every one of them is in the favor of the Quraysh. So they give this treaty to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). This is the treaty. What do you say? And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) signs it.

And that means that you will not make hajj this year, you can come back next year. You don't make hajj this year, you can come back next year.

The Emotional Challenge

Now let me tell you something. If you paid for your hajj package, and you flew to Medina, and when you got to the airport in Medina, after a 14-hour flight, when you got to the passport office, the guy looks at you and says, come back next year. What are you gonna do? What are you talking about? You can't do that to me. I came for hajj. What do you mean go back?

Where did these people come from? They came from Medina. Muslims came from Medina. Did they fly over to Makkah? Or did they walk over to Makkah? They walked over to Makkah. Are they hoping to make hajj? Yes. And when they finally get there, Rasul (صلى الله عليه وسلم) says, he signs the paper and says, Okay, everyone, let's walk back to Medina.

The Test of Discipline

Now, I want you to understand human beings have emotions. We're all human beings. Sahaba are human beings too. Human beings have emotions. And it is very hard sometimes to control our emotions. And sometimes when our emotions get out of control, we become chaotic.

You know when a large group of people become very angry, they can be a riot. Because of their emotions, they can be chaos.

Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم),six months ago, along with all of the Muslims, almost got killed. Which emotion was there when we were almost killed? Fear. Extreme fear. Every man, woman, and child. That fear is described in Surah Al-Ahzab. We were in a state of fear.

Six months later, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) says, I have seen a dream. We're gonna go to Makkah. Now there's concern. Really? Are we gonna go to Makkah? Maybe even doubt. But no, he said it, we should go.

And now there may even be more fear. Because that time the murderers came to us, now we are going to the murderers. The killers came to us, now we're going to the killers. So there may even be more fear.

Then they finally make it to Hudaybiyah. When they get to Hudaybiyah, there is hope. Because now we cannot be attacked, so there is hope that we will do hajj.

Then the news comes that Uthman (رضي الله عنه) has been killed, and the Muslims are full of anger. Then they take an oath that we will take revenge, and they are full of courage and excitement. These people have gone through a lot of intense emotions.

Now Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) signs a treaty, and they feel like this treaty is intensely insulting. What? We don't get to make hajj? What? If one of us runs away from Makkah, we have to send him back to Makkah? What? We have to go back? We can't fight them? We were ready to just take revenge right now. And now we have to just go back home? Disappointment. Frustration. There are so many emotions in these people.

The Ultimate Test

If you have one young man who is very angry, extremely angry, is it easy to calm him down? No. It might take you 30 minutes before this young guy calms down. That is just one angry man. Are they in the thousands? If there are hundreds, if not thousands of angry men, is it easy to calm them down? No.

Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) turns to them, and he says, we're not going this year, let's go back. He said, I thought you saw a dream. We're gonna make hajj. And Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said, I never said this year.

What do you mean you never said this year? If it wasn't this year, why did we come here? But they didn't say anything. And Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said, everybody take your ihram off. Because once you

put the ihram on, you have made the intention for hajj. And Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said everybody take your ihram off.

They don't take it off. They don't take it off. Why not? One angry man's emotions are hard to control. A huge mob of angry men is impossible. It is impossible. You cannot control a mob. It's absolutely impossible.

Now Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) comes back into his tent, and he's shocked. Because this is the first time he has not heard:

This is the first time. And the mother of the believer sees him, and she says, don't worry, you just take yours off, they will calm down. So he takes his off. And then when he goes, and you shave your head, and he goes outside, and what do they start doing? They're angry, they're upset, but then: No, okay, fine. We'll just take it all off. We'll take the ihram off, we're going back home.

Allah's Perspective: The True Victory

Now, this was a pretty important incident. So Allah decided to describe this incident. Now I'm at my point. I painted a historical event for you so far. What happened in history? Now I want you to see how Allah describes this event. Not how I describe this event, not how you describe this event, not how the sahaba thought about this event, not even how Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) sees this event, but how Allah sees this event.

The ayah comes down to describe this entire story, and the ayah says:

No doubt about it. We have, we in fact, we have granted to you an unconditional, open, clear victory. You have been given a special favor of the most awesome victory of all time.

That is the Quran's description of what happened. This is actually the ultimate victory.

The Misconception About Victory

If you ask a Muslim child, what was the day of victory in Islam? In the seerah of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم? What is the day of victory? What are they gonna say? When Makkah was conquered. When Makkah was conquered was the day of victory.

إِنَّا فَتَحْنَا لَكَ فَتْحًا مُّبِينًا did not come down when Makkah was conquered. إِنَّا فَتَحْنَا لَكَ فَتْحًا مُّبِينًا came down when we didn't get to hajj. When we signed the treaty that was against us. When we were completely disappointed. Where is the victory? I don't see it. CNN won't see it. The historian won't see it. Even sahaba don't see it. Sahaba don't see it. How can you call this victory?

Oh, by the way Allah did not say إِنَّا فَتَحْنَا لَهُمْ فَتْحًا مُّبِينًا . Allah said إِنَّا فَتَحْنَا لَكَ فَتْحًا مُّبِينًا. According to Allah, the greatest victory of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). Because this is not a victory for the Muslims. This is not a victory for Islam. In the ayah this is a victory for Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم)

The Real Victory: Obedience Despite Emotions

The greatest victory in the seerah of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) are the sahaba who even when they have the most intense emotions they still obeyed Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم). That is the ultimate victory. This mob who was able to control their emotions because their emotions are very high but their loyalty to Allah's Messenger is even higher and out of that loyalty they can maintain their discipline there is never ever going to be a greater victory than this. Ever.

It's not Hudaybiyyah. It's the sahaba. It's the sahaba. People miss this point.

The Modern Application

Why am I telling you this? Because nowadays we make du'a for victory. We make du'a for victory. We see the Muslims in the difficult situations around the ummah and we make du'a that Allah gives them and gives us victory.

If we don't understand what victory means from the Qur'an then maybe we don't understand what we're asking for. The victory of conquering a land. The victory of removing the kuffar. The victory of seizing territory. You know what Allah calls that?

It's secondary. Allah calls the conquest of land secondary. Allah calls the conquest of the hearts of the believers primary. That's not my description. That is not a historian's description.

The Political Victory

Let me explain the secondary benefit of إِنَّا فَتَحْنَا لَكَ فَتْحًا مُّبِينًا. The treaty says that you are not going to fight with us and we are not going to fight with you. But if a Muslim runs away from Makkah, we'll send him back. Among other disadvantages to the Muslims.

Let me tell you about international politics. Major governments in the world say we do not negotiate with terrorists. If you negotiate with them, that means you have accepted that they are legitimate. Because you signed a paper with them, you shook a hand with them, you did a press release with them, you did a treaty with them, which means you think of them as a legitimate government.

And if a government thinks that the group, their enemy is small and they can crush them, they say, we don't need to make a treaty with these people, we can crush them. They are criminal, they are nothing.

But if a group becomes powerful, so powerful that you can't just crush them, then you become weak and you have to accept that we have to sign a treaty.

The political victory in this ayah is that for the first time, the Quraysh, who up until now considered the Muslims a cult, considered the Muslims traitors, you can call them a terrorist group in back then's language. But now they are signing a treaty with the Muslims. Which means the Quraysh have accepted the might and the muscle and the power of the Muslims and Allah made them accept the power of the Muslims even when the Muslims didn't have weapons in their hands.

They did not accept the might of the Muslims in Ahzab. They did not accept the might of the Muslims in Badr. Not in Uhud, not in Ahzab. But they accepted the power of the Muslims when Muslims came in Ihram.

I need you to understand that. Power is not about weapons. Power is not about weapons.

The Long-term Strategy

In this time, we have ten years of peace. Ten years of no fighting. Now think of it like this. I'll say that, we'll give the Quraysh purple. Purple was huge. And the Muslims' white was very little. It's very little. But especially during Ahzab, during the trench wars, all the tribes were against the Muslims. So the purple map was huge and the white map was very small.

Now this little tiny white map goes over to the Quraysh and they make them sign a treaty. Now the white has become a little bit bigger. And the rest of the huge purple map has become neutral. Why did they become neutral? Because they don't like Quraysh anymore.

So what did the Muslims do during the peace time? The Muslims go to every one of those tribes and say, hey, you want to stay neutral? Fine. But if you want to side with us, you can side with us too. Because we're big. We got muscle. Look at what we made the Quraysh do.

And so some tribes say, I'm scared of both of you guys. I don't want nothing. I want to be Switzerland. And some other tribes say, you know what? Sign me up. And guess what happens? It's supposed to be 10 years. It doesn't take 10 years. But in months, the map of the region, the white starts getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and bigger. And what's getting smaller? The purple is getting smaller.

The Final Resolution

And they're so squeezed, and they're scared. Because one of the items in the treaty is, if we fight or you fight, if any fighting happens, then the whole thing is cancelled.

So, the Quraysh ended up fighting by accident. They didn't mean to do it. They just ended up in a fight, and some Muslims got killed. Oh no. If the treaty is gone, then what will the Muslims do? Take over. And now that the white is huge, and the purple is tiny, they have no power left.

So Abu Sufyan who's not a Muslim, who's one of the great leaders of Quraysh, has to now come to Medina. He has to come to Medina. Imagine they used to consider them insects. They considered them nothing. Now they have to come to Medina, and he has to make a meeting with Rasulullah (صَلَّىٰ ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ)

So he goes to the house of Rasulullah (صَلَّىٰ ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ). And by the way, his daughter is married to Rasulullah (صَلَّىٰ ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ). So he goes into the house. He sees his daughter. He goes inside. He's about to sit down. She says, Dad, wait a second. And she rolls up the mat. Now you can sit on the floor. And he says, Excuse me. Am I too good for this mat? Or is this mat too good for me? She says, Well, actually that's Rasulullah (صَلَّىٰ ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ)'s mat. It's too good for you.

Now he's already been told. Well, what is he gonna negotiate now? His own daughter just kind of put him in his place. And you don't treat an ambassador like that. Imagine an ambassador comes to your government. It comes to the parliament house. And they say, You're about to sit on a chair. They move the chair. Please sit on the floor. That's insult, isn't it? That means this ambassador has no respect with us. You are nothing to us now. You used to think we are nothing. Now we think you are nothing.

So he has no room to negotiate. He's begging and pleading, Please don't attack us. Please, sorry. We made a mistake. I know the treaty is cancelled. But can you please renew the treaty? Please, please, please, please. And the Muslims say what? No.

And we go and we make hajj. And we make it peacefully. We don't take weapons. We just go make hajj. And we conquer Makkah without a single weapon. We just conquer Makkah.

But all of that happened the day the Muslims were frustrated. And they couldn't fight. And their anger was high. And they said, Come on, let's get to revenge for Uthman. And they said, Come on, let's just make hajj. Come on, we're right there with the enemy. Allah is with us. Let's just go fight them. Why are we accepting these insulting negotiations against the kuffar? We should take the kuffar on. Allah is with us. The angels are with us. Let's do this right now.

That is the time where Allah would calm them down. And they would listen to Rasulullah (صَلَّىٰ ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ). And they would learn to back off. Because just within that year, you won't have to pick up any arms. You're just gonna walk right in. And all of that began with the first domino that fell was Hudaibiyah, the treaty of Hudaibiyah.

And Allah sums all of that up with one ayah:

We have given you, clearly, for you we have given a special kind of victory. We have given a special kind of victory.

The Linguistic Emphasis

Wallahi, I tell you something. In Arabic إِنَّا فَتَحْنَا لَكَ فَتْحًا مُّبِينًا is expected. The جار مجرور is supposed to be at the end, in grammar. When you make it مقدم,it actually becomes مختص. Which means, especially for you, we have given a clear victory.

You know what that means? This is the last few comments I have for you. These are just, again, this is not the full lecture on this subject. These are just the thoughts I have thus far. InshaAllah ta'ala, may Allah allow me to complete this study and do something comprehensive. Because personally, I believe, Muslims need to understand surah al-Fath very, very clearly. Because this is the surah of victory. And I personally believe there's a lot of confusion among us what victory means.

The True Nature of Victory

How do countries win in wars? By bombing, by killing, by war, by overpowering the forces, by sending tanks into the city. Isn't that how they win wars? And even when they take over, if a military takes over a country, does that necessarily mean that the people that live inside that country have given up? Has it happened in the world today that there's a military from another country, it takes over, it's invaded, but the people have not accepted it? Does that happen?

So you cannot call that a clear victory. It's a military victory, but it's not a victory of the hearts of the people. It's not even a complete military victory. It's not a victory in every sense of the word. It's maybe just a victory against the army, but not a victory against the people. It's not in every sense of the word. So it's very difficult to say in wars, that a victory is absolutely clear.

In the Fath of Makkah, Allah says:

Not just Fathan. It's gonna be clear. The clearest victory in human history is the victory given to Rasulullah (صَلَّىٰ ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ). And that victory wasn't even the result of war. It wasn't even the result of war. It was the result of strategy. It was the result of patience. It was more important than anything else. It was the result of discipline. It was the result of discipline.

The Ultimate Victory: Discipline and Obedience

The Sahaba are the ultimate victory. Not because they go in the battlefield, because they obey the Messenger (صَلَّىٰ ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) unconditionally. When he tells them to put the ihram on, they put the ihram on. When he takes it off, they take it off. When they walk to Makkah, they walk to Makkah. When they have to walk back, they'll walk back. No complaints. No complaints.

We want victory. Allah is telling us the prerequisites. We have to have discipline. We have to have control over our emotions. We cannot be mobs, angry mobs that can't think clearly. We have to be people that understand the definition of victory from Allah's book. We have to become these thoughtful people.

The Current State of the Ummah

The ummah today, the last thing you find in us is discipline. It's so sad. The last thing you see in us is discipline. We don't even have discipline in the way we park our cars outside the masjid.

By the way, when salat begins, it's beautiful discipline. It's beautiful. You could be anywhere. Our kids could be going crazy. When qad qamatus salah, qad qamatus salah, we all line up perfectly. Isn't that the case? Everybody checks their feet. Everybody lines up perfectly. And as soon as salat is done, we go back to chaos again.

The salat five times a day, what does it teach us? Discipline. And actually it proves that Muslims are capable of amazing discipline. You cannot find any other religion that just a simple call is made. Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah. I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah.

And all the conversations will stop. All the cell phones will turn off. Everything will go dark. Everybody will stop playing. Everybody will stop sitting down. Everybody will stand up, perfectly line up like an army. Even though they don't know each other. They never trained together. They don't even know who the general is, who's leading the prayer. They don't know nothing. But they will line up immediately.

That is impossible anywhere else other than this religion. We are a people of discipline. But unfortunately outside of salah, what we learn in salah needs to now come outside of salah. We need to become disciplined people.

Conclusion: The Importance of Understanding the Quran

These are some thoughts that I wanted to share with you. Especially with the younger generation here. Just to illustrate that there is a lot to think about in Allah's book. There is a lot to reflect in this deen. A lot to understand, a lot to grasp.

And if we begin to become people who deeply truly understand the book of Allah, then we will be in a better position to act on the book of Allah. If you wanna act on the book of Allah, you first have to understand the book of Allah. If you don't have a good understanding, you're not gonna have a good action. You're not gonna have a good implementation of Allah's book.

And this book is not like a magazine. It's not like an article or a blog. You can't just read it just like this and I get it, I get it.

Don't they reflect deeply on the Qur'an. Every ayah you have to think about it. You have to ponder over it. You have to study it. You have to dive in like you're diving into an ocean. And then you will get the wisdom that you can act on. You can't just casually browse through it. It's not a casual read. You can't skim through the Qur'an to get its treasure.

We unfortunately today, we have a very shallow appreciation of the Qur'an. We have to change that in our culture. We have to become a culture of people that celebrate tadabbur in the Qur'an. Tafakkur in the Qur'an. Ta'allum of the Qur'an. Studying tafsir of the Qur'an in depth. Studying its language in depth. Understanding it and pondering over it and discussing it in depth. So that we can all act on it in the way that we're supposed to act on it.

Final Du'a

That is my dua for this ummah. May Allah Azza wa Jal really make us a people that are connected with His book the way we're supposed to be connected. That understand it in the most pure, the most refined way, in the way it was supposed to be understood. May Allah Azza wa Jal make us a people of the Qur'an that don't become lax in regards to it.

The month of the Qur'an is still fresh in our hearts. We just came out of Ramadan. But don't let it dry up so easily. Study Allah's book. Study Allah's book. You spend your nights discussing world politics and nothing has changed. How about you spend your nights memorizing a surah or two. How about you spend your nights studying the book of Allah a little bit more.

If the world won't change, at least you will change. At least you will change. And wallahi when you change, then the world changes. Until you don't change, the world will not change. The world will not change.

The sahaba were the ultimate change. They brought an amazing transformation within themselves by Allah's book. And because of the change inside of themselves, Allah gave victory in their hands. The victory of conquest was nothing. That was just nothing. That was insignificant.

This dunya was created for us. It's been made for us. We just have to prove to Allah that we are just for Him. When we prove to Allah that we are for Him, then He will hand dunya over. It's no big deal to Him. It's nothing to Him.

Subhanallah.