(Revealed after Hijrah)
According to consensus of scholarly opinion the Surah was revealed when, after signing the Treaty of Hudaibiyah, the Holy Prophet was on his way back to Medina, in the 6th year of Hijrah in the month of Dhul-Qa‘dah (Bukhari). The Treaty being an epoch-making event, all incidents connected with it have been carefully preserved in Islamic history. So, complete agreement exists concerning the date and place of the revelation of this Surah. It bears the title Al-Fath (The Victory). The title is appropriate in that a seemingly diplomatic defeat eventually proved to be a master-stroke of strategy on the part of the Holy Prophet and led to the Fall of Mecca, and consequently to the conquest of the whole of Arabia. Towards the close of the preceding Surah, believers were given definite promise of victory over their opponents. The present Surah declares in clear and unequivocal terms that the promised victory is not a thing of some indefinite distant future, but is quite near. It is so near that it may be said to have actually arrived; and it will be so decisive and overwhelming that even the most sceptic person will find it hard to deny it.
The Surah opens with a firm declaration that the promised victory has actually arrived and that it would be clear, definite, and overwhelming. The Holy Prophet is further told that as a result of it people will join the fold of Islam in such large numbers that it would prove a formidable task for him adequately to train and educate the new converts into the tenets and principles of the Faith. He should, therefore, implore God’s help in the discharge of his onerous duty, and ask for His forgiveness and mercy lest, due to human limitations, some defects should remain in its full execution. The Surah proceeds to say that because of lack of proper realization of the full import of the Treaty the believers were downcast, God would send down solace and tranquillity on them and their faith would increase, while the false satisfaction and delight of disbelievers would prove to be short-lived. The believers are further told that they should not have doubted the wisdom of the Holy Prophet’s action in signing the Treaty since he was God’s Messenger and all his actions were done under Divine direction and guidance. Their duty was 'to believe in him, help him, and honour him.' The Surah further says that believers earned the pleasure of God when they swore allegiance to the Holy Prophet under 'The Tree' that they would stand by him through thick and thin, even unto death. It was God’s own plan that fighting did not take place at that time because in Mecca there lived some true and sincere Muslims whom believers did not know and who would have unwittingly been killed, if fighting had taken place. Next, the Hypocrites and those, who lagged behind, receive a severe rebuke and their hypocrisy is exposed. Whenever they are invited to fight in the cause of God, the Surah says, they invent false excuses to justify their staying behind, but by their foolish subterfuges and false excuses they deceive no one but themselves. Towards its close, the Surah reverts to the subject that not only would the Treaty of Hudaibiyah prove to be a great victory but that other victories would follow in its wake, and the neighbouring countries would fall to the victorious arms of Muslims.