Surah nasr

1) When Allah’s help and victory arrive, 2) and you see people embracing Allah’s religion in crowds, 3) then glorify your Lord, all the while praising Him, and ask His forgiveness. He is the Ever-Returning.

This noble chapter bears glad-tidings for the Messenger of Allah and a command when he sees their fruition; it also contains an indication of what follows next from these glad-tidings.^[1] The glad-tidings are tidings of Allah’s aiding His Messenger, the conquest of Mecca and people embracing true faith in crowds, “When Allah’s help and victory arrive and you see people embracing Allah’s religion in crowds," many of whom will be from his tribe and family after having been his antagonists. This occurred.
The command is to show gratitude to his Lord, "then glorify your Lord, all the while praising Him, and ask His forgiveness."
The indication of what will follow on from this is two-fold: the first is that victory will remain for the religion and it will increase with the Messenger of Allah glorifying and praising Allah and asking His forgiveness. This is an expression of gratitude about which Allah says, “If you are grateful, I will grant you increase.”^[2] This fact was also actualised in the time of the Rightly Guided Khalifs and after them. This aid remained until Islam spread to an extent that no other religion had spread, and nations and people embraced the religion as had not been done for any other religion. Then, this nation began to oppose the command of Allah and they were tried with splitting and discord; then what followed followed. Yet, despite this, Allah still shows this nation and religion mercy and kindness the extent of which does not even cross the mind!
The second is that the Messenger of Allah was soon to pass away. This is because his life is a noble life which Allah Himself took an oath by. It is known in Islam that noble matters are completed by asking Allah’s forgiveness as we see in the case of prayer and Hajj for example. Allah’s ordering the Prophet (SAW) to praise Him and ask forgiveness while in this state indicates that his time has come and that he should now prepare himself for the meeting with his Lord and that he should end his life with one of the best deeds. May Allah shower abundant peace and blessings upon him!
He would frequently implement this verse of the Qur’an in his ruku` and sujud by saying, “Glory be to Allah, our Lord, and all praise; O Allah forgive me!”

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