Sura-48 [Al Fath madina 111]
The Quranic Text & Ali’s version:
إِنَّا
فَتَحْنَا لَكَ
فَتْحًا
مُّبِينًا ﴿١﴾
48:1. Verily We have granted thee a manifest Victory:
C4866. This is best referred to the Treaty of Hudaybiyah, for which see the Introduction to this Surah. By this Treaty the Makkan Quraish, after many years of unrelenting conflict with Islam, at length recognised Islam as (what they thought) an equal power with themselves.
In reality the door was then opened for the free spread of Islam throughout Arabia and thence through the world.
لِيَغْفِرَ
لَكَ اللَّهُ
مَا
تَقَدَّمَ مِن
ذَنبِكَ وَمَا
تَأَخَّرَ...
48:2. That Allah may forgive thee thy faults of the past and those to follow;
C4867. See n. 4428 to 40:55, and Cf. 47:19.
Any mistakes of the past were now rectified, and any future ones prevented by the free scope now offered, by the act of the Quraish Pagans themselves, to the recognition and free promulgation of Islam.
... وَيُتِمَّ نِعْمَتَهُ عَلَيْكَ وَيَهْدِيَكَ صِرَاطًا مُّسْتَقِيمًا ﴿٢﴾
fulfil His favor to thee; and guide thee on the Straight Way;
وَيَنصُرَكَ
اللَّهُ نَصْرًا
عَزِيزًا
﴿٣﴾
48:3. And that Allah may help thee with powerful help.
C4868. Three objects or results of the Treaty are mentioned:
forgiveness, which is equivalent to Mercy,
fulfilment of the dignity of Prophethood with the dignity of an effective and recognised position in Arabia;
opening up a straight way leading to Islam, by access to Makkah from next year, Makkah being the symbolic centre of Islam.
These three are summed up in the comprehensive phrase "powerful (or effective) help".
Asad’s Version:
In The Name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace:
48:1 VERILY, [O Muhammad,] We have laid open before thee a manifest victory,'
(48:2) so that God might show His forgiveness of all thy faults, past as well as future, 2 and [thus] bestow upon thee the full measure of His blessings, and guide thee on a straight way, 3
(48:3) and [show] that God will succour thee with [His] mighty succour.
[[ Asad’s notes - 1 Namely, the moral victory achieved by the Truce of Hudaybiyyah, which opened the doors to the subsequent triumph of Islam in Arabia (see introductory note, which explains many allusions to this historic event found in the subsequent verses).
2 Lit., "so that God might forgive thee all that is past of thy sins and all that is yet to come" - thus indicating elliptically that freedom from faults is an exclusive prerogative of God, and that every human being, however exalted, is bound to err on occasion.
3 Sc, "to a fulfilment of thy mission", which the Truce of Hudaybiyyah clearly presaged. ]]