Surah Al Fath Tafseer

And He it is Who has withheld their hands from you and your hands from them in the midst of Makkah, after He had made you victors over them. And Allah is Ever the All-Seer of what you do.

Allah the Exalted reminds His faithful servants of His favor when He restrained the hands of the idolators, and thereby, no harm touched the Muslims from the idolators. Allah restrained the hands of the believers and they did not fight the idolaters near Al-Masjid Al-Haram. Rather, Allah saved both parties from battle and brought forth a peace treaty that produced good results for the believers, in addition to, earning them the good end in this life and the Hereafter.

We stated a Hadith from Salamah bin Al-Akwa` in which he narrated that when the Muslims brought forth those seventy idolator prisoners, they tied and paraded them before the Messenger of Allah, who looked at them and said,

أَرْسِلُوهُمْ يَكُنْ لَهُمْ بَدْءُ الْفُجُورِ وَثِنَاه

Release them, so that they earn the burden of starting hostilities and its infamy.

Thereafter, Allah the Exalted and Most Honored sent down this Ayah about that incident,

وَهُوَ الَّذِي كَفَّ أَيْدِيَهُمْ عَنكُمْ وَأَيْدِيَكُمْ عَنْهُم

(And He it is Who has withheld their hands from you and your hands from them...).

Imam Ahmad recorded that Anas bin Malik said,

"On the day of Hudaybiyyah, eighty armed men from Makkah went down the valley coming from Mount At-Tan`im to ambush the Messenger of Allah. The Messenger invoked Allah against them, and they were taken prisoners."

Affan added,

"The Messenger pardoned them, and this Ayah was later on revealed,

وَهُوَ الَّذِي كَفَّ أَيْدِيَهُمْ عَنكُمْ وَأَيْدِيَكُمْ عَنْهُم بِبَطْنِ مَكَّةَ مِن بَعْدِ أَنْ أَظْفَرَكُمْ عَلَيْهِمْ

(And He it is Who has withheld their hands from you and your hands from them in the midst of Makkah, after He had made you victors over them)."

Muslim, Abu Dawud in his Sunan and At-Tirmidhi and An-Nasa'i, in the Tafsir section of their Sunan, collected this Hadith