Sūrat al-Naṣr: Not Good News That Brings Rest, but a Greater Charge

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 18 June 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

O Allah, set right for us our religion, our worldly life, and our Hereafter; grant us right guidance in our affairs; bless us in what You have provided us; protect us from the punishment of the Fire, and turn away from us the causes of punishment in this world and the next, through a mercy from You, Your good pleasure, and Your generosity. And I ask Allah to accept from us and from you these steps, to bless our striving as long as we live, to make us among those who race ahead to what pleases Him, and to let us meet Him in Islam, with sound souls, tranquil hearts, and intelligent minds.

Does the Effort Grow or Shrink?

In Sūrat al-Naṣr: ﴿إِذَا جَاءَ نَصْرُ اللَّهِ وَالْفَتْحُ وَرَأَيْتَ النَّاسَ يَدْخُلُونَ فِي دِينِ اللَّهِ أَفْوَاجًا فَسَبِّحْ بِحَمْدِ رَبِّكَ وَاسْتَغْفِرْهُ إِنَّهُ كَانَ تَوَّابًا﴾ (“When the victory of Allah comes and the conquest, and you see the people entering the religion of Allah in multitudes, then glorify with the praise of your Lord and ask His forgiveness. Indeed, He is ever Accepting of repentance”)^[3].

If one of us had a small project and it grew, would greater effort be asked of him, or less? What do you think? Or has the work not yet begun after Fajr, and the people not yet gone to work? We open a new branch, bring in a new accountant and more supervisors, and begin working under a new system at the franchise level, for we have grown somewhat. But the Qur'anic text says to the Prophet ﷺ: when the victory of Allah comes, and the conquest, and you see people entering the religion of Allah in crowds, is this a greater responsibility or a lesser one? And what is required? What should I do? ﴿فَسَبِّحْ بِحَمْدِ رَبِّكَ وَاسْتَغْفِرْهُ﴾ (“So glorify with the praise of your Lord and ask His forgiveness”).

And From What Do We Seek Forgiveness?

If you put the context together: first, glorify your Lord with praise, and this we understand. But seek forgiveness from what? These are delegations that entered Islam, and this is a great blessing, and we are asking Allah for reward for it! Yet the verse comes contrary to what people suppose: ﴿وَاسْتَغْفِرْهُ﴾ (“and ask His forgiveness”), from what?

The concept we always repeat is that in the course of an act of obedience some kind of shortcoming may come from us, which is harsher on us than another person's disobedience. Imagine when they say: "The good deeds of the righteous are the misdeeds of those brought near"^[1]. Have you understood the phrase? If someone said: By Allah, I performed the ʿAṣr prayer, is this obedience or disobedience? A good deed, correct?

The point: if someone prayed ʿAṣr, that adds to the scale of his good deeds. But suppose he prayed a few minutes after the adhān; he delayed the prayer a little because he was working, so he prayed it after finishing his work, and prayed it alone. As for this prayer at its proper time, if another person among those brought near, one of higher standing before Allah, glorified is He, were to perform it, that timing would be counted as a shortcoming by him; for he establishes the prayer at its time, and sets out well before the adhān in order to be among the people, to witness the adhān in the mosque, to supplicate to Allah between the adhān and the iqāmah, to be among the worshippers when the prayer is called, and to say "Āmīn" with the imam. And so with any prayer: ʿAṣr, Maghrib, or ʿIshāʾ, aloud or silent. So some acts of obedience that some of us perform may be a kind of shortcoming in the eyes of another. Have we understood the equation?

The Reality of Glorification

So I am before the saying of Allah, blessed and exalted: ﴿فَسَبِّحْ بِحَمْدِ رَبِّكَ﴾ (“So glorify with the praise of your Lord”). Glorification, in its outward form before people, is merely a movement of the tongue, with which the mouth moves in saying "Glory to my Lord, the Most Great." But the real significance of glorification appears when you read ﴿سَبِّحِ اسْمَ رَبِّكَ الْأَعْلَى الَّذِي خَلَقَ﴾ (“Glorify the name of your Lord, the Most High, who created”): glorify Him with what? With what He created! And what has Allah created? Did He create my tongue only? No, He created the tongue, so glorify with it; He created the mind, so glorify with it; He created the hand, so glorify with it; and He created the foot, and He created the body. So glorify with mind, heart, conscience, hand, and foot; glorify with everything you possess, so that no kind of disobedience comes from you, because disobedience issues from the body, and the body has resolved not to disobey Allah, glorified is He.

﴿وَاسْتَغْفِرْهُ﴾ (“and ask His forgiveness”): seeking forgiveness is only for a disobedience or a misdeed, and the kind of shortcoming that comes from us is our misdeeds. So we are not moving to the other side to think of a real misdeed according to people's conceptions, but rather we think of what falls short of the most perfect, in which we did not reach the best and most excellent in performance, and that is counted, for us, as a misdeed. Imagine the level of human perfection that the Lord of the worlds, glorified is He, desires for the Muslim in his life, when He addresses the Prophet ﷺ with such words!

On the Composition of the Qur'an

Let us return once more to the Qur'anic composition: the sūrah ﴿إِذَا جَاءَ﴾ (“When there comes”) came only after this great separation between you and every disbeliever and between you and all disbelief: ﴿لَكُمْ دِينُكُمْ وَلِيَ دِينِ﴾ (“For you is your religion, and for me is my religion”). Only then is ﴿إِذَا جَاءَ نَصْرُ اللَّهِ وَالْفَتْحُ﴾ (“When the victory of Allah comes and the conquest”) realized.

And forgive me this unnecessary supposition, but we are speaking among ourselves after Fajr: is this sūrah not the most fitting to be the last sūrah of the Qur'an? ﴿إِذَا جَاءَ نَصْرُ اللَّهِ وَالْفَتْحُ وَرَأَيْتَ النَّاسَ يَدْخُلُونَ فِي دِينِ اللَّهِ أَفْوَاجًا فَسَبِّحْ بِحَمْدِ رَبِّكَ وَاسْتَغْفِرْهُ إِنَّهُ﴾ (“When the victory of Allah comes and the conquest, and you see the people entering the religion of Allah in multitudes, then glorify with the praise of your Lord and ask His forgiveness. Indeed, He”), would it not have been fitting as the conclusion of the Noble Qur'an? We began with all these stages, the call and persuasion of non-Muslims, the kinds of striving, and our commanding people to obedience, and then we conclude that the complete good news has come: ﴿إِذَا جَاءَ نَصْرُ اللَّهِ وَالْفَتْحُ وَرَأَيْتَ النَّاسَ يَدْخُلُونَ﴾ (“When the victory of Allah comes and the conquest, and you see the people entering”), praise be to Allah, done, we have delivered the message. Is it not more fitting that it come at the end of the Qur'an?

But my Lord, glorified is He, shows me that this does happen, yet even after it happens you will find the likes of Abū Lahab (Sūrat al-Masad), so you must cling to ﴿اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ﴾ (“Allah is One”), the One, the Eternal Refuge, ﴿لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ﴾ (“He neither begets nor is born”), and you will remain in need of the help of Allah, exalted is He, in your external protection: ﴿أَعُوذُ بِرَبِّ الْفَلَقِ مِن شَرِّ مَا خَلَقَ وَمِن شَرِّ غَاسِقٍ﴾ (“I seek refuge in the Lord of the daybreak, from the evil of what He has created, and from the evil of darkness”), and this is harm that comes from outside, ﴿وَمِن شَرِّ النَّفَّاثَاتِ﴾ (“and from the evil of the blowers in knots”), ﴿وَمِن شَرِّ حَاسِدٍ﴾ (“and from the evil of an envier”). And you also seek refuge in Him and ask for His protection from within, from the one who whispers in the breasts of people. So the victory that is achieved does not mean the work falls silent, but that it continues.

Glorification Is the Driver of Work

And work does not come from the servant while he is empty of glorification; glorification is the servant's first driving force to complete the course of his work and to move in life striving. Were it not for certainty in what is with Allah, blessed and exalted, and for remembering Him, the Mighty and Majestic, you would not have moved for the Fajr prayer, nor come here, nor brought out your wealth, which you toiled to earn, for the sake of charity, or for someone seeking to build a mosque, feed the poor, or protect something. Were it not for certainty in Allah and the glorification of the Lord of the worlds, there would be none of this effort you expend in raising your children, tending to them, preserving them and the soundness of their religion; indeed you weep for your grandchildren who will come after us, fearing that desires may turn them astray or that life may overwhelm them. Glorification is the mainstay of faith, and it is the safety valve of that certainty in the Lord of the worlds, glorified is He.

"Fa-dhakkir": Be the Model

And in Sūrat al-Aʿlā our Lord says: ﴿سَبِّحِ اسْمَ رَبِّكَ الْأَعْلَى الَّذِي خَلَقَ فَسَوَّىٰ وَالَّذِي قَدَّرَ فَهَدَىٰ وَالَّذِي أَخْرَجَ الْمَرْعَىٰ فَجَعَلَهُ غُثَاءً أَحْوَىٰ سَنُقْرِئُكَ فَلَا تَنسَىٰ﴾ (“Glorify the name of your Lord, the Most High, who created and proportioned, and who determined and guided, and who brought out the pasture, and made it dark stubble. We will make you recite, so you will not forget”). So what comes after that? Is there some command required after that? ﴿فَذَكِّرْ﴾ (“So remind”)! That is: do not forget the mission, ﴿فَذَكِّرْ﴾ (“So remind”). So glorification at the start was a help to the servant in reminding others.

And reminding here, if we widen the frame of discussion, is not by mere speech, otherwise hundreds of thousands and millions of tapes, videos, and podcasts all exist now and people are listening, and they are not in themselves a summons for people to good. Rather, the foundation of reminding people is that you be the model who moves about the earth with this Qur'an. Have we understood the matter?

A Greater Charge and Shame at Falling Short

So it is as though the Lord of the worlds, glorified is He, when He says ﴿إِذَا جَاءَ نَصْرُ اللَّهِ وَالْفَتْحُ﴾ (“When the victory of Allah comes and the conquest”), is not giving good news so much as granting a greater charge. And when He commands the Prophet ﷺ and the people after him to glorify and seek forgiveness, He is only commanding them to two things: more work, and shame before any kind of shortcoming that occurs along the course of the work.

I imagine myself: what will I bring on the Day of Resurrection? By Allah the Almighty, I am very ashamed before my Lord, glorified is He, to go to Him and have Him ask me: What did you do in the world? What did you accomplish? What did We make right? Am I here to raise my children around me, and to make my project somewhat bigger, and then fall on the road or on my bed or in my work, and leave all this money for others to take? And they quarrel: who inherits from whom?! What did I do? What did I accomplish in my life? With what conscience shall I meet Allah, blessed and exalted, on the Day of Resurrection when I stand and say: My Lord, I was a support for Your religion, a pillar for the message of Your Prophet, and a messenger for Your Messenger ﷺ?

The Farewell of the Prophet ﷺ

The sūrah stirs many sorrows in the soul, when we see the noble Companion say: I see in it the farewell of the Prophet ﷺ; I see it as announcing the death of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ^[2]. For the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was given such good news only toward the end of his life: ﴿فَسَبِّحْ بِحَمْدِ رَبِّكَ وَاسْتَغْفِرْهُ﴾ (“So glorify with the praise of your Lord and ask His forgiveness”). If we take the verse as mere glorification and seeking forgiveness, then we take it according to the station itself: that it comes to us at the end of life. So whoever among us has an achievement like what the Messenger of Allah ﷺ expended, in what we emulate of his in calling to Allah, movement, and work, let him receive it as mere verbal glorification. But whoever applies glorification according to its real requirement, in its dimensions in the Noble Qur'an, that is a matter requiring more, doubled effort.

By Allah, other than whom there is no god, the lifespan of any one of us, eighty years or ninety or sixty or whatever it may be, by Allah, other than whom there is no god, does not suffice to fulfill a tenth of a tenth of a tenth of what is due to Allah, blessed and exalted, from him in this life, and the right of Islam and the right of the religion over us. We must do something.

I ask Allah, blessed and exalted, to grant us a sincerity with which to meet Him on the Day of Resurrection, to grant us honesty of vision about what we seek in our lives, to purify our intentions for Him, the Mighty and Majestic, alone, and that we associate no one and nothing with Him. O Allah, Āmīn.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: A well-known saying circulated among the people of knowledge and spiritual discipline; it is not a Prophetic ḥadīth. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: It is reported in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī from Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them both) that the sūrah was the appointed term of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, of which Allah informed him; the speaker did not name the Companion. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: [al-Naṣr: 1–3], [al-Aʿlā: 1–2], [al-Kāfirūn: 6], [al-Aʿlā: 1–6]; and Sūrahs al-Ikhlāṣ, al-Falaq, al-Nās, and al-Masad are cited by allusion.