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[This is about the seven sorts of predictions about the Unseen at the end of Sura al-Fath.]

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

Truly did God fulfil the vision for His Messenger: You shall enter the Sacred Mosque, if God wills, with minds secure, heads shaved, hair cut short, and without fear. For He knew what you knew not, and He granted besides this, a victory soon to come. * It is He who sent His Messenger with guidance and the Religion of Truth, to proclaim it over all religion, and enough is God for a Witness. * Muhammad is the Messenger of God; and those who are with him are strong against unbelievers, [but] compassionate among each other. You will see them bow and prostrate themselves [in prayer], seeking grace from God and [His] good pleasure. On their faces are their marks, [being] the traces of their prostration. This is their similitude in the Torah; and their similitude in the Gospel is: like a seed which sends forth its blade, then makes it strong; it then becomes thick, and it stands on its own stem, [filling] the sowers with wonder and delight. As a result, it fills the unbelievers with rage at them. God has promised those among them who believe and do righteous deeds forgiveness, and a great reward.(48:27-9)

These three verses from Sura al-Fath contain many aspects of miraculousness. The Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition’s miraculousness has ten universal aspects; the aspect related to its giving news of the Unseen may be seen in seven or eight ways in these three verses.

THE FIRST

“Truly did God fulfil the vision for His Messenger” to the end of the verse, gave certain news of the conquest of Mecca before it happened. It occurred two years later just as predicted.(*)

THE SECOND

“And He granted besides this, a victory soon to come” is stating that although the Truce of Hudaybiya was apparently opposed to Islam’s interests and the Quraysh were victorious to an extent, in reality it was a great victory and the key to further conquests.

For with the Truce the physical sword was temporarily hung up, but the flashing diamond sword of the Qur’an was unsheathed, and it conquered minds and hearts. As a result of it, the two sides mixed with one another. The virtues of Islam and lights of the Qur’an rent the veils of obduracy and tribalism and prevailed.

For example, people like Khalid ibn al-Walid, a brilliant warrior, and ‘Amr ibn al-‘As, a brilliant politician, who could not accept defeat, were defeated by the Qur’anic sword manifested through the Truce of Hudaybiya.(*) They submitted in perfect obedience to Islam in Medina, and Khalid became a “Sword of Allah;” a sword in the conquests of Islam.

An Important Question: What was the reason the Companions of the Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace), the Glory of the World and Beloved of the Sustainer of All the Worlds, were defeated by the idolators at the end of Uhud and beginning of Hunayn?(*)

The Answer: Among the idolators were many persons like Khalid who in the future would be equal to the leading Companions of that time. Therefore, so as not to degrade them entirely in the view of the future, which for them would be glorious and honourable, divine wisdom gave them in the past immediate recompense for their future good works and did not completely destroy their pride.

That is to say, the Companions of the past were defeated by the Companions of the future, so that the future Companions would enter Islam, not through fear of the flashing sword but through zeal for the flash of truth, and so that they and their natural valour should not be brought low.

THE THIRD

The words, “and without fear” say this: “You shall circumambulate the Ka‘ba in complete safety.” However at that time the majority of the nomadic peoples of the Arabian Peninsula were hostile, and most of the environs of Mecca and the tribe of Quraysh, enemies. By predicting: “Soon you shall circumambulate the Ka‘ba without fear,” it was indicating and foretelling that the Arabian Peninsula would submit and all the Quraysh enter Islam and total security be established. And it all occurred exactly as predicted.(*)

THE FOURTH

“He it is who sent His Messenger with guidance and the Religion of Truth, to proclaim it over all religion”

predicts with complete certainty that the religion which the Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) brought would triumph over all religions. However at that time Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism had hundreds of millions of adherents and were the official religions of such world- dominant states as Rome, China, and Persia, which had hundreds of millions of subjects, and Muhammad the Arabian was unable to subdue his own small tribe even. Yet it is foretelling that the religion he brought would triumph over all religions and be victorious over all states. And it does this most clearly and categorically. The future confirmed this prediction, with the sword of Islam extending from the Pacific Ocean in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west.

THE FIFTH

“Muhammad is the Messenger of God, and those who are with him are strong against unbelievers, [but] compassionate among each other. You will see them bow and prostrate themselves.”

The beginning of this verse foretells explicitly the loft y qualities and virtues that made the Companions the most elevated of humankind after the prophets. And allusively it indicates the Rightly-Guided Caliphs, who would succeed to the Prophet’s (UWBP) position after his death through the institution of the Caliphate, and foretells the fine attributes(*) which were what most distinguished each of them and marked them out. It is as follows:

“And those who are with him” alludes to Abu Bakr the Veracious, who was distinguished by being among the Prophet’s (UWBP) special followers and party to his conversation, and again being included among his special followers by being the first to die.

While “are strong against the unbelievers” points to ‘Umar, who in the future would cause the countries of the globe to tremble at his conquests, and with his justice would descend on tyrants like a thunderbolt.

And “compassionate among each other” gives news of ‘Uthman, who in the future when the most serious dissension was being fomented, would sacrifice his own life and spirit out of his perfect compassion so that the blood of Muslims should not be spilt; he preferred to be martyred wrongfully while reading the Qur’an.

And “You will see them bow and prostrate themselves [in prayer], seeking grace from God and [His] good pleasure” tells that with his complete worthiness to undertake the Caliphate and government, and his heroism, and his choosing perfect asceticism, worship, poverty, and frugality, and whose bowing and prostrating in prayer was corroborated by everyone, ‘Ali (May God be pleased with him) was not responsible for his position in the future and the wars and strife in which he was involved, and that his intention and wish were for divine favour.

THE SIXTH

The phrase, “This is their similitude in the Torah” makes predictions concerning the Unseen in two respects:

The First:

It cites these qualities of the Companions that are mentioned in the Torah, which for an unlettered person like the Prophet (Upon whom be blessings and peace) belonged to the World of the Unseen. Yes, as described in the Nineteenth Letter, the Torah contains the following lines about the Companions of the Prophet who was to come at the end of time: “The banners of the holy ones are together with them.”(*) That is, his Companions would be pious worshippers and righteous saints, so that they were described as “the holy ones,” that is, “sacred.” The Torah has been corrupted through translation into numerous languages, yet with many of its verses it still corroborates the words of Sura al-Fath, “This is their similitude in the Torah.”

The Second aspect of it giving news of the Unseen is this:

with this phrase it is predicting that the Companions and the generation that followed them would achieve such a degree of worship that the luminosity of their spirits would shine in their faces, and that marks would be apparent on their foreheads, like a stamp of sainthood, caused by their repeated prostrations. And indeed the future proved this brilliantly, with complete clarity and certainty.

Many prominent persons caught up in that strange dissension and political upheaval demonstrated the mystery of “This is their similitude in the Torah,” who day and night performed prayers of a thousand rakats like Zayn al-‘Abidin, and performed the morning prayer with the ablutions of the previous evening, like Tavus al-Yamani.(*)

THE SEVENTH

“And their similitude in the Gospel is: like a seed which sends forth its blade, then makes it strong; it then becomes thick, and it stands on its own stem, [filling] the sowers with wonder and delight. As a result, it fills the unbelievers with rage at them.” These phrases give news of the Unseen in two respects:

The First

is the prediction in the Gospel about the Companions, which for the unlettered Prophet (UWBP) belonged to the World of the Unseen. Yes, the Gospels contain such verses as, “With him is a staff of iron, and his community is like him”(*) describing the Prophet who was to come at the end of time. That is, a Prophet would come who unlike Jesus (UWP) would wield the sword and be charged with waging jihad, as would his Companions. The one bearing “the staff of iron” would be the World’s Ruler. For in another place in the Gospels it says: “I am going so that the Ruler of the World may come.”(*)

That is to say, the World’s Ruler will come. It is thus understood from these two verses in the Gospels that at the outset the Companions would be few and weak, nevertheless they would sprout like seeds, grow, thicken, and find strength. Then when about to be overwhelmed and smothered by the rage this caused the unbelievers, they would subjugate mankind with their swords and prove that the Messenger (UWBP), their leader, was the Ruler of the World. These verses express exactly the meaning of the above verses of Sura al-Fath.

Second Aspect:

The verses predict the following: due to their weakness and small number the Companions accepted the Pact of Hudaybiya, but within a short time they grew and acquired such strength and loftiness that, planted by the Hand of Power in the field of the face of the earth, they multiplied in most elevated, powerful, fruitful, and plentiful fashion. This was true in comparison with the shoots of mankind at that time, since these latter were short, weak, defective, and scant due to neglect and heedlessness.The Companions would grow strong causing illustrious governments to rage at them in envy, jealousy, and anger. The future verified this prediction in most brilliant fashion.

The prediction also make the following further slight hint: it indicates through the word “forgiveness” that, although while praising the Companions’ excellent qualities they should have been promised the greatest rewards, in the future they would commit serious errors due to strife. For forgiveness indicates the existence of faults. At that time it would be forgiveness, the greatest bounty, that the Companions would want. The highest reward would be absence of punishment, thanks to forgiveness.

The word “forgiveness” both makes this subtle allusion, and it is connected with the verse at the beginning of the Sura, “That God may forgive you your faults of the past and those to follow.”(48:2) By giving the good news of forgiveness at the start of the Sura not for true sins, since the Messenger (UWBP) was exempt from sin and did not commit them, but for a meaning in keeping with the rank of prophethood, and by giving the good news of forgiveness for the Companions at the end of the Sura, it adds a further subtlety to the allusion.

Of the ten aspects of miraculousness contained in the above-mentioned three verses at the end of Sura al-Fath, we have discussed here only the aspect concerning predictions about the Unseen, and of the numerous parts of that aspect, only seven. A flash of miraculousness in the positioning of the letters of the last verse is alluded to at the end of the Twenty-Sixth Word, which is about divine determining and man’s faculty of will. This last verse looks to the Companions both with its sentences, and to their situations with its phrases, and it describes their attributes with its words(*) and letters; so too with the repetition of the number of letters it alludes to classes of famous Companions like the Companions of Badr, of Uhud, of Hunayn, of the Bench, and of Ridwan. Moreover, it expresses many further mysteries through ‘coincidences’ and abjad reckoning, which are branches of the science of jafr and keys to it.

Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.(2:32)

[Predictions similar to these concerning the Unseen indicated by the allusive meanings of the verses at the end of Sura al-Fath will be discussed here briefly, also in connection with their allusive meanings.]

A Postscript

And We should have shown them the Straight Way. * All who obey God and the Messenger are in the company of those on whom is the grace of God – of the Prophets, the Veracious, the Witnesses [or Martyrs], and the Righteous: And how goodly a company are these!(4:68-9)

We shall point out two of the thousands of fine points expounding these verses.

FIRST POINT

Just as the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition expresses truths through its explicit, clear meanings and senses, so it expresses many allusive meanings through its styles and manner of exposition. Each of its verses contains numerous levels of meanings. The Qur’an proceeds from all-encompassing knowledge, so all its meanings may be intended. Its meanings are not restricted to one or two like man’s speech, the product of his limited mind and individual will.

In consequence of this, innumerable truths contained in the Qur’an’s verses have been expounded by Qur’anic commentators, and there are many more that have not been expounded by them. In addition to its explicit meanings, much significant knowledge is contained in its letters in particular and in its allusions.

SECOND POINT

With the terms, “of the Prophets, the Veracious, the Witnesses [or martyrs], and the Righteous: And how goodly a company are these!”, the verse describes the people of the Straight Path and the groups of the Prophets, the caravan of the Veracious, the community of the Martyrs, the class of the Righteous, and those who follow them. These are the members of mankind who truly receive the divine bounties. Furthermore, having indicated explicitly the most perfect of those five groups in the world of Islam, it indicates their leaders and chiefs by mentioning their well-known attributes. In addition, with a flash of miraculousness giving news of the Unseen, it specifies one aspect those chiefs’ positions in the future.

Yes, “of the Prophets” looks explicitly to the Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace), and the phrase “the Veracious” looks to Abu Bakr the Veracious. It also indicates that he would be second after the Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) and first to succeed him, and be known by the special title of Veracious and be seen at the head of all honest and upright people.

Then “the Witnesses [or Martyrs]” refers to ‘Umar, ‘Uthman, and ‘Ali (May God be pleased with all of them) together. It intimates that the three of them would succeed to the Caliphate after the Veracious One, and that the three of them would be martyred and the merits of martyrdom added to their other virtues.

“The Righteous” alludes to distinguished persons like the Companions of the Bench, and of Badr and Ridwan. While with its explicit meaning, “And how goodly a company are these!” encourages others to follow them, and with its implicit meaning, by showing the generation that succeeded them to be honoured and illustrious, it alludes to Hasan (May God be pleased with him), who as the fifth Caliph affirmed the Hadith “After me the Caliphate will last thirty years”(*)– in order to show its great value despite its brief duration.

In Short: Similarly to the verses at the end of Sura al-Fath, which look to the four Rightly-Guided Caliphs, affirming them, these verses look in part and allusively to their future positions in a way that gives news of the Unseen. Flashes of this sort of miraculousness, the disclosing of facts about the Unseen, which is one sort of the Qur’an’s miraculousness, are so numerous as to be incalculable. Literalist scholars limit them to forty or fifty verses because of their superficial view, but in reality they number more than a thousand. Sometimes a single verse has four or five aspects giving news of the Unseen.

O our Sustainer! Do not take us to task if we forget or do wrong.(2:286)

Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.(2:32)

A Second Explanation of the Above Postscript

(*)

In addition to corroborating the predictions about the Unseen at the end of Sura al-Fath, the verse, “All … are in the company of those on whom is the grace of God – of the Prophets, the Veracious, the Witnesses, and the Righteous: how goodly a company are these!”(4:69) elucidates what is meant by the people of the Straight Path and the verse “the path of those whom you have blessed”(1:7) and describes the luminous, large, familiar, attractive caravan travelling the lengthy road leading to eternity. It vigorously urges the believers and the intelligent to join, follow, and accompany it. In addition to its explicit meaning, like the verses at the end of Sura al- Fath, this verse indicates through allusive and figurative meanings – called in rhetoric ma’arid al-kalam(*) and mustatba’at al-tarakib(*)– the four Rightly-Guided Caliphs and Hasan (May God be pleased with him), the fifth Caliph. It gives news of the Unseen in several respects, as follows:

Just as the above verse states through its explicit meaning that the caravan of the Prophets, the group of the Veracious, the community of the Martyrs and Witnesses, the category of the Righteous, and the class of the generation following the Companions are the people of the Straight Path and those among mankind who receive elevated divine bounties, and are ‘the doers of good;’ so too it indicates in a manner predicting the Unseen that the best and most excellent of those groups are found in the World of Islam, like this: it points to the heirs of the Prophets who follow on in succession through the mystery of the legacy of the Messenger of the End of Time’s (UWBP) prophethood, and to the caravan of the Veracious who follow on from the source of veracity of the Strictly Veracious One, and to the convoy of the Martyrs, who are bound through the rank of martyrdom to three of the Rightly- Guided Caliphs, and to the community of the Righteous, who are tied to it through the mystery of “And those who believe and do good works,”(2:82, etc.) and to the categories of the generation following the Companions, who represented the mystery of “Say: If you do love God, follow me: God will love you and forgive you your sins; for God is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful”(3:31) and were in the company of the Companions and the Rightly-Guided Caliphs.

So too, through its allusive meaning, it gives news through the epithet “and the Veracious” that Abu Bakr the Veracious would succeed to the Noble Messenger’s (Upon whom be blessings and peace) position after him, and would be Caliph, famous among the Muslim community with the title Strictly Veracious, and be the chief of the caravan of “the Veracious.” With the phrase “the Martyrs” it foretells the martyrdom of three of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs, and that after the Veracious there would three martyr Caliphs.

Because “Martyrs (Shuhada’)” is plural and the lowest number [in Arabic grammar] of the plural is three. That means, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman, and ‘Ali (May God be pleased with them) would lead Islam after the Veracious One and would suffer martyrdom. And it occurred exactly as predicted.

Also, it is giving news through the phrase “the Righteous” that people like the People of the Bench who performed good works, acts of worship, and feared God, and are commended in the Torah, would be numerous in the future.

While the phrase “How goodly a company are these!” praises the generation that followed the Companions and accompanied them in learning and good works.

And in addition to showing that to accompany those four groups on the road to eternity is good and commendable, it indicates the importance of Hasan’s brief period as Caliph, as was confirmed by the Messenger’s (UWBP) prophecies: “The Caliphate after me will last thirty years,”(*) and, “This my grandson Hasan is master of men, by means of whom God will reconcile two great groups,”(*) thus quelling dispute and conflict. In this way it indicates that Hasan would be a fifth Caliph succeeding the four Rightly-Guided Caliphs. While through a device called in rhetoric mustatba^a\t al-tara\kêb, it alludes to the fifth Caliph’s name with the phrase “How goodly (hasuna) a company are these!”

There are many further mysteries like these allusive predictions, but since they are outside our purpose, that door has not been answered for now. Numerous verses of the All-Wise Qur’an give news of the Unseen in many respects. This sort of the Qur’an’s predictions about the Unseen number thousands.

O our Sustainer! Do not take us to task if we forget or do wrong.(2:286)

Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.(2:32)

Conclusion

A miraculous, subtle point of the All-Wise Qur’an that is manifested through ‘coincidences’(*) is as follows: In the All-Wise Qur’an, the divine names of Allah, Merciful (Rahman), Compassionate (Rahim), Sustainer (Rabb), and He(Hu) in place of Allah, are mentioned approximately four thousand times in all. The second type of abjad, reckoned according to the arrangement of the alphabet, makes the value of “In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate” around four thousand also. Small fractions of large numbers do not spoil ‘coincidence’, so have been disregarded. Also, together with the two conjunctival waw’s within “Alif. Lam. Mim.”, it makes approximately two hundred and eighty.In addition to coinciding with both the approximately two hundred and eighty instances of the word Allah in Sura al-Baqara, and the around two hundred and eighty verses of the Sura, if reckoned with the second sort of abjad reckoning, it again makes about four thousand. That coincides both with the five famous divine names mentioned above, and if the fractions are disregarded, with the numerical value of “In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.”

That is to say, according to this mystery of ‘coincidence,’ “Alif. Lam. Mim.” is both a title denoting the One it signifies, and a name for al-Baqara, and a name of the Qur’an, and a concise index of both of them, and a sample, summary and seed of both, and a summary of “In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.” According to the well-known Abjad system, “In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate” is equal in numerical value to the name of Sustainer. Similarly, if the doubled Ra in “the Merciful, the Compassionate (ar-Rahman, ar-Rahim)” is counted twice, it becomes nine hundred and ninety and a key to numerous important mysteries – with its nineteen letters, the key to nineteen thousand worlds.

Among the subtle ‘coincidences’ of the word Allah in the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition is that in the whole Qur’an eighty instances of the word at the beginning of the bottom line of pages correspond to each other in patterns. So too do eighty instances of the name at the end of the bottom line look to each other in the same way. And again fifty-five instances of the word Allah right in the centre of the bottom line fall one on top of the other, uniting as though to make a single instance of the name. At the start of the last line a single and sometimes three-letter word numbers, with gaps, twenty-five, thus when added to the coinciding fifty-five at the middle of the lines, makes a ‘coincidence’ of eighty; this makes a coincidence of eighty both at the beginning of the line and at the end.

Could such a subtle, fine, orderly, symmetrical, miraculous ‘coincidence’ be without wisdom or subtlety? God forbid, such a thing could not be! Most certainly, significant treasuries could be opened up with the tip of these coincidences.

O our Sustainer! Do not take us to task if we forget or do wrong.(2:282)

Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.(2:32)

Said Nursî

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