We have surely granted you a manifest victory (which is a door to further victories),
That God may forgive you (O Messenger) your lapses of the past and those to follow, and complete His favor on you, and guide you (to steadfastness) on a straight path (leading to God’s being pleased with You and eternal happiness);
And that God may help you to a glorious, mighty achievement –
He it is Who sent down His (gift of) inner peace and reassurance into the hearts of the believers, so that they might add faith to their faith. To God belong the hosts of the heavens and the earth; and God is All-Knowing, All-Wise –
And that He may admit the believing men and believing women into Gardens through which rivers flow, therein to abide, and may blot out from them their evil deeds. That is a supreme triumph in God’s sight;
And that He may punish the hypocritical men and the hypocritical women, and the men and the women who associate partners with God, who always entertain evil thoughts about God. Theirs will be the evil turn of fate. God has destined them to a severe punishment, eternally excluded them from His Mercy, and prepared Hell for them. How evil a destination to arrive at!
To God belong the hosts of the heavens and the earth. God is All-Glorious with irresistible might, All-Wise.
Surely We have sent you as Messenger as a witness (to the truth of Islam and the falsehood of other ways, and as a witness in both worlds to people’s deeds), and as a bearer of glad tidings (of prosperity in return for faith and righteousness) and a warner (against the consequences of misguidance);
And in order that you (O humankind and jinn) believe in God and His Messenger (and support His cause), and hold God in the highest regard, and glorify Him in the early morning and in the evening (i.e., day and night).
Those who swear allegiance to you (O Messenger), swear allegiance to God only. God’s "Hand" is over their hands. Whoever then breaks his oath, breaks his oath only to his own harm; and whoever fulfills what he has covenanted with God, He will grant him a tremendous reward.
Those of the Bedouins (dwellers of the desert) who (did not respond to your call to participate in the Minor Pilgrimage Campaign and) stayed behind will say to you (by way of excuse): "Our possessions and families kept us busy, so ask God for our forgiveness." They speak with their tongues that which is not in their hearts. Say (to them): "Who is there that can intervene on your behalf with God if He wills harm for you or if He wills a benefit for you? (Whatever excuse you offer, bear in mind that) God is fully aware of all that you do."
Indeed you thought that the Messenger and the believers would never return to their families (from the Campaign), and this thought was decked out to be appealing in your hearts, and you entertained an evil thought (that God would not help the believers and they would be defeated). You (in thinking so have proved yourselves to be and you) are a people useless and doomed to perish.
Whoever does not believe (and trust) in God and His Messenger: then We have surely prepared a Blaze for the unbelievers.
To God belongs the sovereignty of the heavens and the earth: He forgives whom He wills and punishes whom He wills. God is All-Forgiving, All-Compassionate.
When you (O believers) set forth for (the campaign during which they think that you are sure) to take gains of war, those who stayed behind (aforetime) will say: "Let us go with you." They desire to alter God’s decree. Say (to them): "You will by no means come with us. That (decision) regarding you is what God declared before." Then they will say: "Rather, you are jealous of us." But the fact is that they are lacking in discernment and understanding, except a very little.
Say to those of the dwellers of the desert who stayed behind: "Soon you will be called (to fight) against a people of great military power, then either you will fight against them or they will submit to God and become Muslims. If you obey, God will grant you a handsome reward, but if you turn away as you turned away before, He will punish you with a painful punishment."
There is no blame on the blind nor any blame on the lame nor any blame on the sick (for staying away from a war in God’s cause). Whoever obeys God and His Messenger (in the religious duties he is charged with and can carry out), God will admit him into Gardens through which rivers flow. But whoever turns away, He will punish him with a painful punishment.
God was assuredly well-pleased with the believers when they swore allegiance to you under the tree. He knew what was in their hearts (of sincere intention and loyalty to God’s cause), and therefore He sent down (the gift of) inner peace and reassurance on them, and rewarded them with a near victory,
And much in gains of war that they will take. And God is All-Glorious with irresistible might, All-Wise.
God has promised you abundant gains of war that you will take later, and these He granted you as present reward (for your obedience and purity of intention). And He has restrained the hands of (other hostile) people from you so that it may be a sign for the believers (concerning the truth of their way and God’s promises to them), and that He may guide you to (steadfastness on) a straight path.
And there are yet other (gains) which you have not been able to acquire but God has encompassed (in His Knowledge and Power, and will grant you). Surely God has full power over everything.
If the unbelievers (of Makkah) had fought against you (instead of signing the treaty with you at Hudaybiyah), they would certainly have turned their backs in flight, then they would have found no protecting guardian or helper (to rescue them).
It is God’s way that has continued (ever so) from the past: you will never find any change in God’s way.
And He it is Who restrained their hands from you and your hands from them in the valley of Makkah, after He had granted you victory over them. Surely God sees well all that you do.
(God defeated them because) they are the ones who have disbelieved and who barred you from (visiting) the Sacred Mosque and (prevented) the offerings from reaching their destination. And had there not been (in Makkah) believing men and believing women whom you did not know and therefore might have trodden down, and thus something undesired might have afflicted you on their account (for what you did) unknowingly, (God would not have restrained your hands from fighting. But He restrained your hands) so that He might admit to His mercy whom He wills (by sparing the believers in Makkah and enabling many among the Makkans to embrace Islam in time). If they (the believers and unbelievers in Makkah) had been clearly separated, We would certainly have punished those among them who disbelieved with a painful punishment.
When those who disbelieved harbored in their hearts fierce zealotry (coming from egotism, tribalism, and feuding), the zealotry particular to the Age of Ignorance, God sent down His (gift of) inner peace and reassurance on His Messenger and on the believers, and bound them to the Word of faith, piety, and reverence for God. They were most worthy of it and entitled to it. And God has full knowledge of everything.
God has assuredly confirmed the vision for His Messenger as true (and will certainly fulfill it) in reality: you will certainly enter the Sacred Mosque, if God wills, in full security, with your heads shaven or your hair cut short, and you will have nothing to fear. But He always knows what you do not know, and (therefore, without allowing you to enter the Mosque this year,) granted you a near victory before this.
He it is Who has sent His Messenger with the Divine guidance and the Religion of truth that He may make it prevail over all religions. God suffices for a witness (for the truth of His promise and the mission of His Messenger).
Muhammad is the Messenger of God; and those who are in his company are firm and unyielding against the unbelievers, and compassionate among themselves. You see them (constant in the Prayer) bowing down and prostrating, seeking favor with God and His approval and good pleasure. Their marks are on their faces, traced by prostration. This is their description in the Torah; and their description in the Gospel: like a seed that has sprouted its shoot, then it has strengthened it, and then risen firmly on its stem, delighting the sowers (with joy and wonder); (thereby) it fills the unbelievers with rage at them (the believers). God has promised all those among them who believe and do good, righteous deeds forgiveness (to bring unforeseen blessings) and a tremendous reward.