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huwa lladhī ʾarsala rasūlahū bi-l-hudā wa-dīni l-ḥaqqi li-yuẓhirahū ʿalā d-dīni kullihī wa-kafā bi-llāhi shahīdan
It is He who has sent His Apostle with guidance and the true religion, that He may make it prevail over all religions, and Allah suffices as witness.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah al-Fath - Verse 28
28. He it is Who has sent His Messenger with Guidance and the religion that He may make it superior to all religions. And All-Sufficient is Allah as a Witness.
The secret behind the triumph of the Islamic faith is Divine Guidance and Truth;
(“He it is Who has sent His Messenger with Guidance and the religion”).
Conquering falsehood by Truth is an ideal which may solely be realized by God Almighty. It is attested many a time in the Holy Qur’an that Islam is superior to all religions. The superiority may indicate Islam’s superiority in terms of scholarship, logic, and argument which has always been so, or it may also make a reference to the future when the Islamic faith will encompass the world over, when the inheritors of the earth will be righteous servants of God Almighty as the sovereignty of Islam wielded its sway in a vast area in the latter half of the first/seventh century.
The pronoun huwa
(“He”)
in the blessing Verse in question refers to Divine Truth and Simple Essence, in other words, God Almighty is He Who sent down His Messenger (S) with the means of Guidance, i.e. many a miracle, the Inimitable Qur’anic Verses, and manifest religion and laws and made him conquer disbelievers so that the religion of Truth, i.e. the Islamic faith, be manifest to all peoples and followers of different religions and they recognize that the religion of Truth is the Islamic faith and there exist no doubt for anyone as to its Divine Truth.
“And All-Sufficient is Allah as a Witness”
reflects that the Pure Essence of God Almighty is sufficient to bear witness to His Messenger’s (S) Prophethood and Truth in his words and deeds. Qur’anic exegets disagree on the manner of the superiority and triumph of the Islamic faith over all other religions. Some maintain that the superiority lies in logical and argumentative aspects saying that such superiority has realized since in terms of logic and argument, the Islamic faith is superior to all other religions.
Some other Qur’anic exegets hold that superiority (li-yudhirahu) is employed in the outward sense of the word since it is attested in the same sense. thus, it may be said that many a vast area throughout the world are within the territory of Islam and in modern times, more than forty Muslim countries with a population of approximately one billion are under the banner of Islamic faith, but a time shall arrive in which all the world hold the same banner and it will attain to perfection through the Rise of Mahdi (as).
According to a Prophetic tradition,
“There will remain no house made from stone and mud, nor do tents made from wool and hair unless Allah makes the name of Islam enter them.”
The eminent scholar Tabarsi in his Majma’ al-Bayan cites a tradition from Imam Baqir (as) which is an interpretation of the blessed Verse in question, saying:
“The Promise given in this Verse shall realize at the Rise of Mahdi (as) from the family of the Noble Prophet (S). On that day, there shall remain no one on the face of the earth but those who acknowledge the Truth of Muhammad’s (S) Prophethood.” 6
On the interpretation of the blessed Verse in question, Shaykh Saduq in his Ikmal al-Din narrates a tradition from Imam Sadiq (as), saying:
“By Allah! The meaning of the Verse is yet to realize and it shall solely realize when the Riser rises. Upon his Rise, there shall be no one denying belief in God Almighty throughout the world.”
The traditions concerning the Rise of Mahdi (as) are such that no Muslim scholar from any denomination may deny their consecutive transmission (tawatur). Many a book have been written in this respect whose authors have unanimously acknowledged the reliability of the traditions concerning the reformer of the world, Imam Mahdi (as). These traditions are attested in many a well-known Islamic source including sunan, ma’ajim, and masanid books among which mention may be made of the following: the Sunan compiled by Abu Da’ud, Tirmidhi, Ibn Maja, Ibn ‘Amr al-Dani; Masanid compiled by Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ibn Ya’la, Bazzaz; Hakim’s Sahih; Ma’ajim (Kabir and Mutawassit) compiled by Tabarani, Ruyani, Dar Qutni; Abu Nu’aym’s Akhbar Mahdi; Khatib’s Ta’rikh Baghdad; Ibn ‘Asakir’s Ta’rikh Dimashq.
It is worthy of note that a number of Muslim scholars have written books devoted to such traditions, e.g. Abu Nu’aym’s Akhbar Mahdi; Ibn Hajar Haythami’s al-Qawl al-Mukhtasar fi ‘Alamat al-Mahdi al-Muntadar; Shukani’s al-Tawdhih fi Tawatur Ma Ja’a fi al-Muntadar wa al-Dajjal wa al-Masih; Idris ‘Iraqi Maghribi’s al-Mahdi; Abu al-‘Abbas ibn ‘Abd al-Mu’min al-Maghribi’s al-Wahm al-Maknun fi al-Radd ‘ala Ibn Khaldun.
A number of earlier and later scholars have also explicitly mentioned that the traditions narrated concerning Mahdi (May God Almighty Hasten His Rise) are indubitably consecutive in their chains of transmission, e.g. al-Sakhawi in Kitab al-Fath al-Mughith; Muhammad ibn Ahmad Safawini’s Sharh al-‘Aqida; Abu al-Hasan al-Abri’s Manaqib al-Shafi’i; Ibn Taymiyya’s Fatawi; Suyuti’s al-Hawi; Idris ‘Iraqi’s al-Mahdi (as); Shukani’s al-Tawdhih fi Tawatur Ma Ja’a fi al-Muntadar; Muhammad Ja’far Kinani’s Nadm al-Tanathur; Abu al-‘Abbas ibn ‘Abd al-Mu’min’s al-Wahm al-Maknun.
The aforesaid traditions are cited in most of Shi’i tradition compendia and Qur’anic exegetic works under the blessed Verse in question.
Footnotes