Dr. Bassam Saeh shows that Surah al-Nasr is full of linguistic renewal and expressions that were unfamiliar or even unknown to Arabs before the Quran. He explains that the surah’s uniqueness comes from how it uses common Arabic words in new ways, gives new meanings to old terms, and forms fresh sentence structures never heard before.
He focuses on seven key words and phrases: idha, nasr Allah, al-fath, yadkhulun, afwajan, sabbih, and tawwaban, showing that all of them carry meanings or grammatical roles that either did not exist before or were completely changed by the Quran. For example, idha is normally used for future events, but here it is used in a special way to talk about a past event.
Al-fath used to just mean opening something physically, but the Quran made it mean victory and spiritual triumph. Yadkhulun fi din Allah used “enter” in a way never used before to describe people joining a religion. Sabbih was hardly used before the Quran, and tawwaban describes Allah in a form usually used for people who repent, which is a new, deep shift in meaning.
He also shows how the grammar in the surah breaks expectations — for example, the way nasr Allah is linked with al-fath without repeating the possessive form, or how the structure fasabbih bihamdi rabbik uses the verb and prepositions in an unfamiliar way. Even the final phrase innahu kana tawwaban breaks from common Arabic usage by dropping the connecting fa, making it sound deeper and more divine.
When the Help of Allah Comes and the Opening (إذا جاء نصر الله والفتح)
This is the fifth surah in reverse order that we are trying to explore, to discover the aspects of miraculous renewal in it. As usual, we will pause at five points, spread across twenty four positions that we could identify in the nineteen words that make up the surah.
The linguistic character of the surah is focused on its conditional opening. The features of the word idha in this surah are different from what we find in the rest of the Quran or in other texts, and this difference spreads across the full flow of the surah.
Words and Terms
Renewal in the words of the Quran appears in three ways, as we have seen before, and all three are present in this surah.
The word might be purely new, not known in Arabic before the Quran, like sabbih and tawwaban. Or it might be a known word, but the Quran gave it a new technical meaning, like fath, yadkhulun, and afwajan. Or renewal might appear in using a grammatical tool in a different way, like idha and kana.
So the new words and terms are focused in these seven places:
Idha (إذا)
Grammarians agree that the conditional idha is about future time. We usually say it is an adverb for future time that includes the meaning of condition. But when they admitted that it might sometimes refer to the past, they could only find examples of that, as far as I know, in the Quran.
Even so, the examples from the Qur’an they gave do not match the meaning of condition, or do not show past time clearly. For example, al-Muradi in al-Jana al-Dani (p. 371) brought as evidence the verse:
“Those who, when you came to them to carry them, you said: I do not find anything to carry you upon” (al-Tawba: 92)
But I do not see any meaning of condition in idha here. It only shows time. We can even replace it easily with when and say: when they come to you to carry them. And this sentence, even though it talks about a past event before the surah came down, was setting a rule for the future in how to deal with those who sincerely want to fight for Allah but the leader has nothing to carry them on.
Al-Muradi also mentioned: “When they see some trade or amusement, they rush to it” (al-Jumuʿa: 11)
وَإِذَا رَأَوْا تِجَارَةً أَوْ لَهْوًا ٱنفَضُّوٓا۟ إِلَيْهَا وَتَرَكُوكَ قَآئِمًۭا ۚ قُلْ مَا عِندَ ٱللَّهِ خَيْرٌۭ مِّنَ ٱللَّهْوِ وَمِنَ ٱلتِّجَـٰرَةِ ۚ وَٱللَّهُ خَيْرُ ٱلرَّٰزِقِينَ
The word idha here is not limited to the past, even though it was revealed about something that happened in the life of the Prophet. Like many verses in the Quran, it talks about an ongoing situation that can happen any day.
But in this surah, idha is about a specific historical event that happened once and did not repeat. It is the fath that Allah gave to His Prophet, whether it refers to the coming of the tribes to him in crowds after the Treaty of Hudaybiyya, as some say, or the Opening of Makka without any fighting in Ramadan in the eighth year of Hijra, after which peace spread in the Arabian Peninsula and a new phase began in the history of the Islamic state, as others say.
In both cases, idha here is used for past time only, not future or present, which is different from how it is normally used in Arabic grammar. It has been given a new meaning. If we wanted to say it in our way today, we might say: now that the help of Allah and the opening have come… then praise your Lord.
I do not find any other idha in the Quran that we can replace like this, nor in hadith texts, nor in the Arabic of people across time.
The Opening, Fath (الفتح)
This is a completely new Islamic term to the Arabs. Maybe they knew the word fath from the verb fataha, meaning the opposite of closing. But it seems, from what we read of pre-Islamic poetry, they never used this root to mean victory or taking cities or hearts.
Even though this meaning is missing completely from early poetry, it is used in the Quran with this meaning in various forms twelve times.
The Arabs used instead verbs like intasara or ghaza and their forms. The first time we find fath in poetry with the meaning is in the saying of the poet Kaʿb ibn Zuhayr (d. 26 AH):
ضربناهم بمكة يوم فتح
النبي الخير بالبيض الخفاف
“We struck them in Makka on the day of the Opening
The Prophet of goodness with sharp white swords”
After that, the new usage became more common, and we find it used in Arabic poetry at least eleven times by the end of the Umayyad period. It also became part of the language of hadith when talking about wars and victories.
They Enter (يدخلون)
Before Islam, Arabs used the verb sabaʾa to mean adopting a new religion. That is why the polytheists often called the Prophet a sabiʾ.
Today, we usually say iʿtanaka or aslama, but the Quran used the phrase entered into the religion for the first time to describe leaving idol worship and believing in the new religion.
Strangely, this usage appears only this one time in the Quran, even though the verb dakhala and its forms appear 127 times. The Quran never uses the verbs sabaʾa or iʿtanaka, but usually uses verbs like amana, ittabaʿa, ihtada, aslama, and others, like in these verses:
وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ آمِنُوا كَمَا آمَنَ النَّاسُ قَالُوا أَنُؤْمِنُ كَمَا آمَنَ السُّفَهَاءُ (البقرة: 13)
When it is said to them: believe as the people believed, they say: should we believe as the fools believed? (al-Baqara: 13)
وَقَالُوا كُونُوا هُودًا أَوْ نَصَارَىٰ تَهْتَدُوا (البقرة: 135)
They say: be Jews or Christians, you will be guided (al-Baqara: 135)
وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَن يَتَّخِذُ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ أَندَادًا (البقرة: 165)
Among the people are those who take others besides Allah as equals (al-Baqara: 165)
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ قَدْ جَاءَكُمُ الرَّسُولُ بِالْحَقِّ مِن رَّبِّكُمْ فَآمِنُوا خَيْرًا لَّكُمْ (النساء: 170)
O people, the Messenger has come to you with the truth from your Lord, so believe, it is better for you (al-Nisaʾ: 170)
وَإِذْ قَالَ اللَّهُ يَـٰعِيسَى ٱبْنَ مَرْيَمَ أَأَنتَ قُلتَ لِلنَّاسِ ٱتَّخِذُونِى وَأُمِّيَ إِلَـٰهَيْنِ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ (المائدة: 116)
And when Allah said: O Isa son of Maryam, did you say to the people: take me and my mother as gods besides Allah? (al-Maʾida: 116)
فَآمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ ٱلنَّبِىِّ ٱلْأُمِّيِّ ٱلَّذِى يُؤْمِنُ بِاللَّهِ وَكَلِمَـٰتِهِ وَٱتَّبِعُوهُ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَهْتَدُونَ (الأعراف: 158)
So believe in Allah and His Messenger, the unlettered Prophet who believes in Allah and His words, and follow him so that you may be guided (al-Aʿraf: 158)
أَفَأَنتَ تُكْرِهُ ٱلنَّاسَ حَتَّىٰ يَكُونُوا۟ مُؤْمِنِينَ (يونس: 99)
Will you force the people until they become believers? (Yunus: 99)
وَمَآ أَكْثَرُ ٱلنَّاسِ وَلَوْ حَرَصْتَ بِمُؤْمِنِينَ (يوسف: 103)
And most of the people, even if you try, will not be believers (Yusuf: 103)
وَلَوْ شَآءَ ٱللَّهُ لَهَدَى ٱلنَّاسَ جَمِيعًا (الرعد: 31)
If Allah had willed, He would have guided all the people (al-Raʿd: 31)
كِتَابٌ أَنزَلْنَـٰهُ إِلَيْكَ لِتُخْرِجَ ٱلنَّاسَ مِنَ ٱلظُّلُمَـٰتِ إِلَى ٱلنُّورِ (إبراهيم: 1)
A Book We sent to you so that you bring the people out of darkness to light (Ibrahim: 1)
أَحَسِبَ ٱلنَّاسُ أَن يُتْرَكُوا۟ أَن يَقُولُوٓا آمَنَّا وَهُمْ لَا يُفْتَنُونَ (العنكبوت: 2)
Do people think that they will be left alone to say ‘we believe’ without being tested? (al-ʿAnkabut: 2)
يَمُنُّونَ عَلَيْكَ أَنْ أَسْلَمُوا قُل لَّا تَمُنُّوا عَلَيَّ إِسْلَامَكُم (الحجرات: 17)
They boast to you that they became Muslim. Say: do not boast about your Islam (al-Hujurat: 17)
We may not notice how new this usage is because the normal meaning of entered in today’s Arabic covers the Quran’s meaning. But we must remember again that the combination of these new usages together in a short surah like this one makes it a storage of surprises that pour out all at once on the early Arab with all its striking elements.
In Crowds (أفواجاً)
A new term. This word appears for the first time in the plural form to express both large numbers and movement together in time. The Arabs were now turning, quickly, as tribes and groups, towards the new religion.
The Quran only used this word twice. We do not find it in early poetry or in the hadith, though it starts to appear in Arabic poetry right after the time of the Prophet, and it appears at least six times by the end of the Umayyad period.
In normal speech, this kind of word is usually doubled to show the meaning of repetition and number that the verse gives. We say: afwajan afwajan or jamaʿat jamaʿat.
But this doubling style is late. I did not find it in the early Arabic tradition of the first centuries. The word afwajan does not appear in authentic hadith except when quoting this Quran verse, like the hadith: “People entered the religion of Allah in crowds and they will leave it in crowds.” (al-Tirmidhi 1:78, hadith 55)
So Glorify (فسبح)
Another word that Arabs barely knew before the Quran. Not just with its religious meaning of praising Allah above any weakness or imperfection, but even in any other possible meaning.
The first line we find that uses it is linked to Waraqa ibn Nawfal (d. 11 BH). Notice that he died just two years after the start of the Quran’s revelation, which began in 13 BH.
The same line is also linked to the poet Umayya ibn Abi al-Salt (d. 5 AH), a man often treated differently in the tradition, which raises doubts about the line’s source and time. Especially since it includes clear Quran-like signs such as the Throne, the mountain of Judi, and soft rhythm and simple words unlike what we know from early poetry.
سبحان ذي العرش سبحان نعوذ به
وقبل قد سبح الجودي والجمدُ
“Subhan the One of the Throne, subhan we seek Him
And before us, Judi and the frost praised Him”
Even if it existed once in early poetry, the Quran surprises the Arabs by using this verb and its forms 91 times in many surahs. It also appears often in hadith. Now, tasbih has become part of the daily worship of a Muslim.
Kana, Was (كان)
We already confirmed that the Quran uniquely uses the verb kana to mean is or exists 190 times, and that Arabic grammar and hadith do not use the verb this way.
Allah was tawwaban, and still is, and will always be, from eternity to eternity. But normally, the verb kana in Arabic is tied to past time.
Interestingly, Abu Bakr al-Razi in his tafsir noticed this new use and confirmed that the Quran is unique in its usage of the verb, something most grammarians still do not admit. He said the verb kana is used in the Quran in five ways:
For eternity, like: “Allah was All-Knowing, All-Wise”
For past time, like: “There was in the city a group of nine men”
For present, like: “You were the best nation brought out for people”
For future, like: “They fulfil vows and fear a day whose evil is widespread”
For became, like: “He was among the disbelievers”
Then he adds three more meanings:
Should, like: “It is not for us to speak about this”
Appeared, like: “If he has wealth” or “Unless there is a town”
And as an extra word for stress, like: “I do not know what they were doing”
Oft-Forgiving (تواباً)
This name of Allah appears here in the special form tawwab, which is stronger than just taʾib (repenter). Usually, this form is used for the one who repents again and again. But here, the Quran gives it to the One who accepts repentance again and again.
When someone sins many times and repents every time, he is called tawwab. But the Quran uses the word here for Allah, who accepts those repentances. So it is a word in the form of the doer, but its meaning is about the one who receives the action.
This is a new meaning that Arabs did not know before, not in this form and not in this sense. It does not appear at all in pre-Islamic poetry.
In hadith, the name is mostly used for humans who repent a lot, except when it is listed among the names of Allah. For example:
“O Allah, make me among the repenters and among the pure”
“The best of sinners are those who repent”
“Allah loves the believer who is tested and repents”
“Sit with those who repent, for their hearts are the softest” (al-Tirmidhi 1:78, hadith 55; 4:659, hadith 2499; Musnad Ahmad 1:80, hadith 605; Ibn Abi Shayba 7:96, hadith 34465)
Forms and Language Relations
The Help of Allah Came (جاء نصر الله)
The usual way to express this in Arabic would be: the victory happened or we won. Maybe we would use just one word and say: we were victorious.
But the divine nature of the expression here called for using the verb jaaʾa to show that it was sent.
For humans, victory is achieved or earned. But from the One who gives victory, it is sent, it comes down. It is now moving from the heavens down to earth. This gives the verb and its doer a new meaning, almost like a living picture, similar to metaphor, where victory and opening are imagined as a person who comes.
Some linguists analysed the verse this way. But Dr Saeh believes that verbs like this should be seen not as metaphors but as real truths. Everything that comes into being is sent by Allah. He sends it, so it comes. Victory too. It is a real event. There is no need for interpretation here.
The Opening (الفتح)
We saw that the Quran gave this word a meaning the Arabs did not know: victory and the removal of obstacles.
Now we want to highlight the unique link of this word with what came before and after it. It appears here with al, without any description or addition.
It does not say:
The Opening of Allah
The Clear Opening
The Opening of hearts
The Opening of Makka
Instead, the word stands alone, strong enough by itself, so that when it is said: al-fath, the listener understands it as the special victory for the believers, or the entering of a city, by war or peace.
The word appears six times in the Quran like this, with al and without any extra words. This builds its special identity.
The Help of Allah (نصر الله)
This is also a new Islamic phrase. The Arabs were not used to linking victory to Allah, so it is no surprise that they never said victory of Allah.
The Help of Allah and the Victory (نصر الله والفتح)
Having al-fath without a linked word after connecting it to nasr Allah created a strange feel in Arabic.
Arabs were used to matching names. So they would say:
nasr Allah wa fathu-hu
or
al-nasr wa al-fath
Like we say:
The duties and the rights of man
We do not say:
The duties of man and the rights
We say:
The character of a person and his manners
Not:
His character and the manners
So this structure adds uniqueness and marks it as belonging to the language of the Quran alone.
So Glorify the Praise of Your Lord (فسبح بحمد ربك)
Whether the verb sabbih was new to the Arabs — which is more likely — or whether they had known it before, it surprises them here by being connected to praise instead of being connected to the one praised, which would usually be the name of Allah or one of His names, as we find in other verses such as:
سَبِّحِ اسْمَ رَبِّكَ الْعَظِيمَ (الواقعة: ٧٤)
“Glorify the name of your Lord, the Most Great” (al-Waqiʿa: 74)
نُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِكَ كَثِيرًا (البقرة: ٣٣)
“We glorify You often” (al-Baqara: 33)
تُسَبِّحُ لَهُ السَّمَاوَاتُ السَّبْعُ وَالْأَرْضُ وَمَنْ فِيهِنَّ (الإسراء: ٤٤)
“The seven heavens and the earth and all that is in them glorify Him” (al-Israʾ: 44)
In the first verse, the verb connects to the name of Allah using bi. In the second, it connects directly with no particle. In the third, it connects with li. But in this surah, the verb is connected not to Allah Himself, but to His praise. This type of structure is repeated in other parts of the Quran.
Indeed, He is the One Who Accepts Repentance (إنه كان توابا)
To feel how unique this phrase is in its language, we can try expressing its meaning in our own speech, or the speech of any Arab, or even in the speech of the Prophet himself.
How would we begin the sentence? Most likely, we would say — keeping the words —
fa-innahu kana tawwaban or faqad kana tawwaban.
Even though this phrase is part of a verse and not a separate verse on its own.
In other words, in our speech, we would not leave out the letter fa at the beginning of the sentence, because this fa connects it to what came before and gives it an explanatory or causal meaning. We glorify Allah and ask His forgiveness because we know He accepts repentance from those who repent and seek forgiveness.
Compositions Found In The Qur’an
When the Help of Allah Comes and the Victory (إذا جاء نصر الله والفتح)
The use of idha for past time in this verse, the linking of nasr to Allah, and the joining of the unlinked word al-fath with the linked phrase nasr Allah, all in this unique grammatical structure, make it a new Quran’s composition with its own rhythm and identity, different from traditional Arabic phrases and maybe even different from other compositions.
So Glorify the Praise of Your Lord (فسبح بحمد ربك)
This is another unique composition. It combines a glorifying verb that connects through bi to a source of action done by Allah — praise — followed by one of Allah’s names, the Lord, which is linked to the second-person pronoun referring back to the one doing the action. Would we imagine saying something like:
“Remember with the praise of your teacher” or
“Glorify with the thanks of your king”?
Indeed, He is the One Who Accepts Repentance (إنه كان توابا)
This structure begins with the particle inna, with its pronoun subject huwa, followed by the verb kana — which itself carries the meaning of inna — and its predicate in the accusative case, tawwaban, a form that shows emphasis and repetition in the doer. This became a clear pattern, repeated often, with different endings, such as:
“Indeed, it was ever an abomination and a hateful path” (al-Nisaʾ: 22)
“Indeed, He is ever Merciful to you” (al-Israʾ: 66)
“So I said: seek forgiveness from your Lord, indeed, He is ever Forgiving” (Nuh: 10)
Open Meanings
The Opening/Victory (الفتح)
This word can carry several meanings. It may mean victory over enemies, the Victory of Makka, the opening of hearts to the new religion, the victory of lands along with them, and the entrance of people into Islam in crowds and tribes. This gives the word a nature with layers of meaning, making it one of the multi-dimensional words.
It can mean war, but it can also mean peace and safety. It can mean relief, as the opposite of hardship and trial, and it can mean uncovering, as the opposite of hiding, blocking, and locking up.
Wherever Islam enters, peace, goodness, and growth enter with it. It is as if doors of all these things are being “opened” to the people by the Muslims opening their lands. At the same time, it is also a physical opening of cities, fortresses, and lands that had been closed before.
You Saw (ورأيت)
This verb also has more than one possibility. The one being addressed is not clearly defined. It could be the Prophet, or it could be any Muslim who lived through the great victories that happened in the last years of prophethood, or even any Muslim who sees any victory for Islam across time — in the past, the present, or the future.
The verb could mean actual seeing and witnessing, for those who fought or lived through the victory, or it could mean simply remembering, as we understand it today, and as others who did not live through the first victories understand it.
So Glorify the Praise of Your Lord (فسبح بحمد ربك)
The verb sabbih, even on its own, has many meanings according to the scholars of tafsir. It means remembering Allah, declaring His greatness, thinking about His creation, being amazed at Him, and honouring Him. It is also the name of a specific prayer. Some said the Prophet prayed it at Duha time on the day of the Opening, eight rakʿat, and some called it the prayer of victory.
When the verb is connected to its additions — bi hamdi rabbik — these additions give it more layers and meanings. They open the door to more images and questions. What is the difference between glorifying Allah, glorifying Him, glorifying with His name, and glorifying with His praise?
And Seek His Forgiveness, Indeed He Is the One Who Accepts Repentance (واستغفره إنه كان توابا)
The call from Allah to His Prophet — and to all Muslims — to thank Him and glorify Him for the victory and the entrance of people into the religion in the thousands, is natural and expected. But the call to seek forgiveness and to repent after that is less clear, and raises questions: what is the Prophet seeking forgiveness for? What is he repenting from?
The scholars tried to give indirect answers. Many hadiths point to the idea that this was a signal from Allah to His Prophet that the end of his life was near, and that his mission was complete. It is even reported from Ibn Masʿud that this surah is called the Farewell Surah.
The Prophet passed away two years after these victories and conquests.
Comprehensive Phrases
The Help of Allah (نصر الله)
This phrase became part of our everyday language after the Quran came down, especially when we speak about war, struggle, and martyrdom. We say it with hope, linking victory to Allah. It also became part of Arabic names. Many fathers started naming their sons Nasr Allah.
The Opening/Victory (الفتح)
This is one word, not a full phrase, but it took a strong place in the Arabic language after the Quran. Many verbs, nouns, and titles came from it. People said:
Allah opened for him in his wealth
Allah opened for him in writing
The Arabic Opening of Andalus
The Islamic Conquests
Fath al-Futuh
Books were written like: The Openings of the Lands, The Makkan Openings, Tafsir Fath al-Qadir, and many others.
They Enter the Religion of Allah in Crowds (يدخلون في دين الله أفواجاً)
This phrase is repeated every time a group of people enters Islam, every time there is a big victory for Islam, or when the number of new Muslims grows in a certain country or in the whole world.
The Religion of Allah (دين الله)
This is a phrase that we cannot do without now, in any speech or study about Islam or about religions in general, especially revealed religions.
