هُوَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أَرْسَلَ رَسُولَهُۥ بِٱلْهُدَىٰ وَدِينِ ٱلْحَقِّ لِيُظْهِرَهُۥ عَلَى ٱلدِّينِ كُلِّهِۦ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ ٱلْمُشْرِكُونَ
Huwa'lladhī arsala rasūlahu bi'l-hudā wa dīni'l-ḥaqqi li-yuẓhirahu ʿala'd-dīni kullihi wa-law kariha'l-mushrikūn
"He is the one who sent His messenger with guidance and the religion of truth — to make it prevail over all religion, however much the mushrikūn may dislike it."
| Place | Closing |
|---|---|
| al-Tawba 9/33 | وَلَوْ كَرِهَ ٱلْمُشْرِكُونَ |
| al-Ṣaff 61/9 | وَلَوْ كَرِهَ ٱلْمُشْرِكُونَ |
| al-Fatḥ 48/28 | وَكَفَىٰ بِٱللَّهِ شَهِيدًا ("God suffices as a witness") |
The two closings look to two different pieces of work: one nullifies the reaction of the other side, the other shows the witness to the claim.
Root ظ-ه-ر. This root was analysed at al-Mumtaḥana 60/9: its concrete sense is the back (ẓahr), and from it two branches issue — to be visible (the side that turns to the front) and to prevail (to set one's back against, to back someone, to come out on top). The form ẓāharū (to back someone) was treated there.
| Reading | Its meaning | Ground |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | To make prevail, to bring to victory | The "coming out on top" branch of the root; the particle ʿalā stating superiority. |
| 2 | To bring out into the open, to make distinct | The "being visible" branch of the root; the widespread meaning of the word iẓhār. On this reading: to make the content of the religion clear and distinct over against the other religions. |
These two readings bring with them the question of what kind of superiority the superiority is. Several tendencies on this subject are transmitted in the classical commentaries: superiority in respect of proof and argument; actual dominion; and a promise concerning the end of time.
In this commentary I adopt no preference among them, and I have a ground: throughout history this verse has been made a support for political programmes, and per the method (Method) this commentary takes no side in current politics. What the wording of the verse says — that a sending has a purpose — must be kept separate from interpretations of how that purpose will be realised. The first belongs to the text, the second to interpretation.
عَلَى ٱلدِّينِ كُلِّهِۦ — "over the whole of religion". al-Dīn is singular and definite; together with kullih it comes to mean "everything that is religion".
This root will come back in the last verse of the sūra: fa-aṣbaḥū ẓāhirīn (61/14) — "they came to prevail".
That is, the sūra sets up a promise in the ninth verse and, in the fourteenth, gives with the same root an example realised in history. Promise and example are bound together by the same word.
And one further cross-link: in the preceding sūra in the order of the muṣḥaf, at al-Mumtaḥana 60/9, the same root was used of the other side — ẓāharū ʿalā ikhrājikum, "they backed your being driven out". The same root, then, names the deed of both sides in two neighbouring sūras. The question is who stands behind whom, and who comes out on top.