revelation in this very short Sura, the Sura An-Nasr (cx):
When the help of God, and the victory1 arrive,
And thou seest men entering the religion of God by troops.
Then utter the praise of the Lord and implore His pardon,
for He loveth to turn in mercy.
Thus encouraged, he was able to proceed. Undoubtedly the unity of the
political community, the consolidation of his followers as a religious
corporation needed a centre other than Madina. The time had now come when, if
Islam was to be the one politico-religious force in Arabia which Muhammad had
from the first intended it to be, Mecca must become its centre.
He saw that the Meccans were now weary of strife, that many Quraish leaders
were either dead or had joined him, that everywhere in the country his own power
was extending, and that it would be now possible by a determined effort to
capture Mecca and once for all break down the remaining opposition of the
Quraish.
The thirteenth Sura is the last Meccan one, but the forty-first verse is
interpolated and probably refers to this period:
See they not that we come to the land and diminish the borders thereof? God
judges and there is none to reverse His judgement, and He is swift at reckoning
up. Sura Ar-Ra'd (xiii) 41.
Ibn 'Abbas 2 and other commentators refer this to