When was Sūrah al-Nāṣr revealed?
Question
When was Sūrah al-Naṣr (the Divine Assistance) revealed?
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Answer
Sūrah al-Naṣr is the 110th Sūrah of the Qurʾān and is Madīnan.[1] This, according to the preferred view, means that it was revealed after Hijrah (the great migration) irrespective of the location of the revelation.[2] A narration from ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them) (d. 73/693) suggests that this Sūrah was revealed during the middle of the days of tashrīq (referring to 12th Dhū al-Ḥijjah) during the farewell pilgrimage in the 10th year after Hijrah.[3] This is affirmed by the following narration in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (3024) that suggests that this was the final Sūrah to be revealed:
عن عبيد الله بن عبد الله بن عتبة قال: قال لي ابن عباس: يا ابن عتبة تعلم آخر سورة نزلت من القرآن؟ قلت: نعم ، إذا جاء نصر الله والفتح ، قال: صدقت
ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUtbah said, Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allāh be pleased with them) said to me, “O Ibn ʿUtbah, [do] you know the last chapter of the Qurʾān to be revealed?” I said, “Yes, [the Sūrah that begins with] إذا جاء نصر الله والفتح”. He [Ibn ʿAbbās] said, “You have spoken the truth.”
It should be noted that this was the final Sūrah to be revealed as a complete Sūrah and does not mean that it was the final revelation. This is because several verses of the Qurʾān were revealed at the same time or thereafter. They include the verse regarding the completion of the faith (al-Māʾidah, 3), the verse pertaining to the deceased who has no children (al-Nisāʾ, 176), the verse describing the Prophethood of the Prophet ﷺ and his qualities (al-Tawbah, 128) and the verse regarding the hereafter and accounting for actions (al-Baqarah, 281).[4] ʿAllāmah Abū ʿAbd Allah al-Qurṭubī (d. 671/1273) suggests that the first of these four verses along with Sūrah an-Naṣr were revealed eighty days before the death of the Prophet ﷺ, the second verse fifty days before, the third verse thirty five days before, and the final verse twenty one or nine or seven or three days or three hours before the death of the Prophet ﷺ.[5] However, it is worth noting that the verse regarding the completion of the faith (al-Māʾidah, 3) appears to have been revealed before Sūrah al-Naṣr on Friday 9th Dhū al-Ḥijjah in ʿArafah, as explicitly mentioned in the narration of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (45).
Thus, the final Sūrah to be revealed as a complete Sūrah is Sūrah al-Naṣr. There is a ḥadīth in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (4364; 4605; 4654) that suggests that the final Sūrah to be revealed is Sūrah al-Tawbah. Scholars have however interpreted this to mean certain parts of the Sūrah and not the entire Sūrah[6], as indicated above.
Allah knows best
Mohammed Siddiq
Approved by: Shaykh Yusuf Shabbir
13 Muḥarram 1438 / 14 October 2016
Footnotes
[1] Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr (8: 509).
[2] Ibid (1: 18).
[3] Musnad al-Bazzār (6135); as-Sunan al-Kubrā (9672); Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr (8: 509).
[4] Imām Bukhārī (d. 256/870) cites the view of ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them) (d. 68/687-8) who suggests this was the final verse to be revealed. See Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (2086).
[5] Tafsīr al-Qurṭubī (20: 233). Also see (3: 375) and Fatḥ al-Bārī (8: 316, 734).
[6] Fatḥ al-Bārī (8: 316, 734).
