Understanding ‘Deen’

THE CONCEPT OF RELIGION This chapter of the Quran clearly indicates the arrival of victory and the widespread acceptance of Islam— specifically, victory through Allah’s help and a large number of people embracing Islam. There is no mention of the background or circumstances surrounding this victory and assistance. Therefore, interpreting these verses as suggesting that the previous efforts of the Prophetic mission in Arabia were aimed at establishing a particular political system, and that this victory and support marked the end of that revolutionary fight, is an external interpretation that has been added and connected here. These verses do not describe the nature of the Prophetic mission, nor is there any explicit evidence elsewhere to support such an interpretation. As a result, this argument is similar to someone hypothesizing that the Prophetic mission was primarily a struggle to free the Arab nation from the control of religious leaders and landowners. Such a person might connect this view to these verses and claim that the message is that the Arab national struggle led by Muhammad œ succeeded on the day of the conquest of Makkah, after which the oppressed people under the old system gathered in large numbers under his banner. If this latter interpretation is incorrect, then the first interpretation cannot be correct either.