In connection with the first question...

In connection with the first question, the first thing to remember is that this was the penultimate verse of QUR'AN. Only one more AYA-revealed just a few minutes afterwards- and the QUR'AN was closed. The inclusion in the verse of the words, "…. God will defend thee…" reveals that, for the necessity to have arisen of assuring the prophet of divine protection, the message referred to must have been of such a nature as would give umbrage to a strong party.

Now consider what that message could have been. This was only about two months before the death of the prophet (p), by which time almost the whole of Arabia had been cleared of the pagans; the Jews had been humbled, and the Christians had finally made peace with the prophet. MAKKA had been conquered, and had accepted Islam. Thus it was not from these quarters that any danger was to be apprehended.

Moreover, what message could have been more offensive to these groups than what had already been publicly communicated to them; the forty verses of SURAT AT-TAWBA contained terrible threats to the pagans and unbelievers, and had been announced to them By Imam Ali at the Hajj preceding this Last Hajj. They had done their worst and failed; the danger from them had already come and gone, and no such assurances of divine protection were needed at that time in their case.

All this shows, therefore, that this new message was of such a nature that it could be the cause of a new danger from a particular quarter, a danger of such a sinister and formidable nature as to require special assurances of divine protection.

I cannot lay too much emphasis on the fact that the conquest of Arabia by Muhammad was almost complete by the time that this verse was revealed, as it is a pointer to the outcome of the present enquiry, namely, what the nature of the message referred to in the verse was.

There had been a time when the prophet had been alone, preaching his mission to a hostile world, driven from place to place, stoned, teased, harassed and injured, with no shelter, no helper, until at last obliged to leave his native town. All those dangers encountered had been successfully overcome; yet no such divine assurances had been needed then.

The danger at this final stage must therefore have been of a peculiar kind not experienced before, and be from a quarter so insidious and sinister as to be inconspicuous and not easily discerned.