(Revealed before Hijrah)

Date of Revelation and Context

This Chapter was among the earliest Surahs which were revealed at Mecca. From historical data it appears to have been revealed sometime in the fourth year of the Call. Noldeke places it immediately after Al-Ghashiyah, which was also revealed in the fourth year. The Surah contains a double prophecy which primarily applies to the Holy Prophet and secondarily to the Promised Messiah. In a beautiful allegory the Surah alludes to the last ten years of the Holy Prophet's life of hardship at Mecca and his Emigration to Medina, accompanied by his most faithful Companion, Abu Bakr, and to the first year of his life at Medina which was also full of strains and stresses. The Surah may also be taken as referring to the decline of Islam during the ten centuries after its first three hundred years of uniform success, and to the appearance of the Promised Messiah, as well as to the first century of trials and hardships for his mission and his followers.

After this brief allegorical description of the vicissitudes and fluctuations of the fortunes of Islam in the time of the Holy Prophet and that of the Promised Messiah, the Surah mentions the case of Pharaoh as representing the opposition which the cause of Truth always encounters. Opposition to Truth (the Surah further states) springs from accumulation of power and wealth in the hands of a particular class, and the misuse of riches and authority by them brings about their decline and destruction. The Surah ends on the note that only a few fortunate people accept the Divine Message and by walking in the ways of righteousness succeed in winning God's pleasure, and consequently enjoy complete immunity from fear of failure or faltering, and after joining the company of His Elect, enter Heaven.

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيم
[1] In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful.

وَالْفَجْرِ
[2] By the Dawn,[3332]

وَلَيَالٍ عَشْرٍ
[3] And the Ten Nights,[3333]

وَالشَّفْعِ وَالْوَتْرِ
[4] And the Even and the Odd,[3334]

وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا يَسْرِ
[5] And the Night when it moves on to its end,[3335]

هَلْ فِي ذَلِكَ قَسَمٌ لِذِي حِجْرٍ
[6] Is there not in it a strong evidence for a man of understanding?

أَلَمْ تَرَ كَيْفَ فَعَلَ رَبُّكَ بِعَادٍ
[7] Hast thou not seen how thy Lord dealt with ‘Ad[3336] —

إِرَمَ ذَاتِ الْعِمَادِ
[8] The tribe of Iram, possessors of lofty buildings,

الَّتِي لَمْ يُخْلَقْ مِثْلُهَا فِي الْبِلاَدِ
[9] The like of whom have not been created in these parts —

وَثَمُودَ الَّذِينَ جَابُوا الصَّخْرَ بِالْوَادِ
[10] And with Thamud who hewed out rocks in the valley,

وَفِرْعَوْنَ ذِي الأَوْتَادِ
[11] And with Pharaoh, lord of vast camps?

الَّذِينَ طَغَوْا فِي الْبِلاَدِ
[12] Who transgressed in the cities,

فَأَكْثَرُوا فِيهَا الْفَسَادَ
[13] And wrought much corruption therein.

فَصَبَّ عَلَيْهِمْ رَبُّكَ سَوْطَ عَذَابٍ
[14] Thy Lord then let fall on them the whip[3337] of punishment.

إِنَّ رَبَّكَ لَبِالْمِرْصَادِ
[15] Surely thy Lord is on the watch

فَأَمَّا الإِنسَانُ إِذَا مَا ابْتَلاَهُ رَبُّهُ فَأَكْرَمَهُ وَنَعَّمَهُ فَيَقُولُ رَبِّي أَكْرَمَنِ
[16] As for man, when his Lord tries him and honours him and bestows favours[3338] on him, he says, ‘My Lord has honoured me.’

وَأَمَّا إِذَا مَا ابْتَلاَهُ فَقَدَرَ عَلَيْهِ رِزْقَهُ فَيَقُولُ رَبِّي أَهَانَنِ
[17] But when He tries him and straitens for him his means of subsistence, he says, ‘My Lord has disgraced me.’

كَلاَّ بَل لاَ تُكْرِمُونَ الْيَتِيمَ
[18] Nay, but you honour not the orphan,

وَلاَ تَحَاضُّونَ عَلَى طَعَامِ الْمِسْكِينِ
[19] And you urge not one another to feed the poor,

وَتَأْكُلُونَ التُّرَاثَ أَكْلاً لَمًّا
[20] And you devour the heritage of other people wholly,

وَتُحِبُّونَ الْمَالَ حُبًّا جَمًّا
[21] And you love wealth with exceeding love.[3339]

كَلاَّ إِذَا دُكَّتِ الأَرْضُ دَكًّا دَكًّا
[22] Nay, when the earth is completely broken into pieces and made level;

وَجَاءَ رَبُّكَ وَالْمَلَكُ صَفًّا صَفًّا
[23] And thy Lord comes[3340] and also the angels ranged in rows after rows;

وَجِيءَ يَوْمَئِذٍ بِجَهَنَّمَ يَوْمَئِذٍ يَتَذَكَّرُ الإِنْسَانُ وَأَنَّى لَهُ الذِّكْرَى
[24] And Hell is brought near that day; on that day man will remember, but of what avail shall be his remembrance?

يَقُولُ يَا لَيْتَنِي قَدَّمْتُ لِحَيَاتِي
[25] He will say, ‘O would that I had sent on some good works for my life here!’

فَيَوْمَئِذٍ لاَ يُعَذِّبُ عَذَابَهُ أَحَدٌ
[26] So on that day none can punish like unto His punishment,

وَلاَ يُوثِقُ وَثَاقَهُ أَحَدٌ
[27] And none can bind like unto His binding;[3341]

يَا أَيَّتُهَا النَّفْسُ الْمُطْمَئِنَّةُ
[28] And thou, O soul at peace!

ارْجِعِي إِلَى رَبِّكِ رَاضِيَةً مَرْضِيَّةً
[29] Return to thy Lord well pleased with Him and He well pleased with thee.[3342]

فَادْخُلِي فِي عِبَادِي
[30] So enter thou among My chosen servants,

وَادْخُلِي جَنَّتِي
[31] And enter thou My Garden.

3332.  "The Dawn" may signify the Holy Prophet's Emigration to Medina with which ended the dark night of persecution at Mecca. It may also signify the advent of the Promised Messiah who was to bring a message of hope and of a bright future for Muslims after centuries of their decline and decadence.

3333. "The Ten Nights" may represent the last ten dark years of severe persecution to which Muslims were subjected at Mecca, or the ten centuries of the decline and decadence of Muslims before the advent of the Promised Messiah, with which would end the dark period of their spiritual and political degradation, and which would usher in the dawn of a glorious future for Islam . An implied reference to these "Ten Nights" or ten centuries of the decline of Islam is also to be found elsewhere in the Qur'an (32:6). These ten centuries (or a thousand years) of the moral decadence of Muslims came after the first three centuries of the heyday of their glory and grandeur which have been called the best three centuries of Islam by the Holy Prophet (Bukhari, Kitab Al-Riqaq), had passed. The decline of Islam began towards the end of the third century A.H., when, on the one hand; an Umayyad Caliph of Spain signed a pact of mutual assistance with the Pope against the Abbaside Empire of Baghdad and, on the other, the Caliph of Baghdad entered into a treaty of friendship with the Caesar of Rome against the Umayyad Caliph of Spain.

3334. Continuing the allegory the word Al-Shaf (the Even) may allude to the Holy Prophet and Abu Bakr his ever faithful Companion. The two of them made the number even, and God Who was with them in the hour of tribulation was Al- Watr (the Odd). To this "Even and Odd" number, a pointed reference is to be found in 9:40. Or; the Holy Prophet and the Promised Messiah may be taken as making an even number and Allah an odd number, or "the Even and the Odd" may signify that whereas the Holy Prophet and the Promised Messiah were two separate individuals, the Promised Messiah was so completely lost in the Holy Prophet as to have become one with him.

3335.  "The Night" may represent the first year of the Hijrah which did not see any abatement of the Holy Prophet's worries. Though after the Emigration to Medina the "Morning" had dawned for the Muslims, yet they were not completely out of the wood; they had to suffer hardships for another night, i.e., another year of hardships after which in the Battle of Badr the Quraish suffered a crushing defeat and the Prophet Isaiah's prophecy (21 :16) was literally fulfilled: 'For thus hath the Lord said unto me; within a year, according to the years of an hireling and all the glory of Kedar shall fail.'

3336.  'Ad were a very powerful people in their time. They excelled their contemporary nations in material means and resources.

3337. Sauf means a whip; scourge; vehemence (Lane).

3338. Favours are bestowed upon man, sometimes to test his mettle; at other times to reward him for his good actions. Similarly, he is involved in troubles that he may be tried and rewarded or punished according to his desert. But man is so constituted that when he is in ease and affluence, he regards these things as the fruits of his own labour and superior intelligence (28:79); but when misfortunes overtake him; he attributes them to God.

3339. The verse drives home to hoarders of wealth the evils of hoarding. Inordinate love of money creates in man an excessive desire to keep on adding to his wealth, without spending it for the furtherance of good causes. It makes him regardless of the means he employs to acquire it, which leads to his moral ruin. Islam takes as much care of the moral health of society as it takes of that of the individual; and society's health requires that material goods be widely distributed and wealth kept in easy circulation.

3340.  The 'coming of the Lord' attended by the angels is a Quranic idiom for imminent and destructive Divine punishment.

3341. The mill of God grinds slowly, but it grinds exceeding small. God is slow to punish but when His punishment comes, it is most destructive. 'It spares not and it leaves naught' (74:29).

3342.  This is the highest stage of spiritual development when man is well-pleased with his Lord and his Lord is well-pleased with him (58:23). At this stage which is called the heavenly stage, he becomes immune to all moral weaknesses and frailties and is braced with a peculiar spiritual strength. He is "united" with God and cannot exist without Him. It is in this life and not after death that this great spiritual transformation takes place in him and it is in this world and not elsewhere that access to Paradise is granted to him.