(Revealed before Hijrah)

Date of Revelation and Context
The Surah was revealed early at Mecca, very probably in the 6th year of the Call or even earlier. The preceding Chapters had dealt with the subject of Resurrection and the great and marvellous revolution which was brought about by the Holy Prophet among his people and which has also been called "resurrection" in the Qur'an . This "resurrection" was to take place twice, first by the advent of the Holy Prophet himself and then by his Second Advent in the person of a great Deputy of his-the Promised Messiah and Mahdi-to which a clear reference is made in 62:4. It is this second renaissance of Islam at the hands of the Promised Messiah and the great changes which were to take place in his time which this Surah speaks of. It opens with a description of those changes and follows it up with a fleeting reference to the moral degeneration of Muslims at that time and to the causes thereof, and ends by striking a note of optimism and cheerfulness to them, holding out to them the promise that eventually the night of the degradation of Muslims will give place to the dawn of their success, because Islam, being God's last Message for the whole of mankind, has come to stay.

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

إِذَا الشَّمْسُ كُوِّرَتْ
2] When the sun is wrapped up,[3261]

وَإِذَا النُّجُومُ انكَدَرَتْ
3] And when the stars are obscured,[3262]

وَإِذَا الْجِبَالُ سُيِّرَتْ
4] And when the mountains are made to move,[3263]

وَإِذَا الْعِشَارُ عُطِّلَتْ
5] And when the she-camels, tenmonth pregnant, are abandoned,[3264]

وَإِذَا الْوُحُوشُ حُشِرَتْ
6] And when the beasts are gathered together,[3265]

وَإِذَا الْبِحَارُ سُجِّرَتْ
7] And when the seas are made to flow forth one into the other,[3266]

وَإِذَا النُّفُوسُ زُوِّجَتْ
8] And when people are brought together,[3267]

وَإِذَا الْمَوْءُودَةُ سُئِلَتْ
9] And when the girl-child buried alive is questioned about,

بِأَيِّ ذَنْبٍ قُتِلَتْ
10] ‘For what crime was she killed?’[3268]

وَإِذَا الصُّحُفُ نُشِرَتْ
11] And when books are spread abroad.[3269]

وَإِذَا السَّمَاءُ كُشِطَتْ
12] And when the heaven is laid bare,[3270]

وَإِذَا الْجَحِيمُ سُعِّرَتْ
13] And when the Fire is caused to blaze up,[3271]

وَإِذَا الْجَنَّةُ أُزْلِفَتْ
14] And when the Garden is brought nigh,[3272]

عَلِمَتْ نَفْسٌ مَا أَحْضَرَتْ
15] Then every soul will know what it has brought forward.[3273]

فَلاَ أُقْسِمُ بِالْخُنَّسِ
16] Nay! I call to witness the planets that recede,

الْجَوَارِ الْكُنَّسِ
17] Go ahead and then hide.[3274]

وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا عَسْعَسَ
18] And I call to witness the night as it passes away,

وَالصُّبْحِ إِذَا تَنَفَّسَ
19] And the dawn as it begins to breathe,[3275]

إِنَّهُ لَقَوْلُ رَسُولٍ كَرِيمٍ
20] That this is surely the revealed word of a noble Messenger,[3276]

ذِي قُوَّةٍ عِنْدَ ذِي الْعَرْشِ مَكِينٍ
21] Possessor of power, established in the presence of the Lord of the Throne,

مُطَاعٍ ثَمَّ أَمِينٍ
22] Obeyed there, and faithful to his trust.[3277]

وَمَا صَاحِبُكُمْ بِمَجْنُونٍ
23] And your companion is not mad.

وَلَقَدْ رَآهُ بِالأُفُقِ الْمُبِينِ
24] And he assuredly saw Him[3278] on the clear horizon.

وَمَا هُوَ عَلَى الْغَيْبِ بِضَنِينٍ
25] And he is not niggardly with respect to the unseen.[3279]

وَمَا هُوَ بِقَوْلِ شَيْطَانٍ رَجِيمٍ
26] Nor is this the word of Satan, the rejected.

فَأَيْنَ تَذْهَبُونَ
27] Whither, then, are you going?

إِنْ هُوَ إِلاَّ ذِكْرٌ لِلْعَالَمِينَ
28] It is nothing but a Reminder unto all the worlds,

لِمَنْ شَاءَ مِنْكُمْ أَنْ يَسْتَقِيمَ
29] Unto such among you as desire to go straight,

وَمَا تَشَاءُونَ إِلاَّ أَنْ يَشَاءَ اللَّهُ رَبُّ الْعَالَمِينَ
30] While you desire not a thing except that Allah, the Lord of the worlds, desires it.[3280]

3261. It is generally said that the Surah deals with the Final Resurrection, when the laws and processes of nature as we know them will cease to operate. But its whole trend and tenor speak so clearly of the conditions which obtain in the physical world that some of the verses will lose all sense if they are taken as referring only to the Final Resurrection. In fact, the Surah speaks of the great changes that have already taken place in the material world and in human life since the time of the Holy Prophet, particularly in our own time. The verse may mean: When there will be spiritual darkness all over the world-the light of the Spiritual Sun (The Holy Prophet) having become dim or disappeared altogether. Or, it may refer to the eclipses of the sun and the moon, which according to a well-known saying of the Holy Prophet, were to take place in the time of the Mahdi, in the month of Ramadan; a phenomenon which the world had never witnessed before (Qutni, p. 188). These eclipses of the sun and the moon took place in 1894 exactly as foretold.

3262. Al-Nujum (stars) signifies religious Ulema. This meaning is supported by a well known saying of the Holy Prophet: 'My Companions are like stars, whomsoever you will follow, you will receive right guidance' (Baihaqui). So the verse may mean: When religious leaders will become corrupt and will cease to exercise any influence. The reference may also be to the falling of the stars in exceptionally large numbers in the time of a Divine Reformer.

3263.  When mountains will be blown away by dynamite and roads will be made through them; or metaphorically, when the authority of rulers will become undermined; the word Jabal meaning, the chief of a people (Lane).

3264. 'Ishar is the plural of 'Ushara' which means, a she-camel that has been ten-months with young. 'Ishar is applied to she-camels until some of them have brought forth and others are expected to bring forth (Lane). The verse means that when she-camels will lose their importance even in Arabia The reference seems to be to the replacement of camels by better and swifter means of transport-railway trains, steamships, motor cars, aeroplanes, etc. There is a pointed reference to camels being replaced by other means of transport in a saying of the Holy Prophet which is to the effect: 'The camels will be abandoned and will not be used for going from one place to another' (Muslim).

3265.  In view of the different meanings of the root-word Hushira (Lane), the verse would signify: When animals will be collected in zoos; or when primitive people will be settled in organized civil communities; or, when they will be compelled to leave their homelands.

3266. The verse signifies: When the waters of rivers will be drained away for irrigation and other purposes; or; when in sea-fights very large ships will be set on fire and it would seem as if the seas had caught fire; or, when large oceans will be joined together by means of canals; or, when rural population will go into towns and cities will overflow with their inhabitants. The word, Sujjira, possesses all these meanings (Lane).

3267. When means of transport and communication will become so developed, and intercourse between peoples living in far off lands become so easy and frequent as to make them unite into one people. The verse may also signify that people holding analogous social or political views will form themselves into parties.

3268. The burying or burning alive of girls will be made a capital crime.

3269. The reference seems to be to the vast circulation of newspapers, journals and books and to the system of libraries and reading rooms and such other places and means of spreading knowledge in the Latter Days.

3270. The verse may refer to the vast strides that the science of astronomy will make in the Latter Days. The advance in this branch of science during the past decade has startled the world.

3271. On account of the sinful and iniquitous conduct of man, God's wrath will be kindled and a veritable hell will be let loose upon the world in the form of destructive wars.

3272. As in the Latter Days evil will abound and man will abandon himself to vice and the worship of Mammon, even a small act of righteousness will make him deserving of great reward and will draw him closer to Heaven.

3273. God's special decree will come into force and the punishment of man's evil deeds will take the form of widespread natural calamities.

3274.  In the Latter Days Muslims will begin to decline from their position of eminence, as they will either rush forward headlong thoughtlessly to carry out their contemplated programs; or will give up all creative and constructive efforts in despair.

3275.  With the advent of the Reformer of the Latter Days the night of moral decline and degradation of Muslims will begin to depart, giving place to the dawn of a great and glorious future for Islam.

3276.  The words, 'a noble Messenger,' refer to the Holy Prophet and not to Archangel Gabriel as generally misunderstood.

3277. All the five attributes-noble Messenger, possessor of power, enjoying a high rank before the Lord of the Throne, the one entitled to obedience, and faithful to his trust in the Sight of God, quite fittingly apply to the Holy Prophet.

3278. The pronoun hu meaning "it" (glorious future of Islam), or "him" (the Holy Prophet), may signify in the first place the fulfillment of the prophecy about the glorious future of Islam and in the second place it may mean that the Holy Prophet saw himself in the distant East in the person of the Promised Messiah.

3279. God has disclosed to the world great secrets of the unknown from the mouth of the Holy Prophet.

3280. He alone would be guided to the right path who makes an attempt to find it and conforms his will to the Will of God.