Period of Revelation
Muqatil and Kalbi say that it was partly revealed at Makkah and partly at Madinah. Hadrat Abdul]ah bin Abbas and Ata bin Yasar say that vv. 1-13 were revealed at Makkah and vv. 14-18 at Madinah. But the majority of commentators regard the whole of the sura as a Madinan Revelation. Although there is no internal evidence to help determine its exact period of revelation
yet a study of its subject matter shows that it might probably have been sent down at an early stage at Madinah. That is why it partly resembles the Makkah suras and partly the Madinan Suras.
Theme and Subject Matter
The theme of this sura is invitation to the Faith and obedience (to Allah) and the teaching of good morals. The sequence followed is that the first four verses are addressed to all men; verses 5-10 to those men
who do not believe in the invitation of the Qur'an; and verses 11-l8 to those who accept and believe in this invitation. In the verses addressed to all men
they have been made aware in a few brief sentences of the four fundamental truths: First
that the universe in which they live is not Godless
but its Creator
Master and Ruler is an All Powerful God
and everything in it testifies to His being most Perfect and absolutely faultless. Second
that the universe is not without purpose and wisdom
but its Creator has created it with truth no one should be under the delusion that it is a mock show
which began without a purpose and wiil come to an end without a purpose. Third
that the excellent form that God has created you with and the choice that He has given you to choose between belief and unbelief is not a useless and meaningless activity so that it may be of no consequence whether you choose belief or unbelief. In fact
God is watching as to how you exercise your choice. Fourth
that you have not been created irresponsible and un-answerable. You have to return ultimately to your Creator
and have to meet the Being who is aware of everything in the universe
from Whom nothing is hidden
to Whom even the innermost thoughts of the minds are known. After stating these four fundamental truths about the Universe and Man
the address turns to the people who adopted the way of unbellef
and their attention is drawn to a phenomenon which has persisted throughout human history
namely that nation after nation has arisen and ultimately gone to its doom. Man by his intellect and reason has been explaining this phenomenon in a thousand ways
but Allah tells the real truth and declares that the fundamental causes of the destruction of the nations were only two First
that they refused to believe in the Messengers whom He sent for their guidance
with the result that Allah too left them to themselves
and they invented their own philosophies of life and went on groping their way from one error to another. Second
that they also
rejected the doctrine of Hereafter
and thought this worldly life to be an end in itself
and that there was no life hereafter when they would have to render an account of their deeds before God. This corrupted their whole attitude towards life
and their impure morals and character so polluted the world that eventually the scourge of God itself had to descend and eliminate them from the scene. After stating these two instructive truths of human history
the deniers of the message of Truth have been admonished to wake up and believe in Allah
His Messenger and the Light of Guidance that Allah has sent in the form of the Qur'an if they want to avoid the fate met by the former peoples. Besides
they have been warned that the Day shall eventually come when all the former and the latter generations will be collected ødt one place and the fraud and embezzlement committed by each will be exposed before all mankind. Then the fate of each man will be decided finally on the basis as to who had adopted the path of the Faith and righteous ness and who had followed the way of disbelief and denial of the Truth. The first group shalt deserve eternal Paradise and the second shall be doomed to everlasting Hell. Then
addressing those who adopt the way of the Faith
a few important instructions have been given: First
that whatever affliction befalls a person in the world
it befalls him by Allah's leave. Whoever in this state of affliction remains steadfast to the Faith
Allah blesses his heart with guidance; otherwise although the affliction of the one who in confusion or bewilderment turns away from the path of the Faith
cannot be averted except by Allah's leave
yet he becomes involved in another
the greate