(Revealed before Hijrah)
According to consensus of scholarly opinion the Surah was revealed at Mecca. In the preceding Surah it was pointed out that though the former Prophets possessed no material means, yet their mission progressed and prospered because they had the Word of God to guide and help them. So will the Holy Prophet succeed in his mission. The Word of God, the present Surah emphatically declares, is a great force before which no worldly power can stand. Forging of lies against God is not a thing to be trifled with and impostors and forgers of lies against God soon meet their deserved end, and it is stated that the Qur’an is the revealed Word of God and possesses irrefutable proofs to establish its Divine origin.
The basic theme of the Surah is that no heavenly Scripture can approach the Qur’an in beauty of diction and style and in the grandeur of its contents. It is a revealed Scripture par excellence. It stands unequalled and unrivalled in every respect. Its beauties and good qualities are so many and so varied that even disbelievers on occasions are forced to confess that they possess nothing like it and wish that they too had possessed a Scripture like it. In spite of this confession on their part, they do not see their way to accept it and do not realize that by their refusal to accept the Qur’an they would be deprived of truth and would draw upon themselves the displeasure and punishment of God. The Qur’anic Message is bound to succeed and nothing can stand in its way. Those who hesitate or refuse to accept it will themselves be the sufferers. The Surah then states that if the Qur’anic revelation is ridiculed and treated with contempt, it is nothing to be wondered at, for the revelations of previous Prophets also were held up to scorn. But the scoffers do not appreciate this patent fact that it is no easy thing to forge lies against God, because to do so is to invite sure destruction. The All-Powerful God sees to it that lies are not successfully forged against Him and that a forgery becomes easily distinguished from His revealed Word. He vouchsafes it a special distinction and eminence and creates a favourable atmosphere for its acceptance by right thinking men and raises those who accept it from a low to a very high level of moral excellence.