(Revealed before Hijrah)
Consensus of opinion among the Companions of the Holy Prophet is that the Surah was revealed very early at Mecca, probably towards the end of the fourth year of the Call, before the Emigration to Abyssinia which took place in the month of Rajab in the fifth year. Its connection with Chapters Bani Isra’il and Al-Kahf consists in the fact that some account of the rise and progress of the Jews and Christians was given in these two Chapters. In Bani Isra’il it was particularly stated that the Jews would suffer national eclipse twice and twice they would rise to power and glory, and that the followers of Islam would, like the Jews, also rise to power twice and twice like them they would decline and fall. In Surah Al-Kahf the same subject was dealt with at greater length, specially the part dealing with Christians. After it had been explained in that Surah that Muslims would sustain national disaster at the hands of the followers of the Messiah of the Mosaic Dispensation and would regain their lost glory under the lead and guidance of the Messiah of the Islamic Dispensation, a brief history of the Christian Faith is given in the present Surah. The Surah thus constitutes a third link in the chain in which Chapters Bani Isra’il and Al-Kahf respectively form the first and second link. In fact, the three Chapters deal with the same subject and follow the same pattern in dealing with that subject.
In the abbreviated letters at the head of the Surah a comparison has been instituted between Christian and Islamic doctrines and attention has been drawn to the fact that while originally Christianity was a Divine Dispensation, subsequently some false doctrines and dogmas found their way into its teaching. As these doctrines run counter to Divine attributes, a brief account of Jesus’s birth has been given to refute them. This account is preceded by a brief mention of Prophet Zachariah, because according to biblical prophecies Prophet Elijah was to have descended from heaven 'before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord' (Mal. 4:5); and Jesus on being asked by the Jews about Elijah, who was to have appeared before him, answered that he was John who had come in his power and spirit (Matt. 11:14, 15; 17:12; Mark 9:13). He also told them that Elijah was not to have come from heaven but like all mortals was to have been born of an earthly mother in the form of another man and that he was John (Matt. 11:11; Luke 7:28).
While giving an account of Jesus, the Surah refers to the unusual manner of his birth without the agency of a human father. The procedure adopted to bring about this most extraordinary consummation implied that Prophethood was now going to be transferred from the House of Isaac to that of Ishmael, since there had remained among the Israelites no male from whose loins a Prophet of God should have been born. After this the Surah reinforces the argument against the godhead of Jesus by stating that if all the Prophets from Adam down to the last Israelite Prophet before Jesus, to whom a brief reference is made in the Surah, were mere human beings, why should Jesus, who was also only a Prophet of God, be invested with Divine attributes and be regarded as God or Son of God. As Resurrection and Life after death were to be widely denied in the Latter Days by Christians with whom the Surah particularly deals, much stress has also been laid on the Hereafter, and stale and hackneyed arguments of disbelievers against it exposed and refuted. The disbelievers, the Surah says, seem to derive false comfort from their wealth, material means and large numbers and adduce these things as an argument in support of their denial of the Life after death and of their belief that what really matters is the present life. They are warned that they should not be deceived by the apparent material weakness of believers and of their own power, wealth and vast resources since Truth always progresses gradually and in stages but most surely it does triumph in the end. The Surah ends with an answer to an implied question, viz. why Arabic has been adopted as a vehicle for the revelation of the Qur’anic teaching. The answer given is: Since the Arabs are the first addressees of the Qur’an, and it is natural and also sensible that a Message should be addressed to a people in their own tongue in order that they should easily understand it and having understood it should convey it to others; therefore the Qur’an has been revealed in Arabic.