(Revealed before Hijrah)
The Surah, like the three preceding ones, was revealed at Mecca, very early in the Holy Prophet’s ministry. Ibn Mas‘ud says that it was revealed before the 5th year of the Call, along with Chapters Ta Ha, A1-Kahf and Maryam. The opening verses of Surah Maryam were recited by Ja‘far before the Negus during the Emigration to Abyssinia which took place in that year. The immediate connection of the Surah with Surah Ta Ha consists in the fact that towards the end of that Surah it was stated that Divine punishment would overtake disbelievers at its appointed time, and the Holy Prophet was enjoined to bear their opposition and persecution patiently and with fortitude. The present Surah opens with a warning to disbelievers that the time of their punishment has already arrived and that though they will now have to render an account of their actions, they will continue to wander in the wilderness of heedlessness and disbelief. This is the immediate connection of the Surah with the preceding one. But it is its subject-matter as a whole, which, in fact, constitutes the real connecting link between the present Surah and some of the preceding Chapters. In Surah Maryam some of the false Christian doctrines were repudiated and rebutted, viz. that Jesus possessed Divine attributes, that he had abrogated the Law and had declared it to be a curse and that salvation depended not on good works but upon atonement. In Surah Ta Ha detailed account of Moses was given in order to refute again these false doctrines. The Christians were told that Christianity was but a link in the Mosaic Dispensation, and that Moses’s circumstances constituted a flat repudiation of their doctrines. His whole pride lay in the fact that he was a Law-giving Prophet. If the Law was a curse, then, according to Christian belief, Moses, instead of having been regarded as an object of respect and pride, should have been condemned and denounced. After this, the Surah Ta Ha gave a brief account of the lapse suffered by Adam and thus traced the Christian theory of the original sin to its very root and then refuted it. It was made clear in that Surah that sin formed no part of the heritage of man and that he is punished only for his own trespasses and offences. Next, it was stated that if it was not possible for man to get rid of sin, then the very purpose of Divine punishment is defeated and God’s Prophets and His Messengers, instead of holding out warnings to sinners, should have given them the comforting message that being mere creatures of circumstances and possessing no volition or discretion they will not be called to account for their actions. The same subject has been enlarged and expanded in the present Surah and the lesson is driven home that the enemies not only of this or that Prophet but those of all Messengers of God—from Adam to Jesus and then to the Holy Prophet Muhammad—were punished for their wicked deeds and the righteous rewarded for their good actions. If man had inherited sin and if he could not shed it, then there was no sense or justification in punishing the sinners and rewarding the righteous. So the dogma of inherited sin is a baseless invention.
The Surah opens with a warning to disbelievers that Divine punishment is fast approaching, but they are deluding themselves into a false sense of security. There never came in the world a Divine Messenger who was not jeered and scoffed at. But out of sympathy with and solicitude for the spiritual well-being of their peoples the Prophets of God invited them to accept Truth and be saved. If sin formed a part of man’s heritage, then of what avail was this invitation? The Surah then proceeds to state some objections of disbelievers which are effectively answered. After this, disbelievers are asked to consider, what new burden the Qur’an imposes upon them that they should be bent upon rejecting its Message. The primary object of that Message is to exalt and raise them to moral eminence. As it is God’s own revealed Word, its rejectors will not escape punishment. The Surah then asks disbelievers whether they have ever given the idea serious consideration that an All-Knowing and Wise God could not have created the universe without a great and grim purpose, and that those who stand in the way of its fulfilment are bound to fail. Next, the Surah deals with the all-important subject of Divine Unity which forms the basic and fundamental belief of all religions. When one uniform law pervades and governs the whole universe, it says, how can the polytheists justify Shirk (belief in the plurality of gods)? Belief in the plurality of gods implies disagreement on the part of these gods in regard to the management and control of the universe. And as evidently there exists perfect order in it, there should be only One Creator and One Controller of the whole universe. And why God should have a son, for a son is needed only when the father is likely to fall a victim to decay or death or when he cannot perform his work single-handed and unassisted. But all such notions about God are blasphemous and unfounded. After this the Surah points to another Divine law, viz. that whenever darkness enshrouds the entire face of the earth and the world suffers from a dearth of righteous men, God opens the gates of His mercy upon mankind and heavenly water, in the form of Divine revelation, descends upon earth and gives new life to a world steeped in sin and iniquity. The phenomenon of the alternation of light and darkness in the spiritual realm corresponds to a similar phenomenon in the physical world where day and night follow each other. Then the Surah drives home the argument that it is foolish on the part of disbelievers to reject the Holy Prophet on the plea that he is but an ordinary mortal. It is not the status and the position of the bearer of the Qur’anic Message so much that matters. What really matters is, who has sent him. In order to show that the Holy Prophet’s cause will prevail, the Surah cites the cases of some former Prophets—Noah, Abraham, David, Solomon, Idris, and others, who in the teeth of bitter, persistent and organized opposition succeeded in their missions. All these chosen servants of God like Jesus were models of noble and righteous conduct and like him they suffered great hardships and privations in the way of God. Then why of all of them Jesus alone should be regarded as son of God and not they? After the account of these Prophets, special mention is made of Jesus and his mother whose circumstances were in no way different from theirs. Even the unusual manner of Jesus’s birth entitles him to no particular spiritual status. The birth of Yahya had also taken place in very exceptional circumstances. If Jesus was born without the agency of a father, Yahya’s birth took place when his father had reached an extreme old age and his mother had become barren and was quite unfit to give birth to a child. Similarly, Jesus’s suffering in the cause of Truth was nothing novel. Though he was hung on the Cross he was taken down alive, but Yahya suffered actual death for the sake of God. Then why should Jesus’s death alone atone for the sins of man and not that of Yahya? Towards the end the Surah points to the phenomenal rise and great material might and dazzling prosperity, progress and power of Gog and Magog—Christian nations of the West. When these nations, the Surah proceeds to say, will spread all over the world and will occupy every position of power and eminence, and when other nations of the world will bow down to them in submission and pay homage to them, then will the promise about their ultimate destruction be fulfilled. Divine punishment will come down upon them so sudden and swift that they will be taken completely by surprise. All their handiworks, the source and cause of their pride, and all their pomp, glory and grandeur will be destroyed and reduced to ashes and dust.