(Revealed before Hijrah)
Preponderance of scholarly opinion regards this Surah as of Meccan origin and assigns it to the last Meccan period. Certain Western writers are of the view that it was revealed very early in the Holy Prophet’s ministry. They attribute this inference to the absence of any reference to persecution of Muslims on the part of the Quraish which, they say, began some years later. This assumption is too flimsy to merit serious consideration. This is like saying that because some Medinite Chapters are almost devoid of any mention of disbelievers, therefore, no fighting had taken place between Muslims and disbelievers in the Medinite period.
Surah An-Nur had ended on a note about the very great importance and usefulness of the Islamic organisation. It had also stated that certain Muslims were unacquainted with its great potentialities; on the other hand, they were afraid of the organisation of disbelievers which was rotten to the core. The present Surah gives the reasons why the fear of the people of weak of faith is but an illusion and a figment of their own distraught imagination and does not exist in fact.
The Surah opens with the categorical statement that the Qur’anic Message is meant for the whole of mankind. It further says that the Almighty God Who has revealed the Qur’an is the sole and undisputed Master of the heavens and the earth, and the sole Creator of every atom of the universe. His Word, therefore, is and must be in perfect harmony with the laws of nature, hence its acceptance or rejection does not merely mean the acceptance or rejection of a revealed Law but amounts to submission to or violation of the laws of nature itself. Next, it is stated that because disbelievers find it difficult to deny the excellence and superiority of the teachings of the Qur’an, they take refuge behind the subterfuge that it is not the work of a single individual but is the result of the combined efforts of many persons. They further allege that its teaching has been plagiarised from old Scriptures. But these pleas possess no substance because if the Qur’an had been the work of human effort, it could not have possessed a teaching which it is beyond the power of man to produce. And if it had been merely a copy of the ancient Scriptures, those Scriptures should also have possessed the excellences and beauties possessed by it, but that is not the case. Next, it answers some worn out and hackneyed objections of disbelievers such as the Holy Prophet is a mere mortal and is subject to the demands of the flesh. Then, a brief reference is made to the law of the rise and fall of nations and disbelievers are warned that the time of their decadence and downfall and that of the rise, progress and prosperity of Muslims has already arrived. Furthermore, the attention of disbelievers is drawn to the phenomenon that God has made two waters, one bitter and the other sweet, both flowing side by side. They continue their parallel course and do not mix with each other. Similarly, the teachings of the Qur’an and those of other Scriptures will continue to exist side by side in order that by comparing them people might distinguish the true from the false and the sweet from the bitter. Towards its end, the Surah mentions a few special signs and marks of those righteous servants of God who by acting upon the teachings of the Qur’an attain to the highest pinnacle of spiritual eminence, and closes with a pointed reference to the great truth that God has created man to serve a very sublime and noble object and whosoever fails to fulfil this object will forfeit God’s mercy and grace.