(Revealed before Hijrah)
By common consent the Surah is considered to have been revealed at Mecca, towards the middle of the Meccan period, or, as some say, in the sixth or seventh year of the Call. The preceding Surah, Ar-Rum, had ended on the note that the Qur’an explains fully all those teachings that deal with the spiritual development and progress of man. But the disbelievers have not the eyes to see the truth, their hearts being sealed. They see Sign after Sign and yet go on harping on the tune that the Holy Prophet is a liar and a forger. The present Surah opens with the solemn affirmation that the Holy Prophet is not a forger or a liar and that this Book, the Qur’an, has been revealed to him by the Wise and All-Knowing God. It is full of wisdom and leads an honest seeker after truth to the right path. It was further mentioned in the preceding Surah that the cause of Islam will continue to prosper and triumph and disbelievers will meet with defeat, disgrace and humiliation. In the present Surah some light is shed on those noble moral principles by acting upon which nations and individuals can achieve success and prosperity and can rise to greatness and eminence.
The Surah in its very beginning refers to the sine qua non of success—correct belief and right action—and proceeds to discuss some universal moral principles from the mouth of a non-Arab sage, Luqman, the basic principle being that God is One and that all other noble ideals flow from this belief. The principle, second in importance to Divine Unity, concerns man’s obligations to man, the most essential of which are his obligations to his parents. In between these two basic commandments a Muslim is taught to subordinate all his loyalties to God and to allow no other loyalty, not even loyalty to parents, to conflict or clash with his loyalty to His Creator. But under no circumstances should he cease to be kind and considerate and respectful to them. Next, it is stated that man’s duty to God takes practical shape in the observance of Prayers and his obligations to mankind in doing good and abstaining from evil. The Surah says that when a true believer enters upon the noble and arduous task of preaching the truth and calling upon people to live righteously, difficulties and impediments bar his way and he has to put up with opposition, abuse, and persecution. He is told to bear all this opposition and persecution with patience and fortitude. When he is not discouraged or dismayed by the opposition and persecution he has to face in the discharge of his great and noble task, success comes his way and large crowds of people give their allegiance to him. In the hour of public applause and acclamation he should not lose his mental poise and should particularly be on his guard against conceit and arrogance. The Surah then refers to the laws of nature implying that these laws are working in favour of Islam. It ends on a note of warning to disbelievers that the day of their reckoning when their wealth and their influence, power and prestige, would prove of no avail, is fast approaching. Even their children will accept Islam and spend their wealth to promote its cause.