(Revealed before Hijrah)
Baihaqi and Ibn Mardawaih report Ibn ‘Abbas as saying that the Surah was revealed at Mecca. According to Qurtubi the consensus of scholarly opinion also regards the Surah as having been revealed very early in the Holy Prophet’s ministry at Mecca. Its style and subject matter also support this view. In the preceding Surah the Holy Prophet was called "The Perfect Leader" who was given the Qur’an as an infallible guide for the whole of humanity till the end of time. In the beginning of the present Surah it is stated that this "Perfect Leader" will, with the help of the Qur’an and by his own noble example, succeed in bringing into being a community of righteous men.
The Surah opens with a firm declaration that under the fostering care of the Holy Prophet—"The Perfect Leader"—a community of noble and righteous men will be born who not only themselves will glorify God and sing His praises—so much so that the sandy wilderness of Arabia will resound with them—but by precept and practice will prevent others from idol-worship and evil practices, till the Unity of God will become firmly established in Arabia and from there the light of Islam will spread to the ends of the earth. The Surah, then proceeds to say that whenever there appears a Prophet of God in the world, forces of darkness seek to obstruct the spread of his Message by misrepresenting and misinterpreting it, or by misquoting the Prophet and tearing a passage out of his revelation and mixing much falsehood with it. But they completely fail in their evil designs, and truth continues to make progress. It further says that when disbelievers are told that the teachings of the Qur’an will bring about a great change in Arabia and the spiritually dead Arabs will not only receive a new life but, having received it themselves, will impart it to others, the disbelievers jeer and scoff at the idea and call it the ravings of a maniac and the phenomenon as outside the bounds of possibility like the coming into life of those who are physically dead. The Surah replies to the firm denial of the disbelievers of this phenomenon with a firmer affirmation that such a thing will certainly come to pass and they will suffer disgrace and humiliation. Next, the Surah gives a brief description of the heavenly blessings that will be bestowed upon the righteous and chosen servants of God. The account of heavenly blessings and bounties, to be bestowed on the believers is followed by an account of the punishment which will be meted out to the rejectors of truth and persecutors of God’s Prophets. Further, the Surah gives a few illustrations from the lives of Divine Prophets to show that the cause of truth never fails and its rejection is never productive of good results. The illustrations given are from the lives of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Elias, Jonas and Lot. The Surah, then, repudiates and condemns idol-worship, particularly the worship of angels. The idol-worshippers are reprimanded that they are foolish enough not to understand this simple fact that the ascription of Divine powers and attributes to weak human beings or to forces of nature or even to angels who themselves are created beings, offends against human reason, common sense and conscience. They are further told that the angels are only God’s creatures who have specific duties to perform. The Surah ends on the note that it is an unalterable Divine decree that when forces of darkness are pitted against God’s Prophets and His chosen servants, the latter receive Divine succour, while the votaries of Satan meet with defeat and discomfiture. This fact has been proved again and again in the lives of Divine Messengers and it leads to but one conclusion that 'all praise belongs to God, the Lord of all the worlds.'