(Revealed before Hijrah)
This is the last Surah of the Ha Mim group. Like other Chapters of this group it was revealed at Mecca towards the middle of the Holy Prophet’s ministry before Hijrah. Noldeke places its revelation immediately after Chapter 7. The Surah seems to resemble its sister Surahs of the Ha Mim group in tone and tenor. The preceding Surah had ended on the solemn declaration that 'God is the Mighty, the Wise.' In the present Surah the claim made in these words is sought to be justified. The Surah claims that the Qur’an has been revealed by the Wise and Mighty God. God is Wise in the sense that the Qur’anic teaching is based on sound and solid foundations, and is supported by reason, common sense and accumulated human experience; and He is Mighty in the sense that by living up to its ideals and principles Muslims will gain ascendancy and predominance over their opponents.
Like the preceding six Chapters this Surah opens with the subject of the Qur’anic revelation and Divine Unity which constitutes its main theme, and gives the following arguments in refutation of idolatry: (a) Only that Being can command and demand of us that we should adore and worship Him Who, besides being our Creator and Sustainer, is Almighty and All-Powerful and can therefore compel obedience to His laws and commandments. (b) Idolatry finds no support in any revealed Scripture. (c) Human knowledge, reason and experience repel it and revolt against it. (d) A deity which cannot, and does not, answer our prayers is of no use and the so-called gods of idolaters are incapable of responding to the prayers of their votaries. The Surah next says that the Holy Prophet’s claim to Prophethood is no new phenomenon. Divine Messengers have been appearing at all times and among all peoples to teach them Unity of God and their duty to their fellow-beings. It then dismisses as foolish and unfounded the plea which the disbelievers generally put forward as an excuse for rejecting the Divine Revelation, viz. 'If there had been any good in the revelation presented to us, we, being better informed and better placed in life, would have been the first to accept it.' The Surah further says that whereas disbelievers, being proud of their great material resources and social status, reject the Divine Message, others who are endowed with faith and spiritual wealth, accept it and stick to it under the severest trials and tribulations. It then refers to the fate of ‘Ad, a people who had flourished in the neighbourhood of the Meccans, to show that disbelief never prospers. The Adites were so completely destroyed that not a vestige of their great and glorious civilization remained. Towards its end the Surah sounds a note of warning to the people of the Holy Prophet that they should not be misled by their wealth and prosperity and by the present poverty and weakness of Muslims, and that if they persisted in rejecting the Divine Message, their prosperity itself would prove to be their ruin. The Surah ends with an exhortation to the Holy Prophet and his followers, calling upon them, that as brave votaries of Truth they should bear with patience and fortitude all the suffering and persecution to which they are being subjected, as the time was fast approaching, when their cause will triumph and their persecutors will stand before them in utter disgrace and humiliation, begging for forgiveness and mercy.