(Revealed before Hijrah)
All competent authorities assign the revelation of this Surah to the early Meccan period. Its tenor and contents support this view. The preceding two Surahs had dealt with the prospects of a great and glorious future for Islam, and also with the social and political problems that arise when power and wealth come to a people. The present Surah, having the abbreviated letter Qaf in its beginning, points to the fact that the Almighty God has the power to make the weak and disorganised Arabs into a powerful nation, and that He will certainly bring about this consummation, using the Qur’an as the means and instrument for achieving this purpose.
The Surah is the first of a group of seven Chapters which end with Surah Al-Waqi‘ah. Like all Meccan Chapters it lays special stress, in emphatic and prophetic language, on the Qur’an being the revealed Word of God, on Resurrection being an undoubted reality, and particularly on the ultimate triumph of the cause of Islam. The Surah points to the phenomena of nature and to the histories of the past Prophets as guides which lead to this inevitable conclusion. It opens to deal with the all-important subject of Resurrection, and in order to prove the truth of this primal fact, uses as an argument the phenomenon that a people, who for long centuries had remained spiritually dead and defunct, will receive a new and vigorous life through the Qur’an. The Surah further says that disbelievers cannot bring themselves to accept the fact that a Warner can appear from among them to tell them that they will be raised to life after 'they are dead and have become dust.' They are told to study the wonderful creation of the celestial firmament with the beautiful stars and planets which adorn it and which work with a regularity and punctuality that knows no deviation, and to ponder over the creation of the vast expanse of the earth which grows all sorts of fruits and foods for its dwellers. They will then realize that the Author and Architect of this great and complex universe possesses the power and wisdom to give man a new life after his physical habitat has disintegrated. The Surah then points to the purposefulness of the creation of man—God’s supreme creature and His noblest handiwork—and to his discretion and complete responsibility and accountability for his actions. The Surah ends on the note that the creation of the universe and of man, its apex and acme, shows that the wise Creator could not have brought into existence this complex universe without a great purpose behind its creation. This leads to the conclusion that there must be and there is a life beyond the grave.