(Revealed before Hijrah)
This Surah was revealed at Mecca in the early years of the Call. Noldeke places it after Chapter 51, while according to Muir it was revealed somewhat later. In the preceding Surah attention was drawn to the great spiritual revolution, which was brought about by the Qur’an. It was in the fitness of things and quite in accordance with the laws of nature (the Surah stated) that because men had become corrupt and had forgotten God, a new Revelation should have come. The Surah had ended on the note that like the former Prophets the Holy Prophet will meet with severe opposition, but the cause of Truth will triumph and disbelievers will be punished. The present Surah refers to the biblical prophecies about the Holy Prophet and warns disbelievers that if they persisted in their opposition Divine punishment will overtake them.
The Surah opens with a direct and emphatic reference to the prophecies about the Qur’an and the Holy Prophet in the Bible and states that the Bible, the Qur’an and the Ka‘bah all bear witness to the truth of Islam and the Holy Prophet, and warns disbelievers that opposition to Truth is never productive of good results. But those righteous servants of God, who accept the Divine Teaching and mould their lives in accordance with it, would receive Divine favours. Next, the Surah declares that the Holy Prophet is neither a soothsayer nor a madman nor a poet but a true Messenger of God, because the great moral and spiritual revolution brought about by him could not be the work of a madman or a poet; nor could the great Divine Book—the Qur’an—that has been revealed to him, be the work of a forger of lies. It has been revealed by the Great Creator of the heavens and the earth. The Holy Prophet seeks no reward nor will disbelievers’ plans against him succeed, because he is under God’s protection. But Divine punishment, which is fast approaching, will overtake the disbelievers.