(Revealed before Hijrah)
The Surah was revealed about the same time as the preceding one, An-Najm, which was revealed in the 5th year of the Call. Surah An-Najm had ended on a note of warning to disbelievers that the Hour of their doom had drawn near, and the present Surah opens with the expression that the threatened Hour has almost arrived—it is at their very door. This is the fifth of the group of seven Qur’anic Chapters which begin with Surah Qaf and end with Al-Waqi‘ah. All these Chapters were revealed very early in the Holy Prophet’s ministry and deal with the basic doctrines of Islam—Existence and Unity of God, Resurrection and Revelation; and adduce laws of nature, human reason, common sense and histories of the past Prophets as arguments to prove these theses. In some of them special emphasis is laid on one kind of arguments with a fleeting reference to other kinds and vice versa. In the present Chapter the Holy Prophet’s Divine claim and Resurrection have been dealt with, with special reference to the histories of the past Prophets, particularly to those of Noah, the tribes of ‘Ad and Thamud and Lot’s people. Towards its end the Chapter makes a pointed reference to the fulfilment of the prophecy about the destruction and overthrow of the power of pagan Arabs about which a warning had been given in the preceding Surah (53:58).