(Revealed after Hijrah)
The Surah is the second of the last seven Medinite Chapters of the Qur’an. It contains a somewhat detailed reference to the evil custom of zihar (calling one’s wife one’s mother) which was only cursorily dealt with in Surah Al-Ahzab which shows that this Surah was revealed before Al-Ahzab. But as Al-Ahzab was revealed between 5th and 7th year of the Hijrah, the present Surah, therefore, must have been revealed earlier; very likely between the 3rd and the 4th year. In the immediately preceding Surah—Surah Al-Hadid—"the People of the Book" were sternly told that Divine grace was not their monopoly and that since they had repeatedly defied and opposed and persecuted God’s Messengers, it would now be transferred for all time to the House of Ishmael. In the present Surah Muslims are warned that as their material prosperity would excite the enmity of their external and internal foes, they should be on their guard against their evil designs and machinations. And, it is an invariable practice of the Qur’an that whenever it deals with the machinations of the enemies of Islam, it also makes a pointed reference to some social evils. This method was adopted in Surahs, An-Nur and Al-Ahzab, and it has been adopted in the present Surah also.
The Surah opens with a sharp denunciation of the evil custom of ihar and by citing the case of Khaulah, a Muslim lady, lays down the ordinance that if anyone calls his wife "mother," he has to atone for this heinous moral lapse by either freeing a slave, if he has one, or by fasting for two successive months, and failing that by feeding sixty needy persons. The Surah then proceeds to deal with the plots and conspiracies of the internal enemies of Islam and condemns the formation of secret societies and holding secret conferences to injure its cause. Then with befitting relevance it lays down some rules of conduct about social gatherings; and towards its close it sternly warns the enemies of Islam that by their opposition to it they will incur God’s wrath but will never be able to arrest or impede its progress. This warning to disbelievers is followed by an equally strong warning to believers, that under no circumstances should they make friends with the enemies of their Faith, however closely related the latter might be to them, as by opposing Islam they have waged a veritable war against God, and friendship with God’s enemies is inconsistent with true faith.