(Revealed before Hijrah)
The Surah, like the preceding one, was, as its subject-matter shows, among the earliest Chapters to be revealed at Mecca. It is almost wholly devoted to the subject of the inevitability of the Resurrection; and adduces the sure and certain success of the Holy Prophet against heavy odds as an argument in support of this hypothesis. As the Holy Prophet’s ultimate success and the Resurrection were regarded by disbelievers as impossible, the coming to pass of the one did indeed, constitute an incontrovertible proof that the other will also take place. Thus the Surah opens with a firm and emphatic declaration that enemies of Truth shall be routed. It then proceeds to draw a parallel between the destruction of the deniers of the Divine Message and the Resurrection and says that for disbelievers the "hour" of punishment will be most distressful and agonizing and for the believers it will be a time of perennial joy and happiness. The Surah closes with a firm and emphatic declaration that both these events—the Resurrection and the success of the Prophet’s cause, against very heavy odds and under the most unfavourable circumstances—will, most surely, come to pass, because what the Prophet says is God’s own revealed Word and not the bragging of a poet, nor the idle conjectures of a soothsayer, nor a fabrication, for, if he had forged a lie against God, he would have met with certain and violent death, because a forger is never allowed to prosper.