(Revealed before Hijrah)
By common consent this Surah was one of the first two or three Surahs which were revealed at Mecca. This and the preceding Surah (Al-Muzzammil) seem to be "twins" as they are so closely linked as regards the time of their revelation and their tone and tenor. The present Surah, in fact, complements the subject-matter of the preceding one. The Muzzammil of the previous Surah, immersed in devotional prayers and contemplation and passing through a period of intense preparation for the attainment of spiritual perfection, has become developed into the Muddaththir (destroyer of sin and vanquisher of the forces of evil, deliverer of mankind, their leader, guide and warner) of the present Surah. From that time onward, the Holy Prophet’s life was no more his own. It was given to God. He preached the Divine Message with unswerving purpose, in the face of insult, opposition and persecution. The Surah opens with a firm command to the Holy Prophet to stand up, proclaim the Truth he has and warn those who would not accept it—those whom wealth, power and position have rendered spiritually blind and deaf—that they would suffer punishment because they did not offer Prayers and did not feed the poor and because also that they indulged in vain pursuits. The Surah ends on the note that the Qur’an is but a reminder and an exhortation. He, who accepts its Message, accepts it for the good of his own soul and he, who rejects it, does so to his own detriment.