(Revealed before Hijrah)
The Surah is entitled An-Naba’ because it deals with subjects of exceptional importance i.e. certainty of Resurrection, predominance of the Qur’an over all other revealed Scriptures, and of Islam over all other Faiths. The Day of Decision, i.e. the day when this Qur’anic claim will become an established fact, is mentioned twice in the preceding Surah and is repeated here. According to Muslim Commentators the Surah was revealed very early in the Holy Prophet’s ministry at Mecca. Noldeke agrees with this Muslim scholarly opinion. It opens with enumerating the great Divine gifts bestowed upon man, and directs his attention to the implied suggestions that he has been placed upon this earth to serve a certain object and his life here is the seed-bed of an eternal future and it will be followed by a Day of Reckoning. The Surah then gives a brief but an awe-inspiring picture of that Day, and a graphic description of the heavenly blessings that await the righteous and of the terrible punishment which will be meted out to the rejectors of Truth in this life and in the next.