(Revealed before Hijrah)
This Surah, like the two preceding it, is among those Chapters which were revealed at Mecca in the very early years of the Call. Noldeke and Muir, besides Muslim scholars, subscribe to this view. Towards the end of the preceding Chapter, the Holy Prophet was told that his duty was confined to conveying the Divine Message to his people. The present Surah opens to deal with the incident of ‘Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum, and proceeds to teach the moral lesson that it is not worldly riches and social status which determine the real worth of a person, but the goodness of his heart and willingness on his part to listen to truth and accept it. It also constitutes an eloquent commentary on the Holy Prophet’s regard for the susceptibilities of the poor and oppressed people. It further says that being the last Divine Message for mankind the Qur’an will be respected and read all over the world and will be protected and preserved. The Surah ends on a note of warning to disbelievers that if they rejected its Message and persisted in opposing the Holy Prophet, they will have to face a day of reckoning when misery, shame and ignominy will be their lot. The righteous believers, however, will reside in the ‘Gardens of Bliss,’ their faces beaming with Divine joy and happiness.