(Revealed before Hijrah)
Jabir, ‘Ikrimah and Ibn Mas‘ud, one of the earliest Companions of the Holy Prophet and a great authority on Qur’anic chronology, are of the view that the Surah was revealed very early at Mecca. It takes its place in point of time next to the preceding one. In some of the foregoing Chapters conditions obtaining both in the time of the Holy Prophet and in the Latter Days were simultaneously mentioned. Surah Az-Zilzal had dealt with the great advances that were to be made in science and knowledge, especially in the science of geology, and also with the vast changes that were to take place in the political, social and economic spheres in the Latter Days. The present Surah deals with the zeal and enthusiasm of the Companions of the Holy Prophet and with the great sacrifices they made and the battles they fought against heavy odds in the way of God. Some mystics take the Surah to refer to the constant war that the righteous believers have to wage against their evil passions and propensities, and to the heavenly light they receive as a result of the successful outcome of that fight.