Subject and Topics
This Sura discusses the conflict between the Holy Prophet and the chiefs of Makkah
which was rampant at the time of its Revelation and answers those objections and
doubts which were being put forward concerning his Prophethood and the Doctrines of
Tauhidand the Hereafter. The chiefs of Makkah have also been rebuked for their
machinations against the Holy Prophet and warned of the evil consequences of their
wicked activities. They have been admonished to give up their indifference and
heedlessness that they were showing about the Message. At the end of the Sura
they have been told that the person whom they considered to be a "distress and
affliction" had in reality come to them as a blessing.
Main Themes
In vv. 1-47
the following themes have been discussed in particular : (1) The objection of the
disbelievers that a human being could not be a Messenger and therefore they could not
accept Muhammad (peace be upon him) as a Prophet
has been refuted. (2) They have been taken to task for raising multifarious and
contradictory objections against the Holy Prophet and the Qur'an. (3) Their wrong
conception of life has been proved to be false because it was responsible for their
indifferent and heedless attitude towards the Message of the Holy Prophet. They
believed that life was merely a sport and pastime and had no purpose behind or before
it and there was no accountability or reward or punishment. (4) The main cause of the
conflict between the disbelievers and the Holy Prophet was their insistence on the
doctrine of shirkand antagonism to the Doctrine of TauhidSo the doctrine of skirkhas
been refuted and the Doctrine of Tauhidreinforced by weighty and impressive though
brief arguments. (5) Arguments and admonitions have been used to remove another
misunderstanding of theirs. They presumed that Muhammad (peace be upon him) was
a false prophet and his warnings of a scourge from God were empty threats
just because no scourge was visiting them in spite of their persistent rejection of the
Prophet. In vv. 48-91
instances have been cited from the important events of the life stories of the Prophets
to show that all the Prophets
who were sent by God
were human beings and had all the characteristics of a man except those which were
exclusive to Prophethood. They had no share in Godhead and they had to implore Allah
to fulfil each and every necessity of theirs. Along with these two other things have also
been mentioned: (1) All the Prophets had to pass through distress and affliction; their
opponents did their worst to thwart their mission
but in spite of it they came out successful by the extraordinary succour from Allah. (2)
All the Prophets had one and the same "way of life'
the same as was being presented by Muhammad (Allah's peace be upon him)
and that was the only Right Way of Life and all other ways invented and introduced by
mischievous people were utterly wrong. In vv. 92-106
it has been declared that only those who follow the Right Way
will come out successful in the final judgment of God and those who discard it shall
meet with the worst consequences. In vv. 107-112
the people have been told that it is a great favour of Allah that He has sent His
Messenger to inform them beforehand of this Reality and that those
who consider his coming to be an affliction instead of a blessing
are foolish people.
