Period of Revelation
Although Mujahid
Qatadah and Muqatil regard it as a Madani Sura
yet a great majority of the commentators opine that it is Makki; its subject matter also
testifies that it must have been sent down in the earliest stage at Makkah
when the message of Islam was being presented in brief but highly impressive
sentences so that the listeners who heard them once could not forget them even if they
wanted to
for they were automatically committed to memory.
Theme and Subject Matter
This Sura is a matchless specimen of comprehensiveness and brevity. A whole world of
meaning has been compressed into its few brief words
which is too vast in content to be fully expressed even in a book. In it
in a clear and plain way it has been stated what is the way to true success for man and
what is the way to ruin and destruction for him. Imam Shafe has very rightly said that if
the people only considered this Sura well
it alone would suffice them for their guidance. How important this Sura was in the sight
of the Companions can be judged from the tradition cited from Hadrat Abdullah bin Hisn
ad-Darimi Abu Madinah
according to which whenever any two of them met they would not part company until
they had recited Sura Al-Asr to each other. (Tabarani)
