When was surah fajr revealed

Introducing this Surah as Husain-ibn-Ali's Surah may be for the reason that the clear example of the. Or, perhaps, it is for the same reason that one of the commentaries about the 'Ten Nights' means the first ten nights of Muharram, the first month of the Muslim new year , which is closely relevant to Husain-ibn-Ali as.

At any rate, these great rewards and outstanding merits are for the ones who recite the Surah as a preparation for their own self-improvement and self-perfection.

Skip to main content. What An Invitation! What a Host! What Serenity! In the Name of your Lord! Surah Al Fajr The Dawn. The Surah is so designated after the word wal-fajr with which it opens. Its contents show that it was revealed at the stage when persecution of the new converts to Islam had begun in Makkah. On that very basis the people of Makkah have been warned of the evil end of the tribes of Ad and Thamud and of Pharaoh.

Its theme is to affirm the meting out of rewards and punishments in the Hereafter, which the people of Makkah were not prepared to acknowledge, Let us consider the reasoning in the order in which it has been presented. First of all, swearing oaths by the dawn, the ten nights, the even and the odd, and the departing night, the listeners have been asked: "Are these things not enough to testify to the truth of that which you are refusing to acknowledge?

Then, reasoning from man's own history, the evil end of the Ad and the Thamud and Pharaoh has been cited as an example to show that when they transgressed all limits and multiplied corruption in the earth, Allah laid upon them the scourge of His chastisement. This is a proof of the fact that the system of the universe is not being run by deaf and blind forces, nor is the world a lawless kingdom of a corrupt ruler, but a Wise Ruler is ruling over it, the demand of Whose wisdom and justice is continuously visible in the world itself in man's own history that He should call to account, and reward and punish accordingly, the being whom He has blessed with reason and moral sense and given the right of appropriation in the world.

After this, an appraisal has been made of the general moral state of human society of which Arab paganism was a conspicuous example; two aspects of it in particular, have been criticized: first the materialistic attitude of the people on account of which overlooking the moral good and evil, they regarded only the achievement of worldly wealth, rank and position, or the absence of it, as the criterion of honor or disgrace, and had forgotten that neither riches was a reward nor poverty a punishment, but that Allah is trying man in both conditions to see what attitude he adopts when blessed with wealth and how he behaves when afflicted by poverty.

Second, the people's attitude under which the orphan child in their society was left destitute on the death of the father. Nobody asked after the poor; whoever could, usurped the whole heritage left by the deceased parent, and drove away the weak heirs fraudulently.

The people were so afflicted with an insatiable greed for wealth that they were never satisfied however much they might hoard and amass. This criticism is meant to make them realize as to why the people with such an attitude and conduct in the life of the world should not be called to account for their misdeeds.

The discourse has been concluded with the assertion that accountability shall certainly be held and it will be held on the Day when the Divine Court will be established. At that time the deniers of the judgment will understand that which they are not understanding now in spite of instruction and admonition, but understanding then will be of no avail.

The denier will regret and say, "Would that I had provided for this Day beforehand while I lived in the world. However, as for the people who would have accepted the Truth, which the heavenly books and the Prophets of God were presenting, with full satisfaction of the heart in the world, Allah will be pleased with them and they will be well pleased with the rewards bestowed by Allah.

They will be called upon to join the righteous and enter Paradise. There are some very basic core principles that all prophets were given and these are principles that all decent people can agree on regardless of their faith. These are basic morals that would keep a nation from rebelling and protect it from destruction. Muslims can sometimes be more concerned with following the intricate rules of fiqh to the letter pertaining to an act like Hajj for example but then ignore the larger principles of this deen like not backbiting and cheating, like being kind and truthful.

As a result of this rebellion they caused an increase in corruption. They built these beautiful buildings but at the same time there is huge tyranny. Even in our time we see this in societies that have great buildings and roads and look great aerially but when you get on ground level you see injustices like racism and homelessness. In a city like London there are places that attract tourists due to its history or cultural significance but a stones throw away from that place it would not be uncommon to find many societal problems like crime.

When you rebel tughyan in the land injustice and corruption spreads. At this point when the land becomes completely corrupt Allah swt unleashes his punishment. Allah swt is addressing the messenger here and telling him what He did to those nations that came before but of course the disbelievers are also listening.

Sawt is a leather whip considered by some linguists to be the worse kind of torture as it does not cause bleeding but hurts the skin where the pain can be most severe due to the sensitive nerves there. The word sab literally means to pour a bucket over somebody and with this verse Allah swt is saying that He unleashed his whip or enormous pain with one powerful strike, drenching and overwhelming these people all at once.

Allah swt did not just say He sent His punishment upon them but rather He says He threw it upon them. A whip will only hit one part of you but if a punishment is poured over you it will overwhelm you and they will be overwhelmed with this punishment. When one is whipped he is normally lashed a number of times but here Allah swt says He whipped them very hard but only once. However, this is only the whip in this life. There is another one coming in the next life and the punishment of the next life is more severe.

Some scholars say that this verse is tied with verse three whereby this whip is the odd watr and the one that is coming will make it the even one. In that case, the whip of Allah swt came over him all at once. Mirsaad is a place where someone lies in wait for an enemy, waiting for the perfect moment to ambush them.

Allah swt is informing us that he is already in position and ready to attack the Quraysh. By not specifying the target the one opposing the message is kept anxious through the suspense of knowing that Allah swt could attack and punish anyone at anytime. There is a shift now in this surah from the collective to the individual, from Allah swt threatening the nation which happened at the beginning to Allah swt now commenting on the individual human being.

When a group of people are warned against something the impact is not that great, as the individuals making up the group feel protected by the fact that they are in a large group and the responsibility gets diminished and distributed amongst them.

By warning an individual however the affect is far greater. In the previous surah Allah swt spoke of the ones that turned away tawal-la and disbelieved kafara and in this surah we have been told that the reason they turned away in disbelief was rebellion tughyaan and the consequence of that rebellion was corruption fasaad. This process of corruption does not begin with nations but rather it begins with people, as nations do not become corrupt before people do.

When enough individuals become corrupt, the nation becomes corrupt. Normally in Arabic we would say idha abtalahu when we test him but here Allah swt says idha ma-btalahu which renders the meaning as when Allah swt thoroughly tests and the ma signifies each and every time man is tested. There are a number of words in the Quran used for testing.

The word intahana means to test in a way that does not cause pain and the word balaw means to test someone with a test that has some difficulty.

The word ibtilaa is to test someone with the toughest, harshest and most vigorous type of testing and this is the word used in this verse. This word was also used in Surah Al Baqarah to describe how Allah swt tested Ibrahim as , as his tests were very hard.

Allah swt tests man by making him noble in society and worthy of prestige. The word ikram means to cause someone to be honoured and no one can be called kareem noble unless that nobility is recognised by others.

One cannot call oneself honoured and can only be called thus once others begin to show you honour and resect. Everywhere he turns he has luxuries and amenities that are available to him. Thus Allah swt tests this person in two ways.

The first tough test Allah swt gives man here is an honourable and distinctive position in society making him famously recognised. Outside the home he is given honour and prestige and inside the home he is given luxuries and amenities abundantly — a life of comfort and ease wherever he turns.

This all sounds like a very odd test and not very testing at all but nonetheless Allah swt calls this a very difficult test. Ordinarily when people go through job loss, or poverty, or sickness, life is considered tough but when finances are good and work is going well, the home is paid off, the business is going well, life is considered good.

The corrupt mind would consider the more you have as being an indication of how much Allah swt loves you. In fact some of the worst people in the sight of Allah swt were considered very noble by their people, for example, the Quraysh. It is easy to recognise that poverty or calamity is a test and people often fail it because they lack sabr. What makes the attainment of honour and wealth a test is realising that this it is a test in the first place. This word is in the present tense and implies that this was a statement that was made over and over.

Had this word been in the past tense qaala it would have implied that the statement was made only once. This man says that Allah swt has honoured him. Normally in Arabic you would expect the verbal form of the sentence akramanee rabbee but here we have the nominal form and it again implies that it is a statement said often. This man acknowledges the honour and prestige he has been given but not the blessings.

In the history of man it is often seen that the most powerful and corrupt men in history believed that God had honoured them with this power and authority and given divine help. As a consequence they believed they were above the people. Thus, essentially we learn here that when these people acknowledge their Lord it is not out of humility but rather it is out of arrogance.

They believe that Allah swt has honoured them like He swt has not honoured others and chosen them over all others and as a consequence they must be special and deserving of and entitled to all these blessings and luxuries. At the individual level this is a very sick disease.

Qadara is to precisely calculate something and the implied meaning in this verse is that this same person is thoroughly tested again by having his future provisions restricted. Whatever this man possessed was written for him in his Qadr destiny , both when it was plentiful and when it was scarce. Allah swt did not take anything away nor give anything that was not already written for this person.

The word ahaanan means to make an effort to humiliate someone out of animosity towards them. This person is saying that Allah swt has humiliated him but in parenthesis he is saying that it is because Allah swt hates him or because Allah swt is angry with him. In Arabic you can spell a word with a full and complete spelling but also with a partial spelling.

For example, in the previous verse we found the word akraman although grammatically one would say akramanee. The function of it in that verse was to indicate that Allah swt makes the night stroll which is unusual and so the unusual spelling was used which is part of the eloquence of the Quran.

In the previous verse this unusual feature was used to make an exclamation mark i. We often meet people who are adamant in their belief on certain affairs and who are not open to reason or evidences let alone discussion. Similarly it is sometimes not possible to reason with and advise someone being tested to be patient as they are intent upon complaining out of sheer frustration or arrogance that Allah swt has humiliated them.

This verse talks about rizq and we learn that rizq is two things, the physical blessings that Allah swt gives us but also the honour. When this person has his wealth taken away he feels that as a result his honour has also been taken away as the people around him only ever respected him because of his wealth.

The only way this person thinks he can get his honour back is by getting his wealth back. This is not an abstract concept that only applies to the Quraysh or the disbelievers. These are things that the believers today say to one another all the time. Allah swt is teaching us the nature of insaan and the usage of this word makes clear that Allah swt is addressing all of man and not necessarily just the Kuffar. The root origin of insaan is nasiya which means to forget i.

Insaan also comes from the word ins which is to have affection and so we can often develop affection for things other than Allah swt like wealth and honour which makes us forget our real purpose in life.

It is also important to appreciate that we are not entitled to anything from Allah swt. If you accept that Allah swt is your master you will understand that anything He swt gives is a gift, as He owns everything and we were born with nothing, and when He does not give we cannot complain, as it was never ours to begin with. When man does not understand this and finds he no longer possesses his wealth the first step he takes with shaytaan is to complain that Allah swt has humiliated him.

The next step is open rebellion against Allah swt as this person will question why he should obey Allah swt after being humiliated. This person will try to justify making money through haram as he will say that Allah swt did not let him earn halal. This rebellion began with a corrupt attitude that brought about corruption in the nations before us and their ultimate destruction. Allah swt says in the Quran that whosoever He swt humiliates none can honour which is why we find that some of the most wealthy people in this world are also the most humiliated whilst those people who have nothing are honoured in such a way that nothing negative can be said about them.

Thus it is apparent how nations become corrupt through corrupt individuals who carry incorrect concepts about Allah swt. May Allah swt change our attitudes about wealth and honour by means of these verses.

Allah swt has been discussing the individual human being but the Quraysh have reached the point where when the individual is spoken of they do not think of themselves. It has to be spelled out for them and so there is another migration in the surah. As Muslims we should know who the orphans in our community are, where they live and what difficulties they have.

It is those people with no backing or support. Al-Muddaththir Al-Qiyamat Ad-Dahr Al-Mursalat An-Nabaa An-Nazi'at Abasa At-Takwir Al-Infitar Al-Mutaffifin Al-Inshiqaq Al-Buruj At-Tariq Al-A'la Al-Gashiya Al-Fajr Al-Balad Ash-Shams Al-Lail Adh-Dhuha Al-Sharh At-Tin Al-Alaq Al-Qadr Al-Baiyina Al-Zalzalah Al-Adiyat Al-Qari'a At-Takathur Al-Asr Al-Humaza Al-Fil