Verses 1–11
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ
In the name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful
This sūrah was revealed in either Mecca or Medina, and consists of 11 verses. It is said that revelation to the Prophet ceased for a while, until people began to say: “His Lord has abandoned him.” Then this sūrah was revealed to gladden his soul. The chapter’s content is compatible with having been revealed in either Mecca or Medina.
Commentary
وَالضُّحَى ١ وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا سَجَى ٢
(93:1-2) By the forenoon (al-ḍuḥá)! By the night when it settles (sajá, from sajw).
This is an oath. Ḍuḥá means “the spreading of sunlight and the stretching of the day,” according to al-Mufradāt. Thus it is applied to that time of the day. When used for the night, sajw refers to “the stillness of the night as it is covered in darkness.”
مَا وَدَّعَكَ رَبُّكَ وَمَا قَلَى ٣
(93:3) Your Lord has not abandoned you (waddaʿaka, from tawdīʿ), nor is He displeased (qalá).
Tawdīʿ is synonymous with tark (abandoning, leaving, forsaking). The noun qilá means “dislike” or “extreme dislike.” This verse is the crux of the vows [in ]. The relevance between the interruption of revelation and the day-and-night imagery here should be evident.
وَلَلآخِرَةُ خَيْرٌ لَّكَ مِنَ الأُولَى ٤
(93:4) And the afterlife is better for you than the prior.
The previous verse implies that the Prophet is completely under the aegis of divine grace and honor. This verse adds to that and elevates his status further. It is effectively saying: “Your current status—where you enjoy God’s grace and mercy—is as long as you live in this world. But your life in the hereafter will be even better for you than the life of this world.”
وَلَسَوْفَ يُعْطِيكَ رَبُّكَ فَتَرْضَى ٥
(93:5) And your Lord shall soon give you such that you shall be pleased.
This verse reiterates and confirms the last verse: And the afterlife is better for you than the prior (). The verse does not qualify either God’s giving, nor the Prophet’s pleasure. Hence, it implies an unconditional gift, which results in absolute satisfaction. According to some exegetes, the verse refers to both this life and the afterlife, rather than only the afterlife.
أَلَمْ يَجِدْكَ يَتِيمًا فَآوَى ٦
(93:6) Did He not find you an orphan (yatīman), and shelter you?
This and the next two verses refer to some of God’s great blessings upon the Prophet. His father had died before he was born. And he lost his mother when he was two. Then, when he was eight years old, his grandfather, who was his guardian, died. Thereafter his uncle raised him.
Some exegetes have interpreted yatīm (orphan) as “unique, matchless.” It means one who has no equal among the people, corresponding to the expression “peerless pearl” (durr yatīm). From this angle, the meaning would be: “Did He not find you unique among the people, so He inclined the people toward you and gathered them around you?”
وَوَجَدَكَ ضَالًّا فَهَدَى ٧
(93:7) And He found you wandering (ḍāllan, from ḍalāl), and guided you.
Ḍalāl (error, straying, misguidance) here means “being devoid of guidance.” In and of himself, the Prophet was devoid of divine guidance. Neither he nor any other human being can find guidance except through God. Viewed on his own, he was always lost and devoid of guidance; but taking God’s grace into account, divine guidance was intertwined with his being from the moment he was created. In terms of meaning, this verse is similar to the verse: You did not know what the Book is, nor what is faith (). It is also similar to the verse where God narrates from Prophet Moses: I did that when I was astray (), meaning that he had not yet been guided with the guidance of prophethood.
Here are some other suggested views:
Ḍalāl here means “lack of knowledge,” as used in the verse: so that if one of the two errs (taḍilla, from ḍalāl) the other will remind her ()
Comment: This is close to our suggested interpretation, and can be confirmed by the verse: indeed prior to it you were among those who are unaware [of it] ().
It means: “He found you lost among the people, in the sense that they were not aware of your position. So He guided and directed them toward you.”
It refers to a historical account, when the Prophet, as a child, got lost on the way to Mecca. He was traveling from the countryside with his nurse Ḥalīmah b. Abī Dhuʾayb, to his grandfather ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib.
It refers to a historical account, when he was a child and got lost in the valleys of Mecca.
It refers to a time when he got lost on a journey to Syria with his uncle Abū Ṭālib, in a caravan belonging to Maysarah, the servant of Khadījah.
Comment: There are other opinions as well, but they are all evidently weak.
وَوَجَدَكَ عَائِلا فَأَغْنَى ٨
(93:8) And He found you needy (ʿāʾilan), and made you free from need?
ʿĀʾil means “a poor person, one without any wealth.” The Prophet had been poor and did not have any property. Then God enriched him through marriage with Khadījah b. Khuwaylid, who was extremely wealthy. She offered him her wealth. Some exegetes say that made you free from need means “answered your prayers.”
فَأَمَّا الْيَتِيمَ فَلا تَقْهَرْ ٩
(93:9) So as for the orphan, do not belittle him (taqhar, from qahr).
Al-Rāghib says:
Qahr means to simultaneously: (1) dominate someone; and (2) humiliate them. It is also used for only one of them.
وَأَمَّا السَّائِلَ فَلا تَنْهَرْ ١٠
(93:10) As for the beggar, do not repel him harshly (tanhar, from nahr).
Nahr means “to repulse and turn away someone roughly.”
وَأَمَّا بِنِعْمَةِ رَبِّكَ فَحَدِّثْ ١١
(93:11) And as for the blessings of your Lord, proclaim them.
Proclaiming a blessing is either to speak about it, or to manifest it through one’s action. This amounts to gratitude for that blessing. These three verses [] are universal commands for all people, even though they are addressed to the Prophet. They stem from the previous three verses [] which recalled the blessings of God upon the Prophet. They are effectively saying: “You have indeed tasted what it means to be an orphan: humiliated and heartbroken. So do not belittle any orphan or their property. You have tasted the bitterness of a wandering person’s need for guidance, and a poor person’s need for sufficiency. So do not turn away a seeker who turns to you in need—whether in need of guidance or in need of daily bread. You have experienced many blessings which your Lord has bestowed upon you through His generosity, grace and mercy. So thank Him for His blessings by manifesting them, and do not conceal them.”
Examining Narrations
- Tafsīr al-Qummī says: By the forenoon (): That is when the sun rises in the sky. And by the night when it settles (): That is when it gets dark. Nor is He displeased (): He is not angry with you [or He does not dislike you].
- The Messenger of God said: We are a household for whom God has chosen the hereafter over this life: And your Lord shall soon give you such that you shall be pleased ().
- The Messenger of God went to Fāṭimah when she was grinding flour with a mill, and was wearing a [coarse] garment made of camel hair. When he saw her, he said: “O Fāṭimah, hasten and gulp bitterness in this world for bliss in the hereafter tomorrow.” Then God revealed: and your Lord shall soon give you such that you shall be pleased ().
Author’s comment: This narration is compatible with two possibilities: (1) The verse [] may have been revealed separately and after the previous parts of the sūrah, then appended to them. (2) The verse was revealed a second time independently.
- Ḥarb b. Shurayḥ said: I asked Muḥammad b. ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn [Imam al-Bāqir]: “This concept of intercession which the people of Iraq speak about [or narrate], is it true?”
“Yes, by God,” he confirmed. “my uncle Muḥammad b. al-Ḥanafiyyah told me, narrating from ʿAlī, that the Messenger of God said: ‘I shall intercede for my nation until My Lord asks: “Are you content, O Muḥammad?” and I say: “Yes, my Lord, I am content.”’”
Then he [Imam al-Bāqir] turned to me and asked: “You people of Iraq deem the most promising verse of the Book of God to be: O My servants who have committed excesses against their own souls, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed Allah will forgive all sins ().
“Indeed we hold that.”
“But we, the Prophet’s Household, say that the most promising verse in the Book of God is: And your Lord shall soon give you such that you shall be pleased (), referring to intercession.”
- In an audience with al-Maʾmūn, Imam al-Riḍā said: “Did He not find you an orphan, and shelter you? (). That is, did he not find you alone, then incline the people toward you? And did He not find you wandering?—that is, unrecognized among your people—and guide you? (). That is, did He not guide the people so that they come to know you? And He found you needy, and made you needless? (). That is, He made you free from need by granting your supplications.”
Al-Maʾmūn said: “May God bless you, O son of God’s Messenger!”
- A man from Basra said: I saw al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī and ʿAbd-Allāh b. ʿUmar circling the House [Kaʿbah]. I asked Ibn ʿUmar about and as for the blessings of your Lord, proclaim them (). He said: “He [the Prophet] is commanded to speak of what God had blessed him with.”
Then I asked al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī about and as for the blessings of your Lord, proclaim them (). He said: “He [the Prophet] is commanded to speak of what God had blessed him with, with respect to His religion.”
- Regarding and as for the blessings of your Lord, proclaim them () [Imam] al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī said: When something good comes to you, tell your brethren about it.
- The Prophet said: Whoever is granted a benefit and remembers it has given thanks for it, and whoever conceals it has been ungrateful for it. If one pretends to have something [a quality or property] that they do not have, they are like one who puts on a garb of deceit.
Most historians—including Ibn Hishām, al-Yaʿqūbī and al-Ḥalabī—have recorded six years old. (Ed.) ↩︎
Al-Durr al-manthūr, on the authority of Ibn Abī Shaybah, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd. ↩︎
Al-Durr al-manthūr, on the authority of al-ʿAskarī’s al-Mawaʿiẓ, Ibn Laʾāl and Ibn al-Najjār, on the authority of Jābir b. ʿAbd-Allāh. ↩︎
Al-Durr al-manthūr, on the authority of Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Mardawayh and Abū Nuʿaym’s al-Ḥilyah. ↩︎
Tafsīr al-burhān, on the authority of Ibn Bābawayh, via its chain of narration, on the authority of Ibn al-Jahm. ↩︎
Tafsīr al-burhān, on the authority of al-Barqī, via its chain of narration, on the authority of ʿAmr b. Abī Naṣr. ↩︎
Al-Durr al-manthūr, on the authority of al-Bayhaqī. ↩︎
Al-Durr al-manthūr, it on the authority Jābir b. ʿAbd-Allāh. ↩︎