Surah Al-Ankabut

Its purpose is to encourage striving in the matter of what is good, and to prohibit what is wrong, and to call to Allah, glorified and exalted is He, and to praise Him without any pause, as it was concluded in the previous surah, without any reference to anything else, glorified and exalted is He, so that the example of relief for the one who compensates is not like the example of the spider. It is a surah of the weakness of the disbelievers and the strength of the believers. The secret of its naming as 'the spider' has appeared, and it indicates its purpose: 'In the name of Allah' who encompasses all power, thus He honored His soldiers; 'the Most Gracious' who encompassed all the servants with the blessing of command and prohibition; 'the Most Merciful' who obligated the people of knowledge to the peak of excellence.

When He concluded the previous surah by encouraging action for the Hereafter, and that everyone, whether good-doer or wrong-doer, is rewarded for his actions, and by informing that He, glorified and exalted is He, is knowledgeable of the hidden and the apparent, commanding striving in calling to Him and focusing aspirations solely on Him, even if that leads to weariness and the loss of souls and wealth, justifying that He has the judgment, glorified and exalted is He, because He is everlasting without end, and everything besides Him is subject to disappearance and dissolution, and that nothing escapes Him in any state or outcome. The first of this is: ﴿Alif Lam Meem﴾, indicating by the Alif the one who is the highest and encompassing, and the Lam of connection and the Meem of completion, in a way of symbolism that He, glorified and exalted is He, sent Gabriel to Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, to call the people with the Quran which He obligated upon him to Allah, so that their secrets would be known by the call and the rightful ones would be distinguished from the deceitful ones. ﴿And We will surely test you until We know the strivers among you and the patient, and We will test your news﴾ [Muhammad: 31]