'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful'

Tafsir of Surah Ash-Shams

And it is Meccan.

His saying, exalted is He:

﴿By the sun and its brightness﴾ ﴿And by the moon when it follows it﴾ ﴿And by the day when it reveals it﴾ ﴿And by the night when it covers it﴾ ﴿And by the heaven and He who built it﴾ ﴿And by the earth and He who spread it﴾ ﴿And by the soul and He who proportioned it﴾ ﴿And inspired it with its wickedness and its righteousness﴾ ﴿Certainly he has succeeded who purifies it﴾ ﴿And certainly he has failed who corrupts it﴾ ﴿Thamud denied by its transgression﴾ ﴿When the most wretched of them was sent forth﴾ ﴿And the Messenger of Allah said to them: The she-camel of Allah and its drink﴾ ﴿But they denied him and hamstrung her. So their Lord destroyed them for their sin and made them equal﴾ ﴿And He does not fear its consequence﴾

Allah, the Exalted, swore by the sun, either to alert to it or to indicate the greatness of the Lord of the sun. And 'ad-Duha' with a Dhamma on the Dhad and shortening means the height of light and its completeness. With this, Mujahid explained. And Qatadah said: It is the entire day. And Muqatil said: 'Duha' refers to its heat, as His saying, exalted is He, in 'Ta-Ha' ﴿And do not be in the morning﴾ [Ta-Ha: 119]. And 'ad-Duha' with a Fatha on the Dhad and elongation means what is above that until noon.

And the moon follows the sun from the beginning of the month to its middle at sunset. It sets first, then it sets. And it follows it in the other half in another way, which is that it sets and then it rises. And Al-Hasan ibn Abi Al-Hasan said: 'Talaaha' means: it follows it constantly at all times; because it derives light from it, so it follows it for that reason.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

This is a following that does not specifically pertain to the first half of the month or the last half. Al-Farra also said this. And Az-Zajjaj and others said: 'Talaaha' means: it filled and revolved, so it was following it in rank of light and status; because there is nothing among the stars that follows the sun in this meaning other than the moon. Qatadah said: And this is only on the night of the full moon; it sets and then it rises.

And 'an-Nahar' in the apparent meaning of this surah and the one after it is from the rising of the sun. And Az-Zajjaj said this in the Book of Weather and elsewhere. And the day is from the rising of dawn, and there is no disagreement that its end is the setting of the sun. And the pronoun in ﴿Jalaaha﴾ may return to the sun, and it may return to the earth and to darkness. And although there has not come a mention for that, the meaning necessitates it, as Az-Zajjaj said. And 'Jalla' means: He uncovered and illuminated, and the doer of 'Jalla' - according to these interpretations - is the day. And it is possible that the doer is Allah, the Exalted, as if He said: And by the day when Allah illuminates the sun. So He swore by the day in its most complete state. And 'yughsha' means: it covers, and the pronoun refers to the sun in a figurative sense or to the earth.

And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿And He who built it﴾ and all that follows it of similar verses in the surah, it is possible that 'ma' in it means 'that which.' Abu Ubaidah said: that is, and He who built it, and this is the saying of Al-Hasan and Mujahid; because 'ma' generally applies to what has intellect and to what does not have intellect. So the oath comes by His own self, exalted is He. And it is possible that 'ma' in all of that is a source, as Qatadah, Al-Mubarrid, and Az-Zajjaj said, as if He, exalted is He, said: And the heaven and its building.

'Taha' means 'daha' and 'taha' also in the language means: to go every way. From this is the saying of Alqamah ibn Abadah:

'Taha, a heart in beauty is delighted, Far from youth, the age has reached old age.'

And 'the soul' by which He swore is the name of the genus. And 'its equating' is the completion of its intellect and perception. Therefore, He linked the speech to His saying, 'So He inspired it with its wickedness'... the verse. The 'fa' indicates that the equating is this inspiration. The meaning of His saying, 'So He inspired it with its wickedness' is that its nature was struck by that and made for it (p-629) a strength by which the acquisition of wickedness and the acquisition of piety is valid. And the answer to the oath in His saying, 'Certainly, he has succeeded,' and the estimation is: 'Indeed, he has succeeded.' The subject of 'zakka' is assumed to be Allah, glorified and exalted is He, and this was said by Ibn Abbas and others, as if He, glorified and exalted is He, said: 'Certainly, the group or sect that Allah has purified has succeeded.' And 'who' applies to both plural and singular. It is possible that the subject of 'zakka' is the human being, and upon him falls 'who.' This was said by Al-Hasan and others, as if He, glorified and exalted is He, said: 'Certainly, he has succeeded who has purified himself,' meaning he has acquired the purity that Allah has created for him. And 'zakka' means: He purified it and made it grow with good deeds. And 'dassa' means: He concealed it and belittled it, meaning he belittled its worth with sins and stinginess regarding what is obligatory. It is said: dassa yadsu, and dassa - with the emphasis on the 's' - yudassiy, and its origin is dassa. From this is the saying of the poet:

'I buried Amr in the dust, and it became His wives weeping for the loss, weak.'

It is narrated that the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, when he recited this verse, said: 'O Allah, grant my soul its piety, and purify it; You are the best of those who purify it; You are its guardian and protector.' This hadith strengthens that the one who purifies is Allah, glorified and exalted is He. And Tha'alab said: The meaning of the verse is: 'And certainly, he has failed who has concealed it among the people of goodness with hypocrisy, while he is not truly one of them.'

And when He, glorified and exalted is He, mentioned the description of the one who concealed, He mentioned a group that did that so that they may take heed from them and refrain from similar actions. And 'the wickedness' is a source. Al-Hasan and Hammād ibn Sulayman read 'biṭaghwāhā' with a damm on the 'ṭā,' a source like 'al-ʿuqbā' and 'al-rujʿā.' Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: 'The wickedness' here is the punishment, (p-630) they denied it until it descended upon them. This interpretation is supported by His saying, 'So as for Thamud, they were destroyed by the transgressor' [Al-Haaqqa: 5]. The majority of the interpreters say that the 'ba' is causal, and the meaning is that Thamud denied their prophet because of their transgression and disbelief. And 'he arose' is an expression of his going out to the she-camel's abode with enthusiasm and eagerness. And 'the most wicked of them' is Qidar ibn Salif, one of the nine corruptors. It is possible that 'the most wicked of them' refers to a group that attempted the killing. It is narrated that he did not commit his act against the she-camel until the entire tribe supported him in that. Therefore, He, glorified and exalted is He, said: 'So they slaughtered it because they were united in that.'

'The Messenger of Allah' is Salih, peace be upon him. And His saying, the Exalted, ﴿The she-camel of Allah and its drink﴾ is established by an implied action, the meaning of which is: be cautious or abandon or beware, meaning: beware of neglecting the right of that. The matter of the she-camel and the drink has been previously mentioned in other than this surah, which suffices for its repetition. The Exalted has preceded the denial upon the slaughter because it was the cause of the slaughter. It is narrated that they had embraced Islam before that and followed Salih, peace be upon him, for a period, then they denied and stumbled. The majority of the interpreters hold that they remained in their disbelief. And 'Damdama' means: He sent down punishment, alarming them repeatedly, and this is the damdamah. In some copies, it is 'Fadhdhamah,' which is the reading of Ibn al-Zubair with a 'h' between the two 'd's. In some copies, it is 'Fadamara,' and in the copy of Ibn Mas'ud, it is 'Fadamdama 'alayhim.' And His saying, the Exalted, 'Because of their sin' means: because of their sin. And His saying, the Exalted, 'So He leveled it' means: He made the tribe equal in destruction; none of them escaped. And Nafi', Ibn 'Amir, al-A'raj, the people of Hijaz, and Ubayy ibn Ka'b read: 'So he does not fear' with an 'f,' and likewise in the copies of the people of Medina and Sham. The others read 'And he does not fear' with a 'w,' and likewise in their copies. It is narrated from the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, that he read: 'And he did not fear its consequences.' And the subject of 'he does not fear' for those who read 'So he does not fear' with an 'f' is possibly Allah, the Exalted, and the meaning is: there is no reckoning upon Allah, the Exalted, in His action against them; He is not questioned about what He does. This is the saying of Ibn 'Abbas and al-Hasan. In this meaning, there is a belittlement of the people and an obscuring of their effect. It is also possible that it is Salih, peace be upon him, meaning: he does not fear the consequences of Allah for this action against them, as he had warned and cautioned them. And whoever reads 'And he does not fear' with a 'w' may consider the two meanings we mentioned, and it is additionally possible that the subject of 'he fears' is the most wretched of them, as said by al-Zajjaj and Abu Ali, and this is the saying of al-Suddi, al-Dahhak, and Muqatil. And the 'w' would be the conjunction of the state, as if the Exalted said: he arose to slaughter it while he does not fear the consequences of his action for his disbelief and tyranny. And 'the consequences' is the recompense of a thing and its end and what comes after it. The readers have differed in the vowels of this surah and the two that follow it. Ibn Kathir, 'Asim, and Ibn 'Amir opened it, and al-Kisai read all of that with the idgham. Nafi' read all between opening and imalah. Hamzah read: 'And its brightness' broken and 'and its following' and 'and its shining' both opened, and he broke everything else. There was a difference regarding Abu 'Amr; sometimes he broke all, and sometimes he read like Nafi'. Al-Zajjaj said: People have named the imalah 'breaking,' and it is not a true breaking. Al-Khalil and Abu 'Amr say: it is imalah. The interpretation of Surah [Ash-Shams] is complete, and praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.