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

Tafsir of Surah Ad-Duha

It is a Meccan surah, there is no disagreement about this among the narrators.

His saying, exalted is He:

﴿By the morning brightness﴾ ﴿and by the night when it covers﴾ ﴿Your Lord has neither forsaken you nor hated you﴾ ﴿and the Hereafter is better for you than the first﴾ ﴿and your Lord will surely give you, and you will be pleased﴾ ﴿Did He not find you an orphan and give refuge﴾ ﴿and He found you lost and guided﴾ ﴿and He found you in need and enriched﴾ ﴿So as for the orphan, do not oppress﴾ ﴿and as for the beggar, do not repel﴾ ﴿and as for the favor of your Lord, report it﴾

The interpretation of "Ad-Duha" has been previously mentioned as the brightness of light and its greatness. Qatadah said: Ad-Duha here refers to the entire day. And "Saja" means to settle and become stable during the complete night. Some of the interpreters said that "Saja" means to approach, while others said:

It means to retreat, and the first is more correct. From this is the saying of the poet:

'How wonderful is the moonlight and the calm night, and paths like the weaver's thread.'

And it is said, "A calm sea" meaning a still one, and from this is the saying of Al-A'sha:

'What is our fault if the sea of your cousin swells, while your sea is calm and does not conceal the rocks.'

﴿And a calm glance﴾ means a gaze that is still and not disturbed.

The majority of the people read: "Wadda'aka" with a strong د, from the farewell. 'Urwah ibn Az-Zubair and his son Hisham read: "Wada'aka" with a softened د, meaning He left you. And "Qala" means He hated. There is a disagreement regarding the reason for this verse. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, and others said: 'The revelation was delayed once from the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, while he was in Mecca - the narrations differ regarding its limit - until this became difficult for him. Then a woman from the disbelievers, the mother of Jamil, the wife of Abu Lahab, came and said: O Muhammad, I see that your devil has indeed forsaken you. So this verse was revealed because of that.'

And Ibn Wahb reported from men from 'Urwah ibn Az-Zubair that Khadijah, may Allah be pleased with her, said to him: 'I see that Allah has indeed left you due to your excessive distress over the delay of revelation from you, so this verse was revealed because of that.' And Zayd ibn Aslam said: 'Gabriel only withheld from him due to a puppy that was in his house.'

And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿and the Hereafter is better for you than the first﴾ can be understood as referring to the two abodes: this world and the Hereafter. This is the interpretation of Ibn Ishaq and others. It can also be understood as referring to his conditions in this world before and after the revelation of the surah. So Allah, exalted is He, promised him - according to this interpretation - with victory and triumph. Likewise, His saying, exalted is He: ﴿and your Lord will surely give you, and you will be pleased﴾, the majority of the people said: This is in the Hereafter. Some of the people of the household said: This is the most hopeful verse in the Quran because the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, will not be pleased with one of his Ummah in the Fire. And Ibn Abbas said: His pleasure is that none of his household enters the Fire. Ibn Abbas also said: His pleasure is that Allah, exalted is He, promised him a thousand palaces in Paradise with whatever he needs of blessings and servants. And some of the scholars said: His pleasure in this world is with the conquest of Mecca and others. And in the Mushaf of Ibn Mas'ud: "And He will surely give you."

Then He, the Exalted, placed him at the ranks that He elevated him in by His grace upon him and said: ﴿Did He not find you an orphan and give refuge?﴾ The meaning is: Did He not find you under the protection of Allah and His grace, and your being an orphan was due to the loss of your father and your being in the care of your uncle Abu Talib. It was said to Ja'far ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq: Did the Prophet ﷺ not have both parents? He said: So that there would be no right upon him from a creature. Al-Ashhab al-Uqayli read: "and gave refuge" with the shortening, meaning: He had mercy. It is said: I gave refuge to so-and-so, meaning: I had mercy on him. And His saying, the Exalted: ﴿And He found you lost﴾ means: He found you with His grace in Prophethood and Messenger-ship on a path that you were not on in your Prophethood, so He guided you. This is the saying of al-Hasan, al-Dahhak, and a group.

And "lost" is of different kinds; there is the far and the near. The far is the misguidance of the disbelievers who worship idols and argue for that and take pride in it. This misguidance mentioned by Allah, the Exalted, for His Prophet ﷺ is the closest misguidance, which is being stationary and not distinguishing the path, not that he was adhering to the path of anyone, but he was seeking and observing. Al-Suddi said: He remained upon the matter of his people for forty years. It was said: The meaning of "And He found you lost" is attributed to misguidance. Al-Kalbi said: And He found you among a people of misguidance, as if you were one of them.

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

And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ never worshiped an idol at any time, but he ate their sacrifices according to the narration of Zayd ibn Amr in the lower part of Baljah, and he acted according to a little of their affairs, while at the same time he observed the error of what they were upon, and he departed from 'Arafat and opposed them in some matters. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with both of them, said: His misguidance was when he was small in the valleys of Makkah, then Allah, the Exalted, returned him to his grandfather Abdul Muttalib. It was said: His misguidance was from Halimah, his wet nurse. Al-Tirmidhi and Abdul Aziz ibn Yahya said: "lost" means one who is obscure and unknown to the people, so your Lord guided them to you. The correct interpretation is that it is misguidance from hesitation, not knowing, as He, the Exalted, said: ﴿And you did not know what the Book was nor what faith was﴾ [Ash-Shura: 52]. Al-Thalab said: It refers to his marrying his daughter in the age of ignorance, and similar to that.

And "the needy" means the poor. Al-Yamani read "a'ayilan" with the emphasis on the broken 'a', and from it is the saying of the poet:

And the poor does not know when his wealth will come ∗∗∗ And the rich does not know when he will support.

And "a'ala" means he had many dependents, and "aala" means he became poor. From it is the saying of Allah, the Exalted: ﴿And if you fear poverty﴾ [At-Tawbah: 28]. And His saying, the Exalted: ﴿And He made you self-sufficient﴾. Al-Muqatil said: Its meaning is: Your contentment with what He has given you of provision. It was said: Poor towards Him, so He made you self-sufficient with it. The majority hold that it refers to the poverty of wealth and its self-sufficiency. The meaning regarding the Prophet ﷺ is that He made the wealthy self-sufficient with patience and contentment, and it has been said that he was made self-sufficient with the sufficiency of his management of the wealth of Khadijah, may Allah be pleased with her. The Prophet ﷺ was never one of great wealth; Allah elevated him above that. And he said: "Wealth is not in abundance of possessions, but wealth is the wealth of the soul."

And when Allah, the Most High, enumerated these three blessings, He commanded him with three commandments, with each blessing having a corresponding commandment. In response to His saying, ﴿Did He not find you an orphan and give refuge?﴾, His saying is ﴿So as for the orphan, do not oppress him.﴾ In response to His saying, ﴿And He found you lost and guided you,﴾ His saying is ﴿And as for the one who asks, do not repel him.﴾ This is according to the saying of those who said that the one who asks here is the one asking for knowledge and religion, and not the one asking for money. This is the saying of Al-Hasan, Abu Darda, and others. In response to His saying, ﴿And He found you in need and made you self-sufficient,﴾ His saying is ﴿And as for the blessing of your Lord, speak of it.﴾ As for those who said that the one who asks is the one asking for money out of need, which is the saying of Al-Farra and a group, they have made it correspond to His saying, ﴿And He found you in need and made you self-sufficient.﴾ They made His saying, ﴿And as for the blessing of your Lord, speak of it,﴾ correspond to His saying, ﴿And He found you lost and guided you.﴾ And Ibrahim ibn Adham said: 'Blessed are the people who ask, they carry our provisions to the Hereafter.' And His saying, ﴿So do not repel,﴾ means: respond with a good response, either with a gift or with kind words. In the Mushaf of Ibn Mas'ud, it is written: 'And He found you in want and made you self-sufficient.' Ibn Mas'ud, Al-Sha'bi, and Ibrahim Al-Taymi read: 'So as for the orphan, do not oppress him' with a ك (kaf). Al-Akhfash said: It means to oppress, and from it is the saying of the Bedouin: 'May Allah protect you from the might of the powerful and the control of the overpowering.' Abu Hatim said: I do not think it means to oppress; for the Bedouin who urinated in the mosque said: 'The Prophet did not oppress me, for it means to admonish.'

And Allah commanded him to speak of His blessings. Mujahid and Al-Kalbi said: Its meaning is to spread the Quran and convey what you have been sent with. Others said: Rather, it is general in all blessings. Some of the righteous used to say: 'Indeed, Allah has given me such and such, and I prayed last night such and such, and I remembered Allah, the Most High, such and such.' It was said to him: 'Someone like you should not say this.' He replied: 'Indeed, Allah, the Most High, says: ﴿And as for the blessing of your Lord, speak of it,﴾ and you say do not speak of it.' And the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, said: 'Speaking of blessings is gratitude.' And from it is the saying of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him: 'Whoever I have bestowed a blessing upon and he mentions it, he has shown gratitude for it, and whoever conceals it has disbelieved in it.' And he made 'the orphan' the object of 'do not oppress,' and the meaning is: Whatever it may be, do not oppress the orphan.

The interpretation of Surah [Al-Duha] is complete, and all praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.