The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 622
CHAPTER 32 AS-SAJDAH (Revealed before Hijrah) Title and Date of Revelation The name of the Surah seems to have been derived from verse 16th where the Faithful are spoken of as falling down in prostration when the Signs of their Lord are recited to them. The Surah being the last of the group of J chapters possesses a close kinship and resemblance in style and contents with its three predecessors. By common consent it is also regarded as having been revealed at Mecca. Connection with the Preceding Sürah The preceding Surah had ended with the statement that God alone knows when a particular people are to rise or fall and that He alone provides for the physical needs of man and his moral and spiritual requirements. The present Surah opens with the declaration that the Quran has been revealed by God Who is the Creator of the heavens and the earth and the Lord of all the worlds, which means that in His hands lie all those means upon which the progress and prosperity of nations and individuals depend and that He alone controls the causes that lead to their decline and downfall. The Quran has been revealed to warn those people to whom no Warner had come for a long time so that by profiting by the timely warning they might accept truth and make progress. Subject Matter The main theme of the Surah is the ultimate triumph of Islam and the failure and defeat of disbelief and idolatry. The Surah opens with a strong repudiation of the disbelievers' charge that the Quran is a forgery and the Holy Prophet an impostor. The Prophet, it says, is not an impostor because impostors have never been known to have success in their missions whereas the cause of the Holy Prophet is advancing by leaps and bounds; neither could the Quran be a forgery because it has been revealed in the fullness of time and in accordance with the demands of truth and justice and fulfils all the moral and spiritual needs and requirements of man and because also the whole universe seems to be working in support and furtherance of its message. The Surah then makes a little digression and makes a prophecy that after its initial phenomenal progress Islam will receive a temporary setback; a comparative eclipse of a thousand years which will be followed by a second renaissance, as a result of which it will regain its pristine glory and march on a course of uniform success. Next, the Surah gives a beautiful illustration how from very 2536