The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 733
CHAPTER 36 YĀ SIN (Revealed before Hijrah) Title, Date of Revelation and Context This Surah takes its title from its second verse where the Holy Prophet is addressed as i. e. O perfect leader! The Surah is decidedly of Meccan origin. All scholarly opinion is agreed on this point. Its style and contents also support this view. On account of the importance of its subject matter, the Holy Prophet called it the heart of the Quran. In the preceding Surah it was stated that God, being the Maker of the heavens and the earth, has made full provision not only for the physical needs of man but also for his moral and spiritual requirements. This He did by revealing Himself to His chosen servants, whom He raised among every people. The revelation of God to His servants found its most perfect manifestation in the Holy Prophet whom the present Sūrah designates as "perfect leader" or the leader par excellence. To him, God not only revealed Himself in His completest manifestation but also gave him the most perfect and infallible Book in the form of the Quran, by which his people attained God's pleasure and achieved great success and eminence in life. Summary of the Subject Matter The Surah opens with addressing the Holy Prophet as "perfect leader" or leader par excellence, meaning that the system of Divine Messengers which began with Adam found its most perfect example in him. The Holy Prophet's path is now the only right and straight path that leads to God. All other paths that formerly led to the Supreme Being have now been closed and shall remain closed till the end of time. God will now reveal Himself to the world through the Holy Prophet's followers. In His infallible wisdom He has chosen the Arabs, among whom no Messenger had come for centuries, to preach to humanity the last Divine Message i. e. Islam. The land of Arabia was dreary and dry. The water of Divine revelation descended upon it and it has now begun to blossom into a new and vigorous spiritual life. The Surah then proceeds to tell in metaphorical language how God had been revealing Himself to mankind through His Messengers. It tells of Moses and Jesus and of the Holy Prophet, who were raised in the fulness of time to call men to God. Then it tells of a "certain man" whom God will raise from among the followers of the Holy Prophet in a land far from the centre of Islam, in the Latter Days, when religion would be at its lowest ebb and the very idea of Divine revelation would be doubted and denied. This Divine Reformer will call mankind to Islam. But like the Prophets of yore, his will be 2647