The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 5) — Page 151
CHAPTER 55 AR-RAHMAN (Revealed before Hijrah) Title, Date of Revelation, and Context Being the 6th of the special group of the Surahs which begin with Surah Qaf and end with Al-Waqi'ah, and which were revealed, more or less at the same time at Mecca, in the early years of the Call, the Surah has close resemblance with other members of the group in subject matter, and deals, like them, with the basic principles of Islam-Divine attributes, particularly God's Unity, and with Resurrection, and Revelation. The Surah bears such close resemblance with the five previous Sūrahs, particularly with the immediately preceding one—Surah Al-Qamar—that it seems to complement and complete its subject matter. In Surah Al-Qamar instances were given of the peoples of some Prophets of antiquity with whom the Arabs were quite familiar and who were punished for rejecting the Divine Message, and then the pagan Quraish were asked, would they not benefit from their fate and accept the Quranic Message which was quite easy to understand and to follow. The present Surah gives the reasons why the Quran was revealed. Subject Matter The Surah opens with the Divine attribute Ar-Raḥmān, signifying that after having created the universe, God created man, the apex and crown of all creation, and that the creation of man was the result of God's beneficence. After man's creation, God revealed Himself to him through His Prophets and Messengers, because he was unable to attain the sublime object of his creation and to fulfil his high destiny without being guided to his great goal by Divine revelation. Prophethood found its most complete and perfect manifestation in the person of the Holy Prophet Muhammad to whom God gave the Quran, the Last and Final Code of Divine laws for the guidance of the whole of humanity for all time. But God's gifts to man did not end with his creation. The Beneficent God made the whole universe subservient to him. The heavens with all the celestial bodies, and the earth with all its treasures, the deep seas and high mountains were all created for his sake. Over and above that, God endowed man with great intellectual and discretionary powers so that by sifting right from wrong he might follow Divine guidance and thus attain the object of his creation. But man seems to be so constituted that instead of benefiting from the endless vistas of spiritual progress and development opened up to him by the Gracious, Beneficent and Merciful Providence, he, in his conceit and arrogance seeks to ignore and defy Divine laws, and consequently brings down upon himself God's punishment. The 3047