The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 5) — Page 339
General Remarks CHAPTER 72 AL-JINN (Revealed before Hijrah) This Surah is generally considered to have been revealed on the Holy Prophet's return from Ṭā'if, where, after he was despaired of the Meccans from whom he received nothing but ridicule, opposition and persecution, he had gone to preach his Message. The visit to Ta'if took place two years before Hijrah when the opposition to the new Faith had taken an ugly turn and the condition of the Prophet and his followers had become desperate in the extreme. If, as some authorities are of the view, the Surah relates to an incident other than the one mentioned in Surah Aḥqāf (46:30-33), then it might have been revealed much earlier. The context and contents of the Surah seem to lend some weight to the latter view. Subject Matter In the preceding Surah it was stated that the lifelong preaching of Prophet Noah had been met with only jibes and jeers, and that only a few persons other than his near relatives had given him their allegiance—his son and wife taking an active part in opposition to his mission. In order to show that there existed a similarity between the circumstances which Noah had to meet with and the circumstances which the Holy Prophet had to face, it is stated that a party of the jinn, a people not known to the Prophet before- visited him, listened to the Quran and at once believed in him. The Surah gives a fairly long account of the beliefs and doctrines of these people, their conduct and outlook on life. They denounce the doctrine that God can ever take unto Himself a son or a wife as an extravagant lie, and the Surah gives strong arguments in refutation of this doctrine. Next, the Surah emphatically affirms that it is impossible for anyone to distort or tamper with the revealed Word of God because, like a precious treasure, it is strongly guarded by divine sentinels. Towards the close of the Surah, it is stated that whenever a Divine teacher calls men to God, the forces of evil try to stifle his voice, but the Teacher carries on his mission, undeterred by the machinations of evilly disposed people. The Surah closes with an infallible criterion to test the Divine Source of the Message of a Prophet viz. that it contains prophecies about great world events which human knowledge cannot foresee or foretell, and that the Prophet succeeds in delivering his Message because God "causes an escort of guarding angels to go before him and after him". 3235