Surah Ad-Duha, The Morning Brightness

Surah 93 · 11 verses · revealed at Mecca

Ad-Duha was revealed into a silence. Revelation had come and then stopped, for a period the sources do not agree on, and the Prophet was distressed by the pause. People in Mecca had noticed it and were saying that his Lord had finished with him.

The surah answers that directly. It swears by the brightness of the morning and by the night when it is still, and then says: your Lord has not left you, and has not turned against you. The two images in the oath are doing work — the morning and the settled night are both ordinary, both temporary, and neither is a sign of abandonment.

Then it turns to the past, and puts three questions, each one a plain fact about the Prophet's life. Did He not find you an orphan, and shelter you? And find you lost, and guide you? And find you in need, and provide? None is an argument. They are reminders of things already done, offered as evidence about the future.

And then, in three matching lines, the surah says what to do with all of it. As for the orphan, do not oppress him. As for the one who asks, do not turn him away. And as for the favour of your Lord, speak about it.

The symmetry is deliberate: you were an orphan, so do not crush one; you were in need, so do not dismiss the needy; you were given, so say so. It is a very short surah and it turns entirely on that hinge.

Surah Ad-Duha on this site

Every link below has been opened and checked to make sure there is something on the other side.

Surah Ad-Duha, The Morning Brightness

Surah Ad-Duha on this site

Read

Listen

Download as PDF