Surah Al-Asr - The Age
(Revealed at Mecca)
3 Verses in 1 Section
Sections of Surah Al-Asr
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To Preach Truth and Endurance.
Al-Asr - To Preach Truth And Endurance
Preachers of truth and endurance are successful.
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
“In the name of God the Beneficent the Merciful”
وَالْعَصْرِ
إِنَّ الْإِنْسَانَ لَفِي خُسْرٍ
“Verily, man is in loss!” (103:2)
إِلَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالْحَقِّ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالصَّبْرِ
“Save those who believe, and do good deeds, and exhort each other to truth and exhort each other to endurance2“ (103:3)
Commentary
Verse 1
‘Asr’, i.e., Age, which is the continuity of time. The word ‘Asr’ meaning age or time is used in a mystic use. Commentators say it is a reference to the Age of the Holy Prophet, i.e., a period when the Lord’s Promised Last Reformer and Final Law-giver was sent into the world and stayed preaching the truth and taught men the correct ways and means by which man can rise from the ignoble and the loathsome depth of the material world into the glorious heights of spiritual bliss. Some commentators take the word ‘Asr’ to mean the ceremonial afternoon prayer and the Sixth Holy Imam Ja’far Ibn Muhammad As-Sadiq says it is a reference to the age when the Last one of the promised Guide or Imam, in the seed of the Holy Prophet who bears the same name Muhammad who is the son of the Eleventh Holy Imam Hasan Ibn Ali Al-Askari, who is titled ‘Mahdi’. Taking the reference to either the age of the Holy Prophet or his Last Deputy on earth, the last Holy Imam, it will mean one and the same significance to say that those who will be benefited by the teachings or the guidance of the Great Teacher, will be the ones guided aright and those who reject any one of these two, the Last Apostle from the Lord or the Last one of the Lord’s commissioned Guides or Imams, is lost.
‘Asr’, literally means ‘Squeezing’ or the squeezed object. It has been figuratively used for Time - in the sense of its becoming - meaning the squeezed of the past which unfolds as future. The other two verses give the justification of this meaning.
The state of ever-folding and the unfolding ascribed to time in its relation to the events falling within it, represents the state of the Imam as a microcosm and a medium between the Infinite One and the finite ones and as such the Imam has been termed in the language of the Ahl Al-Bayt as the ‘Madaarud Dahr’, i.e., the Axis of the age and the actuating factor behind it. (A.P.)
Verse 2
It is needless to go into the details that man amidst innumerable temptations, is always caught in the lust for the satisfaction of his carnal desires, thus under the risk of being easily beguiled by the innumerable and the most powerful and irresistible attractions. And if man, is not on his guard against all the formidable forces of Satan who is ever active to lead man astray, man suffers the loss, the loss of the pleasure of his Lord which is the loss of his own salvation, the loss real.
It is said that this is, as well a reference to the taunt of Abu Jahl and Walid Ibn Moghaira who said that the Holy Prophet and his followers are the losers, for they have abandoned the worship of their ancestral gods and have given up themselves to someone God. This verse clearly addressing the one who holds any such false idea says that he who says that the Holy Prophet and his followers are in a loss, is himself in the loss.
Verse 3
‘Those who believe’ may include every believer to the extent or the degree of the strength of his conviction or faith and those who will be meant here with the fullest application of the term, will be only those who satisfy to the fullest extent the owning of the several great qualities of a believer mentioned by God3.
The believers are those from whom God has purchased their wealth and their lives in exchange for His pleasure with them 9:111. Those who hold the Holy Prophet in preference to their own souls 33:6.
The perfection or the purity in the faith can never be found in any other than those whom God Himself has purified (33:33) to be the models of purity in every aspect of goodness in the life on earth. Thus, those who are referred here immediately are the Holy Ahl Al-Bayt.
When asked the explanation of this Surah, the Holy Prophet said that ‘‘those who are safe and whose faith and deeds are totally correct and perfect are my Ahl Al-Bayt,” i.e., Ali and the Imams in his seed ‘‘and those who reject me or them, are in the loss” (MS.).
As regards the preaching of the Truth, who else could do it duly, save those who must them-selves be fully conversant with it and even realised it by their own conviction and the strength of faith. The Holy Prophet had said that ‘‘I and Ali are of one and the same Light” and ‘‘Ali is always with the Truth and the Truth will always be with Ali”. The preaching of the Truth needs knowledge of it, and the Holy Prophet had said “I am the City of Knowledge and Ali is its Gate”
The preaching of the Truth needs the knowledge of the Final Word of God, i.e., the Holy Qur’an and the Holy Prophet had said ‘‘I leave behind me Two weighty (very important) things: The Book of God, (i.e., the Holy Qur’an) and my Ahl Al-Bayt, if ye be attached to these Two, never, never shall ye get astray and never, never, will these Two get separated from each other until they meet me at the ‘Hous’ or (Cistern) of Kawthar” in heaven. Thus, the immediate application of this reference could rightly be only to Ali or the Ahl Al-Bayt collectively and those according to their attachment to these holy ones.
As far as the enjoining of patience is concerned, the preachers themselves must have the quality of patience to the maximum degree possible, and who else could be compared to have exercised more patience in this world than the Holy Ahl Al-Bayt who suffered untold miseries, tortures and even a wholesale massacre of all their dear ones. None of the Eleven Holy Imams left this world with a natural death - all of them suffered martyrdom.
Enjoining of goodness and preaching abstinence from evil has been referred to as the qualities of the Best of the nations, i.e., the Holy Ahl Al-Bayt4 and this has also been prescribed and made incumbent on the believers5. The Best of the people can be only those whom God Himself had purified (33:33). The others, according to the degree of the purification they would have achieved.
