The silence, and the morning after First, the position he was in. Muhammad ﷺ had told the people of Makkah that an angel brings him words from Allah. That claim was his whole standing. Then, for a time, nothing came.
The town noticed. According to a report in Sahih al-Bukhari, someone taunted him that his "devil" had left him. Other reports have the idolaters saying it more plainly: his Lord has abandoned him, and hates him. The commentaries tell the story of the pause in more than one way (see the closer look).
Then ad-Duha came. It does not open with an argument. It opens with two pictures: the morning brightness, and the night when it settles. Then the answer, in one line: your Lord has not taken leave of you, nor has He detested you.
Two promises follow. What comes after will be better for you than what came before. And your Lord will give to you until you are satisfied.
مَا وَدَّعَكَ رَبُّكَ وَمَا قَلَىٰ ٣
3 Your Lord has not taken leave of you, [O Muḥammad], nor has He detested [you].
Qur'an 93:3 وَٱلضُّحَىٰ ١ وَٱلَّيۡلِ إِذَا سَجَىٰ ٢ مَا وَدَّعَكَ رَبُّكَ وَمَا قَلَىٰ ٣ وَلَلۡأٓخِرَةُ خَيۡرࣰ لَّكَ مِنَ ٱلۡأُولَىٰ ٤ وَلَسَوۡفَ يُعۡطِيكَ رَبُّكَ فَتَرۡضَىٰٓ ٥
1 By the morning brightness 2 And [by] the night when it covers with darkness, 3 Your Lord has not taken leave of you, [O Muḥammad], nor has He detested [you]. 4 And the Hereafter is better for you than the first [life]. 5 And your Lord is going to give you, and you will be satisfied.
Qur'an 93:1-5 A closer look: The story behind it, ayah 93:3
Who said it, and how long was the silence? The commentaries do not tell one tidy story here. They pass on several reports. Each is worth hearing on its own.
The first comes from a Companion named Jundub. Ibn Kathir gives it from Imam Ahmad, and says al-Bukhari, Muslim, at-Tirmidhi and an-Nasa'i recorded it too. The Prophet ﷺ fell ill and did not stand for prayer for a night or two. A woman came and said: "O Muhammad! I think that your devil has finally left you." Ma'ariful Qur'an adds that other reports identify her as Umm Jamil, the wife of his uncle and opponent Abu Lahab. One thing this version does not mention: a pause in revelation.
A second version, also from Jundub, says the angel Jibril (Gabriel) was slow in coming, and the idolaters said: Muhammad's Lord has abandoned him. A report from Ibn 'Abbas, which Ibn Kathir also gives, says the delay lasted "a number of days" and that it affected the Prophet. Al-Jalalayn puts a number on it: fifteen days.
Ma'ariful Qur'an passes on one more narration. Asked about the nature of the soul, he promised an answer the next day and did not add insha'Allah, "if Allah wills". Revelation then stopped for a few days, and the taunts began.
Do the versions clash? Mufti Muhammad Shafi, the author of Ma'ariful Qur'an, thinks not: the narrator may have told one incident on one occasion and another on another. He also notes that revelation paused twice in the Prophet's life, and that the longer pause was the one at the very start of his mission.
Researched with AI help, from: Tafsir Ibn Kathir (the reports of Jundub, from Ahmad, al-Bukhari, Muslim and others; the report of Ibn 'Abbas through al-'Awfi); Ma'ariful Qur'an, Mufti Muhammad Shafi (Umm Jamil; the two pauses; the narration about the soul; his view that the reports do not conflict); Tafsir al-Jalalayn (fifteen days)
A closer look: The image, ayah 93:1-2
Why open with a morning and a night? The surah is named after its first word. Duha is the bright part of the morning. Al-Jalalayn says it can mean the first part of the day, or all of it. The two bundled translations have "the morning brightness" and "the morning sunlight".
The night gets one verb, saja, and the commentators hear two things in it. Al-Jalalayn: the night "when it is still", or when it wraps everything in its darkness. Ibn Kathir, passing on early authorities such as Mujahid and Qatadah: it settles and it darkens. Both translations choose "covers with darkness" and put the stillness in a footnote.
Why these two pictures, for a man waiting on a silence? Ibn Kathir's own comment is brief: the light and the dark are proof of the power of the One who made both. He points to the surah just before this one, which opens the other way round, with the night first and then the day (92:1-2).
A modern commentator, Wahiduddin Khan, draws the link to the story. The world is built so that the day dawns and the night falls, and the system is complete only with both. In the same way, he writes, a person's growth needs hardship as well as easy times. That is his reading, not a report from the early generations.
Researched with AI help, from: Tafsir al-Jalalayn; Tafsir Ibn Kathir (Mujahid, Qatadah, ad-Dahhak and Ibn Zayd on saja; the link to 92:1-2); Tazkirul Qur'an, Wahiduddin Khan; The Saheeh International and Rowwad translations with their footnotes
A closer look: How translators put it, ayah 93:4
The next life, or simply what comes next? The two translations below differ. One says the Hereafter is better for you than "the first [life]". The other says better than "the present life". The Arabic uses two plain words: al-akhirah, the later, and al-ula, the first or earlier.
Most of the commentaries read here take "the later" in its usual sense, the life to come. Ibn Kathir does, and adds a scene: the Prophet ﷺ asleep on a straw mat that left marks on his side, saying he was like a rider who rests in the shade of a tree and then moves on.
Ma'ariful Qur'an gives that reading and then a second. The word can also keep its basic sense, "the later state". Then the ayah says that every later moment of his life will be better than the one before it: in knowledge, in nearness to Allah, and in his worldly position too. On that reading the promise began to come true in his own lifetime.
Saheeh International
4 And the Hereafter is better for you than the first [life].
Rowwad Translation Center
4 the Hereafter is better for you than the present life;
Researched with AI help, from: Ma'ariful Qur'an, Mufti Muhammad Shafi (both readings); Tafsir Ibn Kathir (the Hereafter; the straw mat report from Ibn Mas'ud, recorded by Ahmad, at-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah); Tafsir al-Jalalayn
A closer look: The story behind it, ayah 93:5
"Until you are satisfied": satisfied with what? The ayah does not say what he will be given. Ma'ariful Qur'an points this out: the statement is left open.
The commentaries fill the gap with reports about what he wanted. Al-Jalalayn and Ma'ariful Qur'an (which takes it from al-Qurtubi) pass on that he said: in that case I will not be satisfied while a single person of my community remains in the Fire. Neither gives a chain or a grading for it, so it is repeated here as a report they pass on and nothing more.
Ibn Kathir gives a different report, from Ibn 'Abbas: he was shown what his community would be given after him, "treasure upon treasure", and was pleased, and then this ayah came. Ibn Kathir says its chain is sound as far as Ibn 'Abbas.
The two reports share one thing. In both, part of what would satisfy him is something for his people. Ibn Kathir's own comment names both: Allah will please him concerning his followers, and with what He has prepared for him.
Researched with AI help, from: Tafsir al-Jalalayn; Ma'ariful Qur'an, Mufti Muhammad Shafi, citing al-Qurtubi; Tafsir Ibn Kathir (the report of Ibn 'Abbas, from Ibn Jarir and Ibn Abi Hatim)
Silence is not abandonment. The night is part of the same day.
Look at your own life so far A promise about the future is easy to make. So ad-Duha backs it with something he can check: his own life.
Three questions. Did He not find you an orphan and give you shelter? Did He not find you lost and guide you? Did He not find you in need and make you self-sufficient? Each one names a point where things could have gone badly and did not.
Then three instructions, built on the three memories. Do not oppress the orphan. Do not turn away the one who asks. And speak of your Lord's favour.
The logic is plain. You were looked after when you were small, unsure and poor. That is the reason given for the three instructions: care for the orphan, a kind answer for the one who asks, and speaking of what was given.
أَلَمۡ يَجِدۡكَ يَتِيمࣱا فَـَٔاوَىٰ ٦
6 Did He not find you an orphan and give [you] refuge?
Qur'an 93:6 أَلَمۡ يَجِدۡكَ يَتِيمࣱا فَـَٔاوَىٰ ٦ وَوَجَدَكَ ضَآلࣱّا فَهَدَىٰ ٧ وَوَجَدَكَ عَآئِلࣱا فَأَغۡنَىٰ ٨ فَأَمَّا ٱلۡيَتِيمَ فَلَا تَقۡهَرۡ ٩ وَأَمَّا ٱلسَّآئِلَ فَلَا تَنۡهَرۡ ١٠ وَأَمَّا بِنِعۡمَةِ رَبِّكَ فَحَدِّثۡ ١١
6 Did He not find you an orphan and give [you] refuge? 7 And He found you lost and guided [you], 8 And He found you poor and made [you] self-sufficient. 9 So as for the orphan, do not oppress [him]. 10 And as for the petitioner, do not repel [him]. 11 But as for the favor of your Lord, report [it].
Qur'an 93:6-11 A closer look: The story behind it, ayah 93:6
An orphan three times over "Orphan" is one word in the ayah . Ibn Kathir unpacks what stood behind it.
His father died while his mother was still pregnant with him (al-Jalalayn allows that it may have been shortly after the birth). His mother, Aminah bint Wahb, died when he was six. His grandfather, 'Abdul-Muttalib, became his guardian, and died when the boy was eight. Then his uncle Abu Talib took him in.
Then there is Abu Talib himself. Ibn Kathir says he went on protecting his nephew after the message began, and held Quraysh , the leading tribe of Makkah, back from harming him. Yet he stayed on the religion of his people until he died, shortly before the Hijrah , the move to Madinah. The shelter the ayah speaks of came through a man who never accepted the message.
Ibn Kathir carries the thought one step further. When Abu Talib died and the attacks grew, shelter came again, this time from the people of Madinah.
The early Sufi commentator Sahl al-Tustari reads the word differently. For him "orphan" means alone: did He not find you alone and give you refuge with your Companions? That is an inner reading, offered beside the plain one, not in place of it.
Researched with AI help, from: Tafsir Ibn Kathir; Ma'ariful Qur'an, Mufti Muhammad Shafi (the grandfather and the uncle); Tafsir al-Jalalayn and al-Mukhtasar fi Tafsir (Abu Talib; the grandfather); Tafsir al-Tustari (the inner reading)
A closer look: How translators put it, ayah 93:7
"Lost": a hard word to translate about a prophet The two translations below differ. One has "He found you lost". The other has "unguided". The Arabic word is dall, and elsewhere it can mean astray. Commentators take care over what it means when the person is a prophet.
Ma'ariful Qur'an says the word has two meanings, straying and unaware, and that here it is the second: before his mission he did not know the revealed law, and then he was shown it. Al-Jalalayn says much the same in its own blunt way: erring from the law "which you now follow". Al-Mukhtasar: he did not know what revelation or faith was.
Ibn Kathir explains the ayah with another ayah, 42:52, where the Qur'an tells him: you did not know what the Book was, nor what faith was. Wahiduddin Khan puts it as a search: he went looking for the truth, and the door was opened.
Al-Tustari offers an inner reading again: he was unaware of his own worth, and was made aware of it.
One small thing to see in the Saheeh translation: the bracketed "[you]" after "guided" and "give refuge". The Arabic leaves the "you" out. Al-Jalalayn says it is dropped to keep the rhyme that runs through the surah's line endings.
Saheeh International
7 And He found you lost and guided [you],
Rowwad Translation Center
7 Did He not find you unguided then guide you?
Researched with AI help, from: Ma'ariful Qur'an, Mufti Muhammad Shafi; Tafsir al-Jalalayn (the meaning, and the dropped pronoun); Tafsir Ibn Kathir (42:52); al-Mukhtasar fi Tafsir; Tazkirul Qur'an, Wahiduddin Khan; Tafsir al-Tustari
A closer look: How it is built, ayah 93:6-11
Three memories, three instructions. Do they pair up? Three favours, then three instructions. Ma'ariful Qur'an counts them out that way. The first pair is not in doubt: you were an orphan, so do not oppress the orphan. Al-Tustari gives the feeling behind it: you have tasted being an orphan.
The other two are where the commentators differ, and it turns on one word, sa'il, "the one who asks". Asks for what?
Ibn Kathir pairs the lines in order. You were unguided and were guided, so do not scorn the one who asks for knowledge. You were poor and were provided for, so tell of Allah's favour. He then gives the other view from early authorities: Qatadah said it means answering the poor with mercy and gentleness.
Al-Jalalayn takes the asker simply as the beggar, not to be driven away for his poverty. Ma'ariful Qur'an says the word covers both: the person asking for money and the person asking a question. A teacher, it adds, should answer kindly.
The two translations show the same split. Saheeh International has "the petitioner", with a footnote: anyone who seeks aid or knowledge. Rowwad has "the beggar".
Researched with AI help, from: Tafsir Ibn Kathir (his own pairing; Qatadah and Ibn Ishaq); Ma'ariful Qur'an, Mufti Muhammad Shafi; Tafsir al-Jalalayn; Tafsir al-Tustari; The Saheeh International and Rowwad translations with their footnotes
A closer look: Where scholars differ, ayah 93:8
Made rich: in money, or in needing little? "He found you poor and made you self-sufficient." There are two ways to hear that, and the commentaries have both.
The historical one: Wahiduddin Khan says he was made prosperous through his wife, Khadijah. Ma'ariful Qur'an gives two steps. First he traded with her wealth as a business partner. Then she became his wife, and her wealth was put behind him.
The inner one: al-Jalalayn says he was made content with what he was given. Ibn Kathir says he was made independent of everyone but Allah, and quotes a saying of the Prophet ﷺ that he places in the two Sahih collections of al-Bukhari and Muslim, from Abu Hurayrah: wealth is not having many possessions, wealth is the richness of the soul. Al-Jalalayn and al-Tustari quote the same saying at this ayah.
The Saheeh translation's word, "self-sufficient", leaves room for both.
Researched with AI help, from: Ma'ariful Qur'an, Mufti Muhammad Shafi; Tazkirul Qur'an, Wahiduddin Khan; Tafsir al-Jalalayn; Tafsir Ibn Kathir (the hadith of Abu Hurayrah, cited to the two Sahihs); Tafsir al-Tustari
The comfort comes with a job: treat others as he was treated.
A chest opened, a load lifted, a name raised The next surah in the Qur'an, ash-Sharh, reads like the same conversation continued. Ma'ariful Qur'an notes that the style is the same: ad-Duha asked "did He not find you", and this one asks "did We not".
This time the favours are not about food and shelter. Did We not expand your chest for you? And remove your burden, which weighed upon your back? And raise your name high?
Who is hearing this? A man with a small following in one town, laughed at by its leading families. He is told his name has been raised.
The three questions set up what comes next. The chest has been opened and the load lifted so that the promise in the following lines can be believed.
أَلَمۡ نَشۡرَحۡ لَكَ صَدۡرَكَ ١
1 Did We not expand for you, [O Muḥammad], your breast?
Qur'an 94:1 أَلَمۡ نَشۡرَحۡ لَكَ صَدۡرَكَ ١ وَوَضَعۡنَا عَنكَ وِزۡرَكَ ٢ ٱلَّذِيٓ أَنقَضَ ظَهۡرَكَ ٣ وَرَفَعۡنَا لَكَ ذِكۡرَكَ ٤
1 Did We not expand for you, [O Muḥammad], your breast? 2 And We removed from you your burden 3 Which had weighed upon your back 4 And raised high for you your repute.
Qur'an 94:1-4 A closer look: The connection, ayah 94:4
A name raised, while Makkah was still laughing How was his name raised? The commentaries answer with one voice, and the answer can be heard today.
Ibn Kathir quotes Mujahid, an early authority: Allah says, I am not mentioned without you being mentioned with Me. He means the testimony of faith, which names Allah and then Muhammad as His messenger. He quotes Qatadah too: nobody gives a sermon, says the testimony or prays without saying it.
Al-Jalalayn lists the places: the adhan (the call to prayer), the iqamah (the second call, just before the prayer begins), the testimony said within the prayer, and the Friday sermon. A footnote in the Rowwad translation adds that the call to prayer sounds five times a day.
Ma'ariful Qur'an notices a small thing in the grammar of all three favours. Each has an extra phrase: opened for you, removed from you, raised for you. It reads that as a sign that all of it was done for his sake.
Researched with AI help, from: Tafsir Ibn Kathir (Mujahid and Qatadah); Tafsir al-Jalalayn; Ma'ariful Qur'an, Mufti Muhammad Shafi; al-Mukhtasar fi Tafsir; Tafsir al-Tustari; The Rowwad translation, footnote to 94:4
A closer look: How translators put it, ayah 94:1
What does it mean to open a chest? The two translations below differ. One keeps the picture: "Did We not expand for you your breast?" The other gives the meaning: "Have We not reassured your heart for you?" The surah's name, ash-Sharh, is this word: the opening, the expanding. It is also called al-Inshirah.
Ibn Kathir explains the picture: We lit it, and made it spacious, vast and wide. Al-Mukhtasar says his heart was opened and receiving revelation was made dear to him. Ma'ariful Qur'an says it was widened to hold knowledge and wisdom, so that dealing with people did not pull his attention from Allah.
The same picture appears in 6:125, which Ibn Kathir, Ma'ariful Qur'an and al-Tustari all quote here. It shows both sides. The one Allah guides has his chest opened to Islam. The other has his chest made tight, as though he were climbing into the sky.
There is also a literal reading. Ma'ariful Qur'an says that some authentic reports describe angels physically opening the Prophet's ﷺ chest, and that some commentators take this ayah to refer to that event. It leaves the matter with "Allah knows best".
Saheeh International
1 Did We not expand for you, [O Muḥammad], your breast?
Rowwad Translation Center
1 Have We not reassured your heart for you [O Prophet],
Researched with AI help, from: Tafsir Ibn Kathir; Ma'ariful Qur'an, Mufti Muhammad Shafi (including the literal reading); al-Mukhtasar fi Tafsir; Tafsir al-Tustari; The Qur'an, 6:125
A closer look: Where scholars differ, ayah 94:2-3
What was the load on his back? The ayah says a burden was lifted that had weighed on his back. Ma'ariful Qur'an explains the phrase: a load heavy enough to bend the back, almost to break it. The surah does not say what the load was. The commentators give three answers.
Sins forgiven. Ibn Kathir and al-Jalalayn both explain the ayah with 48:2, where Allah forgives him what is past and what is to come. Al-Mukhtasar says simply that sin was removed from him.
Small things, felt heavily. Ma'ariful Qur'an gives a careful version of that view. Now and then he did something permissible, judging it best, and later saw that another course would have been wiser. Because of his closeness to Allah he felt even that as a grave matter, and the ayah lifts it from him.
The weight of the task itself. Ma'ariful Qur'an then gives the view of "some commentators": the burden was the mission, the job of turning a whole people around. It passes on a report that he said the command "stand firm as you have been commanded" (11:112) had made him old.
The footnotes of both bundled translations give the first and third views together. Al-Tustari's inner reading is different again: what was removed was any leaning on other than Allah.
Researched with AI help, from: Tafsir Ibn Kathir; Tafsir al-Jalalayn; Ma'ariful Qur'an, Mufti Muhammad Shafi (the second and third views); al-Mukhtasar fi Tafsir; Tafsir al-Tustari; The Saheeh International and Rowwad translations, footnotes to 94:2
Before the promise, a reminder of what has already been done for him.
With hardship, ease. Twice Everything so far has been evidence. Here is the conclusion: for indeed, with hardship comes ease. And then the same sentence again: indeed, with hardship comes ease.
Why say it twice? One answer is emphasis. Ibn Kathir says Allah states it and then reaffirms it. Another answer is in the grammar, and it is the one people remember: in Arabic "the hardship" is definite and "ease" is not, which commentators read as one hardship and two eases (see the closer look).
There is the small word too. Both bundled translations say "with", not "after". The ease is described as keeping company with the hardship.
The surah does not end on the promise. It ends on what to do: when you have finished, stand up again, and turn your longing to your Lord. Finished with what? The commentators answer differently.
So the two surahs close the gap they opened with. A man was told his Lord had left him. The last word he is given is "your Lord", and the direction to turn.
فَإِنَّ مَعَ ٱلۡعُسۡرِ يُسۡرًا ٥ إِنَّ مَعَ ٱلۡعُسۡرِ يُسۡرࣱا ٦
5 For indeed, with hardship [will be] ease [i.e., relief].
6 Indeed, with hardship [will be] ease.
Qur'an 94:5-6 فَإِذَا فَرَغۡتَ فَٱنصَبۡ ٧ وَإِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ فَٱرۡغَب ٨
7 So when you have finished [your duties], then stand up [for worship].
8 And to your Lord direct [your] longing.
Qur'an 94:7-8 A closer look: The word, ayah 94:5-6
One hardship, two eases The point rests on a rule of Arabic grammar, and Ma'ariful Qur'an sets it out. When a noun with "the" (al-) is repeated with "the", it is the same thing both times. When a noun without "the" is repeated, it is a different thing each time.
Now the two ayat. Al-'usr, the hardship, has "the" both times: one hardship. Yusr, ease, has none: the second ease is not the first. A footnote in the Rowwad translation makes the same point. Ma'ariful Qur'an adds that two here does not mean exactly two. It means many.
There is a saying attached. Ma'ariful Qur'an passes on from al-Hasan al-Basri, a scholar of the generation after the Companions, that the Prophet ﷺ came out of his house one day in a happy mood and told his Companions: one hardship cannot overcome two eases. Al-Tustari quotes the same words as the Prophet's. Neither commentary gives a chain or a grading for the report.
Al-Tustari's own comment is that Allah, out of generosity, made hope larger in this ayah by mentioning ease twice. He then gives an inner reading in which the two eases are the heart's insight and the intellect.
Not every commentary read here makes the grammatical point. Ibn Kathir, in the English edition used, says only that the statement is made and then reaffirmed by repeating it.
Researched with AI help, from: Ma'ariful Qur'an, Mufti Muhammad Shafi (the grammar; the report from al-Hasan al-Basri); Tafsir al-Tustari; Tafsir Ibn Kathir (abridged English edition); The Rowwad translation, footnote to 94:5
A closer look: Where scholars differ, ayah 94:5-6
His hardship, or everyone's? Both translations below say "with" hardship. Saheeh International supplies "[will be]", Rowwad "comes". The Arabic has no verb at all: with the hardship, ease.
Whose hardship is "the hardship"? Al-Jalalayn reads it as his: the Prophet ﷺ suffered a great deal at the hands of the disbelievers, and then knew ease when he was given victory over them. Al-Mukhtasar also keeps it close to him: once you know this, the harm from your people will not frighten you or stop you.
Ma'ariful Qur'an agrees that "the" points to a known hardship, that of the Prophet and his Companions, and says the world saw the promise kept. Then it widens it. The rule still holds for anyone, it says, and it faces the obvious objection directly: if a person does not find ease after a hardship, that does not contradict the ayah. Its advice is patience, reliance on Allah, and not despairing when relief is slow.
Wahiduddin Khan reads it as a law of this world. He gives the Prophet's own case: the opposition in Makkah was the hardship, and it was through that opposition that he became known across the country.
Saheeh International
5 For indeed, with hardship [will be] ease [i.e., relief]. 6 Indeed, with hardship [will be] ease.
Rowwad Translation Center
5 For indeed, with hardship comes ease, 6 indeed, with hardship comes ease.
Researched with AI help, from: Tafsir al-Jalalayn; al-Mukhtasar fi Tafsir; Ma'ariful Qur'an, Mufti Muhammad Shafi, citing the notes of Shabbir Ahmad 'Usmani; Tazkirul Qur'an, Wahiduddin Khan
A closer look: Where scholars differ, ayah 94:7-8
"When you have finished": finished with what? The Arabic says only: when you are free, then toil. It names neither the thing finished nor the thing begun. Each translation fills the gap in brackets: finished "[your duties]", then "stand up [for worship]" or "strive in worship".
Ibn Kathir: when you have finished your worldly affairs and tasks, stand for worship with zeal and full devotion. He passes on the same from Mujahid.
Ma'ariful Qur'an, which calls this the reading of most commentators, makes it sharper. His daily work was teaching and reforming people, and that was itself worship of a kind. The ayah says it is not enough. When that work is done for the day, he is to turn to Allah directly, in prayer and remembrance.
Al-Jalalayn reads it the other way round: when you have finished the prayer, toil in supplication. Al-Tustari also takes "finished" to mean finished the prescribed prayer.
One word is worth a look. Ma'ariful Qur'an says the verb for "toil" comes from a root meaning to be tired. The instruction at the end of a surah about ease is to tire oneself in worship, and then to want only one thing.
Researched with AI help, from: Tafsir Ibn Kathir (his own reading; Mujahid); Ma'ariful Qur'an, Mufti Muhammad Shafi; Tafsir al-Jalalayn; Tafsir al-Tustari; The Saheeh International and Rowwad translations
A closer look: The connection, ayah 94:6
A scholar on the run, and news from a rider Al-Tustari ends his comments on this surah with a story. It is not about the Prophet's time. It shows how later Muslims carried the idea of relief after hardship.
Abu 'Amr ibn al-'Ala', a famous scholar of Arabic and of Qur'an recitation, says he fled into the desert from al-Hajjaj, a governor feared for his harshness. He lived there for some time, moving from camp to camp. One morning he was wandering, distracted and low, when he heard an old Arab reciting poetry as he passed. The lines said: be patient, and every worry goes. A person may hate the very thing that holds his relief, like the loosing of the cords on a tied camel.
Before the old man had finished, a rider called out from a distance: al-Hajjaj is dead.
Abu 'Amr, being who he was, then asked the old man about the word for "relief" in the poem, and got a small lesson on how one change of vowel turns "a gap in a wall" into "relief after hardship". He said afterwards that he did not know which had pleased him more: the death of al-Hajjaj, or the lesson.
Researched with AI help, from: Tafsir al-Tustari, on 94:7
One hardship, two eases: what commentators read in a line said twice.