Qur'an and Tafsir
Time, in three lines
Three lines the Prophet's Companions are said to have recited before parting.
4 min, Intro, Draft written with AI help: awaiting scholar review
Part 1 of 3
The Prophet's Companions, one report says, would not part until one had recited this surah to the other. It opens with an oath: By time. The Arabic word, 'asr, can also mean the late afternoon, when the day is nearly spent.
Qur'an 103:1
وَٱلۡعَصۡرِ ١
1 By time,
The story behind it
'Amr ibn al-'As, not yet a Muslim, recited these three lines to Musaylimah, who claimed revelations of his own. Musaylimah answered with a rhyme about a hyrax: all ears and chest. 'Amr's reply, as Ibn Kathir passes it on: you know that I know you are lying.
Lesson
The surah calls time itself as its witness.
Part 2 of 3
Then the claim the oath was for: the human being is in loss. Commentators hear the market in that word. They picture a trader whose stock is his own lifetime, and it is going whether he sells or not.
Qur'an 103:2
إِنَّ ٱلۡإِنسَٰنَ لَفِي خُسۡرٍ ٢
2 Indeed, mankind is in loss,
A closer look
An old scholar said he understood this surah from an ice seller, calling out in the market: have mercy on a man whose stock is melting. Money can wait in a box. Ice cannot. Neither can a day.
Lesson
Doing nothing is not standing still. The stock melts either way.
Part 3 of 3
Then one word turns it: except. Four things take a person out of the loss: believing, doing good, urging one another to truth, and urging one another to patience. Two are done alone. Two need other people.
Qur'an 103:3
إِلَّا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ وَعَمِلُواْ ٱلصَّٰلِحَٰتِ وَتَوَاصَوۡاْ بِٱلۡحَقِّ وَتَوَاصَوۡاْ بِٱلصَّبۡرِ ٣
3 Except for those who have believed and done righteous deeds and advised each other to truth and advised each other to patience.
How translators put it
The Arabic for urging one another comes from wasiyyah, the word for a will: the careful instructions a person leaves behind. Ma'ariful Qur'an calls truth and patience two chapters of one testament. Translators try advised, exhort, enjoin, recommend.
Lesson
Two for yourself, two for others. In al-'Asr nobody gets out alone.
Reflect, just for you
Seen by lamplight. It gives more each time.
Three lines the Prophet's Companions are said to have recited before parting.