Al-'Asr

Al-'Asr: the cards as text

Qur'an and Tafsir. Draft written with AI help: awaiting scholar review.

  1. Card 1

    Three lines the Prophet's Companions are said to have recited before parting.

  2. Card 2

    By time

    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.

  3. Card 3

    Qur'an 103:1

    وَٱلۡعَصۡرِ ۝١

    1 By time,

  4. Card 4

    The rival who answered with a hyrax

    '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.

  5. Card 5

    Lesson: The surah calls time itself as its witness.

  6. Card 6

    Everyone is running at a loss

    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.

  7. Card 7

    Qur'an 103:2

    إِنَّ ٱلۡإِنسَٰنَ لَفِي خُسۡرٍ ۝٢

    2 Indeed, mankind is in loss,

  8. Card 8

    The ice seller in the market

    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.

  9. Card 9

    Lesson: Doing nothing is not standing still. The stock melts either way.

  10. Card 10

    The way out is plural

    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.

  11. Card 11

    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.

  12. Card 12

    Urging one another: a word that also means a will

    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.

  13. Card 13

    Lesson: Two for yourself, two for others. In al-'Asr nobody gets out alone.

  14. Card 14

    Reflect: What are the last two of al-'Asr's four exceptions about?

    Answer: Urging one another to truth and to patience. Encouraging one another to truth and to patience: faith lived with others.

  15. Card 15

    The end of Al-'Asr.

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