1أَلهاكُمُ التَّكاثُرُMir Ahmed AliEngagethI1 you (your) vying on exuberance,The occasion for the revelation of this sura has been reported to be that the people of Bani Abde-Manaf, Bani Qusai and Ibne-Sahm ibne Omar, got busy in a mutual contest of priding over each other, the strength, their number and the matter went to the extent of counting even the dead among them, to the sides and once when one of the parties fell short of one to win over the others, a grave was opened and the dead lying therein was counted. This sera was revealed. Refers to the total indulgence into the material aquisitions in this world which, not only degenerates the moral and the spiritual aspect of the individual but also takes away all the time more and more, it leaving no time for seeking the higher objects of the real and the permanent value in the life hereafter which is eternal while every material acquisition has only an imaginary and timely value and which one leaves behind when he or she passes away from this world. Besides, every thing of the material wealth is liable to pass away from the acquirer to somebody else but every spiritual and moral or intellectual acquisition, is inseparable from the individual, and goes along with the acquirer when he passes away from the world to the next.In this chapter, references made to the different stages of human realisation of the life of the hereafter corresponding to the degree of one’s disengagement from the attractions—towards accumulation of the material stuff of which the first stage common to all, is the visits to graveyards which have commended by Islam and prevented by some fanatics. (A.P.)Diverts