This Sūra is close in date to Sūras 89 and 92, and the imagery drawn from the contrast of Night and Day is common to all three. In this Sūra the vicissitudes of human life are referred to, and a message of hope and consolation is given to man’s soul from Allah’s past mercies, and he is bidden to pursue the path of goodness and proclaim the bounties of Allah. This is the general meaning. In particular, the Sūra seems to have been revealed in a dark period in the outer life of the holy Prophet, when a man of less resolute will might have been discouraged. But the Prophet is told to hold the present of less account than the glorious Hereafter which awaited him like the glorious morning after a night of stillness and gloom. The Hereafter was, not only in the Future Life, but in his later life on this earth, full of victory and satisfaction.

C. 273 | [93:1-11] What an example we have in the Prophet’s life! When moments of inspiration were still, his soul yet felt the power of that stillness, like one who prays by night and waits for the dawn, knowing how the light grows brighter every hour till noon, and well content that night and morn and the hours succeeding are but steps to the plenary splendor of noon. He was content and consoled in the thought that God had bestowed His loving care on him, in the past, and so the future was sure. He followed the Light Divine,—to help the helpless, to attend with patience to the call of those in need, and to rehearse and proclaim and share the boundless Bounties of God!