The exclusive audience of this surah and the last is the messenger (s.a.w).
أَلَمْ نَشْرَحْ لَكَ صَدْرَكَ
First person pronouns mean that Allah is close to His Messenger
The Messenger (s.a.w)is enormously content, there is no void left, there is no want for more.
شْرَحْ - the opening of the chest implies that the any barrier in understanding the truth is removed. He received and understands the message. He best understood the revelation.
A negation question sentence really means the opposite, i.e. didn't I open your chest for you? = I for sure I did open your chest for you. It is to make make one more grateful. The point of the whole surah is to support the Prophet (s.a.w). So the entire Surah has a supporting tone. Allah is saying that for sure I put your mind at ease, made you comfortable with it. You obey, understand and are at ease with the commandment. Many people follow the command of Allah, but they don't get it. They aren't convinced. They don't acknowledge that it is good for them and its Allah's favour upon them.
Allah didn't say I expanded your nafs for you.
There are two occasions on which the prophet's (s.a.w) chest was literally opened and his heart cleaned with zamzam. It occurs in the Qur'an 4 times. Allah says that if He wants to guide someone, He expands their chest for submission. In another place, Allah says this is a light that Allah gives. Musa (a.s) asks Allah to expand his chest for him because he has a speech impediment and a fatal anger (Pharaoh will speak ridiculous lies and it will make him angry, then he will have trouble speaking to him) so Musa (a.s) asked his chest to be expanded to ease his responsibility. To help him give the haqq of doing da'wah. Prophet (s.a.w) also has to speak to the Kuffar and they will insult him, slander him, maliciously malign him. So to deal with all that trauma, stress he needed (s.a.w) to have his chest expanded.
Allah said that if the Qur'an was revealed on a mountain, it would have crumbled under its pressure. So the Prophet's chest (s.a.w) had to be opened, made spacious to bear the Qur'an, to keep the Qur'an. It was not just a heavy responsibility but the message itself is not easy to internalize. The Book of Allah is tremendously deep. If you really understand it, its like your heart will explode/burst. So Allah made his heart strong.
وَوَضَعْنَا عَنكَ وِزْرَكَ
وَضَعْ- Something that was placed somewhere, you take it down and put it down. It also means to bear a child/deliver, to drop a load of your cloths (to take off clothes).
So Allah could relieve them of their burdens, drop their shackles.
وِزْرَ - A severe burden that you are not able to carry and that it will crush you under its weight.
الَّذِي أَنقَضَ ظَهْرَكَ
نقَضَ - You start hearing clacks when you place a burden on something. It shows that the thing is going to collapse. It will snap.
When you get up from sujud, you hear the crackling in your knees.
The Prophet's back (s.a.w) was going to break. The revelation was physically tiring, it would cause him to sweat profusively in the dead of winter. It would weigh a tremendous weight on him and the those sitting next to him could feel that he was being pressed.
We are excessively concerned about ourselves. We just revolve around our own lives. Others care for their family, neighbours, the world - but that is at a political level. The average person don't even think about deeper questions. Why am I here? Who created me? What do I owe my creator? These ideas take over their entire life, they are eternally restless. They go looking for answers. Like Salman al Farsi treads the entire middle east for the sake of finding the truth and purpose in life. The Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) left his family and society for days and days in the cave of Hira. His search became so intense, he didn't want to see anyone, talk to anyone.
Then when he found the religion, the revelation gave him strength to call others to it. The Da'wah took a toll on him, he was sensitive, and he had to hear nasty, demoralizing criticism that just grew in his vulgarity and obscenity every day. So that stress and hurt had to be taken off him at night when he was in qiyam al layl. So revelation tended to his wounds. It consoled him.
وَرَفَعْنَا لَكَ ذِكْرَكَ
Allah raised his mention, not just in the Qur'an, but in the shahada, the ahdan and attahiyaat, darood Whenever Allah's Name is mentioned, Prophet (s.a.w) is also mentioned.
فَإِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا and إِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا
مَعَ - combined and always together.
يُسْرًا - easy, smooth, a task you can do without any labour/effortlessly.
Associated with every difficulty is amazing amount of difficulty. For every difficulty, there are two times as much ease. Amazing ease will only arise only after some difficulty. It talks about the Prophet's past and future, one for this life and one for the next.
The repetition is for love and affection. Allah consoling his messenger (s.a.w) twice.
فَإِذَا فَرَغْتَ فَانصَبْ
انصَبْ - be pegged and be exhausted. Stand in the middle of the night (qiyam al layl).
One of the most incredible events in human history was when Musa spoke to Allah. He goes to Tuwa, Allah tells him to take his shoes off and the conversation starts. Allah asks O Musa what is in your hand? And he could have said, You know best but Musa prolongs the conversation. He gives all the mundane details. Who wouldn't if they got a chance to talk to Allah personally. After speaking to Allah you wouldn't want to speak to anyone but Allah turns Musa to Pharaoh and said now go talk to him. Pharaoh was such a personality that if he was the only person on earth, you would not still want to talk to him. So qiyam al layl was a means through which prophet (s.a.w) spiritually spoke to Allah. He had to deal with all sorts of vicious people all day long. He would go through such a tough time on the streets, walking up and down the market places, telling people, being persecuted that at night he couldn't wait to stand before Allah and unwind. This was his vacation. This was his treatment. He would stand before Allah talking to him for soooooo long that his feet would crack and he still would not budge. This was the fuel for his dawah.
This shows that the prophet's work (s.a.w) was not quiet done. He had some way to go till his mission was complete. So don't take a break now or call it quit. Don't stop till you reach the end.
وَإِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ فَارْغَب
Mission = cleanse the house of Allah, bring victory to Islam, establish His Law.
When the mission is relieved, he was told to dedicate himself to Allah. In the last 80 days of his life (s.a.w), he is just praying praying praying. He cannot wait to get back to back to Allah. He died saying, "I want to be in the Highest Friend's company". He told Abu Bakr (r.a) that a slave was given a choice between this world and the next and he chose the next.
People scar the Muslims with insults against the Muhammad (s.a.w). This is as usually as spitting as the sun, it is going to only come back on your face. The Prophet (s.a.w) was insulted even more than this to his face. The Prophet was told (s.a.w) by Allah that We know that your chest becomes tight with what they say but your status is already exalted. So their speech will not bring down his honour in the sight of Muslims, the Qur'an or Allah.
There are two types of Muslims (1) only want to do dikhr and focus on their personal ibadaah (2) obsessed with da'wah, want to make flyer, want to give lectures, want to reach out to the community. The life of the prophet (s.a.w) was both. Da'wah by Day and Dhikr by night.
أَلَمْ نَشْرَحْ لَكَ صَدْرَكَ
First person pronouns mean that Allah is close to His Messenger
The Messenger (s.a.w)is enormously content, there is no void left, there is no want for more.
شْرَحْ - the opening of the chest implies that the any barrier in understanding the truth is removed. He received and understands the message. He best understood the revelation.
A negation question sentence really means the opposite, i.e. didn't I open your chest for you? = I for sure I did open your chest for you. It is to make make one more grateful. The point of the whole surah is to support the Prophet (s.a.w). So the entire Surah has a supporting tone. Allah is saying that for sure I put your mind at ease, made you comfortable with it. You obey, understand and are at ease with the commandment. Many people follow the command of Allah, but they don't get it. They aren't convinced. They don't acknowledge that it is good for them and its Allah's favour upon them.
Allah didn't say I expanded your nafs for you.
There are two occasions on which the prophet's (s.a.w) chest was literally opened and his heart cleaned with zamzam. It occurs in the Qur'an 4 times. Allah says that if He wants to guide someone, He expands their chest for submission. In another place, Allah says this is a light that Allah gives. Musa (a.s) asks Allah to expand his chest for him because he has a speech impediment and a fatal anger (Pharaoh will speak ridiculous lies and it will make him angry, then he will have trouble speaking to him) so Musa (a.s) asked his chest to be expanded to ease his responsibility. To help him give the haqq of doing da'wah. Prophet (s.a.w) also has to speak to the Kuffar and they will insult him, slander him, maliciously malign him. So to deal with all that trauma, stress he needed (s.a.w) to have his chest expanded.
Allah said that if the Qur'an was revealed on a mountain, it would have crumbled under its pressure. So the Prophet's chest (s.a.w) had to be opened, made spacious to bear the Qur'an, to keep the Qur'an. It was not just a heavy responsibility but the message itself is not easy to internalize. The Book of Allah is tremendously deep. If you really understand it, its like your heart will explode/burst. So Allah made his heart strong.
وَوَضَعْنَا عَنكَ وِزْرَكَ
وَضَعْ- Something that was placed somewhere, you take it down and put it down. It also means to bear a child/deliver, to drop a load of your cloths (to take off clothes).
So Allah could relieve them of their burdens, drop their shackles.
وِزْرَ - A severe burden that you are not able to carry and that it will crush you under its weight.
الَّذِي أَنقَضَ ظَهْرَكَ
نقَضَ - You start hearing clacks when you place a burden on something. It shows that the thing is going to collapse. It will snap.
When you get up from sujud, you hear the crackling in your knees.
The Prophet's back (s.a.w) was going to break. The revelation was physically tiring, it would cause him to sweat profusively in the dead of winter. It would weigh a tremendous weight on him and the those sitting next to him could feel that he was being pressed.
We are excessively concerned about ourselves. We just revolve around our own lives. Others care for their family, neighbours, the world - but that is at a political level. The average person don't even think about deeper questions. Why am I here? Who created me? What do I owe my creator? These ideas take over their entire life, they are eternally restless. They go looking for answers. Like Salman al Farsi treads the entire middle east for the sake of finding the truth and purpose in life. The Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) left his family and society for days and days in the cave of Hira. His search became so intense, he didn't want to see anyone, talk to anyone.
Then when he found the religion, the revelation gave him strength to call others to it. The Da'wah took a toll on him, he was sensitive, and he had to hear nasty, demoralizing criticism that just grew in his vulgarity and obscenity every day. So that stress and hurt had to be taken off him at night when he was in qiyam al layl. So revelation tended to his wounds. It consoled him.
وَرَفَعْنَا لَكَ ذِكْرَكَ
Allah raised his mention, not just in the Qur'an, but in the shahada, the ahdan and attahiyaat, darood Whenever Allah's Name is mentioned, Prophet (s.a.w) is also mentioned.
فَإِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا and إِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا
مَعَ - combined and always together.
يُسْرًا - easy, smooth, a task you can do without any labour/effortlessly.
Associated with every difficulty is amazing amount of difficulty. For every difficulty, there are two times as much ease. Amazing ease will only arise only after some difficulty. It talks about the Prophet's past and future, one for this life and one for the next.
The repetition is for love and affection. Allah consoling his messenger (s.a.w) twice.
فَإِذَا فَرَغْتَ فَانصَبْ
انصَبْ - be pegged and be exhausted. Stand in the middle of the night (qiyam al layl).
One of the most incredible events in human history was when Musa spoke to Allah. He goes to Tuwa, Allah tells him to take his shoes off and the conversation starts. Allah asks O Musa what is in your hand? And he could have said, You know best but Musa prolongs the conversation. He gives all the mundane details. Who wouldn't if they got a chance to talk to Allah personally. After speaking to Allah you wouldn't want to speak to anyone but Allah turns Musa to Pharaoh and said now go talk to him. Pharaoh was such a personality that if he was the only person on earth, you would not still want to talk to him. So qiyam al layl was a means through which prophet (s.a.w) spiritually spoke to Allah. He had to deal with all sorts of vicious people all day long. He would go through such a tough time on the streets, walking up and down the market places, telling people, being persecuted that at night he couldn't wait to stand before Allah and unwind. This was his vacation. This was his treatment. He would stand before Allah talking to him for soooooo long that his feet would crack and he still would not budge. This was the fuel for his dawah.
This shows that the prophet's work (s.a.w) was not quiet done. He had some way to go till his mission was complete. So don't take a break now or call it quit. Don't stop till you reach the end.
وَإِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ فَارْغَب
Mission = cleanse the house of Allah, bring victory to Islam, establish His Law.
When the mission is relieved, he was told to dedicate himself to Allah. In the last 80 days of his life (s.a.w), he is just praying praying praying. He cannot wait to get back to back to Allah. He died saying, "I want to be in the Highest Friend's company". He told Abu Bakr (r.a) that a slave was given a choice between this world and the next and he chose the next.
People scar the Muslims with insults against the Muhammad (s.a.w). This is as usually as spitting as the sun, it is going to only come back on your face. The Prophet (s.a.w) was insulted even more than this to his face. The Prophet was told (s.a.w) by Allah that We know that your chest becomes tight with what they say but your status is already exalted. So their speech will not bring down his honour in the sight of Muslims, the Qur'an or Allah.
There are two types of Muslims (1) only want to do dikhr and focus on their personal ibadaah (2) obsessed with da'wah, want to make flyer, want to give lectures, want to reach out to the community. The life of the prophet (s.a.w) was both. Da'wah by Day and Dhikr by night.
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