Surah Abasa

In view of the apparent style with which the discourse opens, one feels that in this Surah, Allah has expressed His displeasure against the Prophet ﷺfor his dealing with Ibn Umm Makhtum and attending to the big chiefs exclusively. But when the whole Surah is considered objectively, one finds that the displeasure, in fact, has been expressed against the disbelieving Quraysh, who because of their arrogant attitude and indifference to the truth, were rejecting with contempt the message of truth being conveyed by the Prophet ﷺ. Then, besides teaching him the correct method of preaching, the error of the method that he was adopting at the start of his mission has also been pointed out. His treatment of the blind man with neglect and disregard and devoting all his attention to the Quraysh chiefs was not for the reason that he regarded the rich as noble and a poor blind man as contemptible, and God forbid, there was some rudeness in his manner for which Allah reproved him. But, as a matter of fact, when a caller to Truth embarks on his mission of conveying his message to the people, he naturally wants the most influential people of society to accept his message so that his task becomes easy, for even if his invitation spreads among the poor and weak people, it cannot make much difference.

Almost the same attitude had the Prophet ﷺalso adopted in the beginning, his motive being only sincerity and a desire to promote his mission and not any idea of respect for the big people and hatred for the small people. But Allah made him realise that that was not the correct method of extending invitation to Islam, but from his mission’s point of view, every man, who was a seeker for the truth was important, even if he was weak, or poor, and every man, who was heedless to the truth, was unimportant, even if he occupied a high position in society. Therefore, he should openly proclaim and convey the teachings of Islam to all and sundry, but the people who were really worthy of his attention, were those who were inclined to accept the Truth and his sublime and noble message was too high to be presented before those arrogant people who in their arrogance and vanity thought that they did not stand in need of him but rather he stood in need of them.

This is the theme of v. 1-16. From verse 17 onward the rebuke directly turns to the disbelievers, who were repudiating the invitation of the Messenger of Allah. In this, first they have been reproved for their attitude which they had adopted against their Creator, Provider and Sustainer. In the end, they have been warned of the dreadful fate that they would meet in consequence of their conduct on the Day of Resurrection.