Surah Ash-Sharh

The aim and object of this Surah is to console and encourage the Messenger. No sooner had he started preaching the message of Islam than the same society which had esteemed him with unique honour, turned hostile to him. The same relatives and friends, the same tribesmen and neighbours, who used to treat him with the highest respect, began to shower him with abuse and criticism. No one in Makkah was prepared to listen to him; he began to be ridiculed and mocked in the street and on the road; and at every step he had to face new difficulties. Although gradually he became accustomed to the hardships, even much severer ones, yet the initial stage was very discouraging for him. That is why first Surah 93: adh-Dhuha was sent down to console him, and then this Surah.

In it, at the outset, Allah says: “We have favoured you, O Prophet ﷺ, with three great blessings; therefore you have no cause to be disheartened. The first is the blessing of ‘opening up of the breast’ (Sharh Sadr), the second of removing from you the heavy burden that was weighing down your back before the call, and the third of exalting your renown the like of which has never been granted to any man before.”

After this, the Lord and Sustainer of the universe has reassured His Servant and Messenger that the period of hardships which he is passing through, is not very long, but following close behind it there is also a period of ease. This same thing has been described in Surah 93: adh-Dhuha, saying: “Every later period is better for you than the former period, and soon your Lord will give you so much that you will be well pleased.”

In conclusion, the Prophet ﷺhas been instructed, so as to say, “You can develop the power to bear and resist the hardships of the initial stage only by one means, and it is this: ‘When you are free from your occupations, you should devote yourself worship, and turn all your attention exclusively to your Lord’.” This same instruction has been given to him in much greater detail in Surah 73: alMuzzammil (The Enwrapped One) 1-9. Connection between the beginning and the ending of the Surah Longing for Allah is amongst the best ways for the chest to expand.