Explanation of Surah No 96 of Quran IQRA or AL-ALAQ (The Clot)

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

This Surah from Verses 1-5 were the First direct Revelation to the Holy Prophet (PBUH) there was an interval, may be few months or may be a year. Soon after the rest of the verses from 6-19 revealed in which Allah gave Him the Command to preach.

Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) was unlettered but His mind was full of spiritual knowledge, so He was chosen by his Lord as His Messenger to convey the Message of Truth to the Meccan Pagans, That time his age was forty and his wife Lady Khadija was fifteen years senior to him.

The Prophet (PBUH) often used to go and sit in the cave Hira in Mecca and used to seclude himself from the rest. He believed in One True God and used to worship Him in his own way. Up till then he was not taught the compulsory Prayers. He was a very kind and honest man always ready to help the Poor and needy and his people used to respect him for his qualities, and honesty, before the start of his Missions of Preaching.

One day when he was meditating in the cave Hira, when Angel Gabriel came to him to prepare him for the task of his Mission to go to the Pegan Quraish and to give the Message of Allah of True Faiths to Worship One True God and to cancel their ancestral worship.

He was asked by Angel Gabriel to "Read". He was very frightened and said that he was unlettered to face such heavy task. But he had to bow to the will of His Lord. He came home and explained this episode to his wife and she considered it very important and her cousin Nofel declared that it was Angel Gabriel who he met and that he was chosen as Allah's Messenger but he would suffer a lot of persecution by his people.

The second part from Verses 6-19 reveals when the Prophet (PBUH) started offering his Prayers in the Mosque Haram as was taught to him by Angel Gabriel. Haram was made the centre of idol worship for the entire Arabs. Abu Jahal was his worst enemy and could not tolerate his worship of bowing down to One True God, and cancelling all their false gods. So he threatened the Messenger to crush his head on the ground with his foot and will bring a gang of powerful men for his help. Once he tried to commit awe and run away.

The Prophet (PBUH) was taught by Angel Gabriel to begin first "In the Name of Allah who is the Creator, Who created man from a leach like clot" (This is the early stage of the embryo, After fertilization of male sperm with a particular chosen egg in the mother's womb, very tiny cell is formed which multiply very fast and becomes a clot of blood which looks like leech and moves about, a lowly origin of man. This was revealed by Allah about 1400 years ago recently science has invented it)

Then a direct Message was given to the Prophet (PBUH) that his Lord is a Cherisher, a concrete Message of Allah the Creator to His Creatures whom He loves and cherishes. Then this lowly origin in man was offered a high destiny in his intellectual, Moral and spiritual knowledge by his most Bountiful Creator. He taught us to write (The first person to write was Prophet Enoch i.e. Idris). Allah teaches us new knowledge at every given moment as gifts from Allah in form of strength, beauty, wealth, position, power and talent. But man mistakes these gifts as his own achievements and instead thanking Him becomes arrogant and transgresses His Bounds. But in the end he will have to face the result of his rejection.

Then Allah gives the reference of Abu Jahal, the bitter enemy of the Prophet and Islam, who used to insult and humiliate the Prophet (PBUH) and his Believers. He used to attack to prevent him going for prayer and stop the others as well from following him. Allah will appoint the guards of hell over him and on his colleagues. And all of them joined together could not obstruct the Devine Mission. Therefore Allah says that all the combined forces of evil, having worldly appearance in their favour and for time being seems successful would not stand against Allah but surely they will be punished severely by their Lord. But the Righteous will have no fear, since they bow down in adoration to their Lord which is in defense from evil which brings them close to Allah, much more closer than their Jugular Veins.

The Summary is taken from the Book "The Pearls Of Wisdom" by Mrs. Badria Kazim (May Allah shower Blessings And Mercy upon Her)
Mr. Liyakat Shah
INDIA

About Author / Additional Info:
A teacher by profession