[Asr means age which implies continuity of time.

According to some commentators it is a reference to the period in

which the HOLY PROPHET (SAWW) was sent into this world to preach
the religion of ALLAH, Islam, so that mankind, in all ages, come out
from the darkness of ignorance into the light of divine guidance and
reach higher realms of spiritual bliss.
Some say that it refers to afternoon prayers (salatul asr).
Imam Jafar bin Muhammad as Sadiq said:
"It refers to the age when the living Imam of the Ahlul Bait, Muhammad bin
Hasan al Mahdi al Qa-im, will be commissioned by ALLAH to administer the
society of all human beings under the law of ALLAH prescribed in the religion
of Islam."
Whether it refers to the time of the HOLY PROPHET (SAWW) or his true successor
who will act according to the teachings and laws he brought from ALLAH to guide
mankind, those who follow them will achieve success in the life of hereafter, and those
who reject them will be the losers.]



QURAN
TRANSLITERATION
WITH
ORIGINAL ARABIC TEXT
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
COMMENTARY






ASAR
SURAH [103] Time through the Ages




PRESENTED BY:
MOHAMAD HANIM MOHAMAD ISA







2

Wal-Asri,
103:1] I swear by the time,
Asr means age which implies continuity of time.
According to some commentators it is a reference to the period in which the HOLY PROPHET (SAWW) was sent into this world to preach the
religion of ALLAH, Islam, so that mankind, in all ages, come out from the darkness of ignorance into the light of divine guidance and reach higher
realms of spiritual bliss.
Some say that it refers to afternoon prayers (salatul asr).
Imam Jafar bin Muhammad as Sadiq said:
"It refers to the age when the living Imam of the Ahlul Bait, Muhammad bin Hasan al Mahdi al Qa-im, will be commissioned by ALLAH to
administer the society of all human beings under the law of ALLAH prescribed in the religion of Islam."
Whether it refers to the time of the HOLY PROPHET (SAWW) or his true successor who will act according to the teachings and laws he brought from ALLAH
to guide mankind, those who follow them will achieve success in the life of hereafter, and those who reject them will be the losers.
Asr literally means to wring out or press out implying squeezing or a squeezed object. It has been used figuratively for time in the sense of unfolding of the
future by squeezing the past. The following two verses justify this interpretation.
The state of squeezing and unfolding in relation to the events taking place in "time" represents imperative proviso of the Imam as a microcosm and a
medium between the finite and the infinite, therefore the Imam has been termed by the Ahlul Bait as mardar al dahr (axis of the age), the actuating force behind
every activity.

Innal-insaana lafee khusrin,
103:2] Most surely man is in loss,
If man does not believe in the oneness of ALLAH and accept the HOLY PROPHET (SAWW) and his Ahlul Bait as their mawla to give them on the right path shown
by the religion of ALLAH, Islam, certainly he is in loss. If he is deprived of the pleasure of ALLAH on account of his rejection of that which has been stated above,
he shall not obtain salvation which is the real loss.
It is needless to go into the details that man amidst innumerable, is always caught in the lust for the satisfaction of his carnal desires, thus under the risk of
being easily beguiled by the innumerable and the most powerful and irresistible attractions. And if man, is not on his guard against all the formidable forces of
Satan who is ever active to *lead man astray, *man suffers the loss, *the loss of the pleasure of his Lord which is the loss of his own salvation, the loss real.
It is said that this is, as well a reference to the taunt of Abu-Jehl and Walid bin Moghaira who said that the HOLY PROPHET (SAWW) and his followers are
the losers for they have abandoned the worship of their ancestral gods and have given up themselves to someone God. This verse clearly addressing the one
who holds any such false idea says that he who says that the HOLY PROPHET (SAWW) and his followers are in a loss, is him-self in the loss.

Illallazeena aamanou wa amilus-
saalihaati wa tawaasaw bil-Haqqi wa
tawaasaw-bis-Sabr.
103:3] Except those who believe and do
good, and enjoin on each other truth, and
enjoin on each other patience.
Those who believe may indicate every believer to the extent or the degree of the strength of his conviction or faith and those who will be meant here with the
fullest application of the term, will be only those who satisfy to the fullest extent the owning of the several great qualities of a believer mentioned by ALLAH. See
verses 2:177; 6:163; 9:20 & 26 and 26:15.
The believers are those from whom ALLAH has purchased their wealth and their lives in exchange for His pleasure with them (see verse 9:111).
Those who hold the HOLY PROPHET (SAWW) in preference to their own souls (see verse 33:6).
The perfection or the purity in the faith can never be found in any other than those whom ALLAH Himself has purified (see verse 33:33) to be the
models of purity in every aspect of goodness in the life on earth. Thus those who are referred here immediately are the Holy Ahlul Bait.
When asked the explanation of this Surah the HOLY PROPHET (SAWW) said that those who are safe and whose faith and deeds are totally correct and
perfect are my Ahlul Bait, i.e., Ali and the Imams in his seeds and those who reject me or them, are in the loss.
As regards the preaching of the Truth, who else could do it, save those who must themselves be fully conversant with it and even realised it by
their own conviction and the strength of faith. The HOLY PROPHET (SAWW) had said that I and Ali are of one and the same Light and Ali is
always with the Truth and the Truth will always be with Ali.
The preaching of the Truth needs knowledge of it, and the HOLY PROPHET (SAWW) had said I am the City of knowledge and Ali is its Gate. The
preaching of the Truth needs the knowledge of the Final Word of ALLAH, i.e., the Holy Quran and the HOLY PROPHET (SAWW) had said I leave
behind me Two weighty (very important) things: The Book of ALLAH, (i.e., the Holy Quran) and my Ahlul Bait, if ye be attached to these Two,
never, never shall ye get astray and never, never, will these Two get separated from each other until they meet me at the Houz or (Cistern) of
Kauthar in heaven. Thus the immediate application of this reference could rightly be only to Ali or the Ahlul Bait collectively and those
according to their attachment to these holy ones.
As far as the enjoining of patience is concerned, the preachers themselves must have the quality of patience to the maximum degree possible, and who else
could be compared to have exercised more patience in this world than the Holy Ahlul Bait who suffered untold miseries, tortures and even a wholesale massacre
of all their dear ones. None of the Eleven Holy Imams left this world with a natural death --- all of them suffered martyrdom.
Enjoining of goodness and preaching abstinence from evil has been referred to as the qualities of the Best of the nations, i.e., the Holy Ahlul Bait see verse
3:109 and this has also been prescribed and made incumbent on the believers see verse 3:103.
THE BEST OF THE PEOPLE CAN BE ONLY THOSE WHOM ALLAH HIMSELF HAD PURIFIED (VERSE 33:33). THE OTHERS, ACCORDING TO THE DEGREE OF THE
PURIFICATION THEY WOULD HAVE ACHIEVED.

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