Ad-Duhaa

By the forenoon, that is to say, the first part of the day or all of it,

and [by] the night when it is still — or [sajā can mean] ‘when it envelops [all] in its darkness’.

Your Lord has neither forsaken you, He has [not] abandoned you, O Muhammad (s), nor does He hate you: this was revealed when, after the revelation had not come to him for fifteen days, the disbelievers said, ‘His Lord has parted with him and hates him’.

And verily the Hereafter shall be better for you, by virtue of the honours awaiting you thereat, than the first [life], this world.

And verily your Lord shall give you, in the Hereafter, of good things, a bounteous gift, and you shall be satisfied, with it — and so the Prophet (s) said, ‘In that case, I shall not be satisfied if a single person from among my community remains in the Fire’ (the response to the oath terminates here, with two affirmations and two negations).

Did He not find you an orphan (an interrogative meant as an affirmative, in other words, He did [indeed] find you [an orphan]), having lost your father before you were born or [shortly] thereafter, and shelter you?, by having your uncle Abū Tālib embrace you [as part of his household].

And did He not find you erring, from the [revealed] Law which you [now] follow, and guided you?, that is, and then guided you to it.

And did He not find you needy, poor, and enrich you?, [and] made you content with the spoils and other things which He gave you — in a hadīth [it is stated], ‘Wealth comes not from the proliferation of transient [worldly] goods, but wealth comes from the contentedness of the soul’.

So, as for the orphan, do not oppress [him], by appropriating his wealth or otherwise,

and as for the beggar, do not drive [him] away, [do not] repel him on account of his poverty,

and as for your Lord’s grace, to you, by way of prophethood and otherwise, proclaim [it], make it known. The omission in certain instances of the [suffixed] pronoun referring to the Prophet (s) from the end of the verbs is intended to sustain the end-rhyme of the verses.