25 February 2026

4-minute read

We read Surat-ud-Duha almost every day, in some Salaah or the other, but do we understand that this is a love-story? Others are mesmerized by the love-story of Layla and Majnun, some are taken aback by the love-story of Romeo and Juliet but let’s look at a love-story, that has no parallel. Nabi ﷺ received a revelation, then the revelation stopped. The Makkans began to taunt him, and asked him, ‘What has happened? Where’s the revelation? Is your Allāh angry with you? Has your Allāh forsaken you? Has your Allāh deserted you?’

And the Nabi of Allāh became depressed.

You and I become depressed when people talk negatively about us. A lot of what we do is designed to win the favourable opinion of others, to please others, to make them think good of us, and to make them have a positive viewpoint about us. When things don’t go the way we want them to go, we become depressed. But the Nabi of Allah ﷺ was not worried about the taunting of the Makkans, he was worried that it should not be that Allah was upset with him and that is why the revelation had stopped.

In a relationship of love, you only worry about what your beloved thinks of you. You don’t care about what others think and speak. Allah in His Wisdom stopped the Revelation. After a period, Surat-ud-Duha was revealed. Allah says:

وَالضُّحَىٰ

وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا سَجَىٰ

‘By the Light of Day and by the Night when it settles’, meaning, there’s an alternation between day and night, there will be an alternation, sometimes a revelation will come, and sometimes not. It is the system of Allah. It does not mean Allah is unhappy with you when the revelation stops.

مَا وَدَّعَكَ رَبُّكَ وَمَا قَلَىٰ

‘Your Lord has not forsaken you and your Lord is not angry with you’. Allah first responds to the Makkans, and their accusation, مَا وَدَّعَكَ رَبُّكَ your Allah has not forsaken you, like they alleged. But Allah also understood that Nabi ﷺ was not worried about that, he was worried that it should not be Allah who was upset with him. وَمَا قَلَىٰ, then, Allah gives consolation. Look at the tone of love!

وَلَلْآخِرَةُ خَيْرٌ لَكَ مِنَ الْأُولَىٰ

‘My Nabi, you are going through difficulty and hardship, but what is to come, will be far better for you, than what you are currently having to endure’. In this world, what is to come when you conquer Makkah is far better than what the Makkans are putting you through. Or in the greater scheme of things, what is to come in terms of the reward of the Hereafter, when these very people who are mocking at you will see you at the Haudhe Kauthar, when the doors of Jannah will not open except with your knocking and when the reckoning will not start except with your intercession. They will then bite their hands and wish to die out of regret that they did not understand how much Allah loves you. So, in consolation:

وَلَلْآخِرَةُ خَيْرٌ لَكَ مِنَ الْأُولَىٰ

Then Allah steps it up and says:

وَلَسَوْفَ يُعْطِيكَ رَبُّكَ فَتَرْضَىٰ

‘Oh Muhammad, ﷺ, I will give you so much, until you become happy.’ Allah says, ‘my love for you is so much that I will continue to give you, to bless you, until you are pleased.’ So, Nabi ﷺ was the recipient of this love but look at how he passed on that love.  He said, ‘Oh my Allah, if it is Your promise that You will continue to give me until I am pleased, then Allah, I am stating before You, I will never be pleased until the last individual from my Ummah has been entered into Jannah’.

What love! This is a Deen of love! Our Allah is a Creator of love! Our Nabi is a Prophet of love. The Qur’ān radiates the message of love: how Allah had love for Rasoolullah ﷺ and how Rasoolullah ﷺ had love for you and me.

{Extracted and adapted from Volume One of the book In Pursuit of Purpose by Ml Sulaimaan Ravat}