Al-Alaq (The Germ-Cell)
Mecca Period 1
THERE IS no doubt that the first five verses of this surah represent the very beginning of the revelation of the Qur'an. Although the exact date cannot be established with certainty, all authorities agree in that these five verses were revealed in the last third of the month of Ramadan, thirteen years before the hijrah (corresponding to July or August, 610, of the Christian era). Muhammad was then forty years old. At that period of his life "solitude became dear unto him, and he used to withdraw into seclusion in a cave of Mount Hira [near Mecca] and there apply himself to ardent devotions" consisting of long vigils and prayers (Bukhari). One night, the Angel of Revelation suddenly appeared to him and said, "Read!" Muhammad at first thought that he was expected to read actual script, which, being unlettered, he was unable
to do; and so he answered, "I cannot read" - whereupon, in his own words, the angel "seized me and pressed me to himself until all strength went out of me; then he released me and said, 'Read!' I answered, 'I cannot read....' Then he seized me again and pressed me to himself until all strength went out of me; then he released me and said, 'Read!' - to which I [again] answered, 'I cannot read....' Then he seized me and pressed me to himself a third time; then he released me and said, 'Read in the name of thy Sustainer, who has created - created man out of a germ-cell! Read - for thy Sustainer is the Most Bountiful One...'": and so Muhammad understood, in sudden illumination, that he was called upon to "read", that is, to receive and understand, God's message to man. The above excerpts are quoted from the third Tradition of the section Bad' al- Wahy, which forms the introductory chapter of Bukhari's Sahih; almost
identical versions of this Tradition are found in two other places in Bukhari as well as in Muslim, Nasa'i and Tirmidhi. Verses 6-19 of this surah are of somewhat later date.
In The Name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace:
96. Surah Al Alaq
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
96: 1. Proclaim! (or Read!)
C6203. lqraa may mean;
"read", or
"recite or rehearse", or
"proclaim aloud",
the object understood being Allah's Message.
In worldly letters he was unversed, but with spiritual knowledge his mind and soul were filled, and now had come the time when he must stand forth to the world and declare his mission.
... بِاسْمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ ﴿١﴾
in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created --
C6204. The declaration or proclamation was to be in the name of Allah the Creator. It was not for any personal benefit to the Prophet: to him there was to come bitter persecution, sorrow, and suffering. It was the call of Allah for the benefit of erring humanity.
Allah is mentioned by his title of "thy Lord and Cherisher", to establish a direct nexus between the source of the Message and the one addressed. The Message was not merely an abstract proposition of philosophy, but the direct concrete message of a personal Allah to the creatures whom He loves and cherishes.
"Thy" addressed to the Prophet is appropriate in two ways:
1. he was in direct contact with the divine Messenger (Gabriel) and Him Who sent the Messenger;
2. he represented the whole of humanity, in a fuller sense than that in which Christ Jesus is the "Son of Man".
كَلَّا
إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ
لَيَطْغَى ﴿٦﴾
96 :6. Nay, but man doth transgress all bounds,
C6208. All our knowledge and capacities come as gifts from Allah. But man, in his inordinate vanity and insolence, mistakes Allah's gifts for his own achievements.
The gifts may be strength or beauty, wealth, position, or power, or the more subtle gifts of knowledge or talents in individuals-or Science, or Art, or Government, or Organisation for mankind in general.
Asad’s Version:
96:1 READ 1 in the name of thy Sustainer, who has created (2) created man out of a germ-cell! 2 (3) Read - for thy Sustainer is the Most Bountiful One (4) who has taught [man] the use of the pen (5) taught man what he did not know! 3
96:6 Nay, verily, man becomes grossly overweening (7) whenever he believes himself to be self- sufficient: (8) for, behold, unto thy Sustainer all must return. 4