Surah 44. Ad-Dukhan

Ha-Mim.

  - Mustafa Khattab

Ha Mim. ⁴⁶⁸⁸

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

These Abbreviated Letters are discussed in the Introduction to S. xi.

By the clear Book!

  - Mustafa Khattab

By the Book that makes things clear ⁴⁶⁸⁹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The Qur-an is its own evidence. In the last Sura (xliii. 3) stress was laid on the fact that everyone could understand it. Here the stress is on the fact that it is a Message of Mercy from Allah in that it warns mankind against evil.

Indeed, We sent it down on a blessed night,¹ for We always warn 'against evil'.

  - Mustafa Khattab

 The revelation of the Quran started on the 27 th  night of Ramaḍân—the 9 th  month of the Islamic calendar (see 97:1 and 2:185)

We sent it down during a blessed night: for We (ever) wish to warn (against Evil). ⁴⁶⁹⁰

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Usually taken to be a night in the month of Ramadhan, say the 23rd, 25th, or 27th night of that month. It is referred to as the Night of Power in xcvii. 1-2. See also ii. 185. But perhaps we need not fix it literally by the calendar. The night that a Message descends from Allah is indeed a blessed night like a day of rain for a parched land.

On that night every matter of wisdom is ordained

  - Mustafa Khattab

In that (night) is made distinct every affair of wisdom ⁴⁶⁹¹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Such an occasion is one on which divine Wisdom places before us through Revelation the solution of spiritual problems of the highest import to mankind.

by a command from Us, for We have always sent 'messengers'

  - Mustafa Khattab

By command from Our presence. For We (ever) send (revelations)

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

as a mercy from your Lord. He 'alone' is truly the All-Hearing, All-Knowing-

  - Mustafa Khattab

As a Mercy from thy Lord: for He hears and knows (all things); ⁴⁶⁹²

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

It is because Allah is the friend of the friendless and the help of the helpless that He hears all sincere prayers, and as His knowledge embraces all things, He grants to us whatever is best for us, not as we see it, but as He knows it in His perfect knowledge.

the Lord of the heavens and the earth and everything in between, if only you had sure faith.

  - Mustafa Khattab

The Lord of the heavens and the earth and all between them if ye (but) have an assured faith. ⁴⁶⁹³

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Cf. ii. 4. They cannot fully realise what a tremendous thing it is that Allah is their own Lord and Cherisher (nex verse), as He is the Lord and Cherisher of the whole Universe, until they firmly believe,-until their Faith amounts to a certainty, secure and unshakable.

There is no god 'worthy of worship' except Him. He 'alone' gives life and causes death. 'He is' your Lord, and the Lord of your forefathers.

  - Mustafa Khattab

There is no god but He: it is He Who gives life and gives death the Lord and Cherisher to you and your earliest ancestors.

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

In fact, they are in doubt, amusing themselves.

  - Mustafa Khattab

Yet they play about in doubt. ⁴⁶⁹⁴

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The story is mainly about the Quraish. But there is a wider meaning behind it, applicable to men generally, and at all times. As a body the Quraish, especially in the earlier stages of the preaching of Islam, before they started persecution, received the Message with more amusement than hatred. They played about with it, and expressed doubts about it, whereas the Preacher was most earnest about it, with all his heart and soul in it, as he loved his people and wished to save them from their wickedness and folly.

Wait then 'O Prophet' for the day 'when' the sky will be veiled in haze,¹ clearly visible,

  - Mustafa Khattab

 This refers to the drought that affected the Meccan pagans so badly that they came to the Prophet (ﷺ), begging him to pray to Allah to remove the affliction from them.

Then watch thou for the Day that the sky will bring forth a kind of smoke (or mist) plainly visible. ^{4695 4696}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

What Day is this? It obviously refers to great calamity, and from the wording it is to be a great calamity in the future, seen with the prophetic eye. The word yagsha in verse 11 may be compared to gashiya in lxxxviii. 1, which obviously refers to the final Day of Judgment. But verse 15 below ("We shall remove the Penalty for a while") shows that it is not the final Judgment referred to here, but some calamity that was to happen soon afterwards. Perhaps it was a famine, about which see the next note.

The "smoke" or "mist" is interpreted on good authority to refer to a severe famine in Makkah, in which men were so pinched with hunger that they saw mist before their eyes when they looked at the sky. Ibn Kathir in his Tarikh mentions two famines in Makkah, one in the 8th year of the Mission, say the fourth year before the Hijra, and another about the 8th year after the Hijra. But as either or both of these famines lasted as many as seven years, the dates are to be taken very roughly. It is even possible that the two famines were continuous, of varying severity from year to year. Bukhari mentions only the post-Hijrat famine, which was apparently so severe that men began to eat bones and carrion. Abu Sufyan (about 8 A.H.) approached the holy Prophet to intercede and pray for the removal of the famine, as the Pagans attributed it to the curse of the Prophet. Sura xxiii., which is also Makkan, but of later date than the present Sura, also refers to a famine: see xxiii. 75, and n. 2921. As Suras were not all revealed entire, but many came piecemeal, it is possible that particular verses in a given Sura may be of different dates from the Sura as a whole.