Surah Al-'Asr

About Surah Al-'Asr

Three ayahs, and one of the most quoted passages in the whole Quran. Al-'Asr means the age or passing time, and some read it as the late afternoon, the stretch of day that is visibly running out. Either way the surah opens by swearing an oath by it, which is the Quran's way of setting a witness in front of a claim, and here the witness is time itself.

The claim is that mankind is in loss (103:2), stated flatly and with no exception until the final ayah supplies one. Four things are named there: belief, righteous deeds, counselling one another to truth and counselling one another to patience (103:3). The first two can be done alone and the last two cannot, so an account of a whole life is set out in a single sentence. Al-Shafi'i is widely quoted in the classical commentaries as saying that if people considered this surah alone, it would be enough for them.