When Allah Consoled His Prophet: The Context of Surah Ad-Duha

One of the tactics Quraysh used against the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was ridicule, making him appear foolish in the eyes of the people, mocking his claim to prophethood, using his own emotions as a weapon against him.

At one point during the Meccan period, the revelation paused. A period of weeks or months passed without any new Waḥy coming down. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم felt this absence, he longed for the revelation, he hoped to see Jibrīl, and the silence weighed on him.

One of the women of Quraysh, some narrations suggest it was the wife of Abū Jahl, though the name is not definitively established, came to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم with a remark designed to wound:

"I see that your Shayṭān has abandoned you."

She called Jibrīl his Shayṭān, because Quraysh refused to believe the revelation was divine, they attributed it to devils and jinn. And "has abandoned you" was a taunt: see, even your devil has left you now. You've been exposed as a fraud.

The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was deeply grieved by this. It is human nature: when someone mocks you to your face, it cuts, all the more so when the person is someone you cannot respond to with proof, when the situation is one of waiting.

And then Allah responded, not with a legal ruling, not with a historical account, but with personal comfort to His Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. Allah revealed Sūrat al-Ḍuḥā (93), one of the most intimate and consoling passages in the entire Quran:

وَالضُّحَىٰ ۝ وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا سَجَىٰ ۝ مَا وَدَّعَكَ رَبُّكَ وَمَا قَلَىٰ

"By the morning light. By the night when it settles. Your Lord has neither abandoned you nor shown hostility to you." (al-Ḍuḥā 93:1–3)

Mā waddaʿaka, He has not bid you farewell. Not left you. Not discarded you. The word wadāʿ is the goodbye said when parting for good. Allah is saying: that is not what this silence is. I have not said goodbye to you.

Wa mā qalā, and He has not become displeased with you. Not angry. Not cold. The silence of Waḥy was not a sign of Allah's abandonment; it was part of the journey.

وَلَلْآخِرَةُ خَيْرٌ لَّكَ مِنَ الْأُولَىٰ

"And the next life will be better for you than this present one." (93:4). Not only in the Ākhirah, but the next phase of this world. Every stage that came after was better than the one before it. The Meccan years, as difficult as they were, preceded Madīnah. Madīnah preceded the opening of Makkah. Each chapter better than the last.

وَلَسَوْفَ يُعْطِيكَ رَبُّكَ فَتَرْضَىٰ

"And your Lord will give you until you are satisfied." (93:5). This promise was not only for the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, it is the most comprehensive promise in the Quran. Until you are satisfied. Not until you have a little, or a lot, or enough, until you are satisfied. His satisfaction is the measure. The entire Ummah, the intercession, the ḥawḍ, Paradise itself, all of it: until he is satisfied. No one in creation has been given a promise like this.