Surat Al-Muţaffifīn - The Defrauding

• Al-Quran

  The Institute of Islamic Knowledge, USA

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  Period of Revelation: This Surah was revealed in the early stage of the Prophet’s residence at Makkah, when Surah after Surah was being revealed to impress the doctrine of the Hereafter upon the people’s minds. This Surah was revealed when the disbelievers started ridiculing the Muslims and disgracing them publicly in the streets and in their assemblies, but persecution and manhandling of the Muslims had not yet started.Major Issues, Divine Laws and Guidance:

  • On the Day of Judgement defrauders will be called to account and punished while the righteous will be rewarded with soft couches, the choicest wine and special spring water.
  • Today disbelievers laugh at the believers, a Day will come when they themselves will be laughed at.

  The theme of this Surah is the Hereafter. In the first six verses, the people are taken to task for the evil practice that was prevalent in their commercial dealings. When they were to receive their due from others, they demanded that it be given in full, but when they had to measure or weigh for others, they would give less than what was due. Taking this one evil as an example out of countless evils prevalent in their society, it is pointed out that it is an inevitable result of the heedlessness of the Hereafter. Unless the people realize that one Day they will have to appear before Allah and account for each single act that they are performing in this world, it is not possible that they would adopt piety and righteousness in their daily affairs. Even if a person might practice honesty in some of his less important dealings in view of “honesty is the best policy”, he would never practice honesty on occasions when dishonesty would seem to be “the best policy”. Man can develop a true and enduring honest nature only when he fears Allah and sincerely believes in the Hereafter, for then he would regard honesty not merely as “a policy” bit as “a duty” and obligation, and his being consistent in it would not be dependent on its being useful or useless in this world.In conclusion, the believers are consoled and the disbelievers warned, that the people who are disgracing and humiliating the believers today, will, on the Day of Judgement, meet the most evil end in consequence of their conduct, and the believers will feel comforted when they will see their fate.