1- Al-Ikhlas ( MONOTHEISM ).
2-Arrange of Surah : (111).
3-Number of Ayats: (4).
4-where revealed: Makkiyah.
Say, “He is Allah, the One. (قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ ( ١
Allah, the Absolute. (اللَّهُ الصَّمَدُ ( ٢
He begets not, nor was He begotten. (3) لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ
And there is nothing comparable to Him. (4) وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ
The Deep Meaning (Tafseer).
1. Say: “He is Allah, (the) Unique. قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ
قُلْ
Say: This chapter describing Allah begins with a command to the Messenger of Allah (r) to convey the contents of the chapter to the pagans who asked him to tell them about his God’s lineage. According to Ibn al-Qayyim, it is also
affirmation of the Prophet’s (r) position of being only a conveyer, a messenger, one only speaking what he was commanded to say.
هُوَ
He The description begins by referring to God using the third person singular pronoun “he” as is found in the Bible and other religious texts. With the rise of feminism in the 20th century, the question of God’s gender became an issue and attempts were made to rewrite the Bible free from “gender-bias”.
Muslims did not fall into this trap because the Arabic Quranic text could not be changed.
اللَّهُ
Allah Allah” is the name of the Lord, the Exalted. It is said that it is the Greatest Name of Allaah, because it is referred to when describing Allah by His various Attributes. For example:
هُوَ اللَّهُ الَّذي لا إِلهَ إِلّا هُوَ عالِمُ الغَيبِ وَالشَّهادَةِ هُوَ الرَّحمنُ الرَّحيمُ
He is Allah, besides whom none has the right to be worshipped, the All Knower of the unseen and the seen. He is the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
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أَحَدٌ
The Uniquely One. As a title, al-Ahad is only applicable to Allaah and it signifies, He who has always been one and alone; or the indivisible; or He who has no other to share in His Lordship, nor in His Essence, nor in His Attributes.30 Though both the terms ahad and waahid mean basically “one”, there is a subtle difference between the two in usage and meaning. For example, one would not say: rajulun ahadun (meaning: one man).
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2. “Allaah, the Self-Sufficient. اللَّهُ الصَّمَدُ
In this verse Allaah elaborates on His Uniqueness (ahadiyyah) mentioned in the first verse. Here, He uses the term samad which means that He is perfect in all of His Attributes and that all creation is in need of Him.
Ibn ‘Abbaas was reported to have said that as-samad meant, “He is the Master [as-Sayyid] who is perfect in His sovereignty, the Most Noble [ash-Shareef] who is perfect in His nobility,
وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ
The purpose of our creation is to worship Allah. That is crystal clear in the revelation. Our purpose was not left to be deduced or discovered, but was stated in no uncertain terms in the books of revelation. However, it is only in the Quran, the final revelation, that that purpose is spelled out and thereby remained clear over the generations since its revelation.
3. “He does not give birth, nor was He born. لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ
This verse is a continuation of the presentation of detailed examples of Allah’s Unique Oneness. False religions generally represent God in human terms by either giving Him human characteristics and or human form.
This verse deals primarily with two distinct characteristics of human beings and other living creatures in general: coming into existence by being born and procreating by giving birth.
لَمْ يَلِدْ
He does not give birth,” because there is nothing similar to him. A child is made from portions (sperm and ovum) of the bodies of its parents which is why it is similar to its parents in form and characteristics.
If God gave birth, there would be another god besides Him, which He has already negated.
أَنَّىٰ يَكُونُ لَهُ وَلَدٌ وَلَمْ تَكُن لَّهُ صَاحِبَةٌ
وَمَا يَنبَغِي لِلرَّحْمَٰنِ أَن يَتَّخِذَ وَلَدًا
But it is not suitable for the Most Gracious that He should have a son.” (Sorah Maryam, 19: 92)
وَلَمْ يُولَدْ
Nor was He born. Although relatively few people believe or have believed that God was born, the question of God’s origin is often raised by skeptics and atheists. Anas ibn Maalik related that Allaah’s Messenger (r) said: “Indeed, your people will continuously question about this and that they will say:
4. “And there is none equal to Him. وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ
Allah closes the chapter with a restatement of the opening verse. If God is unique, nothing can be equal to Him. If nothing is equal to Him, then He alone is unique.
If He alone is Self-Sufficient and all creation is in need of Him, nothing in creation can be equal to Him.
If He does not bear offspring, nor did anyone or anything give birth to Him, nothing or no one can be equal to Him as every created thing came into existence after a period of non-existence.
The Reason for the Revelation of Surah al-Ikhlas:
There is one authentic narration indicating the circumstances under which this chapter was revealed. The Prophet’s (r) follower, Ubayy ibn Ka‘b, related that some of the pagans asked Allaah’s Messenger (r) to list the lineage of his
Lord so Allah revealed: “Say: He Allah is Unique, Allah is Self-Sufficient.
Thus, the chapter was revealed specifically to clarify the uniqueness of Allah for idol worshippers in the Prophet’s (r) time who believed that their gods had fathers, mothers, sons and daughters.
Place of Revelation:
There are no authentic hadeeths which clearly indicate where this chapter was revealed. However, most scholars of Tafser (Quranic exegesis) hold that it was among the early chapters revealed in Makkah [prior to the Hijrah] as it has most of the characteristics of the Makkan revelations.
