بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ لَفِي خُسْرٍ
Surely Man is in the
way of loss,
إِلَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالْحَقِّ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالصَّبْرِ
save those who believe, and do righteous deeds,
and counsel each other unto the truth, and counsel each other to be steadfast
The Sūrat al-`Aṣr
(Qur'ān 103).
The above is the Arabic
text of this Surah with the translation of the Cambridge
academic A.J. Arberry (d. 1969). Exactly what this three
verse 103rd Meccan Surah title indicates is unclear. al-'Aşr
is the second word in the opening oath and can literally mean
'The Time', 'The Afternoon' or 'The Afternoon Prayer' (so
Netton, 1992). It basic import has been succinctly summed
up as follows:
"After beginning with
the phrase 'By the time!' (Wa 'I- 'Aṣr), the sūra goes on to
insist that man will be lost unless he is among the
believers and doers of good. The sūra thus makes the
important theological point that salvation is dependent on
faith and works (Netton, 1992)
TheTafsīr Sūrat al-`Aṣr
of the Bab.
This work of he Bab is
was composed in Isfahan
