Surah Al-Asr is the 103rd surah of the Quran. This surah takes its name from the word al-Asr appearing in the first verse.
This surah is the most comprehensive in the Quran because it explains the path to success in just three short verses. This article provides the complete translation and tafsir of Surah al-Asr, along with the Arabic text.
Translation and Tafsir of Surah al-Asr
Here is the complete Arabic text of Surah al-Asr:
Translation
- By Time!
- Man is indeed in perdition,
- except those who believe and do righteous deeds, and advise one another to truth and advise one another to patience.
Tafsir
1. By Time!
In this verse, Allah swears an oath to the appointed time. Allah sometimes affirms and reinforces His verses with vows; He sometimes uses the names of certain beings when He promises to indicate the importance and value of these beings to humankind.
So here, in this verse, Allah manifests the excellence of Time to make us understand that every moment is important for success.
2. Man is indeed in perdition,
When the Quran conclusively states that man is lost, this implies a loss both in this world and in the hereafter.
3. Except those who believe and do righteous deeds, and advise one another to truth and advise one another to patience.
In the third and final verse of this surah, Allah mentions the conditions upon which our success and failure depend.
The first important condition is belief – belief in Allah and His attributes, belief in the hereafter and calculation, reward and punishment, the divine books and the prophets.
The second condition is the will to perform righteous deeds. In the words of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) (Ref: – Jami at-Tirmidhi Vol 4, Book 10, Hadith 2389):
Righteousness is good behavior, and sin is what fluctuates in your heart, and you would hate for people to find out about you.
Thirdly, this verse calls upon us to enjoin one another to truth and patience. In other words, we should not live in isolation, but rather strive to create a believing and just society by encouraging one another.
Thus, regarding the exhaustiveness of Surah al-Asr, Imam Shafi (RA) very rightly stated:
If the people only regarded this surah favorably, it alone would be sufficient to guide them.