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Surah 103 · Makkah · 3 āyāt
Phase 02 · Going public — and the persecution(c. 10–8 BH) — view in timelineAl-ʿAṣrThe Declining Day / Time
العصر
One of the shortest surahs in the Qurʾān, yet Imām al-Shāfiʿī said that if people reflected on it alone, it would suffice them. An oath by time itself frames a single, sweeping claim — humanity is in loss — before naming the narrow exception: faith, righteous deeds, and mutual counsel toward truth and patience.
Why it was revealed
No sound, specific occasion of revelation (sabab al-nuzūl) is authentically reported for this surah. Classical exegetes read it as a general address revealed as the Muslims began to be tested openly for their faith, calling them to hold to truth and endure hardship together rather than singling out one incident.
Drawn fromal-Shāfiʿī's statement is preserved by al-Bayhaqī and cited by Ibn Kathīr in his tafsīr of this surah; al-Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh al-Rusul wa-l-Mulūk; Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāyah wa-l-Nihāyah; Ibn Isḥāq, al-Sīrah; Ibn Isḥāq, al-Sīrah (as preserved in Ibn Hishām); al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab al-Īmān; al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab al-Īmān (chain discussed by scholars — treated as good, not as a report of a specific occasion of revelation); Al-Ṭabarānī, al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr
There is no ṣaḥīḥ hadith describing a particular event that occasioned this surah; it should not be tied to one. What is authentically transmitted is the companions' practice around it: al-Ṭabarānī and al-Bayhaqī report, through a chain graded good by some scholars, that whenever two companions of the Prophet ﷺ met, they would not part until one of them had recited Sūrat al-ʿAṣr to the other, then given salām.
Cited toAl-Ṭabarānī, al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr; al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab al-Īmān (chain discussed by scholars — treated as good, not as a report of a specific occasion of revelation); al-Shāfiʿī's statement is preserved by al-Bayhaqī and cited by Ibn Kathīr in his tafsīr of this surah
In the Prophet's ﷺ life
Public preaching begins
After around three years of private daʿwah, the command came to proclaim the message openly (cf. 15:94), and the surah's warning of universal loss reflects this new, wider audience being addressed for the first time.
Recalled in āyah 1, 2
وَٱلْعَصْرِ
By time,
إِنَّ ٱلْإِنسَـٰنَ لَفِى خُسْرٍ
Indeed, mankind is in loss,
Cited toIbn Isḥāq, al-Sīrah (as preserved in Ibn Hishām); Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāyah wa-l-Nihāyah
- Madd — 2 vowels
- Madd — 2, 4 or 6 vowels
- Madd — 6 vowels (lāzim)
- Madd — 4 or 5 vowels (wājib)
- Ghunnah — 2 vowels
- Qalqalah
- Ikhfāʾ
- Ikhfāʾ shafawī
- Idghām shafawī
- Idghām with ghunnah
- Idghām without ghunnah
- Idghām mutajānisayn
- Idghām mutaqāribayn
- Iqlāb
- Hamzat al-waṣl
- Lām shamsiyyah
- Silent letter
Tajwīd markup and colour convention: Quran.com API (v4) — text_uthmani_tajweed. Recitation audio: Quran.com / Quran Foundation Audio API (v4).
The oath by time
Allah swears by al-ʿaṣr — time, or the declining part of the day. An oath by something points to its immense value as a sign; time is the medium in which every human choice, gain, and loss actually happens.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
وَٱلْعَصْرِ
Tajwīd markup unavailable for this āyah — text shown uncoloured
By time,
From the tafsīr
Al-ʿaṣr is time itself, in which the deeds of the children of Adam — good and bad — take place. Some said it specifically means the latter part of the day, but the more comprehensive reading is time in general.
Cited toIbn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
Scholars differed: al-ʿaṣr as the ʿaṣr prayer time, as the night and day together, or as time absolutely — each reading points to the same lesson, that a limited span is being spent by everyone whether they notice or not.
Cited toAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān
Key takeaways
- An oath in the Qurʾān draws attention to a sign worth deep reflection, not a minor detail.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
- Time cannot be paused, saved, or returned — it is the one resource every person is spending right now.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
Reflect
If today were the āyah being sworn by, what would it currently be evidence of?
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Question 1 of 1
What does al-ʿaṣr most comprehensively refer to according to Ibn Kathīr?
The verdict: humanity is in loss
A blunt, universal statement — inna al-insāna la-fī khusr, 'indeed mankind is in loss.' Not some people, but the human being as such, unless an exception applies. The default condition of a life spent without direction is decline, not neutrality.
Drawn fromAl-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
إِنَّ ٱلْإِنسَـٰنَ لَفِى خُسْرٍ
Tajwīd markup unavailable for this āyah — text shown uncoloured
Indeed, mankind is in loss,
From the tafsīr
Khusr (loss) here is real and total — a person spends their limited lifespan and ends up in ruin, except for those described in the following āyah.
Cited toIbn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
The generality of al-insān (the human being, with the definite article) means every individual is included in this ruling by default, before the exception is named.
Cited toAl-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān
Key takeaways
- Time passing is not neutral for a person with no faith or purpose — it is actively being lost.
Drawn fromAl-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
- The Qurʾān states the diagnosis before offering the remedy in the next āyah.
Drawn fromAl-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
Reflect
What would change if you treated an unused hour as a loss rather than as 'free time'?
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Question 1 of 1
How does al-Ṭabarī explain the scope of al-insān in this āyah?
The exception: four conditions
Illā — except — those who believe, do righteous deeds, and counsel one another toward truth (al-ḥaqq) and toward patience (al-ṣabr). Four elements, each incomplete without the others: inner conviction, outward action, and an outward-facing duty to others in both what is true and what is hard to bear.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Al-Shāfiʿī, cited in al-Bayhaqī and by Ibn Kathīr; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
إِلَّا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّـٰلِحَـٰتِ وَتَوَاصَوْا۟ بِٱلْحَقِّ وَتَوَاصَوْا۟ بِٱلصَّبْرِ
Tajwīd markup unavailable for this āyah — text shown uncoloured
Except for those who have believed and done righteous deeds and advised each other to truth and advised each other to patience.
From the tafsīr
The saved are those who combine belief and righteous action for themselves, and then also urge others toward the truth and toward patience upon it — a duty that extends beyond the self.
Cited toIbn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
'If people were to reflect on this surah, it would suffice them' — because it contains the full structure of a saved life: knowledge/faith, action, calling others, and enduring the difficulty of doing so.
Cited toAl-Shāfiʿī, cited in al-Bayhaqī and by Ibn Kathīr
Al-taḥāub bi-l-ḥaqq (mutual counsel toward truth) and bi-l-ṣabr (toward patience) are named separately because a person may know and speak the truth yet lack the endurance to keep doing so, or bear hardship without necessarily doing it in service of truth.
Cited toAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān
Key takeaways
- Belief and deeds are named together — neither substitutes for the other.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Al-Shāfiʿī, cited in al-Bayhaqī and by Ibn Kathīr; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
- The exception is not individual salvation only; it requires actively counselling others.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Al-Shāfiʿī, cited in al-Bayhaqī and by Ibn Kathīr; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
- Truth and patience are named as two distinct things people must remind each other of, not one.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Al-Shāfiʿī, cited in al-Bayhaqī and by Ibn Kathīr; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
Reflect
Who have you counselled toward truth or patience recently — and who has counselled you?
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Question 1 of 2
Why does al-Qurṭubī say truth (al-ḥaqq) and patience (al-ṣabr) are named separately?
Question 2 of 2
What did al-Shāfiʿī remark regarding this surah's sufficiency?
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Roots from this surah
Learn the three-letter root and you unlock every word built from it — across the whole Qur'an, not just this surah.
ع ص ر
āyāt 1to press, squeeze; also the passing age or era
- عَصْرtime, era, the afternoon
- عَصَرَhe pressed, squeezed
- مُعْصِرَاتrain-bearing clouds (that press out rain)
أ ن س
āyāt 2to be familiar, sociable — the root behind 'human being'
- إِنْسَانhuman being
- أَنِيسcompanion, one who brings comfort
- إِنْسhumankind (as a species)
خ س ر
āyāt 2to lose, to suffer diminishment or ruin
- خُسْرloss
- خَاسِرone who has lost
- خَسَارَةa losing bargain, ruin
أ م ن
āyāt 3to be secure, to trust — hence to believe
- آمَنَhe believed
- إِيمَانfaith
- أَمَانsafety, security
ص ل ح
āyāt 3to be sound, upright, in good order
- صَالِحrighteous
- صَلَاحsoundness, rectitude
- أَصْلَحَhe set right, reformed
و ص ي
āyāt 3to counsel, enjoin, bequeath — to urge someone toward something
- تَوَاصَوْاthey counselled one another
- وَصِيَّةbequest, instruction
- أَوْصَىٰhe instructed, enjoined
ص ب ر
āyāt 3to hold firm, to restrain oneself — patience and endurance
- صَبْرpatience
- صَابِرone who is patient
- اصْطَبَرَhe endured steadfastly
Carry this with you
- Time is a sign Allah swears by, not a background you drift through.
- Without direction, a lifetime spent is a lifetime lost — this is the default, not the exception.
- Faith and righteous deeds must both be present; neither alone is the exception named in the surah.
- Salvation includes an outward duty: actively counselling others, not just perfecting yourself.
- Truth and patience are named separately because each can be missing even when the other is present.
- No authentic, specific occasion of revelation is preserved for this surah — general reflection is the honest reading, not an invented backstory.
- The earliest Muslims made this surah part of how they parted from one another — a model for how believers should leave every gathering.
Where this surah connects
Cross-surah threads
Parts of the Qurʾān explain other parts. Each thread below opens the same subject as it is argued across every other surah you have studied, in revelation order.
Sources behind Sūrah Al-ʿAṣr
Every line of context, tafsīr and takeaway on this page traces back to one of these references. Ḥadīth numbers open on sunnah.com and āyah references open on quran.com, so you can check the claim rather than take it on trust. The Arabic text itself is fetched live from a verified public corpus.
Tafsīr11
- Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān
- Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān on 103:3
- Al-Shāfiʿī, cited in al-Bayhaqī and by Ibn Kathīr
- al-Shāfiʿī's statement is preserved by al-Bayhaqī and cited by Ibn Kathīr in his tafsīr of this surah
- Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān
- Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān on 103:2
- al-Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh al-Rusul wa-l-Mulūk
- cited in Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm on 103:3
- Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāyah wa-l-Nihāyah
- Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
- Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm on 103:1
Seerah & history2
- Ibn Isḥāq, al-Sīrah
- Ibn Isḥāq, al-Sīrah (as preserved in Ibn Hishām)
Other references4
- al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab al-Īmān
- Al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab al-Īmān
- al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab al-Īmān (chain discussed by scholars — treated as good, not as a report of a specific occasion of revelation)
- Al-Ṭabarānī, al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr
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Al-ʿAṣr — full exam
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Al-ʿAṣr · The exception: four conditions
What did al-Shāfiʿī remark regarding this surah's sufficiency?
Arabic (Uthmānī script) and the Ṣaḥīḥ International translation are fetched live from the Quran.com API (v4), sourced from the King Fahd Complex muṣḥaf — api.quran.com API docs · Translation: Ṣaḥīḥ International · Integrity & testing protocol