Cheatsheet

Sūrah Ash-SharḥThe Relief / The Expansion · Makkah · 8 āyāt · 4 movements

A short Makkan surah revealed immediately after aḍ-Ḍuḥā, continuing its consolation. Where aḍ-Ḍuḥā answered the accusation of abandonment with evidence from the past, ash-Sharḥ turns to three further favours already granted — an expanded chest, a lifted burden, and a raised name — before promising that hardship never comes without ease, and closing with a command to keep striving and to turn wholly to one's Lord.

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At a glance

Āyāt	Movement	In one line
1	The expanded chest	The question form ('did We not...') is itself reassurance — it recalls a favour so evident it need only be named.
2–4	The burden lifted, the name raised	The burden is named, then explicitly described as heavy ('anqaḍa ẓahrak') — Allah does not minimise what was carried.
5–6	With hardship comes ease — twice	The repetition is not mere emphasis — it carries a precise grammatical point about one hardship and two eases.
7–8	The response: strive on, turn to Him alone	Comfort from Allah is followed by a call to work, not a call to rest — ease fuels further striving.

Occasion & setting

Revealed alongside or shortly after aḍ-Ḍuḥā, while the Prophet ﷺ still faced the grief of that pause and the early mockery and hardship of Makkah. Classical exegetes read the two sūrahs as one address: one lists past favours as proof, the other continues by naming the specific relief of the chest, the burden and the reputation.

— Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, introduction to Sūrat al-Sharḥ; al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān

Key messages

· Ash-Sharḥ continues aḍ-Ḍuḥā's consolation: the same Lord who proved His care in the past has already granted three further favours — an expanded chest, a lifted burden, a raised name.
· Sharḥ al-ṣadr — an expanded chest — is the foundation of patience, knowledge and steadiness; ask for it as a gift, not merely as a mood.
· No burden Allah names is minimised; the wizr is described as one that had 'weighed down the back' before it was removed.
· Being remembered by Allah is a rank beyond wealth or lineage — the Prophet's ﷺ name is joined to Allah's own five times a day, every day, worldwide.
· The hardship is one, but the ease is named twice — a linguistic point the Salaf built real hope upon, so a single trial should never eclipse the two reliefs promised with it.
· The famous line 'a single hardship will never overcome two eases' is a report from al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (mursal) describing the Prophet's ﷺ joy at this verse — not a ḥadīth to be quoted as his direct words; Ibn Masʿūd's parallel statement is his own understanding.
· Relief is not an invitation to rest but to further striving — finish one task and rise to the next.
· The sūrah closes by directing all hope, need and longing to Allah alone — the one fitting destination for a heart that has just been reminded of everything He has already given.

Root vocabulary

ش ر ح

to expand, open, lay open

nashraḥ (1)

شَرَحَ (he expanded / explained) · الشَّرْح (the exposition / explanation) · انشِراح (expansiveness, relief of the chest)

و ز ر

burden, weight, that which is carried

wizraka (2)

وِزْر (a burden / heavy load) · وَزِير (minister (one who bears the burden of rule)) · مَوْزُور (one weighed down (by sin))

ر ف ع

to raise, lift up, elevate

rafaʿnā (4)

رَفَعَ (he raised) · رَفِيع (elevated, exalted) · الرَّفْع (the raising / elevation)

ع س ر

hardship, difficulty

al-ʿusri (5, 6)

عَسِرَ (it became difficult) · عَسِير (difficult, hard) · مُعْسِر (one in hardship / a debtor unable to pay)

ي س ر

ease, facility

yusran (5, 6)

يَسَّرَ (he made easy) · يَسِير (easy) · مَيْسَرَة (a state of ease / affluence)

ن ص ب

to set up, exert effort, toil

fa-nṣab (7)

نَصَبَ (he set up / exerted himself) · نَصَب (toil, fatigue) · مَنصُوب (something set upright)

ر غ ب

to desire, hope, incline towards

fa-rghab (8)

رَغِبَ (he desired / longed for) · رَغْبَة (desire, longing) · تَرْغِيب (encouragement, making desirable)

Flip cards

19 cards over the roots, movements, takeaways and seerah events of this surah. Anything you mark “still learning” comes back before the deck ends.

Sūrah Ash-Sharḥ deck

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Concept map

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