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Surah 94 · Makkah · 8 āyāt
Phase 01 · Ḥirāʾ and the first call(c. 13–11 BH) — view in timelineAsh-SharḥThe Relief / The Expansion
الشرح
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.
Why it was revealed
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.
Al-Ṭabarī and Ibn Kathīr transmit that ash-Sharḥ was revealed as a continuation (maʿṭūfah) of aḍ-Ḍuḥā, so much so that some of the Salaf read the two as a single sūrah in meaning, joined without the basmalah between them in some recitations — because the second answers and extends what the first already promised.
Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, introduction to Sūrat al-Sharḥ; al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-BayānIn the Prophet's ﷺ life
The burden of the call weighs on him
Before and during the early years of prophethood, the responsibility of the message — his people's rejection, his own past errors judged by the standard now revealed to him — pressed on him heavily, until Allah says He removed that weight from his back.
Recalled in āyah 2, 3
وَوَضَعْنَا عَنكَ وِزْرَكَ
And We removed from you your burden
الَّذِي أَنقَضَ ظَهْرَكَ
Which weighed down your back
Ibn Kathīr on 94:2–3; al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān
The expanded chest
Allah opens with a rhetorical question that is itself a reminder: did We not expand your chest for you? Sharḥ al-ṣadr is an inner spaciousness — for revelation, for patience with a hostile people, and for carrying the message without being crushed by it.
أَلَمْ نَشْرَحْ لَكَ صَدْرَكَ
Did We not expand for you your chest?
From the tafsīr
Sharaḥa laka ṣadrak — He expanded your chest for Islam, for the Law, and for bearing what came with prophethood, just as He expanded it materially on the night of the Isrāʾ.
— Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
An expanded chest is the root of every other good: knowledge, patience, generosity and forbearance all flow from a heart Allah has made spacious.
— Al-Saʿdī, Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān
Key takeaways
- The question form ('did We not...') is itself reassurance — it recalls a favour so evident it need only be named.
- Sharḥ al-ṣadr is granted, not self-manufactured; ease of heart is a gift asked for and given.
- The same expansion that carried revelation is what carries patience with people.
Reflect
What has Allah already expanded in you that you have stopped counting as a favour?
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Question 1 of 2
What is the purpose of the interrogative form 'a-lam nashraḥ'?
Question 2 of 2
How is sharḥ al-ṣadr best understood here?
The burden lifted, the name raised
A weighing burden was removed from his back, and his remembrance was raised. Together these describe relief from a crushing load and elevation to an honour beyond calculation — his name joined to the shahādah and the adhān.
وَوَضَعْنَا عَنكَ وِزْرَكَ
And We removed from you your burden
الَّذِي أَنقَضَ ظَهْرَكَ
Which weighed down your back
وَرَفَعْنَا لَكَ ذِكْرَكَ
And We raised for you your remembrance
From the tafsīr
Waḍaʿnā ʿanka wizrak — We removed from you your burden, referring to the weight of the responsibility of the message and the cares it brought, which had 'weighed down your back'.
— Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
Rafaʿnā laka dhikrak means his name is mentioned wherever Allah's name is mentioned — in the adhān, the iqāmah, the shahādah and the khuṭbah — an honour given to no one else.
— Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān
Key takeaways
- The burden is named, then explicitly described as heavy ('anqaḍa ẓahrak') — Allah does not minimise what was carried.
- Relief from a burden and elevation of honour are paired: what weighs you down is not the last word on your worth.
- His remembrance being raised is fulfilled every day, in every call to prayer, across the world.
Reflect
What burden have you been carrying alone that this āyah reminds you was already lightened?
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Question 1 of 2
What is meant by the removal of the wizr?
Question 2 of 2
What example does al-Qurṭubī give for the raised dhikr?
With hardship comes ease — twice
The same sentence is repeated: with hardship (al-ʿusr) comes ease (yusr). Because al-ʿusr carries the definite article both times while yusr is indefinite, the Salaf drew the well-known point that the hardship is one and the same, but the ease named is two — 'one hardship will never overcome two eases'.
فَإِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا
For indeed, with hardship comes ease
إِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا
Indeed, with hardship comes ease
From the tafsīr
Ibn Kathīr records that al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī used to say: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came out one day rejoicing and laughing, saying, 'A single hardship will never overcome two eases,' pointing to this repetition — this is transmitted as a mursal report from al-Ḥasan, not as a connected ḥadīth of the Prophet ﷺ.
— Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
It is also related that ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd said: 'If hardship were to enter into a hole, ease would enter after it and drive it out' — his own understanding (fahm), not a report from the Prophet ﷺ.
— Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
Grammatically, al-ʿusr is repeated with the definite article, referring back to the same hardship, while yusran is indefinite each time, indicating two distinct eases — a point of Arabic rhetoric the early scholars built their consolation upon.
— Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān
Key takeaways
- The repetition is not mere emphasis — it carries a precise grammatical point about one hardship and two eases.
- Ibn Masʿūd's statement is his own reasoned understanding, and al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī's report is mursal — both are cited as scholarly and early testimony, not as the Prophet's ﷺ own words, and should be attributed carefully as such.
- The promise is stated twice for certainty, addressed to a people in the middle of real hardship, not after it had ended.
Reflect
Name one hardship you are in now, and try to name its two eases rather than searching for just one.
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Question 1 of 2
What do scholars note about the wording of 'with hardship comes ease' repeated twice?
Question 2 of 2
Is 'one hardship, two eases' a ḥadīth of the Prophet ﷺ?
The response: strive on, turn to Him alone
Having been given expansion, relief and elevation, he is commanded: when you finish one task, stand up to another, and let your longing (raghbah) be directed entirely to your Lord. Ease is followed not by rest but by renewed striving, and striving is anchored in single-minded devotion.
فَإِذَا فَرَغْتَ فَانصَبْ
So when you have finished, strive on
وَإِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ فَارْغَب
And to your Lord direct your longing
From the tafsīr
Fa-idhā faraghta fa-anṣab — when you finish your worldly affairs or your prayer, exert yourself in supplication and worship; do not let ease become idleness.
— Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
Wa-ilā rabbika fa-rghab — direct your hope, need, and desire to Allah alone in all matters, since He is the one who granted every favour named before this command.
— Al-Saʿdī, Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān
Key takeaways
- Comfort from Allah is followed by a call to work, not a call to rest — ease fuels further striving.
- The pattern 'finish one task, rise to the next' describes a life of continuous purposeful effort.
- All the raghbah — hope, desire, longing — is to be directed to Allah alone, closing the sūrah where it is safest to end: with Him.
Reflect
After your next moment of relief, what will you rise to do rather than simply rest?
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Question 1 of 2
What does Ibn Kathīr say fa-idhā faraghta fa-anṣab commands?
Question 2 of 2
What does al-Saʿdī say is the significance of closing the sūrah with 'wa-ilā rabbika fa-rghab'?
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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.
ش ر ح
āyāt nashraḥ (1)to expand, open, lay open
- شَرَحَhe expanded / explained
- الشَّرْحthe exposition / explanation
- انشِراحexpansiveness, relief of the chest
و ز ر
āyāt wizraka (2)burden, weight, that which is carried
- وِزْرa burden / heavy load
- وَزِيرminister (one who bears the burden of rule)
- مَوْزُورone weighed down (by sin)
ر ف ع
āyāt rafaʿnā (4)to raise, lift up, elevate
- رَفَعَhe raised
- رَفِيعelevated, exalted
- الرَّفْعthe raising / elevation
ع س ر
āyāt al-ʿusri (5, 6)hardship, difficulty
- عَسِرَit became difficult
- عَسِيرdifficult, hard
- مُعْسِرone in hardship / a debtor unable to pay
ي س ر
āyāt yusran (5, 6)ease, facility
- يَسَّرَhe made easy
- يَسِيرeasy
- مَيْسَرَةa state of ease / affluence
ن ص ب
āyāt fa-nṣab (7)to set up, exert effort, toil
- نَصَبَhe set up / exerted himself
- نَصَبtoil, fatigue
- مَنصُوبsomething set upright
ر غ ب
āyāt fa-rghab (8)to desire, hope, incline towards
- رَغِبَhe desired / longed for
- رَغْبَةdesire, longing
- تَرْغِيبencouragement, making desirable
Carry this with you
- 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.
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Ash-Sharḥ · The expanded chest
What is the purpose of the interrogative form 'a-lam nashraḥ'?
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