النبأ
An Naba
Verses
40
Revelation
Makki
Period
Makkan
Surah No.
78 / 114
An-Naba opens by addressing the great news – the Day of Resurrection – that the Makkans disputed. The surah then presents the case: Allah set the earth as a bed, the mountains as pegs, created human beings in pairs, made sleep for rest, the night as a covering, the day for livelihood, built the seven firm heavens and the blazing sun. All this creative power makes resurrection inescapable. The surah then describes the terrors of the Day and the reward of the righteous in gardens before concluding with the solemn warning: the disbeliever will wish he were dust.
أسباب النزول
Revealed in the Makkan period in response to the Quraysh's disputing among themselves about the "great news" – the Day of Resurrection and the Quran's message. The surah frames natural creation as the first argument that the One who built the universe can certainly rebuild human bodies for judgement. The vivid imagery of comfort – sleep, night, day, rain, gardens – contrasts with the terrifying imagery of the Day to create a profound rhetorical argument.
“About what are they asking one another? About the great news – that over which they are in disagreement.”
The surah opens on the Makkan street-level dispute about the Quran's teaching, anchoring the cosmic revelation in the immediate social reality of people arguing about the Day of Judgement.
“Indeed, We have warned you of a near punishment on the Day when a man will observe what his hands have put forth and the disbeliever will say: "Oh, I wish that I were dust!"”
The surah's devastating conclusion – the disbeliever's wish to be reduced to the same dust that animals become, preferring non-existence to the prospect of judgement, captures the ultimate regret of the heedless.