A Quranic Journal

This surah portrays one of the actual scenes in the early days of the Islamic call. Yet this scene is a pattern which is repeated in every environment and society. It is the scene of the vile, mean one who is given wealth and uses it to tyrannise over others - until even he cannot bear himself. He thinks that wealth is the supreme value in life, the value before which all values and all standards come toppling down. He feels that since he possesses wealth, he controls other people's destiny without being accountable for anything he does. He imagines that his money and his wealth is a god, capable of everything without exception, even of resisting death, making him immortal and stopping the judgement of Allah and His retribution.