Name and Background
The name of Soorah At-Teen is its first word, implying “The Soorah that starts with At-Teen.”
The theme of the Soorah is to help people rationally reflect on the best and worst of human potential and, as a consequence, adopt faith in the fact that Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta‘aala will judge people on the Day of Judgment and reward or punish them in the hereafter accordingly.
The Soorah was revealed in the early years of the Islamic mission in Makkah when the emphasis of the mission was to propagate belief in the Day of Judgment and the Hereafter, which the Makkans did not believe in at all.
This is one of those Soorahs that begin with a series of oaths. Hence, it is useful to remind ourselves of what the role of oaths is in the Qur-aan.
Human beings take oaths to add credibility to the statements they make. Oaths fill the gaps left by a deficiency or lack of evidence. Usually the entities used for taking oaths are those that are considered sacred and exalted.
The Holy Qur-aan also uses oaths in its text. Many Soorahs start with some kind of oaths and some of them come within the text itself. We cannot, however, interpret the oaths of the Qur-aan from the same perspective as we do in the case of human oaths. Firstly, nothing is exalted or sacred to Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta‘aala. He is the Most Exalted and the Most Holy. Secondly, His word is ultimate. It does not require any support. However, people may not be able to grasp the meaning or the reality of Allaah’s words. They may need props to help them understand the message from the Words of Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta‘aala. That is the sole purpose of the oaths in the Qur-aan.
The entities used in the Qur-aanic oaths are not special in their own nature. They are selected because they present the best evidence possible for human beings to grasp the message. So, the use of any items for an oath in the Qur-aan signifies that there is some logical relationship between the item in the oath and the statement that follows the oath. If we reflect and contemplate on the item used for the oath, it will provide us with the rational evidence for the statement that follows it. Other than that, there is no significance inherent in the item of oath itself..
This role of oaths in the Qur-aan is quite evident to the people who reflect on its text, but it has also been explicitly mentioned in the Qur-aan itself. In Soorah Al-Fajr, after a series of oaths (the dawn, ten nights, odd and even, and the night when it is about to depart), Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta‘aala says: “Is there not a strong evidence in them for the wise?”
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