Surah Asr in English: meaning, translation and lessons

What is Surah Al-Asr in Arabic and English?

Surah 103, Al-Asr, has 3 verses and sits in the 30th part (juz) of the Quran. The Tanzil Quran metadata lists it as Makki and gives its English name as The Declining Day, Epoch. Ibn Kathir heads his commentary on it "and it is Makki" (Tafsir al-Quran al-Azim 8/479, meaning volume 8, page 479, source 1).

Its first words, wal-ʿaṣr, are why you will also see it called Surah Wal Asr, as well as Surah Al Asr and Surat al-Asr. To copy the Arabic, use the button under the scroll. The English and a transliteration follow, verse by verse. Like most surahs it is printed under Bismillah, which is not counted among its 3 verses.

What does Surah Asr mean, verse by verse?

Here is the Surah Asr transliteration and translation, one verse at a time, with a note on what each line says. The transliteration is our learning aid and shows each verse ending as it is read when you stop there.

1. 1

   وَٱلْعَصْرِ

   Wal-ʿaṣr

   By the declining day.

   The surah opens with an oath: "By the declining day". Al-ʿAsr, its name, is this word.

2. 2

   إِنَّ ٱلْإِنسَـٰنَ لَفِى خُسْرٍ

   Innal-insāna lafī khusr

   Indeed, man is in a state of loss.

   What the oath leads to: a statement about man and loss. The word cards below take it word by word.

3. 3

   إِلَّا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّـٰلِحَـٰتِ وَتَوَاصَوْا۟ بِٱلْحَقِّ وَتَوَاصَوْا۟ بِٱلصَّبْرِ

   Illal-ladhīna āmanū wa ʿamiluṣ-ṣāliḥāti wa tawāṣaw bil-ḥaqqi wa tawāṣaw biṣ-ṣabr

   Save those who believe and do good works, and exhort one another to truth and exhort one another to endurance.

   The exception, in one verse: those who believe, do good works, and exhort one another twice. This translation renders aṣ-ṣabr "endurance".

Verse 2 is four words:

What does Al-Asr mean in tafsir?

This section is tafsir (Quran commentary) from two classical works, al-Tabari's Jami al-Bayan and Ibn Kathir's Tafsir al-Quran al-Azim. Where they explain a phrase differently, both are shown.

Verse 1: what is al-asr?

Al-Tabari reports that the commentators differed over wal-ʿaṣr. One view is that it is an oath by al-dahr, time. In the reports he gives, Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, calls it one of the hours of the day, and al-Hasan calls it the late afternoon (al-ʿashī). Al-Tabari's own preference is that the word names time, which is the late afternoon, the night and the day, and that Allah singled out none of these, so all are within the oath (Jami al-Bayan 24/589, source 2).

Ibn Kathir explains al-ʿaṣr as the time in which the actions of the children of Adam, good and evil, take place. He reports, through Malik, Zayd ibn Aslam's view that it is the late afternoon, and calls the first view the well-known one (8/480, source 1). Neither passage cited here mentions the Asr prayer.

Verse 2: what is the loss?

For khusr, Ibn Kathir gives "loss and ruin" (8/480, source 3). Al-Tabari reads the verse as the son of Adam being in ruin and loss (halakah wa nuqsan). He adds that the exception in verse 3 is made from al-insan because the word here has a collective sense, people as a whole, not one person (24/589 to 590, source 4).

Verse 3: truth and patience in the two commentaries

In verse 3, Ibn Kathir describes those excepted as people who believed with their hearts and did good deeds with their limbs. Al-Tabari describes them as people who affirmed the truth of Allah and declared Him One, did good deeds, carried out the obligations due on them and avoided what He forbade (Ibn Kathir 8/480, source 3; al-Tabari 24/590, source 4). The two then explain the two kinds of exhorting:

The two explanations of patience differ: al-Tabari's speaks of patience in obeying Allah, and Ibn Kathir's of patience with hardship and with the harm that can follow from enjoining good (sources 4 and 3). This page does not choose between them.

A remark on the whole surah

Ibn Kathir quotes al-Shafiʿi as saying that if people reflected on this surah, it would suffice them (8/479, source 1). He gives no chain for it: it is a scholar's remark, not a hadith, and it sets no count or reward.

What lessons can you take from Surah Asr?

These study questions are our learning aid, built on the words of verse 3 in the translation and on the commentary above. They are not rulings, and they are not a test of anyone's standing.

Verse 3 sets the four side by side in one exception, each joined to the next by "and". Reading one phrase on its own leaves out the rest of the verse. Sabr: patience in Islam explores the word aṣ-ṣabr further, with its own Quran and hadith references.

How do you pronounce Surah Asr?

Read along with the transliteration above, a verse at a time, and slow down for these sounds:

• ʿ in ʿaṣr and ʿamilū: a tightening deep in the throat.
• ṣ in ʿaṣr, ṣāliḥāti, tawāṣaw and ṣabr: a heavy s, with the tongue pressed wide.
• ḥ in ṣāliḥāti and ḥaqqi: a breathy h from the throat.
• kh in khusr: a rough sound at the back of the mouth, as in the Scottish loch.
• The doubled q in ḥaqqi and the doubled n in inna are held a little longer.

Listen and repeat. A recording by a fluent human reciter is coming. We do not use a synthetic voice for the Quran.