What is the background of Surah Al-Kauthar?

The opponents in Mecca mocked the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) as a man without sons whose name would die with him. The chapter answers this, and the very opposite happened. The children of his enemies became Muslims, and it was the enemies who were left without descendants to carry on their cause.

Surah Al-Kauthar is one of the shortest chapters of the Holy Qur’an, with only three verses. Yet it is very rich in meaning. To understand it, one has to know what the opponents of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) in Mecca were saying about him.

They called him abtar, which means cut off. They meant a man without sons, whose name would be forgotten after his death. In their society a man lived on through his sons. Whoever had none was seen as someone whose cause would end with him.

God answered this with the chapter. He had given the Holy Prophet (saw) an abundance of good. And it was not he but his enemy who would be cut off. At the time, no one could have guessed how this would come true.

History has shown it. Many children of his fiercest opponents accepted Islam. They were ashamed of their fathers’ hostility and wanted nothing more to do with their cause. One example is Ikrima, the son of one of the bitterest enemies. He became a Muslim and in the end gave his life in the service of Islam, to wash away the guilt of his father.

So it was the enemies who were left without descendants to continue their way. The name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw), on the other hand, is spoken with love all over the world to this day, and his spiritual children are beyond counting.