Surah Quraish (106) — Ayah 1

{سورۃ القریش}
(Ayah 1 to 4) ➊ {لِاِيْلٰفِ قُرَيْشٍ …: ’’أَلِفَ يَأْلَفُ أَلْفًا‘‘ (س) ’’ هٗ ‘‘} means to become familiar with someone, to love them. {’’اٰلَفَ يُؤْلِفُ إِيْلَافًا‘‘} (af‘aal) means to make someone familiar with something, to instill love for it in their heart. {’’ قُرَيْشٍ ‘‘ ’’ قَرْشٌ‘‘} is the diminutive form. {’’ قَرَشَ يَقْرِشُ قَرْشًا‘‘} (ض،ن) means to gather. Quraysh is the famous tribe in which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was born. This name was given to them because they gathered in their sanctuary. These people were scattered in different places. Qusay bin Kilab (the great ancestor of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him) thought that he should gather his entire tribe in Makkah, so he gathered the whole tribe in Makkah, and thus he was named {’’مُجَمِّعٌ‘‘}, and in this way, the custodianship of the Ka‘bah also came into their hands. Or this name was given after a fish in the sea called "Quraysh." It is mentioned in Al-Munjid that this fish is called {’’كَلْبُ الْبَحْرِ‘‘}, it bites the sea creatures with its teeth like a sword, and all the sea creatures fear it.
In these verses, Allah Almighty has mentioned several of His favors upon Quraysh. Quraysh lived in the sacred city of Makkah and were the custodians of the Ka‘bah. They used to make two trade journeys in a year: in the summer to Syria, because it is a cold region, and in the winter to Yemen, because it is a warm region. The first favor is that He instilled love for travel in their hearts, so they did not feel hardship in traveling during the cold or the heat, and travel is the means of success in the world. If Allah Almighty had not made their hearts familiar with travel, they too would have stayed at home, and the wealth, experience, knowledge, and acquaintance with people and regions of the world that are gained through travel would never have been attained. This blessing of being familiar with travel later benefited Quraysh in the journey of migration, then in fighting the disbelievers, and after that in the conquests of Rome and Syria, Iraq and Persia, India and Sindh, Egypt and Africa, and even the East and West. The truth is that the first step for the Muslim nation to dominate and remain dominant in the world is that they should not fear travel, and when the opportunity arises, they should not cling to the earth. Now we see that the disbelieving nations are the monopolists of land, sea, and air travel, while Muslims have mostly forgotten this lesson.
The second favor is that at that time, there was severe insecurity throughout Arabia; no one knew when they might be attacked, killed, kidnapped, their wealth looted, and their women and children enslaved. In such circumstances, only the people of Makkah had this security that no one even looked at them with an evil eye, as He said: « اَوَ لَمْ يَرَوْا اَنَّا جَعَلْنَا حَرَمًا اٰمِنًا وَّ يُتَخَطَّفُ النَّاسُ مِنْ حَوْلِهِمْ» [ العنکبوت : ۶۷ ] "And have they not seen that We have made a secure sanctuary, while people are being snatched away from all around them?" The third favor is that, being residents of the sanctuary, during trade journeys, no one looted their caravans, nor were they charged the taxes that every tribe and nation imposed on those passing through their territory, nor were they prevented from going anywhere. The fourth is that people from all over the world came to Makkah for Hajj and ‘Umrah, and all kinds of trade goods reached here. In addition, every kind of fruit reached here as a result of the supplication of Ibrahim (peace be upon him), as He said: « اَوَ لَمْ نُمَكِّنْ لَّهُمْ حَرَمًا اٰمِنًا يُّجْبٰۤى اِلَيْهِ ثَمَرٰتُ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ رِّزْقًا مِّنْ لَّدُنَّا » [ القصص : ۵۷ ] "And have We not established for them a secure sanctuary to which are brought fruits of all kinds as provision from Us?"
Because of these trade journeys and being the owners of Makkah’s trade, Quraysh were very wealthy and, due to the blessing of the sanctuary, enjoyed security and peace. It is clear that all these blessings were due to the blessing of Allah’s House and were solely the gift of the Lord Almighty. Then, when all these blessings have been given by the Owner of this House, why do you not worship Him alone, and why do you associate others with Him, prostrate before them, make vows at their shrines, and offer sacrifices to them?
➋ {’’ لِاِيْلٰفِ قُرَيْشٍ ‘‘} (because of instilling love in the hearts of Quraysh) — What should it be in terms of grammatical construction? To what does this jar-majrur relate? The answer is that it relates to {’’ فَلْيَعْبُدُوْا ‘‘}, meaning that because of this, they should worship the Lord of this House. This is the opinion of the famous grammarian Khalil bin Ahmad, but the objection arises: then why has the "fa" (so/then) come? The answer is that here a conditional clause is omitted, in response to which the "fa" has come, and that is: if, because of these countless other blessings, these people do not worship Allah alone, then at least because He is the Lord of this House, they should worship Him, the House whose blessing has given them the favors of traveling in winter and summer, perpetual security, and abundant provision. (Zamakhshari)
Security in any place is a great blessing from Allah Almighty. We too should be grateful to Allah for the blessing of abundant provision and security, and worship Him alone, avoid worshiping others besides Allah and shirk, and instead of building and developing centers of shirk, we should build and develop centers of tawheed. If we do not do this, we will face scarcity of provision and insecurity and corruption, as we are indeed facing.

For uniting Quraysh

1. For the accustomed security of the Quraysh [1],

[1]
Two Aspects of ﴿ايلاف﴾:

The root of ﴿اِيْلاَفٌ﴾ is "alif," and from this comes the well-known word "ulfat" (affection). The meaning of "ulfat" is such love that arises due to harmony in thoughts (Mufradat), and the meaning of "alif" is to gather the scattered parts of something and join them together in an orderly manner. The same concept applies to the compilation (ta’leef) of a book. Thus, in the meaning of "eelaaf," all concepts of affection, intimacy, and the unity of the scattered individuals of Quraysh are found. In this regard, there are two different aspects of ﴿ايلاف﴾. The background of one is that the tribe of Quraysh was scattered in various places in Hijaz. The first to think of gathering his tribe in one place was Qusayy bin Kilab (an ancestor of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ). Accordingly, he gathered his entire tribe in Makkah. For this reason, Qusayy was given the title of ﴿مُجَمّع﴾. In this way, the custodianship of the Ka'bah came into the hands of this tribe. And the second aspect of ﴿ايلاف﴾ is that the sons of Hashim thought that they should take part in the international trade that took place through those caravans which traveled from Yemen to Syria and Palestine. In Yemen, trade was conducted with the lands of the East, and in Syria, with Africa and Egypt. Thus, the sons of Hashim established trade relations with the surrounding regions and practically began to participate in trade. As a result, Makkah became an international marketplace. The caravans of Quraysh used to make two trade journeys in a year. In the summer, they would go towards Syria and Palestine, because this region was much cooler than Makkah, and in the winter, their caravan would go towards Yemen, because this region was warmer than Makkah. From these two trade journeys in a year, they would earn enough income to spend the rest of the year comfortably at home, and even then, much would be left over. In this way, they became prosperous and quite wealthy. These trade journeys in both seasons became the center and focus of all their interests.