Quran Direct: Episode 5–Commentary and reflections on Surah Inshirah ‘The Expansion’

This two part commentary explores the layers and meanings of this short early Meccan Surah. Shaykh Fadhlalla presents the web of connections that indicates the key Qur’anic indications of the path of the heart. Several key classical Arabic terms and roots coupled with the concordances in from parts of the Qur’an are highlighted. In the natural thread of the meccan verses, the themes prevalent relate to reality, the human condition and the purpose of life. As per its title: ‘The Expansion’ this surah focuses on the facets of this essential dynamic of life in contrast with its opposite quality ‘contraction’. Various of the Abrahamic and Muhammadi teachings and narratives are related in presenting the centrality of the heart as the vehicle between dual and unitive experience, the subtleties of the hearts condition, remembrance and awareness as the basis of transformation and the essential modes of purification that may aid human beings to live through and in the presence of heart and thereby appropriately engage with the changing dynamics of life on earth whilst constantly referring to the light of higher consciousness.