Surat al-Kawthar ("Abundance") is the 108th sura of the Qur'an, and the shortest. There are several differing reports as to the circumstances under which it was revealed. According to Ibn Ishaq, it was revealed in Makka, some time before the Isra and Miraj, when al-As ibn Wa'il as-Sahmi said of Muhammad that he was "a man who is cut off and is of no consequence, and if he were killed, he would be forgotten"; others report that it was revealed in regard to Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf (according to al-Bazzar), or (according to Ataa) Abu Lahab when he said, after Muhammad's son died, that Muhammad would be forgotten since he had no sons, or (according to Anas ibn Malik ) that it was revealed while he was dozing among his companions and he smiled.

Tradition has it that al-Kawthar (from a root meaning "abundance"), a word that occurs only once in the Qur'an, is the name of a river in Paradise.

The sura's text, in the Pickthall translation, is:

In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful.

1. Lo! We have given thee Abundance;
2. So pray unto thy Lord, and sacrifice.
3. Lo! it is thy insulter (and not thou) who is without posterity.

(The text in brackets is the translator's explanatory interpolation.)

External links

• Tafsir Ibn Kathir