The subject matter and style of Qur'anic chapter al balad resemble those of the earliest Surahs revealed at Mecca,[2] but it contains a pointer which indicates that it was sent down in the period when the disbelievers of Makkah had resolved to oppose Muhammad, and made it lawful for themselves to commit tyranny and excess against Mohammed According to an interpretation expounded on in the tafsīr (commentary) written by Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi (d. 1979) entitled Tafhim al-Qur'an,[3] Its theme is to explain the true position of man in the world and of the world in relation to man and to tell that God has shown to man both the highways of good and evil, has also provided for him the means to judge and see and follow them, and now it rests upon mans own effort and judgment whether he chooses the path of virtue and reaches felicity or adopts the path of vice and meets with doom.

First, the city of Makkah and the hardships being faced therein by Muhammad and the state of the children of Adam have been cited as a witness to the truth that this world is not a place of rest and ease for man, where he might have been born to enjoy life, but here he has been created into toil and struggle.

Then, taking one of the many moral concepts of ignorance held by man, as an example, it has been pointed out what wrong criteria of merit and greatness he has proposed for himself in the world.

Sayyid Qutb (d. 1966), who was an Egyptian author, Islamist, and leading intellectual of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, summarised the overall theme of Surat Al-Lail in the introduction to his extensive Quranic commentary, Fi Zilal al-Qur'an (In the shades of the Qur'an) by saying: This short sūrah touches on a great many facts which are of central importance to human life.

Numerous facts of this nature are not easily combined in any form of concise writing except that of the Qur’ān, with its unique ability to hit the right chords with such swift and penetrating strokes.