Three notable themes of this Surah are its response to the opponents' objections, warning and admonition to the disbelievers, and exhortation of patience to the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

Though of some use in reconstructing the Qur'an's historicity, asbab is by nature an exegetical rather than a historiographical genre, and as such usually associates the verses it explicates with general situations rather than specific events.

Most of the mufassirun say that this surah was revealed at Mecca, at a stage when opposition to Muhammad had grown very strong and intense verbally.

[6] According to some historians including William Muir,[7] ayaat 9 to 16 refer to Walid ibn al-Mughirah as his personality traits fit in the character defined in these ayaat and a tradition by Ibn Abbas that "We know of no one whom God has described in the derogatory way in which He describes him, blighting him with ignominy that will never leave him (the adverbial qualifier [ba'da dhalika, 'moreover'] is semantically connected to zanim, 'ignoble')".

[8] Tafsir al-Jalalayn also highlights the correlation in 16th ayah: "Soon We shall brand him on the snout"[9][10] and his nose being chopped off by a sword at the Battle of Badr.

[15] Wm Theodore de Bary, an East Asian studies expert, describes that "The final process of collection and codification of the Quran text was guided by one over-arching principle: God's words must not in any way be distorted or sullied by human intervention.

For this reason, no serious attempt, apparently, was made to edit the numerous revelations, organize them into thematic units, or present them in chronological order....".

[24][25] Muhammad Asad (2 July 1900 – 20 February 1992)[26] a Jewish-born Austro-Hungarian journalist, traveler, writer, linguist, political theorist, diplomat and Islamic scholar, said:[27] In the chronological order of revelation, this surah most probably occupies the third place.

[44][45] Muhammad is addressed as if to say: "The disbelievers call you a madman whereas the Book that you are presenting and the sublime conduct that you practise are by themselves sufficient to refute their false accusations.

Those who are being called upon to bow before God in the world and refuse to do so, would be unable to prostrate themselves on the Day of Resurrection, even if they wanted to do so, and thus would stand disgraced and condemned.

They have no reasonable ground for opposing the Prophet Muhammad, they cannot either make the claim that they know with certainty that he is not a true messenger of God, nor that what he says is false.

In conclusion, Muhammad has been exhorted: "Bear with patience the hardships that you may have to face in the way of preaching the Faith until Allah's judgement arrives, and avoid the impatience which caused suffering and affliction to Jonah.