Shaykh al-Islām—may Allah have mercy on him—also said:

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The short surahs at the end of the Quran are interrelated. Sūrat Iqra’ (“Recite”) was the first revelation of the Quran. Hence it opens with the command to recite, closes with the command to prostrate, and speaks in between of prayer. Recitation is prayer’s finest utterance and its first after the opening takbīr; prostration is its finest action and its last before the closing salutation.

Thus, after he was commanded to recite, Sūrat al-Muddaththir (“The Cloaked One”) was revealed to him so that he would convey the message. He was told:

“Arise and warn.”

Through the first he became a prophet, and through the second he became a messenger. Hence he was addressed as “the cloaked one”: someone seeking warmth against the chill of terror and alarm caused by the magnitude of what had suddenly overwhelmed him. He had returned to Khadījah with the muscles between his neck and shoulders trembling, saying, “Cover me! Cover me!” It was thus as though he was being forbidden to seek warmth and commanded to rise and warn. Similarly, in Sūrat al-Muzzammil (“The Enwrapped One”), he was addressed as someone wrapped up for sleep when he was commanded to rise for prayer.

Having commanded recitation in this surah, Allah mentioned in the next the revelation of the Quran on the Night of Decree, and the descent of the angels and the Spirit. In Sūrat al-Ma‘ārij (“The Ways of Ascent”), He mentioned the ascent of the angels and the Spirit, and in Sūrat al-Naba’ (“The Tidings”), the standing of the angels and the Spirit. He thus mentioned ascent, descent, and standing; then