This Meccan sura connects grammatically with the previous one’s account of how God defeated the threat to Mecca posed by Abraha, so making it safe for the tribe of Quraysh to continue their trading journeys.
In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy
1 [He did this] to make the Quraysh feel secure, [a] 2 secure in their winter and summer journeys. [b] 3 So let them worship the Lord of this House: [c] 4 who provides them with food to ward off hunger, safety to ward off fear.
Footnotes
a. Or ‘so that their covenants of security [from their neighbors should continue]’ or ‘so that they should remain accustomed to their trade journeys, and not stop them’.
b. Their two annual trade caravans––to Yemen in winter and to Syria in summer––on which the prosperity of the Quraysh depended.
c. The Ka'ba.
The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics)
The Qur'an / a new translation by M. A. S. Abdel Haleem, copyright © 2004 Oxford World's Classics (Oxford University Press). Used by permission. All rights reserved.