Meaning of “Laam”:

Understanding the structure of this surah

This surah is a statement that worship the master of this house for the “eelaaf” (conveniences, comfort and love) given to the Quraysh. Hence, without getting into the grammatical technicalities, lets simply understand that the former part of this statement is in the end (at ayat 3) and the latter part is in the beginning (ayat 1).

Shocking disregard of Quraysh

“Laam” is used to express something shocking. Here it represents that it is so shocking that after all the conveniences, comforts, facilities, ease in trade, love, softness in the hearts of people, they still don’t worship the master of this house. People were coming from all over to worship at the house of Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) and Quraysh were the ones who were showing the most disrespect and it was shocking.

Linking Surah Al-Fil and Quraysh

As mentioned in Surah Al-Fil, both Surah Al-Fil and Surah Quraysh are connected Surahs and the “laam” here is used to connect these 2 surahs. Every ayat of Surah Al-Fil can be used to describe as for the “eelaaf” of Quraysh. For example, the army of Abrahah was destroyed for the “eelaaf” of the Quraysh.