Makkan
The later years in Makkah
Ibn Abī Ṭalḥah relates from Ibn ʿAbbās that it is Makkan, all of it, and so said al-Ḥasan, ʿIkrimah, Mujāhid, Jābir ibn Zayd and Qatādah. One report from Ibn ʿAbbās, and one from Qatādah, except a single ayah — “Establish the prayer at the two ends of the day” (11:114) — on account of the man in Madinah about whom it is related. The traditional order places it fifty-second, between Yūnus and Yūsuf: the last, hardest years in Makkah.
رَوى ابْنُ أبِي طَلْحَةَ عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ أنَّها مَكِّيَّةٌ كُلُّها، وبِهِ قالَ الحَسَنُ، وعِكْرِمَةُ، ومُجاهِدٌ، وجابِرُ بْنُ زَيْدٍ، وقَتادَةُقَالَ أَبُو بَكْرٍ: يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ، قَدْ شِبْتَ؟ قَالَ: شَيَّبَتْنِي هُودٌ، وَالْوَاقِعَةُ، وَالْمُرْسَلَاتُ، وَعَمَّ يَتَسَاءَلُونَ، وَإِذَا الشَّمْسُ كُوِّرَتْThe same, in other works
- al-BaghawīMaʿālim al-tanzīlAhl al-Sunnah in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Makkan.
سُورَةِ هُودٍ مَكِّيَّةٌ
- al-Suyūṭīal-Durr al-manthūrAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Ibn ʿAbbās: it came down in Makkah. Recorded by al-Naḥḥās, Abū al-Shaykh and Ibn Mardawayh, through several chains.
أخْرَجَ النَّحّاسُ في تارِيخِهِ وأبُو الشَّيْخِ، وابْنُ مَرْدُوَيْهِ مِن طُرُقٍ عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ قالَ: نَزَلَتْ سُورَةُ هُودٍ بِمَكَّةَ
A report he gathers; its chain is not graded here.
- al-ShawkānīFatḥ al-qadīr→
Makkan, in the saying of al-Ḥasan, ʿIkrimah, ʿAṭāʾ and Jābir ibn Zayd.
سُورَةُ هُودٍ هي مَكِّيَّةٌ في قَوْلِ الحَسَنِ وعِكْرِمَةَ وعَطاءٍ وجابِرٍ
- Abū al-SuʿūdIrshād al-ʿaql al-salīmMāturīdī in creedḤanafī in fiqh→
Makkan.
سُورَةُ هُودٍ - عَلَيْهِ السَّلامُ - مَكِّيَّةٌ، وهي مِائَةٌ وثَلاثٌ وعِشْرُونَ آيَةً
Each line of English says what the Arabic beneath it says.
What was happening
It follows Yūnus in the muṣḥaf and in the order of revelation, and tells some of the same histories; but the tone has changed. Yūnus appealed. Hūd warns. In Yūnus one people believes at the last moment and is spared. Here there are six, and not one of them is.
The stories run in the order of time, and each messenger is given his own voice. Nūḥ, at the greatest length: nine hundred and fifty years reduced to a few exchanges — “I do not ask you for wealth; I shall not drive away those who believe” — then the building of the ship while the chiefs walk past laughing, the oven gushing, the waves like mountains, and a father calling to his son across the water: “My son, come aboard with us.” — “I shall take refuge on a mountain.” Then the word that ends it: “O earth, swallow your water; O sky, withhold.” And when Nūḥ pleads for the boy afterwards: “He is not of your family.”
Hūd, alone before ʿĀd: “I call Allah to witness, and you bear witness, that I am free of what you associate. So plot against me, all of you together, and give me no respite. I have put my trust in Allah, my Lord and your Lord.” Ṣāliḥ and the she-camel. The angels who come to Ibrāhīm as guests, and laugh with his wife over the news of a son, on their way to the towns of Lūṭ. Lūṭ himself, wishing he had some strong support to lean on. Shuʿayb, to whom his people say, “Does your prayer command you that we should leave what our fathers worshipped, or stop doing what we like with our own wealth?” — and who answers with a sentence that reformers have quoted ever since: “I want only to set things right, as far as I am able; and my success is only through Allah.”
Then the surah turns to the Prophet ﷺ and tells him what it was all for. “All that We relate to you of the news of the messengers is that by which We make your heart firm.” And it lays on him the charge that, Ibn ʿAbbās said, was the heaviest ayah ever sent down to him: “So stand firm as you have been commanded — you, and those who have turned with you — and do not transgress.” With it come three more: do not lean towards those who do wrong; keep up the prayer at the two ends of the day and in the first hours of the night; and be patient.
What came down about what
“Good deeds drive away evil deeds”
A man kissed a woman, and came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and told him of it. Then there was sent down to him: “Establish the prayer at the two ends of the day and in the first hours of the night; good deeds drive away evil deeds.” The man said: “Is this for me alone?” He said: “For whoever of my community acts on it.”
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd: al-Bukhārī (4687) and Muslim (2763).
Ṣaḥīḥ
بيان منهج الرسل في مواجهة قومهم المكذبين.
To set out the way of the messengers in facing those of their people who denied them.
The surah’s aim, as al-Mukhtaṣar fī al-Tafsīr states it
- The Book whose ayat are perfected
- Nūḥ and the Flood
- Hūd’s defiance of ʿĀd
- The guests of Ibrāhīm
- Shuʿayb the reformer
- The seizure of the towns
- The wretched and the happy
- Stand firm
- Stories that make the heart firm
Its aims, as Ibn ʿĀshūr sets them out
وأغراضها: ابتدأت بالإيماء إلى التحدي لمعارضة القرآن بما تومىء إليه الحروف المقطعة في أول السورة.
وباتلائها بالتنويه بالقرآن.
وبالنهي عن عبادة غير الله تعالى.
وبأن الرسول- عليه الصلاة والسلام- نذير للمشركين بعذاب يوم عظيم وبشير للمؤمنين بمتاع حسن إلى أجل مسمى.
وإثبات الحشر.
From its first ayah to its last
- 1–2424 ayat · 21% of the surahRead from ayah 1 →
A Book made firm, then set out
Alif Lām Rā. A Book whose ayat are perfected, then set out in detail, from One who is Wise, Aware: that you worship none but Allah. Seek your Lord’s forgiveness, then turn to Him. There is no creature on the earth but its provision is upon Allah. He created the heavens and the earth in six days, and His Throne was upon the water. Perhaps you would leave out part of what is revealed to you. Do they say he invented it? Then bring ten surahs like it. The two parties are like the blind and deaf, and the seeing and hearing.
- 25–4925 ayat · 22% of the surahRead from ayah 25 →
Nūḥ
We sent Nūḥ to his people: “I am to you a clear warner.” The chiefs said: “We see that none follow you but the lowest of us.” — “I shall not drive away those who believe.” Build the ship under Our eyes. When Our command came and the oven gushed: load upon it of every kind a pair. It sailed with them through waves like mountains, and Nūḥ called to his son. “O earth, swallow your water; O sky, withhold.” — “My Lord, my son is of my family.” — “Nūḥ, he is not of your family.”
- 50–6819 ayat · 16% of the surahRead from ayah 50 →
Hūd and Ṣāliḥ
To ʿĀd, their brother Hūd: “My people, ask forgiveness of your Lord, then turn to Him; He will send the sky upon you in abundance and add strength to your strength.” — “I have put my trust in Allah, my Lord and your Lord. There is no creature but He holds it by the forelock.” To Thamūd, their brother Ṣāliḥ: “He brought you forth from the earth and settled you in it.” They hamstrung her; he said: “Enjoy yourselves in your homes three days.”
- 69–8315 ayat · 11% of the surahRead from ayah 69 →
The guests of Ibrāhīm, and Lūṭ
Our messengers came to Ibrāhīm with good news. He brought a roasted calf; when he saw their hands not reaching for it, he felt a fear of them. His wife stood by and laughed, and We gave her good news of Isḥāq, and after Isḥāq, Yaʿqūb. Ibrāhīm was forbearing, tender-hearted, ever turning to Allah. When Our messengers came to Lūṭ he was distressed for them: “Would that I had power against you, or could lean on some strong support.” — “Their appointed time is the morning. Is the morning not near?”
- 84–9916 ayat · 13% of the surahRead from ayah 84 →
Shuʿayb, and Mūsā
To Madyan, their brother Shuʿayb: “Do not give short measure and weight.” — “Shuʿayb, does your prayer command you that we should leave what our fathers worshipped?” — “I do not wish to do, behind your backs, what I forbid you. I want only to set things right, as far as I am able; and my success is only through Allah” (11:88). — “Were it not for your clan, we would have stoned you.” And We sent Mūsā to Pharaoh, who will go before his people on the Day of Resurrection and lead them down into the Fire.
- 100–11112 ayat · 9% of the surahRead from ayah 100 →
What it means
That is of the news of the towns, which We relate to you; some of them stand, and some are mown down. We did not wrong them, but they wronged themselves. Such is the seizure of your Lord when He seizes the towns while they are doing wrong. That is a Day to which mankind will be gathered: some of them wretched, and some happy. As for the wretched, they are in the Fire; as for the happy, they are in the Garden — a gift never cut off.
- 112–12312 ayat · 8% of the surahRead from ayah 112 →
Stand firm
So stand firm as you have been commanded, you and those who have turned with you, and do not transgress. Do not lean towards those who do wrong, lest the Fire touch you. Establish the prayer at the two ends of the day and in the first hours of the night; good deeds drive away evil deeds. Be patient. Had your Lord willed, He would have made mankind one community. All that We relate to you of the news of the messengers is that by which We make your heart firm. To Allah belongs the unseen of the heavens and the earth; so worship Him and rely on Him.
The division into passages is a reading aid, written for this page; it is not part of the muṣḥaf. Each passage is drawn as long as its words are.
The sound each ayah closes on
Read aloud, every ayah closes on a sound — its fāṣilah — and the closes answer one another for a stretch, then turn. Each sound this surah closes on is a line of the staff below, and the surah is the gold line stepping along them, an ayah at a time: where it steps to another line, the rhyme turns. The dotted lines are where its passages begin.
Its commonest close carries 50% of its ayat, and the rhyme turns 47 times. 2 of those turns come just where a new passage begins, as this page divides the surah.
Move along the staff to see what each ayah closes on.
All 48 runs, ayah by ayah
Computed from the text, each ayah as it is said when the reciter stops on it: the last vowel falls away, tanwīn on alif is said as a long ā, and tāʾ marbūṭah as h. Closes the ear hears as one rhyme share a line — -ūn, -īn and -īm; -ān and -ām — and an ayah that is only the opening letters closes on the name of its last letter.
From the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions
شَيَّبَتْنِي هُودٌ وَالْوَاقِعَةُ وَالْمُرْسَلاَتُ وَعَمَّ يَتَسَاءَلُونَ وَإِذَا الشَّمْسُ كُوِّرَتْ
Abū Bakr said: “Messenger of Allah, you have gone grey.” He said: “Hūd, al-Wāqiʿah, al-Mursalāt, ʿAmma yatasāʾalūn and Idhā l-shamsu kuwwirat have turned me grey.”قَالَ ابْنُ عَبَّاسٍ مَا نَزَلَ عَلَى رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ﷺ آيَةٌ هِيَ أَشَدُّ وَلَا أَشَقُّ مِنْ هَذِهِ الْآيَةِ عَلَيْهِ، وَلِذَلِكَ قَالَ لِأَصْحَابِهِ حِينَ قَالُوا لَهُ: لَقَدْ أَسْرَعَ إِلَيْكَ الشَّيْبُ! فَقَالَ: شَيَّبَتْنِي هُودٌ وَأَخَوَاتُهَاإِنَّ اللَّهَ لَيُمْلِي لِلظَّالِمِ حَتَّى إِذَا أَخَذَهُ لَمْ يُفْلِتْهُ
“Allah gives respite to the wrongdoer — until, when He seizes him, He does not let him escape.” Then he recited: “Such is the seizure of your Lord when He seizes the towns while they are doing wrong. His seizure is painful, severe.”“Allah, mighty and majestic, has said: ‘Spend, and I shall spend on you.’ The Hand of Allah is full; no spending diminishes it, pouring forth night and day. Have you seen what He has spent since He created the heavens and the earth? It has not lessened what is in His Hand. And His Throne was upon the water; and in His Hand is the balance: He lowers and He raises.”The name it is known by
After the prophet sent to ʿĀd, whose story it tells (11:50–60) — and whose name is repeated in it more than in any other surah.
Its place in the muṣḥaf
Ayat you will hear named
- 11:6No creature but its provision is upon Allah
- 11:7His Throne was upon the water
- 11:42–43Nūḥ calls to his son
- 11:44“O earth, swallow your water”
- 11:56“I have put my trust in Allah”
- 11:71–73The good news to Ibrāhīm’s wife
- 11:88“I want only to set things right”
- 11:102The seizure of your Lord
- 11:112Stand firm as you have been commanded
- 11:114Good deeds drive away evil deeds
- 11:120Stories that make the heart firm
Where this comes from
The figures at the head of the page are counted from the text. The Arabic quotations are taken letter for letter from the copies of the classical works held on this site, and each links to the passage it stands in. The rest was written for Mishkāt from the works below. It is an introduction, not a tafsir: where it matters, read the scholars themselves.
Works quoted on this page
- تفسير البغويMaʿālim al-tanzīlal-Ḥusayn al-Baghawī (d. 516 AH)
- تفسير ابن الجوزيZād al-masīrAbū al-Faraj ibn al-Jawzī (d. 597 AH)
- تفسير القرطبيal-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-QurʾānShams al-Dīn al-Qurṭubī (d. 671 AH)
- تفسير ابن كثيرTafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿaẓīmIsmāʿīl ibn Kathīr (d. 774 AH)
- الدر المنثورal-Durr al-manthūrJalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (d. 911 AH)
- فتح القدير للشوكانيFatḥ al-qadīrMuḥammad al-Shawkānī (d. 1250 AH)
- تفسير أبي السعودIrshād al-ʿaql al-salīmAbū al-Suʿūd al-ʿImādī (d. 982 AH)
- التحرير والتنويرal-Taḥrīr wa-l-tanwīrMuḥammad al-Ṭāhir ibn ʿĀshūr (d. 1393 AH)
- المختصر في التفسيرal-Mukhtaṣar fī al-tafsīrMarkaz Tafsīr, a committee of scholars
Beside each scholar quoted stand his creed and his school of fiqh, so that he can be read with discernment. The site’s library holds other commentaries as well; the introductions do not draw on them.
al-Qurṭubī is quoted on these pages only for what he transmits: who said a surah is Makkan or Madinan, and what it has been called. On the attributes of Allah his commentary interprets, in places, in the way of the Ashʿarīs rather than the way of the Salaf, and nothing of that is taken from him here.
al-Rāzī and Abū al-Suʿūd are quoted on these pages only for where a surah came down, and Ibn ʿĀshūr only for the aims of the surah. Nothing on the attributes of Allah is taken from them, and no report comes by way of them. Ibn ʿĀshūr’s statement of the aims is not in the site’s copy of his book: it is read from the Shamela typing as OpenITI holds it, with reports and al-Zamakhsharī’s words left out, and it links to its page there.
Every hadith here says where it is recorded and how it is graded. What is in al-Bukhārī or Muslim is marked ṣaḥīḥ. Outside the two, the grading followed is al-Albānī’s; where none of his was found, the scholar who graded it is named. A report known to be weak or fabricated is not given here at all. A report that is ḥasan, or a Companion’s own saying, or related by the commentators without a graded chain, says so beside it. In the account of what was happening, a small sign after a sentence says the same of the report that sentence tells, and a question mark stands where a date or a figure is not certain, or beside a grading — underlined — that has something to say about its own source: rest on it, or touch it, and it gives the reason. What is drawn from the sīrah — the campaigns, the dates, who was present — is history as its scholars transmit it, and is not graded here.
Also drawn on
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim; Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī
The order of revelation is the one printed at the head of each surah in the Egyptian muṣḥaf, which rests on lists transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās and Jābir ibn Zayd. It places a surah by where it began. Many surahs came down in parts, over years, and the scholars treat the list as a guide, not a certainty.