Makkan, by agreement
The later years in Makkah
Ibn al-Jawzī records agreement that it is Makkan, without any disagreement he knew of, and al-Qurṭubī says the same. Ibn Masʿūd named it with al-Isrāʾ, al-Kahf, Maryam and Ṭā-Hā among the earliest surahs he had learned. The traditional order places it seventy-third.
سُورَةُ الأنْبِياءِ وَهِيَ مَكِّيَّةٌ بِإجْماعِهِمْ مِن غَيْرِ خِلافٍ نَعْلَمُهُعَنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ قَالَ: بَنُو إِسْرَائِيلَ، وَالْكَهْفُ، وَمَرْيَمُ، وَطه، وَالْأَنْبِيَاءُ، هُنَّ مِنَ الْعِتَاقِ الْأُوَلِ، وَهُنَّ مِنْ تِلَادِيThe same, in other works
- al-BaghawīMaʿālim al-tanzīlAhl al-Sunnah in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Makkan.
سُورَةُ الْأَنْبِيَاءِ مَكِّيَّةٌ
- al-Suyūṭīal-Durr al-manthūrAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Ibn ʿAbbās: it came down in Makkah. Recorded by al-Naḥḥās and Ibn Mardawayh.
أخْرَجَ النَّحّاسُ في ناسِخِهِ، وابْنُ مَرْدُوَيْهِ، عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ قالَ: نَزَلَتْ سُورَةُ الأنْبِياءِ بِمَكَّةَ
A report he gathers; its chain is not graded here.
- al-RāzīMafātīḥ al-ghaybAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Makkan.
مِائَةٌ واثْنَتا عَشْرَةَ آيَةً مَكِّيَّةً
- Abū al-SuʿūdIrshād al-ʿaql al-salīmMāturīdī in creedḤanafī in fiqh→
Makkan.
سُورَةُ الأنْبِياءِ مَكِّيَّةٌ و آَياتُها مِائَةٌ واثْنا عَشْرَ آَيَةً
Each line of English says what the Arabic beneath it says.
What was happening
Its first ayah, Ibn al-Jawzī notes, came down about the disbelievers of Makkah, and it describes a mood: people going about their amusements while the account draws closer.◇ “No fresh reminder comes to them from their Lord but they listen to it as they play, their hearts distracted.”
The surah records what they whispered among themselves about the Prophet ﷺ, and the list shows how unsure they were. He is only a human being like you. It is magic. No — muddled dreams. No — he has made it up. No — he is a poet. Let him bring us a sign, as the earlier messengers were sent with signs.
The reply has two parts. The first is argument: had there been gods in the heavens and the earth other than Allah, both would have gone to ruin. The heavens and the earth were a joined mass, and We split them apart, and made from water every living thing. “We did not create the heaven and the earth and what is between them in play.”
The second is the company he belongs to. Ibrāhīm, who broke the idols and was thrown into the fire: “O fire, be coolness and safety for Ibrāhīm.” Lūṭ; Nūḥ; Dāwūd and Sulaymān. Ayyūb: “Harm has touched me, and You are the Most Merciful of the merciful.” Ismāʿīl, Idrīs, Dhū l-Kifl. Dhū l-Nūn — Yūnus — calling out from the darknesses: “There is no god but You; glory be to You; I have been among the wrongdoers.” Zakariyyā: “My Lord, do not leave me alone.” And she who guarded her chastity. After each: “So We answered him.” And then the sentence that binds them: “This community of yours is one community, and I am your Lord, so worship Me.”
- Related, not gradedRelated by the commentators without a graded chain; not established as authentic.
بيان وحدة الرسالات من خلال التذكير بحال الرسل ودعوتهم الواحدة لعبادة الله وحده.
To show the oneness of the messages, by recalling the messengers and their single call: to worship Allah alone.
The surah’s aim, as al-Mukhtaṣar fī al-Tafsīr states it
- The nearness of the reckoning
- Proofs of tawḥīd
- Ibrāhīm and the idols
- The prayers of the prophets, answered
- One community
- Gog and Magog
- A mercy to the worlds
Its aims, as Ibn ʿĀshūr sets them out
والأغراض التي ذكرت في هذه السورة هي:
- الإنذار بالبعث، وتحقيق وقوعه وإنه لتحقق وقوعه كان قريبا.
- وإقامة الحجة عليه بخلق السماوات والأرض عن عدم وخلق الموجودات من الماء.
- والتحذير من التكذيب بكتاب الله تعالى ورسوله.
- والتذكير بأن هذا الرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم ما هو إلا كأمثاله من الرسل وما جاء إلا بمثل ما جاء به الرسل من قبله.
From its first ayah to its last
- 1–1515 ayat · 12% of the surahRead from ayah 1 →
Heedless, as it draws near
Their reckoning has drawn near to mankind, while they turn away in heedlessness. They whisper: “Is this anything but a human being like you?… Muddled dreams; no, he has invented it; no, he is a poet.” We sent before you only men to whom We revealed — so ask the people of the Reminder, if you do not know. We have sent down to you a Book in which is your own mention. How many a town We shattered.
- 16–3318 ayat · 17% of the surahRead from ayah 16 →
Not in play
We did not create the heaven and the earth and what is between them in play. Had there been in them gods besides Allah, both would have been ruined. He is not asked about what He does; they will be asked. Have those who disbelieve not seen that the heavens and the earth were joined, and We split them apart, and made from water every living thing? Each floats in an orbit.
- 34–5017 ayat · 17% of the surahRead from ayah 34 →
The mockers, and the scales
We granted no human being before you eternal life. Every soul will taste death; and We test you with evil and with good as a trial. When those who disbelieve see you, they take you only in mockery. Man was created of haste. We shall set up the scales of justice for the Day of Resurrection, and no soul will be wronged at all — though it be the weight of a mustard seed.
- 51–7525 ayat · 18% of the surahRead from ayah 51 →
Ibrāhīm and the idols
We gave Ibrāhīm his right judgement before. “What are these images to which you are devoted?” He broke them to pieces, all but the largest. “Who has done this to our gods?” — “Rather, this, their chief, did it; ask them, if they can speak.” They said: “Burn him, and help your gods.” We said: “O fire, be coolness and safety for Ibrāhīm.” We saved him and Lūṭ, and gave him Isḥāq, and Yaʿqūb besides.
- 76–9116 ayat · 17% of the surahRead from ayah 76 →
Each called, and was answered
Nūḥ, when he called before, and We answered him. Dāwūd and Sulaymān, when they gave judgement. Ayyūb, when he called to his Lord, “Harm has touched me.” Ismāʿīl, Idrīs and Dhū l-Kifl — all were patient. Dhū l-Nūn, when he went off in anger, and called out in the darknesses: “There is no god but You; glory be to You; I have been among the wrongdoers” — and thus We save the believers. Zakariyyā. And she who guarded her chastity.
- 92–10413 ayat · 11% of the surahRead from ayah 92 →
One community, and the end
This community of yours is one community, and I am your Lord, so worship Me. When Gog and Magog are let loose and they pour down from every height, the true promise has drawn near. You and what you worship besides Allah are fuel for Hell. Those for whom the best has already gone forth from Us will be kept far from it. The Day We roll up the sky like the rolling of a scroll: as We began the first creation, We shall repeat it.
- 105–1128 ayat · 6% of the surahRead from ayah 105 →
A mercy to the worlds
We wrote in the Psalms, after the Reminder, that My righteous servants will inherit the earth. We have not sent you but as a mercy to the worlds (21:107). Say: it is revealed to me only that your God is One God; will you then submit? He said: “My Lord, judge in truth. Our Lord is the Most Merciful, whose help is sought against what you describe.”
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 99% of its ayat, and the rhyme turns 2 times. None of them comes where a passage begins, as this page divides the surah.
Move along the staff to see what each ayah closes on.
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
لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ أَنْتَ سُبْحَانَكَ إِنِّي كُنْتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ
“The supplication of Dhū l-Nūn, when he called upon his Lord from the belly of the fish: ‘There is no god but You; glory be to You; I have been among the wrongdoers.’ No Muslim ever calls with it concerning anything but Allah answers him.”The Prophet ﷺ addressed the people: “You will be gathered to Allah barefoot, naked and uncircumcised: ‘As We began the first creation, We shall repeat it — a promise binding upon Us.’ And the first of creation to be clothed on the Day of Resurrection will be Ibrāhīm.”إِنِّي لَمْ أُبْعَثْ لَعَّانًا وَإِنَّمَا بُعِثْتُ رَحْمَةً
It was said: “Messenger of Allah, pray against the idolaters.” He said: “I was not sent as one who curses. I was sent only as a mercy.”The name it is known by
After those whose stories fill its second half: sixteen are named in it, from Ibrāhīm to ʿĪsā, with Maryam beside them.
Its place in the muṣḥaf
Ayat you will hear named
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)
- تفسير الرازيMafātīḥ al-ghaybFakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606 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.