Differed over — part Makkan, part Madinan
Spread across the Hijrah: part in Makkah, part in the first years in Madinah
The reports conflict even from one authority. Ibn al-Jawzī relates from Ibn ʿAbbās, through Abū Ṣāliḥ, that it is Makkan except for two ayat; and, in another report from him, that it is Madinan except for four. ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār held it Makkan except for three ayat (22:19–21); al-Qurṭubī gives it as Makkan with three or four exceptions, and Ibn Kathīr as Makkan. The muṣḥaf heads it Madinan, and the traditional order places it one hundred and third. Many of the scholars concluded that it is mixed: its warnings of the Hour and its arguments with the idolaters are Makkan in manner, while the permission to fight and the address “O you who believe” belong to Madinah.
رَوى أبُو صالِحٍ عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ أنَّها مَكِّيَّةٌ كُلُّها، غَيْرُ آيَتَيْنِ نَزَلَتا بِالمَدِينَةِوفي رِوايَةٍ أُخْرى عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ أنَّها مَدَنِيَّةٌ، إلّا أرْبَعَ آياتٍ نَزَلَتْ بِمَكَّةَThe same, in other works
- al-BaghawīMaʿālim al-tanzīlAhl al-Sunnah in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Makkan, with some ayat excepted.
سُورَةُ الْحَجِّ مَكِّيَّةٌ غَيْرَ آيَاتٍ
- al-Suyūṭīal-Durr al-manthūrAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Ibn ʿAbbās: it came down in Madinah. Recorded by Ibn Mardawayh.
أخْرَجَ ابْنُ مَرْدُوَيْهِ، عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ قالَ: نَزَلَتْ سُورَةُ الحَجِّ بِالمَدِينَةِ
A report he gathers; its chain is not graded here.
- al-ShawkānīFatḥ al-qadīr→
The scholars differed over it, Makkan or Madinan. Ibn Mardawayh records from Ibn ʿAbbās that it came down in Madinah.
اخْتَلَفَ أهْلُ العِلْمِ، هَلْ هي مَكِّيَّةٌ أوْ مَدَنِيَّةٌ ؟ فَأخْرَجَ ابْنُ مَرْدَوَيْهِ عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ قالَ: نَزَلَتْ سُورَةُ الحَجِّ بِالمَدِينَةِ
- al-RāzīMafātīḥ al-ghaybAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Makkan, with the exception he names.
سَبْعُونَ وسِتُّ آياتٍ وهي مَكِّيَّةٌ، إلّا ثَلاثَ آياتٍ ﴿هَذانِ خَصْمانِ﴾ إلى قَوْلِهِ ﴿صِراطِ الحَمِيدِ
Each line of English says what the Arabic beneath it says.
What was happening
No surah is harder to assign to one city than this, and the difficulty is itself the key to it. It stands at the turn of the Hijrah. Behind it is Makkah: the Sacred Mosque from which the believers have been barred, and a people who argue about Allah without knowledge. Ahead is Madinah: a community that can pray openly, give the zakāh, and — for the first time — fight.
Ibn ʿAbbās tells how that last change came. When the Prophet ﷺ was driven out of Makkah, Abū Bakr said: “They have driven out their Prophet; to Allah we belong and to Him we return — they will surely be destroyed.” Then there came down: “Permission is given to those who are fought, because they have been wronged; and Allah is able to give them victory.” Abū Bakr said: I knew then that there would be fighting. The ayah that follows gives the reason in terms that reach far beyond the Muslims: were it not that Allah repels some people by means of others, monasteries, churches, synagogues and mosques, in which the name of Allah is much mentioned, would all have been pulled down.
At the centre of the surah is the House. Ibrāhīm is shown the site and told to purify it for those who go round it and stand and bow and prostrate; and then: “Proclaim the Pilgrimage to mankind. They will come to you on foot and on every lean camel, coming from every distant pass.” The rites are named one by one — the sacrifice, the remembrance of Allah’s name, feeding the poor — and their meaning is stated in a sentence aimed at every religion of blood-offering: “Their flesh does not reach Allah, nor their blood; what reaches Him is the mindfulness in you.”
Three of its ayat came down about a single morning. Abū Dharr used to swear that “These are two adversaries who dispute about their Lord” was revealed about the six men who stepped out for single combat at Badr: Ḥamzah, ʿAlī and ʿUbaydah ibn al-Ḥārith on one side, and ʿUtbah, Shaybah and al-Walīd ibn ʿUtbah on the other.
What came down about what
The duellists of Badr
Abū Dharr used to swear an oath that this ayah — “These are two adversaries who have disputed about their Lord” — came down about Ḥamzah and his two companions, and ʿUtbah and his two companions, on the day they stepped forward at Badr.
Abū Dharr: al-Bukhārī (4743) and Muslim (3033).
Ṣaḥīḥ
The first permission to fight
“When the Prophet ﷺ was driven out of Makkah, Abū Bakr said: ‘They have driven out their Prophet; they will surely perish.’ Then Allah sent down: ‘Permission is given to those who are fought, because they have been wronged.’ Abū Bakr said: ‘I knew that there would be fighting.’”
Ibn ʿAbbās: al-Tirmidhī (3171), who graded it ḥasan; its chain is ṣaḥīḥ according to al-Albānī.
Graded ṣaḥīḥ
Worship “on an edge”
“A man would come to Madinah; if his wife bore a boy and his mares foaled, he would say: this is a good religion. And if his wife did not bear and his mares did not foal, he would say: this is a bad religion.”
Ibn ʿAbbās: al-Bukhārī (4742).
Ṣaḥīḥ
ذكر التعظيم والاستسلام لله من خلال عرض مشاهد العظمة والقدرة الإلهية.
To call to reverence and surrender before Allah, by setting out scenes of His greatness and His power.
The surah’s aim, as al-Mukhtaṣar fī al-Tafsīr states it
- The quaking of the Hour
- Resurrection proved from creation
- The Sacred Mosque and the Pilgrimage
- The meaning of sacrifice
- Permission to fight
- The parable of the fly
- The religion of Ibrāhīm
Its aims, as Ibn ʿĀshūr sets them out
ومن أغراض هذه السورة:
- خطاب الناس بأمرهم أن يتقوا الله ويخشوا يوم الجزاء وأهواله.
- والاستدلال على نفي الشرك وخطاب المشركين بأن يقلعوا عن المكابرة في الاعتراف بانفراد الله تعالى بالإلهية وعن المجادلة في ذلك اتباعا لوساوس الشياطين، وأن الشياطين لا تغني عنهم شيئا ولا ينصرونهم في الدنيا وفي الآخرة.
وتفظيع جدال المشركين في الوحدانية بأنهم لا يستندون إلى علم وأنهم يعرضون عن الحجة ليضلوا الناس.
From its first ayah to its last
- 1–1010 ayat · 15% of the surahRead from ayah 1 →
The quaking of the Hour
O mankind, be mindful of your Lord: the quaking of the Hour is a tremendous thing. On the Day you see it, every nursing mother will forget her nursling, every pregnant one will drop her burden, and you will see people as though drunk, though they are not drunk. If you are in doubt about the raising: We created you from dust, then a drop, then a clinging clot, then a lump of flesh. And you see the earth barren, and when We send down water on it, it stirs and swells.
- 11–2414 ayat · 18% of the surahRead from ayah 11 →
Worship on an edge, and the two adversaries
Among people is one who worships Allah on an edge: if good comes to him he is content, and if a trial strikes him he turns on his face. Whoever thinks that Allah will not help His Messenger — let him stretch a rope to the sky. Do you not see that to Allah prostrate all who are in the heavens and the earth? These are two adversaries who dispute about their Lord: for those who disbelieve, garments of fire; and those who believe will be admitted to gardens, adorned with bracelets of gold and pearl.
- 25–3713 ayat · 18% of the surahRead from ayah 25 →
The House, and the Pilgrimage
Those who disbelieve and bar others from the way of Allah and from the Sacred Mosque. We showed Ibrāhīm the site of the House: “Associate nothing with Me, and purify My House. Proclaim the Pilgrimage to mankind: they will come to you on foot and on every lean mount, from every distant pass” (22:27) — to witness benefits for themselves, mention the name of Allah on the appointed days, and feed the poor. Whoever honours the symbols of Allah, that is from the mindfulness of hearts. Their flesh does not reach Allah, nor their blood; what reaches Him is your mindfulness.
- 38–4811 ayat · 13% of the surahRead from ayah 38 →
Permission, and its purpose
Allah defends those who believe. Permission is given to those who are fought, because they have been wronged — those driven from their homes for no reason but that they say, “Our Lord is Allah.” Were it not that Allah repels some people by others, monasteries, churches, synagogues and mosques would have been demolished. Those who, if We establish them in the land, keep up the prayer, give the zakāh, enjoin right and forbid wrong. It is not the eyes that grow blind, but the hearts within the breasts.
- 49–6214 ayat · 15% of the surahRead from ayah 49 →
The warner, and those who emigrate
Say: O mankind, I am only a clear warner to you. We sent no messenger or prophet before you but Satan cast something against what he hoped for; then Allah annuls what Satan casts, and makes His own ayat firm. Those who emigrate in the way of Allah and are then killed or die — Allah will surely provide for them well. That is because Allah is the Truth, and what they call upon besides Him is falsehood.
- 63–7210 ayat · 13% of the surahRead from ayah 63 →
His favours, and their gods
Do you not see that Allah sends down water from the sky and the earth turns green? He has subjected to you what is on the earth, and the ships that run on the sea by His command. For every community We appointed rites. They worship besides Allah that for which He has sent down no authority.
- 73–786 ayat · 9% of the surahRead from ayah 73 →
The fly, and the charge
O mankind, a likeness is given, so listen: those you call upon besides Allah will never create a fly, though they all combined for it; and if the fly snatched something from them, they could not recover it. Weak are the seeker and the sought. They have not esteemed Allah as He deserves. O you who believe: bow and prostrate, worship your Lord, and do good. Strive for Allah as He deserves. He has chosen you, and laid on you no hardship in the religion — the faith of your father Ibrāhīm. He named you Muslims.
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 32% of its ayat, and the rhyme turns 52 times. 5 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 53 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
“Allah will say on the Day of Resurrection: ‘O Ādam.’ He will say: ‘At Your service, our Lord.’ He will be called: ‘Allah commands you to bring out from your descendants the portion of the Fire.’… Then the pregnant will drop her burden and the child’s hair turn grey: ‘and you will see people as though drunk, though they are not drunk; but the punishment of Allah is severe.’” That weighed on the people until their faces changed, and he ﷺ said: “I hope that you will be a quarter of the people of the Garden… a third… a half.”The name it is known by
After the rite whose founding and purpose it sets out (22:26–37). It is the only surah named for one of the pillars of Islam.
Its place in the muṣḥaf
Ayat you will hear named
- 22:1–2The quaking of the Hour
- 22:5From dust, to a drop, to old age
- 22:11Worship on an edge
- 22:18An ayah of prostration
- 22:27Proclaim the Pilgrimage to mankind
- 22:37Their flesh does not reach Allah, nor their blood
- 22:39–40The first permission to fight
- 22:46It is the hearts that grow blind
- 22:73They will never create a fly
- 22:78He named you Muslims
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 الرازيMafātīḥ al-ghaybFakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606 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; the Sunan of Abū Dāwūd and 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.