Makkan, by the majority
The middle years in Makkah
It is Makkan in the saying of most. Two or three ayat are reported as Madinan — those beginning “If all the trees on earth were pens” (31:27) — from ʿAṭāʾ, Qatādah and, in al-Qurṭubī’s report, Ibn ʿAbbās; and al-Ḥasan excepted the fourth ayah, on the ground that prayer and zakāh were legislated in Madinah. The traditional order places it fifty-seventh.
سُورَةُ لُقْمانَ وَهِيَ مَكِّيَّةٌ في قَوْلِ الأكْثَرِينَ. ورُوِيَ عَنْ عَطاءٍ أنَّهُ قالَ: هي مَكِّيَّةٌ سِوى آيَتَيْنِ مِنها نَزَلَتا بِالمَدِينَةِتَفْسِيرُ سُورَةِ لُقْمَانَ وَهِيَ مَكِّيَّةٌThe same, in other works
- al-BaghawīMaʿālim al-tanzīlAhl al-Sunnah in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Makkan.
سُورَةُ لُقْمَانَ مَكِّيَّةٌ
- al-Suyūṭīal-Durr al-manthūrAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Ibn ʿAbbās: it came down in Makkah. Recorded by Ibn al-Ḍurays, Ibn Mardawayh and al-Bayhaqī.
أخْرَجَ ابْنُ الضُّرَيْسِ، وابْنُ مَرْدُوَيْهِ، والبَيْهَقِيُّ في الدَّلائِلِ، عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ قالَ: أُنْزِلَتْ سُورَةُ لُقْمانَ بِمَكَّةَ
A report he gathers; its chain is not graded here.
- al-RāzīMafātīḥ al-ghaybAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Makkan, with the exception he names.
مَكِّيَّةٌ كُلُّها إلّا آيَتَيْنِ نَزَلَتا بِالمَدِينَةِ وهُما ﴿ولَوْ أنَّما في الأرْضِ مِن شَجَرَةٍ﴾ الآيَتَيْنِ وإلّا آيَةً نَزَلَتْ بِالمَدِينَةِ وهي ﴿الَّذِينَ يُقِيمُونَ الصَّلاةَ ويُؤْتُونَ الزَّكاةَ﴾؛ لِأنَّ الصَّلاةَ والزَّكاةَ نَزَلَتا بِالمَدِينَةِ، وهي ثَلاثٌ وقِيلَ أرْبَعٌ وثَلاثُونَ آيَةً
- Abū al-SuʿūdIrshād al-ʿaql al-salīmMāturīdī in creedḤanafī in fiqh→
Makkan; some except what he names.
مَكِّيَّةٌ، وقِيلَ: إلّا ﴿الَّذِينَ يُقِيمُونَ الصَّلاةَ ويُؤْتُونَ الزَّكاةَ﴾ فَإنَّ وُجُوبَهُما بِالمَدِينَةِ، وهو ضَعِيفٌ؛ لِأنَّهُ يُنافِي شَرْعِيَّتَهُما بِمَكَّةَ، وقِيلَ إلّا ثَلاثًا مِن قَوْلِهِ: ﴿وَلَوْ أنَّما في الأرْضِ مِن شَجَرَةٍ أقْلامٌ﴾ وهى أرْبَع وثَلاثُونَ آيَةً
Each line of English says what the Arabic beneath it says.
What was happening
It opens by calling the Qurʾan “the wise Book”, and wisdom is its subject from beginning to end: who has it, and who trades it away.
The one who trades it away comes first. “Among people is one who buys idle talk, to lead astray from the way of Allah without knowledge, and to make a mockery of it.” The commentators relate this to al-Naḍr ibn al-Ḥārith, who brought back from his travels the tales of the Persian kings and would gather an audience with them when the Prophet ﷺ recited.◇ Ibn Masʿūd, asked about the “idle talk” of the ayah, swore three times that it is singing.
Then comes the one who has it. Luqmān is not placed among the prophets; he is given as a man to whom Allah gave wisdom, and the first use he makes of it is to bring up his child. His counsel begins with the greatest matter — “My son, do not associate anything with Allah; association is a tremendous wrong” — and moves through accountability, prayer, enjoining right and forbidding wrong, and patience, down to the bearing of the body: do not turn your cheek from people in scorn, do not strut, be moderate in your walk, and lower your voice. When the Companions were distressed by another ayah, about those who mix their faith with wrong, the Prophet ﷺ reassured them with Luqmān’s sentence: it is not as you think; it is association.
In the middle of the father’s speech the surah interrupts, in Allah’s own voice, to speak of parents: the mother who carried her child in weakness upon weakness; gratitude owed to Me and to them; and the limit — if they press you to associate with Me, do not obey, but keep them company in this world with kindness. Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ said that this came down about him and his mother.
It closes with five things whose knowledge Allah has kept to Himself. The Prophet ﷺ called them the keys of the unseen.
- Related, not gradedRelated by the commentators without a graded chain; not established as authentic.
What came down about what
“It is not as you think”
When there came down, “Those who believe and do not mix their faith with wrong,” it weighed heavily on the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and they said: “Which of us does not wrong himself?” He said: “It is not as you think. It is only what Luqmān said to his son: ‘My son, do not associate anything with Allah; association is a tremendous wrong.’”
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd: al-Bukhārī (4776) and Muslim (124).
Ṣaḥīḥ
Saʿd and his mother
Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ’s mother swore not to eat or drink until he abandoned his religion, saying that Allah had commanded him to obey his parents. These ayat came down: goodness to parents, and no obedience to them in associating others with Allah.
Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ: Muslim (1748).
Ṣaḥīḥ
إبراز الحكمة الموافقة للشرع، وتذكر لقمان مثلًا لذلك.
To bring out the wisdom that accords with the revealed law — with Luqmān given as its example.
The surah’s aim, as al-Mukhtaṣar fī al-Tafsīr states it
- Wisdom
- Idle talk that leads astray
- Tawḥīd
- Parents
- Luqmān’s counsel
- The words of Allah are inexhaustible
- The five keys of the unseen
Its aims, as Ibn ʿĀshūr sets them out
وابتدئ ذكر لقمان بالتنويه بأن آتاه الله الحكمة وأمره بشكر النعمة. وأطيل الكلام في وصايا لقمان وما اشتملت عليه: من التحذير من الإشراك، ومن الأمر ببر الوالدين، ومن مراقبة الله لأنه عليم بخفيات الأمور، وإقامة الصلاة، والأمر بالمعروف والنهي عن المنكر، والصبر، والتحذير من الكبر والعجب، والأمر بالاتسام بسمات المتواضعين في المشي والكلام.
وسلكت السورة أفانين ذات مناسبات لما تضمنته وصية لقمان لابنه، وأدمج في ذلك تذكير المشركين بدلائل وحدانية الله تعالى وبنعمه عليهم وكيف أعرضوا عن هديه
From its first ayah to its last
- 1–1111 ayat · 21% of the surahRead from ayah 1 →
The wise Book, and the idle tale
Alif Lām Mīm. These are the ayat of the wise Book: guidance and mercy for those who do good. Among people is one who buys idle talk to lead astray from the way of Allah; when Our ayat are recited to him he turns away in pride, as though he had not heard. He created the heavens without pillars that you see, and cast firm mountains into the earth. This is the creation of Allah: so show Me what those besides Him have created.
- 12–198 ayat · 27% of the surahRead from ayah 12 →
Luqmān’s counsel
We gave Luqmān wisdom: be grateful to Allah. “My son, do not associate anything with Allah.” — And We have enjoined on man concerning his parents: be grateful to Me and to your parents; but if they strive to make you associate with Me, do not obey them. — “My son, though it be the weight of a mustard seed, in a rock or in the heavens or in the earth, Allah will bring it forth. My son, establish the prayer, enjoin what is right, forbid what is wrong, and be patient over what befalls you. Do not turn your cheek from people in contempt, nor walk the earth exultantly. Be moderate in your pace and lower your voice.”
- 20–267 ayat · 21% of the surahRead from ayah 20 →
Favours seen and unseen
Do you not see that Allah has subjected to you what is in the heavens and the earth, and lavished on you His favours, outward and inward? Yet some dispute about Allah without knowledge. When told to follow what Allah has sent down they say, “We follow what we found our fathers upon.” Whoever submits his face to Allah, and does good, has grasped the firmest handhold.
- 27–326 ayat · 21% of the surahRead from ayah 27 →
The words of Allah
If all the trees on earth were pens, and the sea — with seven more seas to add to it — were ink, the words of Allah would not be exhausted. Your creation and your raising are but as a single soul. Do you not see the ships running on the sea by Allah’s favour? When waves cover them like canopies they call on Allah, sincere to Him in religion; and when He brings them safe to land, some of them are lukewarm.
- 33–342 ayat · 10% of the surahRead from ayah 33 →
The Day, and the five
O mankind, be mindful of your Lord, and fear a Day when no father can avail his son, nor a son his father. Let not the life of this world deceive you. With Allah is the knowledge of the Hour; He sends down the rain; He knows what is in the wombs. No soul knows what it will earn tomorrow, and no soul knows in what land it will die.
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 47% of its ayat, and the rhyme turns 10 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.
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
مَفَاتِيحُ الْغَيْبِ خَمْسٌ
“The keys of the unseen are five, which none knows but Allah.” Then he recited: “With Allah is the knowledge of the Hour; He sends down the rain; He knows what is in the wombs; no soul knows what it will earn tomorrow; and no soul knows in what land it will die.”The name it is known by
After the sage whose advice to his son it preserves. The majority of the early scholars held that he was a wise and righteous man, not a prophet; the Qurʾan says only that he was given wisdom.
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 الطبريJāmiʿ al-bayānMuḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī (d. 310 AH)
- 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
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.