Makkan, by agreement
The middle years in Makkah
It is Makkan in the saying of all: Ibn al-Jawzī and al-Qurṭubī both record the agreement. The traditional order places it fifty-sixth.
سُورَةُ الصّافّاتِ وَهِيَ مَكِّيَّةٌ كُلُّها بِإجْماعِهِمْأحَدُهُما: أنَّها المَلائِكَةُ، قالَهُ ابْنُ مَسْعُودٍ، وابْنُ عَبّاسٍ، وسَعِيدُ بْنُ جُبَيْرٍ، وعِكْرِمَةُ، ومُجاهِدٌ، وقَتادَةُ، والجُمْهُورُThe same, in other works
- al-BaghawīMaʿālim al-tanzīlAhl al-Sunnah in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Makkan.
سُورَةُ الصَّافَّاتِ مَكِّيَّةٌ
- al-Suyūṭīal-Durr al-manthūrAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Ibn ʿAbbās: it came down in Makkah. Recorded by Ibn al-Ḍurays, al-Naḥḥās, Ibn Mardawayh and al-Bayhaqī.
أخْرَجَ ابْنُ الضُّرَيْسِ والنَّحّاسُ، وابْنُ مَرْدُويَهْ والبَيْهَقِيُّ في الدَّلائِلِ عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ قالَ: نَزَلَتْ سُورَةُ الصّافّاتِ بِمَكَّةَ
A report he gathers; its chain is not graded here.
- al-ShawkānīFatḥ al-qadīr→
Makkan.
تَفْسِيرُ سُورَةِ الصّافّاتِ وهِيَ مَكِّيَّةٌ
- Abū al-SuʿūdIrshād al-ʿaql al-salīmMāturīdī in creedḤanafī in fiqh→
Makkan.
سُورَةُ الصّافّاتِ مَكِّيَّةٌ، وآياتُها مِائَةٌ واثْنَتانِ وثَمانُونَ آيَةً
Each line of English says what the Arabic beneath it says.
What was happening
The Arabs of Makkah had filled the unseen world with relations of Allah. The angels, they said, were His daughters. The jinn were His kin. The soothsayers’ jinn listened at the gates of heaven and brought down its secrets. This surah takes that picture apart piece by piece.
It begins with the angels as they are: ranged in ranks, driving, reciting — servants in formation, swearing that “your God is One.” The lowest heaven is adorned with stars and guarded against every rebellious devil; whoever tries to snatch a word is pursued by a piercing flame. Near the end the angels speak for themselves: “There is none of us but has a known station. We are those ranged in ranks, and we are those who glorify.” The Prophet ﷺ pointed his Companions to that picture when he taught them how to stand in prayer.
The centre of the surah is a gallery of messengers, each told in a few ayat and each closing on the same blessing — “Peace upon Nūḥ among the worlds… Peace upon Ibrāhīm… Peace upon Mūsā and Hārūn… Peace upon Ilyās.” The longest is Ibrāhīm’s: the idols broken, the fire, the migration, and then the dream. “My son, I see in my sleep that I am sacrificing you; so look, what do you think?” — “Father, do what you are commanded. You will find me, if Allah wills, among the patient.” When both had submitted, and he had laid him on his forehead, the call came: you have fulfilled the vision. And a great sacrifice was given in ransom.
The Qurʾan does not name the son here. Ibn Kathīr argues that the passage itself shows he was Ismāʿīl — the good news of Isḥāq comes only afterwards, as a further gift — and says that the other view, that it was Isḥāq, is found in neither Book nor Sunnah and was most likely taken from the scholars of the People of the Book.
Yūnus comes last: the laden ship, the lot, the fish. “Had he not been one of those who glorify, he would have remained in its belly until the Day they are raised.”
What came down about what
Which son
Ibn Kathīr notes that a group of the scholars held the son to be Isḥāq, and that this is even reported from some of the Companions. “That is in neither Book nor Sunnah,” he writes, “and I think it was only taken from the rabbis of the People of the Book, and accepted without proof. Here is the Book of Allah, a witness and a guide to its being Ismāʿīl”: it tells of the forbearing son and the sacrifice, and only then says, “and We gave him good news of Isḥāq.”
Ibn Kathīr, on these ayat.
Related, not gradedRelated by the commentators without a graded chain; not established as authentic.
وَقَدْ ذَهَبَ جَمَاعَةٌ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْعِلْمِ إِلَى أَنَّ الذَّبِيحَ هُوَ إِسْحَاقُ، وَحُكِيَ ذَلِكَ عَنْ طَائِفَةٍ مِنَ السَّلَفِ، حَتَّى نُقِلَ عَنْ بَعْضِ الصَّحَابَةِ أَيْضًا، وَلَيْسَ ذَلِكَ فِي كِتَابٍ وَلَا سُنَّةٍ، وَمَا أَظُنُّ ذَلِكَ تُلقى إِلَّا عَنْ أَحْبَارِ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ، وَأُخِذَ ذَلِكَ مُسَلَّمًا مِنْ غَيْرِ حُجَّةٍ. وَهَذَا كِتَابُ اللَّهِ شَاهِدٌ وَمُرْشِدٌ إِلَى أَنَّهُ إِسْمَاعِيلُتنزيه الله عما نسبه إليه المشركون، وإبطال مزاعمهم في الملائكة والجن.
To declare Allah far above what the idolaters ascribed to Him, and to demolish their claims about the angels and the jinn.
The surah’s aim, as al-Mukhtaṣar fī al-Tafsīr states it
- The oneness of Allah
- The angels as servants
- The guarded heaven
- The people of the Garden and the Fire
- Ibrāhīm and the sacrifice
- Yūnus
- The victory of the messengers
Its aims, as Ibn ʿĀshūr sets them out
إثبات وحدانية الله تعالى، وسوق دلائل كثيرة على ذلك دلت على انفراده بصنع المخلوقات العظيمة التي لا قبل لغيره بصنعها وهي العوالم السماوية بأجزائها وسكانها ولا قبل لمن على الأرض أن يتطرق في ذلك. وإثبات أن البعث يعقبه الحشر والجزاء.
ووصف حال المشركين يوم الجزاء ووقوع بعضهم في بعض. ووصف حسن أحوال المؤمنين ونعيمهم. ومذاكرتهم فيما كان يجري بينهم وبين بعض المشركين من أصحابهم في الجاهلية ومحاولتهم صرفهم عن الإسلام.
From its first ayah to its last
- 1–1010 ayat · 5% of the surahRead from ayah 1 →
The oath
By those ranged in ranks, those who drive with force, those who recite the Reminder: your God is One — Lord of the heavens and the earth, and Lord of the risings. We have adorned the nearest heaven with the stars, and guarded it against every rebellious devil; they cannot listen to the highest assembly, and are pelted from every side.
- 11–3929 ayat · 19% of the surahRead from ayah 11 →
The Day of Decision
Ask them: are they harder to create, or those others We created? When reminded, they do not remember; they say, “When we are dust and bones, shall we be raised?” It will be a single cry. “Gather the wrongdoers and their kind, and what they used to worship… and stop them: they are to be questioned.” They turn on one another, followers and leaders. They were the ones who, when told “There is no god but Allah,” grew proud and said: “Shall we give up our gods for a mad poet?”
- 40–7435 ayat · 19% of the surahRead from ayah 40 →
The chosen servants, and the tree of Zaqqūm
But the chosen servants of Allah have a known provision: fruits, and honour, in gardens of delight, on thrones, with a cup from a flowing spring. One of them says: “I had a companion who used to say, ‘Are you really one of those who believe that when we are dust we shall be judged?’” He looks, and sees him in the midst of Hell: “By Allah, you nearly ruined me.” For the like of this let the workers work. Is that the better welcome, or the tree of Zaqqūm, which grows in the root of Hell, its fruit like the heads of devils?
- 75–11339 ayat · 23% of the surahRead from ayah 75 →
Nūḥ, and Ibrāhīm
Nūḥ called upon Us — and how excellent are those who answer. And of his kind was Ibrāhīm, who came to his Lord with a sound heart. He broke the idols; they built a fire for him; he said, “I am going to my Lord; He will guide me.” We gave him good news of a forbearing son. When the boy was old enough to work beside him: “My son, I see in a dream that I am sacrificing you.” — “Father, do as you are commanded.” When they had both submitted, We called to him: “You have fulfilled the vision.” We ransomed him with a great sacrifice — and gave him good news of Isḥāq, a prophet among the righteous.
- 114–14835 ayat · 17% of the surahRead from ayah 114 →
Mūsā and Hārūn, Ilyās, Lūṭ, Yūnus
We favoured Mūsā and Hārūn and saved them and their people. Ilyās said to his people, “Do you call on Baʿl and leave the best of creators?” We saved Lūṭ and his family. And Yūnus: he fled to the laden ship, drew lots and lost, and the fish swallowed him. Had he not been of those who glorify, he would have stayed in its belly till the Day of Resurrection. We cast him on the bare shore, sick, and grew a gourd-plant over him, and sent him to a hundred thousand or more; they believed.
- 149–17022 ayat · 11% of the surahRead from ayah 149 →
Daughters? Kin?
So ask them: does your Lord have daughters while they have sons? Did We create the angels female while they watched? They have made a kinship between Him and the jinn. Glory be to Allah above what they describe. “There is none of us but has a known station. We are those ranged in ranks, and we are those who glorify.”
- 171–18212 ayat · 5% of the surahRead from ayah 171 →
The word already given
Our word has already gone forth to Our servants the messengers: it is they who will be helped, and it is Our host that will prevail. So turn from them for a while. Glory to your Lord, the Lord of might, above what they describe; and peace upon the messengers; and praise to Allah, Lord of the worlds.
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 94% of its ayat, and the rhyme turns 6 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
أَلاَ تَصُفُّونَ كَمَا تَصُفُّ الْمَلاَئِكَةُ عِنْدَ رَبِّهَا
“Will you not form your rows as the angels form their rows before their Lord?” We said: “Messenger of Allah, how do the angels form their rows before their Lord?” He said: “They complete the first rows, and stand close together in the row.”“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to tell us to keep the prayer light, and he would lead us with al-Ṣāffāt.”The name it is known by
After the oath it opens with. They are the angels, in the saying of Ibn Masʿūd, Ibn ʿAbbās, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, ʿIkrimah, Mujāhid, Qatādah and the majority: standing in rows in the heavens before their Lord.
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)
- 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 Muslim; Sunan al-Nasāʾī
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.