Makkan, by the majority
The later years in Makkah
It is Makkan in the saying of Ibn ʿAbbās, al-Ḥasan, ʿIkrimah, Mujāhid, Qatādah and the majority. It is related from Ibn ʿAbbās and Qatādah that four of its ayat, beginning with the twenty-third, came down in Madinah, and Muqātil named a few others. It is the third of the Ḥawāmīm; the traditional order places it sixty-second.
سُورَةُ حَم عسق واسْمُها سُورَةُ الشُّورى وَهِيَ مَكِّيَّةٌ، رَواهُ العَوْفِيُّ وغَيْرُهُ عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ، وبِهِ قالَ الحَسَنُ، وعِكْرِمَةُ، ومُجاهِدٌ، وقَتادَةُ، والجُمْهُورُسُورَةُ الشُّورَى مَكِّيَّةٌ فِي قَوْلِ الْحَسَنِ وَعِكْرِمَةَ وَعَطَاءٍ وَجَابِرٍ. وَقَالَ ابْنُ عَبَّاسٍ وَقَتَادَةُ: إِلَّا أَرْبَعَ آيَاتٍ مِنْهَا أُنْزِلَتْ بِالْمَدِينَةِThe same, in other works
- al-BaghawīMaʿālim al-tanzīlAhl al-Sunnah in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Makkan.
سُورَةُ الشُّورَى مَكِّيَّةٌ
- al-Suyūṭīal-Durr al-manthūrAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Ibn ʿAbbās: it came down in Makkah. Recorded by Ibn Mardawayh.
أخْرَجَ ابْنُ مَرْدُويَهْ عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ قالَ: نَزَلَتْ ﴿حم﴾ ﴿عسق﴾ بِمَكَّةَ
A report he gathers; its chain is not graded here.
- al-ShawkānīFatḥ al-qadīr→
It is related from Ibn ʿAbbās and Qatādah that it is Makkan, except four ayat that came down in Madinah.
ورُوِيَ عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ، وقَتادَةَ أنَّها مَكِّيَّةٌ إلّا أرْبَعَ آياتٍ مِنها أُنْزِلَتْ بِالمَدِينَةِ
- al-RāzīMafātīḥ al-ghaybAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Makkan.
خَمْسُونَ وثَلاثُ آياتٍ، مَكِّيَّةٌ
Each line of English says what the Arabic beneath it says.
What was happening
Quraysh treated what Muḥammad ﷺ brought as an innovation — a new religion with which he had broken from his fathers. This surah’s reply is that it is the oldest thing there is. “Thus does He reveal to you, and to those before you.” And then: “He has ordained for you of religion what He enjoined on Nūḥ, and what We have revealed to you, and what We enjoined on Ibrāhīm, Mūsā and ʿĪsā: establish the religion, and do not be divided in it.” Those are the five messengers of firm resolve, and their message is one.
If so, why are there so many religions? The surah answers that too: “They did not divide until after knowledge had come to them, out of rivalry among themselves.” And it gives the Prophet ﷺ his stance in the face of that division, in an ayah that the scholars note holds ten separate instructions: so to this, call; stand firm as you are commanded; do not follow their desires; and say, “I believe in whatever Book Allah has sent down, and I am commanded to do justice among you.”
Its twenty-third ayah was misread early, and Ibn ʿAbbās corrected it. “Say: I ask of you no reward for it, except affection through kinship.” Saʿīd ibn Jubayr said it meant the kin of Muḥammad ﷺ. Ibn ʿAbbās said: you have been hasty. There was no clan of Quraysh in which the Prophet ﷺ did not have kinship — and what he said to them was: I ask nothing of you, only that you respect the ties of kinship between me and you.
In its second half the surah turns from the message to those who accept it, and describes them in a list that became a charter: they rely on their Lord; they avoid the great sins; when they are angry, they forgive; they answer their Lord and keep up the prayer; their affair is decided by consultation among them; they spend of what they have been given; and when they are wronged, they defend themselves — though whoever pardons and makes peace, his reward is with Allah.
What came down about what
“Affection through kinship”
Ibn ʿAbbās was asked about “except affection through kinship”. Saʿīd ibn Jubayr said: “The kin of the family of Muḥammad ﷺ.” Ibn ʿAbbās said: “You have been hasty. There was no branch of Quraysh in which the Prophet ﷺ did not have kinship. He said: only that you keep the tie of kinship that is between me and you.”
Ibn ʿAbbās: al-Bukhārī (4818).
Ṣaḥīḥ
بيان حقيقة الوحي والرسالة المحمدية، وأنها امتداد للوحي إلى الأنبياء.
To set out the reality of revelation and of the message of Muḥammad ﷺ — that it continues the revelation given to the prophets.
The surah’s aim, as al-Mukhtaṣar fī al-Tafsīr states it
- Revelation
- “There is nothing like Him”
- The one religion of the messengers
- Division after knowledge
- The qualities of the believers
- Consultation
- How Allah speaks to a human being
Its aims, as Ibn ʿĀshūr sets them out
أول أغراضها الإشارة إلى تحدي الطاعنين في أن القرآن وحي من الله بأن يأتوا بكلام مثله، فهذا التحدي لا تخلو عنه السور المفتتحة بالحروف الهجائية المقطعة، كما تقدم في سورة البقرة. واستدل الله على المعاندين بأن الوحي إلى محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم ما هو إلا كالوحي إلى الرسل من قبله لينذر أهل مكة ومن حولها بيوم الحساب.
From its first ayah to its last
- 1–99 ayat · 13% of the surahRead from ayah 1 →
Thus He reveals
Ḥā Mīm. ʿAyn Sīn Qāf. Thus does Allah, the Almighty, the Wise, reveal to you and to those before you. The heavens almost break apart from above them, and the angels glorify their Lord with praise and ask forgiveness for those on earth. We have revealed to you an Arabic Qurʾan, that you may warn the Mother of Towns and those around it, and warn of the Day of Gathering.
- 10–123 ayat · 5% of the surahRead from ayah 10 →
There is nothing like Him
Whatever you differ over, its judgement is with Allah. The Originator of the heavens and the earth: He made for you mates from yourselves. There is nothing like Him, and He is the Hearing, the Seeing (42:11). His are the keys of the heavens and the earth.
- 13–197 ayat · 19% of the surahRead from ayah 13 →
The same religion
He has ordained for you of religion what He enjoined on Nūḥ, and what We have revealed to you, and what We enjoined on Ibrāhīm, Mūsā and ʿĪsā: establish the religion and do not divide in it. They divided only after knowledge had come to them. So to that, call; stand firm as you are commanded; and say: “I believe in whatever Book Allah has sent down.” It is Allah who sent down the Book with truth, and the Balance.
- 20–2910 ayat · 22% of the surahRead from ayah 20 →
The harvest of each
Whoever desires the harvest of the Hereafter, We increase his harvest; whoever desires the harvest of this world, We give him of it, and he has no share in the Hereafter. Or have they partners who have laid down for them a religion Allah did not permit? Say: I ask of you no reward for it, only affection through kinship. It is He who accepts repentance from His servants and pardons misdeeds. It is He who sends down the rain after they have despaired.
- 30–4314 ayat · 18% of the surahRead from ayah 30 →
The believers described
Whatever misfortune strikes you is for what your hands have earned — and He pardons much. What you have been given is the enjoyment of this life; what is with Allah is better and more lasting, for those who believe and rely on their Lord: who avoid the great sins, and forgive when they are angry; who answer their Lord and establish the prayer, whose affair is consultation among themselves, and who spend of what We have provided. The recompense of an ill deed is one like it; but whoever pardons and makes peace, his reward is with Allah. And whoever is patient and forgives — that is of the matters requiring resolve.
- 44–507 ayat · 16% of the surahRead from ayah 44 →
Before a Day that cannot be turned back
You will see the wrongdoers, when they see the punishment, saying: “Is there any way of return?” Answer your Lord before there comes from Allah a Day that cannot be averted. If they turn away, We have not sent you as their keeper; yours is only to convey. To Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth: He grants females to whom He wills and males to whom He wills, or both, and makes whom He wills barren.
- 51–533 ayat · 7% of the surahRead from ayah 51 →
How Allah speaks to a human being
It is not for any human being that Allah should speak to him except by revelation, or from behind a veil, or by sending a messenger to reveal by His leave what He wills. Thus We have revealed to you a spirit of Our command. You did not know what the Book was, nor faith; but We have made it a light by which We guide whom We will. And you guide to a straight path — the path of Allah.
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 38% of its ayat, and the rhyme turns 34 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.
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
No authenticated report specific to this surah is recorded here.
The names it is known by
From its thirty-eighth ayah, which describes the believers as those “whose affair is consultation among themselves”.
It is the only surah whose opening letters fall in two ayat. Ibn al-Jawzī heads it with them.
Its place in the muṣḥaf
Ayat you will hear named
- 42:11There is nothing like Him
- 42:13The religion enjoined on Nūḥ, Ibrāhīm, Mūsā and ʿĪsā
- 42:15So to that, call; and stand firm
- 42:23No reward but affection through kinship
- 42:30Whatever strikes you is for what your hands earned
- 42:38Their affair is consultation among themselves
- 42:51How Allah speaks to a human being
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
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.