Madinan, by the majority
Madinah, in the first years, when fighting had been permitted and the hypocrites had begun to show themselves
Most hold it Madinan — Ibn al-Jawzī names Mujāhid and Muqātil. It is related from Ibn ʿAbbās and Qatādah that one ayah (47:13) came down as the Prophet ﷺ left Makkah, looking back at the House; and al-Ḍaḥḥāk and al-Suddī held the surah Makkan. Its rulings on meeting the enemy, on captives and on the hypocrites are all Madinan matters.
وَفِيها قَوْلانِ. أحَدُهُما: [أنَّها] مَدَنِيَّةٌ، قالَهُ الأكْثَرُونَ، مِنهم مُجاهِدٌ، ومُقاتِلٌ. وحُكِيَ عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ وقَتادَةَ أنَّها مَدَنِيَّةٌ، إلّا آيَةً مِنهاسُورَةُ الْقِتَالِ، وَهِيَ سُورَةُ مُحَمَّدٍ ﷺ مَدَنِيَّةٌ فِي قَوْلِ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ، ذَكَرَهُ النَّحَّاسُThe same, in other works
- al-BaghawīMaʿālim al-tanzīlAhl al-Sunnah in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Madinan.
سُورَةُ مُحَمَّدٍ مَدَنِيَّةٌ
- al-Suyūṭīal-Durr al-manthūrAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Ibn ʿAbbās: it came down in Madinah. Recorded by Ibn al-Ḍurays.
أخْرَجَ ابْنُ الضُّرَيْسِ عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ قالَ: نَزَلَتْ سُورَةُ القِتالِ بِالمَدِينَةِ
A report he gathers; its chain is not graded here.
- al-ShawkānīFatḥ al-qadīr→
Madinan.
هِيَ تِسْعٌ وثَلاثُونَ آيَةً، وقِيلَ: ثَمانٌ وثَلاثُونَ، وهي مَدَنِيَّةٌ
- al-RāzīMafātīḥ al-ghaybAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Makkan.
ثَلاثُونَ وتِسْعُ آياتٍ مَكِّيَّةٍ
- Abū al-SuʿūdIrshād al-ʿaql al-salīmMāturīdī in creedḤanafī in fiqh→
Madinan; Makkan is also said.
سُورَةُ مُحَمَّدٍ ﷺ وتُسَمّى سُورَةَ القِتالِ وهى مَدَنِيَّةٌ وقِيلَ: مَكِّيَّةٌ وآياتُها ثَمانٍ وثَلاثُونَ
Each line of English says what the Arabic beneath it says.
What was happening
For thirteen years in Makkah the Muslims had been forbidden to answer violence with violence. After the Hijrah that changed: Quraysh had driven them out, seized their property, and now meant to finish them in their refuge. Permission to fight was given, and with it came a new test, because Madinah held people who had been glad to say the words of faith while they cost nothing.
The surah is built on a contrast that it states in its first three ayat and never lets go: the disbelievers, whose works Allah brings to nothing, and the believers, whose misdeeds He removes and whose condition He sets right — “because those who disbelieve follow falsehood, and those who believe follow the truth from their Lord.”
It gives the rule for the battlefield and for what follows it: when the fighting is over, captives are to be freed by grace or ransomed. It promises those killed in Allah’s way that their works will not be lost. And it describes Paradise in one of the most concrete ayat in the Qurʾan — rivers of water that never stales, of milk that never sours, of wine that is a delight to those who drink, and of honey made pure.
Then it turns to the hypocrites. The believers had been saying, “If only a surah were sent down” — and when a decisive one came that mentioned fighting, “you see those in whose hearts is a sickness looking at you with the look of one fainting at the approach of death.” The question it asks of them has been asked of every reader since: “Do they not ponder the Qurʾan, or are there locks upon their hearts?”
تحريض المؤمنين على القتال، تقويةً لهم وتوهينًا للكافرين.
To urge the believers on to fighting — strengthening them, and weakening the disbelievers.
The surah’s aim, as al-Mukhtaṣar fī al-Tafsīr states it
- Belief and disbelief, and what becomes of deeds
- Fighting and captives
- The description of Paradise
- The hypocrites
- Pondering the Qurʾan
- Spending and miserliness
Its aims, as Ibn ʿĀshūr sets them out
معظم ما في هذه السورة التحريض على قتال المشركين، وترغيب المسلمين في ثواب الجهاد. افتتحت بما يثير حنق المؤمنين على المشركين لأنهم كفروا بالله وصدوا عن سبيله، أي دينه.
وأعلم الله المؤمنين بأنه لا يسدد المشركين في أعمالهم وأنه مصلح المؤمنين فكان ذلك كفالة للمؤمنين بالنصر على أعدائهم. وانتقل من ذلك إلى الأمر بقتالهم وعدم الإبقاء عليهم. وفيها وعد المجاهدين بالجنة، وأمر المسلمين بمجاهدة الكفار وأن لا يدعوهم إلى السلم، وإنذار المشركين بأن يصيبهم ما أصاب الأمم المكذبين من قبلهم.
From its first ayah to its last
- 1–33 ayat · 8% of the surahRead from ayah 1 →
Two parties
Those who disbelieve and turn others from the way of Allah — He will bring their deeds to nothing. Those who believe and do right, and believe in what has been sent down upon Muḥammad, which is the truth from their Lord — He will remove their misdeeds and set their condition right.
- 4–118 ayat · 18% of the surahRead from ayah 4 →
When you meet them
When you meet those who disbelieve in battle, strike until you have subdued them, then bind them fast; and afterwards, either release by grace or ransom, until the war lays down its burdens. Those who are killed in the way of Allah, He will never let their deeds be lost: He will guide them and admit them to the Garden He has made known to them. O you who believe, if you help Allah, He will help you and make your feet firm.
- 12–154 ayat · 17% of the surahRead from ayah 12 →
The Garden, described
Those who disbelieve take their enjoyment and eat as cattle eat, and the Fire is their home. How many a town, mightier than your town which drove you out, We destroyed. The likeness of the Garden promised to the mindful: in it are rivers of water unaltered, rivers of milk whose taste never changes, rivers of wine delicious to the drinkers, and rivers of honey purified; and for them there is every kind of fruit, and forgiveness from their Lord.
- 16–194 ayat · 11% of the surahRead from ayah 16 →
Those who listen and do not hear
Some of them listen to you, and when they leave you they say to those given knowledge, “What did he say just now?” Those who are guided, He increases in guidance. Are they waiting for anything but the Hour? Its signs have already come. So know that there is no god but Allah, and ask forgiveness for your sin and for the believing men and women (47:19).
- 20–3112 ayat · 26% of the surahRead from ayah 20 →
The sickness in the heart
The believers say, “If only a surah were sent down.” But when a decisive surah is sent down and fighting is mentioned in it, you see those with sickness in their hearts looking at you like one overcome by death. Would you, if you turned away, spread corruption in the land and sever your ties of kinship? Do they not ponder the Qurʾan, or are there locks upon their hearts? Those who turned back after guidance was clear to them — Satan enticed them. How will it be when the angels take their souls, striking their faces and their backs? We shall surely test you, until We make known those of you who strive and are patient.
- 32–387 ayat · 20% of the surahRead from ayah 32 →
Do not weaken
O you who believe, obey Allah and obey the Messenger, and do not make your deeds void. So do not weaken and call for peace while you have the upper hand; Allah is with you. The life of this world is only play and diversion. Here you are, called to spend in the way of Allah, and some of you are miserly — and whoever is miserly is so only against himself. Allah is the Rich, and you are the poor. If you turn away, He will replace you with another people, and they will not be like you.
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 95% of its ayat, and the rhyme turns 4 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
No authenticated report specific to this surah is recorded here.
The names it is known by
After his name in its second ayah — one of only four places in the Qurʾan where he is named.
The name al-Qurṭubī and Ibn Kathīr both head it with, after its subject and its twentieth ayah. It is also called Alladhīna kafarū, from its opening words.
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 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.
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.