Makkan, by agreement
Makkah — the first surah recited publicly at the Kaʿbah
Ibn al-Jawzī records agreement that it is Makkan, with one ayah (53:32) excepted in a report from Ibn ʿAbbās and Qatādah. He also relates Muqātil’s remark that this is the first surah the Messenger of Allah ﷺ proclaimed openly in Makkah — and Ibn Masʿūd, in al-Bukhārī, says it was the first surah to be sent down containing a prostration. The traditional order places it twenty-third.
سُورَةُ النَّجْمِ وَهِيَ مَكِّيَّةٌ بِإجْماعِهِمْ إلّا أنَّهُ قَدْ حُكِيَ عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ وقَتادَةَ أنَّهُما قالا: إلّا آيَةً مِنهاوهَذِهِ أوَّلُ سُورَةٍ أعْلَنَها رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ بِمَكَّةَThe same, in other works
- al-BaghawīMaʿālim al-tanzīlAhl al-Sunnah in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Makkan.
سُورَةُ النَّجْمِ 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 سُورَةُ النَّجْمِ بِمَكَّةَ
A report he gathers; its chain is not graded here.
- al-ShawkānīFatḥ al-qadīr→
Makkan, in the saying of the majority.
هي مَكِّيَّةٌ جَمِيعُها في قَوْلِ الجُمْهُورِ
- al-RāzīMafātīḥ al-ghaybAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Makkan.
سِتُّونَ وآيَتانِ مَكِّيَّةٌ
Each line of English says what the Arabic beneath it says.
What was happening
For some years the Qurʾan had been recited in houses and in the hills. Then, one day at the Kaʿbah, with the men of Quraysh sitting in their circles, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ stood and recited this surah to them from beginning to end.
It begins by vouching for him. “Your companion has not gone astray, nor has he erred, nor does he speak out of desire: it is nothing but a revelation revealed.” Then it tells them what he has seen. One mighty in power taught him — Jibrīl — who stood on the highest horizon in his true form, then drew near, to within two bows’ length or nearer. And he saw him a second time, on the night he was taken up, by the Lote-Tree of the Utmost Boundary, near which is the Garden of Refuge. ʿĀʾishah explained these ayat: it was Jibrīl; he saw him in the form in which he was created only these two times. Ibn Masʿūd said: he saw Jibrīl with six hundred wings.
Having said what he saw, the surah turns to what they worship. “Have you considered al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā, and Manāt, the third, the other?” — the three goddesses whose shrines stood within a few days’ ride of Makkah, and whom Quraysh called the daughters of Allah. “They are nothing but names that you have named, you and your fathers.”
Its last words are a command: “So prostrate to Allah, and worship.” Ibn Masʿūd says that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ prostrated, and everyone behind him prostrated — except one man, whom he saw take a handful of dust, raise it to his forehead and say, “This is enough for me.” “Afterwards I saw him killed as a disbeliever.” Ibn ʿAbbās adds that the Muslims and the idolaters, the jinn and the humans, all prostrated.
بيان صدق الوحي وعلو مصدره، إثباتًا لعقيدة التوحيد، وإبطالًا لعقيدة الشرك.
To establish the truthfulness of the revelation and the loftiness of its source — affirming the creed of tawḥīd, and overturning the creed of shirk.
The surah’s aim, as al-Mukhtaṣar fī al-Tafsīr states it
- The truth of revelation
- The vision of Jibrīl
- The Lote-Tree of the Utmost Boundary
- Al-Lāt, al-ʿUzzā and Manāt
- No soul bears another’s burden
- Prostration
Its aims, as Ibn ʿĀshūr sets them out
أول أغراضها: تحقيق أن الرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم صادق فيما يبلغه عن الله تعالى وأنه منزه عما ادعوه.
وإثبات أن القرآن وحي من عند الله بواسطة جبريل.
وتقريب صفة نزول جبريل بالوحي في حالين زيادة في تقرير أنه وحي من الله واقع لا محالة.
وإبطال إلهية أصنام المشركين.
وإبطال قولهم في اللات والعزى ومناة بنات الله وأنها أوهام لا حقائق لها وتنظير قولهم فيها بقولهم في الملائكة أنهم إناث.
From its first ayah to its last
- 1–1818 ayat · 21% of the surahRead from ayah 1 →
What he saw
By the star when it sets: your companion has not strayed, nor does he speak from desire; it is only revelation revealed, taught him by one mighty in power. He stood on the highest horizon, then drew near, two bows’ length or nearer. The heart did not belie what it saw. And he saw him at another descent, by the Lote-Tree of the Utmost Boundary, near the Garden of Refuge. The sight did not swerve, nor did it overstep. He saw some of the greatest signs of his Lord.
- 19–257 ayat · 13% of the surahRead from ayah 19 →
The three goddesses
Have you considered al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā, and Manāt, the third, the other? Are yours the males, and His the females? That would be an unjust division. They are only names that you and your fathers have named; Allah has sent down no authority for them. They follow nothing but conjecture and what their souls desire.
- 26–327 ayat · 33% of the surahRead from ayah 26 →
Intercession, and His knowledge of you
How many an angel there is in the heavens whose intercession avails nothing, except after Allah gives leave to whom He wills. So turn from the one who turns from Our remembrance and wants only the life of this world. Those who avoid the great sins and indecencies, apart from small faults — your Lord is vast in forgiveness. He knew you when He produced you from the earth and when you were hidden in your mothers’ wombs: so do not claim purity for yourselves.
- 33–419 ayat · 11% of the surahRead from ayah 33 →
What is in the scriptures of Mūsā and Ibrāhīm
Have you seen the one who turned away, gave a little and then stopped? Has he not been told what is in the scrolls of Mūsā, and of Ibrāhīm who fulfilled his charge: that no bearer of burdens bears the burden of another; that man has only what he strives for; that his striving will be seen; and then he will be repaid for it in full?
- 42–5514 ayat · 16% of the surahRead from ayah 42 →
To your Lord is the end
To your Lord is the final end. It is He who makes to laugh and to weep, who gives death and life, who created the pair, male and female; upon Him is the second creation; He enriches and contents; He is the Lord of Sirius. He destroyed the first ʿĀd, and Thamūd, and the people of Nūḥ before, and overthrew the ruined cities. Then which of your Lord’s favours will you doubt?
- 56–627 ayat · 7% of the surahRead from ayah 56 →
The Approaching draws near
This is a warner, of the warners of old. The Approaching has drawn near; none besides Allah can unveil it. Do you then wonder at this discourse, and laugh and not weep, lost in your amusements? So prostrate to Allah, and worship.
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 90% of its ayat, and the rhyme turns 3 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
“The first surah to be sent down in which there is a prostration was al-Najm. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ prostrated, and those behind him prostrated — except a man whom I saw take a handful of dust and prostrate on it. Afterwards I saw him killed as a disbeliever: he was Umayyah ibn Khalaf.”“The Prophet ﷺ prostrated at al-Najm, and with him prostrated the Muslims and the idolaters, the jinn and mankind.”On “two bows’ length or nearer; and He revealed to His servant what He revealed”: Ibn Masʿūd said that he ﷺ saw Jibrīl, who had six hundred wings.The name it is known by
After the oath it opens with: by the star when it sets. Ibn Masʿūd refers to it as Wa-l-najm (al-Bukhārī 4863).
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)
- 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.