Madinan, by the majority
Madinah, in the middle years, as the life of the new community was being ordered
It is Madinan in the saying of Ibn ʿAbbās, al-Ḥasan, Mujāhid, ʿIkrimah and the majority. Two partial exceptions are reported: from ʿAṭāʾ, that only its first ten ayat are Madinan; and from al-Kalbī, that all is Madinan except one ayah (58:7). Every subject it treats — a ruling on marriage, the conduct of gatherings round the Prophet ﷺ, the hypocrites and their allies — belongs to the community of Madinah.
وَهِيَ مَدَنِيَّةٌ في قَوْلِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ، والحَسَنِ، ومُجاهِدٍ، وعِكْرِمَةَ، والجُمْهُورِ. ورُوِيَ عَنْ عَطاءٍ أنَّهُ قالَ: العَشْرُ الأُوَلُ مِنها مَدَنِيٌّ، والباقِي مَكِّيٌّعَنْ عَائِشَةَ قَالَتْ: الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي وَسع سَمْعُهُ الْأَصْوَاتَ، لَقَدْ جَاءَتِ المجادلةُThe same, in other works
- al-BaghawīMaʿālim al-tanzīlAhl al-Sunnah in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Madinan.
سُورَةُ الْمُجَادَلَةِ مَدَنِيَّةٌ
- al-Suyūṭīal-Durr al-manthūrAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Ibn ʿAbbās: it came down in Madinah. Recorded by Ibn al-Ḍurays, al-Naḥḥās, Abū al-Shaykh, Ibn Mardawayh and al-Bayhaqī.
أخْرَجَ ابْنُ الضُّرَيْسِ، والنَّحّاسُ، وأبُو الشَّيْخِ في العَظَمَةِ، وابْنُ مَرْدُويَهْ، والبَيْهَقِيُّ، عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ قالَ: نَزَلَتْ سُورَةُ المُجادَلَةِ بِالمَدِينَةِ
A report he gathers; its chain is not graded here.
- al-ShawkānīFatḥ al-qadīr→
Madinan.
هِيَ مَدَنِيَّةٌ
- al-RāzīMafātīḥ al-ghaybAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Madinan.
وهِيَ عِشْرُونَ وآيَتانِ، مَدَنِيَّةٌ
- Abū al-SuʿūdIrshād al-ʿaql al-salīmMāturīdī in creedḤanafī in fiqh→
Madinan.
مَدَنِيَّةٌ وهي اثْنَتانِ وعِشْرُونَ آيَةً
Each line of English says what the Arabic beneath it says.
What was happening
Among the Arabs before Islam a man could say to his wife, “You are to me as the back of my mother.” It was called ẓihār. It did not free her to marry anyone else; it simply made her untouchable to him, for as long as he liked. It was a way of discarding a woman while keeping her.
Aws ibn al-Ṣāmit, an old man and quick to anger, said it to his wife Khawlah bint Thaʿlabah. She went to the Prophet ﷺ. He had received nothing from Allah on the matter and could give her no release. She would not accept that; she had children — if I leave them with him they will be lost, and if I keep them they will go hungry — and she turned from him and said: O Allah, I complain to You.
ʿĀʾishah was there. “Praise be to Allah,” she said afterwards, “whose hearing takes in all voices. The woman who pleaded came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and spoke to him while I was at the side of the room, and I could not hear what she was saying. And Allah sent down: ‘Allah has heard the words of her who pleads with you about her husband.’” The practice was abolished, with a heavy expiation on any man who used it.
The rest of the surah deals with other things that were corroding the young community from inside: whispered consultations meant to unsettle the believers, a mocking greeting used by some of the Jews of Madinah, crowding at the Prophet’s ﷺ gatherings, and hypocrites who had taken as friends a people under Allah’s anger. It ends by defining the believers as “the party of Allah” — and loyalty to Him as something that outranks father, son, brother and clan.
What came down about what
Khawlah bint Thaʿlabah
ʿĀʾishah said: “Blessed is He whose hearing encompasses everything. I could hear the words of Khawlah bint Thaʿlabah, though some of it was hidden from me, as she complained of her husband to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, saying: ‘Messenger of Allah, he has consumed my youth and I have borne him children, and now that I am old and can bear no more, he has pronounced ẓihār on me. O Allah, I complain to You.’ She did not leave before Jibrīl had come down with these ayat.”
She tells it herself, in the report of Abū Dāwūd: “My husband, Aws ibn al-Ṣāmit, pronounced ẓihār upon me, and I came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to complain to him. And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was arguing the matter with me, saying: ‘Be mindful of Allah; he is your cousin.’ I did not leave before the Qurʾan came down: ‘Allah has heard the words of her who disputes with you concerning her husband,’ as far as the expiation.”
“He said: ‘Let him free a slave.’ I said: He cannot. He said: ‘Then let him fast two months in succession.’ I said: Messenger of Allah, he is an old man; he has not the strength to fast. He said: ‘Then let him feed sixty of the poor.’ I said: He has nothing to give in charity. At that moment a basket of dates was brought to him, and I said: Messenger of Allah, I will help him with another basket. He said: ‘You have done well. Go and feed sixty of the poor with it on his behalf, and go back to your cousin.’”
ʿĀʾishah: al-Nasāʾī (3460) and Ibn Mājah (2063); ṣaḥīḥ according to al-Albānī. Al-Bukhārī cites it without a chain in his Ṣaḥīḥ. Her own account: Abū Dāwūd (2214); ḥasan according to al-Albānī.
Graded ṣaḥīḥ
عَنْ عائِشَةَ أنَّها قالَتْ: تَبارَكَ الَّذِي وسِعَ سَمْعُهُ الأصْواتَ، لَقَدْ جاءَتِ المُجادِلَةُ فَكَلَّمَتْ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ﷺ، وأنا في جانِبِ البَيْتِ أسْمَعُ كَلامَها، ويَخْفى عَلَيَّ بَعْضُهُThe twisted greeting
Some of the Jews came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, “al-sāmu ʿalaykum” — death be upon you — in place of the greeting of peace. ʿĀʾishah answered them sharply, and he said: “Gently, ʿĀʾishah; Allah loves gentleness in every matter.” The ayah speaks of those who “greet you with what Allah does not greet you with.”
ʿĀʾishah: al-Bukhārī (6024) and Muslim (2165).
Ṣaḥīḥ
إظهار علم الله الشامل وإحاطته البالغة، تربيةً لمراقبته، وتحذيرًا من مخالفته.
To make manifest Allah’s all-embracing knowledge and complete encompassing — to train people to be watchful of Him, and to warn against opposing Him.
The surah’s aim, as al-Mukhtaṣar fī al-Tafsīr states it
- Allah hears and knows
- The abolition of ẓihār
- Secret counsels
- The etiquette of gatherings
- Knowledge raises in rank
- Loyalty and the party of Allah
Its aims, as Ibn ʿĀshūr sets them out
الحكم في قضية مظاهرة أوس بن الصامت من زوجه خولة.
وإبطال ما كان في الجاهلية من تحريم المرأة إذا ظاهر منها زوجها وأن عملهم مخالف لما أراده الله وأنه من أوهامهم وزورهم التي كبتهم الله بإبطالها. وتخلص من ذلك إلى ضلالات المنافقين ومنها مناجاتهم بمرأى المؤمنين ليغيظوهم ويحزنوهم.
ومنها موالاتهم اليهود. وحلفهم على الكذب. وتخلل ذلك التعرض لآداب مجلس الرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم. وشرع التصدق قبل مناجاة الرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم.
From its first ayah to its last
- 1–44 ayat · 19% of the surahRead from ayah 1 →
The plea, and the ruling
Allah has heard the words of her who pleads with you about her husband and complains to Allah; Allah hears the two of you conversing. Those who pronounce ẓihār: their wives are not their mothers. Whoever does so and then goes back on it must free a slave before they touch; or, if he cannot, fast two months in succession; or, if he cannot, feed sixty poor people.
- 5–62 ayat · 7% of the surahRead from ayah 5 →
Those who oppose
Those who set themselves against Allah and His Messenger will be brought low, as those before them were. On the Day Allah raises them all, He will tell them what they did: He counted it, and they forgot it.
- 7–104 ayat · 26% of the surahRead from ayah 7 →
Secret counsels
There is no private talk of three but He is the fourth of them, nor of five but He is the sixth, nor fewer nor more but He is with them wherever they are. Have you not seen those who were forbidden secret counsels and return to them, and greet you with a greeting Allah does not greet you with? Believers, when you confer in private, let it be for goodness and piety. Secret counsel of the other kind is from Satan, to grieve the believers — and he cannot harm them at all, except by Allah’s leave.
- 11–133 ayat · 16% of the surahRead from ayah 11 →
In the gathering
When you are told to make room in the assemblies, make room; when you are told to rise, rise. Allah will raise those of you who believe, and those given knowledge, by degrees. And the charity that was asked before private audience with the Messenger was, in mercy, lifted from them.
- 14–196 ayat · 18% of the surahRead from ayah 14 →
The party of Satan
Have you seen those who take as allies a people with whom Allah is angry? They are neither of you nor of them, and they swear to a lie knowingly, using their oaths as a shield. Their wealth and their children will avail them nothing. Satan has mastered them and made them forget the remembrance of Allah. They are the party of Satan — and the party of Satan are the losers.
- 20–223 ayat · 14% of the surahRead from ayah 20 →
The party of Allah
Allah has written: “I will surely prevail, I and My messengers.” You will not find a people who believe in Allah and the Last Day loving those who oppose Allah and His Messenger, even if they were their fathers, their sons, their brothers or their kin. He has inscribed faith in their hearts and strengthened them with a spirit from Himself. Allah is pleased with them, and they with Him. They are the party of Allah — and the party of Allah are the successful.
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 68% of its ayat, and the rhyme turns 9 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
ʿĀʾishah said: “Praise be to Allah, whose hearing takes in all voices. Khawlah came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ complaining of her husband, and her words were hidden from me. Then Allah sent down: ‘Allah has heard the words of her who pleads with you about her husband.’”The name it is known by
After Khawlah bint Thaʿlabah, who argued her case with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. It is read both al-Mujādilah, the pleading woman, and al-Mujādalah, the pleading. It is also called Qad samiʿa, after 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.
Also drawn on
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim; the Sunan of al-Nasāʾī and Ibn Mājah
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.