Makkan, by the majority
The later years in Makkah
Mujāhid relates from Ibn ʿAbbās that it is among what came down in Makkah, and that is the saying of al-Ḥasan, Qatādah and Jābir ibn Zayd; al-Qurṭubī calls it the saying of the greater number. Reports from Ibn ʿAbbās except between two and six ayat as Madinan, among them “They did not esteem Allah as He deserves” (6:91) and the three ayat of the commandments (6:151–153). The traditional order places it fifty-fifth.
رَوى مُجاهِدٌ عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ: أنَّ ( الأنْعامَ ) مِمّا نَزَلَ بِمَكَّةَ. وهَذا قَوْلُ الحَسَنِ، وقَتادَةَ، وجابِرِ بْنِ زَيْدٍسُورَةُ الْأَنْعَامِ وَهِيَ مَكِّيَّةٌ فِي قَوْلِ الْأَكْثَرِينَThe same, in other works
- al-BaghawīMaʿālim al-tanzīlAhl al-Sunnah in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Makkan.
سُورَةُ الْأَنْعَامِ مَكِّيَّةٌ، وَهِيَ مِائَةٌ وَخَمْسٌ وَسِتُّونَ آيَةً
- al-Suyūṭīal-Durr al-manthūrAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Ibn ʿAbbās: it came down in Makkah. Recorded by Ibn al-Ḍurays, Abū al-Shaykh, Ibn Mardawayh and al-Bayhaqī.
أخْرَجَ ابْنُ الضُّرَيْسِ وأبُو الشَّيْخِ، وابْنُ مَرْدَوَيْهِ والبَيْهَقِيُّ في الدَّلائِلِ عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ قالَ: أُنْزِلَتْ سُورَةُ الأنْعامِ بِمَكَّةَ
A report he gathers; its chain is not graded here.
- al-ShawkānīFatḥ al-qadīr→
Citing al-Thaʿlabī: Makkan, except six ayat that came down in Madinah.
قالَ الثَّعْلَبِيُّ: سُورَةُ الأنْعامِ مَكِّيَّةٌ إلّا سِتَّ آياتٍ نَزَلَتْ بِالمَدِينَةِ
- Abū al-SuʿūdIrshād al-ʿaql al-salīmMāturīdī in creedḤanafī in fiqh→
Makkan.
مَكِّيَّةٌ غَيْرُ سِتِّ آياتٍ أوْ ثَلاثٍ، مِن قَوْلِهِ تَعالى: ﴿قُلْ تَعالَوْا أتْلُ﴾، وهي مِائَةٌ وخَمْسٌ وسِتُّونَ آيَةً
Each line of English says what the Arabic beneath it says.
What was happening
By the later years in Makkah the argument had hardened. Quraysh no longer asked what the message was; they asked for a spectacle to prove it — an angel sent down, a book on parchment they could touch — and meanwhile held to a religion in which Allah was acknowledged as Creator and then given partners in everything that mattered. This surah meets that position head on, and it has two ways of speaking that it alternates from start to finish.
The first is to describe. “He it is who created you from clay.” “With Him are the keys of the unseen; none knows them but He. He knows what is on the land and in the sea; not a leaf falls but He knows it.” “He it is who takes your souls by night.” “Allah is the splitter of the grain and the date-stone.” “Vision does not encompass Him, but He encompasses all vision.” The second is to dictate. “Say: to whom belongs what is in the heavens and the earth? Say: to Allah.” “Say: shall I take as protector other than Allah, the Originator of the heavens and the earth, who feeds and is not fed?” “Say: what thing is greatest in testimony? Say: Allah.”
At its centre it tells how Ibrāhīm reasoned with his people. Night fell and he saw a star: “This is my lord.” It set: “I do not love things that set.” Then the moon, then the sun, and each went down. “My people, I am free of what you associate. I have turned my face to Him who originated the heavens and the earth.” Eighteen prophets are then named in four ayat, and the Prophet ﷺ is told: “Those are the ones whom Allah guided; so follow their guidance.”
The human cost of the argument is here too. The chiefs of Quraysh told him to send away the poor men who sat around him, so that such people should not grow bold with them. Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, who was one of them, says there were six that day — himself, Ibn Masʿūd, Bilāl, a man of Hudhayl and two others — and that the ayah came down: “Do not drive away those who call upon their Lord morning and evening, seeking His Face.”
Only near the end does it come to the cattle: this animal’s back forbidden, that one’s milk reserved for men, a share of the crop for the idols — and, in the same breath, the killing of children. Ibn ʿAbbās said: if you would like to know how ignorant the Arabs were, read what comes after the hundred and thirtieth ayah of al-Anʿām. Against that invented law the surah sets Allah’s own, in three ayat that begin: “Say: come, I will recite what your Lord has forbidden you.”
What came down about what
“Do not drive them away”
Saʿd said: “We were six men with the Prophet ﷺ, and the idolaters said to him: ‘Drive these away, so that they do not grow bold with us.’ There were myself, Ibn Masʿūd, a man of Hudhayl, Bilāl, and two men I shall not name. There came into the mind of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ what Allah willed should come, and he thought it over. Then Allah sent down: ‘Do not drive away those who call upon their Lord morning and evening, seeking His Face.’”
Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ: Muslim (2413).
Ṣaḥīḥ
“Which of us has not wronged himself?”
When “Those who believe and do not mix their faith with wrong” came down, it weighed on the Companions, and they said: “Which of us has not wronged himself?” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “It is not as you think. It is only as Luqmān said to his son: ‘My son, do not associate partners with Allah; association is a tremendous wrong.’”
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd: al-Bukhārī (4629) and Muslim (124).
Ṣaḥīḥ
“What Allah kills, you will not eat?”
Some people came to the Prophet ﷺ and said: “Messenger of Allah, are we to eat what we kill, and not eat what Allah kills?” Then Allah sent down: “So eat of that over which the name of Allah has been mentioned, if you believe in His ayat,” to His saying: “if you were to obey them, you would be idolaters.”
Ibn ʿAbbās: al-Tirmidhī (3069); ṣaḥīḥ according to al-Albānī.
Graded ṣaḥīḥ
تقرير عقيدة التوحيد بالبراهين العقلية ونقض الاعتقادات الشركية.
To establish the creed of tawḥīd by rational proofs, and to demolish the beliefs of idolatry.
The surah’s aim, as al-Mukhtaṣar fī al-Tafsīr states it
- Praise to the Creator
- The keys of the unseen
- Ibrāhīm’s argument from the setting stars
- Eighteen prophets, one guidance
- The poor believers
- The signs in grain, rain and night
- The invented taboos on cattle
- The ten commandments
- “My prayer and my sacrifice”
Its aims, as Ibn ʿĀshūr sets them out
ابتدأت بإشعار الناس بأن حق الحمد ليس إلا لله لأنه مبدع العوالم جواهر وأعراضا فعلم أنه المتفرد بالإلهية. وإبطال تأثير الشركاء من الأصنام والجن بإثبات أنه المتفرد بخلق العالم جواهره وأعراضه، وخلق الإنسان ونظام حياته وموته بحكمته تعالى وعلمه، ولا تملك آلهتهم تصرفا ولا علما. وتنزيه الله عن الولد والصاحبة. قال أبو إسحاق الإسفرائيني في سورة الأنعام كل قواعد التوحيد.
From its first ayah to its last
- 1–1111 ayat · 5% of the surahRead from ayah 1 →
Praise, and those who turn away
Praise be to Allah, who created the heavens and the earth and made the darknesses and the light; yet those who disbelieve set up equals to their Lord. He it is who created you from clay, then decreed a term. No sign comes to them of the signs of their Lord but they turn from it. They say, “Why has no angel been sent down to him?” Had We sent down to you a book on parchment and they touched it with their hands, they would have said, “This is plain magic.” Say: travel in the land and see how the deniers ended.
- 12–3221 ayat · 11% of the surahRead from ayah 12 →
To whom does it all belong?
Say: to whom belongs what is in the heavens and the earth? Say: to Allah; He has prescribed mercy upon Himself. Say: shall I take a protector other than Allah, who feeds and is not fed? If Allah touches you with harm, none can remove it but He. Say: what thing is greatest in testimony? Say: Allah. If you could see when they are stood before the Fire and say, “Would that we were sent back.” The life of this world is nothing but play and diversion.
- 33–5826 ayat · 15% of the surahRead from ayah 33 →
We know it grieves you
We know that what they say grieves you; yet it is not you they deny — it is the ayat of Allah the wrongdoers reject. There is no creature on the earth, nor bird flying on its wings, but they are communities like you. Say: tell me, if Allah’s punishment came to you, would you call on other than Allah? Do not drive away those who call upon their Lord morning and evening. When those who believe in Our ayat come to you, say: “Peace be upon you; your Lord has prescribed mercy upon Himself.”
- 59–7315 ayat · 10% of the surahRead from ayah 59 →
The keys of the unseen
With Him are the keys of the unseen; none knows them but He. Not a leaf falls but He knows it, nor a grain in the darknesses of the earth. He it is who takes your souls by night, and knows what you earned by day. Say: who rescues you from the darknesses of land and sea? Say: He is able to send punishment upon you from above you or from beneath your feet. Leave those who take their religion as play. The Day He says “Be,” and it is.
- 74–9017 ayat · 8% of the surahRead from ayah 74 →
Ibrāhīm, and the guided
Thus We showed Ibrāhīm the kingdom of the heavens and the earth. When night covered him he saw a star: “This is my lord.” When it set, he said: “I do not love things that set.” Then the moon; then the sun. “I have turned my face to Him who originated the heavens and the earth.” Those who believe and do not mix their faith with wrong — theirs is security. We gave him Isḥāq and Yaʿqūb; and Nūḥ before; and of his descendants Dāwūd, Sulaymān, Ayyūb, Yūsuf, Mūsā and Hārūn… Those are the ones whom Allah guided; so follow their guidance.
- 91–11020 ayat · 14% of the surahRead from ayah 91 →
Signs for those who look
They did not esteem Allah as He deserves when they said, “Allah has sent down nothing to any human being.” This is a blessed Book We have sent down. Allah is the splitter of the grain and the date-stone; He brings the living from the dead. He made the stars for you to be guided by. He sends down water, and brings out green shoots, clustered grain, palms, vines, olives and pomegranates. Originator of the heavens and the earth — how could He have a son? Vision does not encompass Him, but He encompasses all vision (6:103). Do not revile those they call upon besides Allah.
- 111–13525 ayat · 14% of the surahRead from ayah 111 →
Guidance is His
Even if We sent down the angels to them, and the dead spoke to them, they would not believe unless Allah willed. For every prophet We made an enemy. Shall I seek a judge other than Allah? If you obey most of those on earth, they will lead you astray. Eat of that over which the name of Allah has been mentioned. Is one who was dead, and We gave him life and made for him a light to walk by among people, like one in darknesses? Whomever Allah wills to guide, He opens his chest to Islam.
- 136–15015 ayat · 12% of the surahRead from ayah 136 →
The cattle, and the invented law
They assign to Allah a share of the crops and cattle He created, and say, “This is for Allah” — so they claim — “and this for our partners.” Their partners made the killing of their children seem fair to many idolaters. They say, “These cattle and crops are forbidden.” Lost are those who killed their children in folly. Eight pairs: has He forbidden the two males, or the two females? Say: I find nothing forbidden in what is revealed to me, except carrion, blood poured out, and the flesh of swine. They will say: “Had Allah willed, we would not have associated.” Say: Allah’s is the conclusive argument.
- 151–16515 ayat · 11% of the surahRead from ayah 151 →
The commandments, and the close
Say: come, I will recite what your Lord has forbidden you: that you associate nothing with Him; be good to parents; do not kill your children from poverty; do not approach indecencies; do not kill the soul Allah has forbidden; do not approach the orphan’s property; give full measure; when you speak, be just; fulfil the covenant of Allah. This is My path, straight; so follow it. Whoever brings a good deed will have ten like it. Say: my prayer and my sacrifice, my living and my dying are for Allah, Lord of the worlds (6:162). No soul bears the burden of another.
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 12 times. One of those turns comes 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
مَفَاتِحُ الْغَيْبِ خَمْسٌ
“The keys of the unseen are five: ‘With Allah is the knowledge of the Hour; He sends down the rain; He knows what is in the wombs; no soul knows what it will earn tomorrow; and no soul knows in what land it will die.’”When this ayah came down — “Say: He is able to send punishment upon you from above you” — the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “I seek refuge in Your Face.” “Or from beneath your feet” — he said: “I seek refuge in Your Face.” “Or to confound you in factions and make some of you taste the violence of others” — he said: “This is lighter,” or “This is easier.”“The Hour will not come until the sun rises from its place of setting. When it rises and the people see it, they will all believe — and that is when ‘no soul will benefit from its faith, if it had not believed before.’”Ibn ʿAbbās said: “If it would please you to know the ignorance of the Arabs, read what comes after the hundred and thirtieth ayah of Sūrat al-Anʿām: ‘Lost are those who killed their children in folly, without knowledge.’”The name it is known by
After the livestock around which the idolaters had built their taboos and their offerings (6:136–144) — rules they ascribed to Allah, and which the surah takes apart one by one.
Its place in the muṣḥaf
Ayat you will hear named
- 6:1Praise to the Creator of the darknesses and the light
- 6:12He has prescribed mercy upon Himself
- 6:38Communities like you
- 6:59The keys of the unseen
- 6:75–79Ibrāhīm, the star, the moon and the sun
- 6:82Faith unmixed with wrong
- 6:95–99The splitter of the grain
- 6:103Vision does not encompass Him
- 6:122Dead, then given life and a light
- 6:151–153The ten commandments
- 6:160A good deed, tenfold
- 6:162–163“My prayer and my sacrifice”
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 al-Bukhārī and Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim; Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī
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.