Madinan, by the majority
Madinah, in the years when fighting had been made a duty
It is Madinan in the saying of Ibn ʿAbbās, al-Ḥasan, Mujāhid, ʿIkrimah, Qatādah and the majority; Ibn Yasār held it Makkan. Its subject — fighting in ranks, and the promise of a victory near at hand — is Madinan, and the man who relates its occasion, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām, accepted Islam only after the Hijrah.
وَيُقالُ لَها سُورَةُ الحَوارِيِّينَ وَفِيها قَوْلانِ. أحَدُهُما: مَدَنِيَّةٌ، قالَهُ ابْنُ عَبّاسٍ، والحَسَنُ، ومُجاهِدٌ، وعِكْرِمَةُ، وقَتادَةُ، والجُمْهُورُ. والثّانِي: مَكِّيَّةٌ قالَهُ ابْنُ يَسارٍسورة الصف مَدَنِيَّةٌ فِي قَوْلِ الْجَمِيعِ، فِيمَا ذَكَرَ الْمَاوَرْدِيُّ. وَقِيلَ: إِنَّهَا مَكِّيَّةٌ، ذَكَرَهُ النَّحَّاسُ عَنِ ابْنِ عباس. وهي أربع عشرة آيةThe same, in other works
- al-BaghawīMaʿālim al-tanzīlAhl al-Sunnah in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Madinan.
سُورَةُ الصَّفِّ مَدَنِيَّةٌ
- al-Suyūṭīal-Durr al-manthūrAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Ibn ʿAbbās: it came down in Madinah. Recorded by Ibn al-Ḍurays, Ibn Mardawayh and al-Bayhaqī.
أخْرَجَ ابْنُ الضُّرَيْسِ، وابْنُ مَرْدُويَهْ، والبَيْهَقِيُّ، عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ قالَ: نَزَلَتْ سُورَةُ الصَّفِّ بِالمَدِينَةِ
A report he gathers; its chain is not graded here.
- al-ShawkānīFatḥ al-qadīr→
Madinan.
هي مَدَنِيَّةٌ
- al-Suyūṭīal-Durr al-manthūrAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Ibn ʿAbbās, in another report: it came down in Makkah. Recorded by al-Naḥḥās.
أخْرَجَ النَّحّاسُ، عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ قالَ: نَزَلَتْ سُورَةُ الصَّفِّ بِمَكَّةَ
A report he gathers; its chain is not graded here.
- al-RāzīMafātīḥ al-ghaybAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Makkan.
أرْبَعَ عَشْرَةَ آيَةً مَكِّيَّةً
- Abū al-SuʿūdIrshād al-ʿaql al-salīmMāturīdī in creedḤanafī in fiqh→
Madinan; Makkan is also said.
مَدَنِيَّةٌ وقِيلَ مَكِّيَّةٌ وآياتُها أرْبَعَ عَشْرَةَ
Each line of English says what the Arabic beneath it says.
What was happening
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām relates how it came down. “A group of us, Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, were sitting and talking, and we said: if only we knew which deed is most beloved to Allah, we would do it. Then Allah sent down: ‘All that is in the heavens and the earth glorifies Allah… O you who believe, why do you say what you do not do?’” And he said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ recited it to us, to the end.
The answer to their wish turned out to be the hardest thing: to stand in the line of battle and not break. And the surah begins by pointing out that it is easier to wish than to do. Other reports the commentators gather say the same from another side — that some had asked for fighting to be prescribed and then hung back when it was.◇
Two prophets are then brought as witnesses to what a community can do to its messenger. Mūsā: “My people, why do you hurt me, when you know that I am the messenger of Allah to you?” And ʿĪsā, who came confirming the Torah and giving good news of a messenger to come after him, whose name is Aḥmad — and who was called a sorcerer for it.
It closes by naming the bargain. Believe in Allah and His Messenger, and strive in His cause with your wealth and your lives: He will forgive you and admit you to gardens. “And another thing that you love: help from Allah, and a victory near at hand.”
- Related, not gradedRelated by the commentators without a graded chain; not established as authentic.
What came down about what
“If only we knew which deed Allah loves most”
“We sat, a group of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and said: if we knew which of the deeds is most beloved to Allah, we would do it. So Allah sent down this surah, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ recited it to us.”
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām: al-Tirmidhī (3309) and Aḥmad; its chain is ṣaḥīḥ according to al-Albānī.
Graded ṣaḥīḥ
ما رَوى أبُو سَلَمَةَ عَنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ سَلامٍ، قالَ: قَعَدْنا نَفَرًا مِن أصْحابِ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ﷺ، فَقُلْنا: لَوْ نَعْلَمُ أيُّ الأعْمالِ أحَبُّ إلى اللَّهِ عَزَّ وجَلَّ؟ عَمِلْناهُتحفيز المؤمنين لنصرة دين الله، والجهاد في سبيله.
To rouse the believers to support the religion of Allah and to strive in His cause.
The surah’s aim, as al-Mukhtaṣar fī al-Tafsīr states it
- Matching word with deed
- Striving in ranks
- Mūsā and ʿĪsā with their peoples
- The good news of Aḥmad
- The trade that saves
- Helpers of Allah
Its aims, as Ibn ʿĀshūr sets them out
أول أغراضها التحذير من إخلاف الوعد والالتزام بواجبات الدين.
والتحريض على الجهاد في سبيل الله والثبات فيه، وصدق الإيمان.
والثبات في نصرة الدين.
والائتساء بالصادقين مثل الحواريين.
والتحذير من أذى الرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم تعريضا باليهود مثل كعب بن الأشرف.
وضرب المثل لذلك بفعل اليهود مع موسى وعيسى عليهما السلام.
From its first ayah to its last
- 1–44 ayat · 18% of the surahRead from ayah 1 →
Word and deed
All that is in the heavens and the earth glorifies Allah. O you who believe, why do you say what you do not do? It is most hateful to Allah that you say what you do not do. Allah loves those who fight in His cause in a rank, as though they were a building firmly joined.
- 5–95 ayat · 43% of the surahRead from ayah 5 →
Two messengers, and a third
Mūsā said: “My people, why do you hurt me?” — and when they swerved, Allah let their hearts swerve. ʿĪsā son of Maryam said: “Children of Israel, I am the messenger of Allah to you, confirming the Torah before me and bringing good news of a messenger to come after me, whose name is Aḥmad.” They wish to put out the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah will perfect His light. It is He who sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth, to make it prevail over all religion.
- 10–134 ayat · 24% of the surahRead from ayah 10 →
The trade
O you who believe, shall I direct you to a trade that will save you from a painful punishment? Believe in Allah and His Messenger, and strive in the cause of Allah with your wealth and your lives. He will forgive you your sins and admit you to gardens beneath which rivers flow. And another thing you love: help from Allah, and a near victory.
- 141 ayah · 16% of the surahRead from ayah 14 →
Be helpers of Allah
O you who believe, be helpers of Allah — as ʿĪsā son of Maryam said to the disciples, “Who are my helpers towards Allah?” and they said, “We are the helpers of Allah.” A party of the Children of Israel believed and a party disbelieved; We strengthened those who believed against their enemy, and they became the ones who prevailed.
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 93% of its ayat, and the rhyme turns 2 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
أَنَا مُحَمَّدٌ وَأَنَا أَحْمَدُ
“I have names. I am Muḥammad, and I am Aḥmad. I am al-Māḥī, by whom Allah wipes out disbelief. I am al-Ḥāshir, at whose feet the people will be gathered. And I am al-ʿĀqib, the last.”ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ recited this surah to us, to its end. Each narrator in the chain then says the same of the one before him.The names it is known by
From its fourth ayah: Allah loves those who fight in His cause in a rank, as though they were a structure joined firmly.
A name Ibn al-Jawzī records, after the disciples of ʿĪsā in its last ayah.
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; 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.