Madinan, by agreement
Madinah, in the middle years
It is Madinan without disagreement. The Friday prayer was established in Madinah, and both of the events tied to its ayat took place there: the address to the Jews of the oasis, and the caravan that emptied the mosque.
سُورَةُ الجُمُعَةِ وَهِيَ مَدَنِيَّةٌ كُلُّها بِإجْماعِهِمْعَنِ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ، وَأَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ: أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ﷺ كَانَ يَقْرَأُ فِي صَلَاةِ الْجُمُعَةِ بِسُورَةِ الْجُمُعَةِ وَالْمُنَافِقِينَ. رَوَاهُ مُسْلِمٌ فِي صَحِيحِهِThe same, in other works
- al-BaghawīMaʿālim al-tanzīlAhl al-Sunnah in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Madinan.
سُورَةُ الْجُمُعَةِ مَدَنِيَّةٌ
- al-Suyūṭīal-Durr al-manthūrAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Ibn ʿAbbās: it came down in Madinah. Recorded by Ibn al-Ḍurays, al-Naḥḥās, Ibn Mardawayh and al-Bayhaqī.
أخْرَجَ ابْنُ الضُّرَيْسِ، والنَّحّاسُ، وابْنُ مَرْدُويَهْ، والبَيْهَقِيُّ في الدَّلائِلِ، عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ قالَ: نَزَلَتْ سُورَةُ الجُمُعَةِ 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 إحْدى عَشْرَةَ آيَةً مَدَنِيَّةً
- Abū al-SuʿūdIrshād al-ʿaql al-salīmMāturīdī in creedḤanafī in fiqh→
Madinan.
مَدَنِيَّةٌ وآياتُها إحْدى عَشْرَةَ
Each line of English says what the Arabic beneath it says.
What was happening
The surah has three movements, and each answers something in the life of Madinah.
The first is a favour. Allah has sent among the unlettered — the Arabs, a people without a scripture — a Messenger from themselves, reciting His ayat to them, purifying them, and teaching them the Book and wisdom, though before that they had been plainly astray. “And others of them who have not yet joined them.” Abū Hurayrah relates that when this came down they asked the Prophet ﷺ who those others were. Salmān the Persian was sitting among them. He laid his hand on Salmān and said: “If faith were at the Pleiades, men from among these would reach it.”
The second is a warning by example. The Jews of Madinah had been given the Torah and held it up as proof that they were Allah’s chosen. The surah’s image for a scripture that is carried and not acted on is one of the most cutting in the Qurʾan: a donkey loaded with books.
The third is the Friday itself. Jābir tells what happened. “A caravan arrived on a Friday while we were with the Prophet ﷺ, and the people broke away to it, until only twelve men remained. Then Allah sent down: ‘When they saw some trade or diversion, they rushed off to it and left you standing.’” Madinah had been suffering from high prices and hunger, and the caravan carried food. The correction is not harsh: trade is to stop at the call, and may begin again the moment the prayer is finished — “and seek the bounty of Allah, and remember Allah much, so that you may succeed.”
What came down about what
“Others who have not yet joined them”
“We were sitting with the Prophet ﷺ when Sūrat al-Jumuʿah was sent down to him: ‘and others of them who have not yet joined them.’ A man said: who are they, Messenger of Allah? He did not answer until he had been asked three times. Salmān the Persian was among us. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ placed his hand on Salmān and said: ‘If faith were at the Pleiades, men from among these would attain it.’”
Abū Hurayrah: al-Bukhārī (4897) and Muslim (2546).
Ṣaḥīḥ
The caravan
“A caravan came on a Friday while we were with the Prophet ﷺ. The people rushed out to it, until none remained but twelve men. So Allah sent down: ‘And when they saw a transaction or a diversion, they rushed to it and left you standing.’”
Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh: al-Bukhārī (4899) and Muslim (863).
Ṣaḥīḥ
بيان منَّة الله على هذه الأمة في تفضيلها وهدايتها بالرسول ﷺ بعد ضلالها، والإلزام بطاعته، والتحذير من مشابهة اليهود.
To set out Allah’s favour to this community in preferring it and guiding it by the Messenger ﷺ after it had been astray; to bind it to obeying him; and to warn it against resembling the Jews.
The surah’s aim, as al-Mukhtaṣar fī al-Tafsīr states it
- The favour of the Messenger ﷺ
- Knowledge without action
- The Friday prayer
- Remembrance before trade
Its aims, as Ibn ʿĀshūr sets them out
أول أغراضها ما نزلت لأجله وهو التحذير من التخلف عن صلاة الجمعة والأمر بترك ما يشغل عنها في وقت أدائها. وقدم لذلك: التنويه بجلال الله تعالى.
والتنويه بالرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم. وأنه رسول إلى العرب ومن سيلحق بهم.
وأن رسالته لهم فضل من الله.
وفي هذا توطئة لذم اليهود لأنهم حسدوا المسلمين على تشريفهم بهذا الدين.
From its first ayah to its last
- 1–44 ayat · 29% of the surahRead from ayah 1 →
The favour
All that is in the heavens and the earth glorifies Allah: the King, the Holy, the Almighty, the Wise. It is He who sent among the unlettered a Messenger from themselves, reciting to them His ayat, purifying them, and teaching them the Book and wisdom — and to others of them who have not yet joined them. That is the bounty of Allah, which He gives to whom He wills.
- 5–84 ayat · 38% of the surahRead from ayah 5 →
Those who were given the Torah
The likeness of those charged with the Torah who then did not carry it is that of a donkey carrying volumes. Say: you who are Jews, if you claim that you are the friends of Allah apart from other people, then wish for death, if you are truthful. They will never wish for it, because of what their hands have sent ahead. Say: the death from which you flee will surely meet you.
- 9–113 ayat · 33% of the surahRead from ayah 9 →
The Friday prayer
O you who believe, when the call is made to the prayer on the day of gathering, hasten to the remembrance of Allah and leave off trading: that is better for you. When the prayer is ended, disperse through the land and seek the bounty of Allah, and remember Allah much. Yet when they saw some trade or amusement they rushed to it and left you standing. Say: what is with Allah is better than amusement and trade — and Allah is the best of providers.
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.
All 11 of its ayat close on one sound.
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 Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to recite in the Friday prayer Sūrat al-Jumuʿah and “When the hypocrites come to you”.خَيْرُ يَوْمٍ طَلَعَتْ عَلَيْهِ الشَّمْسُ يَوْمُ الْجُمُعَةِ
“The best day on which the sun rises is Friday. On it Ādam was created, on it he was admitted to the Garden, on it he was brought out of it; and the Hour will not come except on a Friday.”The name it is known by
After the day named in its ninth ayah. The Prophet ﷺ recited this surah itself in the Friday prayer (Muslim 877).
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 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.