Madinan, by the majority — and differed over
Madinah, on the majority’s view — its closing ayat about men who had been held back in Makkah by their families
The majority hold it Madinan — Ibn al-Jawzī names Ibn ʿAbbās, al-Ḥasan, Mujāhid, ʿIkrimah and Qatādah. Al-Ḍaḥḥāk held it Makkan; and ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār said it is Makkan except for three ayat near its end (64:14–16), which came down in Madinah. That last view fits the surah’s make-up: its first half reads like the Makkan surahs, arguing creation and resurrection, and its close addresses believers about their wives and children. Ibn Kathīr gives it as Madinan and notes the other saying.
وَفِيها قَوْلانِ. أحَدُهُما: أنَّها مَدَنِيَّةٌ، قالَهُ الجُمْهُورُ، مِنهُمُ ابْنُ عَبّاسٍ، والحَسَنُ، ومُجاهِدٌ، وعِكْرِمَةُ، وقَتادَةُ. والثّانِي: أنَّها مَكِّيَّةٌ، قالَهُ الضَّحّاكُ. وقالَ عَطاءُ بْنُ يَسارٍ: هي مَكِّيَّةٌ إلّا ثَلاثَ آياتٍ مِنها نَزَلْنَ بِالمَدِينَةِتَفْسِيرُ سُورَةِ التَّغَابُنِ وَهِيَ مَدَنِيَّةٌ، وَقِيلَ: مَكِّيَّةٌThe same, in other works
- al-BaghawīMaʿālim al-tanzīlAhl al-Sunnah in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Madinan.
سُورَةُ التَّغَابُنِ 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 في الدَّلائِلِ، عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ قالَ: نَزَلَتْ سُورَةُ التَّغابُنِ بِالمَدِينَةِ
A report he gathers; its chain is not graded here.
- al-ShawkānīFatḥ al-qadīr→
Madinan, in the saying of most.
هي مَدَنِيَّةٌ في قَوْلِ الأكْثَرِ
- al-RāzīMafātīḥ al-ghaybAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Makkan.
ثَمانِ عَشْرَةَ آيَةً مَكِّيَّةً
- Abū al-SuʿūdIrshād al-ʿaql al-salīmMāturīdī in creedḤanafī in fiqh→
Madinan, with a difference over it.
مَدَنِيَّةٌ مُخْتَلِفٌ فِيها وآياتُها ثَمانِي عَشْرَةَ
Each line of English says what the Arabic beneath it says.
What was happening
It is the last of the Musabbiḥāt, the surahs that open by declaring that all things glorify Allah, and its first ten ayat are a compact statement of the faith: He created you, and among you are disbelievers and believers; He knows what you conceal; earlier peoples denied their messengers and tasted the result; those who disbelieve claim they will not be raised — say: yes, by my Lord, you will.
Then it gives the Day a name found nowhere else in the Qurʾan, and passes to a subject that only a living community could raise. Ibn ʿAbbās was asked about the ayah, “O you who believe, among your wives and your children there are enemies to you.” He said: these were men of Makkah who accepted Islam and wanted to come to the Prophet ﷺ, but their wives and children would not let them go. When at last they did come, they saw how far the others had advanced in understanding of the religion, and were minded to punish their families. So Allah sent down the ayah — and its ending: “but if you pardon, overlook and forgive, then Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.”
The surah does not ask a believer to love his family less. It asks him to know that they are a test, and to fear Allah “as much as you are able” — a phrase that became one of the governing principles of the law.
What came down about what
The families that held them back
“These were men who had accepted Islam among the people of Makkah and wanted to come to the Prophet ﷺ, but their wives and children refused to let them. When they did come to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and saw that the people had gained understanding in the religion, they resolved to punish them. So Allah sent down: ‘O you who believe, among your wives and your children are enemies to you, so beware of them…’”
Ibn ʿAbbās: al-Tirmidhī (3317), who called it ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ; ḥasan according to al-Albānī.
ḤasanḤasan: accepted and acted upon, a degree below ṣaḥīḥ.
From the pulpit
The Prophet ﷺ was addressing the people when al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn came in, two small boys in red shirts, walking and stumbling. He came down from the pulpit, picked them up and set them in front of him, and said: “Allah spoke the truth: ‘Your wealth and your children are only a trial.’ I looked at these two boys walking and stumbling, and could not bear it until I had broken off my words and lifted them up.”
Buraydah: al-Tirmidhī (3774), Abū Dāwūd (1109) and al-Nasāʾī (1413); ṣaḥīḥ according to al-Albānī.
Graded ṣaḥīḥ
ذكر غبن الكافرين وخسارتهم يوم القيامة، تحذيرًا من الكفر وأهله.
To recall the loss of the disbelievers and their ruin on the Day of Resurrection — as a warning against disbelief and its people.
The surah’s aim, as al-Mukhtaṣar fī al-Tafsīr states it
- The Day of Mutual Loss and Gain
- Belief in the Resurrection
- Decree and trust in Allah
- Family as a test
- Fearing Allah as one is able
- Spending
Its aims, as Ibn ʿĀshūr sets them out
واشتملت هذه السورة على التذكير بأن من في السماء ومن في الأرض يسبحون لله، أي ينزهونه عن النقائص تسبيحا متجددا.
وأن الملك لله وحده فهو الحقيق بإفراده بالحمد لأنه خالق الناس كلهم فآمن بوحدانيته ناس وكفر ناس ولم يشكروا نعمه إذ خلقهم في أحسن صورة وتحذيرهم من إنكار رسالة محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم.
وإنذارهم على ذلك ليعتبروا بما حل بالأمم الذين كذبوا رسلهم وجحدوا بيناتهم تكبرا أن يهتدوا بإرشاد بشر مثلهم.
From its first ayah to its last
- 1–44 ayat · 21% of the surahRead from ayah 1 →
The Creator and His knowledge
All that is in the heavens and the earth glorifies Allah; His is the dominion and His the praise. It is He who created you, and among you is the disbeliever and among you the believer. He formed you and made your forms well. He knows what you conceal and what you reveal.
- 5–73 ayat · 20% of the surahRead from ayah 5 →
Those before, and the claim of those now
Has the news not reached you of those who disbelieved before, and tasted the ill result of their affair? Their messengers came with clear proofs, and they said, “Shall mere humans guide us?” Those who disbelieve claim that they will never be raised. Say: yes, by my Lord, you will be raised, and then told what you did.
- 8–103 ayat · 20% of the surahRead from ayah 8 →
The Day of Taghābun
So believe in Allah and His Messenger, and in the Light We have sent down. The Day He gathers you for the Day of Gathering — that is the Day of Mutual Loss and Gain. Whoever believes in Allah and does right, He will remit his misdeeds and admit him to gardens; and those who disbelieve and deny are the people of the Fire.
- 11–133 ayat · 15% of the surahRead from ayah 11 →
Nothing strikes but by His leave
No misfortune strikes except by Allah’s leave, and whoever believes in Allah, He guides his heart. Obey Allah and obey the Messenger. Allah — there is no god but He; so in Allah let the believers put their trust.
- 14–185 ayat · 24% of the surahRead from ayah 14 →
Family, wealth, and what is asked
O you who believe, among your wives and children are enemies to you, so be on your guard; yet if you pardon, overlook and forgive, Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. Your wealth and your children are only a trial, and with Allah is a great reward. So be mindful of Allah as much as you are able (64:16); listen, obey, and spend — it is better for yourselves. Whoever is saved from the greed of his own soul, those are the successful. If you lend Allah a goodly loan, He will multiply it for you and forgive you.
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 56% of its ayat, and the rhyme turns 6 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
The Prophet ﷺ came down from the pulpit to lift up al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn, who had come in stumbling, and said: “Allah spoke the truth: ‘Your wealth and your children are only a trial.’”The Prophet ﷺ used to recite the Musabbiḥāt before he lay down to sleep. Al-Taghābun is the last of them in the muṣḥaf.ḤasanḤasan: accepted and acted upon, a degree below ṣaḥīḥ.
The name it is known by
From its ninth ayah: the Day of Taghābun. Ghabn is to be cheated in a sale. On that Day the people of the Fire find that they sold what was lasting for what was not, and the people of the Garden take what the others could have had.
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
- The Sunan of al-Tirmidhī, Abū Dāwūd and al-Nasāʾī
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.