Makkan, by agreement
The later years in Makkah
It is Makkan in the saying of all, as al-Qurṭubī puts it, and Ibn al-Jawzī records the agreement. The traditional order places it seventy-seventh. It opens the twenty-ninth juzʾ of the muṣḥaf, every surah of which is Makkan but for the dispute over al-Insān.
سُورَةُ المُلْكِ وَهِيَ مَكِّيَّةٌ بِإجْماعِهِمْ قالَ ابْنُ مَسْعُودٍ: هي المانِعَةُ مِن عَذابِ القَبْرِسُورَةُ الْمُلْكِ مَكِّيَّةٌ فِي قَوْلِ الْجَمِيعِ. وَتُسَمَّى الْوَاقِيَةُ وَالْمُنْجِيَةُ. وَهِيَ ثَلَاثُونَ آيَةًThe same, in other works
- al-BaghawīMaʿālim al-tanzīlAhl al-Sunnah in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Makkan.
سُورَةُ الْمُلْكِ مَكِّيَّةٌ
- al-Suyūṭīal-Durr al-manthūrAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Ibn ʿAbbās: it came down in Makkah. Recorded by Ibn al-Ḍurays, al-Naḥḥās, Ibn Mardawayh and al-Bayhaqī.
أخْرَجَ ابْنُ الضُّرَيْسِ، والنَّحّاسُ، وابْنُ مَرْدُويَهْ، والبَيْهَقِيُّ، عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ قالَ: نَزَلَتْ بِمَكَّةَ سُورَةُ تَبارَكَ المُلْكِ
A report he gathers; its chain is not graded here.
- al-ShawkānīFatḥ al-qadīr→
Makkan.
هي مَكِّيَّةٌ
- al-RāzīMafātīḥ al-ghaybAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Makkan.
ثَلاثُونَ آيَةً مَكِّيَّةٌ
- Abū al-SuʿūdIrshād al-ʿaql al-salīmMāturīdī in creedḤanafī in fiqh→
Makkan.
سُورَةُ المُلْكِ مَكِّيَّةٌ، وتُسَمّى الواقِيَةَ والمُنْجِيَةَ؛ لِأنَّها تَقِي وتُنْجِي قارِئَها مِن عَذابِ القَبْرِ، وآياتُها ثَلاثُونَ
Each line of English says what the Arabic beneath it says.
What was happening
No particular occasion is reported for it. It comes from the later Makkan years, when the argument had been made many times and the surahs take on a tone of final summons: look, think, and answer.
Its hearers did not deny that Allah made the heavens. What they denied was that it placed them under any obligation, or that they would be raised to account for it. So the surah begins with why life and death exist at all — “to test you, which of you is best in deed” — and then issues a challenge unlike any other in the Qurʾan. Look at the creation of the Most Merciful: do you see any fault? Look again. Then look again, twice over — your sight will come back to you humbled and worn out.
After that it lets them hear their own future. The keepers of Hell ask each crowd thrown into it: did no warner come to you? And they answer: yes, one came, and we denied him. “Had we but listened, or used our reason, we would not be among the people of the Blaze.”
The second half is a series of questions, each beginning “Who?” or “Do you feel secure?” — who is this army of yours that will help you against the Most Merciful; who will provide for you if He withholds His provision; do you feel safe that He who is in the heaven will not make the earth swallow you. They did not have answers, and the surah does not wait for them.
إظهار كمال ملك الله وقدرته، بعثًا على خشيته، وتحذيرًا من عقابه.
To display the perfection of Allah’s dominion and power — moving the hearer to awe of Him, and warning of His punishment.
The surah’s aim, as al-Mukhtaṣar fī al-Tafsīr states it
- The dominion of Allah
- Life and death as a test
- Flawless creation
- The regret of the people of the Fire
- Fear of Allah unseen
- Reliance on the Most Merciful
Its aims, as Ibn ʿĀshūr sets them out
والأغراض التي في هذه السورة جارية على سنن الأغراض في السور المكية.
ابتدئت بتعريف المؤمنين معاني من العلم بعظمة الله تعالى وتفرده بالملك الحق والنظر في إتقان صنعه الدال على تفرده بالإلهية فبذلك يكون في تلك الآيات حظ لعظة المشركين.
ومن ذلك التذكير بأنه أقام نظام الموت والحياة لتظهر في الحالين مجاري أعمال العباد في ميادين السبق إلى أحسن الأعمال ونتائج مجاريها.
وأنه الذي يجازي عليها.
From its first ayah to its last
- 1–55 ayat · 18% of the surahRead from ayah 1 →
The Sovereign, and His work
Blessed is He in whose hand is the dominion, and He has power over all things: who created death and life to test which of you is best in deed; who created seven heavens in layers. You see no disproportion in the creation of the Most Merciful. Look again — do you see any rift? And We have adorned the nearest heaven with lamps.
- 6–116 ayat · 19% of the surahRead from ayah 6 →
“Had we but listened”
For those who disbelieve in their Lord is the punishment of Hell. When they are flung into it they hear it draw breath as it boils, almost bursting with rage. Each time a crowd is thrown in, its keepers ask, “Did no warner come to you?” They will say, “Yes — and we denied.” And they will confess their sin.
- 12–143 ayat · 8% of the surahRead from ayah 12 →
Those who fear Him unseen
Those who fear their Lord without seeing Him will have forgiveness and a great reward. Speak in secret or aloud — He knows what is in the breasts. Does He who created not know, when He is the Subtle, the Aware?
- 15–184 ayat · 14% of the surahRead from ayah 15 →
Do you feel secure?
It is He who made the earth manageable for you, so walk its slopes and eat of His provision; to Him is the resurrection. Do you feel secure that He who is in the heaven will not cause the earth to swallow you, or send against you a storm of stones? Those before them denied — and how was My reproach?
- 19–246 ayat · 22% of the surahRead from ayah 19 →
Who, besides the Most Merciful?
Do they not see the birds above them, spreading and folding their wings? None holds them up but the Most Merciful. Who is it that could be an army for you against Him? Who would provide for you if He withheld? Is one who walks fallen on his face better guided, or one who walks upright on a straight path? It is He who produced you and gave you hearing, sight and hearts — little thanks you give.
- 25–306 ayat · 20% of the surahRead from ayah 25 →
When it comes
They say, “When is this promise?” Say: the knowledge is with Allah; I am only a clear warner. When they see it near, the faces of the disbelievers will fall. Say: He is the Most Merciful; we believe in Him, and upon Him we rely. Say: have you considered — if your water were to sink into the earth, who then could bring you flowing water?
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 70% of its ayat, and the rhyme turns once. None of them comes where a 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
إِنَّ سُورَةً مِنَ الْقُرْآنِ ثَلاَثُونَ آيَةً شَفَعَتْ لِرَجُلٍ حَتَّى غُفِرَ لَهُ
“There is a surah of the Qurʾan, thirty ayat, which interceded for a man until he was forgiven. It is ‘Blessed is He in whose hand is the dominion’.”ḤasanḤasan: accepted and acted upon, a degree below ṣaḥīḥ.
The Prophet ﷺ would not sleep until he had recited “Alif Lām Mīm, the sending down” — al-Sajdah — and “Blessed is He in whose hand is the dominion.”“Whoever recites ‘Blessed is He in whose hand is the dominion’ every night, Allah will protect him by it from the punishment of the grave. In the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ we used to call it the Preventer.”A Companion’s sayingThe words of a Companion, not a statement of the Prophet ﷺ.
The names it is known by
After its first ayah: Blessed is He in whose hand is the dominion.
Its first word, and the name the Prophet ﷺ used for it: “It is the surah Tabāraka lladhī bi-yadihi l-mulk” (al-Tirmidhī 2891).
The name Ibn Masʿūd gives it: “It is the preventer from the punishment of the grave.” Al-Qurṭubī also records al-Wāqiyah, the Protector, and al-Munjiyah, the Rescuer.
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.