Differed over — at the threshold of the Hijrah
At the very end of the Makkan years, or the first days in Madinah
Ibn al-Jawzī gives three views. That it is Makkan is the saying of Ibn Masʿūd, al-Ḍaḥḥāk and Yaḥyā ibn Sallām. That it is Madinan is the saying of Ibn ʿAbbās, al-Ḥasan, ʿIkrimah, Qatādah and Muqātil — with Ibn ʿAbbās and Qatādah excepting its last eight ayat as Makkan. The third, from Jābir ibn Zayd and al-Kalbī, is that it came down between the two cities, on the Hijrah itself. All three place it at the same moment: the traditional order makes it the eighty-sixth surah, the last before Madinah, and Muqātil called it the first revealed there.
وَفِيها ثَلاثَةُ أقْوالٍ أحَدُها: أنَّها مَكِّيَّةٌ، قالَهُ ابْنُ مَسْعُودٍ، والضَّحّاكُ، ويَحْيى بْنُ سَلامٍ. والثّانِي: مَدَنِيَّةٌ، قالَهُ ابْنُ عَبّاسٍ، والحَسَنُ، وعِكْرِمَةُ، وقَتادَةُ، ومُقاتِلٌوالثّالِثُ: أنَّها نَزَلَتْ بَيْنَ مَكَّةَ، والمَدِينَةِ، قالَهُ جابِرُ بْنُ زَيْدٍ وابْنُ السّائِبِThe same, in other works
- al-BaghawīMaʿālim al-tanzīlAhl al-Sunnah in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Madinan.
سُورَةُ الْمُطَفِّفِينَ مَدَنِيَّةٌ
- al-Suyūṭīal-Durr al-manthūrAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Ibn ʿAbbās: it came down in Makkah. Recorded by al-Naḥḥās and Ibn Mardawayh.
أخْرَجَ النَّحّاسُ، وابْنُ مَرْدُويَهَ عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ قالَ: نَزَلَتْ سُورَةُ المُطَفِّفِينَ بِمَكَّةَ
A report he gathers; its chain is not graded here.
- al-ShawkānīFatḥ al-qadīr→
Citing al-Qurṭubī: Makkan in the saying of Ibn Masʿūd, al-Ḍaḥḥāk and Muqātil; Madinan in the saying of al-Ḥasan and ʿIkrimah.
قالَ القُرْطُبِيُّ: وهي مَكِّيَّةٌ في قَوْلِ ابْنِ مَسْعُودٍ، والضَّحّاكِ، ومُقاتِلٍ، ومَدَنِيَّةٌ في قَوْلِ الحَسَنِ، وعِكْرِمَةِ
- al-RāzīMafātīḥ al-ghaybAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Makkan.
ثَلاثُونَ وسِتُّ آياتٍ مَكِّيَّةٍ
- Abū al-SuʿūdIrshād al-ʿaql al-salīmMāturīdī in creedḤanafī in fiqh→
Makkan, with a difference over it.
مَكِّيَّةٌ مُخْتَلَفٌ فِيها وآياتُها سِتٌّ وثَلاثُونَ
Each line of English says what the Arabic beneath it says.
What was happening
Makkah was a city of merchants and Yathrib a city of farmers and markets, and in both of them trade was done with measures of volume and scales of weight that the seller held in his own hand. A man could keep two measures, one for buying and one for selling. Many did.
Ibn ʿAbbās reports that when the Prophet ﷺ came to Madinah its people were among the worst there were at measuring; then Allah sent down “Woe to those who give short measure”, and they measured well after that. Whether those opening ayat came down there, or had come down just before and were recited to them on his arrival, the report shows what the surah did: it changed how a town did business.
The surah’s argument runs from the stall to the Throne. Do such people not think they will be raised? The record of the wicked is kept; so is the record of the righteous. And it closes with a scene from the streets of Makkah — the powerful laughing at the believers, winking as they passed, going home pleased with themselves — and with that scene reversed.
What came down about what
The markets of Madinah
When the Prophet of Allah ﷺ came to Madinah, they were among the worst of people in measuring. Then Allah sent down: “Woe to those who give short measure,” and they made good their measuring after that.
Ibn ʿAbbās: al-Nasāʾī in al-Sunan al-Kubrā and Ibn Mājah (2223); ḥasan according to al-Albānī.
ḤasanḤasan: accepted and acted upon, a degree below ṣaḥīḥ.
عَنِ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ قَالَ: لَمَّا قَدِمَ نَبِيِّ اللَّهِ ﷺ الْمَدِينَةَ كَانُوا مِنْ أَخْبَثِ النَّاسِ كَيْلًا فَأَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ: ﴿وَيْلٌ لِلْمُطَفِّفِينَ﴾ فحسنَّوا الكيلَ بَعْدَ ذَلِكَتركز على بيان حال الناس في الموازين والمنازل الأخروية، تهديدًا للمطففين والمكذبين، وتأنيسًا للمؤمنين المستضعفين.
To set out the state of people in the scales and the stations of the next life — a threat to those who cheat and those who deny, and a comfort to the believers who are looked down on.
The surah’s aim, as al-Mukhtaṣar fī al-Tafsīr states it
- Honesty in trade
- The Day mankind stands
- The records of deeds
- The rust on the heart
- The mockers mocked
Its aims, as Ibn ʿĀshūr sets them out
اشتملت على التحذير من التطفيف في الكيل والوزن وتفظيعه بأنه تحيل على أكل مال الناس في حال المعاملة أخذا وإعطاء.
وأن ذلك مما سيحاسبون عليه يوم القيامة.
وتهويل ذلك اليوم بأنه وقوف عند ربهم ليفصل بينهم وليجازيهم على أعمالهم وأن الأعمال محصاة عند الله.
ووعيد الذين يكذبون بيوم الجزاء والذين يكذبون بأن القرآن منزل من عند الله.
From its first ayah to its last
- 1–66 ayat · 15% of the surahRead from ayah 1 →
Short measure
Woe to those who give short measure: who, when they take by measure from people, take in full, and when they measure or weigh for them, give less. Do they not think that they will be raised, for a tremendous Day — the Day mankind will stand before the Lord of the worlds?
- 7–1711 ayat · 34% of the surahRead from ayah 7 →
The record of the wicked
No — the record of the wicked is in Sijjīn: a register inscribed. Woe that Day to the deniers of the Recompense, each of them a sinful transgressor who, when Our ayat are recited to him, says, “Tales of the ancients.” No — what they used to earn has rusted over their hearts (83:14). That Day they will be veiled from their Lord; then they will enter the Blaze.
- 18–2811 ayat · 25% of the surahRead from ayah 18 →
The record of the righteous
No — the record of the righteous is in ʿIlliyyūn: a register inscribed, witnessed by those brought near. The righteous will be in bliss, on couches, looking on; you will know in their faces the radiance of delight. They are given a pure drink, sealed, its seal of musk — for that let those who compete, compete — mixed with Tasnīm, a spring from which those brought near will drink.
- 29–368 ayat · 25% of the surahRead from ayah 29 →
Who laughs last
Those who did wrong used to laugh at those who believed, wink at one another as they passed, and go back to their people amused; and when they saw them they would say, “These are the ones astray.” But they were not sent as their keepers. So today those who believed are laughing at the disbelievers, on couches, looking on. Have the disbelievers been repaid for what they used to do?
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 36 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
“When the servant commits a sin, a black spot is marked on his heart. If he pulls away, asks forgiveness and repents, his heart is polished clean. If he returns, it is increased until it overspreads his heart. That is the rust that Allah has mentioned: ‘No — what they used to earn has rusted over their hearts.’”ḤasanḤasan: accepted and acted upon, a degree below ṣaḥīḥ.
On “the Day mankind will stand before the Lord of the worlds”, the Prophet ﷺ said: “Until one of them is sunk in his own sweat up to the middle of his ears.”The name it is known by
After those it opens by condemning. Taṭfīf is to take a little — ṭafīf, a trifle — off what is owed: full measure when buying, less when selling. It is also called Sūrat al-Taṭfīf.
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 Sunan of al-Tirmidhī and Ibn Mājah
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.