Makkan, by agreement
The first years in Makkah
Ibn al-Jawzī records agreement that it is Makkan; al-Qurṭubī gives it as the view of the majority and notes that al-Ḍaḥḥāk held it Madinan. Ibn Kathīr settles the matter with a hadith in al-Bukhārī: al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib, a boy of Madinah, says that the Prophet ﷺ had not yet arrived there when he had already learned “Sabbiḥi sma rabbika l-aʿlā” from the first emigrants. The traditional order places it eighth.
سُورَةُ الأعْلى وَهِيَ مَكِّيَّةٌ كُلُّها بِإجْماعِهِمْوَهِيَ مَكِّيَّةٌ. وَالدَّلِيلُ عَلَى ذَلِكَ مَا رَوَاهُ الْبُخَارِيُّ: حَدَّثَنَا عَبْدَانُ: أَخْبَرَنِي أَبِي، عَنْ شُعْبَةَ، عَنْ أَبِي إِسْحَاقَ، عَنِ الْبَرَاءِ بْنِ عَازِبٍ قَالَ: أَوَّلُ مَنْ قَدِمَ عَلَيْنَا مِنْ أَصْحَابِ النَّبِيِّ ﷺ مُصْعَبُ بْنُ عُمَيْرٍ وَابْنُ أُمِّ مَكْتُومٍ، فَجَعَلَا يُقْرِئَانِنَا الْقُرْآنَThe same, in other works
- al-BaghawīMaʿālim al-tanzīlAhl al-Sunnah in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Makkan.
سُورَةُ الْأَعْلَى 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 مَرْدُويَهَ والبَيْهَقِيُّ عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ قالَ: نَزَلَتْ سُورَةُ ﴿سَبِّحِ اسْمَ رَبِّكَ الأعْلى﴾ بِمَكَّةَ
A report he gathers; its chain is not graded here.
- al-ShawkānīFatḥ al-qadīr→
Makkan, in the saying of the majority.
هي مَكِّيَّةٌ في قَوْلِ الجُمْهُورِ
- al-RāzīMafātīḥ al-ghaybAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Makkan.
تِسْعَ عَشْرَةَ آيَةً مَكِّيَّةً
- Abū al-SuʿūdIrshād al-ʿaql al-salīmMāturīdī in creedḤanafī in fiqh→
Makkan.
مَكِّيَّةٌ وآياتُهُا تِسْعَ عَشْرَةَ
Each line of English says what the Arabic beneath it says.
What was happening
It is among the earliest surahs, from the time when the revelation was still new to the one receiving it. In those days, Ibn ʿAbbās relates of a similar passage, the Prophet ﷺ would move his tongue quickly as Jibrīl recited, afraid of losing a word. Here he is given the assurance in so many words: “We shall make you recite, and you will not forget — except what Allah wills.”
The rest of the surah is his commission in miniature. Remind — the reminder will benefit. Those who fear will take it to heart; the most wretched will keep clear of it. And success is defined, once and for all, in a single ayah: he has succeeded who purifies himself, remembers the name of his Lord, and prays.
It closes by saying that none of this is new. It is in the earliest scriptures, the scriptures of Ibrāhīm and Mūsā. The people of Makkah claimed descent from the first and had heard of the second.
تذكير النفوس بمِنَّة الله الأعلى، وتعليقها بالحياة الأخرى، وتخليصها من التعلُّقات الدنيا.
To remind souls of the favour of Allah, the Most High; to attach them to the life to come; and to free them from attachment to this lower one.
The surah’s aim, as al-Mukhtaṣar fī al-Tafsīr states it
- Glorifying Allah
- Creation and guidance
- The Qurʾan made easy
- Purifying the soul
- This life and the next
Its aims, as Ibn ʿĀshūr sets them out
اشتملت على تنزيه الله تعالى والإشارة إلى وحدانيته لانفراده بخلق الإنسان وخلق ما في الأرض مما فيه بقاؤه.
وعلى تأييد النبيء صلى الله عليه وسلم وتثبيته على تلقي الوحي.
وأن الله معطيه شريعة سمحة وكتابا يتذكر به أهل النفوس الزكية الذين يخشون ربهم، ويعرض عنهم أهل الشقاوة الذين يؤثرون الحياة الدنيا ولا يعبأون بالحياة الأبدية.
وأن ما أوحي إليه يصدقه ما في كتب الرسل من قبله وذلك كله تهوين لما يلقاه من إعراض المشركين.
From its first ayah to its last
- 1–55 ayat · 22% of the surahRead from ayah 1 →
Glorify
Glorify the name of your Lord, the Most High: who created and proportioned, who measured and guided, who brought out the pasture and then turned it to dark stubble.
- 6–83 ayat · 19% of the surahRead from ayah 6 →
The promise to the Prophet ﷺ
We shall make you recite, so you will not forget, except what Allah wills; He knows what is open and what is hidden. And We shall ease you towards ease.
- 9–135 ayat · 26% of the surahRead from ayah 9 →
Remind
So remind, where the reminder benefits. The one who fears will take heed; the most wretched will avoid it — he who will enter the greatest Fire, and in it neither die nor live.
- 14–174 ayat · 21% of the surahRead from ayah 14 →
Success, and what prevents it
He has succeeded who purifies himself, and remembers the name of his Lord, and prays. But you prefer the life of this world — while the Hereafter is better and more lasting.
- 18–192 ayat · 11% of the surahRead from ayah 18 →
The oldest message
This is in the former scriptures: the scriptures of Ibrāhīm and Mūsā.
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 19 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 two ʿĪds and on Friday, “Glorify the name of your Lord, the Most High” and “Has the news of the Overwhelming reached you?” And when an ʿĪd and a Friday fell on the same day, he would recite them in both prayers.The Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to pray the witr reciting “Glorify the name of your Lord, the Most High”, “Say: O disbelievers” and “Say: He is Allah, One”.When Muʿādh lengthened the night prayer for his people, the Prophet ﷺ said to him: “Why did you not pray with ‘Glorify the name of your Lord, the Most High’, ‘By the sun and its brightness’ and ‘By the night when it covers’? Behind you pray the old, the weak and those with needs.”The names it is known by
After the name of Allah in its first ayah.
Its first word, in full Sabbiḥi sma rabbika l-aʿlā. This is how the Companions referred to it, and Ibn Kathīr heads it Sūrat Sabbiḥ.
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 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.