Meccan surah revealed after Surah Yusuf at a time of hardship. Reference to the people of Thamud who carved their houses from the mountains.

Themes

• Fate of those who reject the truth.
• Shaytan’s refusal to bow to Adam AS and his enmity towards mankind.
• Quran as divine book and Allah SWT’s protection of His religion.
• Remember the resurrection.

Selected Verses

2-5: The disbelievers will certainly wish they had submitted to Allah SWT. Until then, let them revel in their worldly affairs. No nation has been destroyed before its appointed time. No one can advance or delay their doom.

6-8: Pagans mocking and insulting the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, declaring him insane and asking him to bring down the angels if he is speaking the truth. The angels will never be revealed except for a just cause and if they were, it would be to the detriment of the disbelievers.

9: Allah SWT has revealed the Reminder (Quran) and He will preserve it. This is a great blessing. All other books were entrusted to their followers and their preservation failed. Allah SWT Himself has protected this book (there are some minor differences in pronunciation – qirat).

10-15: Every messenger sent to the people was mocked. Disbelievers will not believe, even if a gate to heaven opened up to them.

16-24: Allah SWT’s divine power: protection of the sky and the earth, rain and winds sustaining life, everything growing in balance.

26-29: Creation of Adam AS from clay. The jinn were created earlier from smokeless fire. Angels ordered to prostrate before Adam AS.

30-35: Shaytan’s refusal to prostrate due to his arrogance of being made from fire. He was expelled from Paradise, cursed and condemned until the Day of Judgement.

36-44: Shaytan’s appeal for respite until the Day of Judgement and promise to lure people away from the path, except the chosen servants. He cannot touch Allah SWT’s chosen, that is those who choose Allah SWT over this world (performing salah, zikr, good deeds and so forth). Shaytan has power only over the deviant, those who beautify falsehood. They will be destined to reside in Hell, each group assigned to one of its seven gates.

Each time the Quran repeats a reference or story, as in the example of Adam AS, something new is revealed.

49-50: Allah SWT describing Himself in first person. His default is mercy, but His punishment is most painful.

51-77: The story of Lut AS. Messenger-angles first came to Ibrahim AS to inform him of the news of his son. Then they travelled on to inform Lut AS of the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for the sins of the people, men lusting after men. The ruins of these cities were evident for people to see.

56: Do not despair of the mercy of Allah SWT, only the misguided despair.

67: Lut AS offered the daughters of the community to the men, within the boundaries of a halal marriage. One should repent from a haram desire and seek a halal way to satisfy any urge.

72: Allah SWT gives an oath by the life of the Prophet ﷺ – the only time in the Quran an oath is made on the life of a human being. “Certainly they are wandering blindly addicted in their own lust.” Reminder to keep our urges in check.

78-84: Punishment of the Peoples of Shuaib and Salih (Thamud) for denying their Messengers.

85: We have not created the heavens and the earth and everything in between except for a purpose. And the Hour is certain to come, so forgive graciously.

87: The 7 often-repeated verses and the Quran have been given to you.

88: Do not crave or be deluded by the splendour of this world.

94: Proclaim the message.

97-99: Take refuge in Allah SWT when in distress: turn to Allah SWT, glorify Him and prostrate to Him until certainty (death) comes.