Surah Al-Anbiya: The Prophets | Quran Study Guide

Ta'awwudh · Seeking Refuge

أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ

A'udhu billahi min ash-shaytani ar-rajim. I seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the accursed.

The Name · Bismillah

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

Bismillahi ar-Rahmani ar-Rahim. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

✦

The Surah · In Two Parts

One hundred and twelve verses, read in two sittings. The surah opens on a sentence that sets the whole tone. Their reckoning has drawn near for people, while they are in heedlessness, turning away. It then argues that the creation was not made in play, that two gods would have ruined it, and that every soul is tested by good as much as by hardship. The second half runs the prophets one after another, most of them shown in the worst hour of their lives, each one calling and each one answered, and it closes by naming what they had in common.

Part One

Verses 1 to 50

Their Reckoning Has Drawn Near.

Men listening while they play, the truth hurled at falsehood, the heavens and the earth split apart, the sky as a protected ceiling, no immortality granted to anyone, and the scales set with a mustard seed accounted for.

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Verses 51 to 112

We Answered Him.

Ibrahim among the broken idols and in the fire, Nuh, Dawud and Sulayman, Ayyub, the man in the fish, Zakariyya asking not to be left alone, and one community that broke itself into pieces.

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آمِين

Prepared with discipline · Ameen