Surah Ash-Shu'ara: The Poets | 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 Three Parts

Two hundred and twenty-seven verses, read in three sittings. The surah runs seven accounts in sequence, and after each one it closes with the same two verses, word for word. In that is a sign, but most of them were not believers. Your Lord is the Mighty, the Merciful. Eight times, at the end of the opening and after each messenger. The repetition is the argument. Seven different men, seven different peoples, seven different centuries, and one outcome repeated until the reader stops expecting a different ending and starts asking what he is supposed to do inside it.

Part One

Verses 1 to 68

Do Not Destroy Yourself Over Them.

The opening, the call to Musa, his three objections and the answer to them, the confrontation with Pharaoh, the magicians who believed inside a single afternoon, and the sea.

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Verses 69 to 140

The Sound Heart.

Ibrahim questioning his people about what they worship, his prayer for the Day when nothing benefits except a sound heart, Nuh and the objection to his poor followers, and Hud against a people who built to be remembered.

Open →Part Three

Verses 141 to 227

The Measure and the Weight.

Salih and the she-camel, Lut, Shu'ayb on full measure and honest scales, and the closing on how the revelation came down and who the poets actually are.

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آمِين

Prepared with discipline · Ameen