Surah Ali 'Imran, The Family of 'Imran

Surah 3 · 200 verses · revealed at Medina

Ali 'Imran is the second longest surah in the Qur'an, and it is usually read as the companion to the one before it. The two were known together to the early Muslims as az-Zahrawan, the two bright ones.

It is named after the family of 'Imran — the household into which Maryam was born. A long passage tells of her mother's vow to dedicate the child she was carrying to God's service, her surprise at giving birth to a daughter, and Maryam's upbringing under the care of Zakariya. From there the surah moves to Jesus: his birth, his message, and the disagreements about him that followed.

That material sits in the surah for a reason. Ali 'Imran was revealed at Medina, and part of it responds to a delegation of Christians who came from Najran to debate with the Prophet. The surah's treatment of Jesus is therefore addressed to people who were present and listening, which gives the passage a directness it would not otherwise have.

The other long passage in the surah concerns the battle of Uhud, and it is one of the most remarkable things in the Qur'an. Uhud was a defeat. Muslims had disobeyed an order, the line broke, and many were killed. The surah does not soften any of it. It sets out what went wrong, names the panic, addresses the rumour that the Prophet had been killed, and asks what those who believed only in a victorious cause would do now. A scripture recording its own community's worst day in this much detail is unusual.

Two shorter passages are among the most quoted in the book. Verse 7 distinguishes between verses that are clear in meaning and verses that are open, and warns against chasing the second kind in search of discord. And verses 190 and 191 describe people who think about the making of the heavens and the earth while standing, sitting and lying down — a description of attentiveness rather than ritual, and one that many readers have taken personally.

Like Al-Baqarah, it opens with the letters Alif, Lam, Mim.

Surah Ali 'Imran on this site

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Surah Ali 'Imran, The Family of 'Imran

Surah Ali 'Imran on this site

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