Surah An-Nahl, The Bee

Surah 16 · 128 verses · revealed at Mecca

An-Nahl is named after the bee, which is described as inspired by God to take from the hills and the trees and to produce a drink in which there is healing.

Early commentators called this surah the chapter of blessings, and it reads as an inventory of them: cattle that give warmth and food, animals that carry loads to places a person could not reach without hardship, rain that produces crops and olives and date palms and grapes, the sea with its fresh fish and its ornaments, mountains and rivers and paths, and the stars by which people find their way at night.

The argument is cumulative. After each item the surah asks, in one form or another, whether the one who creates is like the one who creates nothing. It does not raise its voice; it simply keeps counting.

Its most quoted verse instructs that people be invited to the way of their Lord with wisdom and good teaching, and that argument be conducted in the better manner. It is the verse most often cited by Muslims writing about how to speak to those who disagree with them.

Another commands justice, doing good, and giving to relatives, and forbids indecency, wrong and oppression. For centuries it was recited from the pulpit at the close of the Friday sermon, and in many mosques it still is.

Near the end comes the permission to answer harm with the like of it, immediately followed by the statement that patience is better. The surah repeatedly does this: it grants something and then points past it.

Surah An-Nahl on this site

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