Surah Ash-Shu'ara, The Poets

Surah 26 · 227 verses · revealed at Mecca

Ash-Shu'ara is the longest surah of the later Meccan period and consists almost entirely of seven accounts of prophets told one after another in the same shape.

Moses comes first and at length — his fear of going to Pharaoh, his brother sent with him, the contest with the magicians, and the moment the magicians themselves believe and are threatened with death and do not flinch. Then Abraham, Noah, Hud, Salih, Lot and Shu'ayb, each shorter than the last.

Every one of the accounts ends with the same two lines: that in this there is a sign, though most of them do not believe, and that your Lord is the Mighty, the Merciful. Read aloud, the repetition becomes the point. The surah is built like a refrain.

Its name comes from the closing verses, which distinguish between poets — described as followed by those who wander astray, saying what they do not do — and the Prophet, whose words are not poetry. In a society where the poet was the chief maker of reputation, the distinction mattered a great deal.

Among its most quoted lines is Abraham's prayer asking for a sound heart on the day when neither wealth nor sons will be of any use, and his description of the God who created him and guides him, who feeds him and gives him drink, and who heals him when he is ill.

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