Surah Al-Ahzab, The Confederates

Surah 33 · 73 verses · revealed at Medina

Al-Ahzab is named after the allied tribes that besieged Medina in the fifth year after the migration, in what is also called the battle of the trench.

Its account of the siege is unusually honest about fear. It describes eyes turning aside and hearts reaching the throats, people thinking all kinds of thoughts about God, and a group asking openly to be excused because their houses were exposed. It does not tidy any of this away. It then describes the wind that scattered the besiegers, and says the believers were spared a fight they had not won.

The surah also settles a number of matters within the Prophet's own household, and much of what it says was unwelcome to those it applied to. It ends the pre-Islamic custom of treating an adopted son as a natural one, and does so through a case in the Prophet's own family.

It contains the instruction that believing men and believing women should be addressed together, listing ten pairs of qualities and promising both the same reward — one of the clearest statements in the book that its demands and its promises are made to both.

Near the end is the verse in which God and the angels are said to send blessings on the Prophet, and believers are told to do the same. It is the basis of the phrase Muslims add after his name every time they say it.

Surah Al-Ahzab on this site

Every link below has been opened and checked to make sure there is something on the other side.

Read

Listen

Download as PDF

← As-Sajdah Saba →