Surah As-Saffat, Those Ranged in Ranks

Surah 37 · 182 verses · revealed at Mecca

As-Saffat opens with an oath by those ranged in ranks, understood as the angels, and it is built throughout on short lines and a driving rhythm.

Its centre is Abraham. He asks for a son, is given one, and then sees in a dream that he is sacrificing him. What follows is one of the most restrained passages in the Qur'an: he tells the boy what he has seen and asks what he thinks, and the boy tells him to do as he is commanded and that he will be found patient. The son is not named here. He is ransomed with a great sacrifice, and the surah moves on.

Around this sit brief accounts of Noah, Moses and Aaron, Elias and Lot, and a longer one of Jonah, cast onto the open shore while he was sick, with a gourd plant made to grow over him.

The surah also describes a conversation in the next life between two men who had known each other in this one, one of whom had asked the other whether he really believed in a reckoning. They meet again, and the surah lets the scene do the arguing.

Its closing three verses are recited at the end of gatherings across the Muslim world: glory to your Lord, the Lord of might, above what they describe; peace be on the messengers; and praise be to God, Lord of the worlds.

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