Surah Az-Zukhruf, The Gold Ornaments

Surah 43 · 89 verses · revealed at Mecca

Az-Zukhruf is named after the gold ornaments the Meccans thought a true messenger ought to have, and which the surah says are worth nothing much.

Their objection is quoted directly: why was this Qur'an not sent down to a great man of one of the two towns. The reply is the surah's sharpest passage. Were it not that people would become one single community of unbelievers, God would have given those who reject the Merciful roofs of silver for their houses and stairways to climb, and doors and couches to recline on, and ornaments of gold — and all of it would be nothing but the enjoyment of this life.

The surah also records the argument that they were simply following their fathers, and answers it with Abraham, who did not follow his.

Jesus appears near the end, described as a servant on whom God bestowed favour and made an example for the Children of Israel, and the surah is direct about the disputes that grew up around him afterwards.

It contains the traveller's prayer that Muslims say on setting out — glory to the One who has made this subject to us, and we could not have managed it ourselves — recited when boarding anything from a camel to an aeroplane.

One of its lines has been quoted in Muslim writing about company ever since: that whoever turns away from the remembrance of the Merciful is assigned a devil who becomes his close companion. The surah adds that such companions keep people from the path while they think themselves rightly guided.

Surah Az-Zukhruf on this site

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