Surah Al-Jathiyah, The Kneeling

Surah 45 · 37 verses · revealed at Mecca

Al-Jathiyah is named after a scene near its end, in which every community is seen kneeling, each called to its own record.

It is a short surah and its argument is tightly made. It begins with signs — the heavens and the earth, the creation of people and the creatures spread about, the alternation of night and day, the rain that revives dead land, the shifting of the winds — and states after each group that these are signs for people who think, or who are certain, or who use their reason.

It then describes the person who has taken his own desire as his god, and whom God has left to it, sealing his hearing and his heart and placing a covering over his sight. The phrase has been quoted in every century since, usually about somebody else.

It also quotes those who said there is nothing but our life in this world, we die and we live and nothing destroys us but time. The surah answers that they have no knowledge of this and are only guessing — one of the earliest recorded exchanges between the Qur'an and a straightforwardly materialist position.

Near the beginning is the instruction to forgive those who do not look forward to the days of God, so that He may reward people for what they have earned. It was revealed in Mecca while the community had no power to do anything else.

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