Surah As-Saff, The Ranks

Surah 61 · 14 verses · revealed at Medina

As-Saff is named after a verse saying that God loves those who fight in His cause in ranks, as though they were a solid structure.

Its opening is one of the sharpest rebukes in the Qur'an, and it is aimed at believers rather than at anyone else: why do you say what you do not do — it is most hateful to God that you say what you do not do. Reports say some of the Muslims had asked what deed God loved most so that they could do it, and had then hesitated when told.

The surah quotes Moses telling his people not to hurt him when they knew he was God's messenger to them, and Jesus telling the Children of Israel that he confirms what came before him and gives news of a messenger to come after him.

It then offers what it calls a trade that will save you from a painful punishment — to believe in God and His messenger and to strive with your wealth and your lives — and says it is better for you, if only you knew.

It is short, only fourteen verses, and it ends by asking the believers to be helpers of God as the disciples were when Jesus asked the same question of them.

It opens by saying that whatever is in the heavens and the earth glorifies God, which places it among a group of surahs known by that shared opening. Muslims who read the Qur'an in sections often take them together for that reason.

Surah As-Saff on this site

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