Surah At-Taghabun, The Mutual Loss and Gain

Surah 64 · 18 verses · revealed at Medina

At-Taghabun is named after a day it calls the day of mutual loss and gain, using a word taken from trade, where one party comes away better off than the other.

The surah is short and mostly consists of plain statements. That God created the heavens and the earth in truth and shaped people and made their shapes good. That He knows what is in the heavens and the earth and what people conceal and what they reveal. That no misfortune strikes except by God's permission.

Its most discussed passage says that among your spouses and your children there are enemies to you, and tells people to be careful — and then, in the same breath, to pardon and overlook and forgive. Commentators have generally read it as being about the pull of family towards what is easy rather than about family as such, and the instruction that follows supports that reading.

It repeats the line from Al-Munafiqun about wealth and children being a trial, and adds that with God is a great reward.

Its closing instruction is the one people quote most: be conscious of God as much as you are able. The phrase has been used for centuries by those arguing that the religion asks for effort rather than perfection.

It opens by saying that whatever is in the heavens and the earth glorifies God, and it is the last of the group of surahs that begin that way. After it the Qur'an turns to the closing run of short Medinan chapters on family and community life.

Surah At-Taghabun on this site

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