Surah Al-Insan, The Human Being

Surah 76 · 31 verses · revealed at Medina

Al-Insan begins by asking whether there was not a period of time when a human being was not a thing worth mentioning, and its answer shapes everything that follows.

It is also called Ad-Dahr, time, from that opening line. It says that a person was made from a drop of mixed fluid to be tested, and given hearing and sight, and shown the way, to be either grateful or ungrateful. The whole of the surah's moral argument sits in those two words.

Its most famous passage describes people who give food, despite loving it themselves, to the poor and the orphan and the captive, saying that they feed them for God's sake alone and want neither reward nor thanks from them. Many commentators connect the verses to an incident in the Prophet's family; others read them as a general portrait. Either way it is the Qur'an's clearest statement that the value of giving lies in what is not asked for in return.

The description of the Garden that follows is unusually sensory — cool shade, fruits hanging low, vessels of silver and goblets of crystal, a spring called Salsabil, green garments of fine silk, and a drink that is pure.

The surah ends by telling the Prophet to be patient for his Lord's decision, and to remember His name morning and evening, and to prostrate to Him at night, and to glorify Him for a long part of the night.

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