Surah Al-Mursalat, Those Sent Forth

Surah 77 · 50 verses · revealed at Mecca

Al-Mursalat opens with five oaths in five short lines and then repeats a single sentence ten times through the rest of the surah: woe that day to those who deny.

The repetition is the surah's whole structure. Each time the line returns, it follows a different piece of evidence — the making of a person from a fluid despised, the earth made to hold the living and the dead, the mountains set firm, the stars put out, the sky split, the messengers given their appointed time.

In between it asks two questions that have stayed in the language: did We not destroy the earlier peoples, and then make the later ones follow them. And, did We not create you from a fluid held in a safe place for a known term.

One passage describes those who denied being told to go to what they used to call a lie, to a shadow of smoke with three columns that gives no shade and is of no use against the flame. It is among the bleakest images in the book.

Another says simply that this is a day when they will not speak and will not be permitted to offer excuses. The surah is short, fast and hard, and is recited often in the last third of the night.

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