Surah Al-Bayyinah, The Clear Evidence

Surah 98 · 8 verses · revealed at Medina

Al-Bayyinah takes its name from the clear evidence it says was owed to people before they could be expected to change.

Its opening is a single long sentence, unusual among the short surahs: that those who disbelieved among the people of earlier scripture, and those who associated others with God, were not going to leave off until the clear evidence came to them — a messenger from God reciting purified pages containing upright writings.

What follows is the observation that division among them came after the evidence arrived, not before it. The surah is careful about that sequence, as it is elsewhere in the Qur'an: disagreement is described as something that happens after knowledge rather than for want of it.

It then states, in one verse, what was asked of them in the first place — to worship God sincerely, to keep up the prayer, and to give the due share of their wealth — and calls that the upright religion.

It is among the surahs the Prophet is reported to have asked a Companion to recite in his presence, and it ends with a description of the reward for those who believe and do good: gardens beneath which rivers flow, God being pleased with them and they with Him, and that being for whoever stands in awe of their Lord.

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