Surah Quraysh, The Quraysh

Surah 106 · 4 verses · revealed at Mecca

Quraysh is four verses long and is addressed to the tribe that ran Mecca, naming the two trading journeys their whole prosperity depended on.

The caravans went south to the Yemen in winter and north to Syria in summer, and the safety of those roads was the tribe's great advantage. Other travellers were raided; the Quraysh, as keepers of the sanctuary, were not.

The surah tells them to worship the Lord of this House for that reason — the One who fed them against hunger and made them safe from fear. It is a complete argument in two lines, and it is made entirely out of their own commercial self-interest.

What it does not say is as pointed as what it does. It does not credit the idols in the sanctuary with any of it, although they were the reason the sanctuary was visited and the trade flowed.

Together with Al-Fil before it, the pair form one short account: here is how you were protected, and here is what you gained by it, so here is who should be thanked.

Some early scholars treated this surah and Al-Fil as a single chapter, and it was written that way in at least one of the Companions' copies. The word used for the arrangement of the journeys is a difficult one, carrying the sense of a habit, a bond and a covenant all at once.

Surah Quraysh on this site

Every link below has been opened and checked to make sure there is something on the other side.

Read

Listen

Download as PDF

← Al-Fil Al-Ma'un →