Surah 25 of 114 · Makkah
سُورَةُ الفُرۡقَانِ
Al-Furqan The Criterion
77 verses · revealed in Makkah
The context
Al-Furqan is Makkan and its first half is a record of the specific objections raised against the Prophet ﷺ, quoted rather than summarised. What is this messenger who eats food and walks in the markets? Why was an angel not sent down with him? Why was the Qur'an not revealed to him all at once? Why does he not have a treasure, or a garden?
The surah answers each and then does something more interesting. It stops arguing and describes instead, at length and in the last fifteen verses, what the people it is defending actually look like when they walk down a street. The answer to a caricature turns out to be a portrait.
The name
Al-Furqan, the Criterion: the thing that separates. It is a name for the Qur'an itself, given in the surah's first verse, and it names the surah's function. Everything in it is a sorting, between a messenger who eats and an angel who does not, between water that is sweet and water that is salt, between deeds that weigh and deeds that turn out to be scattered dust.
How it moves
- 1-20The objections, quotedThe demands for an angel, a treasure, a garden, and the observation that messengers before him also ate food and walked in the markets.
- 21-34The Day they see the angelsThe scene of regret, the Messenger's complaint that his people took this Qur'an as a thing abandoned, and the reason the revelation came gradually: to make firm your heart.
- 35-44The nations beforeMusa, Nuh, Ad and Thamud, and the man who has taken his own desire as his god.
- 45-60Signs, quietlyThe shadow lengthening, night as a covering, sleep as rest, wind before mercy, the two seas that do not mix, and the human being made from water and given lineage.
- 61-77The servants of the MercifulFifteen verses describing them: how they walk, how they answer the ignorant, how they spend, what they ask for, ending with the du'a for a family that is a comfort to the eyes.
The themes
A caricature answered with a portrait
The surah spends its first half refuting what was said about the believers and its last quarter simply describing them, which is the more effective of the two.
Gradual revelation as mercy
The objection that the Qur'an came piece by piece is answered directly: thus, that We may strengthen your heart by it, and We have spaced it distinctly.
Deeds that turn out to be nothing
We will regard what they have done of deeds and make them as dust dispersed. The image is of work that was real and weighed nothing.
Abandoning a book you own
The Messenger's complaint on that Day is not that they burned it or denied it, but that they took it as mahjur, a thing left alone.
The heart of it
Recited slowly, the last fifteen verses are the ones that do the work. They describe a way of being in public that most people would recognise instantly and few could sustain for a day: walking without swagger, answering an aggressive stranger with peace, spending without extravagance and without meanness, standing at night, and asking for a family that will be a comfort to look at.
The complaint in verse 30 is the one that stops readers who already own several copies of the Qur'an. My Lord, indeed my people have taken this Qur'an as a thing abandoned. It is said about people who kept it, honoured it, and did not open it.
Verses worth knowing
- 25:30My people have taken this Qur'an as a thing abandoned. Worth reading beside your own shelf.
- 25:63The servants of the Merciful walk upon the earth gently, and when the ignorant address them, they say peace.
- 25:67When they spend, they are neither extravagant nor stingy, but between that, justly moderate.
- 25:74Our Lord, grant us from among our spouses and offspring a comfort to our eyes. The du'a most parents eventually memorise.
On reciting it
No authentic report establishes a specific merit for reciting Al-Furqan. Its standing rests on the closing passage, the description of the servants of the Merciful, which has been used as a portrait of Muslim character for as long as there has been anyone to read it.
No virtue report
Read beside it
On the shelf
- 25:1Al-Furqan · 25:1
- 25:47Al-Furqan · 25:47
- 25:53Al-Furqan · 25:53
- 25:54Al-Furqan · 25:54
- 25:58Al-Furqan · 25:58
- 25:61Al-Furqan · 25:61
- 25:62Al-Furqan · 25:62
- 25:63Al-Furqan · 25:63
- 25:64Al-Furqan · 25:64
- 25:67Al-Furqan · 25:67
- 25:70Al-Furqan · 25:70
- 25:71Al-Furqan · 25:71
- 25:72Al-Furqan · 25:72
- 25:74Al-Furqan · 25:74
Surahs it travels with