Table of Contents

No. 21 (112 verses in 7 sections)

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

In the Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful

1. This Surah, as its name indicates, is the Surah of prophets, since there are mentioned the names of sixteen Divine prophets in it, some of whom are referred to by several main points of their qualities, while some others are only hinted to here.

These divine prophets are: Moses, Aaron, Abraham, Lot, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, David, Solomon, Job, Idris (Inoch), Zul-Kifl, Yunus (Jonah), Zachariah, and Yahya (John).

2. The specialties of the Meccan Suras, the contents of which are upon the religious doctrine, and Origin and End in particular, are quitely seen in this Surah.

3. Another part of the Surah speaks about the triumph of ‘right’ upon ‘wrong’, Monotheism upon polytheism, and the troops of justice over the forces of ’Iblis.

The attractive matter is that this Surah has begun with some intensive warnings unto those mischievous people who are neglectful and unaware about the final reckoning and record, and its concluding part has also been completed with some other warnings in the same field.

The Virtue of Recitation of the Surah

A tradition has been narrated from the holy Prophet of Islam (S) who said:

“Whoever recites Surah Al-’Anbiya’ Allah will take his reckoning easy, (and also On the Day of Hereafter He will not reckon his deeds strictly), and every prophet whose name has been mentioned in the Qur’an will greet him and shake his hands.”1

It is clear that recitation is usually a preliminary stage for contemplation, and contemplation is a preliminary step for Faith and practice.

Section 1: Judgment Getting Nigh

Surah Al-’Anbiya’ - Verse 1

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ‌ اقْتَرَبَ لِلنَّاسِ حِسابُهُمْ وَ هُمْ فِي غَفْلَةٍ مُعْرِضُونَ (1)

In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful

1. “Nigh unto mankind has drawn (the day) of their Reckoning, while they turn away in heedlessness.”

This Surah begins with a vigorous warning unto all people, a shaking and an awakening warning.

It says:

“Nigh unto mankind has drawn (the day) of their Reckoning, while they turn away in heedlessness.”

The people’s daily action shows that this negligence has occupied their whole entity; else, how is it possible that a mortal believes in the fact that Reckoning is nigh, a reckoning done by an extraordinary exact Performer, and yet he takes all the matters perfunctorily so that he pollutes himself with any kind of vice?

The purpose of “nigh is the day of Reckoning and Hereafter’ is that the remaining life of this world, in comparison with that which has passed, is a little time, therefore, Resurrection is nigh. It is a relative nearness, in particular that once the Prophet (S), pointing to his two fingers in one hand, said that his auspicious advent and the Day of Hereafter were like those two fingers.

There arises a question here that, regarding to the fact that ‘Negligence’ is ‘to be inattentive to something’, and /’i‘rad/ (to turn away) is an action which is done with attention, then how is it that ‘negligence’ and ‘turning away’ are usually referred to beside each other?

The answer to this question is that negligence is of two kinds:

The negligence that the person may become aware by a warning.
The negligence which is a preparation for desertion. Such a negligent person does not desire to be aware; like a person who pretends to be asleep and does not open his eyes even when he is called.