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سُورَةُ النَّحۡلِ · 16:34
MeccanRevelation order ٧٠Juzʾ ١٤Page ٢٧٠

فَأَصَابَهُمْ سَيِّـَٔاتُ مَا عَمِلُوا۟ وَحَاقَ بِهِم مَّا كَانُوا۟ بِهِۦ يَسْتَهْزِءُونَ

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Saheeh International · EN

So they were struck by the evil consequences of what they did and were enveloped by what they used to ridicule.

IntroductionRevelationTafsirTransmissionDebate
Bio

Introduction

This is āyah 34 of Sūrat An-Nahl (The Bee), the 70th sūrah in the traditional order of revelation. It was revealed in the Meccan period and sits within Juzʾ 14. Meccan verses tend to address faith, the oneness of God, and the hereafter.

This introduction is a starting point — the community and Bilal will enrich it over time.

Bio

Revelation & occasion

Asbāb al-Nuzūl
Period
Meccan
Order revealed
70 of 114
Surah
An-Nahl (16)

No specific occasion of revelation (Asbāb al-Nuzūl) is recorded for this āyah in al-Wāḥidī's collection. Many verses were revealed without a single triggering event.

Commentary

Tafsir

4 works

Hafiz Ibn Kathir

Are they but waiting for the angels to come to them, or there comes the command of your Lord? Thus did those before them. And Allah did not wrong them, but they were wronging themselves (33)Then, they were afflicted by their evil deeds, and they were surrounded by that which they used to mock (34) The Disbelievers' Refrain from Faith means that They were simply awaiting Punishment Threatening the idolators for their persistence in falsehood and their conceited delusions about this world, Allah says: Are these people waiting only for the angels to come and take their souls? Qatadah said: أَوْ يَأْتِيَ أَمْرُ رَبِّكَ (Or there comes the command of your Lord?) means the Day of Resurrection and the terror that they will go through." كَذَٰلِكَ فَعَلَ الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ (Thus did those before them.) means, thus did their predecessors and those who were like them among the idolators…
Provenance

Chains of transmission

Oral — isnād

  1. ~610–632 CERevelation & memorisation

    Received by the Prophet ﷺ and preserved by the ḥuffāẓ (memorisers) among the Companions.

  2. 1st century AHMutawātir transmissionawaiting curation

    Carried by mass-transmission through the generations of qurrāʾ.

  3. TodayLiving chainsawaiting curation

    Continuous ijāzah chains link reciters today back to the Prophet ﷺ.

Verified isnād chains for this āyah will be added by curators.

Written — the manuscript record

  1. ~650 CEʿUthmānic codicesawaiting curation

    The standardised muṣḥaf sent to the great cities (e.g. the Topkapı and Samarqand codices).

  2. 8th–10th c.Early Ḥijāzī & Kūfic foliosawaiting curation

    Surviving leaves in Birmingham, Sanaa, Paris (BnF) and beyond.

  3. Modern printModern printawaiting curation

    The 1924 Cairo edition → today: the standard printed muṣḥaf used worldwide.

A curated chain of manuscript images for this exact āyah — roughly one per century — is coming. Help us source and verify them.

The wall

And now — what do you think?

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Provenance

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