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سُورَةُ الشُّعَرَاءِ · 26:3
MeccanRevelation order ٤٧Juzʾ ١٩Page ٣٦٧

لَعَلَّكَ بَٰخِعٌۭ نَّفْسَكَ أَلَّا يَكُونُوا۟ مُؤْمِنِينَ

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Saheeh International · EN

Perhaps, [O Muhammad], you would kill yourself with grief that they will not be believers.

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Introduction

This is āyah 3 of Sūrat Ash-Shu'araa (The Poets), the 47th sūrah in the traditional order of revelation. It was revealed in the Meccan period and sits within Juzʾ 19. 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
47 of 114
Surah
Ash-Shu'araa (26)
Occasion of revelation · Al-Wahidi

Perhaps thou tormentest thyself because they are not of the faithful. He is saying, “O master, they are a handful of the estranged, the objects of My harsh and forceful severity. Why do you occupy your heart with them? Why do you make yourself suffer because they will not believe? Turn them over to My decree and busy your heart with My love and com- panionship. Whenever a heart takes its ease in My love and companionship, it has no room for any other.” Sahl ʿAlī Marwazī was asked, “What is the greatest of God's generous gifts to the servant?” He said, “That He empty his heart of everyone but Him.” Junayd was asked, “When is the heart happy?” He said, “When He is inside the heart.” Shaykh al-Islām said, “He is not in the heart by His Essence. Rather the remembrance of Him is in the heart, love for Him in the secret core, and gazing upon Him in the spirit. In contemplation there is first the heart's vision, then the heart's proximity, then the heart's finding, then the heart's seeing face-to-face, then proximity's mastery over the heart, then the heart's dissolution in face-to- face vision. Beyond that, nothing can be expressed.” I set off on the oceans of love not knowing their measure- oceans that do not quench the fire of those who drown.

Commentary

Tafsir

4 works

Hafiz Ibn Kathir

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. طسم - تِلْكَ آيَاتُ الْكِتَابِ الْمُبِينِ - لَعَلَّكَ بَاخِعٌ نَّفْسَكَ أَلَّا يَكُونُوا مُؤْمِنِينَ - إِن نَّشَأْ نُنَزِّلْ عَلَيْهِم مِّنَ السَّمَاءِ آيَةً فَظَلَّتْ أَعْنَاقُهُمْ لَهَا خَاضِعِينَ - وَمَا يَأْتِيهِم مِّن ذِكْرٍ مِّنَ الرَّحْمَٰنِ مُحْدَثٍ إِلَّا كَانُوا عَنْهُ مُعْرِضِينَ - فَقَدْ كَذَّبُوا فَسَيَأْتِيهِمْ أَنبَاءُ مَا كَانُوا بِهِ يَسْتَهْزِئُونَ - أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا إِلَى الْأَرْضِ كَمْ أَنبَتْنَا فِيهَا مِن كُلِّ زَوْجٍ كَرِيمٍ - إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَةً ۖ وَمَا كَانَ أَكْثَرُهُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ - وَإِنَّ رَبَّكَ لَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الرَّحِيمُ (1. Ta Sin Mim.)(2. These are Ayat of the Book Mubin.)(3. It may be that you are going Bakhi' yourself, that they do not become believers.)(4. If We will, We could send down to them from the heaven a sign, to which they would bend t…
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.

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Provenance

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