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سُورَةُ سَبَإٍ · 34:53
MeccanRevelation order ٥٨Juzʾ ٢٢Page ٤٣٤

وَقَدْ كَفَرُوا۟ بِهِۦ مِن قَبْلُ ۖ وَيَقْذِفُونَ بِٱلْغَيْبِ مِن مَّكَانٍۭ بَعِيدٍۢ

٥٣
Saheeh International · EN

And they had already disbelieved in it before and would assault the unseen from a place far away.

IntroductionRevelationTafsirTransmissionDebate
Bio

Introduction

This is āyah 53 of Sūrat Saba (Sheba), the 58th sūrah in the traditional order of revelation. It was revealed in the Meccan period and sits within Juzʾ 22. 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
58 of 114
Surah
Saba (34)

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

And if you could but see, when they will be terrified with no escape, and they will be seized from a near place (51)And they will say: "We do believe (now);" but how could they receive (Tanawush) from a place so far off (52)Indeed they did disbelieve before (in this world), and they (used to) conjecture about the Unseen, from a far place (53)And a barrier will be set between them and that which they desire, as was done in the past with the people of their kind. Verily, they have been in grave doubt (54) Here Allah says: 'if only you could see, O Muhammad, when these deniers are terrified on the Day of Resurrection, and they have no way of escape and nowhere to run to and no refuge.' وَأُخِذُوا مِنْ مَكَانٍ قَرِيبٍ (and they will be seized from a near place.) means, they will not even be given the slightest chance of escape, but they will be seized from the first instant. Al-Hasan Al-B…
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?

The text, its history and the classical commentary are laid out above. Share your own understanding, ask a question, or reason with others.

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Provenance

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