Sūrah Al-Muddaththir The Cloaked One
سورة المدثر
A Makkan sūrah of 56 verses. Al-Ṭabarī examines the occasion of revelation (the Prophet cloaked in fear after the first revelation), the account of al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah's deliberations, and the nineteen guardians of Hell.
Surah Overview
Key Themes from Al-Ṭabarī
The fatrah (pause in revelation) account (74: introduction) is analyzed by al-Ṭabarī through the famous Jābir chain: after the first revelation, there was a pause during which the Prophet was distressed. Then while walking he saw Jibrīl on a throne between heaven and earth. He returned home shaken and asked to be covered (dathara) and the verse "O you who wraps himself" was revealed. Al-Ṭabarī uses this chain to establish the occasion of revelation and the transition from the first personal revelation (ʿAlaq) to the public mission (Muddaththir).
The al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah account (74:11–29) is analyzed through chains from Ibn ʿAbbās as one of the most detailed psychological portraits of a disbeliever in the Quran. Al-Walīd was asked what the Prophet was: a poet? a madman? a soothsayer? a sorcerer? He deliberated publicly, tried each accusation, then settled on "he is a sorcerer who separates a man from his family." The Quran describes his deliberation process in detail, then announces his fate. Al-Ṭabarī traces each step through chain-verified accounts from witnesses to al-Walīd's public deliberations.
- Revelation sequence: Al-Ṭabarī's chain analysis establishes Muddaththir as the second major revelation after a fatrah the transition point from private experience to public mission.
- Al-Walīd psychology: The Quran's detailed account of al-Walīd's deliberation is treated as a real psychological portrait al-Ṭabarī traces each step through witness chains.
- Nineteen guardians: The specific number generates chains on why this number al-Ṭabarī notes the Companion Abū Jahl mocked it as too few, prompting 74:31's response on angelic power.
- Fatrah experience: The pause in revelation and the Prophet's distress during it is treated as a real historical experience through chains not a theological abstraction.
- Sakar description: 74:26–29's description of "Sakar" (Hell) as leaving nothing and sparing nothing is analyzed through chains as a physical reality, not metaphor.