Sūrah Al-Anbiyāʾ The Prophets
الأنبياء
112 verses, Makkī. A gallery of eighteen prophets named in sequence from Mūsā and Hārūn through Ibrāhīm, Lūṭ, Isḥāq, Yaʿqūb, Nūḥ, Dāwūd, Sulaymān, Ayyūb, Ismāʿīl, Idrīs, Dhū l-Kifl, Dhū l-Nūn, Zakariyyā, Yaḥyā, and Maryam ﷺ. All carried the same message: worship Allah alone.
Surah Overview
Key Themes from Ibn Kathīr
Every prophet sent with the same message (21:25): "And We sent not before you any messenger except that We revealed to him that there is no deity except Me so worship Me." Ibn Kathīr: this is the unbroken chain of tawḥīd across all of human history. The differences between prophets were in the laws (sharāʾiʿ) not the creed (ʿaqīdah).
Ibrāhīm ﷺ and the smashing of idols (21:58–67): He broke all the idols but the largest "Perhaps they will ask it." When accused: "Ask them, if they can speak." The people were confounded then said: "You know these do not speak." He replied: "Then do you worship besides Allah what cannot benefit you at all?" Ibn Kathīr: rational argument against idolatry the idol cannot even defend itself.
The duʿāʾ of Dhū l-Nūn (21:87): "There is no deity except You exalted are You! Indeed I have been of the wrongdoers." Ibn Kathīr cites the ḥadīth: whoever makes this duʿāʾ, Allah will respond to him for any need.
- Ayyūb's ﷺ trial (21:83–84): "Adversity has touched me, and you are the Most Merciful of the merciful." Allah responded removed his adversity, restored his family, and doubled it. Ibn Kathīr: ṣabr (patience) in calamity combined with duʿāʾ is the prophetic method.
- The heavens and earth were once joined (21:30): "Do the disbelievers not see that the heavens and earth were a joined entity, then We separated them?" And made from water every living thing. Ibn Kathīr: this verse was recited by Muslims centuries before modern cosmology discussed the Big Bang.
- Every soul will taste death (21:35): And We test you with evil and with good as a trial and to Us you will be returned. Ibn Kathīr: both prosperity and adversity are tests not signs of favour or divine anger in themselves.
- "Mercy to the worlds" (21:107): The scholars debate "worlds" (ʿālamīn) does it include only humans and jinn, or also animals? Ibn Kathīr notes: the Prophet's ﷺ presence even benefited those who rejected him by delaying their punishment.
- The righteous will inherit the earth (21:105): "And We have already written in the Psalms after the previous mention that the land shall be inherited by My righteous servants." Ibn Kathīr: this promise will be fulfilled either in this world or in the Paradise that is the ultimate earth.