Sūrah Luqmān Luqman
لقمان
34 verses, Makkī. Luqmān was a wise man not a prophet, but given wisdom. Ibn Kathīr covers his famous counsel to his son in nine pieces of advice spanning five verses: the prohibition of shirk, gratitude to parents, divine omniscience, establishing prayer, commanding good, forbidding evil, being patient, and avoiding arrogance.
Surah Overview
Key Themes from Ibn Kathīr
The nine wisdoms (31:13–19): (1) Do not associate with Allah shirk is a mighty wrong. (2) Be grateful to Me and to your parents. (3) Even if a deed is the weight of a mustard seed within a rock, Allah will bring it. (4) Establish prayer. (5) Command the right. (6) Forbid the wrong. (7) Be patient over whatever afflicts you indeed that is firm resolution. (8) Do not turn your cheek in contempt toward people. (9) Walk modestly and lower your voice the most disagreeable of voices is the voice of donkeys. Ibn Kathīr: nine comprehensive counsels covering theology, ethics, worship, and character.
"Allah gave Luqmān wisdom" (31:12): Ibn Kathīr records that Luqmān was a righteous black man a carpenter according to some narrations, a shepherd according to others. He was offered prophethood or wisdom he chose wisdom. Ibn Kathīr: the choice reveals his wisdom even before receiving it.
- Gratitude to parents alongside gratitude to Allah (31:14): "And We have enjoined upon man concern for his parents his mother carried him in weakness upon weakness and his weaning is in two years. Be grateful to Me and to your parents to Me is the final destination." Parental gratitude is the closest thing in the Qurʾān to divine gratitude.
- Obey parents but not in shirk (31:15): "But if they endeavour to make you associate with Me what you have no knowledge of do not obey them, but accompany them in this world with appropriate kindness." Full kindness in worldly matters; refusal only in the matter of shirk.
- The five matters of the unseen (31:34): "Indeed Allah with Him is the knowledge of the Hour. He sends down the rain, He knows what is in the wombs, no soul knows what it will earn tomorrow, and no soul knows in what land it will die." The five things known only to Allah the seal of the surah.
- The ocean as ink (31:27): "If whatever trees upon the earth were pens and the sea was ink, replenished thereafter by seven seas the words of Allah would not be exhausted." Ibn Kathīr: a parallel to 18:109 the infinity of divine wisdom and speech.
- Do not walk with arrogance (31:18): "And do not turn your cheek in contempt toward people and do not walk through the earth exultantly indeed Allah does not like everyone self-deluded and boastful." The physical posture of the arrogant is condemned before its internal reality.