Sūrah Al-Qamar The Moon
القمر
55 verses, Makkī. The splitting of the moon a physical miracle witnessed by the Quraysh who still called it sorcery. The stories of Nūḥ, ʿĀd, Thamūd, Lūṭ, and Pharaoh each destroyed. The refrain repeated four times: "And We have certainly made the Qurʾān easy for remembrance is there any who will remember?"
Surah Overview
Key Themes from Ibn Kathīr
The splitting of the moon (54:1–2): "The Hour has come near, and the moon has split. And if they see a sign they turn away and say: Ongoing magic." Ibn Kathīr cites multiple authentic ḥadīths transmitted by ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd, Anas ibn Mālik, ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās, and others all confirming the moon split in two halves visible from Makkah during the time of the Prophet ﷺ. The polytheists acknowledged they saw it but attributed it to sorcery.
The five destroyed nations a pattern (54:9–42): Nūḥ called his people they rejected and mocked. ʿĀd they rejected "We sent upon them a screaming wind in days of persistent ill-fortune." Thamūd they hamstrung the camel and rejected "The Ṣayḥah seized them." Lūṭ rejected "We sent upon them stones of baked clay." Pharaoh rejected "We destroyed him and all who were with him." Ibn Kathīr: the same pattern repeated to warn the Quraysh that they faced the same fate.
- The Day as a swarm of locusts (54:7): "Their eyes humbled, they will emerge from the graves as if they are locusts spreading." Ibn Kathīr: the resurrection described as a swarm billions of humans rising simultaneously, filling the earth, overwhelming in number, eyes downcast.
- Nūḥ's duʿāʾ (54:10): "He called to his Lord: I am overpowered so help me." The shortest, most powerful duʿāʾ of a Prophet and the immediate response: the flood came. Ibn Kathīr: this shows the power of sincere duʿāʾ from a broken heart it changes the physical world.
- The Thamūd hamstringing the she-camel (54:29): "They called their companion, so he dared and hamstrung her." Ibn Kathīr: one man acted but the entire tribe was held accountable because they supported him. The sin of a community that permits evil falls on all.
- Everything by measure (54:49): "Indeed We have created everything according to a measure (qadar)." Ibn Kathīr: the clearest Qurʾānic statement of divine decree nothing is random, nothing is outside Allah's knowledge and will, everything has been measured and decreed.
- The righteous in gardens (54:54–55): "Indeed the righteous will be among gardens and rivers in a seat of honour with an All-Powerful King." Ibn Kathīr: the final image of the surah the believer in the presence of the divine, described not just by pleasures but by the honour of proximity to the Most Powerful.