Sūrah Al-Muddaththir The Cloaked One
المدثر
56 verses, Makkī. O you cloaked arise and warn. The very beginning of the open mission. The punishment of al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah who heard the Qurʾān and said "it is magic transmitted from old." The nineteen guardians of Hellfire. Not one thing will the intercession of intercessors avail the sinners.
Surah Overview
Key Themes from Ibn Kathīr
The curse on al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah (74:11–25): Al-Walīd listened to the Qurʾān at the Kaʿbah and privately admitted it was beautiful and no human could produce it. Then he said publicly: "This is only magic transmitted from old." Allah revealed: "Leave Me with the one I created alone and to whom I granted extensive wealth, and children present, and I spread his affairs, then he desires that I should add more. No! Indeed he has been toward Our signs obstinate. I will cover him with arduous suffering." Ibn Kathīr: the ten steps of al-Walīd's rejection documented the Qurʾān preserved his own conscience's admission and his deliberate public lie.
The nineteen guardians as a test (74:30–31): "Over it are nineteen and We have not made the keepers of the Fire except angels and We have not made their number except as a trial for those who disbelieve..." Abū Jahl mocked: can nineteen stop you? We'll fight nineteen with ten each! But the verse then says their number is a cause of certainty for the believers, increase in faith for those given the book, and increase in doubt for the hypocrites and disbelievers. Ibn Kathīr: the same information has opposite effects on different hearts it is a sorting mechanism from Allah.
- The six reasons people of Hell (74:42–47): They will be asked: What brought you into Hell? They will say: We were not of those who prayed; and we did not used to feed the poor; and we used to engage in vain talk with those who engaged in it; and we used to deny the Day of Recompense until certainty (death) came to us. Ibn Kathīr: four community-destroying sins listed together.
- Do not give to gain more (74:6): "And do not confer favour seeking more." Ibn Kathīr: give without expecting worldly return generosity must be purely for Allah, not for social status or future advantage.
- The one who turns away (74:23–25): Al-Walīd turned away then he plotted be cursed, how he plotted! Then he looked then he frowned and he scowled then he turned back and was arrogant. Then he said: "This is only magic transmitted from old this is not but the word of a human." Ibn Kathīr: the eight stages of deliberate rejection mapped in the Qurʾān the most detailed portrait of a disbeliever's psychology.
- Every soul in pledge (74:38): "Every soul for what it has earned is in pledge." Ibn Kathīr: every soul is a collateral held against its deeds only those who have done good are freed; the sinful remain in debt to divine justice.
- The night is a witness (74:33–34): "By the night when it departs by the morning when it brightens." Ibn Kathīr: the oath by time the night that passes and the morning that comes are witnesses to human choices made in each period.