Ayah Unpacked – Connection Map

Surah Al-Hijr, in outline

All 99 verses in order, grouped into the surah’s sections, with what it is about and what to take from it. The lines between verses come next.

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What this surah is about

A Meccan surah named after al-Hijr, the rocky land where the people of Salih carved their homes. It opens with the promise that Allah Himself has sent down the reminder and will preserve it, and with deniers who would not believe even if a gate in the sky were opened for them. It tells how Adam was created from clay, how Iblis refused to prostrate and vowed to mislead people, except Allah’s sincere servants, and then recounts Ibrahim’s guests and the destruction of Lut’s people, Shu’ayb’s people and Thamud. It ends by telling the Prophet ﷺ he has been given the seven oft-repeated verses and the Quran, and to worship his Lord until what is certain comes.

This page is an outline. Every verse of the surah is drawn below as a bar whose width is the length of that verse in the Arabic, grouped into the surah’s sections, so its shape is visible at a glance. The notes and the lines joining verses to each other and to the rest of the Quran have not been drawn yet; they will be added here, verified against the Arabic, as this surah’s full map is built.

99verses, Meccan
6sections
 the longest verse
15surah in the mushaf

Each bar is one ayah, and its width is how long that ayah actually is. Hover any bar to read the Arabic and Pickthall’s English, or tap one on a phone; click it to open the verse on Quran.com.

Surah Al-Hijr الحجر

Chapter 15 · 99 verses · Meccan · read top to bottom

See every surah drawn this way →

Key takeaways

What to carry away from Surah Al-Hijr. Drawn mainly from The Clear Quran, alongside the tafsir and teachers credited below.

  1. The Quran is preserved by Allah. ‘We sent down the reminder and We will guard it.’
  2. Satan has no power over sincere servants. Only over those who follow him.
  3. Do not despair of His mercy. Ibrahim was told this when the angels brought good news.
  4. You have been given something great. The seven oft-repeated verses and the Quran.
  5. Worship until certainty comes. That is, until death.

Where this comes from

The connections on these maps come from more than one place. Most are counts and comparisons made directly in the Arabic, and those say so. Readings of a word, or of the occasion a surah came down in, come from the classical books of tafsir. Some pages also draw on teachers whose lectures shaped how a surah is read, and they are credited by name below. Every connection names its own source in its popup, so you can always tell whether you are looking at something the text states, something the tafsir records, or one teacher’s reading of it.

Tafsir books

When a page says the commentators, it means the classical works of tafsir, Ibn Kathir and al-Tabari first among them, where the readings of a word, an occasion or a verse are recorded along with who held them. Where those readings differ, the page sets them side by side rather than picking one.

Ibn Kathir on this surah

The Clear Quran

Dr Mustafa Khattab’s thematic English translation. The summary at the top of this page, the key takeaways at the bottom and the way the surah is divided into sections all draw mainly on its surah introductions, section headings and notes, written here in our own words.

theclearquran.org

The text on this page

Arabic is the Uthmani script and numbering follows Hafs. The English is Marmaduke Pickthall’s 1930 translation, which is in the public domain. Its wording is deliberately old-fashioned; every ayah links straight to Quran.com, where you can read the same verse in The Clear Quran, Saheeh International, Abdel Haleem and others.

Surah 15 on Quran.com