Sab' Tiwal
Tiwal or Sab’ Tiwal (Arabic: السبع الطوال) is a title for seven long suras at the beginning of the Qur'an, which are according to a hadith, named by the Prophet (s). These seven suras which are all Madani except al-An'am and al-A'raf are: al-Baqara, Al 'Imran, al-Nisa', al-Ma'ida, al-An'am, al-A'raf and al-Tawba.
Some have considered Sura Yunus instead of al-Tawba and some others have considered suras al-Anfal and al-Tawba together as one of the seven Tiwal suras.
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Meaning
"Tiwal" means "long". It seems that the cause of naming these seven suras as "Tiwal suras" is because of their great lengths in comparison to other suras of the Qur'an.
Naming
According to a hadith, naming these seven suras as Tiwal was made by the Prophet (s),
- "I am given Tiwal suras instead of the Torah, and Sunan suras instead of the Gospel, Mathani suras instead of the Psalms and I am prioritized over them by Mufassal suras which are 68 ones; and the Qur'an is superior to other books of past prophets."
Tiwal Suras
The seven suras at the beginning of the Qur'an (after Sura al-Fatiha) which are known as Tiwal suras are:
- Sura al-Baqara, the second sura of the Qur'an which has 286 verses. This sura is Madani and is the longest sura of the Qur'an.
- Sura Al 'Imran is the second sura among Tiwal suras which is Madani and has 200 verses.
- Sura al-Nisa' is the third sura among Tiwal suras which is Madani and has 176 verses.
- Sura al-Ma'ida is the fourth sura among Tiwal suras which is Madani and has 120 verses.
- Sura al-An'am is the first Makki sura and the fifth among Tiwal suras which has 165 verses.
- Sura al-A'raf the same as Sura al-An'am is a Makki sura which is considered among Tiwal suras due to its volume and has 206 verses.
- Sura al-Tawba which is the seventh sura among Tiwal suras is a Madani sura and has 129 verses.
Some have considered Sura Yunus instead of al-Tawba and some others have considered Suras al-Anfal and al-Tawba together as one of the seven Tiwal suras.
References
- The material for this article is mainly taken from سبع طوال in Farsi WikiShia.
