Sura al-Qalam: Difference between revisions

Since this Quranic sura involves the word, "al-Qalam" (pen) in its first verse where God has sworn to the pen and what is written by it, it came to be known as "Sura al-Qalam". And since it begins with the disjoined letter, "n" (nūn), it also came to be called "Sura al-Nun" ({{ia|سورة النون}}) or "Sura Nun wa l-Qalam" ({{ia|سورة نون و القَلَم}}).

Reciters and [[exegetes]] of the [[Qur'an]] agree that this sura has 52 verses, 301 words, and 1288 letters. With respect to its volume, it counts as one of the [[mufassalat]] suras; it is about half of [[hizb]] of the Qur'an.

In the traditional order of compilation, Sura al-Qalam is the 68th sura of the Qur'an, and in the chronological [[order of revelation]], it is the 5th or the second Quranic sura. It is the 29th and the last Quranic sura which begins with [[al-muqatta'at]] (disjoined letters), and the 10th Quranic sura which begins with swearing. Many exegetes of the Qur'an take this sura to be wholly [[Makki]], and others take verses 17 to 33 as well as verses 48 to 50 to be [[Madani]] and the rest to be Makki.

Themes of this sura can be classified as follows:

[[Verse]]s 17 of Sura al-Qalam onwards report the story of some wealthy people who had a green, flourishing garden in [[Yemen]]. The garden was owned by an old man who made a living from it and gave the rest of the products to people in need. After his death, his children decided to take the whole benefits of the garden for themselves and not give anything to the poor people. Because of this, a thunderstorm stroke their garden and set it on fire. As a result, nothing was left from the garden. One of the brothers invited the others to [[God]] and they [[Repentance|repented]] from their behavior. The verse 33 of this [[sura]] points out that arrogance or ignoring needy people has such a [[Divine Reward and Punishment|punishment]] as a consequence.

Verses 51 and 52 of this sura are known as "Wa In Yakad Verse" or the "Verse of Evil Eye". Many people in [[Iran]] put boards or cloths containing this verse on the walls of their houses or work places, because they believe that it helps to prevent [[evil eye]]s. However, some scholars, such as [[Morteza Motahhari]], believe that this verse, or having it in one's house or work place, is irrelevant to evil eyes, although evil eyes do have effects.

There is a [[hadith]] from [[Imam al-Sadiq (a)]] concerning the merits of reciting Sura al-Qalam. According to the hadith, if someone recites this sura in his [[Al-Wajib (fiqh)|obligatory]] or [[mustahab prayer]], God will protect him against poverty and he will be immune to the [[pressure of the grave]].

According to another hadith, the reward for reciting Sura al-Qalam is equal to that of a person the fulfilment of whose wishes is postponed by [[God]]. It is also said that if this sura is written on something and is put on a damaged tooth, one's toothache will calm down then.

* The material for this article is mainly taken from [[:fa:سوره قلم|{{ia|سوره قلم}}]] in Farsi WikiShia.

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