Ash-Shams
سُورَةُ الشَّمۡسِ
بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
عن سورة Ash-Shams
Meccan · 15 آية
المحاور الرئيسية
The soul's purification, divine oaths by nature, the story of Thamud and their transgression
الأهمية والفضل
Ash-Shams (The Sun) opens with eleven consecutive oaths — by the sun, the moon, the day, the night, the sky, the earth, and the soul — building to the single Quranic statement most foundational to Islamic spiritual psychology: "Successful is the one who purifies his soul, and failed is the one who corrupts it." No other surah in the Quran concentrates such a complete statement of human success and failure in a single pair of verses.
شرح آية محورية
Ayah 9–10 ("Successful is the one who purifies it, and failed is the one who corrupts it") make tazkiyat al-nafs (purification of the soul) the ultimate criterion of human success. Classical scholars note that the object "it" (the soul) appears without qualification — the entirety of one's soul, in all its dimensions, is the field of either cultivation or corruption. The oaths that precede these verses establish nature's agreement: the cosmos itself testifies to this truth.
الأعمال المرتبطة
The concept of tazkiyat al-nafs derived from this surah became one of the foundational sciences of Islam, with entire scholarly traditions (particularly in Islamic spirituality and tasawwuf) devoted to it. The story of Thamud's transgression against the she-camel (91:11–15) is used in Islamic environmental ethics as a case study in the divine prohibition of transgression against natural life.
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ وَالشَّمْسِ وَضُحَاهَا 1
By the sun and its brightness
وَالْقَمَرِ إِذَا تَلَاهَا 2
And [by] the moon when it follows it
وَالنَّهَارِ إِذَا جَلَّاهَا 3
And [by] the day when it displays it
وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا يَغْشَاهَا 4
And [by] the night when it covers it
وَالسَّمَاءِ وَمَا بَنَاهَا 5
And [by] the sky and He who constructed it
وَالْأَرْضِ وَمَا طَحَاهَا 6
And [by] the earth and He who spread it
وَنَفْسٍ وَمَا سَوَّاهَا 7
And [by] the soul and He who proportioned it
فَأَلْهَمَهَا فُجُورَهَا وَتَقْوَاهَا 8
And inspired it [with discernment of] its wickedness and its righteousness,
قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَنْ زَكَّاهَا 9
He has succeeded who purifies it,
وَقَدْ خَابَ مَنْ دَسَّاهَا 10
And he has failed who instills it [with corruption].
كَذَّبَتْ ثَمُودُ بِطَغْوَاهَا 11
Thamud denied [their prophet] by reason of their transgression,
إِذِ انْبَعَثَ أَشْقَاهَا 12
When the most wretched of them was sent forth.
فَقَالَ لَهُمْ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ نَاقَةَ اللَّهِ وَسُقْيَاهَا 13
And the messenger of Allah [Salih] said to them, "[Do not harm] the she-camel of Allah or [prevent her from] her drink."
فَكَذَّبُوهُ فَعَقَرُوهَا فَدَمْدَمَ عَلَيْهِمْ رَبُّهُمْ بِذَنْبِهِمْ فَسَوَّاهَا 14
But they denied him and hamstrung her. So their Lord brought down upon them destruction for their sin and made it equal [upon all of them].
وَلَا يَخَافُ عُقْبَاهَا 15
And He does not fear the consequence thereof.