Sūrat al-Jinn

Meccan. It contains 28 verses. (Revealed after al-Aʿrāf).

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

{Say: "It has been revealed to me that a group of the jinn listened and said: 'Indeed, we have heard an amazing Qur'an. It guides to the right path, so we have believed in it, and we will never associate anyone with our Lord. And [exalted is] the magnificence of our Lord; He has not taken a wife or a son. And that the foolish among us used to say about Allah an excessive transgression. And we thought that mankind and the jinn would never speak a lie about Allah.'"}

"Say, 'It has been revealed to me...'" It is read as uḥiya (أُحِيَ), originally wuḥiya (وُحِيَ). It is said: awḥā ilayhi and waḥā ilayhi. The wāw was changed into a hamza, as in aʿadda (أعد) and azana (أزن), and {And when the messengers were appointed} [al-Mursalāt: 11]. This is a case of absolute metathesis, permissible for every wāw that carries a ḍamma. Al-Māzinī extended this to the kasra as well, such as ishāḥ (إشاح) and isāda (إسادة), and iʿā’ akhīhi (إعاء أخيه). Ibn Abī ʿAbla read it as waḥā (وحى) according to the original form.

"{That it has been listened to}" Read with a fatḥa (anna) because it is the subject of awḥā.

"{And that we have heard}" Read with a kasra (inna) because it is an initial clause narrated after the verb of saying. The remaining instances are then interpreted based on these two: whatever follows the meaning of "revelation" is read with a fatḥa, and whatever is part of the speech of the Jinn is read with a kasra. All of them are from their speech, except for the two instances: {And that the mosques...} [al-Jinn: 18] and {And that when he stood...} [al-Jinn: 19]. Those who read all of them with a fatḥa do so by connecting them to the position of the prepositional phrase in āmannā bihi (we believed in it), as if it were said: "We believed in it, and we believed that the majesty of our Lord is exalted, and that our foolish one used to say..." and so on for the rest.

"{A group of the Jinn}" A party of them, between three and ten. It is said they were from the Shayṣabān, who are the most numerous of the Jinn, and the general soldiers of Iblīs are from them.

"{So they said, 'Indeed, we have heard'}" Meaning: They said to their people when they returned to them, like His saying: {And when it was concluded, they turned back to their people as warners. They said, "O our people, indeed we have heard a Book..."} [al-Aḥqāf: 29-30].

"{Amazing}" Badīʿan (novel/wondrous), distinct from all other books in the beauty of its composition and the correctness of its meanings, with the proofs of inimitability established within it. ʿAjaban is a verbal noun used in the place of the adjective ʿajīb (amazing). It carries emphasis, meaning that which has exceeded the limits of its forms and counterparts.

"{It guides to the right course}" It calls to what is correct. It is said: to monotheism and faith. The pronoun in bihi (in it) refers to the Qur’an. Since faith in it is faith in Allah, His oneness, and disavowal of polytheism, they said:

"{And we will never associate anyone with our Lord}" Meaning: We will never return to what we were upon of associating others with Him in obedience to Satan. It is possible the pronoun refers to Allah (Exalted and Majestic is He), because His saying {with our Lord} explains it.

"{The majesty of our Lord}" His greatness. From your saying: "So-and-so has become jadda (جد) in my eyes," meaning: he has become great. In the hadith of ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him): "When one of us would recite al-Baqarah and Āl ʿImrān, he would become jadda (great/mighty) among us." It is also narrated as "in our eyes," or his kingdom and authority, or his wealth—a metaphor from jadd which means state power and fortune, because kings and the wealthy are the ones who are majdūdūn (possessors of jadd). The meaning is: describing Him as exalted above having a consort or a child due to His greatness, or His authority and sovereignty, or His wealth. His saying {He has not taken a consort or a son} is an explanation of that.

It is read as jaddan rabbunā (جداً ربنا) as a tamyīz (specification), and jadda rabbunā (جد ربنا) with a kasra: meaning the truthfulness of His Lordship and the reality of His divinity, far removed from taking a consort or a son. This is because when they heard the Qur’an and were granted success in monotheism and faith, they were alerted to the error in what the disbelievers among the Jinn believed regarding likening Allah to His creation and Him taking a consort and a son, so they deemed it immense and declared Him free of it.

"{Our foolish one}" Iblīs (may Allah curse him) or another of the rebellious Jinn.

"{Excessive transgression}" Shaṭaṭ is exceeding the limit in injustice and other things. From it: "He was ashṭaṭa (أشط) in the bargaining," if he went too far in it. Meaning: he says a statement that is in itself shaṭaṭ due to the excessiveness of what he transgressed in it, which is attributing a consort and a son to Allah. It was our assumption that no one among the two heavy groups (Jinn and Mankind) would lie about Allah or fabricate against Him that which is not true, so we used to believe them in what they attributed to Him of that, until it became clear to us through the Qur’an their lying and fabrication.

"{A lie}" A statement that is a lie, meaning: that which is lied about. Or it is in the accusative as a verbal noun, because a lie is a type of speech. Whoever read an lan taqūla (that we would not say) placed kadhban in the position of taqūlan (fabrication), and did not make it an adjective, because fabrication cannot be anything but a lie.

"{And that there were men from mankind who sought refuge in men from the Jinn, so they increased them in burden. And they thought, as you thought, that Allah would never resurrect anyone.}"