Al-'Adiyat العاديات
The Courser
Al-'Adiyat opens with a rapid, sensory oath: by the charging war-horses that pant, strike sparks from rock with their hooves, raid at dawn, and plunge into the heart of the enemy raising clouds of dust — an image immediately recognizable to Al-'Adiyat's first audience, for whom mounted raiding was a familiar fact of Arabian life. The surah pivots from that vivid opening to a blunt diagnosis: man is ungrateful to his Lord, and he knows it himself, and he is excessive in his love of wealth. It closes by asking whether such a person has considered what happens when graves burst open and what's hidden in every heart is exposed — the same reversal pattern found across many short Meccan surahs, where a striking image gives way to an unadorned statement about what the Day of Judgement uncovers. Commentators read the horses and the human heart as deliberately paired: creatures that give everything in a charge, set against a person who withholds gratitude despite receiving everything.
وَٱلْعَـٰدِيَـٰتِ ضَبْحًا
By the charging steeds that pant
فَٱلْمُورِيَـٰتِ قَدْحًا
and strike sparks with their hooves,
فَٱلْمُغِيرَٰتِ صُبْحًا
who make dawn raids,
فَأَثَرْنَ بِهِۦ نَقْعًا
raising a cloud of dust,
فَوَسَطْنَ بِهِۦ جَمْعًا
and plunging into the midst of the enemy,
إِنَّ ٱلْإِنسَـٰنَ لِرَبِّهِۦ لَكَنُودٌ
man is ungrateful to his Lord––
وَإِنَّهُۥ عَلَىٰ ذَٰلِكَ لَشَهِيدٌ
and He is witness to this––
وَإِنَّهُۥ لِحُبِّ ٱلْخَيْرِ لَشَدِيدٌ
he is truly excessive in his love of wealth.
۞ أَفَلَا يَعْلَمُ إِذَا بُعْثِرَ مَا فِى ٱلْقُبُورِ
Does he not know that when the contents of graves burst forth,
وَحُصِّلَ مَا فِى ٱلصُّدُورِ
when the secrets of hearts are uncovered, on that Day,
إِنَّ رَبَّهُم بِهِمْ يَوْمَئِذٍ لَّخَبِيرٌۢ
their Lord will be fully aware of them all?
Arabic text and translation (M.A.S. Abdel Haleem) via the Quran.Foundation API.
Frequently asked
Eleven verses.
Meccan, revealed in Makkah.
"The chargers" or "the coursers" — referring to war-horses at a raid, described in the surah's opening oath.
After swearing by charging horses at dawn, the surah states that man is ungrateful to God and excessively attached to wealth, then asks whether he has considered the Day when graves are opened and hearts' secrets exposed.