Ash-Shams الشمس
The Sun
Ash-Shams opens with a chain of eleven oaths — the sun and its morning brightness, the moon that follows it, the day, the night, the sky, the earth, and the soul itself and how it was formed — building toward a single statement about human nature: God inspired the soul with both its wrongdoing and its consciousness of God, so that whoever purifies it succeeds and whoever corrupts it fails. Having made that claim in the abstract, the surah spends its second half proving it with a historical case: the people of Thamud, who rejected their prophet Salih's sign, a she-camel sent as a test, hamstrung it, and were destroyed for it — while their most reckless member acted, but the whole people bore the consequence together. The pairing is deliberate: an oath about the soul's built-in capacity for either purification or corruption, followed by a nation that chose the latter.
وَٱلشَّمْسِ وَضُحَىٰهَا
By the sun in its morning brightness
وَٱلْقَمَرِ إِذَا تَلَىٰهَا
and by the moon as it follows it,
وَٱلنَّهَارِ إِذَا جَلَّىٰهَا
by the day as it displays the sun’s glory
وَٱلَّيْلِ إِذَا يَغْشَىٰهَا
and by the night as it conceals it,
وَٱلسَّمَآءِ وَمَا بَنَىٰهَا
by the sky and how He built it
وَٱلْأَرْضِ وَمَا طَحَىٰهَا
and by the earth and how He spread it,
وَنَفْسٍ وَمَا سَوَّىٰهَا
by the soul and how He formed it
فَأَلْهَمَهَا فُجُورَهَا وَتَقْوَىٰهَا
and inspired it [to know] its own rebellion and piety!
قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَن زَكَّىٰهَا
The one who purifies his soul succeeds
وَقَدْ خَابَ مَن دَسَّىٰهَا
and the one who corrupts it fails.
كَذَّبَتْ ثَمُودُ بِطَغْوَىٰهَآ
In their arrogant cruelty, the people of Thamud called [their messenger] a liar,
إِذِ ٱنۢبَعَثَ أَشْقَىٰهَا
when the most wicked man among them rose [against him].
فَقَالَ لَهُمْ رَسُولُ ٱللَّهِ نَاقَةَ ٱللَّهِ وَسُقْيَـٰهَا
The messenger of God said to them, ‘[Leave] God’s camel to drink,’
فَكَذَّبُوهُ فَعَقَرُوهَا فَدَمْدَمَ عَلَيْهِمْ رَبُّهُم بِذَنۢبِهِمْ فَسَوَّىٰهَا
but they called him a liar and hamstrung her. Their Lord destroyed them for their crime and levelled them.
وَلَا يَخَافُ عُقْبَـٰهَا
He did not hesitate to punish them.
Arabic text and translation (M.A.S. Abdel Haleem) via the Quran.Foundation API.
Frequently asked
Fifteen verses.
Meccan, revealed in Makkah.
That God inspired every soul with both its capacity for wrongdoing and its awareness of God — success belongs to whoever purifies it, and failure to whoever corrupts it.
The people of Thamud, who hamstrung the she-camel sent as a sign to their prophet Salih and were destroyed as a result.