Al-Ahqaf الأحقاف

Holy Quran

Al-Ahqaf (Arabic: الأحقاف, al-aḥqāf; meaning: "the sand dunes" or "the winding sand tracts") is the 46th chapter of the Qur'an with 35 verses. This is the seventh and last chapter starting with the Muqattaʿat letters Hāʼ Mīm. Regarding the timing and contextual background of the believed revelation (asbāb al-nuzūl)

The chapter covers various topics: It warns against those who reject the Quran, and reassures those who believe; it instructs Muslims to be virtuous towards their parents; it tells of the Prophet Hud and the punishment that befell his people, and it advises Muhammad to be patient in delivering his message of Islam.

The name al-Ahqaf, translated as "the sand dunes" or "the winding sand tracks", is taken from verse 21 of the chapter, which mentions "the brother of 'Ad'" (a nickname for the ancient Arabian Prophet Hud) who "warned his people by the sand dunes". According to the 15th-16th century Quranic commentary Tafsir al-Jalalayn "Valley of Ahqaf" was the name of the valley, located today in Yemen, where Hud and his people lived

Verse 15 of the chapter talks about the period of gestation and breastfeeding, saying that "His mother bears him with hardship and she brings him forth with hardship, and the bearing of him, and the weaning of him is thirty months ...". Another verse in the Quran, Chapter 2, Verse 233 speaks of mothers nursing their children for two full years. Some Islamic jurists interpret the six-month time difference between the durations found in these two verses as being the threshold of fetal viability in Islamic law

Summary

• 1 The Quran a revelation from God
• 2-5 Creation a witness for God against idolaters and idolatry
• 6-7 Disbelievers charging Muhammad with forging the Quran
• 8 Muhammad, like other apostles, only a warner
• 9-10 Believing Jews confirm the Quran; unbelieving Jews call it an antiquated lie
• 11 The Quran confirms the Book of Moses
• 12-13 True believers, their happy condition
• 14-15 Obedient sons and true believers, their life here and hereafter
• 16-17 The conduct and fate of the disobedient son
• 18-20 Rewards and punishments bestowed in accordance with works
• The History of Hūd
• 21-27 The fate of the people of Hud (as), &c., a warning to Makkah
• The story of the Jinn listening to the Quran
• 28-31 The genii converted by hearing Muhammad recite the Quran
• 32-35 God able to raise the dead; Muhammad exhorted to patience and forbearance