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Quraysh

Quraysh

Quraysh is a Makkan sūrah that takes its name from the mention of the Prophet’s tribe in the first line. According to several commentators, Ubayy ibn Kaʿb’s manuscript of the Quran had al-Fīl and Quraysh together as one sūrah (Bg, Z). Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852/1448) regards Ubayy ibn Kaʿb’s version as evidence that this is the proper reading (Fatḥ al-Bāriʾ). According to al-Zamakhsharī and al-Rāzī, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb is said to have recited the two sūrahs as one when leading prayer. Ibn Kathīr and others argue that, although the two are connected in meaning, they are to be considered separate sūrahs.

The first two verses of this sūrah remind the Quraysh of the blessing they have received in God’s having preserved them and provided them with means for prosperity. Vv. 3–4 provide the central theme, that one should worship God, since all prosperity and protection come from Him.

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

¡ For the secure passage of the Quraysh, * their secure passage in the journey of winter and of summer; + so let them worship the Lord of this house, J Who relieved them of hunger and made them safe from fear.

Commentary

¡ For the secure passage of the Quraysh,

* their secure passage in the journey of winter and of summer;

1–2  Reading this verse as a continuation of the previous sūrah, it can be understood as an allusion to God’s saving the Quraysh from the elephant of Abrahah (see the introduction to Sūrah 105). Secure passage translates īlāf, which comes from a root (ʾ-l-f) indicating that one is familiar with something or resorts to it habitually. It came to be connected with secure passage when īlāf and the related word ilf were used as names for the grants of security that the Quraysh reportedly received from the surrounding powers: Byzantium, Persia, Abyssinia, and Yemen. In the winter the Quraysh would travel to Yemen, where they purchased spices and other commodities coming from India. Then in the summer they carried these to Syria, where they sold them and purchased agricultural products. According to some this verse is an allusion to the respect the Quraysh received as keepers of the Kaʿbah, which compelled other tribes to grant them safe passage and thus contributed to their wealth (IK). In this vein, it is related to 29:67: Or have they not considered that We have made a secure sanctuary while people are snatched away all around them? Do they believe in that which is false? And are they ungrateful for God’s Blessing?

***

+ so let them worship the Lord of this house,

J Who relieved them of hunger and made them safe from fear.

3–4  This house means the Kaʿbah. These verses implore the Quraysh to acknowledge that it is not through anything of their own doing or through the idols they worship that they have been made safe, but through Divine Protection alone. In the overall context of the Quran, these verses allude to the fate that will befall those who reject the Prophet Muhammad. The best example of this theme is 16:112–13: God sets forth a parable: a town secure and at peace, its provision coming unto it abundantly from every side. Yet, it was ungrateful for the blessings of God; so God let it taste the garment of hunger and fear for that which they had wrought. A messenger from among themselves had surely come unto them, but they denied him. And so the punishment seized them while they were wrongdoers (see also Abraham’s prayer in 2:126).