Surah Yasin moves through six sections and the last one is not new material. It is a conclusion and a deliberate one. In its closing verses, Allah revisits the core idea of every earlier section, one after another, so the listener leaves with the whole surah gathered up in a single review. Read this way, the ending does not feel […]

Surah Al-Ahzab is one of the surahs critics most often point to when they claim the Quran is disorganized. It moves from family to a besieging army to the Prophet’s marriages to laws and warnings, seemingly without a thread. Look closer, though and a deliberate order appears, one that folds the whole surah around its center and resolves, in its very last […]

Surah Al-Ahzab does not read like most of the Quran people are used to. It is a Madani surah, with longer verses and a focus that is far more social than purely theological. It moves through family, the Prophet’s married life, the Mothers of the Believers, hypocrisy and the conduct of men and women, all against a tense political and military […]