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Surat al-Ma'arij

  Sura 70 of the Quran  
المعارج
Al-Maʻārij
The Ascending Stairways

Arabic text · English translation


Classification Meccan
Other names The Heights, The Ladders, The Stairways, The Ways of Ascent
Position Juzʼ 29
No. of Rukus 2
No. of verses 44
No. of words 217
No. of letters 971

Arabic text · English translation

Sūrat al-Maʻārij (Arabic: سورة المعارج‎‎, “The Ascending Stairways”) is the seventieth sura of the Qur'an with 44 ayat. The Surah takes its name from the word dhil Ma'arij in 3rd ayah. The word appears twice in the Quran.Abdullah Yusuf Ali an Indian Islamic scholar introduces the surah as “This is another Islamic eschatology Surah closely connected in subject matter with the last one. Patience and the mystery of Time will show the ways that climb the Heaven. Sin and Goodness must each eventually come to its own.”

Regarding the period of revelation of this surah, first one notes that this surah is Meccan. This defines the period of revelation of this surah before 622 AD, the year of Hijra (Islam). In his translation of the Qur'an, one of the most widely known and used in the English-speaking world, Abdullah Yusuf Ali says “Chronologically it belongs to the late early middle Makkan period, possibly soon after Surah 69.” Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi in his Tafsir work Tafhim al-Qur'an writes: “The subject matter bears evidence that this Surah too was sent down in conditions closely resembling those under which Surah Al Haaqqah was sent down”. And records a tradition by Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal when Umar ibn Khattab told that he heard Muhammad reciting sura Al-Haaqqa Masjid al-Haram. Umar ibn Khattab accepted Islam in 616 AD so the surah Al-Ma'arij thus appears to reveal before 616 AD. Israr Ahmed, a Pakistani Islamic theologian,philosopher, and one of the noted Islamic scholar also holds the opinion that this surah was revealed in the 5th or 6th year of revelation and cites Fakhr al-Din al-Razi and Abdul-Qadir Gilani in reference.Theodor Nöldeke places this chapter immediately after chapters lvi. and liii., probably because of the allusion of the first verse of this chapter to the beginning of chapter lvi. Muir places it in about the same period of time, which would fix the date at about the fifth year of the call of Muhammad to preach.


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