Surat al-Rahman
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الرحمن Ar-Raḥmān Rahman |
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Arabic text · |
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| Classification | Meccan |
| Position | Juzʼ 27 |
| No. of Rukus | 3 |
| No. of verses | 78 |
| No. of words | 352 |
| No. of letters | 1585 |
Arabic text · 
Audio file ·English translation
Sūrat ar-Raḥmān (Arabic: سورة الرحمن, "The Most Merciful") is the 55th sura of the Qur'an with 78 ayats.
It has the refrain: "Then which of your Lord's blessings would you both deny?"
The title of the sura, which appears in verse 1, means "The Most Beneficent". The divine appellation "ar-Rahman" also appears in the opening formula which precedes every sura except Sura 9 ("In the Name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy"). English translations of the sura’s title include "The All Merciful", "The Lord of Mercy", "The Beneficent", and "The Mercy-Giving".
Scholars have disagreed about whether Al-Rahman ought to be categorized with suras of the Makkah or Madinah period. Theodor Nöldeke and Carl Ernst have categorized it among the suras of the early Makkah period (in accordance with its short ayah length), but Abdel Haleem has categorized it in his translation as Madinian . According to the traditional Egyptian chronology, Al-Rahman was the 97th sura revealed. Nöldeke places it earlier, at 43, while Ernst suggests that Sura 55 was the fifth sura revealed.
Al-Rahman is composed entirely in saj’, the rhymed, accent-based prose characteristic of early Arabic poetry. Owing, perhaps, to the sura’s poetic beauty, it is often regarded as the 'beauty of the Quran', in accordance with a hadith: Abdullah ibn Mas'ud reported that Muhammad said, "Everything has an adornment, and the adornment of the Qur'an is Surah ar Rahman" [Bayhaqi in Shuab al Eiman].
The most notable structural feature of Al-Rahman is the refrain "Which, then, of your Lord’s blessings do you both deny?" (or, in Arberry’s rendering, "O which of your Lord's bounties will you and you deny?"), which is repeated 31 times in the 78-ayah sura. The sura is composed of 26 couplets, 4 tercets, and an introductory stanza of 13 ayahs all ending with this refrain. The final couplet is followed by a blessing of Allah’s name.
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