Ar-Rahman[1] (Arabic: ٱلرَّحْمَانِ, ar-raḥmān; meaning: The Merciful;[2] Most Gracious;[3] Most Merciful [4]) is the 55th Chapter (Surah) of the Qur'an, with 78 verses; (āyāt). The Surah was revealed in Mecca and emphasizes themes of mercy, creation, and the relationship between Allah and humanity, making it a significant chapter in Islamic teachings. [5]
The title of the surah, Ar-Rahman, appears in verse 1 and means "The Most Beneficent". The divine appellation "ar-Rahman" also appears in the opening formula which precedes every surah except Sura 9 ("In the Name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy"). English translations of the surah's title include "The Most Gracious",[6] "The All Merciful",[7] "The Lord of Mercy",[8] "The Beneficent", and "The Mercy-Giving". In the fourth century CE south Arabian pagan inscriptions started to be replaced by monotheistic expressions, using the term rahmān.[9]
There is disagreement over whether Ar-Rahman ought to be categorized as a surah of the Meccan or Medinan period. Theodor Nöldeke and Carl Ernst have categorized it among the surahs of the early Meccan period (in accordance with its short ayah length), but Abdel Haleem has categorized it in his translation as Medinan,[10][11] although most Muslim scholars place Sūrat ar-Rahman in the Meccan period.[12][13] According to traditional Egyptian chronology, Ar-Rahman was the 97th surah revealed.[14] Nöldeke places it earlier, at 43,[15] while Ernst suggests that it was the fifth surah revealed.[16]
(55:1) The Most Compassionate... (55:3-4) created humanity, (and) taught them speech.
(55:5, 7, 10) The sun and the moon (travel) with precision... As for the sky, He raised it (high), and set the balance (of justice), He laid out the earth for all beings.
(55:16) Then which of your Lord’s favours will you (humans and jinn) both deny?
Ar-Rahman is composed entirely in saj’, the rhymed, accent-based prose characteristic of early Arabic poetry.[18]
The most notable structural feature of Ar-Rahman is the refrain "Which, then, of your Lord’s blessings do you both deny?"[10] (or, in Arberry’s rendering, "O which of your Lord's bounties will you and you deny?"[19]), which is repeated 31 times in the 78 verses.
Chapter 55 (Surah Rahman) is composed of 26 couplets, 4 tercets, and an introductory stanza of 13 verses all ending with this refrain. The final couplet is followed by a blessing of God's name.[20]
Thematically, Ar-Rahman can be divided into roughly three units.[20]
Verses 1-30 expound upon natural displays of Allah's creative power and mercy in showering those who inhabit the earth with blessings.
Verses 31-45 describe the final judgment and the terrible punishment that will be inflicted upon sinners.
Verses 46–78, by contrast, detail the delights that await the pious in paradise.
55:70-77 Therein (Gardens) will be Khayrat Hisan (good); Then which of the blessings of your Lord will you both deny! Houri (beautiful, fair females) guarded in pavilions; Then which of the blessings of your Lord will you both deny! Whom never deflowered a human before nor Jinn. Then which of the blessings of your Lord will you both deny! Reclining on green Rafraf (cushions) and rich beautiful `Abqariy. (rich carpets). Then which of the blessings of your Lord will you both deny![1]: 55:70–77 [21]
Muhammad Asad asserts that the "noun hur – rendered as 'companions pure' – is a plural of both ahwar (masculine) and hawra’ (feminine), each describing a person distinguished by hawar, a term that denotes 'intense whiteness of the eyeballs and lustrous black of the iris.' Asad, along with Yusuf Ali and Marmaduke Pickthall, translates this verse as:[22][23][24]
In these [gardens] will be [all] things most excellent and beautiful. Which, then, of your Sustainer's powers can you disavow? [There the blest will live with their] companions pure and modest, in pavillions [splendid] -which, then, of your Sustainer's powers can you disavow? -[companions] whom neither man nor invisible being will have touched ere then. Which, then, of your Sustainer's powers can you disavow?[In such a paradise will they dwell,] reclining upon meadows green and carpets rich in beauty. Which, then, of your Sustainer's powers can you disavow? Hallowed be thy Sustainer's name, full of majesty and glory!
According to Ibn Kathir, the believer will be given a tent 60 miles wide, made of pearl, such that his wives will not see each other. The believer will visit them all.[1]: 55:70–77 The Enlightening Commentary into the Light of the Holy Qur'an says that they (the Houri) are good and righteous virgins and are intended to have intercourse only with their husbands.[25]
Hadith
Owing to the sura’s poetic beauty, it is often regarded as the 'beauty of the Quran',[26] 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" [27][28]
^Theodor Nöldeke: Geschichte des Qorans. Verlag der Dieterichschen Buchhandlung, Göttingen, 1860, pp. 107-108 ff.
^The Message of the Quran, M. Asad, 1982, Introduction Surah ar-Rahman. Although most of the commentators regard this surah as a Meccan revelation, Zamakhshari and (among the later scholars) Suyuti ascribe it to the Medina period. Baydawi leaves the question open, and adds that parts of it may have been revealed before and parts after the Prophet's hijrah to Medina. Some authorities are of the opinion that it followed immediately upon surah 13 ("Thunder"): an opinion which is not very helpful since that surah, too, cannot be assigned to either of the two periods with any degree of certainty.
^Wherry, Elwood Morris (1896). A Complete Index to Sale's Text, Preliminary Discourse, and Notes. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, and Co. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^"Rhyming Prose", in Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an, ed. Jane Dammen McAuliffe (Leiden: Brill, 2001).
^The Message of the Quran, Muhammad Asad, 1982, Commentary on Surah 55:70-77, 56:22. In these [gardens] will be [all] things most excellent and beautiful. Which, then, of your Sustainer's powers can you disavow? [There the blessed will live with their] pure and modest companions, in splendid pavilions – which, then, of your Sustainer's powers can you disavow? – [companions] whom neither man nor invisible being will have touched before. Which, then, of your Sustainer's powers can you disavow? [In such a paradise will they dwell,] reclining upon meadows green and carpets rich in beauty. Which, then, of your Sustainer's powers can you disavow? Hallowed be thy Sustainer's name, full of majesty and glory!
^The Holy Quran, Yusuf Ali, Surah 55:70-77. Companions restrained (as to their glances) in (goodly) pavilions.
^The Quran, tranl. by Pickthall, Surah 55:70-77. Fair ones, close guarded in pavilions
