Surah Al-Alaq — The Clot

Introduction to Surah Al-Alaq

Nineteen verses, Meccan, ninety-sixth in the written order. Its first five verses are, by near-universal agreement in the Muslim tradition, the first passage of the Qur’an to be revealed.

The first words

Aisha’s account, which stands at the opening of Sahih al-Bukhari, has the Prophet in seclusion in the cave of Hira, seized and commanded to read, answering that he did not know how to read, and being pressed three times before these words came (Sahih al-Bukhari 3). The word rendered as read or proclaim is iqra, from the same root as Qur’an — the recitation.

What the first passage contains is worth noticing. It commands reading in the name of the Lord who created; names what a human being was made from; and then says that God taught by the pen, and taught the human being what he did not know. The opening of a scripture that would be recited for centuries by people who could not read is about teaching and about writing.

The rest

The remaining verses were revealed later and have a different subject. They describe a man who transgresses because he considers himself self-sufficient, and who forbids a servant of God from praying. The surah addresses him directly: does he not know that God sees? It warns that if he does not stop, he will be seized by the forelock — a lying, sinful forelock — and tells him to call his associates, and that the guards of hell will be called.

Then the last line turns away from him entirely and is addressed to the Prophet: do not obey him, but prostrate and draw near. It is one of the places in the Qur’an where reciters traditionally prostrate, and the surah that began the revelation ends by describing the posture.