Az-Zukhruf
az-Zukhruf is the 43rd chapter, of the Quran, the central religious text of Islam. It contains 89 verses.
Overview
Ornaments of Gold, or Surat Az-Zukhruf, is the 43rd surah of the Quran containing a total of 89 verses. Named after the golden ornaments recognized in verse 35 and again in verse 53, this surah dates back to the Second Meccan Period before the Prophet Muhammad’s migration to Medina. According to the Nöldeke Chronology of surahs, the Ornaments of Gold was the 61st surah revealed. The Standard Egyptian chronology, however, acknowledges this as the 63rd surah revealed. Regardless of the exact position in which this surah was revealed, it is clear that the surah was revealed during the Second Meccan Period, a time in which Muhammad and his followers were increasingly subject to opposition from the Quraysh tribe.Consistent with all of the surahs of the Quran, Ornaments of Gold begins with the Bismillah, or the standard verse ‘In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy.’
Ornaments of Gold is a surah that acts as a reminder to believers that the goodness of God cannot be found within wealth and material power. The surah rejects the claim of disbelievers that prophets, leaders and worthy figures should be marked by their riches and thereby empowers them to refrain from temptations, indulgences and distractions. The surah warns disbelievers who succumb to the “mere enjoyments of this life” of a terrible and tormented afterlife and it encourages believers to relish not in riches but in their faith and love of God. The surah also repeatedly addresses the fact that the angels are not God's daughters but his faithful servants. The possibility of Jesus being the literal son of God is also rejected within the surah.Haleem, M.A.S. Abdel. The Qur'an 319.
Themes
Affirmation of the revelation
The surah begins with a strong affirmation of the revelation. Verses 2-4 emphasize the Scripture as being “clear” and “truly exalted and authoritative.” These verses present a pronounced declaration of the truth and certainty of the revelation and also include the first of the two times that the word "Quran" is specifically used throughout the surah. The word ‘qur’an’ is only used 70 times throughout the entirety of the Quran. Quran is a verbal noun in Arabic meaning ‘to recite.’ As it appears in verse 3 and 31 of this surah, it is confirming the Quran as an oral revelation, the spoken word of God recited to Muhammad. The word 'quran' instead of, for example, the word ‘kitab’, reveals not a written but a recited, spoken and oral nature of the Quran.Exaltation of God and divinity of the Quran
The Ornaments of Gold ends with a flourish of praise and exaltations of God. “He who is God in heaven and God on Earth; He is the All Wise, the All Knowing”. This creates a parallel between the first and third sections of the surah as it also exalts God as “the Almighty, the All Knowing”, but also as it praises the words and knowledge of God as the ultimate truth.Debate between the believers and disbelievers
The surah continues with a debate between the believers and the disbelievers. These debates, or “polemical utterances… against listeners who do not comply with the behavioral norms of the cult,” are an essential element in the structure of the surahs of the Quran. In verses 5-19 there occurs a debate between the believers and the disbelievers in which the disbelievers are reprimanded for mocking the revelations and the prophets that have generously been sent down to them by God. These words are directed at the ungrateful and pretentious disbelievers, referred to as ‘insolent people’.Afterlife
The afterlife, the resurrection of the dead, and Judgement Day are topics of great importance throughout the Qur'an, and they received memorable treatment, particularly in the early Meccan surahs." In the Ornaments of Gold, verses 57 through 89 declare the imminent Judgment Day. “This Quran is knowledge for the Hour: do not doubt it, Follow Me for this is the right path”. This section tells of an afterlife for the believers that is full “dishes and goblets of gold”, joy and a garden of bountiful fruit to eat. It affirms that believers and their spouses will “enter Paradise”. Disbelievers, on the other hand, “will suffer the torment of a grievous day”. This section can be identified as an eschatological prophecy, a common pattern throughout the surahs of the Quran, including The Ornaments of Gold, that “juxtapose the situation of the believers in the garden of paradise with that of the disbelievers or evildoers suffering in the tribulations of the fire of hell."Angels as daughters
Another main theme addressed throughout this surah is the role of the angels as God's servants and not God's daughters. Verses 15-19 discuss the ungrateful disbelievers who consider the angels to be more than just servants of God. "The Meccan pagans considered the angels to be daughters of God, yet they were dismissive of their own daughters. As verses 15-19 reject any familial ties between God and the angels.The theme of the angels as Gods servants arises again in verses 57-60. Here, the surah once again rejects the pagans who worship the angels as daughters of God and see them as superior to Jesus, whom they believed to be the Christian’s Son of God. The angels are merely servants of God and the surah denounces the disbelievers who argue otherwise just to challenge believers.
Textual notes
Jesus as the Word of God
Verse 60 reads “if it had been Our will, We could have made you angels, succeeding one another one earth.” This once again affirms angels are God's mere servants, subject completely to his command, but it also evokes another important theme- God as the creator. This verse suggests that God has the power to make angels. He has the power to create a human servant who has just a mother and no father, just as Jesus had. It implies that Jesus is not the Son of God but was the creation of the one, true God. Verses 63-64 additionally discuss the prophet Jesus, denouncing the divinity he is given as the son of God and emphasizing him as a special servant who was born by the miraculous word of God. “When Jesus came with clear signs he said, ‘I have brought you wisdom; I have come to clear up some of your differences for you. Be mindful of God and obey me: God is my Lord and your Lord. Serve Him: this is the straight path’”. These verses reveal that while Jesus was a favored Prophet, he does not possess but is only the messenger of the eternal wisdom of God. He is not the Son of God, nor is he God himself. God is his Lord and the only one that should be served and venerated is Him.You and Your Spouses
While many Quranic chapters of the Early Meccan periods make references to wide-eyed maidens upon arrival into Paradise, surah 43 explicitly states, "Enter Paradise, you and your spouses: you will be filled with joy". The inclusion of verse 43:70 indicates that this surah was revealed in the later Meccan period at which point there existed an emphasis on family. At the time of this surah's revelation, there was less of a concern convincing Meccan pagans to convert and more of a concern developing a law-abiding community centered upon worshipping God's will.The Most Merciful
The divine names Allah and Ar-rahman occur eight times throughout this surah. Patterns show that these names were absent from the earliest revelations and were introduced and most prominently used during the Second Meccan period. After the Second Meccan period, Ar-rahman was subsequently dropped and the term Allah was used with increasing frequency. This pattern emerges because in the earliest of revelations, God was referred to as Muhammad's Lord. The names Allah and Ar-rahman were introduced when Muhammad began to preach publicly, but the names were both problematic as many pagans of the time believed not only in God but in lesser deities such as the three goddesses whom they regarded as his daughters. Furthermore, belief in Allah during this time period was not accompanied by any moral demands and it was therefore difficult to convince the pagans that Allah was the only God and that they must obey His command.Additionally, inscriptional evidence has been verified there were monotheists in Palmyra and the Yemen who regarded God as ar-Rahmn but there is no evidence that the name was known in Mecca.
Biblical references
Abraham
Verses 20-80 of this surah introduce Abraham by way of a narrative of salvation history- a narrative that presents “excerpts of messages from the ‘book’ which, in turn, is clearly understood to be a corpus of literature apart from the rest of the known stories currently available through known tradition." Narratives of salvation history can be clearly identified by their distinct linguistic styles, new messages of imminent catastrophe, and their unique structure, which reflects that of a monotheistic liturgical service centered around the reading of the scriptures.This salvation history introduces Abraham as having rejected the way his father and his people worshipped and embraced the truth of God. Those who rejected the message of God were consumed with “golden ornaments… mere enjoyments of this life”. The disbelievers of the narrative pose the question, “why was this Qur’an not sent down to a powerful man, from either of the two cities?”. The surah continues to affirm that God preferred to deliver His message to those who He taught Himself and who believed in Him, not to those who had material wealth. If wealth and power were of real value and the true reward, God would not have bestowed them upon the disbelievers and hypocrites. This narrative of salvation history also speaks of the rewards and punishments earned by the believers and disbelievers that God reserves for them in the “next life”, referring to the Hereafter or the Judgment Day.