Cheatsheet

Sūrah Al-FurqānThe Criterion · Makkah · 77 āyāt · 5 movements

A Makkan surah revealed amid intensifying mockery of the Prophet ﷺ and the Qur'an itself. It opens by naming the revelation al-Furqān — the Criterion that distinguishes truth from falsehood — then answers, one by one, the objections Quraysh raised against him: that he eats food and walks in the markets, that no angel was sent with him, that he has no treasure or garden. It moves through the fate of nations who rejected earlier messengers, a vivid scene of the Day of Judgement when false gods disown their worshippers, signs in creation, and closes with the celebrated description of ʿibād al-Raḥmān — the servants of the Most Merciful — whose humility, night prayer, moderation and repentance model what the Criterion produces in a life.

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At a glance

Āyāt	Movement	In one line
1–20	Al-Furqān: a Criterion sent to all the worlds	The Qur'an's defining function named in its own text is furqān — separating truth from falsehood, not merely informing.
7–14	Objections to the Messenger: angel, treasure, garden	Demanding a different kind of proof than the one given is often a way of avoiding the proof that has already come.
17–19, 27–29	The Day false gods disown their worshippers	Nothing and no one worshipped besides Allah will accept responsibility for those who worshipped them.
45–62	Signs in creation and the fate of past nations	Ordinary phenomena — a shadow, wind, rain — are treated as signs, not mere background to daily life.
63–77	ʿIbād al-Raḥmān: the servants of the Most Merciful	Humility here is a description of bearing and response to provocation, not a claim to be walked over.

Occasion & setting

Quraysh leaders, unable to refute the Qur'an, shifted to ridiculing the Messenger ﷺ personally — objecting that a true messenger would not eat food or walk in the markets like ordinary men, and demanding an angel be sent down or treasure be given to him instead.

— Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm on 25:7–8, citing the wording of the objection in the āyah; al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān on 25:7

Key messages

· The Qur'an's own name for itself here, al-Furqān, defines its task: separating truth from falsehood in every matter, not just supplying information.
· A messenger's humanity — eating, trading, walking among people — was never a disqualification; every prophet before him shared it.
· False gods will disown their worshippers on the Day of Judgement; nothing besides Allah can be relied upon to answer for you.
· Everyday phenomena — shadow, wind, rain, the two seas, night and day — are treated as signs meant to provoke remembrance and gratitude.
· Companionship shapes destiny: the surah singles out a wrongly-chosen close friend as a source of specific regret on the Last Day.
· The servants of the Most Merciful are marked by humble bearing, night prayer, financial moderation, and turning away from false and idle speech.
· Repentance genuinely followed by belief and righteous action can transform even past bad deeds into good ones.
· Prayer itself is described as the measure of one's worth to Allah — 'What would my Lord care for you if not for your supplication?'

Root vocabulary

ف ر ق

to separate, to distinguish between two things

فُرْقَان (the Criterion, that which distinguishes truth from falsehood) · فَرَّقَ (he separated) · تَفْرِقَة (a distinguishing, a parting) · فِرْقَة (a faction, a separated group)

ن ذ ر

to warn of a coming danger

1, 7, 51, 56

نَذِير (a warner) · أَنْذَرَ (he warned) · إِنْذَار (the act of warning) · نَذْر (a vow (something one 'warns' oneself to fulfil))

ع ب د

to worship, to serve as a slave serves a master

1, 17, 18, 55, 63

عَبْد (servant, slave) · عِبَاد (servants (plural)) · عِبَادَة (worship) · مَعْبُود (that which is worshipped)

ر س ل

to send, especially a message or messenger

7, 20, 27

رَسُول (messenger) · أَرْسَلَ (he sent) · مُرْسَلِين (the ones sent, the messengers) · رِسَالَة (a message, an epistle)

ح ي ي

life, to live, to bring to life

3, 49

حَيَاة (life) · أَحْيَا (he gave life) · حَىّ (living)

ر ح م

mercy, compassion, gentleness

26, 45, 48, 59, 60, 63

ٱلرَّحْمَٰن (the Most Merciful) · رَحْمَة (mercy) · رَحِيم (the ever-Merciful) · رَحِمَ (he had mercy)

ه و ن

ease, gentleness, humility

هَوْن (humility, gentleness) · هَيِّن (easy) · أَهْوَن (easier)

ت و ب

to turn back, to repent

70, 71

تَابَ (he repented, he turned back) · تَوْبَة (repentance) · تَوَّاب (the One who accepts repentance repeatedly)

Flip cards

23 cards over the roots, movements, takeaways and seerah events of this surah. Anything you mark “still learning” comes back before the deck ends.

Sūrah Al-Furqān deck

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Concept map

The surah at the centre, its movements in sequence around it, and the roots, seerah moments and messages that hang off each one. Tap a node to focus its connections — the same way a linked notebook shows you what a single idea touches.

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