Surah An-Naml – Ali Jaber

An-Naml ("The Ant") is the 27th surah of the Quran. A Meccan surah of 93 verses, it is 48th in the traditional order of revelation, after Ash-Shuara, and straddles the nineteenth and twentieth juz'. It takes its name from the valley of the ants, where an ant warns the others to shelter from Solomon's army (27:18), in the long account of Solomon that forms its centre.

Name and context

The surah opens with the letters Ta-Sin; with Ash-Shuara and Al-Qasas, which open with Ta-Sin-Mim, it forms the group known as the Tawasin. The basmala occurs twice in it: at its head, and inside verse 30, in Solomon's letter to the queen of Sheba. Verse 26 is a verse of prostration.

Main themes

• The Quran is guidance and good news for the believers, who pray, give zakat and are certain of the Hereafter (27:1–6).
• Moses at the fire, the signs of the staff and the hand, and Pharaoh's people, who rejected the signs "though their souls were convinced of them" (27:7–14).
• David and Solomon, given knowledge; Solomon, taught the speech of birds, smiles at the ant's words and thanks God (27:15–19). The hoopoe brings news of Sheba, whose queen and people worship the sun (27:20–26). Solomon writes to her, her throne is brought to him in the blink of an eye by one who had knowledge of the Book, and on entering his palace of glass she declares: "I submit with Solomon to God, Lord of the worlds" (27:27–44). The Quran does not name her; the name Bilqis comes from later tradition.
• Salih and the nine men who plotted against him in Thamud (27:45–53), then Lot (27:54–58).
• A series of questions, each ending "Is there a god with God?", among them: who "answers the distressed when he calls on Him"? (27:59–64). None in the heavens or on earth knows the unseen except God (27:65).
• The signs of the Hour: the beast that emerges from the earth (27:82), the Trumpet, and the mountains that pass like clouds, "the work of God, who has perfected all things" (27:87–88). The Prophet ﷺ is told to worship the Lord of this city and to recite the Quran (27:91–92).

In the Sunnah

Abu Hurayra reported that an ant once stung a prophet, who had its whole colony burned; God reproached him for destroying a community that glorified Him (al-Bukhari and Muslim). Ibn 'Abbas reported that the Prophet ﷺ forbade killing the ant, the bee, the hoopoe and the shrike (Abu Dawud, graded sahih by al-Albani); the bee gives its name to An-Nahl. The beast of 27:82 is among the ten signs of the Hour listed in a hadith of Hudhayfa ibn Asid (Muslim).