Surah Al-Ahzab – Mahmoud El Sheimy

Al-Ahzab (The Coalition, or The Confederates) is the 33rd surah of the Quran. A Medinan surah of 73 verses, it spans the twenty-first and twenty-second juz and is counted 90th in the traditional order of revelation, after Aal-e-Imran. It recounts the Battle of the Trench, reforms family law around adoption and divorce, and sets rules of conduct for the Prophet's household and for the whole community.

Name and context

The name refers to the confederate forces (al-ahzab) mentioned in verses 20 and 22: in 5 AH (627), according to most historians, Quraysh and their tribal allies besieged Medina, which the Muslims had protected by digging a trench.

Themes

• Adoption and family ties (33:1–8). God "has not made your adopted sons your sons" (33:4): they are to be called after their real fathers (33:5). Ibn Umar reports in al-Bukhari that Zayd ibn Haritha, the Prophet's freedman, had been called "Zayd ibn Muhammad" until this verse. The Prophet is closer to the believers than their own selves, and his wives are their mothers (33:6).
• The Battle of the Trench (33:9–27). The enemy came "from above you and from below you", "hearts reached the throats" (33:10), until God sent a wind and unseen hosts (33:9). "In the Messenger of God you have an excellent example" (33:21). Verse 23, on the men who were true to their covenant, was understood by Anas ibn Malik as concerning his uncle Anas ibn al-Nadr, killed at Uhud (al-Bukhari). The siege was followed by the defeat of the Banu Qurayza (33:26–27).
• The Prophet's wives (33:28–34). They are offered the choice between worldly life and God, His Messenger and the Hereafter; Aisha, the first to be asked, chose the latter (al-Bukhari, Muslim).
• Zayd and Zaynab (33:35–40). Verse 35 addresses believing men and women on equal terms. Verse 37 recounts the marriage of the Prophet to Zaynab bint Jahsh after her divorce from Zayd, the only Companion named in the Quran, abolishing the old ban on marrying the former wife of an adopted son. Verse 40 declares that Muhammad is "the Messenger of God and the Seal of the Prophets".
• Rules of conduct (33:41–62). Remembering God often (33:41), the etiquette of entering the Prophet's houses and addressing his wives "from behind a screen" (33:53), the command to send blessings on the Prophet (33:56) and the outer garment for believing women (33:59).

Notable verses

When asked how to send blessings on the Prophet, as verse 56 commands, he taught the formula known as the Abrahamic prayer (al-Bukhari). The surah closes with the Trust (amana) offered to the heavens, the earth and the mountains, which declined it, while man took it on (33:72).

The Battles of Badr and Uhud are treated in Al-Anfal and Aal-e-Imran, and further social rules appear in An-Noor.