Surah Al-Mursalat – Mustafa Ismail

Al-Mursalat ("The Emissaries") is the 77th surah of the Quran and closes the 29th juz. It is a Meccan surah of 50 verses, 33rd in the traditional order of revelation, after Al-Humaza. Built around a refrain repeated ten times, "Woe that Day to the deniers", it affirms that the promised Day of Decision will surely come.

It opens with oaths by "those sent forth in succession" (77:1), which commentators understand as winds or angels, followed by those that storm, scatter, separate and deliver a reminder, leading to the statement: what you are promised will surely come to pass (77:7). Abdullah ibn Mas'ud relates that it was revealed while he and others were with the Prophet ﷺ in a cave at Mina. A snake came out and escaped as they rushed to kill it, and the Prophet ﷺ said: it was spared your harm as you were spared its harm (al-Bukhari, Muslim).

The Day of Decision comes when the stars are extinguished, the sky is split and the mountains are blown away (77:8-14). The surah recalls the destruction of earlier peoples, man's creation from a humble fluid, and the earth made to hold the living and the dead (77:16-28). The deniers are then told to proceed to what they denied: a shade of three columns that gives no cover, and sparks as large as castles (77:29-33). On that Day they will not speak, nor be allowed to offer excuses (77:35-36).

The God-fearing will be amid shades and springs (77:41-44). The surah closes on those who do not bow when told to bow, and asks: in what message after this will they believe? (77:48-50).

Umm al-Fadl, the mother of Ibn Abbas, said that the last recitation she heard from the Prophet ﷺ was Al-Mursalat, in the sunset prayer (al-Bukhari, Muslim). Its refrain recalls that of Ar-Rahman, and An-Naba, which follows, continues the same theme.