Surah Al-Qasas

Al-Qasas (The Story) is the 28th surah of the Quran. A Meccan surah of 88 verses, it lies entirely within the twentieth juz and is counted 49th in the traditional order of revelation, just after An-Naml. Most of it tells the life of Moses, from his birth under Pharaoh to his call at the mountain, before turning to the fall of Qarun and to words of comfort for the Prophet.

Name and place

The name comes from verse 25: having fled Egypt, Moses reaches Madyan and "relates the story" (qassa 'alayhi al-qasas) to the old man whose daughters he had helped at the well. The surah opens with the letters Ta-Sin-Mim and, with Ash-Shuara and An-Naml, belongs to the group known as the Tawasin. It is Meccan, although some commentators regard a few verses, notably 52 to 55, as Medinan.

Themes

• Pharaoh and the oppressed (28:1–6). Pharaoh divides his people and kills the newborn sons of the Children of Israel, while God wills to favour the oppressed and make them leaders and inheritors.
• The life of Moses (28:7–42). His mother is inspired to cast him into the river; Pharaoh's household takes him in and he is returned to her to be nursed. As a man he kills an Egyptian in a fight, flees to Madyan, marries one of the two daughters in return for eight or ten years of service, then sees a fire by the mountain and is called from the tree: "O Moses, indeed I am God, Lord of the worlds" (28:30). Sent with Aaron, he faces Pharaoh, who orders Haman to build a tower to reach "the God of Moses" (28:38).
• The meaning of these stories (28:43–75). The Prophet was not present at these events (28:44–46), yet he recounts them; those of the People of the Book who believe will receive their reward twice (28:54). Verse 56, "You cannot guide whomever you love; it is God who guides whom He wills", was revealed, according to al-Bukhari and Muslim, when the Prophet's uncle Abu Talib died without accepting Islam.
• Qarun (28:76–82). A rich man among Moses' people, usually identified with the biblical Korah, he boasts of his treasures and ignores the advice to "seek the home of the Hereafter" without forgetting his "share of this world" (28:77). The earth swallows him and his house.

Closing verses

The Hereafter belongs to those who seek neither arrogance nor corruption on earth (28:83). Verse 85 promises the Prophet that God will bring him back "to a place of return", which Ibn Abbas explained as Mecca (al-Bukhari). The surah ends: "Everything will perish except His Face" (28:88).

The story of Moses is also told at length in Taha and Ash-Shuara, and Qarun is named again in Al-Ankaboot and Ghafir.