Surah Ad-Dukhan

Ad-Dukhan (The Smoke) is the 44th surah of the Quran, a Meccan surah of 59 verses. It is the 64th in the traditional order of revelation, just after Az-Zukhruf, and the fifth of the seven surahs that open with the letters Ha-Mim. Its name comes from the "visible smoke" announced in verse 10 as a warning to those who reject the message.

The name and its context

Verse 10 tells the Prophet ﷺ to watch for the Day when the sky brings a visible smoke. According to Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, in a report recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim, this was the famine that struck Quraysh after the Prophet prayed that they suffer years like those of Joseph, when hunger made men see a haze like smoke. Their plea to have the torment lifted (44:12) belongs to that episode, and he took the "greatest seizure" of verse 16 to be the day of Badr. Others, Ibn Kathir among them, saw the smoke as one of the ten major signs of the Hour listed in a hadith reported by Muslim.

Themes

• The Quran sent down in a blessed night (44:3), identified by most commentators with the Night of Decree of Al-Qadr.
• Moses and Pharaoh, whose people left gardens and springs behind and over whom neither heaven nor earth wept (44:29); then the fate of the people of Tubba' (44:37).
• The Day of Decision: the tree of Zaqqum, food of the sinner (44:43–46), and the ironic "Taste! You are the mighty, the noble!" (44:49), set against the security of the God-fearing (44:51–57).
• The closing reminder that the Quran was made easy in the Prophet's own tongue so that people may take heed (44:58).

Related surahs

Ad-Dukhan belongs to the Hawamim, from Ghafir to Al-Ahqaf, between Az-Zukhruf and Al-Jathiya. A narration in al-Tirmidhi promising forgiveness to whoever recites it on the eve of Friday is graded weak by hadith scholars.