Surah Qaf

Qaf is the 50th surah of the Quran. It is a Meccan surah of 45 verses and the 34th in the traditional order of revelation, after Al-Mursalat. It takes its name from the single letter Qaf with which it opens, followed by an oath "by the glorious Quran", and it is devoted above all to the resurrection and the Last Day.

A surah the Prophet recited often

Authentic hadiths show the place Qaf held in the recitation of the Prophet ﷺ:

• Umm Hisham bint Haritha ibn al-Nu'man said she learned it from the Prophet's own mouth, because he recited it every Friday from the pulpit when addressing the people (Muslim).
• Abu Waqid al-Laythi reported that he recited Qaf and Al-Qamar in the prayers of the two Eids (Muslim).
• Jabir ibn Samura reported that he recited it in the dawn prayer (Muslim).

Themes

• The disbelievers' astonishment that a warner came from among them, and their denial that dust could live again (50:2–3), like the peoples of old from Noah to Pharaoh (50:12–14).
• Signs of creation: the sky built without a flaw, the mountains, gardens and tall palms, and the rain that revives a dead land: "so will be the coming forth" (50:6–11).
• God's closeness, "nearer to him than his jugular vein", and the watchers who record every word (50:16–18).
• The agony of death, the Trumpet, each soul arriving with a driver and a witness (50:19–21), and Hell asked "Are you full?" replying "Are there any more?" (50:30), a scene completed in a hadith of al-Bukhari and Muslim.
• The creation of the heavens and the earth in six days without weariness (50:38), and the closing command to remind with the Quran whoever fears God's warning (50:45).

Related surahs

Many scholars regard Qaf as the first surah of the mufassal, the final part of the Quran; others begin it with Al-Hujraat. Its theme of resurrection continues in Adh-Dhariyat.