{
  "number": 81,
  "slug": "takwir",
  "name": "At-Takwir",
  "arabicName": "التكوير",
  "meaning": "The Folding Up",
  "period": "Makkan",
  "juz": 30,
  "tagline": "THE WORLD TRANSFORMED & A TRUSTED MESSAGE",
  "overview": "A succession of extraordinary changes leads to the moment when every soul knows what it has prepared. The surah defends the trustworthiness of revelation, honors the wronged child, and asks the listener which direction to take.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Arabic text · quranjson (MIT)",
      "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/semarketir/quranjson/master/source/surah/surah_81.json"
    },
    {
      "title": "M. M. Pickthall · 1930 translation",
      "url": "https://original.sacred-texts.com/isl/pick/081.htm"
    },
    {
      "title": "Word glosses · Quranic Arabic Corpus (GPL-3.0)",
      "url": "https://corpus.quran.com/wordbyword.jsp?chapter=81&verse=8"
    },
    {
      "title": "Word glosses · Quranic Arabic Corpus (GPL-3.0)",
      "url": "https://corpus.quran.com/wordbyword.jsp?chapter=81&verse=15"
    },
    {
      "title": "Word glosses · Quranic Arabic Corpus (GPL-3.0)",
      "url": "https://corpus.quran.com/wordbyword.jsp?chapter=81&verse=21"
    },
    {
      "title": "Word glosses · Quranic Arabic Corpus (GPL-3.0)",
      "url": "https://corpus.quran.com/wordbyword.jsp?chapter=81&verse=27"
    },
    {
      "title": "Word glosses · Quranic Arabic Corpus (GPL-3.0)",
      "url": "https://corpus.quran.com/wordbyword.jsp?chapter=81&verse=1"
    },
    {
      "title": "Surah introduction · Quran.com",
      "url": "https://quran.com/at-takwir/info"
    },
    {
      "title": "The messenger and the horizon · Ibn Kathir",
      "url": "https://quran.com/at-takwir/23/tafsirs/en-tafisr-ibn-kathir"
    },
    {
      "title": "Three surahs of resurrection · Tirmidhi 3333",
      "url": "https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:3333"
    },
    {
      "title": "81:21 · cross-check for thamma (there)",
      "url": "https://quran.com/at-takwir/21"
    },
    {
      "title": "622 CE · Hijrah period boundary · Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911)",
      "url": "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Hejira"
    }
  ],
  "verses": [
    {
      "n": 1,
      "arabic": "إِذَا ٱلشَّمْسُ كُوِّرَتْ",
      "translation": "When the sun is overthrown,"
    },
    {
      "n": 2,
      "arabic": "وَإِذَا ٱلنُّجُومُ ٱنكَدَرَتْ",
      "translation": "And when the stars fall,"
    },
    {
      "n": 3,
      "arabic": "وَإِذَا ٱلْجِبَالُ سُيِّرَتْ",
      "translation": "And when the hills are moved,"
    },
    {
      "n": 4,
      "arabic": "وَإِذَا ٱلْعِشَارُ عُطِّلَتْ",
      "translation": "And when the camels big with young are abandoned,"
    },
    {
      "n": 5,
      "arabic": "وَإِذَا ٱلْوُحُوشُ حُشِرَتْ",
      "translation": "And when the wild beasts are herded together,"
    },
    {
      "n": 6,
      "arabic": "وَإِذَا ٱلْبِحَارُ سُجِّرَتْ",
      "translation": "And when the seas rise,"
    },
    {
      "n": 7,
      "arabic": "وَإِذَا ٱلنُّفُوسُ زُوِّجَتْ",
      "translation": "And when souls are reunited,"
    },
    {
      "n": 8,
      "arabic": "وَإِذَا ٱلْمَوْءُۥدَةُ سُئِلَتْ",
      "translation": "And when the girl-child that was buried alive is asked"
    },
    {
      "n": 9,
      "arabic": "بِأَىِّ ذَنۢبٍۢ قُتِلَتْ",
      "translation": "For what sin she was slain,"
    },
    {
      "n": 10,
      "arabic": "وَإِذَا ٱلصُّحُفُ نُشِرَتْ",
      "translation": "And when the pages are laid open,"
    },
    {
      "n": 11,
      "arabic": "وَإِذَا ٱلسَّمَآءُ كُشِطَتْ",
      "translation": "And when the sky is torn away,"
    },
    {
      "n": 12,
      "arabic": "وَإِذَا ٱلْجَحِيمُ سُعِّرَتْ",
      "translation": "And when hell is lighted,"
    },
    {
      "n": 13,
      "arabic": "وَإِذَا ٱلْجَنَّةُ أُزْلِفَتْ",
      "translation": "And when the Garden is brought nigh,"
    },
    {
      "n": 14,
      "arabic": "عَلِمَتْ نَفْسٌۭ مَّآ أَحْضَرَتْ",
      "translation": "(Then) every soul will know what it hath made ready."
    },
    {
      "n": 15,
      "arabic": "فَلَآ أُقْسِمُ بِٱلْخُنَّسِ",
      "translation": "Oh, but I call to witness the planets,"
    },
    {
      "n": 16,
      "arabic": "ٱلْجَوَارِ ٱلْكُنَّسِ",
      "translation": "The stars which rise and set,"
    },
    {
      "n": 17,
      "arabic": "وَٱلَّيْلِ إِذَا عَسْعَسَ",
      "translation": "And the close of night,"
    },
    {
      "n": 18,
      "arabic": "وَٱلصُّبْحِ إِذَا تَنَفَّسَ",
      "translation": "And the breath of morning"
    },
    {
      "n": 19,
      "arabic": "إِنَّهُۥ لَقَوْلُ رَسُولٍۢ كَرِيمٍۢ",
      "translation": "That this is in truth the word of an honoured messenger,"
    },
    {
      "n": 20,
      "arabic": "ذِى قُوَّةٍ عِندَ ذِى ٱلْعَرْشِ مَكِينٍۢ",
      "translation": "Mighty, established in the presence of the Lord of the Throne,"
    },
    {
      "n": 21,
      "arabic": "مُّطَاعٍۢ ثَمَّ أَمِينٍۢ",
      "translation": "(One) to be obeyed, and trustworthy;"
    },
    {
      "n": 22,
      "arabic": "وَمَا صَاحِبُكُم بِمَجْنُونٍۢ",
      "translation": "And your comrade is not mad."
    },
    {
      "n": 23,
      "arabic": "وَلَقَدْ رَءَاهُ بِٱلْأُفُقِ ٱلْمُبِينِ",
      "translation": "Surely he beheld Him on the clear horizon."
    },
    {
      "n": 24,
      "arabic": "وَمَا هُوَ عَلَى ٱلْغَيْبِ بِضَنِينٍۢ",
      "translation": "And he is not avid of the Unseen."
    },
    {
      "n": 25,
      "arabic": "وَمَا هُوَ بِقَوْلِ شَيْطَٰنٍۢ رَّجِيمٍۢ",
      "translation": "Nor is this the utterance of a devil worthy to be stoned."
    },
    {
      "n": 26,
      "arabic": "فَأَيْنَ تَذْهَبُونَ",
      "translation": "Whither then go ye ?"
    },
    {
      "n": 27,
      "arabic": "إِنْ هُوَ إِلَّا ذِكْرٌۭ لِّلْعَٰلَمِينَ",
      "translation": "This is naught else than a reminder unto creation,"
    },
    {
      "n": 28,
      "arabic": "لِمَن شَآءَ مِنكُمْ أَن يَسْتَقِيمَ",
      "translation": "Unto whomsoever of you willeth to walk straight."
    },
    {
      "n": 29,
      "arabic": "وَمَا تَشَآءُونَ إِلَّآ أَن يَشَآءَ ٱللَّهُ رَبُّ ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ",
      "translation": "And ye will not, unless (it be) that Allah willeth, the Lord of Creation."
    }
  ],
  "glosses": [
    [
      "When",
      "the sun",
      "is wrapped up,"
    ],
    [
      "And when",
      "the stars",
      "fall, losing their luster"
    ],
    [
      "And when",
      "the mountains",
      "are moved away,"
    ],
    [
      "And when",
      "the full-term she-camels",
      "(are) left untended;"
    ],
    [
      "And when",
      "the wild beasts",
      "are gathered,"
    ],
    [
      "And when",
      "the seas",
      "are made to overflow,"
    ],
    [
      "And when",
      "the souls",
      "are paired,"
    ],
    [
      "And when",
      "the female infant buried alive",
      "is asked"
    ],
    [
      "For what",
      "sin",
      "she was killed."
    ],
    [
      "And when",
      "the pages",
      "are laid open,"
    ],
    [
      "And when",
      "the sky",
      "is stripped away,"
    ],
    [
      "And when",
      "the Hellfire",
      "is set ablaze,"
    ],
    [
      "And when",
      "Paradise",
      "is brought near,"
    ],
    [
      "Will know",
      "a soul",
      "what",
      "it has brought."
    ],
    [
      "But nay!",
      "I swear",
      "by the retreating planets,"
    ],
    [
      "Those that run",
      "(and) disappear,"
    ],
    [
      "And the night",
      "when",
      "it departs,"
    ],
    [
      "And the dawn",
      "when",
      "it breathes"
    ],
    [
      "Indeed, it",
      "(is) surely a word",
      "(of) a Messenger",
      "noble,"
    ],
    [
      "Possessor of",
      "power,",
      "with",
      "(the) Owner of",
      "the Throne",
      "secure,"
    ],
    [
      "One to be obeyed",
      "there",
      "trustworthy,"
    ],
    [
      "And not",
      "(is) your companion",
      "mad."
    ],
    [
      "And certainly",
      "he saw him",
      "in the horizon",
      "the clear."
    ],
    [
      "And not",
      "he (is)",
      "on",
      "the unseen",
      "a withholder."
    ],
    [
      "And not",
      "it",
      "(is the) word",
      "(of) Shaitaan",
      "accursed."
    ],
    [
      "So where",
      "are you going?"
    ],
    [
      "Not",
      "it",
      "(is) except",
      "a reminder",
      "to the worlds,"
    ],
    [
      "For whoever",
      "wills",
      "among you",
      "to",
      "take a straight way."
    ],
    [
      "And not",
      "you will",
      "except",
      "that",
      "wills",
      "Allah,",
      "Lord",
      "(of) the worlds."
    ]
  ],
  "glossNote": "At 81:21:2, thamma is rendered 'there'. The retrieved Corpus page displays 'and' while identifying it as a location adverb; Quran.com 81:21 and Ibn Kathir’s explanation confirm the locative sense. Pickthall’s verse translation is unchanged.",
  "titles": [
    "The sun folded away",
    "The stars fall",
    "The mountains move",
    "Precious animals abandoned",
    "The wild creatures gathered",
    "The seas transformed",
    "Souls brought together",
    "The buried child is asked",
    "The question of innocence",
    "The pages laid open",
    "The sky stripped away",
    "The fire kindled",
    "The Garden brought near",
    "What each soul has prepared",
    "The retreating lights",
    "Moving and disappearing",
    "The passing night",
    "The morning breathes",
    "A noble messenger",
    "Strength and honored standing",
    "Obeyed and trustworthy",
    "Your companion is not mad",
    "The clear horizon",
    "Revelation conveyed openly",
    "No demonic utterance",
    "Where are you going?",
    "A reminder for creation",
    "Choosing a straight course",
    "Within the Creator’s will"
  ],
  "notes": [
    "The chapter takes its name from the sun’s folding or wrapping up. This opening removes the most familiar source of daily light. It begins a future scene of transformation without offering a timetable or a modern physical explanation.",
    "The stars follow the sun in the sequence of upheavals. Their loss of familiar order enlarges the scene beyond the world immediately around us. Each repeated opening prepares the listener for the statement about personal accountability in verse 14.",
    "Mountains, usually experienced as enduring landmarks, are set in motion. Their movement challenges the sense that earthly structures are permanent. The surah gathers these striking changes into a moral argument rather than a map of a particular disaster.",
    "Even camels carrying young are left unattended. The image brings the cosmic upheaval into the world of valued possessions and daily care. Something normally guarded closely can no longer hold human attention in the crisis being described.",
    "Wild creatures are gathered together, adding another reversal of ordinary life. The verse gives no list of species or exact arrangement. An illustrated scene can evoke the gathering while leaving such details as artistic choices.",
    "Pickthall describes the seas rising, while the word aid gives overflowing. The image belongs to the wider disruption of boundaries in the opening. This reader preserves those translation choices without equating the verse with a recorded tsunami.",
    "Souls are brought together after the scenes of earth and sky. Pickthall uses reunited and the word aid uses paired. The verse shifts attention toward persons, preparing for the wronged child and the opening of records.",
    "The buried girl is given the place of one who is questioned. The movement from cosmic upheaval to a vulnerable child is striking: a life treated as disposable becomes central to the account of justice.",
    "The question exposes the child’s innocence and the wrong done to her. No individual child or perpetrator is named. Its moral force does not require an invented biography, and the illustration avoids staging violence against a child.",
    "Opened pages introduce the theme of a record made visible. What once seemed private or forgotten enters the account. The image can prompt reflection on actions and consequences without claiming that an imagined manuscript represents the actual unseen record.",
    "The sky is described as stripped away. This continues the collapse of what looked fixed and enclosing. Read within the accumulating sequence, the image removes another familiar boundary before the two final destinations are brought into view.",
    "The fire is kindled in a brief, forceful statement. Its position beside the following promise creates a contrast of outcomes. The verse concerns future judgment and is not an invitation to identify suffering people today as condemned.",
    "The Garden is brought near, balancing the preceding warning with a promise of nearness and hope. Pickthall’s older word nigh means near. The scene remains within the unseen future rather than an identifiable earthly garden.",
    "After the repeated when clauses, the main statement arrives: each soul knows what it has prepared. The immense opening is directed toward this personal recognition. The question for reflection becomes what ordinary conduct is making ready.",
    "A new series of oaths turns to retreating heavenly lights. Pickthall calls them planets, while the following verse develops their movement. The surah does not identify a particular astronomical catalogue object or a modern celestial phenomenon.",
    "Movement and disappearance continue the image of the heavenly lights. The oath draws attention to a familiar rhythm after the extraordinary opening scenes. The reader can follow the imagery without needing to settle every astronomical identification.",
    "Night becomes the next subject of the oath. Pickthall emphasizes its close, while commentary records readings involving its coming or departing. The passage holds darkness and the arrival of morning together as an attentive transition.",
    "Morning is described through the vivid action of breathing. After the passing night, the image suggests a world becoming perceptible again. Its gentle movement prepares a change from cosmic scenes to the reliability of the message being delivered.",
    "The honored messenger is identified in Ibn Kathir’s commentary as Gabriel, conveying revelation. The emphasis falls on the dignity of the bearer and the truth of the message. No visual portrait of the angel is attempted.",
    "Power and an honored standing describe the messenger introduced just before. The verse connects entrusted responsibility with strength and position. Its references belong to the unseen; an earthly throne room would not be a literal representation.",
    "Trustworthiness completes the description. The word thamma is a locative, meaning there, as confirmed in the linked cross-check. Read with the preceding two verses, the passage emphasizes reliable transmission rather than giving a physical portrait.",
    "The listeners’ own companion is defended against the accusation of madness. The familiar term brings the address back to the human messenger known among them. The surah answers an accusation without adopting it as a description of mental illness.",
    "The commentary explains the seeing as Muhammad seeing Gabriel. The capitalized Him in the archived English should not be mistaken for a claim that Allah is being depicted. The clear horizon is illustrated without either figure.",
    "The word aid gives the sense of not withholding revelation, while Pickthall’s older phrasing is avid of the Unseen. Ibn Kathir discusses the transmitted readings. The passage’s concern is the integrity of what the messenger conveys.",
    "The message is explicitly separated from an outcast devil’s speech. This completes the defense of its trustworthy origin and transmission. The language answers an accusation; it does not call for imagining a visible supernatural opponent in the scene.",
    "The address turns sharply toward the listener’s direction. Where are you going is both brief and searching after the defense of revelation. It invites a personal response, preparing for the description of the Quran as a reminder.",
    "The scope widens to creation rather than one social group or locality. The chapter presents the message as a reminder with a broad audience. Its purpose is guidance that can be received, remembered, and acted upon.",
    "The listener’s willingness to take a straight course is named directly. This makes the reminder a call to response rather than passive observation. The next verse places that human willing within a larger relation of dependence.",
    "The ending holds human intention within Allah’s will and lordship over creation. Read with verse 28, it calls for a real response while challenging self-sufficiency. It closes the surah with dependence rather than a claim to control every outcome."
  ],
  "sections": [
    {
      "start": 1,
      "end": 14,
      "title": "When every soul sees what it prepared",
      "summary": "The sun, stars, mountains, animals, and seas are transformed; the wronged child is heard and the record is opened.",
      "reflection": "Whose dignity might be overlooked when a community is absorbed in its own power and possessions?"
    },
    {
      "start": 15,
      "end": 25,
      "title": "Across the night to a clear horizon",
      "summary": "Heavenly movements and breathing dawn frame a defense of the noble messenger and the trustworthy delivery of revelation.",
      "reflection": "What makes you listen carefully when a message challenges an easy assumption?"
    },
    {
      "start": 26,
      "end": 29,
      "title": "Which direction will you take?",
      "summary": "The Quran is a reminder for creation, calling for a straight course while placing human willing within the Creator’s will.",
      "reflection": "What would taking a straighter course look like in one decision before you?"
    }
  ],
  "timeline": [
    {
      "title": "Before 622 CE · The early Makkan mission",
      "year": 622,
      "body": "The introduction places At-Takwir early in the Makkan mission. This is a broad literary and traditional setting, not a precisely dated revelation event. The year 622 marks the Hijrah boundary of the Makkan period; it is not an assigned revelation year for this passage.",
      "source": "https://quran.com/at-takwir/info"
    },
    {
      "title": "The clear-horizon encounter · recalled in revelation",
      "year": null,
      "body": "Ibn Kathir explains verse 23 as Muhammad’s sight of Gabriel and associates it with Makkah. This reader does not assign a calendar date or depict either figure.",
      "source": "https://quran.com/at-takwir/23/tafsirs/en-tafisr-ibn-kathir"
    },
    {
      "title": "Recited to bring resurrection to mind",
      "year": null,
      "body": "Ibn Umar’s report links this surah with Al-Infitar and Al-Inshiqaq. It records a teaching about their vivid subject, without providing dates for their revelation.",
      "source": "https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:3333"
    },
    {
      "title": "The future recognition of each soul",
      "year": null,
      "body": "Verse 14 supplies the human meaning of the opening transformation. The text gives no year for these future events.",
      "source": "https://original.sacred-texts.com/isl/pick/081.htm"
    }
  ],
  "places": [
    {
      "id": "makkah",
      "name": "Makkah · the audience who knew their companion",
      "body": "The Makkan classification gives the broad earthly setting. The term your comrade in verse 22 addresses listeners familiar with the messenger; no exact gathering place is named.",
      "lat": 21.4225,
      "lon": 39.8262,
      "source": "https://quran.com/at-takwir/info",
      "image": 2
    },
    {
      "id": "horizon",
      "name": "The clear horizon",
      "body": "Verse 23 names a horizon rather than a building or marked viewpoint. The illustrated dawn follows that landscape language without presenting a verified observation point.",
      "source": "https://original.sacred-texts.com/isl/pick/081.htm",
      "image": 1
    },
    {
      "id": "transformed-world",
      "name": "A transformed world · no historical disaster site",
      "body": "Sun, mountains, creatures, and seas belong to the opening vision of judgment. Their pictured arrangement is imaginative, and it is not a location for an earthquake, flood, or eclipse from recorded history.",
      "source": "https://original.sacred-texts.com/isl/pick/081.htm",
      "image": 0
    }
  ],
  "people": [
    {
      "id": "child",
      "title": "The wronged girl · innocence brought to account",
      "body": "The buried girl is unnamed. Verses 8–9 place the question of her killing within judgment, restoring attention to a person denied protection and dignity.",
      "verse": 8
    },
    {
      "id": "gabriel",
      "title": "Gabriel · the noble messenger in commentary",
      "body": "Ibn Kathir identifies the messenger of verses 19–21 as Gabriel. The entry explains the textual role without giving the angel an invented portrait.",
      "verse": 19,
      "url": "https://quran.com/at-takwir/23/tafsirs/en-tafisr-ibn-kathir",
      "label": "Read the commentary"
    },
    {
      "id": "muhammad",
      "title": "Muhammad · the companion known to his audience",
      "body": "Verse 22 defends the human messenger against an accusation, and verse 23 recalls his seeing. The linked commentary distinguishes Muhammad from Gabriel in this sequence.",
      "verse": 22,
      "url": "https://quran.com/at-takwir/23/tafsirs/en-tafisr-ibn-kathir",
      "label": "Read the commentary"
    },
    {
      "id": "listener",
      "title": "The listener choosing a course",
      "body": "The closing verses address anyone willing to walk straight. This role opens the surah beyond its first audience and makes the question of direction personal.",
      "verse": 28
    }
  ],
  "history": [
    {
      "title": "A Makkan defense of resurrection and revelation",
      "body": "The introduction situates the surah amid denial of resurrection and accusations against the messenger. It supports the broad setting without supplying an exact year.",
      "source": "https://quran.com/at-takwir/info"
    },
    {
      "title": "A primary report about recitation",
      "body": "Tirmidhi 3333 groups At-Takwir with Al-Infitar and Al-Inshiqaq. Its displayed hasan grading belongs to that report; it is not a date or documentary reconstruction of the surah’s scenes.",
      "source": "https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:3333"
    },
    {
      "title": "The oppressed child within a cosmic passage",
      "body": "Verses 8–9 interrupt immense changes in nature with the question of a child’s killing. The text supplies neither a personal name nor evidence that every Arabian family practiced this wrong.",
      "source": "https://original.sacred-texts.com/isl/pick/081.htm"
    },
    {
      "title": "A reminder rather than a countdown",
      "body": "The chapter closes with direction, willingness, and divine authority. Its vivid future scenes ask for a moral response without revealing when the Hour will occur.",
      "source": "https://original.sacred-texts.com/isl/pick/081.htm"
    }
  ],
  "revelationNote": "Early Makkan in the chapter introduction. No exact revelation year, identified child, astronomical event, or dated horizon encounter is asserted. Gabriel and Muhammad are discussed through sources and are not depicted."
}