Sūrat al-ʿĀdiyāt

Observations on the organization, structure, and cohesion of Sūrat al-ʿĀdiyāt

Sūrat al-ʿĀdiyāt (The Chargers) has a similar message to the previous sūrah, Sūrat az-Zalzalah, in that they both implore the reader to focus on the enormity of the Day of Judgment. When viewed on its own, this Makkan sūrah appears to form a ring structure.¹

Summarized another way, it may simply be seen as:

CONNECTIONS

[A]/[A’] – We see that there is a contrast with the morning raid of the horse riders and the “raid” of the angels as they come down and unearth the humans and what their hearts conceal. This sūrah also continues a motif that runs throughout the Quran, which is that divine retribution comes in the morning. This makes the pairing of [A] and [A’] doubly appropriate.

[B] – At the center, the hubris of mankind is highlighted. We spend our time indulged in the pursuit of worldly possessions, while neglecting to thank our Master, Allah ﷻ, for them. And in the end, we end up dead, being pulled from the grave with nothing but our deeds to show for it.

And Allah ﷻ knows best.

1. Ali Khan, Nouman. “1. Al-'Adiyat (Ayah 1-11) - A Concise Commentary” Bayyinah TV, https://bayyinahtv.com/topics/1/categories/9/series/195/videos/1988