Şems

Surah Ash-Shams is the 91st surah of the Quran, comprising 15 verses. It teaches that purifying the soul is salvation and corrupting it is ruin, and offers the destruction of Thamud as the historical proof. The surah opens with one of the longest oath sequences in the Quran — by the sun and its brightness, the moon, the day, the night, the sky, the earth, and finally the human soul. The soul, it declares, has been inspired with both its wickedness and its righteousness; 'He who purifies it has succeeded, and he who corrupts it has failed' is the heart of the surah. There follows the account of Thamud, who hamstrung the she-camel of the Prophet Salih and were destroyed to the last. For anyone who takes the discipline of the inner life as life's essential task, this surah is a foundational text.

Revelation & background

Surah Ash-Shams is Meccan, dated to the early years of the Meccan period; its rhythmic, oath-laden style is characteristic of that era. The story of Thamud holds up the fate of a people who denied their prophet as a warning to the polytheists of Mecca; no specific occasion of revelation has been transmitted.

Major themes

The central theme of the surah is the purification of the soul. At the summit of the eleven-fold oath sequence, the verses 'By the soul and Him who proportioned it, and inspired it with its wickedness and its righteousness' (91:7-8) declare that the capacities for good and evil are planted together in human nature; 'He who purifies it has succeeded' (91:9) makes personal responsibility final. In the second part, the insolence of Thamud, the wretch among them who rose to slay the she-camel, and the leveling of the whole people (91:11-15) read as the historical example of a community that corrupted its own soul. Cosmic order and moral order stand side by side within a single surah.