At-Takwir, "The Wrapping," is the eighty-first surah — 29 verses revealed in Mecca.1 It is one of the surahs the Prophet ﷺ named when he was asked why his hair had turned gray,4 and one of three he recommended to anyone who "wishes to look at the Day of Resurrection, as if he is seeing it with this eye."5
What it is about
The surah is built on a chain of twelve "whens," each describing the unmaking of the world: "When the sun is wrapped up [in darkness] and when the stars fall, dispersing, and when the mountains are removed and when full-term she-camels are neglected." The seas are filled with flame, souls are paired, the pages of deeds are spread open, Hellfire is set ablaze and Paradise brought near. In the middle of this cosmic upheaval comes a single human scene: "when the girl [who was] buried alive is asked for what sin she was killed." And then the conclusion the chain has been building toward: "A soul will [then] know what it has brought [with it]."2
The second half turns from the end of the world to the source of the message. Swearing by the stars that set, the night as it closes in "and by the dawn when it breathes [i.e., stirs]," the surah declares that the Quran "is a word [conveyed by] a noble messenger [i.e., Gabriel]," powerful, trusted and secure with the Owner of the Throne. "And your companion [i.e., Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ)] is not [at all] mad," it continues; "he has already seen him [i.e., Gabriel] in the clear horizon," and the Quran "is not the word of a devil, expelled [from the heavens]. So where are you going?" It is "a reminder to the worlds," and "you do not will except that Allah wills — Lord of the worlds."3
Why it matters
At-Takwir's portrait of the end of time is among the most vivid in the Quran. By placing the question put to a murdered infant girl amid the collapse of sun and stars, it declares that no injustice — however private, however accepted by a society — goes unanswered, and it stands among the Quran's strongest condemnations of female infanticide. To read At-Takwir in Arabic with translations and recitation, open it on Quran.com.