Ad-Dukhan, "The Smoke," is the forty-fourth surah — 59 verses revealed in Mecca.1 The fifth of the Ha-Mim surahs, it is short and intense, moving between the night of revelation, a day of smoke, the drowning of Pharaoh, and the two final destinations.
What it is about
The surah opens with the Quran itself: "By the clear Book, indeed, We sent it down during a blessed night. Indeed, We were to warn [mankind]. Therein is made distinct every precise matter."2 It then turns to people who were "in doubt, amusing themselves," and warns them of a day when "the sky will bring a visible smoke covering the people." In distress they will cry, "Our Lord, remove from us the torment; indeed, we are believers" — and when it lifts, they will return to disbelief.3
Key themes
Pharaoh's people, unmourned. Moses asks Pharaoh, "Render to me the servants of Allah... Be not haughty with Allah." Pharaoh's people are drowned, leaving behind "gardens and springs and crops and noble sites and comfort wherein they were amused." Then one of the Quran's most striking lines: "the heaven and earth wept not for them, nor were they reprieved."4
Creation with purpose. "We did not create the heavens and earth and that between them in play. We did not create them except in truth." On the Day of Judgment "no relation will avail a relation at all."5
Two destinations. "Indeed, the tree of zaqqum is food for the sinful. Like murky oil, it boils within bellies." To the one who thought himself great it will be said, with bitter irony, "Taste! Indeed, you are the honored, the noble!"6 The righteous will be "in a secure place: within gardens and springs," where "they will not taste death therein except the first death."
The Quran made easy. "Indeed, We have eased it in your tongue that they might be reminded. So watch, [O Muhammad]; indeed, they are watching."7
Why it matters
Ad-Dukhan ties the revelation of the Quran to a single blessed night, which commentators identify with the Night of Decree in Ramadan. Its image of heaven and earth not weeping for Pharaoh's people is one of the Quran's most memorable judgments on power without righteousness, and its contrast of the two final homes is among the most vivid in the Meccan surahs. To read Ad-Dukhan in Arabic with translations and recitation, open it on Quran.com.