Al-Furqan, "The Criterion," is the twenty-fifth surah — 77 verses revealed in Mecca.1 Its first verse gives it its name: "Blessed is He who sent down the Criterion upon His Servant that he may be to the worlds a warner."2 The Criterion is the Quran itself — that which separates truth from falsehood.
What it is about
The surah is a reply to the objections of Mecca. Its opponents mocked the idea that a man like them could be a messenger: "What is this messenger that eats food and walks in the markets? Why was there not sent down to him an angel?"3 The answer is that every messenger was the same: "We did not send before you, [O Muhammad], any of the messengers except that they ate food and walked in the markets."4 They asked, too, why the Quran came piece by piece. The answer: "Thus [it is] that We may strengthen thereby your heart."6
Key themes
Regret that comes too late. On the Day of Judgment "the wrongdoer will bite on his hands [in regret]" and say, "Oh, I wish I had taken with the Messenger a way. Oh, woe to me! I wish I had not taken that one as a friend." And the Prophet ﷺ himself will say: "O my Lord, indeed my people have taken this Quran as [a thing] abandoned."5
Desire as a god. "Have you seen the one who takes as his god his own desire? Then would you be responsible for him?"7
Signs in the everyday. The surah points to the lengthening and shortening of the shadow, night as clothing and sleep as rest, rain that revives dead land, and two bodies of water, one fresh and one salty, with a barrier between them.
The servants of the Most Merciful. The surah closes with one of the Quran's most loved passages: "the servants of the Most Merciful are those who walk upon the earth easily, and when the ignorant address them [harshly], they say [words of] peace, and those who spend [part of] the night to their Lord prostrating and standing"; who, when they spend, "do so not excessively or sparingly but are ever, between that, [justly] moderate."8 They do not call on another god, take life unjustly or commit unlawful intercourse — and for those who have and then repent, "Allah will replace their evil deeds with good."9 They "do not testify to falsehood," pass by idle talk "with dignity," and pray: "Our Lord, grant us from among our wives and offspring comfort to our eyes and make us a leader [i.e., example] for the righteous."10
Why it matters
Al-Furqan's closing portrait of "the servants of the Most Merciful" is one of the Quran's fullest descriptions of the character it hopes to form — gentle, prayerful, moderate and honest — and its promise that repentance can turn evil deeds into good is among its most hopeful. The Prophet's ﷺ complaint that his people had "abandoned" the Quran remains a pointed reminder to Muslims about their own relationship with it. To read Al-Furqan in Arabic with translations and recitation, open it on Quran.com.