Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim.

In the Name of Allâh, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful. All the praises and thanks be to Allâh, the Lord of the 'Alamîn . The Only Owner of the Day of Recompense. You (Alone) we worship, and You (Alone) we ask for help. Guide us to the Straight Way. The Way of those on whom You have bestowed Your Grace , not (the way) of those who earned Your Anger, nor of those who went astray .

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25: (Al-Furqan)- The Criterion

(The Distinction)(Revealed in Mecca)77 verses in 6 sections

This Sura contains seventy seven verses and it has been sent down in Mecca.

In the first verses of this Sura, the Qur'an has rendered it into 'Furqan' which means the separator of right from wrong; and that is why this Sura has been called 'Furqan'.

This Sura consists of some verses about the pretexts of the pagans and the answers given to them.

They are also about the lives of the former peoples, such as; the people of Rass, and the people's regret in the Hereafter, the signs of Unity, the greatness of Allah in nature, and the comparison of believers with unbelievers; but the most important part of the verses of this holy Sura is about the qualities of /'ibad-ur-rahman/ (the servants of Allah) who are the true servants of Allah, which begins from verse 63 up to the end of the Sura.

We hope, by reciting these verses and contemplating on them, which results the improvement of our behaviour and manner basing on these qualities, we can pave the way of receiving the Divine grace and favours in the world and Hereafter and entering Paradise.

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Virtues

There is a tradition quoted from 'Ishaq-ibn-'Ammar from Hadrat 'Abul-Hassan Musa-ibn-Ja'far who told him:

"Do not abandon reading Sura /tabaraka/ (Al-Furqan) since if any (believer) reads it every night, He will not punish him at all and He will not reckon him and his abode will be in the Exalted Firdaus (Paradise)."

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Benefits

The Holy Prophet (S) has said that a person who recites this Surah will be taken to Jannah without questioning, provided he believes in the Day of Judgement and the Raising of the Dead (from the graves).

Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq (a.s.) said that Allah (S.w.T.) will never send His punishment upon any person who recites this Surah every night. The reciter of this Surah will also gain a highly status in the hereafter. The person who writes this Surah and keeps it in his possession will never be harmed by the vermin of this earth.

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This Surah really shows us how to argue in the best ways. Now, we have to always see how to apply it on our world today and here are four things to think about:

Many times Non-Muslims mock and question the Quran, the Prophet Muhammad (SAW), and the Sunnah (teaching of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW)). This Surah can help us to answer these questions and to see how we can talk to them.Muslims sometimes have more doubts than Non-Muslims. No one is free of doubts, our doubts can help us to make good decisions when we get the right answers on what we should believe and how we should act, but they can also lead us make bad decisions if we get the wrong answers. That is why Allah calls this Surah Al Furqan – it is there to separate right from wrong.Al Furqan means Sorting, the Criterion, Sorter and the Separator. That means that we can look to the the Quran, also known as Al Furqan, to see right from wrong, truth from falsehood and use it to make good decisions and get advice. We have to do everything in our life to make Allah happy and do it all the way He wants. He can find Him and His Commands in the Quran.The time we are living in it is becoming more and more difficult to differentiate good from evil. This Surah can help in these situations by putting whatever personality or act we are looking at or doing in the three categories I mentioned (Quran, Muhammad (SAW)'s life and the Prophet Muhammad's (SAW) teaching). This will always help us to make the right decisions and always do what Allah SWT loves from us, Insha'Allah. We are all in the Quran no matter what our character is or what we do, we just have to spend time to look for ourselves in the Quran and improve always keep what we find, Insha'Allah.

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Complain of the Prophet (s) about his people (verse 30)

"And the Apostle will say, 'O my Lord! Indeed my people consigned this Qur'ān to oblivion.'"— Qur'an 25:30

A well-known verse of Sura al-Furqan is its thirtieth verse in which the complains that his people have abandoned the . According to , the complaint extends to our time too, because the Qur'an has now turned into a ceremonial book. In his , wrote that this is the Prophet's (s) complaint on the day of resurrection.

The two seas (verse 53)

The meeting point of the Baltic and North seas, near the Northernmost point of Denmark, Skagen; is one of the many instances of this phenomenon."It is He who merged the two seas: this one sweet and agreeable, and that one briny and bitter, and between the two He set a barrier and a forbidding hindrance."— Qur'an 25:53

According to exegeses of the Qur'an, this verse portrays a wonderful manifestation of God's power in the creation of the world. The two seas are also mentioned in (verses 19 and 20) and (verse 61).

'Creation in six days (verse 59)

"He, who created the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them in six days, and then settled on the Throne, the All-beneficent; so ask someone who is well aware about Him."— Qur'an 25:59

Another well-known verse of the sura is the verse fifty nine according to which God created the heavens and the Earth and what is between them in six days. With slight differences in the wording, the same content appears in six other as well. According to the verse nine of , God created the Earth in two days. In Tafsir al-mizan, 'Allama Tabataba'i discussed the temporal length of the creation of the word under verse nine of Qur'an 41. According to him, "day" in this verse means a portion of time. According to Tafsir-i nimuna, "day" here means a period of time, and not twenty four hours.

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Lessons

The Surah is dealing with how the Quraish denied the Quran, the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and the Sunnah. Allah answers each and every question they raised through the Ayat of this Surah and warns them about the consequences of this disbelief. This Surah is mostly about choices. It talks about the falsehood and the Truth. It leaves the reader (in this case the Quraish) to decide what they want to side with. It describes who the Muslims are and who the Disbelievers are. Whether they denied the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) at the time, it is true that at the end most became Muslims and made the right choice. After the Muslims conquered Makkah peacefully and without war, we find that most of the Quraish had submitted to Allah alone and accepted the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) as a Messenger.

Examples of Doubts from the Disbelievers and the Answers of Allah SWT:

The Noble Quran:

Those who have rejected the Message of the Prophet, say, "This (Al-Furqan) is a forgery which this man himself has devised, and some others have helped him at it." What a cruel injustice and an impudent lie! They say, "These things are the writings of the ancients which he has got copied down for himself, and then these are recited to him in the morning and evening." O Muhammad, say to them, "This has been sent down by Him, Who knows the secret of the heavens and the earth." The fact is that He is very Forgiving and Merciful. (Surah Al Furqan: 4-6)

The disbelievers say, "Why has not the entire Qur'an been sent down to this man all at once?" Well, this has been done to impress it deeply on your mind, and (for the same object) We have sent it down piecemeal by degrees. And (there is another wisdom in this) whenever they brought to you an odd thing (or a strange question), We sent its right answer to you in time and explained it all in the best manner, those who are going to be driven to Hell upon their faces, have taken an utterly wrong stand and their way is most erroneous! [Surah Al Furqan: 32-34]

The Prophet Muhammad (SAW):

They say, "What sort of a Messenger is he that he eats food and moves about in the streets? Why has not an angel been sent down to accompany him and threaten (the disbelievers)? Or why has not at least a treasure been sent down for him or a garden given to him for (easy) sustenance?" And the wicked people say, "You are following a man bewitched." Just see what strange arguments they bring forward with regard to you! They have gone so far astray that they cannot charge any thing against you. Highly blessed is He, Who, if He wills, could give you much more and better things than what they propose for you: (Not one but) many gardens, beneath which rivers flow; and big castles. (Surah Al Furqan: 7-10)

Those people, who have no fear of coming before Us, say, "Why should not the angels be sent down to us? Or else we should see our Lord." Great arrogance have they assumed in regard to themselves, and have transgressed all limits in their rebellion. The Day, when they will see the angels, will not be a day of rejoicing for the criminals; they will cry out, "May Allah save us!" Then We shall turn to what they had done and render it vain like scattered dust. (On the contrary) only those who have deserved the Garden, will have a good abode on that Day and a cool place for midday rest. On that Day, a cloud will appear rending the sky and the angels will be sent down rank after rank. The real Kingdom on that Day will belong only to the Merciful, and it will be a very hard Day for the disbelievers. The unjust man will bite at his hand and say, "Would that I had stood by the Messenger! O, woe to me! Would that I had not chosen so and so for a friend! For it was he, who had deluded me to reject the Admonition which had come to me. Satan has proved very treacherous to man." And the Messenger will say, "O my Lord, my people had made this Qur'an the object of their ridicule." (Surah Al Furqan:21-30)

The Sunnah:

Had We willed, We would have raised up a separate Warner in each habitation. So, O Prophet, do not yield to the disbelievers, but wage a Jihad (War) against them with this Qur'an. (Surah Al Furqan: 51-52)

When it is said to them. "Prostrate yourselves before the Merciful," they retort, "What is the Merciful? Would you have us prostrate ourselves before whomsoever you will?" And this invitation only helps to increase their hatred all the more. (Surah Al Furqan: 60)

In fact, the one who repents and does righteous deeds, returns to Allah as one rightly should. (And the servants of the Merciful are those:) who do not bear witness to falsehood and who; if they have ever to pass by what is vain, pass by like dignified people who do not behave like the blind and the deaf, when the Revelations of their Lord are recited to them for admonition. (Surah Al Furqan: 71-73)

O, Muhammad, tell the people, "My Lord does not care at all if you do not invoke Him. Now that you have denied (His Revelations), you will soon be awarded such a punishment which you will never be able to avoid." (Surah Al Furqan: 77)

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Hadiths

Believing in the Wilaya of Ahl al-Bayt (a) as a Condition for the Acceptance of the Deeds

Under the exegesis of the verse twenty three of Sura al-Furqan, a number of hadiths are cited according to which, God accepts one's deeds only on the condition that the person believes in the wilaya of ahl al-bayt (a).

Some of these hadiths are collected by Sayyid hashim al-bahrani in his Tafsir al-burhan. He writes: "the number of such hadiths is beyond enumeration". Also, some hadiths are cited under verses twenty seven to twenty nine according to which the word, "sabil" (path), in these verses refers to imam ali (a). These hadiths refer to Imam 'Ali's (a) being the true successor  of the Prophet (s), whose right was usurped by others.

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There is a hadith cited in Majma'al-bayan about the virtue of reciting Sura al-Furqan, according to which the prophet (s) said: "if a person recites Sura al-Furqan, he will be resurrected on the day of judgement  while he believes in the resurrection and has no doubts that people in the grave will be resurrected". Such a person will enter the without any evaluation of his actions. 

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According to al-shaykh al-saduq, there is a hadith in which imam al-kazim (a) is quoted as saying: "never abandon the recitation of Sura al-Furqan, because a person who recites Sura al-Furqan at night will never be punished by God and his actions will not be evaluated, and he will reside the higher paradise.

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