Texts of Islam

The Meaning of the Glorious Qur'ân,: 26. ash-Shu`ara': The Poets

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This is a chapter (surah) from the Quran — specifically Surah 26, "The Poets" — in M.M. Pickthall's classical English translation, published in 1930 and notable for its archaic, King James-influenced diction. The surah's central content is a sequence of parallel prophetic narratives: Moses confronting Pharaoh, Abraham challenging idol-worship, and the stories of Noah, Hud, Salih, Lot, and Shu'ayb — each following an almost identical structural template in which a prophet calls his people to God, is rejected, and divine punishment follows. This repetitive structure is not incidental but deliberate, serving the surah's core argument: that Muhammad's rejection by the Meccans fits a recurring, divinely ordained pattern of prophetic history, and that the fate of past deniers should warn his contemporaries. A refrain punctuates every narrative — "Lo! herein is indeed a portent, yet most of them are not believers. And lo, thy Lord! He is indeed the Mighty, the Merciful" — reinforcing the dual themes of warning and mercy. The surah closes by addressing the accusation that Muhammad is merely a poet inspired by jinn, insisting that poets follow delusion while true revelation comes from the Lord of the Worlds. Readers interested in Quranic rhetoric, typological prophecy, or the polemical context of early Islam will find this chapter a concentrated example of all three.

The Meaning of the Glorious Qur'ân,: 26. ash-Shu`ara': The Poets

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