Az-Zukhruf

Az-Zukhruf^[1] (Arabic: الزخرف, "Ornaments of Gold, Luxury") is the 43rd chapter (surah), of the Quran, the central religious text of Islam. It contains 89 verses (ayat).

Named after the golden ornaments recognized in verse 35 and again in verse 53, this surah dates back to the Second Meccan Period before the Prophet Muhammad’s migration to Medina. According to the Nöldeke Chronology of surahs, the Ornaments of Gold was the 61st surah revealed.^[2] The Standard Egyptian chronology, however, acknowledges this as the 63rd surah revealed.^[3] Regardless of the exact position in which this surah was revealed, it is clear that the surah was revealed during the Second Meccan Period, a time in which Muhammad and his followers were increasingly subject to opposition from the Quraysh tribe.

Consistent with all of the Surahs of the Quran, Ornaments of Gold begins with the Bismillah, or the standard verse ‘In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy.’^[4]

Ornaments of Gold is a Surah that acts as a reminder to believers that the goodness of God cannot be found within wealth and material power. The surah rejects the claim of disbelievers that prophets, leaders and worthy figures should be marked by their riches and thereby empowers them to refrain from temptations, indulgences and distractions. The surah warns disbelievers who succumb to the “mere enjoyments of this life” (Q43:17) ^[4] of a terrible and tormented afterlife and it encourages believers to relish not in riches but in their faith and love of God. The surah also repeatedly addresses the fact that the angels are not God's daughters but his faithful servants (Q43:19).^[5] The possibility of Jesus being the literal son of God is also rejected within verses 63-64.^[6]