Surah Al-Baqarah: the longest surah, and what it is actually about
286 verses across the first three juz and forty-eight mushaf pages. A section-by-section map of the surah, its opening verse with both tafsir traditions, the longest verse in the Quran, and how it closes.
The numbers first
Al-Baqarah is the second surah in the mushaf and the longest: 286 verses. Ash-Shu'ara follows with 227, Al-A'raf with 206, Aal Imran with 200.
The length is not only a verse count. Counting on the King Fahd Complex text this site displays, Al-Baqarah runs to 6,117 words out of 77,430 in the whole Quran — close to an eighth of the Quran in one surah.
In the Madinah mushaf it begins on page 2 and ends on page 49: forty-eight pages, spanning the first three of the thirty juz.
Two practical consequences. Reading Al-Baqarah alone is reading roughly two and a half juz. And a daily portion started from the beginning of the mushaf stays inside this one surah for days. Open the surah in the reader.
The first verse after Al-Fatihah
The surah opens with two disconnected letters:
﴿الٓمٓ﴾
Alif, Lam, Meem.
Then comes the verse the discourse begins from:
﴿ذَٰلِكَ ٱلۡكِتَٰبُ لَا رَيۡبَۛ فِيهِۛ هُدٗى لِّلۡمُتَّقِينَ﴾
This is the Book about which there is no doubt, a guidance for those conscious of Allah -
This verse carries a mark that appears in only three verses of the entire mushaf: three dots above the word rayb and three dots above the word fih. It is the mark of the embracing pause (ta'anuq al-waqf): the reciter stops at one of the two, never at both. Stopping at the first yields "no doubt — in it is guidance for the God-conscious." Stopping at the second yields "no doubt in it — guidance for the God-conscious." Both readings are sound; the mark forbids only the combination of the two.
What the tafsir says here
At-Tafsir al-Muyassar, issued by the King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Quran, reads the demonstrative as pointing to the Quran itself: this is the great Book of which there is no doubt that it comes from God, so plain that no one is entitled to doubt it, and the God-conscious are the ones who profit by it — with useful knowledge and righteous action.
Al-Fayd al-Kashani, in Tafsir as-Safi, reads it the same way and says so explicitly: the Book opened with Alif Lam Mim is the very Book foretold to Moses and the prophets after him, and the denial of doubt is because of its plainness to them. He then adds a second layer, which he labels as ta'wil rather than tafsir — a distinction we treat in its own article.
(Both tafsir passages are rendered here in our own English; the Arabic originals are quoted verbatim in the Arabic version of this article, and the Arabic sheet in the reader carries them in full.)
A map of the surah
This is a long Medinan surah, closer to a chain of connected passages than to a single topic. Its sections, by verse number:
- 1–29 — three kinds of people: the God-conscious, the disbelievers, the hypocrites; then the challenge to produce a surah like it.
- 30–39 — the creation of Adam and the stewardship of the earth, the prostration, Iblis, the descent, the turning in repentance.
- 40–123 — the longest passage in the surah: the address to the Children of Israel, the favours upon them, the calf, the cow, hardened hearts, the altering of scripture.
- 124–141 — Abraham: his trial by commands, leadership, the building of the House, his supplication, the way of Abraham.
- 142–152 — the turning of the prayer direction to the Ka'bah, and the community as witness over mankind.
- 153–167 — seeking help through patience and prayer, affliction, the martyrs, Safa and Marwah.
- 168–176 — lawful and wholesome food, the footsteps of Satan, concealing what God revealed.
- 177–182 — the comprehensive verse on righteousness, retribution, and bequest.
- 183–187 — fasting: its prescription, Ramadan, the ill and the traveller, night and day.
- 188–203 — the phases of the moon as timings for people, fighting, hajj and umrah, the offering, the sacred sites.
- 204–242 — a long run of rulings: spending, fighting in the sacred month, wine and gambling, orphans, marriage, divorce, waiting periods, nursing.
- 243–253 — Talut, Jalut and David; those who left their homes; spending in the way of God.
- 254–257 — Ayat al-Kursi, and "there is no compulsion in religion."
- 258–260 — three exchanges about giving life and causing death.
- 261–274 — the parable of the grain and the ears of corn, the manners of charity, reproach and injury.
- 275–281 — usury, in the sharpest language the surah uses about money.
- 282–283 — recording a debt, witnesses, pledges.
- 284–286 — the closing: affirmation, supplication, and the lifting of what cannot be borne.
Where the name comes from
The root b-q-r ("cow") occurs in the entire surah only in five consecutive verses: 67, 68, 69, 70 and 71 — the killing among the Children of Israel and the cow they were ordered to slaughter. Five verses out of 286 gave the surah its name, which is how surah names generally work: a tag you recognise it by, not a summary of its contents.
The longest verse in the Quran
The longest verse of the surah — and of the Quran — is the verse of debt:
O you who have believed, when you contract a debt for a specified term, write it down. And let a scribe write [it] between you in justice. Let no scribe refuse to write as Allah has taught him. So let him write and let the one who has the obligation dictate. And let him fear Allah, his Lord, and not leave anything out of it. But if the one who has the obligation is of limited understanding or weak or unable to dictate himself, then let his guardian dictate in justice. And bring to witness two witnesses from among your men. And if there are not two men [available], then a man and two women from those whom you accept as witnesses - so that if one of the women errs, then the other can remind her. And let not the witnesses refuse when they are called upon. And do not be [too] weary to write it, whether it is small or large, for its [specified] term. That is more just in the sight of Allah and stronger as evidence and more likely to prevent doubt between you, except when it is an immediate transaction which you conduct among yourselves. For [then] there is no blame upon you if you do not write it. And take witnesses when you conclude a contract. Let no scribe be harmed or any witness. For if you do so, indeed, it is [grave] disobedience in you. And fear Allah. And Allah teaches you. And Allah is Knowing of all things.
It is 128 words in Arabic. The next longest are the verse of inheritance in An-Nisa (4:12) at 88 words, and the verse on standing in night prayer in Al-Muzzammil (73:20) at 78. Within Al-Baqarah itself the next longest are 102 at 74 words, 196 at 73, and 259 at 67.
One verse people ask for by name
In the middle of the surah sits a verse known by its own name:
Allah - there is no deity except Him, the Ever-Living, the Sustainer of [all] existence. Neither drowsiness overtakes Him nor sleep. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. Who is it that can intercede with Him except by His permission? He knows what is [presently] before them and what will be after them, and they encompass not a thing of His knowledge except for what He wills. His Kursi extends over the heavens and the earth, and their preservation tires Him not. And He is the Most High, the Most Great.
Fifty words in Arabic, with an article of its own — Ayat al-Kursi, clause by clause — and a page carrying its text beside every tafsir the site holds: Tafsir of Ayat al-Kursi.
How the surah closes
It ends with three verses, the last of them a supplication:
Allah does not charge a soul except [with that within] its capacity. It will have [the consequence of] what [good] it has gained, and it will bear [the consequence of] what [evil] it has earned. "Our Lord, do not impose blame upon us if we have forgotten or erred. Our Lord, and lay not upon us a burden like that which You laid upon those before us. Our Lord, and burden us not with that which we have no ability to bear. And pardon us; and forgive us; and have mercy upon us. You are our protector, so give us victory over the disbelieving people."
Al-Muyassar opens its comment on it with the principle rather than the petition: God's religion is ease and carries no hardship, so God does not ask of His servants what they cannot bear.
As-Safi, citing At-Tawhid from as-Sadiq, makes the same point in the form of a report: the servants were never commanded beyond their capacity, and everything people were told to take on, they have room for; what they have no room for is lifted from them.
Al-Allamah at-Tabataba'i, in Tafsir al-Mizan, reads the closing as gathering what the surah scattered: obligation, belief, and prayer in three verses. That verse has its own article too: Al-Baqarah 2:286.
Five observations from the counting itself
- The address "O you who have believed" occurs in 89 verses of the Quran, eleven of them in Al-Baqarah alone.
- "They ask you" (yas'alunaka) occurs in 13 verses, six of them in Al-Baqarah: the phases of the moon, spending, the sacred month, wine and gambling, orphans, menstruation. It is the surah of questions answered.
- Two of its verses are known to people by names of their own: the verse of the Throne, and the verse of debt.
- It carries one of only three verses in the mushaf marked with the embracing pause — and it is its second verse.
- It is Medinan, and no single other surah carries as much law: fasting, hajj, retribution, divorce, nursing, debt, usury.
What the surah is not
Al-Baqarah has no single continuous narrative running through it, as Yusuf does. Its stories are passages cited for a lesson, after which the discourse returns to a ruling or an address: Adam in ten verses, the cow in five, Abraham in eighteen, Talut in eleven. A reader who comes to it for a story will not find one. A reader who comes to it for the founding of a community — its creed, its prayer direction, its fast, its pilgrimage, its transactions — finds the whole surah doing that.
Sources
- The Quran text — the King Fahd Complex text (the narration of Hafs from Asim), which is the text this site displays; every count in this article is made on it.
- English translation — Sahih International, the translation the site serves.
- At-Tafsir al-Muyassar — a panel of scholars, King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Quran.
- Tafsir as-Safi — al-Fayd al-Kashani.
- Tafsir al-Mizan — Sayyid Muhammad Husayn at-Tabataba'i.