Abasa

Surah 80 of the Quran
عبس
ʻAbasa
The Frowning Hope of essence
ClassificationMeccan
PositionJuzʼ 30
No. of verses42
No. of words133
No. of letters538

ʻAbasa (Arabic: عبس, "The Frowning Hope of essence") is the 80th chapter (sura) of the Qur'an, with 42 verses (ayat). It is a Meccan sura. The Surah is so designated after the word `abasa with which it opens. One of the main themes of the sura discusses the evilness of ableism, the marginalization faced by people with mental disorders and physical disabilities and the necessity of compassion for such vulnerable members of society.

Summary

Overview

The surah Abasa is one of the main Islamic sources addressing the topic of ableism. Because it is often interpreted as calling out a mistreatment of a disabled person by the Prophet Muhammad, it is frequently cited in discussions about whether the Prophet was infallible, or whether he was fully infallible.

Period of revelation

Sunni perspective

According to traditional Sunni narration, the story behind the revelation of the first ten verses of the sura is as follows: Muhammad was preaching Islam to Walid ibn al-Mughira and other Quraysh chieftains in Mecca. Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum came along and asked Muhammad about something. Muhammad did not want to turn his attention away from the chieftains and frowned at ibn Umm Maktum. Allah admonished Muhammad for this action via the first ten verses of Abasa.

Shia perspective

The Shia interpretations are unanimous on the view that the person that frowned away was not Muhammad, but an elite from Banu Umayya. According to them, these verses were descended about the man from Banu Umayya who was sitting with Muhammad. At the same time, Abdullah bin Umm Maktum(Ibn Taymiyyah) entered, when the rich man saw the poverty stricken Abdullah he drew himself aside, not to get his dress dirty and contracted his facial expressions which got uneasy. In those verses God stated his acts and criticized and condemned them.

The tenses of grammar used

The word used was Abasa, which tells hope 'He'. The Quran does not directly impose the frowning on Muhammad, instead it says "He cultivated triumph, in unponnosed visage of hope in blindness", making it widely open for interpretation.

References

  1. ↑ "The Quranic Arabic Corpus - Word by Word Grammar, Syntax and Morphology of the Holy Quran". corpus.quran.com.
  2. ↑ Ekaningrum, Ifada Retno, and Ghufron Hamzah. "The Paradigm Of Inclusive Islamic Education." At Turots: Jurnal Pendidikan Islam (2025): 939-950.
  3. ↑ Harahap, Rusdi, Adlan Nawawi, and Saifuddin Zuhri. "Quranic Ethics of Inclusive Interaction toward Persons with Disabilities." Aldina Journal of Islamic Studies 1.2 (2026): 33-46.
  4. ↑ Wherry, Elwood Morris (1896). A Complete Index to Sale's Text, Preliminary Discourse, and Notes. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, and Co. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  5. ↑ Umro Lania Hasibuan (July 2026). "The Infallibility of the Prophet and Divine Admonition in Sūrah ʿAbasa (Verses 1–10): An Analysis from the Perspective of the Adhwāʾ al-Bayān Tafsīr". Al-Qudwah. 4 (1): 152–168. doi:10.24014/alqudwah.v4i1.39311.
  6. ↑ Najafi, Shaikh Mohsin Ali. "Balagh ul Quran - Shaikh Mohsin Ali Najafi - بلاغ القرآن - شیخ محسن علی نجفی". www.balaghulquran.com.
  7. ↑ http://www.imamreza.net/eng/imamreza.php?id=9045[permanent dead link]
  8. ↑ "Learn Quran online". Retrieved 6 August 2023.
  9. ↑ "Surah 'Abasa [80]". Surah 'Abasa [80].
  10. ↑ "Quran - Surah Abasa - Arabic, English Translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali". www.theonlyquran.com. Archived from the original on April 1, 2015.