Daily Qur'an lessons
A passage each day: when and why it was revealed, what scholars said about it, and how to live it today.
Al-Fatihah
Verses 1–7
Al-Fatihah — the Opening — is the mother of the Quran, and its seven verses contain within them the entire architecture of Islamic belief and…
Al-Baqarah (Section 1/16)
Verses 1–18
This opening passage of Al-Baqarah establishes the foundational framework through which the entire surah — and indeed the entire Quran — is to be…
Al-Baqarah (Section 2/16)
Verses 19–36
This passage completes the portrait of hypocrisy with a second vivid parable (verses 19–20) before pivoting, with the universal address of verse 21…
Al-Baqarah (Section 3/16)
Verses 37–54
This passage is structured around two interlocking themes: the boundless mercy of Allah that accepts repentance and provides guidance, and the…
Al-Baqarah (Section 4/16)
Verses 55–72
This passage is a sustained meditation on the perversity of ingratitude in the face of extraordinary divine favour. The sequence opens with the…
Al-Baqarah (Section 5/16)
Verses 73–89
This passage culminates the Quran's most comprehensive case study in the pathology of religious knowledge divorced from sincere practice. It opens…
Al-Baqarah (Sec 6/16)
Verses 90–107
This passage continues and intensifies the Quran's confrontation with religious self-interest, focusing with particular sharpness on the specific…
Al-Baqarah (Sec 7/16)
Verses 108–125
This passage marks a significant turn in Al-Baqarah's extended engagement with the People of the Book, moving from documenting their historical and…
Al-Baqarah (Sec 8/16)
Verses 126–143
This passage carries forward the figure of Abraham introduced at the close of the previous section, presenting his foundational supplications as he…
Al-Baqarah (Sec 9/16)
Verses 144–161
This passage delivers the formal command of the qiblah change — the physical reorientation of all Muslim prayer from Jerusalem to the Sacred Mosque…
Al-Baqarah (Sec 10/16)
Verses 162–179
This passage brings together three of the Quran's most elevated theological and legislative accomplishments in a single sustained movement. It opens…
Al-Baqarah (Sec 11/16)
Verses 180–197
This section of Sūrat al-Baqarah covers one of the most legislatively dense and spiritually layered passages in the entire Quran. Moving from the…
Al-Baqarah (Sec 12/16)
Verses 198–215
This section of Sūrat al-Baqarah moves through three distinct but interconnected thematic territories, each building upon the last. The passage opens…
Al-Baqarah (Sec 13/16)
Verses 216–232
This section of Sūrat al-Baqarah opens with one of the Quran's most universal and psychologically penetrating statements: 'Perhaps you hate a thing…
Al-Baqarah (Sec 14/16)
Verses 233–250
This passage is among the most compositionally varied in Al-Baqarah, threading together detailed family law, a pivotal command on prayer maintenance…
Al-Baqarah (Sec 15/16)
Verses 251–268
This passage stands at the theological and devotional summit of the entire surah, and indeed of the Quran as a whole. It opens by completing the…
Al-Baqarah (Sec 16/16)
Verses 269–286
This closing passage of Surat al-Baqarah gathers together several of the surah's major threads - wealth, justice, contractual honesty, and faith…
Aali Imran (Sec 1/9)
Verses 1–22
This opening passage of Surat Aali Imran establishes the surah's central theological project: defending the integrity and unity of divine revelation…
Aali Imran (Sec 2/9)
Verses 23–44
This passage moves through two major movements that, on the surface, appear quite different but are united by a single underlying theme: the…
Aali Imran (Sec 3/9)
Verses 45–67
This passage completes the Qur'an's account of Jesus' birth and mission before pivoting into one of the most direct theological confrontations in the…
Aali Imran (Sec 4/9)
Verses 68–89
This passage shifts the surah's focus toward the Jewish community of Medina, examining with unusual specificity the moral and spiritual failures of…
Aali Imran (Sec 5/9)
Verses 90–111
This passage moves through several interconnected themes united by the question of what constitutes genuine faith and righteous community: the…
Aali Imran (Sec 6/9)
Verses 112–133
This passage opens with a sobering description of the humiliation and destitution that befell those among the Children of Israel who persistently…
Aali Imran (Sec 7/9)
Verses 134–156
This passage opens by describing the qualities of the righteous, the muhsinin, in terms that move seamlessly from generosity in both prosperity and…