The Prophet ﷺ recited Surah Ar-Rahman to the jinn: whenever they heard “Which, then, of the favours of your Lord will you deny?”, they said “We deny none of Your favours, our Lord; to You belongs all praise”, responding better than the companions. So it is recommended to say this when listening to it. The Prophet ﷺ paired it with An-Najm in the night prayer.
The Prophet ﷺ said he had recited Surah Ar-Rahman to the jinn on the night of the jinn, and that they responded better than his companions, who stayed silent when he recited it to them.
Whoever hears “Which, then, of the favours of your Lord will you deny?” is recommended to say: “We deny none of Your favours, our Lord; to You belongs all praise”, as the jinn did; it teaches reflection and answering the question the verse poses.
The verse “Which, then, of the favours of your Lord will you deny?” recurs thirty-one times, reminding jinn and humans of Allah’s favours so that they thank Him for them.
A surah of the Mufassal
It belongs to the Mufassal, given to the Prophet ﷺ as an extra gift by which he was favoured over the other prophets, according to the hadith of Wathilah ibn al-Asqa’: “… and I was favoured with the Mufassal.”
When to recite it
In the night prayer, paired with An-Najm in a single rak’ah, according to the hadith of Ibn Mas’ud
Hadiths on its virtues
Arabic text, translation, reference and authenticity grade of each hadith.
خرج رسول الله ﷺ على أصحابه فقرأ عليهم سورة الرحمن من أولها إلى آخرها فسكتوا، فقال: لقد قرأتها على الجن ليلة الجن فكانوا أحسن مردودًا منكم، كنت كلما أتيت على قوله: ﴿فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ﴾ قالوا: لا بشيء من نعمك ربنا نكذب فلك الحمد
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came out to his companions and recited Surah Ar-Rahman to them from beginning to end, and they kept silent. He said: “I recited it to the jinn on the night of the jinn and they responded better than you: whenever I reached His words ‘Which, then, of the favours of your Lord will you deny?’, they said: ‘We deny none of Your favours, our Lord; to You belongs all praise.’”
مالي أسمع الجن أحسن جوابًا لربها منكم؟ قالوا: ماذا يا رسول الله؟ قال: ما أتيت على قول الله: ﴿فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ﴾ إلا قالت الجن: لا بشيء من نعمة ربنا نكذب
“Why do I hear the jinn responding to their Lord better than you?” They asked: “What is that, Messenger of Allah?” He said: “Whenever I reached Allah’s words ‘Which, then, of the favours of your Lord will you deny?’, the jinn said: ‘We deny none of the favours of our Lord.’”
ولكن رسول الله ﷺ كان يقرأ النظائر في كل ركعة. الرحمن والنجم، في ركعة، والطور والذاريات في ركعة، …
But the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to recite the similar surahs (an-naza’ir) in each rak’ah: Ar-Rahman and An-Najm in one rak’ah, At-Tur and Adh-Dhariyat in one rak’ah…
What the surah is about
Praise of Allah and His favour to creation in teaching the Qur’an
Signs of Allah’s power and of His blessings upon His creation
Praise of justice and the command to give everyone their due
All on earth perishes; only the Face of Allah, Lord of majesty and honour, remains
The challenge to jinn and humans to pass beyond the regions of the heavens and the earth
The terrors of the Resurrection, the fate of the deniers and the gardens prepared for the believers
The thirty-one-fold refrain “Which, then, of the favours of your Lord will you deny?”
The surah’s close with the glorification and praise of Allah
Main purpose: To remind jinn and humans of Allah’s inner and outer blessings, and of the traces of His mercy in this world and the next.
About Surah Ar-Rahman
Surah Ar-Rahman (the Most Merciful) is named after its opening word, this name of Allah; the name appears in the hadith of Jabir in At-Tirmidhi. It is Meccan according to most companions and successors; Ibn Mas’ud and Ibn Abbas are reported to have held it Medinan. Al-Qurtubi deemed it Meccan, since Ibn Mas’ud recited its opening aloud near the Maqam in Mecca and Quraysh beat him. It has 78 verses in the Hijazi count and 76 in the Basran count.
