Surah Al-An'am
Surah 6 · The Cattle · 165 verses · meccan
The Cattle — from the superstitions in verses 136–145, where livestock were declared forbidden or permitted by human invention and attributed to Allah.
The story
When Ibrahim عليه السلام was young, he looked at a bright star and wondered if it was God. Then it disappeared. Then the moon — it disappeared too. Then the big bright sun — and it also went away. So he knew: the real God is the One who made all of them and never disappears.
How it unfolds
AYAH 1-30
The One who made everything
Praise for the One who created the heavens, the earth, darkness and light — and the mercy He wrote upon Himself.
AYAH 59-73
The keys of the unseen
Not a leaf falls without His knowing. The reach of Allah's knowledge stated in one of the Quran's most quoted verses.
AYAH 74-90
Ibrahim finds his Lord
The star, the moon, the sun — a young man reasoning his way to the One who does not set, and the prophets listed after him.
AYAH 136-153
Invented religion
Cattle declared forbidden, children buried, ancestors followed blindly — and then the actual commandments, ten of them, plainly listed.
AYAH 161-165
Say: my prayer and my life
The closing declaration — prayer, sacrifice, living and dying, all belong to the Lord of the worlds.
Verses to carry
- 6:59"With Him are the keys of the unseen; none knows them except Him. Not a leaf falls but He knows it."
- 6:162"Indeed my prayer, my rites of sacrifice, my living and my dying are for Allah, Lord of the worlds."
- 6:12"He has written mercy upon Himself." Mercy as something Allah bound Himself to, not something we earn.
- 6:151The commandments listed plainly — no partners, kindness to parents, no killing children out of poverty, no approaching indecency.
Remember this
Allah wrote kindness upon Himself. He is never far, and He never sets like the sun.
Talk about it
Ibrahim عليه السلام worked it out by looking at the sky and thinking. What have you seen outside that made you think about Allah?