وَالشَّمْسِ وَضُحٰيهَا وَالْقَمَرِ اِذَا تَلٰيهَا
"By the sun and its morning brightness; by the moon when it follows it…"
— al-Shams 91:1-2
Allah swears by His creation: by the sun, the moon, time, the soul, the Quran itself. The oath is an art of emphasis; the strongest signal for what follows.
The Oaths of the Quran
Whatever Allah swears by, the word that follows acquires absolute emphasis.
God swears by 47 different things in the Quran: the sun, moon, time, cities, the soul, and even the Quran itself. These oaths are not random; each is the strongest evidence for the message that follows.
This page follows the classical count from Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya's al-Tibyān fī Aqsām al-Qurʾān. Conjunction clauses bound by a pronoun or by 'mā' (e.g., wa-mā banāhā) count as the complementary arm of the principal oath, not as separate oaths. Hence Surah al-Shams shows 7 compound oaths in total; broader classifications that count conjunctions separately extend the same series to 11 expressions.
Oath → Affirmation
The oath's true power is not in what is sworn by, but in what follows. Read each oath below, then reveal the answer.
Sun, moon, stars and sky — the most visible signs of God's power
47 oaths — The Creator calling His creation to witness.
When a human swears, they refer to something greater than themselves. Allah swears by His own creation. Because before Him, the sun, the pen, time, the soul; all are His signs. The oath is the highest declaration of the value given to the created.
Sura al-Shams (91)
→7 verses, 7 oaths: sun, moon, day, night, sky, earth, soul. The Quran's densest oath chain.
Sura al-Wāqiʿa (56)
→"I swear by the positions of the stars — and indeed it is a tremendous oath if you only knew" (56:75-76). The Quran interpreting its own oath.
Sura al-ʿAṣr (103)
→"By time, indeed humanity is in loss." The shortest oath sura (3 verses); the thesis of all history.