المطففين
Al Mutaffifin
Verses
36
Revelation
Makki
Period
Makkan
Surah No.
83 / 114
Al-Mutaffifin opens with a condemnation of those who take full measure for themselves but give short measure and weight to others – a commercial fraud that the surah elevates into a spiritual disease. After pronouncing woe upon them, the surah describes the heavenly register ('Illiyyun) where the record of the righteous is kept, and the hellish register (Sijjin) where the records of the wicked are stored. It then portrays the delights of the righteous in Paradise – a sealed nectar – and the mockery the wicked will face in the Hereafter, reversing the earthly dynamic where they mocked the believers.
أسباب النزول
The opening verses were revealed when the Prophet arrived in Madinah and found that the people of Madinah were among the most notorious short-changers in trade. The revelation immediately addressed this commercial dishonesty within the religious framework of accountability. The surah was likely among the last Makkan revelations or earliest Madinan ones, and scholars differ on its classification.
“Woe to those who give less than due – who, when they take a measure from people, take it in full. But if they give by measure or by weight to them, they cause loss.”
The foundational Islamic teaching on commercial ethics – defrauding in weights and measures is not merely a regulatory offence but a spiritual crime meriting divine condemnation.
“Its end is musk – and for that let the competitors compete.”
The divine invitation to compete for the highest – the pure drink sealed with musk in Paradise is the only prize worth racing toward, reorienting human ambition from worldly competition to spiritual striving.