What are the virtues of Sūrat Yā-Sīn?
The Prophet ﷺ called Yā-Sīn the heart of the Qur'an. What the classical tafsir tradition drew out about its structure, its message, and the merits of recitation.
4 passages from 2 books in the library
The classical approach.
These passages are drawn from 2 books by Ibn Kathir and Ibn al-Qayyim — part of the classical Sunni tradition that carries over a thousand years of reflection on the Qurʾān, the authentic Sunnah, and the consensus of the early community. Nothing below is a paraphrase. The words are the scholars' own, translated from the original Arabic manuscripts.
14th century · Bosra, Syria
Monumental history Al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah, the world's most widely read Qurʾanic commentary, and the classical Stories of the Prophets.
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"The Well is a well into which they cast their prophet — that is, they buried him in it. Ibn Jurayj said that Ikrima said: The People of the Well were at Falj, and they are the people mentioned in the chapter of Ya Sin. And Qatada said: Falj is one of the villages of al-Yamama. I say: if they were the people of Ya Sin, as Ikrima claimed, then they were indeed destroyed utterly, for God Most High said concerning their story: "It was but a single cry, and at once they were extinguished." Their story will follow after these accounts."
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"where they were threatened with punishment in the Hereafter if they did not repent, and no destruction of them is mentioned — whereas the destruction of the People of the Well is stated explicitly. And God, Exalted is He, knows best. The Story of the People of Ya Sin: The Companions of the Town God, Exalted is He, said: "And set forth to them a parable: the people of the town, when the messengers came to it. When We sent to them two, and they denied them both, so We reinforced them with a third, and they said: Truly we are messengers sent to you. They said: You are nothing but men like ourselves, and the Most Merciful has sent down nothing at all;"
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""The foremost are three: the foremost to Musa was Yusha son of Nun, the foremost to Isa was the man of Ya Sin, and the foremost to Muhammad was Ali ibn Abi Talib" — this is a hadith that does not stand; for this Husayn is abandoned as a narrator, a Shi'i of the extremists, and his being alone in transmitting this shows its utter weakness."
14th century · Damascus, Syria
Madārij al-Sālikīn — the classical map of the spiritual journey — and a vast body of work on the soul, love, the traps of the ego, and the nature of the heart.
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"He is better than the believer of Pharaoh's household, for that one concealed his faith while al-Siddiq proclaimed it; and better than the believer of the people of Ya Sin, for that one struggled an hour while al-Siddiq struggled for years. He beheld the bird of need circling about the grain of self-sacrifice, crying out: Who is it that will lend to God a goodly loan? So he cast down for it the grain of his wealth upon the meadow of contentment, and lay back upon the bedding of poverty."
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