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Ar-Rahman (Arabic: الرحمان‎, ar-raḥmān; The Merciful) is the 55th Chapter (Surah) of the Qur'an with 78 verses (āyāt).
The title of the surah, Ar-Rahman, appears in verse 1 and means "The Most Beneficent". The divine appellation "ar-Rahman" also appears in the opening formula which precedes every surah except Sura 9 ("In the Name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy"). English translations of the surah’s title include "The Most Gracious", "The All Merciful", "The Lord of Mercy", "The Beneficent", and "The Mercy-Giving". In the fourth century CE south Arabian pagan inscriptions started to be replaced by monotheistic expressions, using the term rahmān.
There is disagreement over whether Ar-Rahman ought to be categorized as a surah of the Meccan or Medinan period, but most Muslim scholars place Sūrat ar-Rahman in the Meccan period. According to the traditional Egyptian chronology, Ar-Rahman was the 97th surah revealed. Nöldeke places it earlier, at 43, while Ernst suggests that it was the fifth surah revealed.
Summary (Ayah/Verse):
1 God taught the Quran to Muhammad
2-15 God the creator of all things
16-25 God controlled the seas and all that is therein
26-30 God ever liveth, though all else decay and die
31-40 God will certainly judge both men and genii
41-45 God will consign the wicked to hell-fire
46-78 The joys of Paradise described
Ar-Rahman is composed entirely in saj’, the rhymed, accent-based prose characteristic of early Arabic poetry.
The most notable structural feature of Ar-Rahman is the refrain "Which, then, of your Lord’s blessings do you both deny?" (or, in Arberry’s rendering, "O which of your Lord's bounties will you and you deny?"), which is repeated 31 times in the 78 verses.
Surah Rahman is composed of 26 couplets, 4 tercets, and an introductory stanza of 13 verses all ending with this refrain. The final couplet is followed by a blessing of God’s name.
Thematically, Ar-Rahman can be divided into roughly three units: verses
1-30 expound upon natural displays of Allah’s creative power and mercy in showering those who inhabit the earth with blessings;
31-45 describe the final judgment and the terrible punishment that will be inflicted upon sinners;
46-78, by contrast, detail the delights that await the pious in paradise.
One of the chapter's main aims is to chastise mankind and jinn for their lack of gratitude towards God. Verses 1-30 describe some of the resources (fruits, palm trees, husked grain, fragrant plants, fresh and salt water, pearls, ships) that God has provided out of clay and smokeless fire (55:14), and set down under a sky illuminated by the twin risings of the sun and moon (55:17).
Verses 1-4 recount that God taught mankind how to communicate and even gave him the Qur'an to guide him on the path to righteousness. The refrain, "Which, then, of your Lord’s blessings do you both deny?", chastises for failing to acknowledge their indebtedness to God. The punishment that awaits the ungrateful is described in verses 35-45. For the remainder of the chapter, the delights of the gardens of paradise (replete with shading branches, flowing springs, fruit, maidens, couches, cushions, and fine carpets) are lyrically described, punctuated throughout by the refrain.
The surah also exemplifies the Qur'an’s tendency to be self-referential and self-validating, as when in verse 2 it emphasizes the fact that Allah taught the Qur'an to man out of mercy.
In terms of theological developments, Ar-Rahman introduces a three-tiered classification of men and jinn:
the best of believers ("those near to God", the muqarrabīn who will ascend to the higher garden of paradise),
the ordinary believers ("those at his right", the ashāt al-yamīn who will enjoy the second garden of paradise), and
the disbelievers (who will be punished in Hell).
This division is echoed in the following chapter (Al-Waqi’a).
The surah is dominated stylistically by pairs. To begin with, it is addressed to a dual audience of mankind and jinn: in Haleem’s translation of the refrain "Which, then, of your Lord’s blessings do you both deny?", "both" is understood to refer to men and jinn (likewise for the "you and you" in Arberry’s rendering). Natural phenomena are also referred to in pairs: "the sun and the moon" (55:5), "the stars and the trees" (55:6), "the two risings and the two settings [of the sun and the moon]" (55:17), and "the two bodies of [fresh and salt] water" (55:19). In addition, paradise is described as consisting of two double gardens (55:62), each of which contain a pair of springs (55:50, 55:66) and fruit in pairs (55:52).
Owing to the sura’s poetic beauty, it is often regarded as the 'beauty of the Quran', accordance with a hadith: Abdullah ibn Mas'ud reported that Muhammad said, "Everything has an adornment, and the adornment of the Qur'an is Surah ar Rahman."