وَإِذَا جَآءَكَ ٱلَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِـَٔايَٰتِنَا فَقُلْ سَلَٰمٌ عَلَيْكُمْ ۖ كَتَبَ رَبُّكُمْ عَلَىٰ نَفْسِهِ ٱلرَّحْمَةَ ۖ أَنَّهُۥ مَنْ عَمِلَ مِنكُمْ سُوٓءًۢا بِجَهَٰلَةٍۢ ثُمَّ تَابَ مِنۢ بَعْدِهِۦ وَأَصْلَحَ فَأَنَّهُۥ غَفُورٌۭ رَّحِيمٌۭ
And when those come to you who believe in Our verses, say, "Peace be upon you. Your Lord has decreed upon Himself mercy: that any of you who does wrong out of ignorance and then repents after that and corrects himself - indeed, He is Forgiving and Merciful."
Introduction
This is āyah 54 of Sūrat Al-An'aam (The Cattle), the 55th sūrah in the traditional order of revelation. It was revealed in the Meccan period and sits within Juzʾ 7. Meccan verses tend to address faith, the oneness of God, and the hereafter.
This introduction is a starting point — the community and Bilal will enrich it over time.
Revelation & occasion
- Period
- Meccan
- Order revealed
- 55 of 114
- Surah
- Al-An'aam (6)
And when those who have faith in Our signs come to thee, say, “Peace be upon you. Your Lord has written mercy against Himself, that whosoever of you does an ugly deed in ignorance, and thereafter repents and makes wholesome, He is forgiving, ever-merciful.” “The faithful are one thing, the recognizers something else. The faithful first look at the artifacts and the signs, then they reach Us from the signs. The recognizers first reach Us, then they return from Us to the signs. “O MuḤammad! Unto those who have faith in Us by the intermediary of the signs, convey Our greeting of peace by the intermediary of yourself! Unto those who recognize Us without interme- diary and find Us without the artifacts, We will convey Our greetings of peace without intermedi- ary.” That is in His words, “Peace-a word from an ever-merciful Lord” [36:58]. The Pir of the Tariqah said, “O God, he who recognizes You through the artifacts depends on the secondary causes, he who recognizes You through the attributes is imprisoned by reports, and he who recognizes You by allusion seeks companionship. He who is snatched away by You is protected from himself.” Although He has turned you over to the angel who writes your slips against you, He Himself has undertaken to write mercy for you. His writing for you is beginningless, and that writing against you is temporal. The temporal does not nullify the beginningless. WāsiṬī said, “By His mercy they arrived at worshiping Him. It is not that by worshiping Him they arrived at His mercy. By His mercy they attained what is with Him, not by their acts, for the Prophet said, 'Not even I, unless God envelops me with His mercy.'” Whosoever of you does an ugly deed in ignorance, and thereafter repents and makes whole- some, He is forgiving, ever-merciful. It has been narrated in a report, “You called upon Me, and I said 'Here I am!' You asked from Me, and I bestowed upon you. You stood up against Me, and I gave you respite. You left Me, and I took care of you. You disobeyed Me, and I curtained you. If you return to Me, I will accept you. If you turn away from Me, I will wait for you.” He is saying, “My servants, My creatures! You called out to Me, I answered you with 'Here I am!' You asked for blessings from Me, I bestowed gifts upon you.
Tafsir
Hafiz Ibn Kathir
Chains of transmission
Oral — isnād
- ~610–632 CERevelation & memorisation
Received by the Prophet ﷺ and preserved by the ḥuffāẓ (memorisers) among the Companions.
- 1st century AHMutawātir transmissionawaiting curation
Carried by mass-transmission through the generations of qurrāʾ.
- TodayLiving chainsawaiting curation
Continuous ijāzah chains link reciters today back to the Prophet ﷺ.
Verified isnād chains for this āyah will be added by curators.
Written — the manuscript record
- ~650 CEʿUthmānic codicesawaiting curation
The standardised muṣḥaf sent to the great cities (e.g. the Topkapı and Samarqand codices).
- 8th–10th c.Early Ḥijāzī & Kūfic foliosawaiting curation
Surviving leaves in Birmingham, Sanaa, Paris (BnF) and beyond.
- Modern printModern printawaiting curation
The 1924 Cairo edition → today: the standard printed muṣḥaf used worldwide.
A curated chain of manuscript images for this exact āyah — roughly one per century — is coming. Help us source and verify them.
And now — what do you think?
The text, its history and the classical commentary are laid out above. Share your own understanding, ask a question, or reason with others.
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