SURAH 78 — An-Naba’ — النبأ — “The Great Announcement”

• Revelation Order: 80
• Event Anchor: Late Meccan eschatological confrontation (c. 619–622 CE)

Explanation:
An-Naba’ opens with Meccan skeptics disputing “the Great Announcement,” referring to resurrection and final judgment. This agitation fits the late Meccan environment, where denial of the afterlife had become one of the core ideological battles between Islam and Quraysh. The surah responds with a sweeping argument from creation—earth, mountains, sleep, night, day—to the cataclysmic scenes of the Hereafter, aiming to break through hardened disbelief. Its escalating structure reflects a moment when the Qur’an intensified warnings to a society resistant to spiritual accountability.

Verse	Verse #	Meccan v Medinan	General Index
About what are they asking one another?	1	Meccan	5673
About the great news –	2	Meccan	5674
That over which they are in disagreement.	3	Meccan	5675
No! They are going to know.	4	Meccan	5676
Then, no! They are going to know.	5	Meccan	5677
Have We not made the earth a resting place?	6	Meccan	5678
And the mountains as stakes?	7	Meccan	5679
And We created you in pairs	8	Meccan	5680
And made your sleep [a means for] rest	9	Meccan	5681
And made the night as clothing	10	Meccan	5682
And made the day for livelihood	11	Meccan	5683
And constructed above you seven strong [heavens]	12	Meccan	5684
And made [therein] a burning lamp	13	Meccan	5685
And sent down, from the rain clouds, pouring water	14	Meccan	5686
That We may bring forth thereby grain and vegetation	15	Meccan	5687
And gardens of entwined growth.	16	Meccan	5688
Indeed, the Day of Judgement is an appointed time –	17	Meccan	5689
The Day the Horn is blown and you will come forth in multitudes	18	Meccan	5690
And the heaven is opened and will become gateways	19	Meccan	5691
And the mountains are removed and will be [but] a mirage.	20	Meccan	5692
Indeed, Hell has been lying in wait	21	Meccan	5693
For the transgressors, a place of return,	22	Meccan	5694
In which they will remain for ages [unending].	23	Meccan	5695
They will not taste therein [any] coolness or drink	24	Meccan	5696
Except scalding water and [foul] purulence –	25	Meccan	5697
An appropriate recompense.	26	Meccan	5698
Indeed, they were not expecting an account	27	Meccan	5699
And denied Our verses with [emphatic] denial.	28	Meccan	5700
But all things We have enumerated in writing.	29	Meccan	5701
“So taste [the penalty], and never will We increase you except in torment.”	30	Meccan	5702
Indeed, for the righteous is attainment –	31	Meccan	5703
Gardens and grapevines	32	Meccan	5704
And full-breasted [companions] of equal age	33	Meccan	5705
And a full cup.	34	Meccan	5706
No ill speech will they hear therein or any falsehood –	35	Meccan	5707
[As] reward from your Lord, [a generous] gift [made due by] account,	36	Meccan	5708
[From] the Lord of the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them, the Most Merciful. They possess not from Him [authority for] speech.	37	Meccan	5709
The Day that the Spirit and the angels will stand in rows, they will not speak except for one whom the Most Merciful permits, and he will say what is correct.	38	Meccan	5710
That is the True Day; so he who wills may take to his Lord a [way of] return.	39	Meccan	5711
Indeed, We have warned you of a near punishment on the Day when a man will observe what his hands have put forth and the disbeliever will say, “Oh, I wish that I were dust!”	40	Meccan	5712