Surah Ya-Sin 36:13
سُورَةُ يسٓ · Meccan · Verse 13 of 83
وَٱضْرِبْ لَهُم مَّثَلًا أَصْحَٰبَ ٱلْقَرْيَةِ إِذْ جَآءَهَا ٱلْمُرْسَلُونَ
Translation
Give them the example of the people to whose town messengers came.
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'Set forth to them a parable: the people of the town, when the messengers came to it.' al-Biqa'i notes a tender purpose beneath the story: it consoles the Prophet, you are not the first to be met with denial; this is an old, repeating pattern. al-Saadi adds that Allah deliberately left the town unnamed, because the lesson, not the location, is the point; chasing the name is a distraction from the meaning. Ask yourself: when I'm rejected for doing the right thing, I take it as a verdict on me. This parable reframes it as a verdict on a pattern far older than me. Does knowing that truth has always faced this resistance make it easier to keep standing for it, and to stop taking every rejection so personally?
Grounded in classical tafsir: al-Biqa'i, al-Saadi, Ibn Kathir.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Ya-Sin 36:13 is discussed in 2 study guides on Maani. Each guide gathers the key verses, Arabic words and lessons of one Quranic topic.
Reflect on this verse
Open Surah Ya-Sin 36:13 in Maani to reflect on it through the Five Lenses: its wording, its context, what it means for you, its connections across the Quran and its lessons, grounded in classical tafsir.