Surah Al-Mulk is the 67th surah and the first of juz 29. It has 30 ayat, a little over two pages of the Madani mushaf, spread over pages 562 to 564, and many Muslims try to memorize it so they can recite it every night.
The Prophet ﷺ said there is a surah in the Quran of thirty ayat that intercedes for a person until they are forgiven, and that it is Tabarak alladhi biyadihil-mulk (Jami’ at-Tirmidhi 2891, graded hasan; also Sunan Abi Dawud 1400).
Split into five sections, with the usual slip points marked, it’s a surah most learners can memorize in about ten days.
Surah Al-Mulk at a glance
- Surah
- 67
- Juz
- 29
- Mushaf
- Pages 562 to 564
- Ayat
- 30
- Length
- About 2.2 pages
- Recited in
- about 7 minutes
How many days will it take?
| New lines a day | Days |
|---|---|
| 3 (a few lines) | 11 days |
| 5 (a third of a page) | 7 days |
| 7 (half a page) | 5 days |
| 10 (two thirds of a page) | 4 days |
| 15 (a full page) | 3 days |
Counts days of new memorization on the 33 lines of Surah Al-Mulk. Add revision on top. Make a day-by-day plan.
Test yourself
Memorized Surah Al-Mulk? Find the ayat you’re not sure of.
Quran Memorizer asks you what comes next, which ayah is missing and which look-alike ayah goes where, on the same Madani mushaf pages you learned from. With Premium, Daily Review brings your weakest ayat back first, so you can revise Surah Al-Mulk a little every day.
Free to start, no card needed. On the web or iPhone, choose Surah Al-Mulk as what you want to be tested on.
More on Surah Al-Mulk: How long it takes to memorize · How long it takes to recite · All surah guides
The shape of the surah
Knowing what each part is about makes the order of ayat much easier to remember. Al-Mulk falls naturally into five sections:
| Ayat | What it’s about |
|---|---|
| 1 to 5 | Allah’s dominion, the purpose of life and death, and the seven heavens without flaw |
| 6 to 11 | The disbelievers in Hell, and their conversation with its keepers |
| 12 to 14 | Those who fear their Lord unseen, and Allah’s knowledge of every secret |
| 15 to 22 | The earth made easy for us, warnings, the birds in flight, and who could help us besides Allah |
| 23 to 30 | A series of “say…” ayat ending with the question of who would bring water if it sank away |
Read a translation of each section before you memorize it. A two-minute summary of what’s happening saves a lot of repetition.
A ten-day plan
This assumes 20 to 30 minutes a day and fluent reading.
| Day | New | Revision |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ayat 1 to 5 | |
| 2 | Ayat 6 to 8 | 1 to 5 |
| 3 | Ayat 9 to 11 | 1 to 8 |
| 4 | Ayat 12 to 14 | 1 to 11 |
| 5 | Ayat 15 to 18 | 1 to 14 |
| 6 | Ayat 19 to 22 | 1 to 18 |
| 7 | Ayat 23 to 26 | 12 to 22 |
| 8 | Ayat 27 to 30 | 15 to 26 |
| 9 | No new lesson | Whole surah, twice |
| 10 | No new lesson | Whole surah to a listener |
If a day’s lesson isn’t solid, repeat it before moving on. It’s better to take 14 days and know it well.
Free tool
Prefer a plan matched to your own pace? Get Surah Al-Mulk mapped to dates, pages and lines. Open the hifz plan generator →
The places people slip
Ayat 3 and 4: “look again”
Ayah 3 ends with farji’il-basara hal tara min futur (so return your sight, do you see any breaks?). Ayah 4 begins thummarji’il-basara karratayn (then return your sight twice more). The repetition of “return your sight” is easy to blur. Notice the fa in ayah 3 and the thumma in ayah 4.
Ayat 16 and 17: “do you feel secure”
ءَأَمِنتُم مَّن فِى ٱلسَّمَآءِ أَن يَخْسِفَ بِكُمُ ٱلْأَرْضَ
أَمْ أَمِنتُم مَّن فِى ٱلسَّمَآءِ أَن يُرْسِلَ عَلَيْكُمْ حَاصِبًا
Ayah 16 begins a’amintum and warns of the earth swallowing you. Ayah 17 begins am amintum and warns of a storm of stones. One way to remember: the earth comes first, then what comes from the sky.
Ayat 20 and 21: “who is it that”
Both begin amman hadha alladhi. Ayah 20 asks who could be an army to help you, and ayah 21 asks who could provide for you. Help, then provision.
Ayat 23 to 30: the “qul” run
Six of the last eight ayat begin with qul (say). Ayat 23 and 24 both begin qul huwa alladhi (say, He is the One who). Ayat 28 and 30 both begin qul ara’aytum (say, have you considered). Write the first two or three words of each ayah from 23 to 30 on a card and test yourself on the order until it’s automatic.
Tips that help with Al-Mulk
- Use one reciter. Al-Mulk is recited by almost everyone, so choose one clear recording and stick with it.
- Picture the page. Al-Mulk spans three pages of the mushaf. Notice which ayah starts each page, and the page breaks help you remember the order.
- Recite it at night from day one, even the part you know. That’s when most people recite it, so practice it in that setting.
- Recite the whole surah to someone once you finish, and ask them to note any hesitation.
Revising it
Al-Mulk is a surah you’ll want for life, so build it into your routine. Recite it every night, or at least several times a week, in salah if you can. Because you’ll recite it so often, it tends to stay strong, but check it against the mushaf every few weeks to make sure small errors haven’t crept in.
You’ll often hear that the Prophet ﷺ would not sleep until he had recited As-Sajdah and Al-Mulk. That narration is in Jami’ at-Tirmidhi, but its grading is disputed (Jami’ at-Tirmidhi 2892, listed as weak on sunnah.com). The hadith about Al-Mulk’s intercession, above, is enough reason to keep reciting it.
What next?
After Al-Mulk, many people continue through juz 29, move on to Surah Ya-Sin, or learn the first ten ayat of Al-Kahf. See Which Surahs Should You Memorize First? and How to Memorize Surah Al-Kahf.
For day counts at every pace, and the three ayat that clash with Ya-Sin and Al-Mu’minun, see how long it takes to memorize Al-Mulk.
The Quran Memorizer quiz modes are a quick way to check the tricky openings in Al-Mulk: ask it what comes after an ayah, or to put ayat 23 to 30 in order, until you never have to think about it.
