Surah An-Naba, “The Great News”, is the 78th surah and the first surah of Juz Amma. It’s often called by its opening words, ‘Amma yatasa’alun, and gives the 30th juz its name. It has 40 short ayat across about a page and a half (pages 582 and 583).
The Prophet ﷺ named it among the surahs that turned his hair grey (Jami’ at-Tirmidhi 3297, graded sahih by al-Albani). Scholars explain this by the weight of what these surahs describe. Almost every ayah ends with the same -a sound, which gives it a strong rhythm and makes it easier to memorize than its length suggests.
Surah An-Naba at a glance
- Surah
- 78
- Juz
- 30
- Mushaf
- Pages 582 to 583
- Ayat
- 40
- Length
- About 1.3 pages
- Recited in
- about 5 minutes
How many days will it take?
| New lines a day | Days |
|---|---|
| 3 (a few lines) | 7 days |
| 5 (a third of a page) | 4 days |
| 7 (half a page) | 3 days |
| 10 (two thirds of a page) | 2 days |
| 15 (a full page) | 2 days |
Counts days of new memorization on the 20 lines of Surah An-Naba. Add revision on top. Make a day-by-day plan.
Test yourself
Memorized Surah An-Naba? 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 An-Naba a little every day.
Free to start, no card needed. On the web or iPhone, choose Surah An-Naba as what you want to be tested on.
More on Surah An-Naba: All surah guides
The five sections
| Ayat | What it’s about |
|---|---|
| 1 to 5 | What are they asking about? The great news they dispute |
| 6 to 16 | Signs: the earth, mountains, pairs, sleep, night and day, the heavens, the sun, rain and crops |
| 17 to 20 | The Day of Sorting: the trumpet, the sky opened, the mountains moving |
| 21 to 30 | Hell and those who denied |
| 31 to 40 | The reward of the righteous, the Day the Spirit and angels stand, and the final warning |
Section by section
Ayat 1 to 5
Short and easy. Notice ayat 4 and 5: kalla saya’lamun and thumma kalla saya’lamun. The second just adds thumma (then).
Ayat 6 to 16: the signs
This is a list of eleven blessings, and the order matters. It moves from the ground up and back down:
- The earth as a bed (6)
- The mountains as pegs (7)
- You, created in pairs (8)
- Your sleep for rest (9)
- The night as a covering (10)
- The day for earning a living (11)
- Seven strong heavens above you (12)
- A blazing lamp, the sun (13)
- Pouring rain from the clouds (14)
- Grain and plants from it (15)
- Dense gardens (16)
Four of these begin with wa ja’alna (and We made): ayat 9, 10, 11 and 13. Ayah 12 begins wa banayna (and We built) and ayah 14 wa anzalna (and We sent down). Picture the sequence: ground, mountains, people, sleep, night, day, sky, sun, clouds, rain, crops, gardens.
Ayat 17 to 20
The Day of Sorting arrives: the trumpet is blown, people come in crowds, the sky opens like gates, and the mountains become a mirage.
Ayat 21 to 30: Hell
Hell lies in wait as a home for the transgressors, where they stay for ages, tasting nothing cool and nothing to drink except scalding water and pus, a fitting recompense, because they didn’t expect a reckoning and denied Allah’s signs.
Ayat 31 to 40: the reward
For the righteous: a place of success, gardens and grapes, companions, a full cup, no idle talk and no lies, a gift from your Lord. Then the Day when the Spirit and the angels stand in rows, and the disbeliever wishes he were dust.
Word pairs that echo
The descriptions of Hell and Paradise mirror each other, and several words appear in both. Noticing them makes the second half much easier:
- Jaza’ (recompense): jaza’an wifaqa, a fitting recompense, in ayah 26 for Hell. Jaza’an min rabbika ‘ata’an hisaba, a recompense from your Lord, a gift in due measure, in ayah 36 for Paradise.
- Ma’ab (return, home): Hell is a ma’ab for the transgressors in ayah 22. In ayah 39, whoever wills may take a path of return (ma’ab) to their Lord.
- Kidhdhab (lying, denial): the deniers rejected Allah’s signs with utter denial (kidhdhaba) in ayah 28. In Paradise they hear no idle talk and no lies (wa la kidhdhaba) in ayah 35.
A five-day plan
- Day 1: ayat 1 to 11
- Day 2: ayat 12 to 20, then 1 to 20
- Day 3: ayat 21 to 30, then 1 to 30
- Day 4: ayat 31 to 40
- Day 5: the whole surah, three times, then to a listener
Revising An-Naba
An-Naba suits salah well, especially Fajr or night prayer. Recite it at least weekly. How to Memorize Juz Amma has a plan for the rest of the juz, including the surahs next to An-Naba, and the Quran Memorizer “what comes next” questions are a fast way to check the order of the eleven signs.
