The name of this surah is Al Araf and it has twenty four sections and two hundred and six verses. The meaning of Al Araf is The Elevated Places. In the fifth and sixth sections of this chapter there is a mention of some people who will be in elevated places, and these people as shown in 7:45b is the group of prophets. As the major focus of this chapter is on the need for prophethood, attention is drawn to the elevated stations of the prophets in the name of the chapter.
Summary of the chapter: Just as the discussion in the last chapter is about Divine Unity, in this chapter the focus of the discussion is about prophethood. In pursuance of this topic, the chapter opens with the purpose for the revelation of the Quran and its benefits. This is the subject of the first section. The second section, after narrating the story of Adam, discusses the need for sending prophets. The third section conveys that it is only Divine revelation that can safeguard a person against the assaults of the devil. The fourth section narrates the consequence of rejecting the revelation. The fifth section mentions those who accept revelation. At the end of this section and the beginning of the sixth section there is a mention of those in elevated places, that is of the high station of prophets. In the rest of the sixth section, there is a comparison of those who accept and those who reject. The seventh section uses examples from the physical world to give the good news of the steady progress and final success of the truth. In the next four sections the history of some prophets is narrated to show how the opponents of truth finally failed. The prophets whose examples are narrated are Noah in the eighth section, Hud in the ninth, Salih and Lot in the tenth and Shoaib in the eleventh. In the twelfth section, after mentioning the general rule of punishment, the opponents of the Quran are warned. Then from the thirteenth to the twenty first section, there is a detailed narration of Moses. Accordingly, there is a mention of the apostleship of Moses in the thirteenth section, the contest with the enchanters in the fourteenth section, and the suffering of the Bani Israel and its remedy in the fifteenth section. This is meant to be a lesson for the Muslims that when they face similar difficulties, they should also use the same remedy. The narration of Moses continues with the visitation of pestilences on Pharoah and the deliverance of Bani Israel in the sixteenth section, the receipt of shariah by Moses in the seventeenth, the taking of a calf for worship by the Bani Israel in the eighteenth, and in the nineteenth a narration of the immoderate behavior of the nation of Moses and a pivot to the real purpose for narrating the detailed history of Moses, namely, the prophecies Moses made about the Holy Prophet and their presence in the Torah. In the twentieth section after mentioning the apostleship of the Holy Prophet, the subject reverts to the nation of Moses. The breach of the covenant by Bani Israel and their punishment is mentioned in the twenty-first section. In the twenty-second section, there is a reversion from the covenant of shariah to the covenant of nature because the covenant of shariah is only meant to strengthen the covenant of nature, and the nature of a person testifies to the nurturing by Allah. It is to this that the prophets invite the masses. The twenty-third section mentions the result of those who persist in the enmity of the Holy Prophet and the Quran and how the punishment will overtake the opponents slowly and incrementally. The twenty-fourth section, which is the last, instructs the Muslims about the strategy they should adopt in the face of opposition. This summary shows that this surah is entirely devoted to prophethood.
In terms of the subject matter, the relationship of Surah Al Anam and Surah Al Araf is obvious. The subject of Al Araf is Divine Unity and that of Al Araf is prophethood, and it was incumbent to follow a discussion of Divine Unity with a discussion of prophethood as these are the two magnificent pillars of religion. It is also necessary to sequence prophethood after Divine Unity and that is why although Surah Al Anam is not that lengthy, it is kept before Al Araf because this is the imperative of the subjects. If one examines the last part of Surah Al Anam, it is seen that even there the discussion is turned with great finesse from Divine Unity to prophethood with the mention of the Holy Prophet’s elevated station in putting Divine Unity into practice with the statement: قُلۡ إِنَّ صَلَاتِى وَنُسُكِى وَمَحۡيَاىَ وَمَمَاتِى لِلَّهِ رَبِّ ٱلۡعَـٰلَمِينَ (Say: My prayer and my sacrifice and my life and my death are surely for Allah, the Lord of the worlds) (6:162). Just saying that God is One cannot benefit a person unless the action and repose are colored in the coloring of One God and this station cannot be achieved without the institution of prophethood. The concept of Divine Unity which one can garner by observing nature is merely a dry belief. The Divine Unity to which prophethood takes a person is like a tree laden with fruit. In this way, after transitioning from Divine Unity to prophethood at the end of Surah Anam, attention is drawn to what would be discussed in Surah Araf.
Period of revelation: The period of revelation of this surah is the same as that of Surah Al Anam and both these surahs belong to the late Makkan period when the opposition had reached its peak. A close examination of certain verses that have been conjectured as being of Madinah origin shows that their relationship with the real subject of this surah is so intimate that they cannot belong to a different period. Christian historians have tried to term verses 157 and 158 in which there are prophecies about the Holy Prophet reported in the Torah and the Gospel as being of Madinah origin because of the mention of these scriptures. However, this is a feeble argument. Verse 156 in which there is a mention of the nation of Moses is so intimately related with verse 157 that mentions the unlettered prophet that the two verses with relation to the subject appear to be of the same period.
Bayan-ul-Quran 