Sūra 2 is the first major sūra that readers encounter – and that Muslims recite or memorize – in the canonical progression of the Quran. It is the longest sūra (286 verses). This sūra touches on many themes that are important throughout the Quran and often sets the tone for those themes. Bible readers may be surprised to see numerous important connections to biblical characters in this opening section of the Quran.
Verses 1–29 – Introduction: belief and unbelief
30–39 – Creation, Adam, and Satan
40–86 – Moses and the “Sons of Israel”
87–121 – Polemic with Jews and Christians
122–41 – Abraham and Ishmael
142–67 – Islamic direction of prayer and pilgrimage
168–245 – Commands to believers
246–51 – Samuel, Saul, David, and Goliath
258–60 – Abraham
261–83 – Commands to believers
As the outline shows, the sūra is almost evenly divided between controversy with Jews and Christians and instructions for the community of believers. Different parts of the sūra explicitly address “people,” “Sons of Israel,” and “you who believe.” The sūra offers stories of Adam, Abraham, and Moses. The sūra’s title comes from an episode in its long Moses narrative, namely, a curious discourse about what sort of cow should be sacrificed (vv. 67–71).
Both Muslim commentary and academic scholarship have highlighted the importance of the long central passage, approximately verses 42–162, containing controversy with the Jews (and to some extent Christians). This passage includes the preaching of the messenger, the responses of the audience, controversies between the messenger and his audience, and stories from the past brought in as support for the messenger’s preaching.
Muslim commentators have understood the Jews as the subject long before they are named in the sūra, for example at verses 26 and 27 – and even from verse 1! The best-known Muslim story of Islamic origins, the
Sīra
of Ibn Isḥāq, offers an extensive narrative framework for Sūra 2 from verses 1–170 (
Sīra
). The main characters in this
Sīra
narrative are Jewish rabbis.

2.1 – Alif Lām Mīm.

Three letters of the Arabic alphabet known as “disconnected” or “opening” letters. Twenty-nine sūras begin with such letters, but the mystery of their meaning and function has never been solved by Muslim commentators or by modern scholars.

For example, the early commentary of Muqātil ibn Sulaymān (d. AD 767) tells a story in which the Jews of Medina who hear Muhammad’s recitation take these disconnected letters to represent the number of years of his reign. This is just one of many speculations, and Muslim interpreters have not been able to agree.