Most Muslims today believe that Ishmael was the son that Abraham was willing to sacrifice in obedience to Allah. The Quran tells its version of the story of the sacrifice in this sūra, and many readers have been bewildered to see how the story leaves out a crucial detail. The sūra also includes several other stories about biblical characters, most significant among them Elijah and Jonah. Before and after the stories, controversy continues between the messenger and his listeners over the question of the resurrection and their rejection of his authority. The sūra presents a long and elaborate judgment scene that imagines both disconsolate conversations and “the Gardens of Bliss.”

37.1–4 – By the ones who line up in lines
The sūra begins with a series of oaths (the second to do so after Sūra 36). This pattern of beginning with oaths will become much more prominent in Sūras 75–95.