Striking Examples
The pictures Allah draws in the Qur'an.
Twenty-seven days through the amthal, the parables Allah strikes in the Qur'an, in mushaf order from al-Baqarah to an-Nahl, from the man who kindled a fire to the woman who unspins her own thread. Each day holds up a single image, paints it clearly, then turns it slowly until you see your own face in it. Retold faithfully from Nouman Ali Khan's Striking Examples From the Qur'an, every ayah verified. Free to read, as sadaqah jariyah.
Or watch Nouman Ali Khan's full Striking Examples series on YouTube →Why Allah draws pictures
Why the Qur'an is full of examples, and how a single image can reach a heart that an argument cannot
Faith and its counterfeit
A kindled fire, a storm, a stone, an empty call: the Qur'an's pictures of belief and the hollow imitation of it
Fanning the flames
The one who kindled a fire, and was left in the dark
The picture: One who kindled a fire
Day 3Rain and thunder
Caught in the storm, frozen between the flashes of light
The picture: One caught in a thunderstorm at night
Day 4Hearts of stone
Harder than the rock that splits and gushes water
The picture: Rock that splits and gushes water
Day 5Empty cries
The sheep that come running to a sound that means nothing
The picture: A shepherd calling, and the flock that answers
What your giving becomes
A grain of seven ears, a ruined garden, a vineyard burnt in an hour: what charity grows into, and what cancels it
Charity's harvest
One seed in the ground, and seven hundred grains it could not have imagined
The picture: A single grain that grows seven ears
Day 7Barren and fertile ground
A rock dressed as good soil, and a garden on a height
The picture: Two plots of ground in the rain
Day 8Blazing whirlwinds
A whole garden, grown over a lifetime, burnt in a single hour
The picture: A dream garden struck by a whirlwind of fire
Day 9Touched by the devil
The one who consumes interest, standing like a man the devil has beaten senseless
The picture: A man rising as if beaten by Satan
Signs for the seeing
A second Adam, a killing frost, the lure of devils, a light to walk by, a chest pried open: signs for those who look
Adam and Jesus
Two men, each made by a single word
The picture: Isa, whose likeness before Allah is as Adam's
Day 11Biting wind
A wind with frost in it, come down on a field that was doomed already
The picture: A frost-laden wind on a harvest
Day 12Lured by devils
The one pulled off the cliff, wandering, with friends calling him home
The picture: One the devils lured off the path
Day 13Walking in light
The one brought from death to a light, walking with it among people in the dark
The picture: One given a light to walk by
Day 14Narrowed chests
One chest thrown open to the air, one squeezed shut as it climbs the sky
The picture: A chest opened wide, a chest squeezed shut
When the soul goes astray
The panting dog, the wandering cattle, the drowning cry, the field dressed in gold then cut down at dawn
Panting dogs
The one given Allah's signs, who clung to the earth instead
The picture: A dog that pants either way
Day 16Stray cattle
Given hearts that do not understand, eyes that do not see, ears that do not hear
The picture: Cattle grazing beside the danger they cannot feel
Day 17Depths of desperation
The ones who called on Allah alone, only while the ship was going down
The picture: A ship caught in a sudden storm
Day 18Lustrous land
The field dressed in gold, and cut down before dawn
The picture: A field bloomed to its most beautiful, then mown flat
Everything that fades
Hands reaching for water that never comes, foam on a flood, ashes in a gale: the weightlessness of a life without Allah
Reaching for water
The one who stretches his hands toward water that never reaches his mouth
The picture: Hands stretched toward water
Day 20Fading foam
The froth the flood lifts high, and then carries away to nothing
The picture: Foam riding the crest of a flood
Day 21A mound of ash
A lifetime of deeds, scattered by a single storm
The picture: Ash in a storm-force wind
The good word and the bad
A good word like a deep-rooted tree, an evil word torn from the soil, and the firm word Allah steadies you with
Firm roots and high branches
A good word, like a good tree, its root deep and its branches in the sky
The picture: A good word, like a good tree
Day 23Uprooted
An evil word, like an evil tree, torn from the ground with nothing left to stand on
The picture: An evil word, like an evil tree, uprooted
Day 24A firm word
Kept standing, in this life and the next, by the firm word
The picture: A peg driven deep, a belt pulled tight
Two men, and the truth between them
An owned slave and a free man, a mute burden and a voice of justice, a woman who unspins her own thread
Enslaved
An owned slave who controls nothing, and a free man who gives
The picture: An owned slave, and a free man who spends
Day 26Dead weight
A man who can do nothing, set beside a man who commands justice
The picture: Two men, one a mute burden
Day 27Unravelled yarn
She who spun her thread strong, then tore it back to fluff
The picture: A woman who unspins her own thread