This Surah starts by talking a lot about God’s greatness and how disbelievers are bad. It emphasizes again that the worst people are people who say that they believe but are actually polytheistic and do not believe. This talk goes on for a long time and then more stuff is said which is more interesting I think. The Day of Judgment is talked about and then the prophets are talked about and then Jinns are talked about more. This Surah raises counterarguments against the Quran and addresses them which I really like.

• God rules us and sends recording angels to watch us. These angels take our souls when we die so we can be judged by God. What I don’t get is the purpose of these recording angels. Why does God not just watch us ourselves? Why does he have angels do it for/with him?
• On the Day of Judgment, an angel will blow a trumpet which will kill everybody. Then, God will proceed and judge everyone. How are people supposed to be judged when their lives are prematurely ended by a trumpet which they had no control over. If I was gonna repent but then the trumpet was blown, I feel like I should not be punished but in this situation, I sinned and did not repent so therefore I am bad.
• A list of prophets are provided and it says that these prophets were elevated by God and given his guidance. That implies that normal people like me were not elevated by God and not given his guidance. God could’ve given everyone his guidance. Why didn’t he?
• People who say that the Quran was taken from the Bible are incorrect because the Bible was not translated into Arabic until centuries after the prophets. Even if an Arabic translation of the Bible was around at the time, it could not be copied because the copier would not be able to read or write (I don’t really know what this means). In agreement with Islam, divine revelation is the reason for similarities between these two books.
• It says that “If Allah willed, they would not have been polytheists.” How does that make sense? Why would Allah want people to disobey him? Shouldn’t people have free will and be able to choose what they want for themselves?
• It is hinted that people are selfish and evil naturally.
• Eat halal things and things that are killed in the name of Allah. It is brought up that why can’t we eat carrion and things that died naturally when Allah allowed it to die naturally and allowed us to find it? Is there a particular reason? Health related?
• Do not be wasteful
• Jewish people can’t eat animals with undivided hoofs and the fat of oxen and sheet except what is joined to their backs or intestines or mixed with bone. This is really weird.

This was a great chapter. Even though the start was slow and just repeated the greatness of God, it was good in making me remember that and emphasizing that. This chapter talked a lot about the reasons of things and stuff and a lot of the prophets and how Jinns have their own prophets and stuff. It talked about how God is the most just and how he would never judge a society for disobeying him when they do not be made aware of the truth and that is the purpose of the prophets (ours and the Jinn’s). After this Surah, I have the most questions out of any Surah. I’ve written them all here and I wanna learn. This is one of my favorite ones because it spawned so many things that I want to know. It was fun to read cuz I was engaged.