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Al-Baqarah

2nd chapter of the Qur'an

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 26, 2026
Entity authorityQ219675 ↗
Source-derived summary

Al-Baqarah (Arabic: الْبَقَرَة, ’al-baqarah; lit. "The Heifer" or "The Cow"), also spelled as Al-Baqara, is the second and longest chapter (surah) of the Quran. It consists of 286 verses (āyāt) which begin with the "muqatta'at" letters alif (ا), lām (ل), and mīm (م). The Verse of Loan (the longest single verse of the Quran), the Throne Verse (the greatest verse), and the last 2 verses, Treasures of the Throne are in this chapter.

The sūrah encompasses a variety of topics and contains several commands for Muslims such as enjoining fasting on the believer during the month of Ramadan; forbidding interest or usury (riba); and several other famous verses such as the last two verses, which came from the treasure under Allah's Throne, and the verse of no compulsion in religion.

The sūrah addresses a wide variety of topics, including substantial amounts of law, and retells stories of Adam, Ibrahim (Abraham) and Mūsa (Moses). A major theme is guidance: urging the pagans (Al-Mushrikeen) and the Jews of Medina to embrace Islam, and warning them and the hypocrites (Munafiqun) of the fate God had visited in the past on those who failed to heed his call. The surah is also believed to be a means of protection from the jinn.

Al-Baqara is believed by Muslims to have been revealed in a span of 10 years starting from 622 in Medina after the Hijrah, with the exception of the riba verses which Muslims believe were revealed during the Farewell Pilgrimage, the last Hajj of Muhammad. In particular, verse 281 is believed to be the last verse of the Quran to be revealed, on the 10th day of Dhu al-Hijja 10 A.H., when Muhammad was in the course of performing his last Hajj, 07 or 09 or 21 days before he died.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Al-Baqarah” as 2nd chapter of the Qur'an. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current 298-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Al-Baqarah, chapter and Qur'an can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as 2nd chapter of the Qur'an. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q219675. VIAF identifies the subject as 305312894. The Library of Congress control number is n84023560. None of the 3 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Al-Baqarah” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.