Editing Az-Zukhruf (section)

==Themes==
===Affirmation of the revelation===
The surah begins with a strong affirmation of the [[revelation in Islam|revelation]]. Verses '''2-4''' emphasize the Scripture as being “clear” and “truly exalted and authoritative.”<ref name=316MAS/> These verses present a pronounced declaration of the truth and certainty of the revelation and also include the first of the two times that the word "Quran" is specifically used throughout the surah. The word ‘qur’an’ is only used 70 times throughout the entirety of the Quran. Quran is a verbal noun in Arabic meaning ‘to recite.’ As it appears in verse '''3''' and '''31''' of this surah, it is confirming the Quran as an oral revelation, the spoken word of God recited to [[Muhammad]]. The word 'quran' instead of, for example, the word ‘kitab’ (book), reveals not a written but a recited, spoken and oral nature of the Quran.<ref name="Neuwirth, Angelika 2006">Neuwirth, Angelika. "Structural, Linguistic and Literary Features." The Cambridge Companion to the Qurʼān. By Jane Dammen. McAuliffe. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2006. 108.</ref>

===Exaltation of God and divinity of the Quran===
The Ornaments of Gold ends with a flourish of praise and exaltations of God. “He who is God in heaven and God on Earth; He is the All Wise, the All Knowing” ('''84''').<ref>Haleem, M.A.S. Abdel. The Qur'an (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005) 320.</ref> This creates a parallel between the first and third sections of the surah as it also exalts God as “the Almighty, the All Knowing” ('''9'''),<ref name=316MAS/> but also as it praises the words and knowledge of God as the ultimate truth.

===Debate between the believers and disbelievers===

The surah continues with a debate between the believers and the disbelievers. These debates, or “polemical utterances… against listeners who do not comply with the behavioral norms of the cult,” are an essential element in the structure of the surahs of the Quran.<ref name="Neuwirth, Angelika 2006"/> In verses 5-19 there occurs a debate between the believers and the disbelievers in which the disbelievers are reprimanded for mocking the revelations and the prophets that have generously been sent down to them by God.<ref name=316MAS/>

===Afterlife===

The afterlife, the resurrection of the dead, and [[Judgement Day]] are topics of great importance throughout the Qur'an, and they received memorable treatment, particularly in the early Meccan surahs."<ref>Ernst, Carl W. (2011). How to Read the Qur'an: A New Guide, with Select Translations. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 83.</ref> In the Ornaments of Gold, verses 57 through 89 declare the imminent Judgment Day. “This Quran is knowledge for the Hour: do not doubt it, Follow Me for this is the right path” ('''61''').<ref name="Haleem, M.A.S. Abdel 2005"/> This section tells of an afterlife for the believers that is full “dishes and goblets of gold” ('''71'''),<ref name="Haleem, M.A.S. Abdel 2005"/> joy and a garden of bountiful fruit to eat ('''73''').<ref name="Haleem, M.A.S. Abdel 2005"/> It affirms that believers and their spouses will “enter Paradise” ('''70''').<ref name="Haleem, M.A.S. Abdel 2005"/> Disbelievers, on the other hand, “will suffer the torment of a grievous day” ('''65''').<ref name="Haleem, M.A.S. Abdel 2005"/> This section can be identified as an eschatological prophecy, a common pattern throughout the surahs of the Quran, including The Ornaments of Gold, that “juxtapose[s] the situation of the believers in the garden of paradise with that of the disbelievers or evildoers suffering in the tribulations of the fire of hell."<ref>Neuwirth, Angelika. "Structural, Linguistic and Literary Features." The Cambridge Companion to the Qurʼān. By Jane Dammen. McAuliffe. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2006. 104.</ref>

===Angels as daughters===

Another main theme addressed throughout this surah is the role of the angels as God's servants and not God's daughters. Verses 15-19 discuss the ungrateful disbelievers who consider the angels to be more than just servants of God. "The Meccan pagans considered the angels to be daughters of God, yet they were dismissive of their own daughters".<ref name=316MAS/> Verses 15-19 reject any familial ties between God and the angels.

The theme of the angels as Gods servants arises again in verses 57–60. Here, the surah once again rejects the pagans who worship the angels as daughters of God and see them as superior to Jesus, whom they believed to be the Christian's Son of God.<ref name="ReferenceA">Haleem, M.A.S. Abdel. The Qur'an (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005) 318.</ref> The angels are merely servants of God and the surah denounces the disbelievers who argue otherwise just to challenge believers.<ref>This has been taken up in a critical vein by Andreas Dorschel, ''Die Verstocktheit der Ungläubigen.'' In: ''Merkur'' 71 (2017), no. 2, pp. 85–92. [https://volltext.merkur-zeitschrift.de/preview/587de03d546f88c07b8b4590/mr_2017_02_0085-0092_0085_01/ Vorschau] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180925220008/https://volltext.merkur-zeitschrift.de/preview/587de03d546f88c07b8b4590/mr_2017_02_0085-0092_0085_01/ |date=2018-09-25 }}</ref>