Az-Zukhruf[1] (Arabic: الزخرف, "Ornaments of Gold, Luxury") is the 43rd chapter (surah), of the Quran, the central religious text of Islam.

Consistent with all of the Surahs of the Quran, Ornaments of Gold begins with the Bismillah, or the standard verse ‘In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy.’[4] Ornaments of Gold is a Surah that acts as a reminder to believers that the goodness of God cannot be found within wealth and material power.

The surah rejects the claim of disbelievers that prophets, leaders and worthy figures should be marked by their riches and thereby empowers them to refrain from temptations, indulgences and distractions.

The surah warns disbelievers who succumb to the “mere enjoyments of this life” (Q43:17) [4] of a terrible and tormented afterlife and it encourages believers to relish not in riches but in their faith and love of God.

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.

[4] 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.

[6] This section tells of an afterlife for the believers that is full “dishes and goblets of gold” (71),[6] joy and a garden of bountiful fruit to eat (73).

[6] 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.

Another interpretation of this verse is that the Quran is a unique phenomenon in human history that exists beyond the mundane sphere as the eternal and immutable word of God.

"[20] Narratives of salvation history can be clearly identified by their distinct linguistic styles, new messages of imminent catastrophe, and their unique structure, which reflects that of a monotheistic liturgical service centered around the reading of the scriptures.

[5] The surah continues to affirm that God preferred to deliver His message to those who He taught Himself and who believed in Him, not to those who had material wealth.

This narrative of salvation history also speaks of the rewards and punishments earned by the believers and disbelievers that God reserves for them in the “next life” (43:35),[21] referring to the Hereafter or the Judgment Day.

Neither the people nor the Pharaoh were persuaded by a poor and powerless Moses and as they rejected God, they were punished and drowned and made into a lesson for following disbelievers.

This narrative of salvation history reveals that worldly gains are not proof of a righteous or unrighteous life and that wealth is more often blinding and harmful than it is helpful.

This is structured very similarly to a lesson as one would hear in a monotheistic liturgical service and additionally addresses the coming of the Hour (43:63),[6] or the Judgment Day.