traced back to various Companions. According to those who downplay the miraculous, on the other hand, it foreshadows the inevitable Day of Judgment that will divide those who believe from those who disbelieve—those who are destined to Paradise and those who are destined to Hell. Because this Meccan surah's primary theme centers around the fate of those who disbelieve, the symbolic use of the moon is meant to warn the disbelievers of their impending fate in the first verse, as “the hour draws near; the moon is split”. Additionally, the crescent moon acts as a vital symbol of Islam and thus, in this instance, may denote the importance of the emerging religion, as lunar cycles determine the structure of the Islamic calendar. Chronology Surah 54 is wholly Meccan, as its verses “demonstrate complex reference and demanding grammatical connections to surrounding verses”. Indeed, it is a mixture of exclamatory statements and rhetorical questions directed towards Muhammad, which is yet another reference to the surah's Meccan nature. That God directly addresses Muhammad with personal pronouns, “you” and “your” and differentiates the unbelieving audience from His personal addresses to Muhammad with “they” and “them” strongly indicates that Islam was still in the development phase and that God did not yet have a particularized audience to address. Instead, God merely warns Muhammad of the possible responses that will result from his efforts to spread His message and the resultant punishment that He will inflict upon those who refuse to believe. Officially, this surah is believed to be the thirty-seventh surah revealed to Muhammad, as the Egyptian chronology indicates. Nöldeke, however, numbers this surah as the forty-ninth chronological surah. The difference in numerical order is, perhaps, due to the difference in Meccan and Medinan surahs within each edition. For instance, the Egyptian chronology indicates that there are eighty-eight Meccan surahs and twenty-six Medinan surahs; whereas Noldeke's chronology divides the Meccan period into three, with forty-eight in the first, twenty-one in the second, and twenty-one in the third in addition to twenty-four Medinan surahs. Exegesis This surah clearly directs its message toward the unbelievers in Mecca. Indeed, it covers themes of rejection, truth, and punishment, all of which are addressed in stories of previous peoples. The stories of the people of Noah, the people of ‘Ad, the people of Thamud, the people of Lot, and the people of Pharaoh represent times during which a people refused