Surah AD-DARIYAT Phonetic Transcription | الذاريات (The winnowing winds)

Verse 31

He said, ‘So what is your business, O you who have been sent [by God]?’

Verse 32

They said, ‘Lo! we have been sent to a guilty folk, disbelievers — these were the people of Lot —

Verse 33

that we may unleash upon them stones of clay, baked in fire,

Verse 34

marked, bearing the name of the person at whom it will be hurled, by your Lord (‘inda rabbika is an adverbial qualifier of musawwamatan, ‘marked’) for [the destruction of] the prodigal’, for coming unto males in addition to their disbelief.

Verse 35

So We brought forth those in them, that is, [in] the towns of the people of Lot, who were believers, in order to destroy the disbelievers;

Verse 36

but We did not find therein other than one house of those who had submitted [to God]: these were Lot and his two daughters. They have been described [here] with [the terms] ‘belief’ and ‘submission’ because they had affirmed [faith] in their hearts and used their limbs to perform acts of obedience.

Verse 37

And We left therein, after destroying the disbelievers, a sign, an indication of their destruction, for those who fear the painful chastisement, so that they may not do what these [sinners] did.

Verse 38

And [a sign too] in Moses (wa-fī Mūsā is a supplement to fīhā, ‘therein’), that is to say, We also left a sign in the story of Moses, when We sent him to Pharaoh, vested, with a clear warrant, with a manifest proof;

Verse 39

but he turned away, he rejected belief, to his supports (bi-ruknihi), his hosts, [so called] because to him they are like a support [rukn], saying, to Moses that he [Moses] was: ‘A sorcerer, or a madman!’

Verse 40

So We seized him and his hosts and cast, flung, them into the waters, the sea, and so they drowned, for he, that is, Pharaoh, was blameworthy, guilty of what is blameworthy, such as denying the messengers and claiming divinity.

Verse 41

And [also] in, the destruction of, ‘Ād, was a sign, when We unleashed against them a barren wind, [a wind] which brings nothing of good, for it does not bear any rain and does not pollinate any trees; this [wind] was the west wind (al-dabūr).

Verse 42

It did not leave anything, any soul or property, that it came upon without making it like decayed bones, like something that is withered and in scattered pieces.

Verse 43

And [also] in, the destruction of, Thamūd, was a sign, when it was said to them, after the hamstringing of the she-camel, ‘Enjoy [yourselves] for a while!’, until the end of your terms [of life] — as stated in the [other] verse, ‘Enjoy [yourselves] in your dwellings for three days’ [Q.11:65].

Verse 44

Then they defied, they scorned, the command of their Lord, [refraining] from implementing it; so the thunderbolt, that is, the destructive cry, seized them, after the three days had passed, as they were looking around, in other words, [it seized them] in the daytime.

Verse 45

So they were unable to rise up, they could not get up upon the sending down of the chastisement, nor were they victors, over the One Who destroyed them.

Verse 46

And the people of Noah (read wa qawmi Nūhin, as a supplement to Thamūda, in other words: ‘in the destruction of these [two peoples] by what [destructive power] exists in the heavens and the earth there is [also] a sign’; or read wa qawma Nūhin, in other words, ‘We also destroyed the people of Noah’) aforetime, that is, before the destruction of those mentioned. Indeed they were an immoral lot.

Verse 47

And the heaven, We built it with might, and indeed We are powerful (one says āda’l-rajulu or ya’īdu, to mean, ‘he is strong’; and awsa‘a’l-rajulu, to mean, ‘he has become capable [dhū sa‘a] and strong’).

Verse 48

And the earth, We spread it out: We made it level: what excellent Spreaders then!, We are.

Verse 49

And of all things (wa-min kulli shay’in is semantically connected to His [following] words khalaqnā) We created pairs, two kinds, such as male and female, heaven and earth, sun and moon, plain and mountain, summer and winter, sweet and bitter, light and darkness, that perhaps you might remember (tadhakkarūna: one of the two original tā’ letters [of tatadhakkarūna] has been omitted), and hence realise that the Creator of pairs is [Himself] Singular, that you might then worship him.

Verse 50

So flee unto God, that is to say, away from His punishment toward His reward by being obedient to Him and not disobeying Him. Truly I am a clear warner to you from Him.

Verse 51

And do not set up another god alongside God. Truly I am a clear warner to you from Him (before fa-firrū, ‘so flee’, one may read an implicit [preceding] qul lahum, ‘Say to them’).

Verse 52

Thus there did not come to those who were before them any messenger but they said, that he was: ‘A sorcerer, or a madman!’, in other words, their denial of you, by saying that you are a sorcerer or a madman, was like the denial of communities before them of their messengers by saying that [same thing].

Verse 53

Have they, all, enjoined this upon one another? (an interrogative intended as a denial). Nay, but they are an insolent folk, [a folk] whose own [proclivity to] insolence has made them all say the same thing.

Verse 54

So shun them, for you will not be reproached, because you have conveyed the Message to them.

Verse 55

And remind, admonish by the Qur’ān, for reminding truly benefits believers, [these being] those whom God knows that they will believe.

Verse 56

And I did not create the jinn and mankind except that they may worship Me: the fact that disbelievers do not worship [God] does not contradict this [statement], since a purpose does not have to be realised [in an act, for it to be valid], as when you may say: ‘I sharpened this pencil in order to write with it’, even though you might not actually write with it.

Verse 57

I do not desire from them any provision, [either] for Myself, for themselves, or for others, nor do I desire that they should feed Me, or [feed] themselves or others.

Verse 58

Indeed it is God Who is the Provider, the Lord of Strength, the Firm, the Stern.

Verse 59

And for those who have wronged, their souls through disbelief, from among the people of Mecca and others, there will assuredly be a lot, a share of chastisement, like the lot, the share, of their counterparts, who perished before them. So let them not ask Me to hasten on, the chastisement, should I give them respite until the Day of Resurrection.

Verse 60

For woe, a terrible chastisement [will come], to those who disbelieve, from, upon, that day of theirs which they are promised, that is, the Day of Resurrection.

Verse 1

By the Mount, that is, the [name of the] mountain on which God spoke to Moses,

Verse 2

and an inscribed Book,

Verse 3

on an unrolled parchment, that is, the Torah or the Qur’ān.

Verse 4

By the [greatly] frequented House — which is [located] in the third, or the sixth or the seventh heaven, directly above the Ka‘ba; it is visited every day by seventy thousand angels, circumambulating it and performing prayers [around it], and never returning to it;

Verse 5

and the raised roof, that is to say, the heaven,

Verse 6

and the swarming sea: that is to say, the one that is filled:

Verse 7

lo! your Lord’s chastisement will assuredly take place, it will assuredly come down on those who deserve it;

Verse 8

there is none that can avert it, from such [a deserving one].

Verse 9

On the day (yawma is operated by la-wāqi‘un, ‘will assuredly take place’) when the heaven will heave with a great heaving, [when it will] move and spin,

Verse 10

and the mountains move with a great motion, becoming scattered dust, this is the Day of Resurrection.

Verse 11

Woe then, terrible chastisement [will come], on that day to the deniers, of the messengers,

Verse 12

those who play around in vain talk, [in] falsehood, that is to say, those who are busily engaged with their disbelief;

Verse 13

the day when they will be thrust with a violent thrust into Hell, [when] they will be pushed violently (this [last clause, yawma yuda‘‘ūna ilā nāri jahannama da‘‘an] is a substitution for yawma tamūru, ‘the day when [the heaven] will heave’) and it will be said to them in reproach:

Verse 14

‘This is the Fire which you used to deny!

Verse 15

Is this then sorcery, [this] chastisement that you see — as you were wont to say about the revelation, that it was sorcery — or is it that you do not see?

Verse 16

Burn in it! And whether you endure, it, or do not endure, your endurance and your anguish, will be the same for you, because your endurance will be of no use to you. You are only being requited for what you used to do’, that is to say, [only] the requital for it.

Verse 17

Truly the God-fearing will be amid gardens and bliss,

Verse 18

rejoicing, delighting, in what (bi-mā relates to the verbal action) their Lord has given them, and [that] their Lord has shielded them from the chastisement of Hell-fire (wa-waqāhum rabbuhum ‘adhāba’l-jahīmi is a supplement to ātāhum, ‘[what He] has given them’, in other words, [rejoicing] in their having been given [this reward] and shielded [from Hell-fire]).

Verse 19

And it will said to them: ‘Eat and drink in full enjoyment (hanī’an is a circumstantial qualifier, that is to say, muhanna’īna) [as a reward] for what (bi-mā: the bi- is causative) you used to do’.

Verse 20

[They will be] reclining (muttaki’īna is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the concealed subject of God’s words fī jannātin, ‘amid gardens’) on ranged couches, [arranged] one next to the other, and We will wed them (zawwajnāhum is a supplement to jannātin, ‘gardens’, meaning ‘We will couple them’) to beautiful houris, of wide and beautiful eyes.

Verse 21

And those who believed (wa’lladhīna āmanū, the subject) and whom We made to be followed (wa-atba‘nāhum: a variant reading has wa’ttaba‘athum, ‘and there followed them’, as a supplement to āmanū, ‘who believed’) by their descendants (dhurrīyātihim: a variant reading [for this plural] has dhurrīyatuhum), young and old, in faith, on the part of the older ones and on the part of the parents in [their] young ones (the predicate [of the subject above] is [the following, alhaqnā bihim), We will make their, mentioned, descendants join them, in Paradise, so that they are in the same degree [of reward], even though they might not have performed the same [meritorious] deeds as them [to deserve this equal status], a way of honouring the parents by having their children join them [again]; and We will not deprive them (read alatnāhum or alitnāhum), [We will not] diminish [them], of anything (min shay’in: min is extra) of their deeds, in order to add it to the deeds of their children. Every man is subject to what he has earned, of good or evil deeds, and will be requited for evil and rewarded for good.

Verse 22

And We will supply them, We will enhance for them [their provision], from time to time, with fruits and meat, such as they desire, even if they do not request it openly.

Verse 23

They will pass from one to another therein, in Paradise, a cup, [of] wine, wherein is neither vain talk, which might come about between them as a result of drinking it, nor cause for sin, thereby, that might befall them — in contrast to [the case with] the wine of this world.

Verse 24

And there will circulate from all around them, for service, youths, delicate [in demeanour], of their own, as if, in terms of their beauty and immaculateness, they were hidden pearls, preserved inside shells, because when it [a pearl] is inside it, it is better than one that is not.

Verse 25

And some among them will turn to one another, questioning each other — they ask one another about how they were in the past and what they have now attained, in their delight and acknowledgement of the grace [of God to them].

Verse 26

They say, as an intimation of the reason for this attainment: ‘Truly, before, amid our families, in the world, we used to be ever anxious, afraid of God’s chastisement;

Verse 27

but God showed us favour, through [His] forgiveness, and shielded us from the piercing chastisement (al-samūm), the Fire, so called because it penetrates the pores (al-masāmm); and they say, also by way of intimation:

Verse 28

indeed before, that is, in the world, we used to call on Him, worship Him, affirming His Oneness. Verily He is (read innahu as the beginning of a new [independent] sentence, even if it introduces the reason in terms of its import; or read annahu as a reason in terms of the [syntactical] order of the words) the Benign, the Beneficent, the True to His promise, the Merciful, One of tremendous mercy.

Verse 29

So remind, persist in reminding the idolaters and do not desist [from this] even if they say to you that you are a soothsayer or a madman. For by the grace of your Lord, by His bestowal of grace on you, you are neither soothsayer (bi-kāhinin is the predicate of mā) nor madman (wa-lā majnūnin, a supplement to it).

Verse 30

Or (am means bal) do they say, that he is: ‘A poet, for whom we may await the accidents of fate?’, the vicissitudes of time, so that he will just die like other poets.

Verse 31

Say: ‘Await!, my death. For I too will be with you awaiting’, your death. They were then chastised with [death by] the sword on the day of Badr.

Verse 32

Or do their faculties of understanding prompt them to [say] this?, their saying to him: [you are either] a sorcerer, a poet, a soothsayer or a madman, in other words, they do not [in reality] prompt them to [say] this. Or (am, [in effect] means bal, ‘rather’) are they a rebellious lot?, because of their obstinacy.

Verse 33

Or do they say, ‘He has improvised it?’, he has concocted the Qur’ān. He has not concocted it; Rather they do not believe, out of arrogance. If they [continue to] say that he has concocted it:

Verse 34

Then let them bring a, concocted, discourse like it, if they are truthful, in what they say.

Verse 35

Or were they created out of nothing?, [that is] without a Creator. Or are they the creators?, of themselves. It makes no sense for a created thing to have no creator, nor can a thing that will cease to existent [have the power to] create. There must be a Creator of them, and that is God, the One, so why do they not affirm His Oneness and believe in His Messenger and His Book?

Verse 36

Or did they create the heavens and the earth? Nor can any but God, the Creator, have created them, so why do they not worship Him? Nay, but they are not certain, of Him, for otherwise they would have believed in His Prophet.

Verse 37

Or do they possess the treasuries of your Lord?, in the way of prophethood, provision and other matters, so that they are able to assign what they will exclusively to whom they will? Or are they the ones in control?, [or] are they the mighty ones who hold sway? (the verb [from musaytirūna] is saytara, similar [in root form] to baytara, ‘to practice veterinary medicine’, or bayqara, ‘to corrupt’, ‘to ruin’).

Verse 38

Or do they have a ladder, a means of ascension into the heaven, whereby they eavesdrop?, that is, at the top of which [they listen in], on the conversations of the angels, so that they are then able to dispute with the Prophet, as they claim. If that is what they assert: Then let their eavesdropper, [let] the one claiming to be able to listen [in on their conversations] on top of this [ladder], produce a manifest warrant, a plain and evident proof. Now, on account of the similarity of this assertion to their assertion that the angels are the daughters of God, He, exalted be He, says:

Verse 39

Or does He have daughters, as you claim, whereas you have sons? Exalted be God above what you claim!

Verse 40

Or are you asking them for a fee, a wage in return for what you have brought them in the way of religion, so that they are weighed down with debt?, [with] the liability for this, so that they are unable to submit [to God].

Verse 41

Or do they have [access to] the Unseen, that is, the knowledge of it, so that they can write it down?, and are hence able to dispute with the Prophet (s) regarding the Resurrection and the matters relating to the Hereafter, as they claim.

Verse 42

Or do they desire to outmanoeuvre?, you and have you killed, at the Assembly Council. But those who disbelieve, they are the outmanoeuvred ones!, the vanquished and the ones destroyed. God preserved him from them and then destroyed them at Badr.

Verse 43

Or do they have a god other than God? Glory be to God [exalted is He] above any partners that they may ascribe!, to Him in the way of gods (the succession of interrogatives with am, ‘or’, are intended to express censure and rebuke).

Verse 44

And if they were to see a fragment, a portion, of the heaven falling, on them — as they say, Then make fragments of the heaven fall upon us [Q. 26:187], as a chastisement for them — they would say, this is: ‘A heap of clouds!’, piled on top of one another, that will bring us water; and so they do not believe.

Verse 45

So leave them until they encounter that day of theirs in which they will be thunderstruck, [in which] they will die;

Verse 46

the day when their guile will avail them nothing (yawma lā yughnī is a substitution for yawmahumu, ‘that day of theirs’) and they will not be helped, they will [not] be protected from the chastisement in the Hereafter.

Verse 47

And assuredly for those who do wrong, by their [persistence in] disbelief, there is a chastisement beyond that, in this world, before their death — thus they were punished with famine and drought for seven years, and with being killed on the day of Badr; but most of them do not know, that the chastisement will befall them.

Verse 48

And submit patiently to the judgement of your Lord, that they be reprieved, and do not be grieved, for surely you fare before Our eyes, [you are] in Our sight, We see you and preserve you. And glorify, continuously, with praise of your Lord, that is to say, say subhāna’Llāhi wa bi-hamdihi, ‘Glory, and praise, be to God!’, when you rise, from your sleeping-place or your sitting-place,

Verse 49

and glorify Him at night — also in actual [utterance] — and at the receding of the stars (idbāra is a verbal noun), that is to say, also glorify Him after these have set; or [it means] in the case of the former, perform the two evening prayers, and in the case of the latter, the two units (rak‘a) of the dawn prayer, or — it is said — the morning prayer.

Verse 1

By the Star — the constellation Pleiades (al-thurayya) — when it sets, [when] it disappears,

Verse 2

your companion, Muhammad (s), may God bless him and grant him peace, has neither gone astray, from the path of guidance, nor has he erred, nor has he engaged in error (al-ghayy is ignorance that results from a false belief);

Verse 3

nor does he, in regard to what he brings you, speak out of [his own] desire, [out of] the whims of his soul.

Verse 4

It is but a revelation that is revealed, to him,

Verse 5

it is, taught to him by, an angel, one of awesome power,

Verse 6

possessed of vigour, of strength and might (or [alternatively it, dhū mirratin, means] possessed of a beautiful appearance), namely, Gabriel, peace be upon him; and he stood upright, he settled,

Verse 7

when he was on the highest horizon, the horizon of the sun, that is to say, at the place from which it rises, in the form in which he [Gabriel] was created, so that the Prophet (s) saw him; he [the Prophet] had been at [Mount] Hirā’, where Gabriel had obscured the entire horizon to the west. The Prophet fell down swooning, after he had asked him [Gabriel] to show himself to him in the form in which he was created. Thus Gabriel had made a tryst with him at Hirā’, where he came down to him in human form.

Verse 8

Then he drew near, he came close to him, and drew closer still,

Verse 9

until he was, from him [the Prophet], within the length of two bows away or [even] nearer, than that, until he [the Prophet] had regained consciousness and his fright had subsided,

Verse 10

whereat He, [God] exalted be He, revealed to His servant, Gabriel, what he, Gabriel, revealed, to the Prophet (s); the thing being revealed is not mentioned [explicitly] in exaltation of its [great] status.

Verse 11

The heart, the heart of the Prophet, did not deny (read khadhaba or kadhdhaba) what he saw, with his own eyes of the image of Gabriel.

Verse 12

Will you then dispute with him, will you [then] argue with him and [hope to] overwhelm him, concerning what he saw? — an address to the idolaters who denied the Prophet’s (s) vision of Gabriel.

Verse 13

And verily he saw him, in his [true] image, another time,

Verse 14

by the Lote-tree of the Ultimate Boundary, when he was carried on the night journey [up] through the heavens — this [lote-tree] is a nabk thorn-tree [that lies] to the right of the Throne (‘arsh), [the tree] beyond which no angel or any other being pass;

Verse 15

near which is the Garden of the Retreat, to which the angels, the spirits of martyrs and the pious retreat;

Verse 16

when there shrouded the Lote-tree that which shrouded [it], of flying creatures and other [beings] (idh, ‘when’, is operated by ra’āhu, ‘he saw him’),

Verse 17

The eye did not swerve, on the part of the Prophet (s), nor did it go beyond [the bounds], that is to say, his gaze did not turn away from the object of vision designated for it, nor did it go beyond that [object] on that night.

Verse 18

Verily he saw, in it, some of the greatest signs of his Lord, [some of] the most awesome [of these signs]. He thus saw from among the marvels of the Realm (malakūt) a green drape (rafraf) that obscured the [entire] horizon of the heaven and Gabriel with his six hundred wings.

Verse 19

Have you considered al-Lāt and al-‘Uzzā,

Verse 20

and Manāt, the third, of the preceding two, the other? (al-ukhrā, a derogatory qualification of the third one). These were stone idols which the idolaters worshipped and which they claimed interceded for them with God (the first direct object of a-fa-ra’aytum, ‘have you seen’, is al-Lāt and what has been supplemented thereto; the second [direct object] has been omitted). The meaning then is, ‘Inform Me: do these idols have the power over anything, such that you worship them besides God Who has the power over all that has been mentioned?’ And because of their assertion also that the angels were God’s daughters, despite their aversion to daughters, the following was revealed:

Verse 21

Are you to have males, and He females?

Verse 22

That, then, would indeed be an unfair division! (dīzān, ‘unfair’, derives from dāzahu, yadīzuhu, to mean: ‘he wronged him’, ‘he was unjust to him’).

Verse 23

These, that is, the mentioned [deities], are nothing but names which you have named, by which you have named, you and your fathers, idols that you worship. God has not revealed any warrant, [any] proof or evidence, for them, that is to say, [for] the worship of them. They follow nothing but conjecture, in their worship of them, and that which [ignoble] souls desire, of that which Satan adorned for them, that they may intercede for them before God, exalted be He, even though guidance has already come to them from their Lord, by the tongue of the Prophet (s), with definitive proof; yet they do not desist from their ways.

Verse 24

Or shall man, that is, shall every human being among them, have whatever he wishes for?, such as [their wish] that the idols intercede for them. [No!] It is not so.

Verse 25

Yet to God belong the Hereafter and the former [life], that is to say, [the life of] the world, and so nothing comes to pass in them except what He, exalted, wills.

Verse 26

And how many an angel, that is to say, many an angel, there is in the heavens, and how honoured they are in God’s sight [but], whose intercession cannot avail in any way except after God gives permission, to them for this [intercession], for whomever He wills, of His servants, and, with whom, He is satisfied, because of His saying: and they do not intercede except for him with whom He is satisfied [Q. 21:28]. It is also well-known that it [intercession] cannot be forthcoming from them except after permission for it has been granted: who is there that shall intercede with Him save with His leave [Q. 2:255].

Verse 27

Truly those who do not believe in the Hereafter give the angels the names of females, for they say: ‘They are God’s daughters’.

Verse 28

But they do not have any knowledge thereof, of this claim. They follow, in this [respect], nothing but conjecture, which they have conjured up, and indeed conjecture can never substitute for the truth, that is to say, when it comes to acquiring knowledge of that which one is required to have knowledge of.

Verse 29

So shun him who turns away from Our Remembrance, that is, [from] the Qur’ān, and desires nothing but the life of this world — this was [revealed] before the command to struggle [against the disbelievers].

Verse 30

That, namely, the desire of this world, is the full extent of their knowledge, that is, the limit of their knowledge, namely, that they have preferred this life to [that of] the Hereafter. Truly your Lord knows best those who have strayed from His way, and He knows best those who are [rightly] guided: He has knowledge of both and will requite both.

Verse 31

And to God belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth, that is, He owns [all of] that, among which [also] are the misguided one and the [rightly] guided one, leading astray whomever He will and guiding whomever He will, that He may requite those who do evil for what they have done, by way of idolatry and otherwise, and reward those who are virtuous, by [their] affirmation of [God’s] Oneness and other acts of obedience, with the best [reward], namely, Paradise. He points out ‘the virtuous’ as being:

Verse 32

Those who avoid grave sins and abominations, excepting lesser offences, that is, minor sins, such as a look, a kiss or a touch (this constitutes a discontinuous exception, in other words the meaning is: but lesser offences are forgiven by the avoidance of grave sins). Truly your Lord is of vast forgiveness, for such [lesser sins] and for accepting repentance. The following was revealed regarding those who used to say, ‘[What of] our prayers, our fasting, and our pilgrimage!’. He knows you best [from the time] when He produced you from the earth, that is to say, [when] He created your father Adam from dust, and when you were hidden [fetuses] (ajinna is the plural of janīn) in the bellies of your mothers. So do not claim purity for yourselves, do not praise yourselves, that is, in admiration; but [if it is done] in recognition of [God’s] grace, then that is fine. He knows best those who are God-fearing.

Verse 33

Did you see him who turned away, from faith — that is, [the one who] recanted when he was derided for it. He said, ‘But I fear the punishment of God!’. But when the one deriding him guaranteed him that he would bear God’s chastisement for him, provided that he reverted to his [former] idolatry, and he then gave him a stated sum money, he reverted —

Verse 34

and gave a little, of the stated sum of money, and was then grudging?, refrained from [giving] the remainder (akdā derives from al-kudya, earth that is hard as rock and which prevents the well-digger from digging through when he hits it).

Verse 35

Does he possess knowledge of the Unseen so that he sees?, [and therefore] from among such [knowledge] he is able to know that another person may bear the chastisement of the Hereafter for him? No! This was al-Walīd b. al-Mughīra, or someone else (the sentence beginning with a-‘indahu, ‘does he possess’, is the second object of the a-ra’ayta, ‘have you seen’, which has the significance of ‘inform Me!’).

Verse 36

Or (am means bal) has he not been informed of what is in the scrolls of Moses, the books of the Torah, or scrolls before it,

Verse 37

and, the scrolls of, Abraham who fulfilled [his summons], [he who] completed what he had been charged with, as in: And when his Lord tested Abraham with certain words and he fulfilled them [Q. 2:124] (the explication of mā, ‘what’, is [the following]):

Verse 38

that no burdened soul shall bear the burden of another (an, ‘that’, has been softened in place of the hardened form), in other words, no soul shall bear [responsibility for] the sins of another;

Verse 39

and that (wa-an, to be understood as wa-annahu) man shall have only what he [himself] strives for, of good [deeds], and so he shall not have anything of [the reward for] good [deeds] striven for by another;

Verse 40

and that his endeavour will be seen, it will be inspected in the Hereafter,

Verse 41

then he will be rewarded for it with the fullest reward, the most perfect [reward] (one may say jazaytuhu sa‘yahu or [jazaytuhu] bi-sa‘yihi [to mean the same thing]),

Verse 42

and that (read wa-anna as a supplement; it is also read wa-inna as the beginning of a new sentence; and the same applies to what comes after it, in which case, according to this second [reading], these [inna statements] no longer form part of the content of all that is ‘in the scrolls’) the ultimate end, the return and the destination after death, is toward your Lord, whereat He will requite them;

Verse 43

and that it is He Who makes to laugh, whomever He will He makes joyous, and makes to weep, whomever He will He makes him sorrowful,

Verse 44

and that it is He Who brings death, in this world, and gives life, for resurrection,

Verse 45

and that He [Himself] creates the two spouses, the two kinds, the male and the female,

Verse 46

from a drop [of semen] once it is emitted, [once] it is poured forth into the womb,

Verse 47

and that with Him rests the second genesis (read al-nashā’ata, or al-nash’ata), the other creation, for the Resurrection, after the first creation,

Verse 48

and that it is He Who enriches, people by [granting them] sufficient wealth, and grants possessions, [He Who] gives that wealth that is enjoyed as property,

Verse 49

and that it is He Who is the Lord of Sirius — this is a star [lying] beyond [the constellation of] Gemini, which was worshipped in the time of pagandom (jāhiliyya);

Verse 50

and that He destroyed former ‘Ād (‘Ādan al-ūlā: a variant reading elides the nunation with the [following] lām [sc. ‘Āda’l-ūlā]; this [former one] refers to the people of ‘Ād, while the second [‘Ād] is that of the people of Sālih)

Verse 51

and Thamūd (wa-Thamūda: may be declined, as the name of their forefather, or left as a diptote, being the name of the tribe; it is a supplement to ‘Ādan) sparing not, a single one of them;

Verse 52

and the people of Noah before that, that is to say, before ‘Ād and Thamūd, We [also] destroyed them; indeed they were more unjust and more insolent, than ‘Ād and Thamūd, because of the long time that Noah remained among them: and he remained among them a thousand-less-fifty years [Q. 29:14], for they, despite their disbelief in him, would [still] harm him and assault him;

Verse 53

and the Deviant [cities], namely, the cities of the people of Lot, He overturned, He hurled them down to the earth after lifting them up to the heaven upside down, by commanding Gabriel to do this;

Verse 54

so that there covered them, of rocks afterwards, that which covered [them]: this is [purposely] left vague in order to inspire terror; in [sūrat] Hūd [it is stated]: We made their uppermost the nethermost, and We rained upon them stones of baked clay [Q. 11:82].

Verse 55

Then which of the bounties of your Lord, [which of] His graces, [graces] which indicate His Oneness and power, do you dispute?, do you have doubt about, O man, or deny?

Verse 56

This, Muhammad (s), is a warner, [in the tradition] of the warners of old, of their kind, that is to say, he is a messenger like messengers before him, sent to you just as they were sent to their peoples.

Verse 57

The Impending [Hour] is imminent: the Resurrection is near at hand.

Verse 58

None, [no] soul, besides God can disclose it, that is to say, only He can disclose it and manifest it, as where He says: He alone shall reveal it, at its proper time [Q. 7:187].

Verse 59

Do you then marvel, in denial, at this discourse, the Qur’ān,

Verse 60

and laugh, mockingly, and not weep, when you hear its Promise and Threat,

Verse 61

while you remain oblivious?, unmindful and heedless of what is required of you.

Verse 62

So prostrate to God, Who created you, and worship Him!, and do not prostrate to idols, nor worship them.

Verse 1

The Hour has drawn near, the Resurrection is close at hand, and the moon has split, it broke in two at [Mount] Abū Qubays and Qu‘ayqa‘ān, as a sign for the Prophet (s), for it had been demanded of him, and [when it took place] he said, ‘Bear witness [now]!’ — as reported by the two Shaykhs [al-Bukhārī and Muslim].

Verse 2

And if they, the disbelievers among Quraysh, see a sign, a miracle of the Prophet (s), they turn away and say, this is: ‘A powerful sorcery!’ (mustamirr, ‘powerful’, derives from al-mirra, meaning ‘strength’; or it [mustamirr] means ‘incessant’).

Verse 3

And they denied, the Prophet (s), and followed their own desires, as regards [their] falsehood; and every matter, that is good or evil, will be settled, with that person [who is responsible for it], either [by his ending up] in Paradise or in the Fire.

Verse 4

And verily there has come to them such tidings, stories about the destruction of communities which denied their messengers, as contain a deterrent, to them (muzdajar is a verbal noun, or a noun of place; the dāl [of muzdajar] replaces the tā’ of [the 8th form] ifta‘ala; one may say, izdajartuhu or zajartuhu, to mean ‘I forbade him sternly’; mā, ‘such as’, either indicates a relative clause, or it is qualified by an adjective);

Verse 5

wisdom (hikmatun is the predicate of an omitted subject, or a substitution for mā, ‘such as’, or for muzdajar, ‘deterrent’) [that is] far-reaching, complete; but warnings (nudhur is the plural of nadhīr, functioning in the [agent] sense of mundhir, ‘a warner’, that is to say, ‘those matters which warn them’; mā is either for negation, or it is an interrogative of denial, in which case it stands as a preceding direct object) are of no avail, [warnings] are of no use with them.

Verse 6

So turn away from them! (this is the import of the preceding statement and it completes what is being said). On the day when the Summoner, namely, Isrāfīl (yawma, ‘the day’, is rendered accusative by yakhrujūna, ‘they will emerge’, next [verse]), summons to an awful thing (read nukur or nukr, in the sense of munkar, ‘disagreeable’), [a thing] which the souls will find awful, and this is the Reckoning;

Verse 7

with their downcast (khāshi‘an: a variant reading has khushsha‘an), humiliated, looks (absāruhum is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of the verb [yakhrujūna, ‘they will emerge’]) they, that is, mankind, will emerge from the graves as though they were scattered locusts, not knowing where to go, out of fear and perplexity (this sentence [ka’annahum jarādun muntashirun] is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of [the verb] yakhrujūna, ‘they will emerge’, and so is His saying [muhti‘īna]),

Verse 8

scrambling, hastening with their necks stretched out, toward the Summoner. The disbelievers, among them, will say: ‘This is a hard day!’, a difficult one for disbelievers — as is stated in [sūrat] al-Muddaththir, a day of hardship for the disbelievers [Q. 74:9-10].

Verse 9

The people of Noah denied (kadhdhabat has feminine inflection on account of the import [referring to a feminine noun], qawm, ‘tribe’) before them, before Quraysh. Thus they denied Our servant, Noah, and said, ‘A madman!’, and he was reviled: they repulsed him with insults and in other ways.

Verse 10

And so he invoked his Lord, [saying,] ‘I have been (annī, to be understood as bi-annī) overcome, so help [me]!’

Verse 11

Then We opened (read fa-fatahnā or fa-fattahnā) the gates of the heaven with torrential waters, [waters] pouring down intensely,

Verse 12

and We made the earth burst forth with springs, that flowed forth, and the waters, the waters of the heaven and the earth, met for a purpose, a circumstance, that was preordained, [a matter] which had been decreed since pre-eternity, namely, their destruction by drowning.

Verse 13

And We bore him, that is, Noah, on one, a ship, [made] of planks and nails (dusur is what boards are fastened down with of nails and the like; the singular is disār, similar [in pattern] to [kutub] kitāb, ‘book’),

Verse 14

sailing before Our eyes, that is, in Our sights, in other words, [it was being] protected, as retaliation (jazā’an is in the accusative because of the implied verbal clause, that is to say, ‘they were drowned by way of revenge’) for [the sake of] him who was rejected, namely, Noah, peace be upon him (a variant reading [for passive kufira] has kafara, ‘him who disbelieved’, in other words, they were drowned as a punishment for them).

Verse 15

And verily We left it, We preserved this [deed], as a sign, for whomever might be admonished by it, in other words, the news of this [deed] became widely-known and endured. So is there anyone who will remember?, [anyone who] will take heed from, or be admonished by, it? (muddakir is actually mudhtakir, but the tā’ has been replaced with a dāl, likewise the dhāl, and it [the dāl] has been assimilated with it [the other dāl]).

Verse 16

How [dreadful] then were My chastisement and My warnings? (this is an interrogative meant as an affirmative; kayfa, ‘how’, is the predicate of kāna, ‘was’, and it is here being used to inquire about a ‘state’; the intention is to prompt those who are being addressed to affirm the fact that God’s chastisement of those who denied Noah was fully deserved).

Verse 17

And verily We have made the Qur’ān easy to remember, We have facilitated its memorisation and disposed it to serve as a [source of] remembrance. So is there anyone who remember?, [anyone who] will be admonished by it and memorise it? (the interrogative here is intended as an imperative: in other words, memorise it and be admonished by it; none of God’s scriptures is memorised by heart other than it [the Qur’ān]).

Verse 18

‘Ād denied, their prophet Hūd and so they were chastised. How then were My chastisement and My warnings?, [how then was] My warning them of the chastisement before it was sent down? In other words, it was justified, and He explains this [chastisement] by saying:

Verse 19

Indeed We unleashed upon them a clamorous wind, intensely noisy, on a day of prolonged ill fortune, (nahsin mustamirr means) either one of continuous ill fortune, or one of severe ill fortune — and this was the last Wednesday of the month —

Verse 20

tearing people away, wrenching them from the holes in the ground in which they had been embedded and flinging them down [to the ground] head first, thereby crushing their necks and severing [their] heads from [their] bodies, as if they were, [while lying] in this mentioned state, trunks of uprooted palm-trees, severed and thrown on the ground — they are likened to palm-trees because of their tallness (nakhlun, ‘palm-trees’, is masculine here but feminine in [sūrat] al-Hāqqa, nakhlun khāwiya, ‘fallen down [or hollow] palm-trees’, [Q. 69:7], in order to harmonise with the end-rhyme of the verses in both instances).

Verse 21

How then were My chastisement and My warnings?

Verse 22

And verily We have made the Qur’ān easy to remember. So is there anyone who will remember?

Verse 23

Thamūd denied the warnings (nudhur is the plural of nadhīr, with the sense of mundhir), that is to say, [they denied] those matters which their prophet Sālih warned them of if they refused to believe in him and to follow him,

Verse 24

and they said, ‘Is it a mortal (basharan is in the accusative because it is governed [by a succeeding verb]) alone among us (minnā wāhidan are both adjectives of basharan) that we are to follow? (nattabi‘uhu, this explains the verb which renders it [basharan, ‘mortal’] accusative; the interrogative is meant as a negative, in other words: why should we follow him when there are many of us and he is only one among us and not a king? That is to say, we will not follow him). Then indeed, if we were to follow him, we would be in error, a parting with reason, and insanity!

Verse 25

Has the Reminder, the revelation, been cast (read a-ulqiya pronouncing both hamzas, or by not pronouncing the second one but in both cases inserting an intervening alif, or leaving this [insertion] out) upon him [alone] from among us?, in other words, nothing has been revealed to him. Nay, but he is a conceited, an arrogant and insolent, liar, in his saying that the mentioned has been revealed to him. God, exalted be He, says:

Verse 26

‘They will know tomorrow, in the Hereafter, who is the conceited liar, and it is them, for they will be chastised for having denied their prophet Sālih.

Verse 27

Lo! We are sending the She-camel, We will bring it forth out of the mountain, the rock, as they demanded, as a trial, a test, for them, that We may try them. So watch them, O Sālih, await [to see] what they will do and what will be done with them, and remain patient (istabir: the tā’ here has replaced the tā’ of [the 8th form] ifta‘ala), in other words, endure their harm.

Verse 28

And inform them that the water is to be divided between them, and the She-camel: one day for them and the next for it, every drinking, [every] portion of water, will be attended’, by the people [drawing water] on their [designated] day, and by the She-camel on its day. They adhered to this [regime] but eventually became impatient with it and decided to slaughter the She-camel.

Verse 29

But they called their companion, Qudār, to slay it, so he took, he drew his sword, and he hamstrung, with it the She-camel, in other words, he slew her in compliance with their wish.

Verse 30

How then were My chastisement and My warnings?, My warning them of chastisement before it was sent down? In other words, it was justified. He explains it [their chastisement] by saying:

Verse 31

Indeed We unleashed upon them a single Cry, and they became like the chaff of a corral builder (al-muhtazir is one who makes a pen from dried tree-branches and thorns for his sheep, to protect them from wolves and beasts of prey; the fallen parts which they tread are called hashīm).

Verse 32

And verily We have made the Qur’ān easy to remember. So is there anyone who will remember?

Verse 33

The people of Lot denied the warnings, [they denied] those issues of which they were warned by his [Lot’s] tongue.

Verse 34

Indeed We unleashed upon them a squall of pebbles, a wind hurling at them pebbles, namely, small stones, a single one [of these] being no larger than the palm of the hand, and they were destroyed; [all] except the family of Lot, namely, his two daughters, together with him, whom We delivered at dawn, from among the dawns, the morning time of an unspecified day (had a specific day been meant [for that mentioned dawn], it [sahar] would have been treated as a diptote [instead of the declined form saharin], being a definite noun derived from al-sahar, for with definite nouns one ought to use [the preceding definite article] al). So was the squall unleashed at first with the family of Lot [still there]? There are two opinions regarding this: in the case of the former [that it was unleashed upon them including the family of Lot] the exception is understood as a continuous one, while in the case of the latter [opinion that they were delivered before the squall] the exception is understood as a discontinuous one, even if it [‘the family of Lot’] is actually subsumed by the collective noun [‘the people of Lot’, and so they were delivered] as a kindness [from God];

Verse 35

as a grace (ni‘matan is a verbal noun, that is to say in‘āman, ‘an act of grace’) from Us. So, like that requital, do We requite him who gives thanks, for Our graces and is a believer, or [it means] him who is a believer in God and His messenger and is obedient to both.

Verse 36

And verily he had warned them, Lot had threatened them, of Our strike, Our seizing them with chastisement, but they disputed, they contested and denied, the warnings, his warning.

Verse 37

And they had even solicited of him his guests, that he should let them have their own way with those who had come to him as guests, that they may do wicked things with them — and these [guests] were angels. So We blotted out their eyes, We blinded them and made them without slits [so that they were continuous folds of skin] like the rest of the face, by having Gabriel smack them with his wing. ‘So taste [now], so We said to them: taste, My chastisement and My warnings’, that is to say, [taste] the effects and the substance of My warning and My threat.

Verse 38

And verily there greeted them in the early morning, the morning time of an unspecified day, an abiding chastisement, a permanent [chastisement], continuous with the chastisement of the Hereafter.

Verse 39

‘So taste [now] My chastisement and My warnings!’

Verse 40

And verily We have made the Qur’ān easy to remember. So is there anyone who will remember?

Verse 41

And verily there came to Pharaoh’s folk, his people, together with him, the warnings, the warning by the tongue of Moses and Aaron, but they did not believe.

Verse 42

Rather: They denied Our signs, all, nine, of them, which were given to Moses. So We seized them, by way of chastisement, with the seizing of One [Who is] Mighty, Strong, Omnipotent, Powerful, Whom nothing can thwart.

Verse 43

Are your disbelievers, O Quraysh, better than those?, mentioned [beginning] from the people of Noah to those of Pharaoh, which is why they have not been chastised? Or have you, O disbelievers of Quraysh, [been granted] some immunity, from chastisement, in the Scriptures?, the Books? (the interrogative in both instances is meant as a denial, in other words: it is not so).

Verse 44

Or do they, the disbelievers of Quraysh, say: ‘We are a host that will be helped to victory’?, against Muhammad (s)? When Abū Jahl, on the day of Badr, said: ‘We are a host that will be helped to victory’, the following was revealed:

Verse 45

The host will [truly] be routed and turn its back [to flee], and so they were defeated at Badr and God’s Messenger (s) was granted victory over them.

Verse 46

Nay, but the Hour is their tryst, for chastisement, and the Hour, that is, the chastisement thereat, will be more calamitous, greater in affliction, and more bitter, than the chastisement of this world.

Verse 47

Indeed the guilty are in error, in the destruction of being killed in this world, and in a blazing fire, a fire that has been set ablaze (musa‘‘ara), that is, fiercely ignited in the Hereafter.

Verse 48

The day when they are dragged into the Fire on their faces, in the Hereafter and it is said to them: ‘Taste [now] the touch of Saqar’, Hell’s affliction of you.

Verse 49

Truly everything (read inna kulla shay’in is [in the accusative as a] dependent clause because of a verb governing it) have We created in a measure, by ordainment (bi-qadarin, ‘in a measure’, is a circumstantial qualifier referring to kulla, ‘every’, in other words, ‘[already] predetermined’; a variant reading [for kulla] has [nominative] kullu as the subject, the predicate of which is khalaqnāhu, ‘We have created’).

Verse 50

And Our command, for a thing which We want to bring into existence, is but a single word, like the twinkling of an eye, in terms of speed, and this is the saying of kun, ‘Be’, whereat it comes into existence. His command, when He wills a thing, is just to say to it ‘Be’, and it is [Q. 36:82].

Verse 51

And verily We have destroyed the likes of you, the likes of you in terms of disbelief, from among past communities. So is there anyone who will remember? (this is an interrogative meant as an imperative, that is to say, ‘Remember and be admonished!’).

Verse 52

And everything they, that is, servants, have done is, recorded, in the scrolls, the books of the Guardian Angels (al-hafaza),

Verse 53

and every small and great, sin, or deed, is inscribed, is recorded in the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfūz).

Verse 54

Assuredly the God-fearing will be amid gardens, orchards, and rivers (the collective noun is meant here; a variant reading [for nahar] has the plural nuhur, similar [in form] to asad, ‘lion’, [plural] usud), the meaning being that they will drink from its rivers water milk, honey and wine;

Verse 55

in an abode of truth, a place of truth, wherein there is no idle talk or cause for sin — (the collective noun [maq‘ad] is meant here; a variant reading has maqā‘id, ‘abodes’), in other words, they are in congregations in Paradise that are free from idle talk and cause for sin, in contrast to the congregations of this world, which are rarely free from such things (syntactically, this statement is considered a second predicate and also a substitution; it [the ‘abode’] may be understood as being ‘one of truth’ regardless of whether one reads the substitution as being of the part [for the whole] or otherwise); before a King (malīk: this form is hyperbolic, that is to say, One of a mighty and vast kingdom) [Who is] Omnipotent, Powerful, Whom nothing can thwart, namely, God, exalted be He (‘inda indicates [glorious] rank and closeness to His bounty, exalted be He).

Verse 1

The Compassionate One, God, exalted be He,

Verse 2

has taught, whomever He will, the Qur’ān.

Verse 3

He created man, the species [mankind],

Verse 4

teaching him the [coherent] speech, utterance.

Verse 5

The sun and the moon follow a reckoning, they move according to a [strict] calculation,

Verse 6

and the grass, all stalkless vegetation, and the trees, that [vegetation] which possesses stalk, prostrate, comply with what is required of them.

Verse 7

And He has raised the heaven and set up the balance, He has established justice,

Verse 8

[declaring] that you should not contravene, that is to say, so that you may not do wrong, with regard to the balance, that [instrument] with which one weighs.

Verse 9

And observe the weights with justice, fairly, and do not skimp the balance, [do not] decrease [the value of] what is being weighed.

Verse 10

And the earth, He placed it, He fixed it [in place], for [all] creatures: man, jinn and others.

Verse 11

In it are fruits and, the familiar, date-palms with sheaths, the spathes containing its flowers,

Verse 12

and grain, such as wheat and barley, with husk, and fragrant herb.

Verse 13

So which of your Lord’s favours, graces, will you deny? (tukadhdhibān is mentioned thirty one times; the interrogative is meant [to be understood] as an affirmative, judging by what al-Hākim [al-Naysābūrī] reported [by way of an isnād] from Jābir [b. ‘Abd Allāh al-Ansārī], who said, ‘The Messenger of God (s) was reciting surāt al-Rahmān to us, and when he completed it, he said, “What is wrong with you that you have been silent [throughout]? Verily the jinn are more responsive than you. Not once did I recite this verse to them — So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny? — but that they said, ‘Not one of your graces, our Lord, do we deny, for [all] praise belongs to You’ ”).

Verse 14

He created man, Adam, of dry clay (salsāl, a dry hollow mud producing an echo if tapped), resembling the potter’s (fakhkhār, clay that has been baked),