Verse 36
Only those who hear, in such a way so as to understand and take heed, will answer, your call to faith; as for the dead, that is, the disbelievers — they are likened to them on account of their inability to hear — God will resurrect them, in the Hereafter, and then to Him they will be returned, and He will requite them for their deeds.
Verse 37
And they, the disbelievers of Mecca, say, ‘Why has a sign not been sent down to him from his Lord?’, [a sign] such as the she-camel [of the prophet Sālih] or the staff [of Moses] or the Table [of Jesus]. Say, to them: ‘Surely God has the power to send down (read yunazzil or yunzil) a sign, from among those they have requested, but most of them do not know’, that its sending down would be a trial for them, for if they then [still] denied it, they would necessarily be destroyed.
Verse 38
There is no (mā min: min is extra) animal, that crawls, on the earth and no bird that flies, through the air, with its wings, but they are communities like to you, in the way that its creation has been ordained, together with its sustenance and affairs. We have neglected nothing (min shay’: min is extra) in the Book, in the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfūz), [nothing] that We have not written; then to their Lord they shall be gathered, and judgement shall be passed upon them, and the hornless sheep shall retaliate against the horned ram, and then it will be said to them [the animals], ‘Be dust’.
Verse 39
And those who deny Our signs, the Qur’ān, are deaf, to hearing them in such a way so as to accept [them], and dumb, [unable] to utter truth, in darkness, in unbelief. He whom God wills, to send astray, He sends astray, and whom He wills, to guide, He sets him on a straight path, [a straight] road, the religion of Islam.
Verse 40
Say, O Muhammad (s), to the Meccans: ‘Do you see yourselves, [that is] inform me, if God’s chastisement comes upon you, in this world, or the Hour, the Resurrection, which includes this [chastisement], comes upon you, suddenly, will ye call upon any other than God? No! If you speak truly!’, that the idols can benefit you, then call upon them.
Verse 41
Nay; upon Him, and upon none other, you will call, in [times of] tribulation, and He will remove that which you call upon Him, to remove from you, such things as suffering, if He wills, to remove it, and you will forget, you will neglect, what you associate with Him, of idols and will not call them.
Verse 42
Indeed We sent to communities before you (min qablika: min is extra), messengers, but they denied them, and We seized them with misery, abject poverty, and hardship, illness, so that they might be humble, abased, that they might believe.
Verse 43
If only, when Our might, Our punishment, came upon them, they had been humble, in other words, they were not so, even though the necessitating factor was there. But their hearts were hard, and would not yield to faith, and Satan adorned for them what they were doing, in the way of disobedient acts, and so they persisted in them.
Verse 44
So, when they forgot, [when] they neglected, that whereof they were reminded, that with which they were admonished and threatened, in the way of misery and hardship; and they did not heed the admonition, We opened (read fatahnā or fattahnā) to them the gates of all things, in the way of graces, in order to draw them on by degrees, until, when they rejoiced in what they were given, a wanton rejoicing, We seized them suddenly, with chastisement, and lo! they were confounded, despairing of anything good.
Verse 45
So the last remnant of the people who did evil was cut off, by having them annihilated. Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds, for giving victory to the messengers and destroying the disbelievers.
Verse 46
Say, to the people of Mecca: ‘Have you considered, inform me, if God were to seize your hearing, [if] He were to make you deaf, and your sight, [if] He were to make you blind, and set, stamp, a seal upon your hearts, so that you no longer knew anything, who is the god other than God to give it back to you?’, that which He took away from you, as you [are wont to] claim? See how We dispense, [how] We make clear, the signs, the proofs of Our Oneness! Yet thereafter they are turning away, they reject them and do not believe.
Verse 47
Say, to them: ‘Have you considered for yourselves, if God’s chastisement were to come upon you, suddenly or openly?, at night or during the day; Would any be destroyed, except the evildoing, the unbelieving, folk?’ That is to say, none but these will be destroyed.
Verse 48
We do not send messengers, except as bearers of good tidings, to those who believe, [good tidings] of Paradise, and as warners, to those who disbelieve, [warning] of the Fire. Whoever believes, in them, and makes amends, in his deeds, no fear shall befall them, neither shall they grieve, in the Hereafter.
Verse 49
But those who deny Our signs, the chastisement shall afflict them because they were wicked, rebelling against obedience.
Verse 50
Say, to them: ‘I do not say to you, “I possess the treasure houses of God”, from which He provides sustenance; and I do not have knowledge of the Unseen, that which is hidden from me and has not been revealed to me. And I do not say to you, “I am an angel”, from among the angels; I only follow what is revealed to me.’ Say: ‘Is the blind man, the disbeliever, equal to the seeing man, the believer? No! Will you not then reflect’ upon this and believe?
Verse 51
And warn, threaten, therewith, that is, [with] the Qur’ān, those who fear they shall be gathered to their Lord: apart from Him, other than Him, they have no protector, to help them, and no intercessor, to intercede for them (the negative sentence stands as a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of [the verb] yuhsharū, ‘they shall be gathered’, and constitutes the object of [what they] fear) — the sinning believers are meant here; so that they might be wary, of God, by desisting from what they engage in and performing deeds of obedience.
Verse 52
And do not drive away those who call upon their Lord at morning and evening desiring, through their worship, His countenance, exalted be He, and not [desiring] any of the transient things of this world — and these are the poor. The idolaters had reviled them and demanded that he [the Prophet] expel them, so that they could sit with him. The Prophet (s) wanted [to do] this, because of his desire that they become Muslims. You are not accountable for them in anything (min shay’in: min is extra), if what they hide in themselves be displeasing; nor are they accountable for you in anything, that you should drive them away (this is the response to the negative sentence) and be of the evildoers, if you do this.
Verse 53
And even so We have tried, We have tested, some of them by others, that is, the noble one by the commoner, the rich man by the poor man, preferring the [latter] one by giving [him] precedence in [attaining] faith, so that they, the noble ones and the rich, may say, in disavowal, ‘Are these, the poor, the ones whom God has favoured from among us?’, with guidance? In other words [so that they may say]: if what they follow is [true] guidance, they would not have preceded us [in attaining it]. God, exalted be He, says: Is God not best aware of those who are thankful?, to Him, to guide them? Indeed [He is].
Verse 54
And when those who believe in Our signs come to you, say, to them: ‘Peace be upon you. Your Lord has prescribed, He has decreed, for Himself mercy, to the effect that, truly (innahu, ‘truly’, may also be read as annahu, ‘that’, as a substitution for al-rahma, ‘mercy’) whoever of you does evil in ignorance, of it when he did it, and repents thereafter, after his [evil] deed, [repents] of it, and makes amends, in his actions — truly He, God, is Forgiving, Merciful’, towards him (a variant reading [for innahu, ‘truly He’] has annahu, ‘then He’), in other words, forgiveness shall be for him.
Verse 55
And thus, in the same way that We have explained what has been mentioned, We distinguish, We expound, the signs, the Qur’ān, so that truth becomes manifest and is implemented in [people’s] deeds, and that the way, the path, of the sinners may be become clear, evident, and hence avoided (wa-li-yastabīna may also be read wa-li-tastabīna, ‘that you may discern’, with sabīla, ‘the way’, read in the accusative [as opposed to the nominative, sabīlu], implying a direct address to the Prophet [s]).
Verse 56
Say: ‘Truly I have been forbidden to worship those whom you call upon, [those whom] you worship, besides God.’ Say: ‘I shall not follow your whims, by worshipping them, for then, if I did follow them, verily I would have gone astray and I would not be of the rightly guided’.
Verse 57
Say: ‘I am upon a clear proof, a [clear] statement, from my Lord, and you have, already, denied Him, my Lord, when you associated others with Him. I do not have that which you seek to hasten, of the chastisement; the judgement, in this matter and in [all] others, is God’s alone. He decrees the, judgement of, truth, and He is the Best of Deciders’, [the Best of] Judges (a variant reading [for yaqdī, ‘He decrees’] has yaqussu, that is, ‘He relates [the truth]’).
Verse 58
Say, to them: ‘If I did have what you seek to hasten, the matter between you and me would have been decided, by my hastening it for you, so that I might find rest; but God has it; and God knows best the evildoers’, and when to punish them.
Verse 59
And with Him, exalted be He, are the keys of the Unseen, its treasure houses, or the paths that lead to knowledge of it; none but He knows them, and these are the five things mentioned in His saying: Surely God, He has knowledge of the Hour [and He sends down the rain and He knows what is in the wombs. And no soul knows what it has earned for the morrow; nor does any soul know in what land it will die. Truly God is Knowing, Aware, Q. 31:34], as reported by al-Bukhārī. He knows what is, happening, on land, [in] the deserts, and in the waters, [in] the towns along the rivers; and not a leaf (min waraqatin: min is extra) falls, but He knows it. Not a grain in the shadows of the earth, nothing of wet or dry ([this entire clause] wa-lā habbatin fī zulumāti l-ardi wa-lā ratbin wa-lā yābisin is a supplement to waraqatin, ‘a leaf’) but it is in a clear book, namely, the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfūz). The exceptive clause [illā fī kitābin mubīn, ‘but it is in a clear book’] constitutes an inclusive substitution for the previous exceptive clause [illā ya‘lamuhā, ‘but He knows it’].
Verse 60
It is He Who takes you at night, seizing your spirits during sleep, and He knows what you commit, [what] you earn, by day. Then He raises you up therein, that is, in the daytime, by restoring your spirits, so that an appointed term, namely, the term of life, may be accomplished; and afterward to Him is your return, through resurrection. Then He will inform you of what you used to do, and so requite you for it.
Verse 61
He is the Vanquisher, Superior, over His servants. And He sends guardians over you, angels, to record your deeds, until, when death approaches one of you, Our messengers, the angels charged with the seizing of the spirits, take him (tawaffathu; a variant reading has tawaffāhu) and they neglect not, they do not fall short of what they have been commanded.
Verse 62
Then they, creatures, are restored to God their Protector, their Possessor, the True, the Eternal, the Just, so that He might requite them. Surely His is the judgement, the decree that will be carried out in their case. He is the swiftest of reckoners, reckoning with the whole of creation in half a day of the days of this world, on the basis of a hadīth to this effect.
Verse 63
Say, O Muhammad (s), to the people of Mecca: ‘Who delivers you from the darkness of the land and the sea, [from] their terrors, during your journeys? When, you call upon Him openly and secretly, saying: “Verily, if (la-in, the lām is for oaths) You, God, deliver us (anjaytanā, is also read anjānā, ‘[if] He delivers us’), from this, darkness and hardship, we shall truly be among the thankful”’, the believers.
Verse 64
Say, to them: ‘God delivers you (read yunjīkum or yunajjīkum) from that and from every distress, [from every] other anxiety. Yet you associate others with Him’.
Verse 65
Say: ‘He has the power to send forth upon you a chastisement from above you, from the heaven, such as stones [cf. Q. 8:32] or a Cry [cf. Q. 11:67], or from beneath your feet, such as the causing of the earth to cave in [cf. Q. 29:40], or to confound you, to confuse you, in parties, sects with differing whims, and to make you taste the violence of one another’, through fighting. When this [verse] was revealed, the Prophet (s) said, ‘This [chastisement etc.] is easier and lighter’; but when the last statement was revealed, he said, ‘I seek refuge with Your Countenance!’, as reported by al-Bukhārī. Muslim reports the [following] hadīth: ‘I requested from my Lord not to make my community violent towards each other, but He denied me this [request]’. In another hadīth, when it was revealed, he [is reported to have] said, ‘As for this, it will surely come to pass, even though its proper meaning has not yet come’. See how We dispense, [how] We clarify for them, the signs, the proofs of Our power, that perhaps they might understand, that they might realise that what they follow is falsehood.
Verse 66
Your people have denied it, the Qur’ān. Yet it is the truth. Say, to them: ‘I am not a guardian over you, to requite you. I am only a warner and your affair is left to God — this was [revealed] before the command to fight [the idolaters].
Verse 67
Every tiding, [every] announcement, has a conclusion, a [fixed] time in which it will take place and be concluded, including [the tiding concerning] your punishment. And you will come to know’ — this is a threat for them.
Verse 68
When you see those who engage in discourse about Our signs, the Qur’ān, in mockery, turn away from them, and do not sit with them, until they discourse on some other topic. And if (immā: the letter nūn of the conditional particle in has been assimilated with the extra mā) Satan should make you forget (read yunsiyannaka or yunassiyannaka), and you sit with them, then do not sit, after the reminder, that is, [after] you remember, with the evildoing folk (the overt noun [al-qawm al-zālimīn, ‘the evildoing folk’] replaces the [third person] pronominalisation).
Verse 69
The Muslims then said, ‘If we get up [and leave] every time they delve [into the matter of the Qur’ān], we would never be able to sit in the Mosque or perform circumambulations. Therefore, the following was revealed: Those who fear God, are not accountable for them, [for] those who discourse [in mockery], in anything (min shay’in: min is extra), if they should sit with them; but it is the reminder, that they are accountable for; [a reminder given] to make them remember and to admonish them, so that perhaps they will be wary, of discoursing thus.
Verse 70
And forsake, leave alone, those who take their religion, with which they have been charged, as a game and a diversion, making a mockery of it, and whom the life of this world has deluded, and so do not interfere with them — this was [revealed] before the command to fight [them]. Remind, admonish people, thereby, by the Qur’ān, lest a soul perish, [lest] it be given up for destruction, for what it has earned, what it has done; it has no protector, [no] helper, besides God, other than Him, and no intercessor, to ward off the chastisement from it; and though it offer every compensation, [though] it pay every ransom, it shall not be accepted from it, that which it offers as ransom. Those are the ones who perish by what they have earned; for them shall be a draught of boiling water and a painful chastisement, because they disbelieved, that is, for their unbelief.
Verse 71
Say: ‘Shall we call upon, shall we worship, instead of God, that which neither profits us, if we worship them, nor hurts us, if we neglect [to worship] them — these are the idols; and so be turned back, [and so] return to idolatry, after God has guided us, to Islam? — Like one whom the devils have lured, led astray, in the earth, bewildered, confused, not knowing where to go (hayrān, ‘bewildered’, is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the [suffixed pronoun] hā’ [of istahwat-hu, ‘whom they have lured’]); he has companions, a group, who call him to guidance, that is to say, [they are there] in order to guide him to the [right] path, saying to him: “Come to us!”’, but he does not respond to them, and he perishes (the interrogative statement is meant as a disavowal; the comparative statement [beginning with ka’lladhī, ‘like one whom’] is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject [of the verb] nuraddu, ‘be turned back’). Say: ‘Truly, God’s guidance, which is Islam, is [the true] guidance, everything else being error, and we have been commanded to submit to the Lord of the Worlds,
Verse 72
and to, that is, [to submit] by, establishing prayer and fearing Him, exalted be He; He it is to Whom you shall be gathered’, you shall be brought together, on the Day of Resurrection for reckoning.
Verse 73
He it is Who created the heavens and the earth in truth, that is to say, with the purpose of [manifesting] truth. And, mention, the day He says, to a thing, ‘Be’, and it is — this is the Day of Resurrection, when He says to creatures, ‘Rise up’, and they do. His words are the truth, the truth that will doubtless come to pass; and His is the Kingdom the day when the trumpet, the horn, is blown, the second blast by [the angel] Isrāfīl, when there shall be no kingdom for any other than Him: ‘Whose is the Kingdom today? God’s’ [Q. 40:16]. He is the Knower of the Unseen and the visible, what is hidden and what may be seen. He is the Wise, in His creation, the Aware, of things inwardly hidden and outwardly manifest.
Verse 74
And, mention, when Abraham said to his father Āzar, which was his cognomen, his [first] name being Terah (Tārikh): ‘Do you take idols as gods, to worship? (an interrogative meant as a rebuke). I see you and your people, by [this act of] taking them [as gods], in manifest error’, far from the truth.
Verse 75
And so, just as We show him the misguidance of his father and his people, We show Abraham the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, that he might infer thereby [the truth of] Our Oneness, and that he might be of those knowing, it, with certainty (the sentence beginning with wa-kadhālika, ‘and so’, and what follows it, is a parenthetical statement and a supplement to [the one beginning with] qāla, ‘he said’).
Verse 76
When night descended, [when] it darkened, upon him he saw a star — said to have been Venus — and said, to his people, who were astrologers: ‘This is my Lord’, as you [are wont to] claim. But when it set, when it disappeared, he said, ‘I love not those that set’, to take them as lords, because it is not possible for a [true] Lord to be transformed or to change place, as such [attributes] pertain to accidents — but this had no effect on them.
Verse 77
And when he saw the moon rising, appearing, he said, to them: ‘This is my Lord.’ But when it set he said, ‘Unless my Lord guides me, [unless] He establishes me within [true] guidance, I shall surely become one of the folk who are astray’ — an intimation to his people that they are astray, but still this had no effect on them.
Verse 78
And when he saw the sun rising, he said, ‘This is my Lord; this is greater!’ than the star and the moon (the masculine [demonstrative pronoun] hādhā, ‘this’, is used [for the feminine shams, ‘sun’] because the predicate [rabbī, ‘my Lord’] is masculine). But when it set, and the argument against them had become stronger and they still had not repented, he said, ‘O my people, surely I am innocent of what you associate, with God, in the way of idols and accidental bodies, which require an originator. They then asked him, ‘What do you worship?’
Verse 79
He said: Verily I have turned my face to, I am seeking in worship, Him Who originated, created, the heavens and the earth, namely, God; a hanīf, inclining towards the upright religion, and I am not of those that associate others’, with Him.
Verse 80
But his people disputed with him, they argued with him about his religion and threatened him that the idols would strike him with evil if he abandoned them. He said, ‘Do you dispute with me (read a-tuhājjūnnī, or a-tuhājūnī where one of the two letters nūn is omitted, the nūn which grammarians refer to as nūn al-raf‘, ‘the nūn of [modal] independence’, and which the Qur’ānic reciters refer to as nūn al-wiqāya, ‘the nūn of preservation’); do you argue with me, concerning, the Oneness of, God when He, exalted be He, has guided me, to it? I have no fear of what you associate with Him, in the way of idols, that they might strike me with some evil, since they have no power to do anything, unless my Lord wills something, harmful to befall me and it does. My Lord encompasses all things through His knowledge; will you not remember, this and believe?
Verse 81
How should I fear what you have associated, with God, when it can neither profit nor harm, and you fear not, God [in], that you have associated with God, in worship, that for which He has not revealed to you any warrant?’, [any] argument or proof, when He has power over all things. Which of the two parties has more right to security, is it us or you, if you have any knowledge, of who has more right? In other words: it is us, so follow Him. God, exalted be He, says:
Verse 82
Those who believe and have not confounded, mixed, their belief with evildoing, that is, idolatry — explained as such by a hadīth in the two Sahīhs [of Bukhārī and Muslim] — theirs is security, from chastisement; and they are rightly guided.
Verse 83
That (tilka is the subject [of the sentence] and is substituted by [the following hujjatunā]) argument of Ours, with which Abraham inferred God’s Oneness, as in the case of the setting stars and what came afterwards; (the predicate is [what follows]) We bestowed upon Abraham, We guided him to it, as an argument, against his people. We raise up in degrees whom We will (read this as [a genitive] annexation, darajāti man nashā’, or as [accusative] nunation, darajātin man nashā’), [degrees] in knowledge and wisdom; surely your Lord is Wise, in His actions, Knowing, of His creation.
Verse 84
And We bestowed upon him Isaac and, his son, Jacob; each one, of the two, We guided. And Noah We guided before, that is, before Abraham, and of his seed, that is, Noah’s [seed], David and, his son, Solomon, and Job and Joseph, son of Jacob, and Moses and Aaron; and so, in the same way that We have requited them, We requite the virtuous.
Verse 85
And Zachariah and, his son, John, and Jesus, son of Mary — this shows that [the term] ‘seed’ (dhurriyya) can include offspring from the female [side] — and Elias, the paternal nephew of Aaron, brother of Moses; all, of them, were of the righteous.
Verse 86
And Ishmael, son of Abraham, and Elisha (Ilyasa‘, the lām is extra), and Jonah and Lot, son of Hārān, brother of Abraham, all, of them, We preferred above all the worlds, through prophethood.
Verse 87
And of their fathers, and of their seed, and of their brethren (this [clause] is a supplement either to [the previous] kullan, ‘all of them’, or to Nūhan, ‘Noah’; min, ‘of’, is partitive, because some of them did not have offspring, while others had disbelievers among their offspring); and We chose them and We guided them to a straight path.
Verse 88
That, religion to which they were guided, is God’s guidance wherewith He guides whom He will of His servants; had they, hypothetically speaking, been idolaters, all that they did would have been in vain.
Verse 89
They are the ones to whom We gave the Scripture, meaning the Books [of God], judgement, wisdom, and prophethood; so if these, people of Mecca, disbelieve therein, that is, in these three, then indeed We have entrusted it to, We have set aside for it, a people who do not disbelieve in it, namely, the Emigrants (Muhājirūn) and the Helpers (Ansār).
Verse 90
They are the ones whom God has guided; so follow their guidance, their way of affirming God’s Oneness and of [exercising] patience (read iqtadih, ‘follow’, with the silent hā’, whether pausing or continuing the recitation; a variant reading omits it in continuous recitation). Say, to the people of Mecca: ‘I do not ask of you, to give me, any wage for it, the Qur’ān; it, the Qur’ān, is only a reminder, an admonition, to all the worlds’, of mankind and jinn.
Verse 91
They, that is, the Jews, measured not God with His true measure, that is, they have not extended Him the grandeur that truly befits Him, or [it means] they have not attained the true knowledge of Him, when they said, to the Prophet (s), disputing with him about the Qur’ān: ‘God has not revealed anything to any mortal.’ Say, to them: ‘Who revealed the Book which Moses brought, a light and guidance for mankind? You put it (in all three instances [the verbs may be] read either in the third person plural [yaj‘alūnahu, ‘they put it’; yubdūnahā, ‘they reveal it’; wa-yukhfūna, ‘and they hide’] or in the second person plural [taj‘alūnahu, ‘you put it’; tubdūnahā, ‘you reveal it’; wa-tukhfūna, ‘and you hide’]) on parchments, that is, you write it down on fragments of notes, which you disclose, that is, what you choose to disclose thereof, but you hide much, of what is in them, as in [the case of] the descriptions of Muhammad (s); and you have been taught, O Jews, in the Qur’ān, what you did not know, neither you nor your fathers’, in the Torah, through the elucidation therein of what you were confused about and in disagreement over. Say: ‘God’, revealed it — and if they do not say it, there is no other response — then leave them to play in their discourse, their falsehood.
Verse 92
And this, Qur’ān, is a blessed Book We have revealed, confirming that which was before it, of scriptures, and that you may warn (li-tundhira, or read li-yundhira, ‘that it may warn’, as supplement to the import of the preceding statement [sc. ‘to confirm that which was before it and to warn’]), in other words, We have revealed it for [the] blessings [it gives], as a vindication [of previous scripture] and for you to warn therewith, the Mother of Towns and those around it, that is, the inhabitants of Mecca and all other people; and those who believe in the Hereafter believe in it, and they observe their prayers, fearing the punishment thereof.
Verse 93
And who, that is, none, does greater evil than he who invents lies against God, by claiming prophethood when he has not been called to it, or who says, ‘It is revealed to me’, when nothing has been revealed to him — this was revealed regarding [the false prophet] Musaylama [al-Kadhdhāb] — or he who says, ‘I will reveal the like of what God has revealed’? — these were the mockers who would say: If we wish we can speak the like of this [Q. 8:31]; If you could only see, O Muhammad (s), when the, mentioned, evildoers are in the agonies, the throes, of death and the angels extend their hands, against them, beating and torturing them, saying to them in stern censure: ‘Give up your souls!, to us that we may seize them. Today you shall be requited with the chastisement of humiliation because you used to say about God other than the truth, of claiming prophethood and inspiration falsely, and that you used to scorn His signs’, disdaining to believe in them. The response to the conditional [statement beginning with] law, ‘if [you could only see]’, is: ‘you would be seeing a terrifying thing’.
Verse 94
And, it is said to them upon their resurrection: ‘And now you have come to Us singly, each alone without family, possessions or children, as We created you the first time, that is, barefoot, naked and with foreskins, and you have left what We conferred on you, of wealth, behind your backs, in the world, without you having any choice; and — it is said to them in rebuke — We do not see with you your intercessors, the idols, whom you claimed to be associates, of God, amongst you, that is, in deserving your worship; it has been severed between you, that is to say, your bond has been dissolved (a variant reading [for baynukum, ‘your union’] has baynakum, ‘between you’, making it an adverbial qualifier, that is, the bond ‘between you’ [has been severed]’), and that, intercession of theirs, which you claimed, in the world, has failed, abandoned, you’.
Verse 95
God it is Who splits the grain, from the plants, and the date-stone, from the palm-trees. He brings forth the living from the dead, such as the human being from the sperm, and the bird from the egg; and is the Bringer-forth of the dead, the sperm and the egg, from the living. That, Splitter and Bringer-forth, is God. How then are you deluded?, so how then are you turned away from faith, despite the proof being established?
Verse 96
He is the Cleaver of the daybreak (al-isbāh is the verbal noun, meaning al-subh, ‘dawn’), in other words, He splits the morning shaft, the first light that appears after the darkness of night, and He has appointed the night for stillness, in which creatures rest from toil, and the sun and the moon (read both in the accusative, wa’l-shamsa wa’l-qamara, as a supplement to the [syntactical] status of al-layla, ‘the night’) for reckoning, for the calculation of [periods of] time (or [if the prefixed preposition] bā’ is [considered to have been] omitted [bi-husbān], making it [husbān] a circumstantial qualifier referring to an implied verb [such as yajriyān, ‘they follow courses’], that is, ‘they follow courses precisely calculated [bi-husbān]’, as is stated in the verse of [sūrat] al-Rahmān [Q. 55:5]).That, mentioned, is the ordaining of the Mighty, in His kingdom, the Knowing, of His creation.
Verse 97
And He it is Who appointed for you the stars that you may guide your course by them amid the darkness of land and sea, when travelling. Verily We have distinguished, We have elucidated, the signs, the proofs of Our power, for a people who have knowledge, [a people] who reflect.
Verse 98
And He it is Who produced you, created you, from a single soul, namely, Adam, such that some, of you, are established, in the womb, and some, of you, are deposited, in the loins (a variant reading [of mustaqirrun, ‘established’] has mustaqarrun, that is, a resting place for you). Verily We have distinguished the signs for a people who understand, what is being said to them.
Verse 99
And He it is Who sent down water from the heaven and therewith, with the water, We bring forth (there is a shift away from the third [to the second person in this address]) plants of every kind, that produces shoots, and therefrom, from the shoots, We bring forth, some, verdure, meaning ‘the greens’ [in other words, vegetation], bringing forth from it, from the verdure, thick-clustered grain, in dense clusters — such as the spikes of wheat and the like — and from the palm-tree (wa-mina’l-nakhli is the predicate, and is substituted by [the following, min tal‘ihā, ‘from its pollen’]) from its pollen — that which is the first to be produced by it — spring bunches of dates (qinwānun is the subject of the sentence), stalks with date clusters, bunched up, one near the other, and, We bring forth from it, gardens, orchards, of grapes, and olives, and pomegranates, the leaves of both [of these] being, similar (mushtabihan is a circumstantial qualifier), but, the fruits of which are, not alike. Look, O you addressed, in reflection, upon their fruits (read thamarihi or thumurihi, the plural of thamara, like shajara, ‘tree’, [as plural of] shajar, and khashaba, ‘[a piece of] wood’, for khashab) when they have borne fruit, when this first begins, how it looks, and, [look] upon, their ripening, after they have reached full growth, and the state to which they return. Surely, in all that are signs, proofs of His power, exalted be He, to resurrect and to do all other things, for a people who believe: it is these [people] that are specifically mentioned because they are the ones to profit from those [signs] by their believing in them, in contrast to the disbelievers.
Verse 100
Yet they ascribe to God (li’Llāhi, the indirect object) as associates (shurakā’a, the direct object, which is substituted by [the following, al-jinn]) the jinn, since they obey them by worshipping graven images, even though He created them: so how can they be associates? And they falsely impute to Him (read kharaqū or kharraqū), that is, they invent, sons and daughters without any knowledge, saying, Ezra (‘Uzayr) is the son of God, and the angels are the daughters of God. Glory be to Him — an affirmation of His transcendence — and exalted be He above what they describe!, of Him having a child.
Verse 101
He is, the Originator of the heavens and the earth, which He originated uniquely without precedent; how should He have a son, when He has no consort, spouse, and He created everything, that was meant to be created, and He has knowledge of all things?
Verse 102
That then is God, your Lord. There is no god but Him, the Creator of all things. So worship Him, affirm His Oneness. And He is Guardian over, [He is] Keeper of, all things.
Verse 103
Vision cannot attain Him, that is, they [the eyes] cannot see Him — this is [a denial that applies] in particular [circumstances], since [it is accepted] that the believer will see Him in the Hereafter, as indicated by God’s words, On that Day faces shall be radiant, gazing upon their Lord [Q. 75:22f.], and by the hadīth of the two Shaykhs [Bukhārī and Muslim]: ‘Verily you shall see your Lord, as clearly as you see the full moon at night’) — and it is also said [to mean] that it [vision] cannot encompass Him; but He attains [all] vision, that is to say, He perceives them, whereas they cannot perceive Him; it is not possible in [the case of] anyone other than Him to attain all vision while it [vision] cannot attain Him or encompass Him in knowledge. And He is the Subtle, [in dealing] with His friends, the Aware, of them.
Verse 104
Say, O Muhammad (s), to them: Clear proofs have come to you from your Lord; whoever perceives, them and believes, then it is for his own good, that he has perceived [them], since the reward resulting from his perception will be his; and whoever is blind, to them and goes astray, then it, the evil consequence of his being astray, will be to his own hurt. And I am not a keeper, a watcher, over you, of your deeds: I am but a warner.
Verse 105
And so, in the same way that We have explained what has been mentioned, We dispense, We elucidate, the signs, that they might take heed, and that they, the disbelievers, may say, at the end of this: ‘You have studied with someone’, that you have consulted with (dārasta) the People of the Scripture or [that] you have studied (darasta, variant reading) the scriptures of past peoples and brought this [Qur’ān] therefrom; and that We may make it clear for a people who have knowledge.
Verse 106
Follow what has been revealed to you from your Lord, namely, the Qur’ān. There is no god but Him; and turn away from the idolaters.
Verse 107
Had God willed, they would not have been idolaters; and We have not set you as a keeper over them, a watcher, so that you might then requite them for their deeds; nor are you a guardian over them, so that you might [be able to] coerce them to faith — this was [revealed] before the command to fight [them].
Verse 108
Do not revile those whom they call upon, besides God, namely, the idols, lest they then revile God out of spite, out of aggression and wrongfully, through ignorance, that is, through their ignorance of God. So, in the same way that We have adorned for these that which they practise, We have adorned for every community their, good and evil, deeds, and they commit them; then to their Lord they shall return, in the Hereafter, and He will tell them what they used to do, and requite them for it.
Verse 109
They, that is, the disbelievers of Mecca, have sworn by God the most earnest oaths that if there came to them a sign, of what they requested, they will believe in it. Say, to them: ‘Signs are only with God’, and He sends them down as [and when] He wills; I am but a warner. But what will make you realise?, how would you know if they have believed, if these [signs] did come [to them]? In other words, you would not know this; truly, when they come, they will not believe, because of what I already know (a variant reading [for lā yu’minūna, ‘they will not believe’] has lā tu’minūna, ‘you will not believe’, making the address to the disbelievers; another [variant reading] has annahā [instead of innahā, ‘that truly’] as meaning la‘alla, ‘that perhaps’, or as governed by the preceding clause [la’in jā’athum āyatun, ‘if there came to them a sign’).
Verse 110
And We shall confound their hearts, We shall turn their hearts away from the truth, so that they cannot understand it, and their eyes, away from it, so that they do not see it and thus do not believe; just as they did not believe in it, that is, in the verses that have been revealed, the first time; and We shall leave them in their insolence, in their misguidance, wandering blindly, hesitating, perplexed.