Verse 22
The day when they see the angels, [while they stand] together with the rest of creation, namely, on the Day of Resurrection (yawma is in the accusative because of an implied [preceding] udhkur, ‘mention’), there will be no good tidings on that day for the guilty, that is, the disbelievers, in contrast to the believers for whom there shall be the good tidings of Paradise, and they will say, ‘A forbidding ban!’, as was their [the pagan] custom in this world whenever a misfortune befell them; in other words [they mean] ‘awdhan ma‘ādhan, seeking refuge from the angels [who will chastise them]. God, exalted be He, says:
Verse 23
And We shall attend to, We shall turn to, the works they did, that were good, such as voluntary alms or kindness to kin, a hospitable reception of a guest or the succour of a troubled person in this world, and turn them into scattered dust (habā’an manthūran), namely, [as] those individual particles of dust which one might observe near a window when the sun is shining through. In other words, [We shall make their good works] like those [particles of dust] in their uselessness, there being no reward for such [works], for lack of any [binding] obligation [to reward them therefor]; but they are rewarded for it in the life of this world.
Verse 24
Those who will be the inhabitants of Paradise on that day, the Day of Resurrection, will be in a [far] better abode, than are the disbelievers in this world, and a [far] better resting place, than theirs [the latter’s]; in other words, a [better] place for qā’ila, which is a rest taken during midday during hot days. From this [last interpretation of maqīlan] it has been inferred that the Reckoning will be concluded in half a day, as is stated in one hadīth.
Verse 25
And on the day when the heaven, each of the [seven] heavens, will be split asunder with the clouds, in other words, [split asunder] together with them [the clouds] (al-ghamām is white cloud) and the angels will be sent down, from every heaven, in a [majestic] descent, and this is the Day of Resurrection (it [yawma, ‘on the day’] is in the accusative because of an implied [preceding] udhkur, ‘mention’; a variant reading [for tashaqqaqu] is tashshaqqaqu, ‘will be split asunder’, where the second tā’ [of the original form tatashaqqaqu] has been assimilated with it the [the shīn]; another variant reading [instead of nuzzila al-malā’ikatu, ‘the angels will be sent down’] has nunzilu al-malā’ikata, ‘We will send down the angels’);
Verse 26
true Sovereignty on that day will belong to the Compassionate One, with no one else sharing it with Him, and it, that day, will be a hard day for the disbelievers, in contrast to the believers.
Verse 27
And [it will be] a day when the wrongdoer, the idolater, ‘Uqba b. Abī Mu‘ayt — who had uttered the two-part profession [‘there is no god but God, Muhammad (s) is His Messenger’] but retracted it in order to please Ubayy b. Khalaf — will bite his hands, in regret and anguish on the Day of Resurrection, saying, ‘O (yā is for drawing attention) would that I had followed a way with the Messenger!, Muhammad (s), a route to guidance.
Verse 28
O woe to me! (yā waylatā: the [final] alif stands in place of the [first person singular] possessive yā’, yā waylatī, meaning ‘[alas] for my destruction!’) Would that I had not taken so and so, in other words, [that] Ubayy, as friend!
Verse 29
Verily he has led me astray from the Remembrance, namely, the Qur’ān, after it had come to me, by causing me to recant my belief in it. God, exalted be He, says: And Satan is ever a deserter of, the disbelieving, man’, abandoning him and dissociating from him in [times of] tribulation.
Verse 30
And the Messenger, Muhammad (s), says, ‘O my Lord, lo! my people, the [tribe of] Quraysh, consider this Qur’ān as something to be shunned’, to be disregarded.
Verse 31
God, exalted be He, says: So, just as We have appointed for you enemies from among the idolaters of your people, We have appointed to every prophet, before you, an enemy from among the guilty, the idolaters — so be steadfast as they were; but your Lord suffices as a Guide, for you, and a Helper, to bring you victory over your enemies.
Verse 32
And those who disbelieve say, ‘Why has the Qur’ān not been revealed to him all at once?’, as the Torah, the Gospel and the Book of Psalms [were]. God, exalted be He, says: We have revealed it, thus, in parts, [it is], that We may strengthen your inner-heart with it, and We have arranged it in a specific order, that is to say, We produce it in stages one part after another, gradually and deliberately, in order to facilitate its comprehension and its memorisation.
Verse 33
And they do not bring you any similitude, to invalidate your mission, but that We bring you the truth, that refutes it, and [what is] better [as] exposition, explanation.
Verse 34
They are, those who will be gathered on their faces, that is, [those who] will be driven [as cattle], toward Hell: they will be in the worst place, namely, Hell, and furthest astray from the way, [they will be] on a path of error worse than that of others; and this [path] is their disbelief.
Verse 35
And verily We gave Moses the Scripture, the Torah, and made Aaron, his brother, [go] with him as a minister, an assistant.
Verse 36
Then We said, ‘Go both of you to the people who have denied Our signs’, that is, to the Egyptians — Pharaoh and his folk. So they went to them with the Message but they [the Egyptians] denied both of them. Then We destroyed them utterly.
Verse 37
And, mention, the people of Noah, when they denied the messengers, in denying Noah — it is as though he were many messengers given the length of time he remained among them; or [it is thus expressed in the plural] because to deny him is [equivalent] to denying all the other messengers, for they all came with the same [Message concerning] affirmation of God’s Oneness — We drowned them (this is the response to lammā, ‘when’) and made them a sign, a lesson, for mankind, thereafter, and We have prepared, in the Hereafter, for the evildoers, the disbelievers, a painful chastisement, in addition to what [chastisement] may befall them in this world.
Verse 38
And, mention, ‘Ād, the people of Hūd, and Thamūd, the people of Sālih, and the dwellers at al-Rass (al-rass) — the name of a ‘well’; their prophet is said to have been Shu‘ayb; although some say it was someone else. [The story is that] they had been sitting around it [on one occasion] when it collapsed beneath them [burying them] together with their dwellings. And many generations, peoples, in between, that is, between [the people of] ‘Ād and the dwellers at al-Rass.
Verse 39
For each [of them] We struck similitudes, when establishing arguments against them, and We destroyed them only after warning [them], and each [of them] We ruined utterly, We destroyed utterly, because of their denial of the prophets sent to them.
Verse 40
And verily they, namely, the disbelievers of Mecca, will have passed by the town on which an evil shower was rained (al-saw’, ‘evil’, is the verbal noun from sā’a, ‘was evil’), that is, [it was showered] with stones. This was the principal town of the towns inhabited by the people of Lot; God destroyed its inhabitants for their committing acts of lewdness. Can it be that they have not seen it?, on their journeys to Syria, and so take heed thereof? (the interrogative is affirmative). Nay, but it is that they do not expect, they have [no] fear of [any], resurrection, and so they do not believe.
Verse 41
And when they see you, they take you in mockery only, as an object of derision, saying, ‘Is this the one whom God has sent as a messenger?, as he is wont to claim? — contemptuously of him as one not worthy of being a messenger.
Verse 42
Indeed (in, softened in place of the hardened form, with its subject omitted, namely, innahu) he was about to lead us astray, turn us away, from our gods, had we not stood by them’, he would have turned us away from them. God, exalted be He, says: And soon they will know, when they behold the chastisement, with their own eyes in the Hereafter, who is further astray from the way, who is further upon the path of error: they or the believers?
Verse 43
Have you seen — inform Me [about] — him who has taken as his god his own desire?, that is, as something that will be bring about his ruin (the indirect object [ilāhahu, ‘as his god’] precedes the direct object because it is more important; the clause [beginning] man ittakhadha, ‘him who has taken’, constitutes the first direct object of a-ra’ayta, ‘have you seen’, the second being [the following, a-fa-anta …]) Will you be a guardian over him?, a protector to preserve him from following his desires? No.
Verse 44
Or do you suppose that most of them listen, listening so as to understand, or comprehend?, what you say to them? They are but as the cattle — nay, but they are further astray from the way, further from these [cattle] upon the path of misguidance, for at least they [cattle] yield to the person who looks after them, whereas these [disbelievers] do not obey their Master, Who is gracious to them.
Verse 45
Have you not seen, contemplated, the work of, your Lord, how He extends the [twilight] shadow?, from the point of daybreak to the point of sunrise. For had He, your Lord, willed, He would have made it still, ever-present so that it does not disappear with the rising of the sun. Then We made the sun an indicator of it, [of] the shadow; were it not for the sun the shadow would not have been known.
Verse 46
Then We retract it, the extended shadow, to Us by gentle retraction, subtle [retraction], through the rising of the sun.
Verse 47
And He it is Who made for you the night as a garment, veiling [you] like a garment, and sleep for repose, rest for bodies through the [temporary] cessation of labour, and He made the day for rising, [a time] in which all rise to seek their livelihood and so on.
Verse 48
And He it is Who sends forth the winds (al-riyāha; a variant has al-rīha, ‘the wind’) dispersing before His mercy (nushuran, ‘dispersing’), scattered before the [coming of the] rain (a variant reading has nushran, the singular of which is nashūr, similar [in pattern] to rasūl, ‘messenger’ [plural rusul]; another reading has nashran, as a verbal noun; and a third variant has bushran, in other words, [the winds function as] mubashshirāt, ‘bearers of good tidings’, the singular of which is bashīr); and We send down from the heaven purifying water,
Verse 49
with which We revive a dead land (read maytan, in the softened form, equally valid for the masculine and the feminine, but in the masculine [here] because of the [masculine] noun indicating ‘place’ [implicit therein]) and We give it, the water, as drink to the many cattle, camels, cows and sheep, and humans We have created (anāsiyy is the plural of insān: properly it [the plural] should be anāsīn but the [final] nūn has been replaced with a yā’, with which the [other] yā’ has been assimilated; or it [anāsiyy] is [simply] the plural of insiyy).
Verse 50
And verily We have distributed it, the water, among them, so that they may remember (li-yadhdhakkarū should actually be li-yatadhakkarū, but the tā’ has been assimilated with the dhāl; a variant reading has li-yadhkurū), that is to say, [so that they may remember] therewith the grace of God. But most people are only intent on ingratitude, on denial of the grace, saying, ‘We have received [this] rain because of such-and-such a storm’.
Verse 51
And had We willed, We could have sent forth in every town a warner, to threaten its inhabitants [with God’s chastisement]; instead We have sent you to the inhabitants of all towns as a warner for your reward to be a great one.
Verse 52
So do not obey the disbelievers, in their desires, but struggle against them therewith, that is, through [adherence to] the Qur’ān, with a great endeavour.
Verse 53
And He it is Who merged the two seas: letting them [flow] one adjacent to the other: this one palatable, sweet, and the other saltish, bitter; and He set between the two an isthmus, so that the one does not mix with the other, and a forbidding ban, a shield that prevents the two from becoming mixed.
Verse 54
And He it is Who created man from water, [He created] from a sperm-drop a human being, and made for him ties of blood and ties of marriage, whether it be a male or a female, they marry for the purposes of procreation. For your Lord is ever Powerful, with the power to do whatever He will.
Verse 55
And they, the disbelievers, worship besides God that which neither benefits them, when they worship it, nor harms them, should they refrain therefrom — and these are idols; and the disbeliever is ever a partisan against his Lord, an assistant to Satan through his obedience to him.
Verse 56
And We have not sent you except as a bearer of good tidings, of Paradise, and as a warner, a threatener [of people] with the [chastisement of the] Fire.
Verse 57
Say: ‘I do not ask of you in return for this, that is, for delivering that [Message] with which I have been sent, any reward, except that whoever wishes to follow a way to his Lord [should do so]’, by expending his wealth for the sake of [attaining] God’s pleasure, exalted be He; then [whoever wishes to do so] I will not prevent him from doing so.
Verse 58
And put your trust in the Living One Who does not die, and make glorifications, ensconced, in His praise, in other words, say: subhāna’Llāhi wa’l-hamdu li’Llāh, ‘Glory be to God and praise be to God’. And He suffices as One Aware, as Knower, of the sins of His servants (khabīran, ‘One Aware’, is semantically connected to bi-dhunūbi, ‘of the sins’).
Verse 59
He it is, Who created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them in six days, of the [length of the] days of this world, since there was no sun at that point — had He willed He could have created them in an instant, but His not having done so is because He will to teach His creatures to be circumspect — then presided upon the Throne (al-‘arsh in the [classical] language is the seat on which a king sits) the Compassionate One (al-rahmānu substitutes for the subject of [the verb] istawā, ‘presided’) a presiding befitting of Him; so ask, O man, about Him, about the Compassionate One, anyone who is well aware, to inform you about His attributes!
Verse 60
And when it is said to them, to the disbelievers of Mecca, ‘Prostrate yourselves before the Compassionate One’, they say, ‘And what is the Compassionate One? Should we prostrate ourselves to whatever you bid us’ (ta’murunā; or read ya’murunā, ‘[whatever] he bids us’) — [in both cases] the one bidding is Muhammad (s) — when we do not know who He is? No! And it, this that is said to them, increases their aversion, to faith.
Verse 61
God, exalted be He, says: Blessed, magnified, is He Who has placed in the heaven constellations, twelve [of them]: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo (al-sunbula), Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. They are the mansions for the seven orbiting planets: Mars rules Aries and Scorpio, Venus: Taurus and Libra, Mercury: Gemini and Virgo, the Moon: Cancer, the Sun: Leo, Jupiter: Sagittarius and Pisces, and Saturn: Capricorn and Aquarius; and has, also, placed in it a lamp, namely, the sun, and a shining moon (a variant reading [for sirājan, ‘sun’] has the plural surujan, which would mean ‘luminous stars’). The moon is singled out for mention because of its particular merit.
Verse 62
And He it is Who made the night and day [to appear] in succession, that is, one succeeding the other, for him who desires to remember (read yadhdhakkara or yadhkura, as before [Q. 25:50]) — so that if he misses [the opportunity to do] some good during the one, he can do it during the other; or desires to be thankful, for the graces of his Lord to him during both [of these periods].
Verse 63
And the [true] servants of the Compassionate One (‘ibādu’l-rahmāni is the subject, and what comes after it, all the way up to ūlā’ika yujzawna, ‘they will be rewarded’ [of verse 75 below] are adjectival qualifiers of this [subject], with the exception of the parenthetical statements) are those who walk upon the earth modestly, that is, peacefully and humbly, and who, when the ignorant address them, with what they are averse to, say [words of] peace (salām), in other words, words by which they are safe (yaslamūna) from [committing] any sin;
Verse 64
and who spend the night before their Lord, prostrating (sujjad is the plural of sājid) and standing [in worship], in other words, they spend the night performing prayers;
Verse 65
and who say, ‘Our Lord, avert from us from the chastisement of Hell. Truly its chastisement is abiding, that is, irrevocable.
Verse 66
It is truly a wretched abode and residence!’, in other words, [it is truly wretched] as a place in which to abide and reside.
Verse 67
And who, when they expend, upon their dependants, are neither prodigal nor parsimonious (read yaqturū or yuqtirū); but between such, prodigality and parsimony, lies — [between the two] their expenditure [is in] — moderation;
Verse 68
and [those] who do not call on another god along with God, nor slay the soul which God has forbidden, that it be slain, except with due cause, and who do not commit fornication — for whoever does that, namely, [whoever does] one of these three things, shall meet with retribution;
Verse 69
doubled (yudā‘af: a variant reading has yuda‘‘af) will be the chastisement for him on the Day of Resurrection and he will abide therein (both verbs may be read in [the imperfect] apocopated form [yudā‘af, ‘it will be doubled’, and yakhlud, ‘he will abide’] as substitutions, or with the [indicative] damma inflection [yudā‘afu and yakhludu] to indicate the beginning of a new sentence) abased (muhānan is a circumstantial qualifier);
Verse 70
except for him who repents, and believes, and acts righteously, from among them, for such, God will replace their, mentioned, evil deeds with good deeds, in the Hereafter, for God is ever Forgiving, Merciful, that is, He is ever possessed of such attributes;
Verse 71
and whoever repents, of his sins, from among other than those mentioned, and acts righteously, indeed turns to God with due repentance, that is, he returns to God a sincere return, and God will requite him with good;
Verse 72
and those who do not give false testimony, that is, [testimony containing] mendacity and falsehood, and, when they come across senseless talk, in the way of vile speech and otherwise, they pass by with dignity, shunning such [vanity];
Verse 73
and those who, when they are reminded, [when] they are admonished, of the revelations of their Lord, that is, [reminded] of the Qur’ān, do not fall on them deaf and blind, but fall [on them] listening, contemplating, benefiting and obedient;
Verse 74
and those who say, ‘Our Lord! Grant us in our spouses and our offspring (read plural dhurriyyātinā or singular dhurriyyatinā) a joyful sight, for us, so that we see them obedient to You, and make us paragons, of virtue, for the God-fearing’.
Verse 75
Those, they will be rewarded with the sublime abode, the highest degree in Paradise, forasmuch as they were steadfast, in obedience to God, and they will be met (read yulaqqawna or yalqawna) therein, in this sublime abode, with a greeting and [words of] peace, from the angels;
Verse 76
abiding therein. Excellent is it as an abode and station, as a place of residence for them (ūlā’ika, ‘those, they …’, and what comes after it constitute the predicate to the subject ‘ibādu’l-rahmāni, ‘the servants of the Compassionate One’).
Verse 77
Say, O Muhammad (s), to the people of Mecca: ‘My Lord would not be concerned with you (mā is for negation) were it not for your supplications, to Him [when you are] in adversity, which He then removes. But, why should He be concerned with you when, you have denied, the Messenger and the Qur’ān, and so that, the chastisement, will remain binding’, permanently bound to you in the Hereafter, in addition to what will befall you in this world; and so on the day of Badr seventy of them were slain (the response to [the conditional] lawlā, ‘were it not for …’ is indicated the preceding words).
Verse 1
Tā sīn mīm: God knows best what He means by these [letters].
Verse 2
Those, namely, these signs, are the signs of the Manifest Book, the Qur’ān (the genitive annexation [āyātu’l-kitābi] conveys the [partitive] meaning of min), [the Manifest meaning] the one that manifests what is truth from what is falsehood.
Verse 3
Perhaps, O Muhammad (s), you might kill yourself, out of distress for the reason, that they, namely, the people of Mecca, will not become believers (la‘alla here expresses sympathy, in other words [what is meant is] ‘have pity on it [your self] by alleviating [the burden of] this distress’).
Verse 4
If We will We will send down to them a sign from the heaven before which their necks will remain (fa-zallat, [although grammatically in the past tense] is being used in the sense of the imperfect tense) bowed in humility, and they will believe (since ‘necks’ are described as ‘bowed in humility’, [a status] which in fact refers to those who possess them, the adjectival form [khādi‘ūn, ‘bowed in humility’] used therein is the one [normally] used for rational beings).
Verse 5
And there would never come to them from the Compassionate One any remembrance, any [revelation from the] Qur’ān, that is new (muhdathin, is an explicative adjective) but that they used to disregard it.
Verse 6
Verily then they have denied, it; but soon there will come to them the news, the consequences, of that which they used to deride.
Verse 7
Have they not contemplated, observed, the earth, how many We have caused to grow therein, in other words, [We have caused to grow therein] many, of every splendid kind [of vegetation], [of every] fair species.
Verse 8
Surely in that there is a sign, an indication of the perfection of His power, exalted be He; but most of them, in God’s knowledge, are not believers (kāna here according to Sībawayhi is extra).
Verse 9
And surely your Lord, He is the Mighty One, Who will exact vengeance from the disbelievers, the Merciful, Who shows mercy to believers.
Verse 10
And, mention, O Muhammad (s), to your people, when your Lord called to Moses, on the night he saw the fire and the bush, [saying]: ‘Go to the wrongdoing folk, as a messenger,
Verse 11
Pharaoh’s folk, to them as well as him — they wronged their souls by disbelieving in God and [wronged] the Children of Israel by enslaving them — Will they not (a-lā: the hamza indicates a negation meant as a rebuke) show fear?’, of God by being obedient to Him and affirm His Oneness?
Verse 12
He, Moses, said, ‘My Lord, I fear they will deny me,
Verse 13
and that anguish will constrain my breast, because of their denial of me, and that my tongue will not utter clearly, to deliver the Message, because of the knot in it. So give the Mission to, my brother, Aaron, alongside me.
Verse 14
And I have sinned against them, by my slaying of the Egyptian man, and I fear they will slay me’, for this.
Verse 15
Said He, exalted be He: ‘Certainly not!, they shall not slay you. Go both of you, you and your brother — this address [although in the dual form] is predominantly for the person present as opposed to the absent one — with Our signs. We will indeed be with you, hearing, what you say and what is said to you (ma‘akum: the two [Moses and Aaron] are referred to here with the plural pronoun).
Verse 16
So the two of you approach Pharaoh and say, “Indeed We are — [indeed] each of the two of us is, the Messenger of the Lord of the Worlds, to you,
Verse 17
that you should let go forth with us, to Syria, the Children of Israel” ’. So they approached him and said to him that which has been mentioned.
Verse 18
He, Pharaoh, said, to Moses, ‘Did we not rear you among us, in our homes, as a child?, as an infant, only recently born but weaned, and did you not stay with us for years of your life?, for thirty years — he would dress from Pharaoh’s clothes and ride chariots of his, and was referred to as Pharaoh’s son.
Verse 19
And you committed that deed of yours — namely, his slaying of the Egyptian — being an ingrate’, a denier of my favours to you in having reared you [among us] and not enslaved you.
Verse 20
He, Moses, said, ‘I did that then, when I was astray, from the knowledge and the Message which God would later give me.
Verse 21
So I fled from you, as I was afraid of you. Then my Lord gave me judgement, knowledge, and made me one of the messengers.
Verse 22
That is a favour with which you now reproach me that you have enslaved the Children of Israel’ (an ‘abbadta banī Isrā’īl, is explicative of tilka, ‘that’) in other words, you have enslaved them but not me: there is no favour in that, for your enslavement of them is wrong (some [scholars] have reckoned there to be an interrogative hamza of denial at the beginning of this verse [a-tilka ni‘matun, ‘is that a favour?’]).
Verse 23
Pharaoh said, to Moses, ‘And what is “the Lord of the Worlds” ’, the One Whose Messenger you say you indeed are? In other words: what exactly is He? And since there is no way for creation to know the true nature of God, but only to know Him through [an articulation of] His attributes, Moses, blessings and peace be upon him, responds to him with [mention of] some of these [attributes]:
Verse 24
He said, ‘The Lord of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them, in other words, the Creator of [all] that — should you have conviction’, that He, exalted be He, is their Creator, then believe in Him alone.
Verse 25
He, Pharaoh, said to those, noblemen among his folk, who were around him, ‘Did you not hear?!’, his response, how it does not correspond to the question [I asked]?
Verse 26
He, Moses, said, ‘Your Lord and the Lord of your forefathers’. Now, even though this [fact] is comprised by what was [said] before it enrages Pharaoh, and therefore:
Verse 27
He said, ‘Verily this messenger of yours sent to you is a madman!’
Verse 28
He, Moses, said, ‘The Lord of the east and the west and all that is between them — should you comprehend,’, that He is such [a Lord] then believe in Him alone.
Verse 29
He, Pharaoh, said, to Moses: ‘If you choose any god other than me, I will surely make you a prisoner!’. His [Pharaoh’s] prison was very harsh, for a person would be shut up [in a dungeon] underground alone, where he could neither see nor hear anyone else.
Verse 30
He, Moses, said, to him: ‘What, would you do this even, if I bring you something manifest?’, patent proof of my Mission?
Verse 31
He, Pharaoh, said, to him: ‘Then bring it, if you are truthful’, in this.
Verse 32
So he threw down his staff, and lo! it was a manifest serpent, a great snake.
Verse 33
Then he drew out his hand, he brought it out of his pocket, and lo! it was white, glowing, before the onlookers, and not its usual skin colour.
Verse 34
He, Pharaoh, said to the council around him, ‘Surely this man is a cunning sorcerer, an expert in the art of magic,
Verse 35
who seeks to expel you from your land by his sorcery. So what do you advise?’
Verse 36
They said, ‘Put him and his brother off for a while, postpone [judgement of] their affair, and send musterers into the cities
Verse 37
to bring you every cunning sorcerer’, to surpass Moses in the art of magic.
Verse 38
So the sorcerers were assembled at a fixed time of a known day, which was the morning of the Festival Day.
Verse 39
And it was said to the people, ‘Will you assemble!’
Verse 40
Maybe we will follow the sorcerers, should they be the victors’ (the interrogative [of the previous verse] is an incitement to assemble and the optative sense [implicit in la‘alla] is due to their anticipation of victory, and hence their continued adherence to their religion and rejection of Moses).
Verse 41
So when the sorcerers came, they said to Pharaoh, ‘Shall we indeed (read a-inna either by pronouncing both hamzas, or by not pronouncing the second, but in both cases inserting an alif) have a reward if we were to be the victors?’
Verse 42
He said, ‘Yes [of course]! And you shall then be among those closest [to me]’.
Verse 43
Moses said to them, after they had said to him, Either you cast, or we shall be the casters [Q. 7:115]: ‘Cast what you have to cast’ — the command to do this signifies an authorisation for them to cast and a means whereby the truth will be made to prevail.
Verse 44
So they cast their ropes and their staffs, and said, ‘By the power of Pharaoh we shall surely be the victors!’
Verse 45
Thereat Moses cast his staff and lo! it was swallowing (talqafu: one of the original two tā’ letters [of taltaqifu] has been assimilated) what they had faked, [what they had] transformed through illusion, making their ropes and staffs appear to be moving serpents.
Verse 46
So the sorcerers fell down prostrating.
Verse 47
They said, ‘We believe in the Lord of the Worlds,
Verse 48
the Lord of Moses and Aaron’, for they realised that what they had witnessed in the case of the staff could not have been the result of [mere] sorcery.
Verse 49
Pharaoh said, ‘Do you believe (a-āmantum, read pronouncing both hamzas or replacing the second one with an alif) him, Moses, though I have not given you leave? He is indeed your chief, the one who has taught you sorcery — so that he only taught you some [tricks] and then surpassed you with others. Soon you will know, what I will do with you! I will assuredly cut off your hands and legs on opposite sides — in other words, the right hand of each one together with his left leg — then I shall surely crucify you all.’
Verse 50
They said, ‘There is no harm [in that], no damage will be done to us thereby. Surely to our Lord, after we die, whichever way that may be, we shall return, in the Hereafter.
Verse 51
Indeed We hope our Lord will forgive us our iniquities, for being the first to believe’, in our time.
Verse 52
And We revealed to Moses, after many years which he spent among them calling them to the truth with God’s signs but all of which only increased them in insolence, [saying], ‘Journey with My servants, the Children of Israel, by night (a variant reading [for an asri] is an isr, from the verb sarā, one form of asrā) go with them by night in the direction of the sea, for indeed you will be pursued’. Pharaoh and his armies will pursue you, but when they enter the sea in pursuit of you, I will deliver you and drown them.
Verse 53
Then Pharaoh, having been informed of their night departure, sent to the cities — it is said that he ruled a thousand cities and twelve thousand villages — musterers, to assemble the army, saying:
Verse 54
‘Lo! these are but a small gang. It is said that they [the Children of Israel] numbered 670,000, while his [Pharaoh’s] vanguard alone numbered 700,000 and so he deemed their number insignificant in comparison to his huge army.
Verse 55
And indeed they have enraged us, their actions infuriate us,
Verse 56
and indeed we are all on our guard’, ready (a variant reading [for hadhirūna] has hādhirūn, meaning ‘alert’).
Verse 57
God, exalted be He, says: So We made them, Pharaoh and his folk, go forth, out of Egypt, in order to pursue Moses and his people, from gardens, orchards on either side of the Nile, and springs, streams running from the Nile through their dwellings,
Verse 58
and treasures, visible riches of gold and silver — these [riches] are called kunūz [as opposed to amwāl, ‘riches’] because that [portion] which is [always] due to God, exalted be He, from them had not been paid — and splendid places, exquisite residences for princes and ministers surrounded by their retinues.
Verse 59
So [it was], that is, Our expulsion [of them] was as We have described, and We made the Children of Israel to inherit these, after drowning Pharaoh and his folk.
Verse 60
Then they pursued them, they caught them up, at sunrise.
Verse 61
And when the two hosts sighted each other, the companions of Moses said, ‘We have been caught!’, Pharaoh’s hosts have caught us up and we have no power against them.
Verse 62
He, Moses, said, ‘Certainly not!, they shall not catch us up; indeed I have my Lord with me, to provide assistance. He will guide me’, to the route of deliverance.
Verse 63
God, exalted be He, says: Thereupon We revealed to Moses: ‘Strike the sea with your staff’, and he struck it, whereupon it parted, it split into twelve parts, and each part was as a mighty mountain, between each of these parts were paths which they followed, such that not even the saddles or the felts of the riders were touched by water.
Verse 64
And there We brought near the others, Pharaoh and his folk, until they followed them across the same paths.
Verse 65
And We delivered Moses and all those who were with him, by bringing them out of the sea while it was in the state mentioned [above].
Verse 66
Then We drowned the others, Pharaoh and his folk by closing the sea on them after they had entered the sea and the Children of Israel had exited therefrom.
Verse 67
Surely in that, drowning of Pharaoh and his folk, there is a sign, a lesson for those [generations] who would come after them; but most of them are not believers, in God. The only ones to believe were Āsiya — Pharaoh’s wife — Hizqīl, the believing man of Pharaoh’s family, and Maryam daughter of Nāmūsī, she who pointed out the bone remains of [the prophet] Joseph, peace be upon him.
Verse 68
And surely your Lord, He is the Mighty, for He wrought vengeance upon the disbelievers by drowning them, the Merciful, to believers, delivering them from drowning.
Verse 69
And recite to them, the disbelievers of Mecca, the tiding, the tale, of Abraham (Ibrāhīma is substituted by [the following, idh qāla, ‘when he said’])
Verse 70
when he said to his father and his people, ‘What do you worship?’
Verse 71
They said, ‘We worship idols — they reiterate the verb [in the response] in order to supplement it with [the following remark] — and remain cleaving to them’, we remain worshipping them all day; they give a longer response to indicate their [misplaced] pride in such [an act].
Verse 72
He said, ‘Do they hear you when you supplicate?
Verse 73
Or do they bring you benefit, when you worship them, or harm?, to you, if you do not?
Verse 74
They said, ‘Rather, we found our fathers so doing’, that is, doing the same as we do.
Verse 75
He said, ‘Have you considered what you have been worshipping,
Verse 76
you and your ancestors?
Verse 77
They are indeed hateful to me, I do not worship them; but the Lord of the Worlds, I do worship Him,
Verse 78
[He] Who created me, it is He Who guides me, to [the proper] religion,
Verse 79
and provides me with food and drink,
Verse 80
and when I am sick, it is He Who cures me;
Verse 81
and Who will make me die, then give me life,
Verse 82
and Who, I hope, will forgive me my iniquity on the Day of Judgement, [the Day] of Requital.
Verse 83
My Lord! Grant me [unerring] judgement, knowledge, and unite me with the righteous, the prophets.
Verse 84
And confer on me a worthy repute, excellent praise, among posterity, those who will come after me up to the Day of Resurrection.
Verse 85
And make me among the inheritors of the Garden of Bliss, among those who will be given it.
Verse 86
And forgive my father, for indeed he is one of those who are astray, by Your relenting to him and forgiving him: this was before it became clear to him [Abraham] that he [his father] was an enemy of God, as mentioned in sūrat Barā’a [Q. 9:114].
Verse 87
And do not disgrace me, do not expose me, on the day when they, mankind, are resurrected;
Verse 88
of which [day] God, exalted be He, says [the following]: the day when neither wealth nor children will avail, anyone,
Verse 89
except him who comes to God with a heart that is sound, [free] from idolatry and hypocrisy — and this is the heart of the believer, whom such [things] will avail.
Verse 90
And Paradise will be brought near for the God-fearing, and they will [be able to] see it,
Verse 91
and Hell will be revealed [plainly] for the perverse, the disbelievers.
Verse 92
And it will be said to them, ‘Where is that which you used to worship
Verse 93
besides God?, that is, other than Him, in the way of idols. Do they help you, by averting from you the chastisement, or do they help one another?’, by averting it from themselves? No [neither]!
Verse 94
Then they will be hurled, cast, into it, they and the perverse,
Verse 95
and the hosts of Iblīs, his followers and those jinn and humans who were obedient to him, all together.
Verse 96
They, the perverse, shall say, as they wrangle therein, with those whom they used to worship:
Verse 97
‘By God, we had indeed (in, softened in place of the hardened form, with its subject omitted, in other words [it would usually be] innahu) been in manifest error,
Verse 98
when we equated you, in worship, with the Lord of the Worlds.
Verse 99
And it was none other than the sinners, the devils or our predecessors, whose example we were following, that led us astray, from guidance.
Verse 100
So [now] we have no intercessors, as the believers have, in the way of angels, prophets and [other] believers,
Verse 101
nor any sympathetic friend, who might be concerned for us.
Verse 102
If only we had another turn, [another] return to this world, we would have been among those who believe!’ (law, ‘if only’, here is for [the conditional] optative, to which nakūna, ‘we would have been’, constitutes the response).
Verse 103
Surely in that, which is mentioned of the tale of Abraham and his people, there is a sign; but most of them are not believers.
Verse 104
And truly your Lord, He is the Mighty, the Merciful.
Verse 105
The people of Noah denied the messengers, by denying him, for they all brought the same message affirming God’s Oneness; or [it is] because he stayed among them for so long that it was as though he was many messengers (the feminine [person of the verb kadhdhabat, ‘denied’, governed by] qawm, ‘the people’, is on account of the import, but it is masculine on account of its [morphological] form);
Verse 106
when Noah, their brother — [their brother only] in terms of lineage — said to them, ‘Will you not fear?, God?
Verse 107
Truly I am a trusted messenger [sent] to you, to deliver the Message with which I have been sent.
Verse 108
So fear God and obey me, in what I enjoin you to of God’s Oneness and obedience to Him.
Verse 109
I do not ask of you any reward for it, for delivering it; for my reward lies only with the Lord of the Worlds.
Verse 110
So fear God and obey me’ — he repeats this [statement] for emphasis.