Verse 1
Alif Lām Mīm: God knows best what He means by these [letters].
Verse 2
God! There is no god except Him, the Living, the Eternal.
Verse 3
He has revealed to you, O Muhammad (s), the Book, the Qur’ān, enveloped, by the truth, with veracity, in what it announces, confirming what was before it, of Books; and He revealed the Torah and the Gospel
Verse 4
before, that is to say, before revealing it [the Qur’ān], as guidance (hudan, a circumstantial qualifier meaning, hādiyīn, ‘guides from error’) to people, to those who followed these two [Books] (He uses the word anzala for the revelation of these two, and nazzala for that of the Qur’ān, for the latter entails repetition, whereas the two Books were revealed in one instance); and He revealed the Criterion (al-furqān), meaning the Scriptures that discriminate between truth and falsehood. He mentions this [Criterion] after He has mentioned the three Scriptures so that it encompasses all [revealed Scriptures] besides these. As for those who disbelieve in God’s signs, the Qur’ān or any other [revelation], for them awaits a terrible chastisement; God is Mighty, victorious in His affair, so that nothing can prevent Him from effecting His promise and His threat; Lord of Retribution, with a severe punishment for those that disobeyed Him, the like of which none can do.
Verse 5
Nothing, no existent thing, whatever is hidden in heaven and earth from God, on account of His knowledge of universals and particulars. God specifies them [heaven and earth] because sensory perception does not go beyond these.
Verse 6
He it is Who forms you in the wombs as He will, as males or females, white, black or otherwise. There is no god except Him, the Mighty, in His Kingdom, the Wise, in His actions.
Verse 7
He it is Who revealed to you the Book, wherein are verses [that are] clear, lucid in proof, forming the Mother Book, the original basis for rulings, and others allegorical, whose meanings are not known, such as the opening verses of some sūras. He [God] refers to the whole [Qur’ān] as: 1) ‘clear’ [muhkam] where He says [A Book] whose verses have been made clear [Q. 11:1], meaning that it contains no imperfections; and as 2) ‘allegorical’ [mutashābih], where He says A Book consimilar [Q. 39:23], meaning that its parts resemble each other in terms of beauty and veracity. As for those in whose hearts is deviation, inclination away from truth, they follow the allegorical part, desiring sedition, among the ignorant of them, throwing them into specious arguments and confusion, and desiring its interpretation, its explanation, and none knows its interpretation, its explanation, save God, Him alone. And those firmly rooted, established and capable, in knowledge (al-rāsikhūna fī’l-‘ilm is the subject, the predicate of which is [what follows]) say, ‘We believe in it, the allegorical part, that it is from God, and we do not know its meaning; all, of the clear and the allegorical, is from our Lord’; yet none remembers (yadhdhakkar, the initial tā’ [of yatadhakkar] has been assimilated with the dhāl), that is, none is admonished, but people of pith, possessors of intellect, who, when they see those following that [allegorical part only], also say:
Verse 8
Our Lord, do not cause our hearts to deviate, do not cause them to incline away from the truth, in [their] desire to interpret it, such as is inappropriate for us — as You caused the hearts of those [others] to deviate — after You have guided us, [after] You have shown us the way to it; and give us mercy from You, as a strengthening; You are the Bestower.
Verse 9
Our Lord, You shall gather mankind for a day, that is, on a day, of which there is no doubt, no uncertainty, that is, the Day of Resurrection, when You will requite them for their deeds as You had promised; verily God will not fail the tryst, His promise of the Upraising: there is a shift of address here from the second [to the third] person and these [last words] could constitute God’s speech. The purpose of their supplication in this way is to show that their concern is with the matter of the Hereafter, and for this reason they ask [God] for adherence to the path of guidance, in order to attain its reward. The two Shaykhs [Bukhārī and Muslim] reported that ‘Ā’isha, may God be pleased with her, said, ‘The Messenger of God (s) recited this verse: It is He Who revealed to you the Book, wherein are verses clear [to the end of] the verse, and said, “When you see those pursuing the allegorical parts, [know that] these are the ones God refers to [in this verse], so beware of them” ’. Al-Tabarānī reported in his al-Kabīr that Abū Mūsā al-Ash‘arī heard the Prophet (s) say, ‘I fear nothing for my community except three faults’, and he mentioned that one of these would be when the Book is opened in front of them, and the believer will desire to interpret it, and yet none knows its interpretation, save God; and those firmly rooted in knowledge say, ‘We believe in it, all is from our Lord; yet none remembers but people of pith’ [Q. 3:7] [end of the] hadīth.
Verse 10
As for the disbelievers, neither their riches nor their children will avail, will protect, them against God, that is, [against] His chastisement; those — they shall be fuel for the Fire, [they shall constitute] what the Fire will be fuelled by (read waqūd [as opposed to wuqūd], ‘fuel’).
Verse 11
Their way is, as the way, as the habit, of Pharaoh’s folk, and the, communities of people before them, such as ‘Ād and Thamūd, who denied Our signs; God seized them, He destroyed them, for their sins (this statement explains the previous one); God is severe in retribution.
Verse 12
When the Prophet (s) enjoined the Jews to enter into Islam, after his return from Badr, they said, ‘Do not fool yourself just because you killed a few men of Quraysh, inexperienced and knowing nothing about fighting’, whereupon the following was revealed: Say, O Muhammad (s), to the disbelievers, from among the Jews, ‘You shall be vanquished (sa-tughlabūn, or [read] sa-yughlabūn, ‘they shall be vanquished’), in this world, through being killed or taken captive and made to pay the jizya (which actually took place), and mustered, ([read] in both ways [wa-tuhsharūna, ‘you will be mustered’, or wa-yuhsharūna, ‘they will be mustered’]), in the Hereafter, to Hell, which you shall enter — an evil cradling!’, [an evil] resting place.
Verse 13
There has already been a sign, an example (the verb qad kāna, ‘there has been’, is used to separate [the statement to follow from the previous one]), for you in two hosts, two parties, that met, one another in battle, on the day of Badr; one company fighting in the way of God, in obedience to Him, namely, the Prophet and his Companions, who numbered three hundred and thirteen men, most of them on foot, with two horses, six plates of armour and eight swords; and another unbelieving; they, the disbelievers, numbering almost a thousand, saw them, the Muslims, twice the like of them, that is, more numerous than themselves, as the eye sees, in manifest vision, witnessing; and God granted them victory despite their fewer number; for God confirms, He strengthens, with His help whom He will, granting him victory. Surely in that, which is mentioned, is a lesson for people of vision, those who are discerning: so will you not be warned by this and become believers?
Verse 14
Beautified for mankind is love of lusts, that which the self lusts after and calls for, beautified by Satan, or by God as a test — of women, children, stored-up heaps of gold and silver, horses of mark, fine [horses], cattle, namely, camels, cows and sheep, and tillage, the cultivation of land. That, which is mentioned, is the comfort of the life of this world, enjoyed while it lasts, but then perishes; but God — with Him is the more excellent abode, place of return, which is Paradise, and for this reason one should desire none other than this [abode].
Verse 15
Say, O Muhammad (s) to your people, ‘Shall I tell you, shall I inform you, of something better than that?, [that] which has been mentioned of lusts (this interrogative is meant as an affirmative). For those that are fearful, of idolatry, with their Lord (‘inda rabbihim is the predicate, the subject being [the following jannātun…]’) are Gardens underneath which rivers flow, abiding therein, decreed for them [therein] is eternal life, when they enter it, and spouses purified, of menstruation and other impurities, and beatitude (read ridwān or rudwān, meaning ‘much pleasure’) from God; and God is Seer, knower, of His servants, requiting each of them according to his deeds.
Verse 16
Those (alladhīna is either an adjectival qualification of, or a substitution for, the previous alladhīna) who say: “O, Our Lord, we believe, in You and in Your Prophet; so forgive us our sins, and guard us from the chastisement of the Fire”.
Verse 17
The patient, in obedience and against disobedience (al-sābirīna, ‘the patient’, is an adjectival qualification [of alladhīna, ‘those’]), truthful, in their faith, obedient, compliant before God, expenders, of charity, imploring God’s pardon, by saying, ‘Lord, forgive us’ at daybreak’, in the last part of the night, singled out here for mention because it is the time of unawareness and of the joy of sleep.
Verse 18
God bears witness, [that is to say] He has made it clear to His creation through proofs and signs, that there is no god, none that is truly worshipped in existence, except Him, He has borne witness to this, and the angels, [have also borne witness to this] by affirming it, and those of knowledge, from among the prophets and the believers, through [their] conviction and in words; upholding, constantly and uniquely maintaining His creations with justice, (qā’iman, ‘upholding’, is in the accusative because it is a circumstantial qualifier and is governed by the import of the statement [implied to be something like] tafarrada, ‘He alone is [upholding]…’); there is no god except Him (He has repeated it for emphasis); the Mighty, in His Kingdom, the Wise, in His actions.
Verse 19
Lo!, the religion with God, pleasing [to Him], is submission [to the One God], (al-islām), that is to say, the Divine Law with which the messengers were sent, founded upon the affirmation of God’s Oneness (a variant reading [for inna, ‘lo!’] has anna, ‘that’, as an inclusive substitution for annahu to the end [of that verse, sc. shahida Llāhu … anna l-dīna ‘inda Llāhi l-islām, ‘God bears witness that religion with God is Islām]). Those who were given the Scripture, the Jews and the Christians, differed, in religion, some affirming God’s Oneness, others rejecting it, only after the knowledge, of Oneness, came to them through transgression, on the part of the disbelievers, among themselves. And whoever disbelieves in God’s signs, God is swift at reckoning, that is, at requiting him.
Verse 20
So if they, the disbelievers, dispute with you, O Muhammad (s), concerning religion, say, to them: ‘I have surrendered my countenance to God, [that is to say] I have submitted to Him, I, and whoever follows me’ (wajh, ‘countenance’, is chosen here because of its noble character, for the other [parts of the body] will just as soon [surrender once the countenance has]); and say to those who have been given the Scripture, the Jews and the Christians, and to the uninstructed, the Arab idolaters: ‘Have you submitted?’, that is to say, ‘Submit!’ And so if they have submitted, they have been guided, from error, but if they turn their backs, to Islam, your duty is only to deliver, the Message; and God sees His servants, and so requites them for their deeds — this [statement] was [revealed] before the command to fight [them] had been revealed.
Verse 21
Those who disbelieve in the signs of God and slay (yaqtulūna, is also read as yuqātilūna, ‘they fight against’) the prophets without right, and slay those who enjoin to equity, to justice, and these are the Jews, who are reported to have killed forty–three prophets and to have been forbidden this by a hundred and seventy devout worshippers among them, each of whom was killed immediately. So give them good tidings, let them know, of a painful chastisement. The use of ‘good tidings’ here is meant as a sarcastic ridicule of them (the fā’ [of fa-bashshirhum, so give them good tidings] is considered part of the predicate of inna because its noun, that is, its relative clause, resembles a conditional [sc. in yakfurūna, ‘if they disbelieve…’, fa-bashshirhum, ‘then, give them good tidings…’]).
Verse 22
Those are the ones whose works, what good they did in the way of charity and kindness to kin, have failed, [whose works] are invalid, in this world and the Hereafter, and so they have nothing to reckon with, since these [works] are of no consequence; they have no helpers, [no] protectors from the chastisement.
Verse 23
Have you not seen those who were given a portion, a share, of the Book, the Torah, being called to the Book of God (yud‘awna, ‘being called’, is a circumstantial qualifier), that it might decide between them, and then a party of them turned away, opposed? to the acceptance of its rulings. This was revealed concerning the Jews: two of them fornicated and they [the Jews] asked the Prophet (s) to adjudicate the case. He ruled that they be stoned, but they [the Jews] refused to do so. When the Torah was brought and consulted, the same verdict was found, and so the two were stoned, but they [the Jews] became wrathful.
Verse 24
That, turning away and rejection was, because they said, ‘the Fire shall not touch us, except for a number of days’, that is, for forty days [only], the length of time their forefathers worshipped the calf, after which it would end; and the lies they used to invent, in their saying this, have deluded them in their religion (wa-gharrahum fī dīnihim, ‘it has deluded them in their religion’, is semantically connected to mā kānū yaftarūna, ‘the lies which they used to invent’).
Verse 25
But how will it be, their predicament, when We gather them for a day, that is to say, on a day, of which there is no doubt, no uncertainty, that is, the Day of Resurrection; and every soul, from among the People of the Scripture and others, shall be paid in full, the requital of, what is has earned, [what] it has done of good or evil, and they, that is, people, shall not be wronged?, in that no good deed shall be diminished, and no evil deed shall be increased.
Verse 26
When the Prophet (s) promised his community sovereignty over the lands of Persia and Byzantium, the hypocrites said, ‘How preposterous!’, and so the following was revealed, Say: ‘O God, Master of the Kingdom, you give the Kingdom to whom You will, from among your creatures, and seize the Kingdom from whom You will; You exalt whom You will, by giving it [the kingdom] to him, and You abase whom You will, by seizing it from him; in Your hand, in Your power, is good, that is, as well as evil. You are Able to do all things.
Verse 27
You make the night to pass, to enter, into the day and You make the day to pass, to enter, into the night, each of them increasing by the amount by which the other decreases; You bring forth the living from the dead, such as humans and birds, from sperm-drops and eggs [respectively]; and You bring forth the dead, the sperm-drop and the egg, from the living, and You provide, with abundant provision, whom You will without reckoning’.
Verse 28
Let not the believers take the disbelievers as patrons, rather than, that is, instead of, the believers — for whoever does that, that is, [whoever] takes them as patrons, does not belong to, the religion of, God in anyway — unless you protect yourselves against them, as a safeguard (tuqātan, ‘as a safeguard’, is the verbal noun from taqiyyatan), that is to say, [unless] you fear something, in which case you may show patronage to them through words, but not in your hearts: this was before the hegemony of Islam and [the dispensation] applies to any individual residing in a land with no say in it. God warns you, He instills fear in you, of His Self, [warning] that He may be wrathful with you if you take them as patrons; and to God is the journey’s end, the return, and He will requite you.
Verse 29
Say, to them: ‘Whether you hide what is in your breasts, in your hearts, of patronage to them, or disclose it, manifest it, God knows it and, He, knows what is in the heavens and what is in the earth; and God is Able to do all things, and this includes punishing those who patronise them.
Verse 30
And remember, the day every soul shall find what it has done of good present before it, and what it has done of evil (the [last statement constitutes the] subject, the predicate of which is [what follows]), it will wish that between it and that there were a great distance, an extremely lengthy distance so that it [the evil] could never reach it. God warns you of His Self (this is repeated for emphasis), and God is Kind to His servants.
Verse 31
When they said, ‘We only worship idols out of our love for God, that they might bring us close to Him’, the following was revealed: Say, O Muhammad (s), ‘If you love God, follow me, and God will love you, meaning that He will reward you, and forgive you your sins; God is Forgiving, as regards the sins, committed previously, by one who [now] follows me; Merciful, to him.
Verse 32
Say, to them: ‘Obey God, and the Messenger’, as regards the [belief in the] Oneness of God which he enjoins upon you. But if they turn their backs, [if they] object to obedience, God loves not the disbelievers, meaning that He will chastise them (the [third person] pronominalisation [‘they’] is replaced by the overt noun [‘the disbelievers’]).
Verse 33
Lo! God preferred, He has chosen, Adam and Noah and the House of Abraham and the House of ‘Imrān, meaning [He preferred] their selves [sc. Abraham and ‘Imrān], above the worlds, by making prophethood reside in [them and] their progeny:
Verse 34
the seed of one, offspring from, another, of them; God is Hearer, Knower.
Verse 35
Mention, when the wife of ‘Imrān, Hanna, said, after she had reached old age and longed for a child, and supplicated to God and sensed that she was carrying child, ‘O, Lord, I have vowed to, offer, You what is within my womb as a consecration, [one] liberated and delivered from the distractions of this world for the service of Your Holy House [in Jerusalem]. Accept this from me. Lo! It is You Who are the Hearer, of petition, the Knower, of intentions. ‘Imrān died while she was still pregnant.
Verse 36
And when she gave birth to her, a girl, and she had been hoping for a boy, since only males were consecrated to the service of God, she said, apologetically, ‘O, Lord, I have given birth to a female’ — and God knew very well what she had given birth to: a parenthetical statement constituting God’s speech (a variant reading [for wada‘at, ‘she gave birth’, has wada‘tu, ‘I gave birth’ [making these Hanna’s words, sc. ‘and God knows very well what I have given birth to’]); the male, that she had asked for, is not as the female, that was bestowed upon her, because he is designed for the service [of God], while she would not be suitable on account of her lesser physical ability, her private parts, the effects of menstruation on her, and so on. ‘And I have named her Mary, and commend her to You with her seed, her children, to protect them from the accursed, the outcast, Satan’. In a hadīth [it is stated]: ‘Every new-born is touched by Satan and begins [life] by crying, except for Mary and her son’, as reported by the two Shaykhs [Bukhārī and Muslim].
Verse 37
Her Lord accepted the child, that is, He received Mary from her mother, with gracious acceptance, and made her grow excellently, He made her grow up with excellent character. She would grow in a day by as much as a new-born grew during a year. Her mother took her to the priests, the keepers of the Holy House [of Jerusalem] and said: ‘This here before you is the dedication [I offered]’. They competed for [guardianship of] her, because she was the daughter of their religious leader, at which point Zachariah said, ‘I am most worthy of her, for, her maternal aunt lives with me’. The others said, ‘No, [not until] we have cast lots’. Thus, all twenty nine of them departed to the River Jordan, where they cast their quills, agreeing that the one whose quill remained fast and floated to the surface of the water would be most worthy of [being guardian over] her. Zachariah’s quill remained fast [and surfaced]. He took [charge of] her and built for her a gallery-room with a ladder in the temple, and none apart from him went up to her. He used to bring her food, drink and oil, and would find her with summer fruits in winter, and winter fruits in summer, just as God says, and Zachariah took charge of her, he took her to him (a variant reading [of kafalahā, ‘he took charge of her’] is kaffalahā, ‘He [God] gave Zachariah charge of her’, with Zakariyyā’, or Zakariyyā, in the accusative and ‘God’ as the subject of the verb). Whenever Zachariah went into the sanctuary, that is, the room, the most noble seat [in the temple], where she was, he found her with provisions. ‘O Mary,’ he said, ‘Whence comes this to you?’ She, still very young, said, ‘From God, He sends it to me from Paradise,’ ‘Truly God provides, abundant provision, for whomever He will without reckoning’, without consequence.
Verse 38
Then, when Zachariah had seen this and realised that the One with power to bring something about in other than its [natural] time, is able to bring about a child in old age, and with those of his family line all deceased, Zachariah prayed to his Lord, when he entered the sanctuary to pray in the middle of the night, saying, ‘Lord, bestow upon me from You a goodly offspring, a righteous son, verily, You are the Hearer of, [You are] the One Who answers, supplication’.
Verse 39
And the angels, namely, Gabriel, called to him, standing in the sanctuary, in the temple, at worship that (anna, means bi-anna; a variant reading has inna, implying a direct speech statement) ‘God gives you good tidings (read yubashshiruka, or yubshiruka) of John, who shall confirm a Word, being, from God, namely, Jesus, that he is God’s Spirit; he is referred to as [God’s] ‘Word’, because he was created through the word kun, ‘Be’; a lord, with a following, and one chaste, forbidden from women, and a prophet of the righteous’: it is said that he never sinned and never so intended.
Verse 40
He said, ‘My Lord! How shall I have a boy, a son, when old age has overtaken me, that is, [after] I have reached extreme [old] age, 120 years [old]; and my wife is barren?’, having reached the age of 98. He said, ‘So it, the matter, will be’, with God creating a boy from both of you. ‘God does what He will’, nothing can prevent Him therefrom, and in order to manifest this great power he was inspired with the question so that he would be answered through it [this great power]. And when his soul longed for the swift fulfilment of that of which good tidings had been given:
Verse 41
He said, ‘My Lord! Appoint for me a sign’, that is, an indication of my wife’s pregnancy. He said, ‘Your sign, for this, is that you shall not speak to men, that is, you shall refrain from speaking to them, but not from remembrance of God, save by tokens, gestures, for three days, and nights. And remember your Lord often, and glorify, perform prayer, at evening and dawn’, at the end of the day and at its beginning.
Verse 42
And, mention, when the angels, namely, Gabriel, said, ‘O Mary, God has preferred you, He has elected you, and made you pure, of the touch of men; He has preferred you above all women of the worlds, that is, the inhabitants of your time.
Verse 43
O Mary, be obedient to your Lord, be compliant before Him, prostrating and bowing with those who bow’, that is, pray with those who pray.
Verse 44
That, which has been mentioned of the matter of Zachariah and Mary, is of the tidings of the Unseen, of the news of what was unknown to you. We reveal it to you, O Muhammad (s), for you were not with them, when they were casting quills, in the water, drawing their lots so that it be manifested to them, which of them should have charge of, [which of them should] bring up, Mary; nor were you with them, when they were disputing, about the custodianship of Mary, such that you might have known it and related it; but truly you know it only through revelation.
Verse 45
Mention, when the angels, namely, Gabriel, said, ‘O Mary, God gives you good tidings of a Word from Him, that is, a boy, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, He addresses her attributing him to her in order to point out that she will give birth to him without a father, for, the custom is to attribute the child to its father, honoured shall he be in this world, through prophethood, and the Hereafter, through [his] intercession and the high stations [al-darajāt al-‘ulā, cf. Q. 20:75], and of those brought close, to God.
Verse 46
He shall speak to mankind in the cradle, that is to say, as a child before the age of speech, and in his manhood, and he is of the righteous’.
Verse 47
She said, ‘Lord, how shall I have a child when no mortal has touched me?’, neither through conjugality or otherwise; He said, the command, ‘It is such, that God will create from you a child without a father. God creates what He will. When He decrees a thing, willing its creation, He says to it only: “Be”, and it is, that is, [and] ‘he is’.
Verse 48
And We will teach him (read nu‘allimuhu, or, yu‘allimuhu, ‘He will teach him’) the Book, that is, script, wisdom, and the Torah, and the Gospel.
Verse 49
And He will make him, to be a messenger to the Children of Israel, during his tender years, or after puberty. Gabriel breathed into the opening of her garment and she became pregnant. What happened to her after this is mentioned later in sūrat Maryam [Q. 19:21ff]. Thus, when God sent him to the Children of Israel, he said to them, ‘I am God’s Messenger to you’, and, ‘I have come to you with a sign, an indication of my truthfulness, from your Lord, and it is that, I will create (a variant reading for [the particle introducing the relative clause] annī, ‘that I’, has innī, ‘truly I’, indicating a new [independent] sentence) [that] I will fashion, for you out of clay like the shape of a bird (ka-hay’at, ‘something like the shape of’: the kāf is the subject of a passive participle) then I will breathe into it (fīhi, the [suffixed] pronoun [-hi] refers to the [preceding] kāf), and it will be a bird (tayran, is also read tā’iran) by the leave, the will, of God. So he created for them a bat, being the most perfectly-created of birds, and they would watch it flying, but when it went out of sight, it would fall dead — so that the work of a creature [sc. Jesus] may be distinguished from the work of the Creator, namely, God, exalted be He, and that he might know that perfection belongs to God [alone]. I will also heal the blind (akmah is one that is blind from birth) and the leper; these two are singled out for mention because with both afflictions the person is completely helpless. He [Jesus] was sent in an age of [characterised by] medicinal science, and he cured, through supplication, fifty thousand in one day on the condition that each person would become a believer; and I bring to life the dead, by the leave of God — He repeats this to preclude any false attributions of divinity to him — he brought back to life his friend ‘Āzar, the son of an old woman, and the daughter of the tithe-collector, all of whom lived on and produced offspring, and [he also brought back to life] Shem, son of Noah, but he died [again] immediately. I will inform you too of what things you eat, and what you treasure up, store, in your houses, and what I have never seen, and he would inform people what they had eaten and what they would eat. Surely in that, mentioned, is a sign for you, if you are believers.
Verse 50
Likewise, I have come to you, confirming that which was before me of the Torah, and to make lawful for you some of that which was forbidden to you, in it. Thus he made lawful for them fish and birds which had no spikes; it is also said that he made it all lawful for them, so that ba‘d, ‘some’, means, kull, ‘all’). I have come to you with a sign from your Lord, He has repeated it for emphasis and to expand upon it: so fear God, and obey me, in what I command you of affirming God’s Oneness and being obedient to Him.
Verse 51
Surely God is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him. This, that which I enjoin upon you, is a straight path’. But they rejected him and did not believe in him.
Verse 52
And when Jesus sensed, [when] he became aware of, their disbelief, and they plotted to kill him, he said, ‘Who will be my helpers, departing, unto God?’, to help His religion; The disciples said, ‘We will be helpers of God, those who assist His religion: they were Jesus’s intimates and the first to believe in him. [They were] twelve men who were of pure white complexion (hawar); but some say that they [were called hawāriyyūn because they] were bleachers of clothes (qassārūn); we believe in, we accept the truth of, God; witness, O Jesus, that we have submitted.
Verse 53
Lord, we believe in what You have revealed, of the Gospel, and we follow the Messenger, Jesus; inscribe us therefore with those who bear witness’, to Your Oneness and to the truthfulness of Your Messenger.
Verse 54
God says: And they, the disbelievers among the Children of Israel, schemed, against Jesus, by assigning someone to assassinate him; and God schemed, by casting the likeness of Jesus onto the person who intended to kill him, and so they killed him, while Jesus was raised up into heaven; and God is the best of schemers, most knowledgeable of him [Jesus].
Verse 55
And mention, when God said, ‘O Jesus, I am gathering you, seizing you, and raising you to Me, away from the world without death, and I am cleansing you of, removing you far away from, those who disbelieved, and I am setting those who follow you, those Christians and Muslims who believed in your prophethood, above those who disbelieved, in you, namely, the Jews, becoming above them through [definitive] argument and the sword, until the Day of Resurrection. Then to Me shall be your return, and I will decide between you, as to what you were at variance about, as regards religion.
Verse 56
As for the disbelievers, I will chastise them with a terrible chastisement in this world, through being killed, taken captive and made to pay the jizya, and the Hereafter, in the Fire; they shall have no helpers, none to protect them from it.
Verse 57
But as for the believers, who do righteous deeds, He will pay them in full (yuwaffīhim, is also read nuwaffīhim, ‘We will pay them in full’) their wages. God loves not the evildoers, that is, He will chastise them. It is reported that God, exalted be He, sent him [Jesus] a cloud which raised him up, but his mother clutched to him in tears. He then said to her, ‘Verily, the Resurrection shall bring us together again’. This took place on the Night of Ordainment (laylat al-qadr) in the Holy House [of Jerusalem], when he was thirty three years old. His mother lived on after him for six years. The two Shaykhs [Bukhārī and Muslim] narrate a hadīth [in which it is stated] that he [Jesus] will descend when the Hour is nigh and will rule according to the Law of our Prophet [Muhammad], and that he will slay the false messiah and the swine, break the cross and impose the jizya. In a hadīth recorded by Muslim, he will remain for seven years; according to Abū Dāwūd al-Tayālisī, [he will remain for] forty years, and he will die and have prayers performed over him. It is possible that what is meant [by the forty years] is the total time he will have spent on earth, before he was raised and afterwards.
Verse 58
This, what is mentioned of the matter of Jesus, We recite to you, narrate to you, O Muhammad (s), of verses and wise, clear, remembrance, namely, the Qur’ān (min al-āyāt, ‘of verses’ is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the [suffixed pronoun] hā’ of natlūhu, and its operator is the demonstrative import of dhālika, ‘this’).
Verse 59
Truly, the likeness of Jesus, his remarkable case, in God’s sight, is as Adam’s likeness, as the case of Adam, whom God created without father or mother: this is a comparison of one remarkable thing with another more remarkable, so that it convinces the disputer and establishes itself in one’s mind more effectively. He created him, Adam, that is, his form, of dust, then said He to him, ‘Be,’, a human being, and he was; similarly, He said to Jesus, ‘Be’ — without a father — and he was.
Verse 60
The truth is from your Lord (al-haqqu min rabbik, the predicate of a missing subject, which is [implied to be] amr ‘Īsā [‘the matter concerning Jesus’]); be not of those who waver, those who are uncertain about it.
Verse 61
And whoever, from among the Christians, disputes with you concerning him, after the knowledge, of his affair, that has come to you, say, to them: ‘Come! Let us call our sons and your sons, our wives and your wives, our selves and your selves, and gather them together, then let us humbly pray and invoke God’s curse upon those who lie’, by saying: ‘Lord, curse the one that tells lies concerning the affair of Jesus’. The Prophet (s) had called upon the Najrān delegation to do this when they disputed with him about Jesus. They said, ‘Let us think about it and we will come back to you’. The judicious one among them said, ‘You know that he is a prophet, and that every people that has ever challenged a prophet to a mutual imprecation has been destroyed’. They left him and departed. When they went to see the Prophet (s), who had set out with al-Hasan, al-Husayn, Fātima and ‘Alī, he said to them [the Najrān delegation], ‘When I supplicate, you say ‘Amen’; but they refrained from this mutual imprecation and made peace with the Prophet on the condition that they pay the jizya, as reported by Abū Nu‘aym. According to Ibn ‘Abbās [the Prophet] said, ‘Had they set out and performed the mutual cursing, they would have gone home and found neither possessions nor family’. It is also reported that had they set out with this intention, they would have been consumed by fire.
Verse 62
This, mentioned above, is the true story, the report free of any doubt. There is no god but God, and assuredly God is Mighty, in His Kingdom, Wise, in His actions.
Verse 63
And if they turn their backs, rejecting faith, assuredly God knows the agents of corruption, and will requite them (here the [third person] pronominalisation has been replaced with the overt noun [al-mufsidūn, ‘the agents of corruption’]).
Verse 64
Say: ‘O People of the Scripture!, Jews and Christians, come now to a word agreed upon (sawā’, is the verbal noun, meaning mustawin amruhā, ‘[a word] regarding which the matter is upright’) between us and you, and it is, that we worship none but God (allā is [made up of] an-lā, ‘that…not’) and that we do not associate anything with Him, and do not take each other for lords, beside God’, as you have taken rabbis and monks; and if they turn their backs, in rejection of God’s Oneness, say, you to them: ‘Bear witness that we have submitted’, [that we are of] those who affirm the Oneness of God.
Verse 65
When the Jews claimed that Abraham was Jewish and that they were following his religion, and the Christians made a similar claim, the following was revealed: O People of the Scripture! Why do you argue about, dispute over, Abraham?, claiming that he belonged to one of your [two] religions, when the Torah was not revealed, neither the Gospel, but, a very long time, after him, and it was only after these two were revealed that Jewry and Christianity came into being. What, do you not comprehend?, the falsehood of what you say?
Verse 66
Lo! (hā, ‘lo’, is for calling attention to something), You (antum, ‘you’, is the subject) are those (the predicate is [what follows]) who dispute about what you know, concerning the affair of Moses and Jesus, and your claim to be adhering to their religions: why do you then dispute concerning that of which you have no knowledge?, of Abraham’s circumstances; and God knows, his circumstances, and you know not.
Verse 67
God, in order to dissociate Abraham [from their claims], said: No; Abraham in truth was not a Jew, neither a Christian, but he was a Muslim, professing the Oneness of God, and a hanīf, who inclined away from all other religions towards the upright one; and he was never of the idolaters.
Verse 68
Surely the people with the best claim, most worthy of, Abraham are those who followed him, during his time, and this Prophet, Muhammad (s) on account of his according with him as regards most [of the rulings] of his Law, and those who believe, from among his community, they are the ones that ought to say, ‘We follow his religion’, and not you; and God is the Protector of the believers, their Helper and Preserver.
Verse 69
When the Jews called Mu‘ādh [b. Jabal], Hudhayfa [b. al-Yamān] and ‘Ammār [b. Yāsir] to [join] their religion, the following was revealed: There is a party of the People of the Scripture who yearn to make you go astray; yet they cause none to stray, except themselves, because the sin for their leading [others] astray falls upon them, while the believers do not heed them in this; but they are not aware, of this.
Verse 70
O People of the Scripture! Why do you disbelieve in God’s verses, the Qur’ān, that includes all the descriptions of Muhammad (s), when you yourselves bear witness?, [when] you know that it is the truth.
Verse 71
O People of the Scripture! Why do you confound, [why do] you mix, truth with falsehood, by distorting and falsifying [scripture], and conceal the truth, the descriptions of the Prophet, while you know?, that it is the truth?
Verse 72
A party of the People of the Scripture, the Jews, say, to some among them, ‘Believe in what has been revealed to those who believe, that is, the Qur’ān, at the beginning of the day, and disbelieve, in it, at the end of it, so that they, the believers, might then turn back, from his [Muhammad’s] religion, and that they [the believers] will then say: these [Jews] are knowledgeable and they could only have turned away from it after accepting it because they know it to be false.
Verse 73
And they also said: And do not believe except in one who (the lām of li-man, ‘in one who’, is extra) follows, accords with, your religion’. God, exalted be He, says, Say, to them, O Muhammad (s): ‘True guidance is God’s guidance, that is Islam, everything else being error (this statement is parenthetical) — that (an [and what follows] is the direct object of the verb wa-lā tu’minū, ‘do not believe’) anyone should be given the like of what you have been given, of the Book, wisdom, and of the virtues (the term ahad, ‘anyone’, from whom the exclusion is being made, precedes that which is being excluded, ‘the like of what you have been given’, the meaning being: ‘Do not affirm that anyone should be given this unless they follow your religion’); or that they, the believers, should dispute with you, [that they should] prevail over you, before your Lord’, on the Day of Resurrection, for you have the sounder religion (a variant reading has a-an, ‘such that’, the extra hamza denoting rebuke) in other words, [the Jews say do not believe] that another has been given the like of it, such that you might affirm it. God, exalted be He, says, Say: ‘Surely bounty is in God’s Hand; He gives it to whomever He will, so how can you say that no one else will be given what you have been given? God is Embracing, of ample bounty, Knowing, those who deserve it.
Verse 74
He singles out for His mercy whom He will; God is of bounty abounding’.
Verse 75
And of the People of the Scripture is he who, if you trust him with a hundredweight, that is, with much money, he will return it to you, on account of his trustworthiness, the like of ‘Abd Allāh b. Salām to whom a man entrusted 1200 plates of gold, which he then returned to him; and of them is he who, if you trust him with one dinar, will not return it to you, on account of his treachery; unless you keep standing over him, not leaving him for one minute, for as soon as you leave him, he will deny it, as was the case with Ka‘b b. al-Ashraf, to whom a man from Quraysh entrusted a dinar and later denied it. That, refusal to return things, is because they say, ‘We have no duty towards, namely, [no possibility of acquiring] sin because of, the Gentiles’, the Arabs; for they considered it lawful to be unjust towards any person of a different religion, and they attributed [the source of] this conviction to God, exalted be He. God, exalted be He, says, They speak falsehood against God, by attributing such things to Him, while they are aware, that they are liars.
Verse 76
Nay, there is a duty incumbent over them in this regard; but whoever fulfils his covenant, the one he has made or the covenant of God, by restoring a trust and other such things, and has fear, of God, by refraining from disobedience and performing deeds of obedience, for truly God loves the God-fearing: ‘He loves them’ means that He will reward them (the overt noun [al-muttaqīn, ‘the God-fearing’] has replaced the [third person] pronominalisation).
Verse 77
The following was revealed with regard to the Jews when they distorted the descriptions of the Prophet (s) and God’s covenant with them in the Torah, and [God’s covenant with them] regarding one that swears an oath to a falsehood when bearing witness or when selling merchandise: Those that sell, exchange, God’s covenant, with them that they believe in the Prophet and return faithfully what has been entrusted to them, and their own oaths, their invoking God’s name in mendacity, for a small price, of this world, there shall be no share, [no] lot, for them in the Hereafter; and God shall not speak to them, out of wrath against them, nor look upon them, [nor] have mercy upon them, on the Day of Resurrection, nor will He purify them, cleanse them, and theirs will be a painful chastisement.
Verse 78
And there is a group, a party, of them, the People of the Scripture, like Ka‘b b. al-Ashraf, who twist their tongues with the Book, altering it by reciting it not according to the way in which it was revealed, but according to the way in which they have distorted it, as in the case of the descriptions of the Prophet (s) and other similar matters; so that you may suppose it, such distortion, as part of the Book, that God revealed; yet it is not part of the Book; and they say, ‘It is from God’, yet it is not from God, and they speak falsehood against God, while they know, that they are liars.
Verse 79
When the Christians of Najrān claimed that Jesus had commanded them to take him as a Divinity, and some Muslims asked that they should be permitted to prostrate themselves before him, the Prophet (s), the following was revealed: It belongs not to any mortal that God should give him the Book, the Judgement, the understanding of the Divine Law, prophethood, then that he should say to men, ‘Be servants to me instead of God.’ Rather, he should say, ‘Be masters, scholars, labouring (rabbāniyyūn, ‘those of the Lord’, is derived from rabb, ‘lord’, with the extra alif and nūn, as a superlative [of rabbiyyūn]), by virtue of what you know (ta‘lamūn, also read as tu‘allimūn, ‘you teach’) of the Book and in what you study’, that is, on account of the fact that you used to do this, for its benefit is that you engage in action.
Verse 80
He would never order you (read lā ya’murukum, to denote a new clause, meaning ‘God [would not order you]’; or if read lā ya’murakum, it would be a supplement to yaqūla, ‘he should say’, meaning ‘[it belongs not that…] a mortal [should order you]’); to take the angels and the prophets as lords, in the way that the Sabaeans have taken the angels, the Jews, Ezra, and the Christians, Jesus. Would He order you to disbelieve, after you have submitted? He would not do this.
Verse 81
And, mention, when God made a covenant with the prophets, ‘What (if read lamā, it would be introducing a subject clause, and emphasising the aspect of the oath in this ‘making of the covenant’; if it is read limā, it would then be connected to the verb akhadha, ‘He took’; the mā, ‘what’, is a relative particle in both cases, meaning la’lladhī [or li’lladhī respectively]) I have given you (ātaytukum, or in a variant reading, ātaynākum, ‘We have given you’) of the Book and wisdom; then there shall come to you a messenger confirming what is with you, of the Book and wisdom, and that is Muhammad (s) — you shall believe in him and you shall help him’ (this constitutes the response to the oath), if you reach his time and perceive him, and their communities [of descendants] follow them [in what is incumbent upon them]. He, God, exalted be He, said to them, ‘Do you affirm, this? And do you take, [do you] accept, My load, My covenant, on you on that condition?’ They said, ‘We affirm’. He said, ‘Then bear witness, to this before your own souls and [those of] your followers, and I shall be with you among the witnesses’, before you and them.
Verse 82
Then whoever turns his back, in rejection, after that, covenant, they are the wicked.
Verse 83
What! Do they, the ones who turn away, desire (yabghūna, is also read tabghūna, ‘[do] you desire?’) other than God’s religion, when to Him has submitted, [to Him] has yielded, whoever is in the heavens and the earth, willingly, without refusal, or unwillingly, by the sword and by seeing what it [such refusal] results in, and to Him they shall be returned? (yurja‘ūna, may also be read turja‘ūna, ‘you shall be returned’; the hamza at the beginning of the verse [a-fa-ghayra, ‘what…other’] denotes a disavowal).
Verse 84
Say, to them, O Muhammad (s): ‘We believe in God, and that which has been revealed to us, and that which has been revealed to Abraham and Ishmael, and Isaac and Jacob, and the Tribes, the latter’s sons; and in that which was given to Moses and Jesus, and the prophets, from their Lord; we make no division between any of them, by believing [in some] and disbelieving [in others]; and to Him we submit’, devoting worship sincerely [to Him].
Verse 85
The following was revealed regarding those who apostatized and became disbelievers: Whoever desires a religion other than Islam, it shall not be accepted from him and in the Hereafter he shall be among the losers, because he will end up in the Fire, made everlasting for him.
Verse 86
How shall God guide, that is to say, [He shall] not [guide], a people who have disbelieved after their belief, and bore witness, that is, [and after] their bearing witness, that the Messenger is true, and after the clear signs, the manifest proofs of the truth of the Prophet, had come to them? God guides not the evildoing, that is, the disbelieving, folk.
Verse 87
Those — their requital is that there shall rest on them the curse of God and of the angels and of men altogether.
Verse 88
Abiding therein, that is, in the curse, or in the Fire implied by it [the curse]; the chastisement shall not be lightened for them and they shall not be reprieved, they shall [not] be given any respite.
Verse 89
But those who repent thereafter, and make amends, in their actions, then truly God is Forgiving, Merciful, to them.
Verse 90
The following was revealed regarding the Jews: Surely those who disbelieve, in Jesus, after they have believed, in Moses, and then increase in unbelief, in Muhammad (s) — their repentance shall not be accepted, when they are drawing their last gasps of life, or when they have died as disbelievers; those are the ones who go astray.
Verse 91
Surely those who disbelieve, and die disbelieving, the whole earth full, the amount needed to fill it up, of gold shall not be accepted from any one of them (the fā’ [of fa-lan yuqbala, ‘it shall not be accepted’] has been included in the predicate of the inna clause, because the statement about alladhīna, ‘those [who disbelieve]’, resembles a conditional statement; and as a declaration of the reason for it [repentance] not being acceptable in the case of one who dies in unbelief) if he would ransom himself thereby; for them awaits a painful chastisement (alīm is [the same as] mu’lim, ‘painful’), and they shall have no helpers, to protect them from it.
Verse 92
You will not attain piety, that is, the reward for it, which is Paradise, until you expend, [until] you give voluntary alms, of what you love, of your wealth; and whatever thing you expend, God knows of it, and He will requite it accordingly.
Verse 93
When the Jews said to the Prophet, ‘You claim that you follow the creed of Abraham, but Abraham did not eat camel’s meat nor drink its milk’, the following was revealed: All food was lawful to the Children of Israel save what Israel, Jacob, forbade for himself, namely, camels: when he was afflicted with sciatica (‘irq al-nasā), he made a vow that if he were cured he would not eat of it again, and so it was forbidden him; before the Torah was revealed, which was after the time of Abraham, as it was not unlawful in his time, as they claimed. Say, to them: ‘Bring the Torah now, and recite it, so that the truth of what you say may become clear, if you are truthful’, in what you say; they were stupified and did not bring it [the Torah]. God, exalted be He, then said:
Verse 94
Whoever invents falsehood against God after that, that is, after the proof has become manifest that the prohibition was made by Jacob, and not during the time of Abraham, those are the evildoers, that transgress the truth into falsehood.
Verse 95
Say: ‘God has spoken the truth, in this matter, just as He has in all that He has related; therefore follow the creed of Abraham, the one which I follow, a hanīf, inclining away from all religions towards submission (islām), and he was not an idolater’.
Verse 96
When they said, ‘Our direction of prayer (qibla) came before yours’, the following was revealed: The first house, for worship, established for the people, on earth, was that at Bakka (a variant of Makka [Mecca], so called because it ‘crushes’ [tabukku] the necks of tyrants); it was built by the angels before the creation of Adam, and after it the Aqsā [in Jerusalem] was built, a period of forty years separating them, as reported in the hadīth of the two Sahīhs [sc. of al-Bukhārī and Muslim], and in the hadīth [that states]: ‘The first thing to appear on the surface of the water, at the creation of the heavens and the earth, was a white foam, underneath which the earth was unrolled’; a blessed place (mubārakan, a circumstantial qualifier referring to la’lladhī, ‘that’) meaning a place of blessings, and a guidance to all worlds, because it is their qibla.
Verse 97
Therein are clear signs, among which is, the station of Abraham, that is, the stone upon which he stood to build the House, and on which his footprints remain; and it [the House] has endured all this length of time and the constant passing of hands over it. Among these [signs] are the fact that the reward for good deeds is multiplied in it and that birds never fly over it; and whoever enters it is in security, not liable therein to be killed or oppressed or otherwise. It is the duty of people towards God to make the pilgrimage to the House (read either as hijj al-bayt or hajj al-bayt, as two variants of the verbal noun from hajj, meaning ‘the intention [to journey there]’), if he is able to make his way there (man istatā‘a ilayhi sabīlan substitutes for al-nās, ‘people’). The Prophet (s) explained this [ability] as having provisions and a ride, as reported by al-Hākim [al-Naysābūrī] and others. As for the one who disbelieves, in God or in what He has made obligatory with regard to the Pilgrimage, God is Independent of all worlds, the humans, the jinn and the angels, and [is Independent of] their devotions.
Verse 98
Say: ‘O People of the Scripture, why do you disbelieve in God’s verses, that is, the Qur’ān, when God is Witness of what you do?’, and will requite you for it?
Verse 99
Say: ‘O People of the Scripture, why do you bar believers, causing them to turn away, from God’s way, His religion, by denying the truth of the Prophet and concealing His graces, desiring to make it crooked (‘iwajan is the verbal noun, meaning mu‘awwajatan, ‘made crooked’), inclining away from the truth, while you yourselves are witnesses, [while] you know that the religion which is upright and pleasing [to God] is that of Islam, as stated in your Book? God is not heedless of what you do’, in the way of unbelief and mendacity; instead He gives you respite until your appointed time and then requites you.
Verse 100
The following was revealed when the Jews passed by the Aws and the Khazraj and were infuriated by their comradeship, and set about reminding them of their mutual hostility in the days before Islam, such that they caused them to quarrel and the two [tribes] were on the verge of fighting one another: O you who believe, if you obey a party of those who have been given the Scripture, they will turn you, after you have believed, into disbelievers.
Verse 101
How can you disbelieve (this is an interrogative of amazement and rebuke) while you have God’s verses recited to you, and His Messenger is in your midst? Whoever holds fast to, clings to, God, he is guided to a straight path.
Verse 102
O you who believe, fear God as He should be feared, so that He is obeyed and not disobeyed, thanked and not shown ingratitude, remembered and not forgotten. They said, ‘Who, O Messenger of God, is strong enough for this [task]?’ But it was then abrogated by His statement: So fear God as much as you can [Q. 64:16]; and do not die, except as Muslims, professing the Oneness of God.
Verse 103
And hold fast to, clutch, God’s bond, namely, His religion, together, and do not scatter, after submitting [to Islam]; remember God’s grace, His bestowing of favours, upon you, O companies of the Aws and the Khazraj, when you were enemies, and He brought your hearts together, through Islam, so that by His grace you became brothers, in religion and comradeship; and you were upon the brink, the edge, of a pit of fire, such that to fall into it you only had to die disbelieving; but He delivered you from it, through belief. So, just as He has made clear for you what has been mentioned, God makes clear to you His signs that you might be guided.
Verse 104
Let there be one community of you calling to good, to Islam, and enjoining decency, and forbidding indecency; those, that call, bid and forbid, are the successful, the victorious (the particle min, ‘of’, [in minkum, ‘of you’] is partitive, since what is mentioned is a collective obligation [fard kifāya], and is not incumbent upon every individual of the community, for not every person, such as the ignorant, is up to it. However, it is also said that this particle is extra, and what is meant is, ‘so that you are a community [calling to good and so on]’).
Verse 105
Be not as those who scattered, in their religion, and disputed, over it, after the clear proofs came to them, and these are the Jews and the Christians, those there awaits a mighty chastisement.
Verse 106
The day when some faces are blackened, and some faces whitened, that is, the Day of Resurrection. As for those whose faces are blackened, these being the disbelievers, who are thrown into the Fire and to whom it is said in rebuke: ‘Did you disbelieve after you had believed, on the day the covenant was made? Then taste the chastisement for what you disbelieved!’
Verse 107
But as for those whose faces are whitened, and these are the believers, they shall be in God’s mercy, that is to say, in Paradise, abiding therein.
Verse 108
Those, that is to say, these verses, are the verses of God which We recite to you, O Muhammad (s), in truth, and God desires not any injustice for the worlds, punishing them for no crime.
Verse 109
To God belongs all that is in the heavens and in the earth, as possessions, creatures and servants, and to Him all matters are returned.
Verse 110
You, O community of Muhammad (s), are the best community brought forth, manifested, to men, according to God’s knowledge, enjoining decency, and forbidding indecency, and believing in God. Had the People of the Scripture believed, it, their belief, would have been better for them; some of them are believers, such as ‘Abd Allāh b. Salām, may God be pleased with him and his companions; but most of them, the disbelievers, are wicked.
Verse 111
They, the Jews, will not harm you, O company of Muslims, in any way, except a little hurt, with their tongues, such as slander and threats; and if they fight against you, they will turn their backs to you, in retreat, then they will not be helped, against you, but you will be helped against them.
Verse 112
Abasement shall be cast upon them, wherever they are found, so that they have no strength and no protection, save, if they be [clinging to], a rope of God, and a rope of the, believing, people, this being the latter’s covenant of security for them on the condition that they pay the jizya, in other words, they have no protection other than this; they have incurred, they have ended up, with anger from God, and poverty shall be cast upon them; that, is, because they disbelieved in God’s signs, and slew the prophets without right; that (dhālika is [repeated] for emphasis), is, because they disobeyed, God’s command, and used to transgress, passing from what is lawful into what is unlawful.
Verse 113
Yet they, the People of the Scripture, are not all alike, equal; some of the People of the Scripture are a community upright, with integrity, adhering to the truth, such as ‘Abd Allāh b. Salām, may God be pleased with him and his companions, who recite God’s verses in the watches of the night, that is, during its hours, prostrating themselves, performing prayer (wa-hum yasjudūn, ‘prostrating themselves’, is a circumstantial qualifier).
Verse 114
They believe in God and in the Last Day, enjoining decency and forbidding indecency, vying with one another in good works; those, described in the way God has mentioned, are of the righteous, and some of them are not like this and are not righteous.
Verse 115
And whatever good you do, O community, (taf‘alū, ‘you do’, or if this is read yaf‘alū, ‘they do’, then [it is referring to them] ‘the upright community’), you shall not be denied it ([read] in both ways [fa-lan tukfarūhu, ‘you shall not be denied it’, or fa-lan yukfarūhu, ‘they shall not be denied it’]), you shall not be deprived of its reward, but you will be rewarded for it, and God knows the God-fearing.
Verse 116
As for the disbelievers, their riches shall not avail, protect, them, neither their children, against God, that is, against His chastisement: these two are singled out for mention because a person usually avails himself either by paying a ransom, or by [resorting to] the help of his children; those are the inhabitants of the Fire, abiding therein.
Verse 117
The likeness, the description, of what they, the disbelievers, expend in the life of this world, in the way of enmity towards the Prophet or in the way of voluntary almsgiving or the like, is as the likeness of a wind wherein is a blast, of extreme hot or cold, that smote the tillage, the crops, of a people who have wronged themselves, through unbelief and disobedience, and destroyed it, so that they could not profit from it; so it is with what they expend, it perishes and they profit nothing from it. God did not wrong them, when they lost what they expended, but they wronged themselves, through unbelief, which necessitated this loss.
Verse 118
O you who believe, do not take as intimates, as sincere friends, revealing to them your secret thoughts, anyone apart from yourselves, from among the Jews, Christians and the hypocrites; such men spare nothing to ruin you (khabālan is in the accusative because the preposition [that usually precedes it, sc. fī’l-khabāl] has been omitted), that is to say, they would not be remiss about corrupting you; they would love, they wish, for you to suffer ([al-‘anat means] extreme hardship). Hatred, enmity towards you, is revealed, it is manifested, by their mouths, by sowing discord among you and informing the idolaters of your secret [plans]; and what their breasts conceal, of enmity, is yet greater. Now We have made clear to you the signs, of their enmity; if you understand, this, then do not befriend them.
Verse 119
Lo (hā, ‘lo!’, is for calling attention [to something]), there you are, O believers, you love them, on account of their kinship and their [pretence of] friendship towards you, but they love you not, since they oppose you in religion; you believe in the Book, all of it, that is to say, in the Books, all of them, but they do not believe in your Book, and when they meet you they say, ‘We believe,’ but when they are alone, they bite at you their fingertips, in rage, in extreme fury at what they see of your mutual affection: the biting of the fingertips is used to figuratively express the severity of rage, even if there be no biting involved. Say: ‘Perish in your rage, that is, be this way until the end of your lives, for you shall not see what will please you; God knows what is in the breasts’, what is in the hearts, including that which these conceal.
Verse 120
If good fortune, a favour such as victory or booty, befalls you, it is evil for them, it grieves them; but if evil, such as defeat or drought, befalls you, they rejoice thereat (the conditional statement here is semantically connected to the previous conditional, and what comes in between is a parenthetical [statement], the meaning being that their enmity towards you is endless, so why do you befriend them? Avoid them!) Yet if you endure, their harm, and fear, God by [not] befriending them and so on, their guile will not hurt you (read either lā yadirkum or lā yadurrukum) at all; God encompasses what they do (ya‘malūn, or may be read ta‘malūn, ‘what you do’), He has knowledge of it and will requite them for it.
Verse 121
And, mention O Muhammad (s), when you went forth at dawn from your family, at Medina, to assign the believers, to have [them] occupy, their places, stations for them to stand at, for battle, and God hears, what you say, knows, your circumstances: this was the day of [the battle of] Uhud. The Prophet (s) set out with 1000 or 950 men, while the idolaters numbered 3000. The Prophet pitched camp at the ravine on Saturday 7th of Shawwāl in year 3 of the Hijra. He had his back and that of his troops to Uhud. He arranged their lines and placed a group of archers under the command of ‘Abd Allāh b. Jubayr at the foot of the mountain and said to them: ‘Defend us with your arrows in case they come up from behind us, and remain here whether we are being defeated or on the verge of victory’.
Verse 122
When (idh, substitutes for the previous idh) two parties of you, the Banū Salima and the Banū Hāritha, the two flanks of the army, were about to lose heart, [about] to shrink from the battle and retreat, after ‘Abd Allāh b. Ubayy, the hypocrite, and his companions began to retreat. He [Ibn Ubayy] said, ‘Why should we get ourselves and our children killed?’ and he also said to Abū Jābir al-Salamī — who had said to him, ‘I implore you by God for your Prophet’s sake and yours’ — ‘If we knew how to fight, we would follow you!’ But God then made them [the Banū Salima and the Banū Hāritha] steadfast and they did not abandon [the field]; and God was their Protector, their Helper, and let the believers rely on God, let them place their trust in Him and none other.
Verse 123
When they were defeated, the following was revealed as a way of reminding them of God’s favour: God already gave you victory at Badr, a location between Mecca and Medina, when you were contemptible, few in number and weapons. So fear God, in order that you might be thankful, for His blessings.
Verse 124
When (idh, an adverbial qualifier of nasarakum, ‘He gave you victory’ [in the previous verse]) you were saying to the believers, promising them as reassurance [for them]: ‘Is it not sufficient for you that your Lord should reinforce you, [that] He should succour you, with three thousand angels sent down? (read munzalīn or munazzalīn, ‘sent down’).
Verse 125
Yea, it is sufficient for you. In [sūrat] al-Anfāl [it is stated] with a thousand [Q. 8:9], because at first He reinforced them with this [thousand], then it became three [thousand] then five [thousand], as God says: if you are patient, in encountering the enemy, and fear, God in not contravening [His command], and they, the idolaters, come against you instantly, your Lord will reinforce you with five thousand angels accoutred’ (read musawimmīn or musawammīn), that is to say, distinctively marked [for the battle]. Indeed, they were patient and God fulfilled His promise to them, so that the angels fought together with them riding upon piebald horses wearing yellow or white turbans, let loose down to their shoulders.
Verse 126
What God ordained, that is, of reinforcement, was only as a good tiding to you, of victory, and that your hearts might be at peace, [that] they might be at rest, and not be terrified by the large number of the enemy as compared to your small number. Victory comes only from God, the Mighty, the Wise, He gives it to whomever He will, and [victory comes] not because of a large army.
Verse 127
And that He might cut off (li-yaqta‘, is semantically connected to the clause containing nasarakum, ‘He gave you victory’), that is to say, that He might destroy, a party of the disbelievers, by slaying them or making them fall captive, or suppress them, humiliate them through defeat, so that they fall back, return, frustrated, not having secured what they desired.
Verse 128
When, on the Day of Uhud, the Prophet received a head wound and his front tooth was broken, and he said, ‘How does a people who have drenched the face of their Prophet in blood [expect to] prosper?’, the following was revealed: It is no concern at all of yours, nay, it is God’s concern, so be patient, whether, meaning, until such time as, He relents to them, through [their acceptance of] Islam, or chastises them; for they are indeed evildoers, by [virtue of their] disbelief.
Verse 129
To God belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth, as possessions, creatures and servants; He forgives whom He wills, forgiveness for, and chastises whom He wills, chastisement for. And God is Forgiving, of His friends, Merciful, to those who obey Him.
Verse 130
O you who believe, do not exact usury, twofold and severalfold (read mudā‘afatan or mud‘afatan) by increasing the amount [to be repaid] when the [loan] period comes to an end and delaying the request [of the loan]. And fear God, by abandoning such [usury], so that you may prosper, [that] you may triumph.
Verse 131
And fear the Fire that has been prepared for the disbelievers, lest you be chastised with it.
Verse 132
And obey God and the Messenger, so that you may find mercy.
Verse 133
And vie with one another hastening (read wa-sāri‘ū or [simply] sāri‘ū) to forgiveness from your Lord, and to a garden as wide as the heavens and the earth, that is, as broad as both of them together if put side by side, breadth denotes ampleness, that has been prepared for those who fear God in being obedient and abandoning acts of disobedience.
Verse 134
Who expend, in obedience to God, in prosperity and adversity, in [times of] ease and difficulty, and restrain their rage, [and] desist from following it up even though they are able to, and pardon their fellow-men, those who wrong them, waiving their punishment; and God loves those who are virtuous, through such actions, that is to say, He will reward them.
Verse 135
And who when they commit an indecency, a despicable sin such as adultery, or wrong themselves, with less than that, such as a kiss, remember God, that is to say, His threat of punishment, and pray forgiveness for their sins — and who, that is, none, shall forgive sins but God? — and who do not persist, persevere, in what they did, but have desisted from it, knowing, that what they did was sinful.
Verse 136
Those — their requital is forgiveness from their Lord, and Gardens beneath which rivers flow, abiding therein (khālidīna fīhā, an implied situation, that is, it is foreordained that they will abide in it once they enter it); excellent is the wage, this wage, of those workers, of obedience!
Verse 137
The following was revealed regarding the defeat at Uhud: Ways of life have passed away before you, all manner of unbelief has preceded, where they have been given respite but are then seized [with punishment]; so travel in the land, O believers, and behold how was the end of those who denied, the messengers, that is, how their affair ended in destruction. So do not grieve on account of their victory, I am only giving them respite until their appointed time.
Verse 138
This, Qur’ān, is an exposition for, all, mankind, and a guidance, from error, and an admonition for such as are God-fearing, among them.
Verse 139
Faint not, shrink [not] from fighting the disbelievers, neither grieve, for what befell you at Uhud, for you shall prevail, through victory over them, if you are, truly, believers. (the response to this [last conditional clause] is the sum [meaning] of what has preceded it).
Verse 140
If a wound touches you, befalls you at Uhud, a like wound (qarh or qurh, which is the exhaustion that results from a wound and the like), already, at Badr, has touched the other people, the disbelievers. Such days We deal out in turn, We dispense them, among mankind, one day for one group, the next day for another, that they might be admonished, and that God may know, through knowledge manifested outwardly, those who believe, who are sincere in their faith from others; and that He may take witnesses from among you, honouring them with martyrdom, and God loves not the evildoers, the disbelievers, that is, He will chastise them, and the blessings He bestows upon them are only a [means of] drawing out [their punishment].
Verse 141
And that God may prove the believers, purifying them of sins through what befalls them, and efface, that is, destroy, the disbelievers.
Verse 142
Or, nay, did you suppose you should enter Paradise without God knowing, through knowledge manifested outwardly, who among you have struggled and who are patient, in [times of] hardship?
Verse 143
You were longing for (tamannawna: one of the two letters tā’ has been omitted from the original [tatamannawna]) death before you met it, when you said, ‘Would that we had a day like the Day of Badr in order to attain what its martyrs attained.’ Now you have seen it, that is, the cause of it, war, looking on, that is, with your eyes [open] and contemplating the conditions, so why did you retreat?
Verse 144
With regard to their being routed, when it was rumoured that the Prophet had been killed and the hypocrites had said to the believers, ‘If he has been killed, go back to your [previous] religion’, the following was revealed: Muhammad is only a messenger; messengers have passed away before him. Why, if he should die or is slain, like others, will you turn back on your heels, will you return to unbelief (the last statement is the locus of the interrogative of denial, in other words, ‘he was not a worshipped being, so that [if he were to die] you should turn back [to your previous religion]’). If any man should turn back on his heels, he will not harm God in any way, but will be harming himself, and God will requite those that are thankful, for His graces by staying firm.
Verse 145
It is not for any soul to die, save by the leave of God, by His decree, a prescribed (kitāban, here a verbal noun, that is, God has prescribed this) term, that is to say, [a term fixed] in time, neither brought forward nor deferred, so why did you retreat [in defeat]? Defeat does not ward off death, nor does standing one’s ground sever life. And whoever desires, by his deeds, the reward of this world, that is, his requital in it, We will give him of it, what has been alloted to him, but he shall have no share in the Hereafter; and whoever desires the reward of the Hereafter, We will give him of it, that is, of its reward; and We will requite the thankful.
Verse 146
How many a prophet has been killed (qutila, a variant reading has qātala, ‘has fought’, the subject of the verb being the person governing it) and with him (ma‘ahu, the predicate, the subject of which [follows]) thousands manifold [fought], but they fainted not, they did [not] shrink, in the face of what afflicted them in God’s way, of wounds and the slaying of their prophets and companions; they neither weakened, in the face of struggle, nor did they humble themselves, [nor did they] succumb to their enemy, as you did when it was said that the Prophet (s) had been killed. And God loves the patient, during trials, meaning that He will reward them.
Verse 147
All that they said, when their prophet had been killed while they stood their ground and were steadfast, was, ‘Our Lord, forgive us our sins and our excesses, our overstepping the bounds, in our affairs, a declaration of the fact that what had befallen them was the result of their evil actions and a humbling of their selves, and make firm our feet, with strength for the struggle, and help us against the unbelieving folk’.
Verse 148
And God gave them the reward of this world, victory and booty, and the fairest reward of the Hereafter, that is, Paradise (husnuhu, ‘the fairest of it’, denotes [extra] favour in addition to what is deserved); and God loves the virtuous.
Verse 149
O you who believe, if you obey the disbelievers, in what they command you, they will make you turn back on your heels, [back] to unbelief, and you will revert as losers.
Verse 150
Nay, but God is your Protector, your Helper, and He is the best of helpers, so obey only Him and not them.
Verse 151
We will cast terror (read ru‘b or ru‘ub) into the hearts of the disbelievers: after departing from Uhud they resolved to return in order to exterminate the Muslims, but they were terrified and did not return; for what they have associated, because of their associating, with God that for which He has revealed no warrant, that is, [no] argument in support of its worship, namely, idols; their abode shall be the Fire; evil is the abode, the resting place, of the evildoers, the disbelievers.
Verse 152
God has been true to His promise, towards you, of giving you victory, when you slew them by His leave, by His will, until you lost heart, [until] you shrank from battle, and quarrelled, disagreed, over the command, that is, the command of the Prophet (s) that you remain at the foot of the mountain for the arrow attack, some of you saying, ‘Let us depart, for our comrades have been given victory’, others saying, ‘We should not disobey the command of the Prophet (s)’; and you disobeyed, his command, and abandoned your station in search of the booty, after He, God, had shown you what you longed for, of assistance (the response to the [clause containing] idhā is indicated by what precedes it, that is to say, ‘[when you lost heart] He denied you His assistance’). Some of you desired this world, abandoning his station for the sake of the booty; and some of you desired the Hereafter, holding to it until he was slain, such as ‘Abd Allāh b. Jubayr and his companions. Then He turned you away (thumma sarafakum is a supplement to the response of the [clause containing] idhā, implied to be raddakum bi’l-hazīma [‘He turned you back in defeat’]) from them, the disbelievers, so that He might try you, that He might test you and so make manifest the sincere ones from those otherwise; yet now He has pardoned you, what you have done, and God is Bounteous to the believers, with pardon.
Verse 153
Remember, when you were ascending, fleeing in the distance, not turning around, [not] stopping, for anyone and the Messenger was calling you from your rear, saying, ‘Come to me servants of God, this way, servants of God!’, so He rewarded you, He requited you, with grief, through defeat, for grief (ghamman bi-ghamm; the bā’ [bi-], ‘with’, is said to mean ‘alā, ‘for’) because of the grief that you caused the Prophet when you disobeyed [his command], that is, [with grief] doubled, [being] in addition to the grief of the booty forfeited, so that (li-kaylā is semantically connected either to ‘afā, ‘He has pardoned’, or athābakum, ‘He rewarded you’; the lā [of kay-lā] is thus extra) you might not grieve for what escaped you, of booty, neither for what befell you, of being slain and [of] defeat; and God is aware of what you do.
Verse 154
Then He sent down upon you, after grief, security — a slumber (nu‘āsan, ‘slumber’ substitutes for amanatan, ‘security’) overcoming (yaghshā or taghshā) a party of you, namely, the believers. They would become dizzy under their shields and their swords would fall from their hands; and a party whose own souls distressed them, that is, they caused them grief, so that their only wish was their deliverance, regardless of the Prophet and his Companions, and they were unable to fall asleep: these were the hypocrites; thinking wrongly of God, thoughts of, those thoughts during the, age of ignorance, the moment they thought that the Prophet had been killed or that he would not be given victory, saying, ‘Have we any part whatever in the affair?’ (read [interrogative] hal as [negative] mā) that is, [we have no part in] the assistance which we were promised. Say, to them: ‘The affair belongs entirely (read accusative kullahu to denote an emphasis, or nominative kulluhu as a subject [of a new sentence], the predicate of which is [what follows]) to God’, that is to say, the decree is His, He does what He wills. They conceal within their hearts what they do not disclose, what they [do not] manifest, to you, saying, (yaqūlūna, ‘saying’, is an explication of the preceding [statement]) ‘Had we had any part in the affair, we would not have been slain here’, that is to say, ‘Had the choice been ours, we would not have set out and thus been slain; but we were forced to set out’. Say, to them: ‘Even if you had been in your houses, with some among you whom God had appointed that they be slain, those, of you, for whom it had been appointed, decreed, that they be slain would have sallied forth, would have gone forth, to the places where they were to lie’, the battleground where they were to fall, and they would have been slain; and their staying put [at home] would not have saved them, for God’s decree will be, inevitably. And, He did what He did at Uhud, that God might try, [that He might] test, what was in your breasts, your hearts, of sincerity or hypocrisy, and that He might prove, [that He might] distinguish, what was in your hearts; and God knows what is in the breasts, what is in the hearts. Nothing can be hidden from Him, and He tries people only to make [matters] manifest for them.
Verse 155
Truly, those of you who turned away, from the battle, the day the two hosts, the Muslim host and that of the disbelievers, encountered each other, at Uhud, the Muslims, with the exception of twelve men — truly, Satan made them slip, with his [evil] insinuations, through some of what they had earned, of sins, namely, when they disobeyed the Prophet’s command; but God pardoned them; God is Forgiving, to believers, Forbearing, hastening not against the disobedient [with punishment].
Verse 156
O you who believe, be not as the disbelievers, that is, [as] the hypocrites, who say of their brothers, that is, regarding their affair, when they travel in the land, and then die, or are on raiding campaigns (ghuzzan, ‘a raiding party’, is the plural of ghāzin), and are then slain, ‘Had they been with us, they would not have died and would not have been slain’, in other words, do not say as they say — so that God may make that, saying [of theirs], as a conclusion of their affair, anguish in their hearts. For God gives life, and He gives death, and so no staying put can prevent death, and God sees what you do (ta‘malūna, or ya‘malūna, ‘they do’), and He will requite you for it.
Verse 157
And if (wa-la-in, the lām is for oaths) you are slain in God’s way, in [holy] struggle, or die (read muttum or mittum, from [singular form] māta, yamūtu), that is, if death comes to you thereat, forgiveness, that is, from God, for your sins, and mercy, therefor from Him for you (the clause introduced by the lām [of la-maghfiratun, ‘forgiveness’] is the response to the oath [clause of la’in], and occupies the place of the verbal action as a subject, the predicate of which [is what follows]) are better than what they amass, in this world (read tajma‘ūn, ‘you amass’, or yajma‘ūn, ‘they amass’).
Verse 158
And if (wa-la-in, the lām is for oaths) you die ([read] in both ways [muttum or mittum], or are slain, in the [holy] struggle or otherwise, it is to God, and to none other than Him that, you shall be mustered, in the Hereafter, and He will requite you.
Verse 159
It was by the mercy of God that you, O Muhammad (s), were lenient with them, that is, [that] you showed indulgence [toward them] when they disobeyed you; had you been harsh, ill-natured, and fierce of heart, brutish and coarse towards them, they would have dispersed, split away, from about you. So pardon them, pass over what they have done, and ask forgiveness for them, for their sins, until I forgive them, and consult them, find out their opinions, in the matter, that is, your affair in the battle and otherwise, in order to win their hearts over and so that you may be emulated [in this respect]; and indeed, the Prophet (s) would frequently consult them. And when you are resolved, to carry out what you wish after counsel, rely on God, put your trust in Him and not in [any] counsel; for God loves those who rely, on Him.
Verse 160
If God helps you, [if] He gives you assistance against your enemy, as on the Day of Badr, then none can overcome you; but if He forsakes you, [if] He refrains from assisting you, as on the Day of Uhud, then who is there who can help you after Him?, that is, after His forsaking [you]? In other words, there is no one to help you. Therefore on God, and on no one else, let the believers rely.
Verse 161
When some red velvet cloth went missing on the Day of Badr and some people began to say, ‘Perhaps the Prophet took it’, the following was revealed: It is not for a prophet to be fraudulent (an yaghulla, a variant reading has the passive an yughalla, meaning to attribute ghulūl, ‘fraud’, to him), to be treacherous with regard to the spoils, so do not presume this of him; whoever defrauds shall bring what he has defrauded on the Day of Resurrection, carrying it around his neck; then every soul, the fraudulent and the otherwise, shall be paid in full, the requital of, what it has earned, [what] it has done, and they shall not be wronged, a single thing.
Verse 162
Is he who follows God’s beatitude, being obedient and not defrauding, like him who is laden, [one who] returns, with God’s anger, because of his disobedience and fraud, whose abode is Hell? An evil journey’s end, a resort, it is!
Verse 163
No! They are of degrees, that is, individuals of [different] degrees, before God, that is, belonging to varying stations: for those that follow His beatitude, a reward, and for those that are laden with God’s anger, punishment; and God sees what they do, and will requite them for it.
Verse 164
Truly God was gracious to the believers when He sent to them a messenger from among their own, that is to say, an Arab like them, not an angel or a non-Arab, so that they can understand what he says and feel honoured thereby, to recite to them His verses, the Qur’ān, and to purify them, to cleanse them of sins, and to teach them the Book, the Qur’ān, wisdom, the Sunna, though (in, is softened [in place of inna], that is, innahum, ‘though they…’) before, that is, before he was sent, they were in clear error.
Verse 165
And why, when distress befell you, at Uhud, when seventy of you were slain, and you had afflicted twice the like of it, at Badr, slaying seventy of them and taking another seventy captive, did you say, in amazement, ‘How is this?’, that is, how did this defeat happen to us when we are Muslims and God’s Messenger is among us (the last statement [annā hādhā, ‘how is this?’] constitutes [the locus of] the interrogative of denial). Say, to them: ‘It is from yourselves, because you abandoned your [battle] stations and were thus defeated. Surely God has power over everything’, including [the giving of] assistance and the withholding of it, and He requited you for your disputing [the Prophet’s command].
Verse 166
And what afflicted you, the day the two hosts encountered, at Uhud, was by God’s leave, by His will, and that He might know, through knowledge manifested outwardly, the, true, believers.
Verse 167
And that He might also know the hypocrites, and those who, when it was said to them, after they had fled the fighting, namely, ‘Abd Allāh b. Ubayy and his companions: ‘Come now, fight in the way of God, His enemies, or defend’, us against the enemy by increasing the multitude [of our fighters], if you are not going to fight; they said, ‘If we knew how, [if] we were skilled enough, to fight we would follow you’. God then said, showing them to be liars: They that day were nearer to unbelief than to belief, for what they manifested of their forsaking the believers, whereas before they had been outwardly nearer to belief; saying with their mouths that which was not in their hearts, for even if they had known how to fight they would not have followed you. And God knows best what they hide, of hypocrisy.
Verse 168
Those who (alladhīna substitutes for the previous alladhīna, or constitutes an adjectival qualification [of it]) said to their brothers, in religion, whilst they themselves, had, stayed put, [refraining] from [joining] the struggle, ‘Had they, the martyrs at Uhud or those who stayed put with us, obeyed us, they would not have been slain’. Say, to them: ‘Then avert, ward off, death from yourselves, if you speak the truth’, in that staying put delivers one from it [sc. from death].
Verse 169
The following was revealed regarding martyrs: Count not those who were slain (read qutilū or quttilū) in God’s way, that is, for the sake of His religion, as dead, but rather, that they are, living with their Lord, their spirits inside green birds that take wing freely wherever they wish in Paradise, as reported in a hadīth); provided for [by Him], with the fruits of Paradise.
Verse 170
Rejoicing (farihīna, a circumstantial qualifier referring to the person governing yurzaqūn, ‘sustained’) in what God has given them of His bounty, and, they are, rejoicing, joyful, for the sake of those who have not joined them but are left behind, from among their believing brothers (allādhīna, ‘those who’, may be substituted by [what follows, sc. ‘rejoicing…that no fear’]): that no fear shall befall them, those that have not yet joined them, neither shall they grieve, in the Hereafter, meaning, they rejoice for their [brothers’ future] security and felicity (allā [of allā khawfun] is an-lā, meaning, bi-an lā).
Verse 171
Joyful in grace, in the reward, and bounty, in addition to it, from God, and that (read wa-anna as a supplement to ni‘matin, or wa-inna to denote a new clause) God does not let the wage of believers go to waste, but rewards them.
Verse 172
Those who (alladhīna, is the subject) responded to God and the Messenger, [to] his call to set out for battle: when Abū Sufyān and his companions wanted to resume [hostilities] they agreed with the Prophet (s) that the encounter would be at the [annual] market-fair of Badr a year from the date of Uhud; after the wounds had afflicted them, at Uhud — (the predicate of the subject [alladhīna] is [what follows]) for all those who were virtuous, by obeying him, and feared, to disobey him, shall be a great wage, namely, Paradise.
Verse 173
Those to whom (alladhīna, substitutes for the previous alladhīna, ‘those who’, or an adjectival qualification [of it]) people, that is, Nu‘aym b. Mas‘ūd al-Ashja‘ī, said, ‘The people, Abū Sufyān and his companions, have gathered, their multitudes, against you, in order to exterminate you, therefore fear them’, and do not go out to [encounter] them; but that, saying, increased them in faith, in their belief in God and in certainty, and they said, ‘God is sufficient for us, He will deal fully for us with their affair; an excellent Guardian is He’ , the One to whom the matter is entrusted. They thus set out with the Prophet (s) and arrived at the market-fair of Badr, but God had cast terror into the hearts of Abū Sufyān and his followers and so they did not turn up. They [the believers] had merchandise with them, and so they traded and made profits. God, exalted be He, says:
Verse 174
So they returned, from Badr, with grace and bounty from God, safely and with profit, and no evil touched them, from any slaying or wounds; and they followed the beatitude of God, by obeying Him and obeying His Messenger, when they [agreed to] set out [for the battle]; and God is of bounty abounding, for those that obey Him.
Verse 175
That, namely, the one saying to you, ‘The people [have gathered against you]’ to the end [of the verse], is only Satan making, you, fear his friends, the disbelievers, therefore do not fear them; but fear Me, lest you abandon My command, if you are, truly, believers.
Verse 176
Let them not grieve you (read yuhzinka, or yahzunka from [1st form] hazanahu, ‘he made him grieve’, an alternative expression to [4th form] ahzanahu, ‘he made him grieve’) those that vie with one another in unbelief, succumbing to it promptly by supporting it, namely, the Meccans or the hypocrites: in other words, do not be concerned for their unbelief; they will not hurt God at all, by their actions, only hurting themselves. God desires not to assign them any portion, any lot, in the Hereafter, that is, in Paradise, and that is why God forsook them; and theirs is a mighty chastisement, in the Fire.
Verse 177
Those who purchase unbelief at the price of faith, that is, taking it in place of it, they will not hurt God at all, with their unbelief, and there awaits them a painful chastisement (alīm means mu’lim, ‘painful’).
Verse 178
And let not the disbelievers suppose (read lā yahsabanna, ‘let them not suppose’, or lā tahsabanna, ‘do not suppose’) that what We indulge them in, that is, [that] Our indulging [them], in extending their [terms of] life and deferring them [their death], is better for their souls (in the case of the reading yahsabanna, ‘let them [not] suppose’, anna [of anna-mā] and its two operators stand in place of the two objects, but only in place of the second in the case of the other reading [tahsabanna], ‘do [not] suppose’). We grant them indulgence, We give [them] respite, only that they may increase in sinfulness, through frequent disobedience, and theirs is a humbling chastisement, one of humiliation, in the Hereafter.
Verse 179
It is not God’s purpose to leave, to abandon, the believers in the state in which you, O people, are, where the sincere are intermingled with those otherwise, till He shall distinguish (read yamīza or yumayyiza), [till] He separates, the evil one, the hypocrite, from the good, the believer, through the burdensome obligations that will reveal this [distinction] — He did this on the Day of Uhud. And it is not God’s purpose to apprise you of the Unseen, so that you could recognise the hypocrites from the others, before the distinguishing; but God chooses, He selects, of His messengers whom He will, apprising him of [some of] His Unseen, as when He apprised the Prophet (s) of the position of the hypocrites. So believe in God and His messengers; and if you believe and guard against, hypocrisy, then yours shall be a great wage.
Verse 180
Let them not suppose (read lā yahsabanna, ‘let them not suppose’, or lā tahsabanna, ‘do not suppose’) those who are niggardly with what God has given them of His bounty, that is, with His obligatory almsgiving, that it, their niggardliness, is better for them (khayrun lahum, is the second direct object; the pronoun [huwa, ‘[that] it is’] is used to separate [the two statements]; the first [direct object] is bukhlahum ‘their niggardliness’ implicit before the relative clause [alladhīna] in the case of the reading tahsabanna [sc. wa-lā tahsabanna bukhlahum, ‘do not suppose their niggardliness…’], or before the pronoun [huwa, ‘it is’] in the case of the reading yahsabanna [sc. wa-lā yahsabanna lladhīna…bukhlahum huwa khayran lahum, ‘let them not suppose, those who…that their niggardliness is better for them’]); nay, it is worse for them; what they were niggardly with, namely, the obligatory almsgiving of their wealth, they shall have hung around their necks on the Day of Resurrection, when he will have a snake around his neck biting viciously at him, as reported in a hadīth; and to God belongs the inheritance of the heavens and the earth, inheriting them after the annihilation of their inhabitants. And God is aware of what you do (ta‘malūna, also read ya‘malūna, ‘they do’), and will requite you for it.
Verse 181
Verily God has heard the saying of those, namely the Jews, who said, ‘Indeed God is poor, and we are rich’: they said this when the verse, who is he that will lend God a good loan [Q. 2:245] was revealed, adding that, ‘If God were [truly] rich, He would not be asking us for loans’. We shall write down, We shall order that it be written, what they have said, in the scrolls containing their deeds so that they will be requited for it (a variant reading [for active naktubu, ‘We shall write’] has the passive yuktabu, ‘it shall be written’) and, We shall write down, their slaying (read accusative qatlahum or nominative qatluhum) the prophets without right, and We shall say (naqūlu, also read yaqūlu, meaning God [shall say]) to them by the tongue of the angels in the Hereafter, ‘Taste the chastisement of the Burning, the Fire.
Verse 182
When they are thrown into [the Fire], it will be said to them: That, punishment, is for what your hands have sent before: ‘hands’ are used to designate a human being because most actions are performed with them; for God is never unjust towards His servants’, punishing them without them having sinned.
Verse 183
Those (alladhīna, an adjectival qualification of the previous alladhīna, ‘those who’ [Q. 3:181]) same who said, to Muhammad (s), ‘God has already made covenant with us, in the Torah, that we should not believe in any messenger, accepting his truthfulness, until he bring us an offering to be devoured by fire’, and so we will not believe in you until you bring us this [offering], namely, of grazing livestock or other [kind of animal] one offers [in sacrifice] to God. If it is accepted, a white fire will come down from the heaven and consume it, otherwise it will remain as it is. Such a covenant was made with the Children of Israel, but not in the case of Jesus and Muhammad. God, exalted be He, says, Say, to them in rebuke: ‘messengers have come to you before me with clear proofs, with miracles, and with that which you said, [messengers] such as Zachariah and John, but you slew them: the address here is for those living at the time of our Prophet Muhammad (s), even though the deed was their forefathers’, for they [their descendants] are content with it. Why did you slay them, then, if you are truthful?’, about [the fact] that you would believe if it [the offering] were brought [to you].
Verse 184
But if they deny you, so were denied messengers before you who came bearing clear proofs, miracles, and the Scriptures, such as the scrolls of Abraham, and the Illuminating, the lucid, Book, that is, the Torah and the Gospel (a variant reading establishes the [prefixed preposition] bā’ in both [words, sc. bi’l-zubur wa-bi’l-kitāb l-munīr, ‘with the Scriptures and with the Illuminating Book’]), so be patient as they were.
Verse 185
Every soul shall taste of death; you shall surely be paid in full your wages, the requital of your deeds, on the Day of Resurrection. Whoever is moved away, distanced, from the Fire and admitted to Paradise, will have triumphed, he will have attained his ultimate wish. Living in, the life of this world is but the comfort of delusion; of inanity, enjoyed for a little while, then perishing.
Verse 186
You shall surely be tried (la-tublawunna, the [final] nūn nominative indicator has been omitted because two nūn letters [would otherwise] succeed one another, as has been the plural person indicator wāw where two unvocalised consonants have come together), in other words, you shall surely be tested, in your property, through the duties [imposed] thereupon and through the damages that affect them; and in your selves, through [the obligations of] worship and through calamities, and you shall hear from those who were given the Scripture before you, the Jews and the Christians, and from those who are idolaters, from among the Arabs, much hurt, in the way of insult, slander and [their] flirting with your women; but if you are patient, through this, and fear, God — surely that is true resolve, that is, it is one of those things regarding which one must necessarily have firm resolve.
Verse 187
And, mention, when God made covenant with those who had been given the Scripture, that is, the pledge [taken] from them in the Torah, ‘You shall expound it (read tubayyinunnahu, or yubayyinunnahu, ‘they shall expound it’) the Book, to people, and not conceal it’ (read taktumūnahu, ‘you shall not conceal it’, or yaktumūnahu, ‘they shall not conceal it’). But they rejected it, they discarded the covenant, behind their backs, and so they did not act in accordance with it, and bought with it, they took in its place, a small price, of this world from the debased among them, enjoying supremacy over them in knowledge, and they concealed it, lest it [the supremacy] escape them; how evil is what they have bought, [how evil is] this purchase of theirs!
Verse 188
Do not reckon that (lā tahsabanna, or read lā yahsabanna, ‘let them not reckon’) those who rejoice in what they have brought, that is, [in what] they have done by leading people astray, and who love to be praised for what they have not done, in the way of adherence to the truth, being [themselves] misguided — do not reckon them (fa-lā tahsabannahum, is for emphasis [in the case of both readings above]) secure, in a place where they can escape, from the chastisement, in the Hereafter; but instead they shall be in a place of wherein they shall be tortured, and that is Hell; there shall be a painful chastisement for them, in it (alīm means mu’lim, ‘painful’). (If one reads yahsabanna, ‘let them [not] reckon’, the two direct objects of the first h-s-b verb would be indicated by the two direct objects of the second h-s-b verb; but if one reads tahsabanna, ‘do [not] reckon’, then only second direct object would be omitted).
Verse 189
To God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and of the earth, the storehouses of rain, sustenance, vegetation and so forth, and God has power over all things, including the punishing of disbelievers and the saving of believers.
Verse 190
Surely in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the marvels contained in them, and in the alternation of night and day, coming and going, increasing and diminishing, there are signs, indications of God’s power, for people of pith, for people possessing intellects.
Verse 191
Those who (alladhīna, an adjectival qualification of the preceding [li-ūlī l-albāb, ‘for people of pith’], or a substitution for it) remember God, standing and sitting and on their sides, reclining, that is to say, in all states: [it is reported] from Ibn ‘Abbās that they perform prayer in these ways, [each] according to [his own] capacity; and reflect upon the creation of the heavens and the earth, to deduce therefrom the power of their Creator, saying: ‘Our Lord, You have not created this, creation that we see, in vain (bātilan, a circumstantial qualifier), frivolously, but as a proof of the totality of Your power. Glory be to You!, exalted above any frivolity. So guard us against the chastisement of the Fire.
Verse 192
Our Lord, whomever You admit into the Fire, to abide therein, You will have abased, You will have humiliated, and the evildoers, the disbelievers therein, shall have no helpers, to protect them from God’s chastisement, exalted be He (the overt noun [‘the evildoers’] has replaced the pronominalisation [‘whomever’] in order to inform that the [punishment of] abasement is specifically theirs; the min of [min ansār, ‘helpers’] is extra).
Verse 193
Our Lord, we have heard a caller calling, summoning people, to belief (li’l-īmān means ilā l-īmān) and this is Muhammad (s), or [summoning them] to the Qur’ān, saying, that, “Believe in your Lord!” And we believed, in Him. So, our Lord, forgive us our sins and absolve us of, conceal, our evil deeds, and so do not make them manifest by punishing us for them, and take us [in death], receive our spirits together, with the pious, the prophets and the righteous.
Verse 194
Our Lord, grant us what You have promised us through, the tongues of, Your messengers, in the way of mercy and favour: they are asking Him that they be made among those that deserve such a promise, for, God’s promise is fufilled regardless, but they are not certain that they are among those who deserve it. The repetition of the phrase, our Lord, is out of extreme humility; and abase us not on the Day of Resurrection. You will not fail the tryst’, the promise of Resurrection and Requital.
Verse 195
And their Lord answers them, their supplication, by saying that, ‘I do not let the labour of any labourer among you go to waste, be you male or female — the one of you is as the other (this statement is a reaffirmation of the previous one): that is, they are both equal when it comes to recompensing them for their deeds and for not neglecting them. When Umm Salama asked, ‘O Messenger of God, why is there no mention of women when it comes to the Emigration (hijra)?’, the following was revealed: and those who emigrated, from Mecca to Medina, and were expelled from their habitations, those who suffered hurt in My way, for My religion, and fought, the disbelievers, and were slain (read qutilū or quttilū) — them I shall surely absolve of their evil deeds, concealing these with forgiveness, and I shall admit them to Gardens underneath which river flow’. A reward (thawāban is a verbal noun reaffirming the import of la-ukaffiranna) from God! (there is a shift of person here). And God — with Him is the fairest reward, [the fairest] requital.
Verse 196
When the Muslims began to say, ‘Look at the enemies of God, how comfortable they are, while we are struggling!’, the following was revealed: Let it not delude you, that the disbelievers go to and fro in the land, engaging in commerce and acquiring profit:
Verse 197
That is [but], a little enjoyment, which they enjoy for a short while in this world and then perishes; then their abode is Hell — an evil cradling, [an evil] resting place it is!
Verse 198
But those who fear their Lord — for them shall be Gardens underneath which rivers flow, abiding, that is, it is decreed for them to abide, therein; a hospitality (nuzul is what is prepared for a guest; it is in the accusative [nuzulan] because it is a circumstantial qualifier referring to jannāt, ‘gardens’, and its operator is the import of the adverbial phrase) from God Himself. That which is with God, in the way of reward, is better for the pious, than the enjoyment of this world.
Verse 199
Verily, there are some among the People of the Scripture who believe in God, like ‘Abd Allāh b. Salām and his companions and the Negus, and what has been revealed to you, that is, the Qur’ān, and what has been revealed to them, that is, the Torah and the Gospel, humble before God (khāshi‘īn is a circumstantial qualification of the person of [the verb] yu’min, ‘who believe’, and takes into account the [potentially plural] sense of man, ‘who’), not purchasing with the verses of God, which they have before them in the Torah and the Gospel pertaining to the descriptions of the Prophet (s), a small price, of this world, by concealing them for fear of losing their supremacy, as others, like the Jews, have done. Those — their wage, the reward for their deeds, is with their Lord, [a reward] which they will be given twice over, as [stated] in the sūrat al-Qasas [Q. 28:54]. God is swift at reckoning, reckoning with the whole of creation in about half a day of the days of this world.
Verse 200
O you who believe, be patient, in [performing] acts of obedience, in the face of afflictions and in refraining from acts of disobedience, and vie in patience, with the disbelievers, lest they be more patient than you; be steadfast, persist in the struggle; fear God, in all of your circumstances, so that you will prosper, [so that] you will win [admittance to] Paradise and be delivered from the Fire.