Verse 1
Glory be to Him — an affirmation of [God’s] transcendence — Who carried His servant, Muhammad (s), by night (laylan is in the accusative as an adverbial qualification; isrā’ means ‘to travel by night’; what is instructive about this mention [of laylan, ‘by night’] is that, through its being indefinite, there is an indication of the brevity of its duration) from the Sacred Mosque, that is, Mecca, to the Farthest Mosque, the Holy House [of Jerusalem], so called because of its distance from the former; the environs of which We have blessed, with fruits and rivers, that We might show him some of Our signs, the marvels of Our power. Indeed He is the Hearing, the Seeing, that is to say, the Knower of the Prophet’s (s) sayings and deeds. Thus He [God] was gracious to him by way of [carrying him on] the night journey, which comprised his encountering the [other] prophets, his ascension to heaven and the sight of the marvels of the [Divine] Realm and His communion, exalted be He, with him. For he [the Prophet] (s) said: ‘I was brought al-Burāq, a white animal, larger than a donkey but smaller than a mule; it was able to place its hoof [back] towards its extremity and so I mounted it. It set off carrying me until I reached the Holy House [of Jerusalem]. [There] I fastened the animal to the ring where the prophets fasten [their animals]. I then went in and prayed two units inside it. As I came out, Gabriel came to me with a jug of wine and a jug of milk, and so I chose the milk. Gabriel said [to me], “You have made the right choice [by choosing] the primordial nature (fitra)”.’ He [the Prophet] continued [the narration], ‘We then ascended to the heaven of this world, whereat Gabriel asked to be let in. Someone asked, “Who are you?”. He replied, “Gabriel”, “And who is with you?”, “Muhammad (s)”, he said. “Has he been sent for?”. “Yes, he has been sent for”. Then it was opened for us, and lo! Adam stood before me; he greeted me and prayed for well-being for me. We then ascended to the second heaven and Gabriel asked to be let in. Someone asked, “Who are you?”. He replied, “Gabriel”, “And who is with you?”, “Muhammad (s)”, he said. “Has he been called forth?”. “Yes, he has been called forth”. And it was opened up for us, and lo! there were the two [maternal] cousins, John and Jesus. They greeted me and prayed for well-being for me. We then ascended to the third heaven and Gabriel asked to be let in. Someone asked, “Who are you?”. He replied, “Gabriel”, “And who is with you?”, “Muhammad (s)”, he said. “Has he been sent for?” it was asked. “Yes, he has been sent for”. And it was opened up for us, and lo! there was Joseph standing before me, and indeed he had been given one half of all beauty! He greeted me and prayed for well-being for me. We then ascended to the fourth heaven and Gabriel asked to be let in. Someone asked, “Who are you?”. He replied, “Gabriel”, “And who is with you?”, “Muhammad (s)”, he said. “Has he been called forth?”, it was asked. “Yes, he has been called forth”, he replied. And it was opened up for us, and lo! there before me was Enoch (Idrīs). He greeted me and prayed for well-being for me. We then ascended to the fifth heaven and Gabriel asked to be let in. Someone asked, “Who are you?”. He replied, “Gabriel”. “And who is with you?” it was asked, “Muhammad (s)”, he replied. “Has he been sent for?”, it was said. “Yes, he has been sent for”, he replied. And it was opened up for us, and lo! there before me was Aaron. He greeted me and prayed for well-being for me. We then ascended to the sixth heaven and Gabriel asked to be let in. Someone asked, “Who are you?”. He replied, “Gabriel”; “and who is with you?”, “Muhammad (s)”, he said. “Has he been called forth?”, it was asked. “Yes, he has been called forth”. And it was opened up for us, and lo! there before me was Moses. He greeted me and prayed for well-being for me. We then ascended to the seventh heaven and Gabriel asked to be let in. Someone asked, “Who are you?”. He replied, “Gabriel”, “And who is with you?”; “Muhammad (s)”, he said. “Has he been called forth?”, it was asked. “Yes, he has been called forth”, he replied. And it was opened up for us, and lo! there before me was Abraham, leaning [seated] against the Frequented House (al-bayt al-ma‘mūr), into which 70,000 angels enter every day never to return thereto. I was then taken to the Lote-Tree of the Boundary (sidrat al-muntahā), and lo! its leaves resemble the ears of elephants, its fruits like pitchers [in size]. When some command of God’s enveloped it, it changed, and lo! none of God’s creation could describe it for all its beauty’. He [the Prophet] continued: ‘God then revealed to me what He revealed and prescribed for me fifty prayers each day and night. I then descended until I reached Moses and he said, “What has your Lord prescribed for your community?” I said, “Fifty prayers each day and night”. He said, “Go back to your Lord and ask Him for an alleviation, for your community will not have the capacity for it: I have tried the Children of Israel and have experience of them [not being up to the task].” I then went back to my Lord and said, “My Lord! Lighten that [prescription] for my community”, and so He reduced it for me by five. I went back to Moses who asked me, “What did you do?”. I said to him, ‘He has reduced it for me by five’, to which he said, “Your community will not have the capacity for this; so go back to your Lord and ask Him for an alleviation for your community”. Thus I kept going back and forth between my Lord and Moses, with Him reducing it by five each time until He said, “O Muhammad (s)! They shall be five prayers each day and night, every prayer will be worth [the reward of] ten [prayers]; that then makes fifty prayers. And whoever intends a good deed but does not perform it, I shall count it for him as one [done]; and if he performs it, I shall count it for him as ten; and whoever intends an evil deed, but does not perform it, it shall not be recorded against him; but if he performs it, it shall be recorded [only] as one evil deed”. I then descended until I reached Moses. I informed him and he said, “Go back to your Lord and ask Him for an alleviation for your community, because your community will not have the capacity for this”; and I said, “I have gone back to my Lord so many times that I am ashamed [to go again]”. This [hadīth] is reported by the two Shaykhs [al-Bukhārī and Muslim]; but the wording [of this version] is that of [the report in the Sahīh of] Muslim. Al-Hākim [al-Naysābūrī] reports in the Mustadrak by way of Ibn ‘Abbās that he said, ‘The Prophet (s) said, “I did see my Lord, Mighty and Majestic”.’
Verse 2
God, exalted be He, says: And We gave Moses the Scripture, the Torah, and made it a guidance for the Children of Israel [saying] that they should not choose beside Me any guardian, to whom they delegate their affairs (a variant reading [for yattakhidhū, ‘they should [not] choose’] is tattakhidhū, ‘you should [not] choose’, thus turning away [from the third person address], in which case [the particle] an, ‘that’, is extra and the ‘saying’ is implicit).
Verse 3
descendants of those whom We carried with Noah, in the Ark. Indeed he was a grateful servant, giving thanks to Us frequently, and offering praise in whichever state he found himself.
Verse 4
And We decreed, We revealed, to the Children of Israel in the Scripture, the Torah: ‘You shall indeed work corruption in the land, the land of Syria, through acts of disobedience, twice and you shall indeed become great tyrants’, you shall perpetrate grave injustice.
Verse 5
So when the time for the first of the two [prophecies], the first of the two occasions for corruption, came, We roused against you servants of Ours of great might, men who are strong in war and assault, who ransacked, who came and went, seeking you out [through], [your] habitations, in the [very] midst of your homes, in order to slay you and take [others among] you captive, and it was a promise fulfilled. Their first act of corruption was their slaying of [the prophet] Zachariah. So Goliath and his army were roused against them, and they slew them and took their children captive and destroyed the Holy House [of Jerusalem].
Verse 6
Then We gave you back the turn, the [rule of the] state and victory, [to prevail] over them, one hundred years later, by having Goliath slain, and We aided you with children and wealth, and made you greater in number, in clan.
Verse 7
And We said: ‘If you are virtuous, through [acts of] obedience, you are being virtuous to your own souls, since the reward thereof is for them [your souls]; and if you do evil, by way of [working] corruption, it is for them’, your evildoing. So when the time, the occasion, for the other [prophecy] comes, We will raise them forth, that they might ravage you, make you grieve through [their] slaying and taking captive [of you], a grief that will be manifest on your faces, and that they might enter the Temple, the Holy House [of Jerusalem], and destroy it, just as they entered it, and destroyed it, the first time, and that they might destroy, lay waste, all that they conquered, [all that] they gained ascendancy over, utterly, with an utter wasting. They indeed wrought corruption a second time when they slew [the prophet] John. Thus Nebuchadnezzar was roused against them, and so he slew thousands of them and took their children captive and destroyed the Holy House [of Jerusalem].
Verse 8
And We said in the Scripture: It may be that your Lord will have mercy upon you, after the second time, if you were to repent; but if you revert, to [working] corruption, We [too] will revert, to punishment. And assuredly they did revert by denying the Prophet (s), and so he was given power over them, through the slaying of the [Banū] Qurayza, the expulsion of the [Banū] Nadīr and the exacting of the jizya-tax from them; and We have made Hell a dungeon for the disbelievers, a place of detention and a prison [for them].
Verse 9
Truly this Qur’ān guides to that, to that way, which is straightest, most upright and correct, and gives tidings to the believers who perform righteous deeds that there is a great reward for them.
Verse 10
And, it [this Qur’ān] informs, that those who do not believe in the Hereafter, We have prepared for them a painful chastisement, namely, the Fire.
Verse 11
And man prays for ill, against himself and his family when he is frustrated, as [avidly as] he prays for good. And mankind is ever hasty, to pray against himself, without contemplating the consequence thereof.
Verse 12
And We made the night and the day two signs, [both] indicators of Our power. Then We effaced the sign of the night, extinguishing its light with darkness, so that you might repose therein (the annexation [āyata’layli, ‘the sign of the night’, is explicative), and made the sign of the day sight-giving, in other words, one in which it is possible to see because of the light; that you may seek, therein, bounty from your Lord, by earning [your livelihood], and that you may know, by both [day and night], the number of years and the reckoning, of the times [of the day], and everything, that might be needed, We have detailed very distinctly, We have explained clearly.
Verse 13
And We have attached every person’s omen — his deeds — for him to carry, upon his neck — this [site] is singled out for mention because fastening [something] to it is [much] more severe; Mujāhid [b. Jabr al-Makkī] said, ‘There is not a child born but it has a leaf around its neck in which it is decreed [that the child will be either] fortunate or damned’ — and We shall bring forth for him, on the Day of Resurrection, a book, in which his deeds are recorded [and], which he will find wide open (yalqāhu manshūran: both are adjectival qualifications of kitāban, ‘a book’).
Verse 14
And it will be said to him: ‘Read your book! This day your soul suffices as your own reckoner’.
Verse 15
Whoever is guided, is guided only to [the good of] his own soul, because the reward of his guidance will be for him; and whoever goes astray, goes astray only to its [his soul’s] detriment, because the sin thereof will be held against it. No burdened, [no] sinful, soul shall bear the burden of another, soul. And We never chastise, anyone, until We have sent a messenger, to make clear to him that which is his obligation.
Verse 16
And when We desire to destroy a town We command its affluent ones, those [inhabitants] of its who enjoy the graces [of God], meaning its leaders, [We command them] to obedience, by the tongue of Our messengers; but they fall into immorality therein, rebelling against Our command, and so the Word is justified concerning it, that it should be chastised, and We destroy it utterly, We annihilate it by annihilating its inhabitants and leaving it in ruins.
Verse 17
How many — in other words, many — generations, communities, We have destroyed since Noah! And your Lord suffices as One Informed and Beholder of the sins of His servants, Knower of the hidden and manifest aspects of these [sins] (bi-rabbika, ‘your Lord’, is semantically connected to bi-dhunūb, ‘of the sins’).
Verse 18
Whoever desires, through his deeds, the hasty world, that is, [the life of] this world, We hasten for him therein whatever We will, for whom We please, [such] a hastening, (li-man nurīd, ‘for whom We please’, is a substitute for lahu, ‘for him’, with the repetition of the genitive particle [li-]). Then We appoint for him, in the Hereafter, Hell, to which he will be exposed, [to which] he will be admitted, condemned, blameful, and rejected, banished from [God’s] mercy.
Verse 19
And whoever desires the Hereafter and strives for it with the necessary effort, [that is] he performs the deeds worthy of it, being a believer (wa-huwa mu’minun is a circumstantial qualifier) — for such their effort will find favour, with God, that is, [their effort will be] accepted and rewarded.
Verse 20
Each, of the two parties, We supply, We give, [to] these and [to] those (hā’ūlā’ wa-hā’ūlā’ is a substitute [for kullan, ‘each’) from (min is semantically connected to numiddu, ‘We supply’) from your Lord’s bounty, in this world. And your Lord’s bounty, therein, is not confined, [it is not] forbidden to anyone.
Verse 21
See how We have given preference to some of them over others, in provision and renown. And truly the Hereafter is greater, grander, in degrees and greater in preferment, to this world, and so one ought to devote one’s attention to it [the Hereafter], to the exclusion of the other.
Verse 22
Do not set up another god besides God, or you will sit blameworthy, forsaken, with no one to assist you.
Verse 23
And your Lord has decreed, He has commanded, that you worship none save Him, and, that you show, kindness to parents, by being dutiful to them. If they should reach old age with you, one of them (ahaduhumā is the subject [of the verb]) or both (a variant reading [for yablughanna] has yablughān, ‘both [should] reach’, in which case ahaduhumā would be substituting for the [dual indicator] alif [of yablughān]) then do not say to them ‘Fie’ (read uffan or uffin, uffa or uffi, a verbal noun meaning tabban, ‘perish!’ or qubhan, ‘evil!’) nor repulse them, but speak to them gracious words, fair and gentle [words].
Verse 24
And lower to them the wing of humility, show them your submissive side, out of mercy, that is, on account of your affection for them, and say, ‘My Lord, have mercy on them, just as they, had mercy on me when [they], reared me when I was little’.
Verse 25
Your Lord knows best what is in your hearts, [in the way] of what may be concealed of dutifulness or disobedience [to parents]. If you are righteous, obedient to God, then truly, to those who are penitent, those who return to obedience of Him, He is Forgiving, of any slip that might have issued on their part regarding their duty to the parents, so long as they do not conceal [within themselves] any disrespect [towards them].
Verse 26
And give the kinsman his due, of dutifulness and kindness, and the needy and the traveller [as well]; and do not squander, by expending for [any purpose] other than in obedience to God.
Verse 27
Indeed squanderers are brothers of devils, that is, they follow their way, and the Devil was ever ungrateful to his Lord, extremely rejective of His graces: likewise his brother the squanderer.
Verse 28
But if you [have to] overlook them, that is, the kinsmen and the others mentioned, and do not give to them, seeking mercy from your Lord, [a mercy] which you expect [in the future], that is, [you do not give to them] because of a request for provision which you are waiting to come to you [from your Lord], before you give to them, then speak to them gentle words, pleasant and reasonable [words], promising them that you will give to them when the provision [from God] arrives.
Verse 29
And do not keep your hand chained to your neck, in other words, do not withhold it completely from expending, nor open it, in order to expend, completely, or you will sit blameworthy — this refers to the first case — and denuded, cut off, having nothing — this refers to the latter case.
Verse 30
Truly your Lord expands provision, He makes it abundant, for whomever He will and He straitens, He restricts it for whomever He will. Indeed He is ever Aware and Seer of His servants, Knower of what they hide and what they manifest, giving them provision in accordance with their welfare.
Verse 31
And do not slay your children, by burying them alive, fearing penury, poverty. We shall provide for them and for you. Slaying them is truly a great sin.
Verse 32
And do not come [anywhere] near fornication — this [form of expressing it] is more effective than [saying] ‘Do not commit it’. It is indeed an indecency, an abomination, and, it is, an evil way.
Verse 33
And do not slay the soul [whose life] God has made inviolable, except with due cause. Whoever is slain wrongfully, We have certainly given his heir, the one inheriting from him, a warrant, a sanction [to retaliate] against the slayer; but let him not commit excess, [let him not] overstep the bounds, in slaying, by slaying other than the killer [of the one slain], or by other than that [instrument] with which he [the slain] was killed; for he is supported [by the Law].
Verse 34
And do not come [anywhere] near an orphan’s property, except in the fairest manner until he comes of age. And fulfil the covenant, should you make a covenant with God or with people [in general]. Indeed the covenant will be enquired into.
Verse 35
And give full measure, complete it, when you measure, and weigh with a right balance, [with] an even balance: that is better and fairer in return.
Verse 36
And do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge. Indeed the hearing and the sight and the heart — of each of these it will be asked, of that person what he did with them.
Verse 37
And do not walk in the earth exultantly, that is, exultant with pride and conceit. Indeed you will not rend the earth, [you will not] pierce it and reach its depths with your pride, nor attain the mountains in height: the meaning is that you shall never attain such ends, so how can you be so arrogant?
Verse 38
All of that, [which has been] mentioned — the evil of it is hateful in the sight of your Lord.
Verse 39
This is [part] of the wisdom, the admonition, which your Lord has revealed to you, O Muhammad (s). And do not set up with God any other god, or you will be cast into Hell, blameworthy, abandoned, banished from God’s mercy.
Verse 40
Has your Lord then preferred you, has He distinguished you [exclusively], O Meccans, with sons and chosen for Himself females from among the angels?, as daughters for Himself, in the way that you [are wont to] claim. Truly, by [saying] this, you are speaking a monstrous word!
Verse 41
And verily We have dispensed, We have elucidated, in this Qur’ān, similitudes, promises [of reward] and threats [of retribution], so that they may remember, [that they may] be admonished, but it, that [elucidation], only increases them in aversion, to the Truth.
Verse 42
Say, to them: ‘If there were with Him, that is, with God, [other] gods, as they say, they would, in that case, have sought against the Lord of the Throne, that is, [against] God, some path, some way, in order to fight Him [off].
Verse 43
Glory be to Him — an affirmation of His transcendence — and exalted be He above what they say, in the way of [His having] associates, greatly!
Verse 44
The seven heavens and the earth and all that is therein proclaim His praise, [they] affirm His transcendence. And there is not a thing, among things created, but proclaims, enwrapped [in], His praise, in other words, [everything] says subhāna’Llāh wa-bi-hamdihi, ‘Glory and praise be to God’; but you do not understand their glorification, because it is not [proclaimed] in your language. Lo! He is Forbearing, Forgiving, for He does not hasten [to bring about] your punishment.
Verse 45
And when you recite the Qur’ān, We place between you and those who do not believe in the Hereafter a hidden barrier, that is, one that hides you from them, so that they cannot see you — this was revealed regarding those who wanted to assassinate him (s) [the Prophet].
Verse 46
And We place upon their hearts veils, covers, lest they should understand it, lest they should understand the Qur’ān, in other words, and so [in this way] they do not understand it, and in their ears a deafness, a heaviness, thus they cannot hear it. And when you mention your Lord alone in the Qur’ān, they turn their backs in aversion, to it.
Verse 47
We know best what they listen to, the reason for [which they listen to] it, in order to mock [it], when they listen to you, [to] your recital, and when they are in secret counsel, holding secret talks among themselves, in other words, when they talk, when (idh substitutes for the preceding idh, ‘when’) the evildoers say, in their secret conversation: ‘You are only following a man bewitched, one duped, his mind overcome’.
Verse 48
God, exalted be He, says: Look how they strike similitudes for you, such as [your being] bewitched, a soothsayer or a poet, and they go astray, thereby from [the path of] guidance, and cannot find a way, a path to it!
Verse 49
And they say, in denial of the Resurrection: ‘What, when we are bones and fragments, shall we really be raised up in a new creation?’
Verse 50
Say, to them: ‘Be stones or iron,
Verse 51
or some creation yet greater in your breasts, [something yet] far less able to accept life, aside from bones and fragments, a spirit will undoubtedly be made to exist in you [to bring you back to life]. They will then say, ‘Who shall bring us back?’, to life. Say: ‘He Who originated you, created you, the first time, when you had not been anything [in existence], because the One Who is able to initiate [creation] is also able to repeat [it], indeed, this [repetition] is easier [than the initiation]. Then they will shake their heads at you, stupefied, and they will say, mockingly: ‘When will it be?’, that is, the Resurrection. Say: ‘Maybe it is near!’
Verse 52
The day He calls you, [the day] He calls out to you from your graves by the tongue of [the archangel] Isrāfīl, you will respond, you will answer His call from your graves, with His praise, by His command — it is also said to mean [that you will respond] ‘and praise be to Him’ — and you will think that you have remained, in this world, only a little, because of the terror of what you will see [on that day].
Verse 53
And tell My servants, the believers, to speak, to disbelievers, that, word, which is finer. For Satan indeed incites ill feeling, he makes trouble, between them, and Satan is indeed man’s manifest enemy, his enmity is evident. The ‘finer word’ is [to say] this:
Verse 54
Your Lord knows you best. If He will, He will have mercy on you, by way of [granting you] repentance and faith, or, if He will, for you to be chastised, He will chastise you, by having you die in disbelief. And We did not send you to be a guardian over them, and so compel them to [embrace] faith — this was [revealed] before the command to fight [them].
Verse 55
And your Lord knows best all who are in the heavens and the earth, thus endowing them [each one] with what He will, according to the measure of their states. And verily We have preferred some of the prophets above others, endowing each of them with a particular merit: Moses, with being spoken to; Abraham, with Friendship; and Muhammad (s), with the Night Journey; and We gave David the Psalms.
Verse 56
Say, to them: ‘Call on those whom you assumed, to be gods, besides Him, such as the angels, Jesus and Ezra (‘Uzayr); yet they have no power to rid you of misfortune nor to transfer, it to [persons] other than you.
Verse 57
Those whom they call, gods, [they themselves] seek a means to their Lord, [they seek] nearness, by way of obedience, which of them (ayyuhum substitutes for the [third person indicator] wāw of [the verb] yabtaghūna, ‘they seek’) in other words, [even] he seeks it [this nearness] the one who, is nearer, to Him, so how [much more] is it [sought] in the case of others?; and they hope for His mercy and fear His chastisement, just like others, so how can you call them gods? Truly your Lord’s chastisement is a thing to beware of.
Verse 58
There is not a town — its inhabitants are the ones meant — but We shall destroy it before the Day of Resurrection, through death, or chastise it with terrible chastisement, by killing [its inhabitants] or otherwise. That has been inscribed in the Book, the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfūz).
Verse 59
Nothing prevented Us from sending the signs, requested by the people of Mecca, except that the ancients denied them, when We sent such [signs] and so We destroyed them: if We were to send them to these [people of Mecca], they would deny them and would thus deserve destruction. However, We have judged that they be given respite so that the mission of Muhammad (s) be completed. And We gave Thamūd the she-camel as, a sign [that was], apparent, [one that was] clear and evident, but they wronged, they disbelieved, it, and were therefore destroyed. And We do not send signs, miracles, except for deterrence, to servants, so that they might believe.
Verse 60
And, remember, when We said to you, ‘Truly your Lord encompasses mankind’, in knowledge and power [over them], such that they are within His grasp: so deliver the Message to them and do not fear anyone, because God will protect you from them. And We did not appoint the vision that We showed you, before your very eyes, during the Night Journey, except as a test for people, [for] the people of Mecca — since they denied it and some of them [even] apostatised when he [the Prophet] informed them of it — and [likewise] the tree cursed in the Qur’ān, namely, the [tree called] Zaqqūm [Q.37:62ff] that issues from the very root of the Blazing Fire [of Hell]; We made it a test for them, because they said, ‘Fire consumes trees, so how can it cause it [the Zaqqūm tree] to issue forth?’. And We [seek to] deter them, with it, but it, Our deterrence, only increases them in gross insolence.
Verse 61
And, mention, when We said to the angels, ‘Prostrate yourselves before Adam’, a prostration of salutation, by inclining oneself, and so they [all] prostrated themselves, except Iblīs: he said, ‘Shall I prostrate myself before one whom You have created from clay?’ (tīnan, is in the accusative because the operator of the oblique [min, ‘of’] has been omitted, in other words [it would normally be] min tīnin).
Verse 62
Said he, ‘Do You see — in other words, inform me: this one whom You have honoured, [whom] You have preferred, above me?, by commanding that prostration should be made before him, when ‘I am better than him. You created me from fire, while him You created from clay’ [Q. 7:12]. If (la-in: the lām is for oaths) You defer me to the Day of Resurrection I shall verily eradicate his seed, by leading them astray, [all] save a few’, of them, of those whom You have given [divine] protection.
Verse 63
Said He, exalted be He, to him [Iblīs]: ‘Begone, deferred to the time of the First Blast [of the Trumpet]. Whoever of them follows you — indeed Hell shall be your requital, [both] yours and theirs, a requital [that is indeed] ample, sufficient and complete.
Verse 64
And tempt, dupe, whomever of them you can with your voice, by your calling them with songs and pipes and with every invitation to [acts of] disobedience; and rally, incite, against them your cavalry and your infantry, namely, those who ride and walk in acts of disobedience, and share with them in wealth, that is illicit, such as usury and extortion, and children, from [acts of] adultery, and make promises to them’, to the effect that there will not be any resurrection or requital. And Satan promises them, thereby, nothing but delusion, falsehood.
Verse 65
‘Truly as for My servants, the believers, you shall have no warrant’, [no] sway or ability. And Your Lord suffices as a guardian, as a protector for them against you.
Verse 66
Your Lord is He Who drives for you the ships upon the sea that you may seek of His bounty, exalted be He, through [engaging in] commerce. Truly He is ever Merciful towards you, by disposing these [ships] for you.
Verse 67
And when distress, difficulty, befalls you at sea, [such as] fear of drowning, those whom you [are wont to] invoke are no longer present, [those whom] you [are wont to] worship of gods [are no longer present], and so you do not call on them — except Him, exalted be He, for on Him alone you do call, because you are suffering a distress which only He can remove. But when He delivers you, from drowning and brings you, to land, you are rejective, of [God’s] Oneness, for man is ever ungrateful, [ever] denying [God’s] graces.
Verse 68
Do you feel secure that He will not cause a side of the earth, in other words, the land, to swallow you up, as [He did] with Korah (Qārūn), or unleash upon you a squall of pebbles? that is, hurl a shower of stones upon you, as [He did] with the people of Lot. Then you will not find for yourselves any guardian, any protector from Him.
Verse 69
Or do you feel secure that He will not return you to it, that is, [to] the sea, a second time and unleash upon you a shattering gale, that is, a violent wind that shatters everything in its path, to destroy your ship, and drown you for your ungratefulness? And then you will not find for yourselves any redresser of this against Us, [any] helper or advocate to demand restitution from Us for what We [will] have done to you.
Verse 70
And verily We have honoured, We have preferred, the Children of Adam, [above other creation], by [giving them] knowledge, speech and [their being] a creation of even proportions amongst other things, including their [means of] purification after death, and carried them over land, on animal-back, and sea, in ships, and provided them with good things and We have preferred them above many of those whom We created, such as livestock and wild animals, with a marked preferment (the min [of mimman, ‘of those whom’] has the sense of mā, ‘of what’, or something close to it, and includes the angels, the purpose being to give preference to the [angelic] genus; there is no requirement to give [explicit] preference to the individuals [of this category of being], since they [angels] are superior to mankind, excepting the prophets).
Verse 71
Mention, the day when We shall summon all men with their leader, their prophet, and it will be said, ‘O community of so-and-so’; or [it bi-imāmihim means] ‘with the record of their deeds’, in which case it will be said, ‘O one of good [deeds], O one of evil [deeds]!’: this is [on] the Day of Resurrection. And whoever, from among them, is given his book in his right hand, these being the fortunate, those possessors of understanding in this world — those will read their book, and they will not be wronged, they will [not] be diminished of their deeds, [so much as] a single date-thread.
Verse 72
And whoever has been in this, that is, [in] this world, blind, to the truth, will be blind in the Hereafter, to the path of salvation and the reciting of the Qur’ān, and [even] further astray from the [right] way, more removed from the road [that leads] to it.
Verse 73
The following was revealed regarding the [tribe of] Thaqīf, for they had asked him [the Prophet] (s) to declare their valley inviolable and implored him [to grant them this request]: And indeed (wa-in, [the particle in is] softened) they were about to, they nearly did, beguile you away from that which We revealed to you, so that you might invent against Us [something] other than that; and then, had you done that, they would have taken you as a friend.
Verse 74
And if We had not made you [stand] firm, upon the Truth, by way of [divine] protection (‘isma), certainly you might have, you nearly, inclined to them a little, because of the extent of their deception and their persistence. This [statement] is explicit about the fact that the Prophet (s) neither inclined nor came close to doing so.
Verse 75
Then, had you inclined, We would have surely made you taste a double, chastisement, in life and a double, chastisement, upon death, in other words, twice the chastisement that any other person would receive in this world and the Hereafter. Then you would not have found for yourself any helper against Us, [anyone] to shield [you] from it.
Verse 76
When the Jews said to him, ‘If you are a prophet, then make your way to Syria, for it is the land of prophets’, the following was revealed: And indeed (wa-in, [the particle in is] softened) they were about to provoke you out of the land, the land of Medina, to expel you from it, but then, had they expelled you, they would not have remained after you, in it, except a little [while], after which they would have been destroyed.
Verse 77
[That is] the way in the case of those whom We have sent from among Our messengers before you, that is to say, [that is] Our way [of dealing] with them [their enemies], destroying those who expel them [Our messengers]. And as regards Our [established] way you will not find any change, any alternative [manner].
Verse 78
Establish prayer from the sun’s decline, that is, from after midday, until the dark of night, [until] its darkness has fallen, in other words, [perform prayers] at noon, in the afternoon, at sunset and at night, and the recital [of the Qur’ān] at dawn, the morning prayer. Verily the dawn recital is ever witnessed, it is witnessed by the angels of the night and the angels of the day.
Verse 79
And for a part of the night, keep vigil, perform prayer, therewith, with the Qur’ān, as a supererogatory [devotion] for you, as an extra obligation for you to the exclusion of your community, or [it means] as extra merit [for you] on top of the [other] obligatory prayers. It may be that your Lord will raise you to, establish you, in the Hereafter, in, a praiseworthy station, one for which the first and last [of mankind] will praise you — and this is the station of intercession [which will take place] during [the passing of] the Final Judgement.
Verse 80
And say: ‘My Lord, make me enter, Medina, with a veritable entrance, an entrance that is satisfying, one in which I do not see what I dislike, and bring me out, of Mecca, with a veritable departure, a departure such that my heart will not [care to] turn back to look at it [yearningly]. And grant me from Yourself a favourable authority’, [grant me] strength with which You render me victorious over Your enemies.
Verse 81
And say, upon your entry into Mecca: ‘The Truth, Islam, has come and falsehood has vanished away, disbelief has come to nothing. Truly falsehood is ever bound to vanish’, [ever bound] to fade away and disappear. Indeed the Prophet (s) entered it [Mecca] and there were 360 idols [which had been placed] around the [Sacred] House [sc. the Ka‘ba]. He [the Prophet] then set about thrusting at them with a stick he was carrying, saying those [words] until they had [all] been toppled, as reported by the two Shaykhs [Bukhārī and Muslim].
Verse 82
And We reveal of (min [here] is explicative) the Qur’ān that which is a cure, from error, and a mercy for believers, thereby; though it only increases the evildoers, the disbelievers, in loss, because of their disbelief in it.
Verse 83
And when We are gracious to man, the disbelieving [man], he is disregardful, of giving thanks, and turns aside, turning his face away in arrogance; but when an ill, such as poverty or hardship, befalls him, he is in despair, despondent of God’s mercy.
Verse 84
Say: ‘Everyone, [including] us and you, acts according to his [own] character, his [own] manner [of conduct], and your Lord knows best who is better guided as to the way’, [as to] the path [he follows], and He will reward him [accordingly].
Verse 85
And they will question you, that is, the Jews, concerning the Spirit, from which the body receives life. Say, to them: ‘The Spirit is of the command of my Lord, that is, [it belongs to] His knowledge, about which you know not. And of knowledge you have not been given except a little’, relative to His knowledge, exalted be He.
Verse 86
And if (la-in, the lām is for oaths) We willed We could take away what We have revealed to you, in other words, [take away] the Qur’ān, by erasing it from the hearts [of men] and from the written copies. Then you would not find in respect thereof any guardian for yourself against Us;
Verse 87
[it is] only — but We have let it remain — as a mercy from your Lord. Truly His favour to you is ever great, tremendous, for He has revealed to you and granted you the praiseworthy station as well as other [kinds of] merit.
Verse 88
Say: ‘Verily, should mankind and jinn come together to produce the like of this Qur’ān, [the like thereof] in terms of clarity and rhetorical excellence, they could not produce the like thereof, even if they backed one another’, [even if one was] an assistant [of the other]. This [verse] was revealed as a refutation of their statement: ‘If we wish we can speak the like of this’ [Q. 8:31].
Verse 89
And verily We have dispensed, explained, for people in this Qur’ān every [kind of] similitude (min kulli mathalin, [this] is an adjectival qualification of an omitted clause, in other words, [‘We have dispensed] a similitude from every kind of similitude’), that they might be admonished; but most people, that is, the people of Mecca, insist on disbelieving, on denying the truth.
Verse 90
And they say (wa-qālū is a supplement to abā [illā], ‘insist on’), ‘We will not believe you until you make gush forth for us from the ground a spring, from which water issues forth;
Verse 91
or until you [come to] have a garden, an orchard, of date-palms and vines, and cause streams to gush forth therein, in the midst of these, abundantly;
Verse 92
or until you cause the heaven to fall upon us, as you assert, in pieces, or bring God and the angels [right] in front [of us], face to face [with us], before [our] very eyes, so that we might see them;
Verse 93
or until you [come to] have a house adorned with gold, or ascend into the heaven, upon a ladder, and [even then] we will not believe your ascension, if you were to ascend into it, until you bring down for us, therefrom, a book, in which is [confirmed] your truthfulness, that we may read’. Say, to them: ‘Glory be to my Lord — this is a statement of amazement — Am I anything but a human, a messenger [from God]?’, in other words, [I am] like all [other] messengers, for they never brought [any] signs except by God’s leave.
Verse 94
And nothing prevented mankind from believing when guidance came to them, but that they said, that is, [except] their saying in denial: ‘Has God sent a human as a messenger [from Him]?’, instead of sending an angel.
Verse 95
Say, to them: ‘Had there been in the earth, instead of humans, angels, walking [and living] secure, We would have sent down to them from the heaven an angel as Messenger’, for when a messenger is sent to a people he is [always] of their kind, so that they are able to speak to him and understand from him [his message].
Verse 96
Say: ‘God suffices as a witness between me and you, of my sincerity. Truly He is Aware, Seer of His servants’, Knower of what they hide and what they manifest.
Verse 97
And he whom God guides is rightly guided, and he whom He sends astray — you will not find for them [any] guardians, to guide them, besides Him. And We shall assemble them on the Day of Resurrection, walking, on their faces, blind, dumb, and deaf; their abode shall be Hell — whenever it abates, [whenever] its flames subside, We shall intensify for them the blaze, the flame and [its] burning.
Verse 98
That is their requital because they disbelieved Our signs and said, in denial of the Resurrection: ‘What, when we are bones and fragments, shall we really be raised in a new creation?’
Verse 99
Have they not seen, realised, that God, [He] Who created the heavens and the earth, with all their immensity, has the power to create the like of them?, that is, [the like of] these human beings, [especially] given their smallness? He has appointed for them a term, until [the time for their] death and resurrection, whereof is no doubt; yet the wrongdoers insist on disbelief, on denial of such [a term].
Verse 100
Say, to them: ‘If you possessed the treasuries of my Lord’s mercy, [those treasuries] of provision and rain, you would surely withhold [them], [you would] stint, for fear of spending, fearing that they would be depleted if [one] spent [from them] and [that] you would then become impoverished; and man is ever niggardly’.
Verse 101
And verily We gave Moses nine manifest signs, clear [signs], namely, [those of] the hand, the staff, the flood, the locusts, the lice, the frogs, the blood and the obliteration [of their possessions, cf. Q. 10:88], the years [of dearth] and scarcity of fruits [cf. Q. 7:130]. Ask, O Muhammad (s), the Children of Israel, about this (a [rhetorical] question meant as an affirmation for the idolaters of your sincerity; or [it means that] We said to him [Muhammad, s], ‘Ask’; a variant reading has the past tense [fa-sā’ala, ‘and he asked’]), when he came to them, Pharaoh said to him, ‘O Moses, I truly think that you are bewitched’, duped, your mind deceived.
Verse 102
He [Moses] said, ‘Indeed you know that none revealed these, signs, except the Lord of the heavens and the earth, as proofs, lessons; however, you are being stubborn (a variant reading [for ‘alimta, ‘you know’] has ‘alimtu [‘I know’]); and I truly think that you, O Pharaoh, are doomed’, [that you] will be destroyed — or [it, mathbūran, means that Pharaoh has been] turned away from [all deeds that are] good.
Verse 103
And he, Pharaoh, desired to scare them, to expel Moses and his people, from the land, the land of Egypt; so We drowned him and those with him, all together.
Verse 104
And after him We said to the Children of Israel, ‘Dwell in the land; but when the promise of the Hereafter, namely, the Hour, comes to pass, We shall bring you [gathered] in mixed company’, all together, you and them.
Verse 105
With the truth have We revealed it, that is, the Qur’ān, and with the truth, it comprises, has it been revealed, in the way it has, unaffected by any alterations; and We have not sent you, O Muhammad (s), except as a bearer of good tidings, of Paradise, for those who believe, and as a warner, of the Fire, for those who disbelieve.
Verse 106
And [it is] a Qur’ān (qur’ānan is in the accusative because of the verb governing it [which is the following]) that We have divided, that We have revealed in portions over 20 or 23 years, that you may recite it to mankind at intervals, gradually and with deliberateness so that they [are able to] comprehend it, and We have revealed it by [successive] revelation, one part after another, according to what is best [for mankind].
Verse 107
Say, to the disbelievers of Mecca, ‘Believe in it or do not believe, as a threat to them; indeed those who were given knowledge before it, before its revelation, namely, the believers from among the People of the Scripture, when it is recited to them, fall down in prostration on their faces,
Verse 108
and say, “Glory be to our Lord, exalting Him above [the claim] that [His] promise [of sending a prophet] had not been fulfilled. Indeed (in, softened) Our Lord’s promise, of its [the Qur’ān’s] revelation and the sending of the Prophet (s), is bound to be fulfilled”.
Verse 109
And they fall down on their faces, weeping (yabkūna is a supplement [to yakhirrūna, ‘they fall down’] also containing an adjectival qualification [of those falling down]); and it, the Qur’ān, increases them in humility’, in humbleness before God.
Verse 110
The Prophet (s) would often say, ‘O God, O Compassionate One’. So they said, ‘He [Muhammad, s] forbids us to worship more than one god, and yet he calls upon another [god] together with Him [God]’. The following was then revealed: Say, to them: ‘Invoke God or invoke the Compassionate One, that is to say, invoke Him by either of these [Names] or call upon Him by saying, ‘O God! O Compassionate One!’, whichever (ayyan is conditional; mā is extra), in other words, whichever of these two [Names], you invoke, is beautiful — this [predicate, ‘beautiful’] is indicated by the following [statement]), to Him, to the One called by these two [Names], belong the Most Beautiful Names’, these two [Names] being from among them; and they [the other Names] are [the following] as [mentioned] in hadīth: God, there is no god except Him, the Compassionate, the Merciful, the King, the Holy, the Peace, the Securer, the Controller, the Mighty, the Compeller, the Sublime, the Creator, the Maker [out of nothing], the Fashioner, the [ever] Forgiving, the Almighty, the Bestower, the Provider, the Deliverer, the Knower, the Seizer, the Extender, the Lowerer, the Raiser, the Glorifier, the Abaser, the Hearer, the Seer, the Arbiter, the Just, the Subtle, the Aware, the Forbearing, the Tremendous, the Forgiver, the Thankful, the High, the Great, the Preserver, the Conserver, the Reckoner, the Majestic, the Generous, the Watcher, the Responsive, the Embracing, the Wise, the Loving, the Glorious, the Resurrector, the Witnessing, the Truth, the Guardian, the Strong, the Firm, the Patron, the Praiseworthy, the Numberer, the Initiator, the Restorer, the Life-giver, the Death-maker, the Living, the Eternal Sustainer, the Originator, the Magnificent, the One, the Single, the Everlasting Refuge, the Powerful, the Omnipotent, the Advancer, the Deferrer, the First, the Last, the Outward, the Inward, the Ruler, Exalted, the Benign, the Relenting, the Avenger, the Pardoning, the Gentle, Master of the Kingdom, One of Majesty and Munificence, the Equitable, the Gatherer, the Independent, the Availing, the Restrainer, the Harming, the Benefactor, the Light, the Guiding, the Innovator, the Enduring, the Inheritor, the Reasonable, the Patient, as reported by al-Tirmidhī. God, exalted be He, says: And do not be loud in your prayer, when you recite [the Qur’ān] therein, lest the idolaters hear you and curse you, as well as the Qur’ān and the One Who has revealed it; nor be silent, do [not] murmur, therein, so that your companions might [be able to hear it and] benefit [therefrom]; but seek between that, loudness and silence, a, middle, way.
Verse 111
And say: ‘Praise be to God, Who has neither taken a son, nor has He any partner in sovereignty, in divineness, nor has He [taken] any ally, to assist Him, out of, because of [any], weakness’, that is to say, He would never become weak and thus need an assistant. And magnify Him with magnifications [worthy of Him], extol Him with a perfect extolling above that He should have taken a son or a partner, and [above] any weakness and [above] all that does not befit Him. The arrangement whereby ‘praise’ is [invoked] together with this [statement] is meant to indicate that He is the One worthy of all praise, because of the perfection of His Essence and the fact that He alones possesses those attributes of His. Imam Ahmad [b. Hanbal] relates in his Musnad [by way of a report] from Mu‘ādh al-Juhanī [who heard it] from the Messenger of God (s), who used to say, ‘The “glory” verse [in the Qur’ān] is: Praise be to God, Who has neither taken a son, nor has He any partner in sovereignty … to the end [of the above-mentioned sūra, 17:111]’, and God, exalted be He, knows best.
The author of this [commentary] says, ‘This [last commentary] constitutes the end of my complement to the commentary on the Noble Qur’ān composed by the inquisitive scholar, the shaykh, Imam Jalāl al-Dīn al-Mahallī al-Shāfi‘ī, may God be pleased with him. I have expended every effort in it and reflected throughout it exhaustively, [especially] in those precious things that I have deemed, God willing, to be profitable. I composed it [this commentary] in the same length of time appointed for the one spoken to by God [sc. Moses] and I have made it a means to attaining the Gardens of Bliss. It [this commentary] actually draws on the work which it complements, relying and depending on it for [an understanding of] those allegorical verses. May God have mercy on one who examines it with impartiality, chances upon an error and informs me of it. As I have said:
“I praise God, my Lord, for He guided me in what I have expressed despite my incapacity and weakness; for who [other than God] is there to avert me from error and who is there to accept from me even a single letter”.
In fact, it never occurred to me to embark upon such [a task], knowing that I was incapable of delving into such issues. Perhaps God will make it of ample profit [to others] and through it open sealed hearts, blinded eyes and deaf ears. I have the impression that I am before those [sort of readers] who would prefer works of prolixity, refraining from [referring to] this complementary work, rejecting it outright, tending to obvious obstinacy [regarding it], without addressing its intricacies with any understanding: And whoever is blind in this world shall be blind in the Hereafter [Q. 17:72]. May God thereby provide us with a [way of] guidance to the path of truth, with success, an awareness of the subtle intricacies of His words and with an ascertainment. May He thereby also make us with those to whom God has been gracious from among the prophets and the truthful and the martyrs and the righteous — and excellent companions are they! [Q. 4:69]. He [Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūtī] completed the composition of this [work] on Sunday, 10th of Shawwāl, in the year 870 (AH) [1465 AD], having commenced it on the first Wednesday of Ramadān of the same year. He completed the fair copy [of this work] on Wednesday, 6th of Safar in the year 871 (AH) [1466 AD], and God knows best. Shaykh Shams al-Dīn Muhammad b. Abī Bakr al-Khatīb al-Tūkhī said: my friend the erudite shaykh Kamāl al-Dīn al-Mahallī, brother of the above-mentioned shaykh of ours, shaykh Jalāl al-Dīn al-Mahallī, may God have mercy on both of them, that he saw his brother, the above-mentioned shaykh Jalāl al-Dīn, in his dream: before him stood our friend the inquiring erudite scholar shaykh Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūtī, compiler of this complement. He [Mahallī] had this complement in his hand and, perusing it, he was saying to its above-mentioned compiler [Suyūtī], ‘Which of the two is better, my composition or yours?’. He [Suyūtī] said, ‘Mine’. He [Mahallī] then said, ‘But look at this …’, and he showed him parts of it, politely pointing out to him his objections thereto. Each time he [Mahallī] brought something up, the compiler of this complement [Suyūtī] would respond to him, while shaykh [Mahallī] would smile and laugh. Our shaykh, the imam, the erudite scholar Jalāl al-Dīn ‘Abd al-Rahmān b. Abī Bakr al-Suyūtī, compiler of this complement said: What I believe, and what I am absolutely certain of, is that the part composed by shaykh Jalāl al-Dīn al-Mahallī, may God have mercy on him, in his section [of the commentary] is actually better than mine by far. How [could it be otherwise], when most of what I have written here draws on his work and relies on it? I have no doubt about this. As regards what was seen in the above-mentioned dream, then perhaps it is the case that the shaykh meant to point out those few places in which I disagreed with what he had written on account of some little comment [that I had made therein]. But these [instances] are very few and I do not think that they add up to more than ten such instances. Among these is where shaykh [al-Mahallī] comments in sūrat Sād: ‘The Spirit is a delicate organism (jism latīf) that gives life to a human being by permeating it’. I followed this [opinion] at first, but then I remembered the restriction [made by God] while [working on the commentary] at sūrat al-Hijr; and so I erased it because of where God says, And they will question you concerning the Spirit. Say, ‘The Spirit is of the command of my Lord. And of knowledge you have not been given except a little […]’ [to the end of] the verse [Q. 15:85]. For, it is explicit, or almost explicit, in stating that the [true nature of the] Spirit is of God’s knowledge [only], exalted be He — we do not know it. Thus, it is better that we should refrain from trying to define it. For this reason also, shaykh Tāj al-Dīn b. al-Subkī says in [his work] Jam‘ al-jawāmi‘ (The compendium of compendiums’): ‘As for the spirit, Muhammad (s) never spoke about it and we should [also] therefore refrain [from speaking about it].’ Another [instance] is where the shaykh says in [his commentary to] sūrat al-Hajj [Q. 22:17], ‘The Sabaeans (al-sābi’ūn) are a Jewish sect’. I mention this in [my commentary to] sūrat al-Baqara [Q. 2:62], where I added the following [gloss] ‘or [they are] a Christian [sect]’, in order to point out a variant opinion, generally acknowledged, particularly by our colleagues, the [Shāfi‘ī] jurists, and [also acknowledged] by the Minhāj (‘The Method […]’), where it is stated that the Samaritans opposed the Jews and the Sabaeans [opposed] the Christians [respectively] over the fundamentals of their religion. In his [Mahallī’s] Sharh (‘Commentary’), al-Shāfi‘ī, may God be pleased with him, is reported to have said that the Sabaeans were a Christian sect. At this moment, I cannot recall a third instance [of Mahallī’s objections]. Perhaps these are the sort of examples which the Shaykh, may God have mercy on him, was pointing out [in the dream]. And God knows best what is correct, and to Him is the return and the [final] resort.
Verse 1
Praise — which is the attribution [to a person] of that which is beautiful — is established [as something that], belongs to God [alone], exalted be He. Now, is the intention here to point this out for the purpose of believing in it, or to praise [God] thereby, or both? All are possibilities, the most profitable of which is [to understand] the third [as being the intention behind this statement]; Who has revealed to His servant, Muhammad (s), the Book, the Qur’ān, and has not allowed for it, that is, [He has not allowed that there be] in it, any crookedness, [any] variance or contradiction (the [last] sentence [wa-lam yaj‘al lahu ‘iwajan] is a circumstantial qualifier referring to al-kitāb, ‘the Book’);
Verse 2
[a Book] upright, (qayyiman is a second circumstantial qualifier for [added] emphasis) to warn of, to make, by this Book, the disbelievers fear, severe chastisement from Him, from God, and to bring to the believers who perform righteous deeds the good tidings that theirs will be a fair reward,
Verse 3
wherein they will abide forever, and this [reward] is Paradise;
Verse 4
and to warn those, from among the disbelievers, who say, ‘God has taken a son’.
Verse 5
They do not have, in this, in this saying, any knowledge, nor did their fathers, before them, who [also] used to say this. Dreadful, grave, is the word that comes out of their mouths (kalimatan, ‘word’, is for specification and it explains the unidentified [feminine] person [of the verb, kaburat, ‘dreadful’]; and that which is the object of censure has been omitted, and that is their above-mentioned saying [that God has taken a son]). They speak nothing, thereby, but, an utterance of, lies.
Verse 6
Yet it may be that you will consume, destroy, yourself in their wake — following [your being with] them, that is, after they have left you — if they should not believe in this discourse, [in this] Qur’ān, out of grief, out of rage and anguish on your part, because of your eagerness that they believe (asafan, ‘out of grief’, is in the accusative because it functions as an object denoting reason).
Verse 7
Truly We have made all that is on the earth, in the way of animals, plants, trees, rivers and so on, as an adornment for it, that We may try them, that We may test mankind observing thereby, which of them is best in conduct, therein, that is, [to see which of them] is the most abstemious of it.
Verse 8
And indeed We shall turn all that is therein into barren shreds, that produce no plants.
Verse 9
Or did you think, did you suppose, that the Companions of the Cave, the cavern in the mountain, and the Inscription, the tablet wherein their names and lineages had been inscribed — the Prophet (s) had been asked about their tale — were, with regard to their tale, a [unique] marvel from among, the entirety [of], Our signs? (‘ajaban, ‘a marvel’ is the predicate of [the defective verb] kāna [sc. kānū], the preceding [min āyātinā, ‘from among Our signs’] being a circumstantial qualifier). In other words, [did you suppose] that they were a marvel exclusively from among all [Our] other signs, or that they were the most marvellous among them? Not so.
Verse 10
Mention, when the youths took refuge in the Cave (fitya, ‘youths’, is the plural of fatā, and denotes a mature young man) fearing for their faith from their disbelieving people, they said, ‘Our Lord! Give us mercy from Yourself and remedy for us our affair through rectitude’, [through Your] guidance.
Verse 11
So We smote their ears, that is, We made them sleep, in the Cave for several years, for a [fixed] number of years.
Verse 12
Then We aroused them, We awakened them, that We might know, a knowledge of direct vision, which of the two parties, the two groups in disagreement over the length of their stay [in the cave], was better in calculating (ahsā is [of the pattern] of af‘al, meaning ‘more precise’]) what they had tarried (li-mā labithū is semantically connected to the following) in [terms of the] length of time (amadan, [in the accusative] denotes purpose).
Verse 13
We relate, recite, to you their story with truth, that is, truthfully. They were indeed youths who believed in their Lord, and We increased them in guidance.
Verse 14
And We strengthened their hearts, to [enable them to] speak the truth, when they stood up, before their king, who had commanded them to prostrate to idols, and said, ‘Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth. We will not call on any god besides Him, that is, other than Him, for then we shall certainly have uttered an outrage, in other words, [we shall have spoken] a statement that contains shatat, meaning one of extreme disbelief, were we, hypothetically, to call on any god other than God.
Verse 15
These (hā’ūlā’ is the subject [of the sentence]) our people (qawmunā is an explicative supplement [to the subject]) have taken gods besides Him. Why [if what they claim is true] do they not bring some clear warrant, some manifest argument, regarding them? regarding worship of these [idols]. And who does greater wrong — in other words, no one does greater wrong — than he who invents a lie against God?, by ascribing partners to Him, exalted be He. Some among the youths said to the others:
Verse 16
And when you withdraw from them and from that which they worship except God, then take refuge in the Cave. Your Lord will reveal for you something of His mercy and prepare for you in your affair some comfort’ (read mirfaqan or marfiqan), that is to say, something for you to find comfort in, in the way of lunch or supper.
Verse 17
And you might have seen the sun, when it rose, inclining (read tazzāwaru or tazāwaru) away from their Cave towards the right, side of it, and, when it set, go past them on the left, avoid them and pass over them, so that it does not fall on them at all, while they were in a cavern therein, in an ample space inside the Cave where the coolness and the gentle breeze of the winds reached them. That, which is mentioned, was [one] of God’s signs, [one of] the proofs of His power. Whomever God guides, he indeed is rightly guided, and whomever He leads astray, you will not find for him a guiding friend.
Verse 18
And you would have supposed them — had you seen them — awake, that is, conscious, because their eyes were open (ayqāz, ‘awake’, is the plural of yaqiz), though they were asleep (ruqūd is the plural of rāqid). And We caused them to turn over to the right and to the left, lest the earth consume their flesh, and their dog [lay] stretching its forelegs, his paws, on the threshold, at the opening of the cave: whenever they turned over it would turn over just like them, both during sleep and consciousness. If you had observed them you would have turned away from them in flight and you would have been filled (read la-mulli’ta or la-muli’ta) with awe because of them (read ru‘ban or ru‘uban, ‘awe’): [it was] through this awe that God protected them from anyone entering upon them.
Verse 19
And so, just as We did with them that which We have mentioned, it was that We aroused them, We awakened them, that they might question one another, concerning their state and the length of their stay [in the cave]. One of them said, ‘How long have you tarried?’ They said, ‘We have tarried a day, or part of a day’: [he said this] because they had entered the cave at sunrise and were awakened at sunset, and so they thought that it was [the time of] sunset on the day of their entry. Then, they said, unsure about this [fact], ‘Your Lord knows best how long you have tarried. Now send one of you with this silver coin of yours (read bi-warqikum or bi-wariqikum) to the city — which is said to be the one now called Tarsus (Tarasūs) — and let him see which is the purest food, that is, which of the foods of the city is the purest, and [let him] bring you a supply thereof. Let him be careful and not make anyone aware of you.
Verse 20
For indeed if they should come to know of you, they will [either] stone you, kill you by stoning, or make you return to their creed, and then, if you do return to their creed, you will never prosper’.
Verse 21
And so, just as We aroused them, it was that We disclosed them, [to] their people and the believers, that they, that is, their people, might know that God’s promise, of resurrection, is true: by virtue of the fact that One Who has the power to make them sleep for [such] a long period of time, or sustain them in that state without nourishment, also has the power to resurrect the dead; and that, as for the Hour, there is no doubt, no uncertainty, concerning it. Behold (idh adverbially qualifies a‘tharnā, ‘We disclosed’) they were disputing, that is, the believers and the disbelievers, among themselves their affair, the affair of the youths, with regard to building something around them [as a monument]; so they, the disbelievers, said, ‘Build over them, that is, around them, a building, to cover them up; their Lord knows them best.’ Those who prevailed regarding their affair, the affair of the youths, namely, the believers, ‘We will verily set up over them, around them, a place of worship’, for prayers to be performed therein. And this indeed took place at the entrance of the cave.
Verse 22
They will say, that is, [some of] those disputing the number of the youths [of the cave] at the time of the Prophet (s), in other words, some of these will say that they [the youths] were: ‘Three; their dog the fourth of them’; and they, some [others] among them, will say, ‘Five; their dog the sixth of them’ — both of these sayings were those of the Christians of Najrān — guessing at random, in other words, out of supposition, not having been present with them [at the time], and this [statement ‘guessing at random’] refers back to both sayings, and is in the accusative because it is an object denoting reason, in other words, [they said this] for the reason that they were [merely] supposing it. And they, that is, the believers, will say, ‘Seven; and their dog the eighth of them’ (the sentence is [part of] the subject clause, the predicate of which is the adjectival qualification of sab‘a, ‘seven’ [namely, thāminuhum, ‘the eighth of them’] with the additional wāw [wa-thāminuhum], which is said to be for emphasis, or an indication that the adjective is [semantically] attached to that which it is qualifying). The qualification of the first two sayings as being ‘random’, but not the third, is proof that [the latter] is the satisfactory and correct [number]. Say: ‘My Lord knows best their number, and none knows them except a few’: Ibn ‘Abbās said, ‘I am [one] of these “few” [described]’, and he mentioned that they were seven. So do not contend concerning them except with an outward manner [of contention], [except] with that which has been revealed to you, and do not question concerning them, do not ask for opinions [from], any of them, [from] the People of the Scripture, the Jews. The people of Mecca asked him [the Prophet] about the story of the People of the Cave, and so he said to them, ‘I will tell you about it tomorrow’, but without adding [the words], ‘If God wills’ (inshā’a’ Llāhu) and so the following was revealed:
Verse 23
And never say regarding something, that is, for the purpose of [doing] something, ‘I will indeed do that tomorrow’, in other words, [I will do something] at some future [point] in time,
Verse 24
without [adding], ‘If God will’, in other words, unless [firmly] adhering to the will of God, exalted be He, by saying, ‘If God will’ (inshā’a’Llāh). And remember your Lord, that is, [remember] His will, making [things] conditional on it, if you forget, to make [things] conditional on it: mentioning it after forgetting [it] is the equal [in validity] to mentioning it at the time of the statement — as al-Hasan [al-Basrī] and others have said — as long as the person is still in the [same] place [in which he made the statement]. And say, ‘May be my Lord will guide me to [something] closer [in time] than this, [closer] than the story of the People of the Cave, as an indication of [the truth of] my prophethood, by way of guidance, and God indeed did so.
Verse 25
And they tarried in the Cave three hundred (read [with tanwīn] thalāthami’atin) years (sinīn is an explicative supplement to thalāthami’atin, ‘three hundred’): these three hundred years in the case of the People of the Cave were solar years; but for [the number of] lunar ones, the Arabs add nine years thereto, and this is mentioned in His saying: and add nine, that is, nine years; in other words three hundred solar years, while three hundred and nine lunar ones.
Verse 26
Say: ‘God is more knowledgeable of how long they tarried, [more knowledgeable] than those contending over this [issue] — and this [fact] has already been mentioned [above, verse 19]. To Him belongs the Unseen of the heavens and the earth, that is, [to Him belongs] the knowledge thereof. How well He sees!, namely, God — this form is for [expressing] amazement [at something]. How well He hears!, likewise [for expressing amazement]. These two [expressions] are being used metaphorically. What is meant is that nothing can escape God’s sight or hearing. They, the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth, have no guardian, someone to assist [them], besides Him, and He makes none to share in His rule’, for He is Independent, without need of a partner.
Verse 27
And recite that which has been revealed to you of the Book of your Lord. There is none who can change His words. And you will not find, besides Him, any refuge.
Verse 28
And restrain yourself, detain [yourself], along with those who call upon their Lord at morning and evening, desiring, through their worship, His Countenance, exalted be He, and not any of the transient things of this world — and these are the poor; and do not let your eyes overlook, turn away [from], them — these [the eyes] are being used to refer to the person [addressed] — desiring the glitter of the life of this world. And do not obey him whose heart We have made oblivious to Our remembrance, that is, [to] the Qur’ān — this was ‘Uyayna b. Hisn and his companions — and who follows his own whim, by attributing partners [to God], and whose conduct is [mere] prodigality, excess.
Verse 29
And say, to him and to his companions that this Qur’ān is, ‘The truth [that comes] from your Lord; so whoever will, let him believe, and whoever will, let him disbelieve’ — this is [meant as] a threat to them. Indeed We have prepared for the wrongdoers, that is, the disbelievers, a Fire, and they will be surrounded by its pavilion, [by] that which encloses [the Fire itself]. If they cry out for help, they will be succoured with water like molten copper, like thick [burning] oil, which scalds faces, because of [the intensity of] its heat, if it is brought near them. What an evil drink, that is, and how ill, is the Fire [as], a resting-place! (murtafaqan is a specification derived from the agent of the verb, in other words, vile is the person choosing to rest thereon; and this is in contrast to what He will say next about Paradise: How fair a resting-place [below, verse 31]. For, indeed, what resting-place can there be in the Fire?
Verse 30
Truly those who believe and perform righteous deeds — indeed We do not leave the reward of those of good deeds to go to waste (this [last] sentence is the predicate of the [previous] inna’lladhīna, ‘truly those who’, and in it an overt identification [of the recipients of the reward] has replaced the [would-be] pronominalisation, in other words, it is ‘their reward’ [which shall not be left to go to waste], and We will reward them with what it [the reward of good-doers] comprises).
Verse 31
Those, for them there shall be Gardens of Eden, as a [place of] residence, underneath which rivers flow; therein they shall be adorned with bracelets of gold (min asāwir: it is said that min here is either extra or partitive; it [asāwir] is the plural of aswira — similar [in pattern] to ahmira [for himār] — which is the plural of siwār) and they shall wear green garments of fine silk (sundus) and [heavy] silk brocade (istabraq is that [silk] which is coarse: [God says] in the verse of [sūrat] al-Rahmān [Q. 55:54], lined with [heavy] silk brocade); reclining therein on couches (arā’ik is the plural of arīka, which is a bed inside a [curtained] canopy, and is also a tent adorned with garments and curtains for a bride). How excellent a reward, a requital, is Paradise, and how fair a resting-place!
Verse 32
And strike, coin, for them, for the disbelievers together with the believers, a similitude: two men (rajulayn is a substitute [for mathalan, ‘a similitude’] and constitutes, together with what follows, an explanation of the similitude), to one of whom, the disbeliever, We had assigned two gardens, orchards, of vines, and We had surrounded them with date-palms and had set between them [a field of] crops, from which he acquired [his] food supplies.
Verse 33
Each of the two gardens (kiltā, ‘each [of the two]’ is a singular [noun] that indicates a dual [number]; and [the entire clause] is the subject) yielded (ātat is the predicate thereof) its produce, its fruit, without stinting, diminishing, anything thereof. And We caused a stream to gush forth therein, to run through them.
Verse 34
And he had, together with his two gardens, fruit (read thamar, thumur, or thumr, [all of which constitute] the plural of thamra, [sing.] ‘a fruit’, similar [in pattern] to shajara [pl.] shajar, khashaba [pl.] khushb, or badana [pl.] budn) and he said to his companion, the believer, as he conversed with him, boasting before him: ‘I have more wealth than you and am stronger in respect of men’, in respect of clansmen.
Verse 35
And he entered his garden, [taking] with him his companion, accompanying him all around it, showing him its fruits — God does not say [here] his ‘two gardens’, because what is meant is the beautiful [part of the] garden (rawda); or because [to mention just] one suffices — having wronged himself, through [his] disbelief. He said, ‘I do not think that [all] this will ever perish, become non-existent.
Verse 36
Moreover, I do not think that the Hour will ever come; and [even] if I am indeed returned to my Lord, in the Hereafter, according to your claim, I shall surely find better than this as a resort’, as a [place of] return.
Verse 37
His companion said to him, as he conversed with him, responding to him: ‘Do you disbelieve in Him Who created you of dust — as Adam was created of it — then of a drop of fluid, [of] semen, then fashioned you, made you upright and gave you the form of, a man?
Verse 38
But lo (lākinnā is actually [made up of] lākin anā, ‘but I … ’, where the hamza vowel has [either] been transferred onto the nūn [of lākin], or omitted [altogether] with the nūn assimilated with the like of it) He [is] (huwa, this is the pronoun of the [subject] matter [to be stated] and is clarified by the sentence that follows it: the meaning [in other words] is ‘[But, it is that] I say that [He is]’) God, my Lord, and I do not ascribe any partner to my Lord.
Verse 39
And if only when you entered your garden, you had said, upon admiring it, ‘This is “What God has willed. There is no power except in God”. In a hadīth [it is stated that]: ‘Whoever is given something good in the way of family or wealth and upon receiving it says, “What God wills [comes to pass]; there is no power except in God” (mā shā’a’Llāh lā quwwata illā bi’Llāh), he will never experience any ill therefrom’. If you see me (anā is a pronoun separating two direct objects) as less than you in wealth and children,
Verse 40
maybe my Lord will give me [something] better than your garden (this is the response to the conditional clause [beginning with lawlā, ‘and if only’]) and unleash upon it bolts (husbān is the plural of husbāna), that is to say, thunderbolts, from the heaven so that it becomes a bare plain, a [piece of] smooth ground upon which no foot can stand firm;
Verse 41
or [maybe] its water will sink [deep] down (ghawran functions in meaning like ghā’iran, and it constitutes a supplement to yursila, ‘He [will] unleash’, but not [a supplement] to tusbiha, ‘it becomes’, because the sinking of water [deep into the earth] does not [necessarily] result from thunderbolts) so that you have no means of acquiring it’, no possible way of reaching it.
Verse 42
And his fruit was beset, through the curbing measures mentioned above, [it was beset] together with his garden by destruction and were thus ruined, and so he began to wring his hands, out of regret and anguish, because of what he had spent on it, on the cultivation of his garden, as it lay fallen, [having] collapsed, on its trellises, those supporting the vines, so that [first] these collapsed and then the vine-grapes collapsed [after them], saying, ‘O (yā is for exclamation) I wish I had not ascribed any partner to my Lord!’
Verse 43
But there was no (read takun or yakun) party, [no] persons, to help him, besides God, at the moment of its destruction, nor could he help himself, at the moment of its destruction, [all by] himself.
Verse 44
There, that is, [on] the Day of Resurrection, [all] protection (walāya; if read wilāya, then [it means] ‘sovereignty’) belongs to God, the True (if read as al-haqqu then it is as an adjective qualifying walāya [or wilāya], or [if] read as al-haqqi, then it is an attribute of [God’s] Majesty). He is better at rewarding, than the rewarding of any [person] other than Him, if such [a person] were [in a position to] reward; and best in consequence (read ‘uquban or ‘uqban), [He is best] in terms of the consequence for believers (both [thawāban, ‘rewarding’, and ‘uqban, ‘consequence’] are in the accusative for [the purpose of] specification).
Verse 45
And strike, draw, for them, your people, the similitude of the life of this world (mathala’l-hayāti’l-dunyā constitutes the first direct object) as water (ka-mā’in, the second direct object) which We send down out from the heaven, and the vegetation of the earth mingles with it, [the vegetation] multiplies by the sending down of the water; or it is that the water mixes with the vegetation such that it is nourished and flourishes; and it then becomes, the vegetation becomes, chaff, dried up, its [various] parts [broken up] in fragments, scattered, strewn and dispersed, by the winds, which then blow it away. The import is: [the life of] this world is likened to flourishing vegetation which then becomes dry, is broken up and scattered by the winds (a variant reading [for riyāh, ‘winds’] has rīh). And God is Omnipotent, Powerful, over all things.
Verse 46
Wealth and children are an adornment of the life of this world, [adornment] with which one arrays oneself therein. But the enduring things, the righteous deeds — and these are: ‘Glory be to God’ (subhāna’Llāh), ‘Praise be to God’ (al-hāmdu li’Llāh), ‘There is no god but God (lā ilāha illā’Llāh), ‘God is Great’ (Allāhu akbar); some add [the following] ‘There is no power or strength except in God’ (lā hawla wa-lā quwwata illā bi’Llāh) — [these] are better with your Lord for reward and better in [respect of] hope, in other words, [they are better] in terms of what a person hopes for and desires from God, exalted be He.
Verse 47
And, mention, the day when the mountains shall be set in motion — they shall be removed from the face of the earth and become ‘[as] scattered dust’ [Q. 56:6] (a variant reading [for tusayyaru’l-jibālu] has nusayyiru’l-jibāla, ‘We shall set the mountains in motion’) and you will see the earth exposed, manifest [in full view], with no mountain or anything else on top of it. And We shall gather them, believers and disbelievers, such that We will not leave out anyone of them.
Verse 48
And they shall be presented before your Lord in ranks (saffan is a circumstantial qualifier) in other words, ranged so that every community is in a row [on its own], and it shall be said to them: ‘Verily you have come to Us just as We created you the first time, that is to say, individually, barefoot, naked and uncircumcised; and it shall be said to the deniers of the Resurrection: rather you claimed that (a [of allan] is an, softened in place of the hardened one, in other words [it is to be understood as] annahu) We would not appoint for you a tryst’, for resurrection.
Verse 49
And the Book shall be set in place, the Book of every man — in his right hand, if [he is from] among the believers, and in his left hand, if [he is from] among the disbelievers. And you will see the guilty, the disbelievers, apprehensive, fearful, of what is in it, and they will say, when they observe the evil deeds [recorded] in it: ‘O (yā is for exclamation) woe to us!, [O this is] our destruction! (this [form waylatanā] is a verbal noun, but in this form it cannot be [conjugated as] a verb) What is it with this Book that it leaves out neither small nor great, from among our sins, but [instead it] has counted it?’, enumerated it and fixed it [in the record] — they are stupefied by it in this respect. And they shall find all that they did present, fixed [in writing] in their [individual] Book. And your Lord does not wrong anyone, He does not punish him [if he is] without guilt, nor does He diminish [anything of] the reward of a believer.
Verse 50
And when (idh is dependent because it is governed by [an implicit] udhkur, ‘mention [when]’) We said to the angels, ‘Prostrate before Adam’, a prostration involving a bow, not placing one’s forehead down [to the ground], as a greeting to him; and so they prostrated, [all] except Iblīs. He was [one] of the jinn — some say that these [creatures] are a species of angels, in which case the exceptive clause [illā Iblīs, ‘except Iblīs’] is a continuous one; but it is also said to be discontinuous, since Iblīs is [considered] the progenitor of [all] the jinn, having offspring who are mentioned alongside him further below; angels, on the other hand, do not have offspring; and he transgressed against his Lord’s command, that is to say, he rebelled against obedience to Him by refraining from [performing] the prostration. Will you then take him and his offspring — this address is to Adam and his progeny (the [final pronominal suffix] hā’ in both words refers to Iblīs) for your patrons instead of Me, obeying them, when they are an enemy to you?, in other words, [when they are your] enemies (wa-hum lakum ‘aduwwun is a circumstantial qualifier). How evil for the evildoers is that substitute!, of Iblīs and his offspring, in obeying them instead of obeying God.
Verse 51
I did not make them a witness, that is, Iblīs and his offspring, to the creation of the heavens and the earth, nor to their own creation, that is to say, I did not make any of them present at the [moment of the] creation of the other. Nor do I take misleaders, devils, as [My] support, as assistants in [the process of] creation, so why do you obey them?
Verse 52
And the day (yawma is in the accusative because it is governed by [the implicit] udhkur, ‘mention’) when He will say (yaqūl, or [it may be] read as naqūl, ‘We will say’), ‘Call those partners of Mine, [those] graven images, as you used to claim’, let them intercede for you in the way you used to claim; and then they will call them, but they will not respond to their call, they will not answer them, and We shall set between them, between the graven images and those who worship them, a gulf of doom — a valley from among the valleys of Hell, in which they shall all be destroyed (the term [mawbiq] derives from [the verb] wabaqa meaning halaka, ‘he was destroyed’).
Verse 53
And the criminals will behold the Fire and realise that, are certain that, they are about to fall into it. And they will find no means of avoiding it, of circumventing [it].
Verse 54
And verily We have dispensed, We have explained, for mankind in this Qur’ān [an example] of every kind of similitude (min kulli mathalin is an adjective qualifying an omitted clause, in other words, ‘[We have dispensed therein] a similitude from every kind of similitude), that they may be admonished. But man is most disputatious, [he is] most contentious in matters of falsehood (jadalan is a specification derived from [al-insān, ‘man’] the subject of kāna) in other words, the meaning is that the disputatiousness of man is what can be found in him most.
Verse 55
And nothing prevented people, that is, the disbelievers of Mecca, from believing (an yu’minū is [after al-nāsa, ‘people’] constitutes the second direct object clause) when the guidance, the Qur’ān, came to them, and from asking forgiveness of their Lord, without that there should come upon them the precedent of the ancients (sunnatu’l-awwalīn constitutes the subject of the verb) that is to say, Our precedent of dealing with them, which is the destruction decreed for them, or that the chastisement should come upon them before their very eyes, in front of them and for them to see — which was their being killed on the day of Badr (a variant reading [for qibalan] has qubulan, which [in the accusative] is the plural of qabīlin, meaning, ‘of various kinds’).
Verse 56
And We do not send messengers except as bearers of good tidings, to believers, and as warners, as threateners to disbelievers. But those who disbelieve dispute with falsehood, when they say that, ‘Has God sent a human as a messenger [from Him]?’ [Q. 17:94] and the like of such [statements], that they may refute thereby, that by way of their disputing they may invalidate, the truth, the Qur’ān. And they have taken My signs, namely, the Qur’ān, and that whereof they have been warned, in the way of the Fire, derisively, in mockery.
Verse 57
And who does greater wrong than he who has been reminded of the signs of his Lord, yet turns away from them and forgets what his hands have sent ahead?, what he has committed in the way of disbelief and acts of disobedience. Indeed on their hearts We have cast veils, coverings, lest they should understand it, that is, lest they should comprehend the Qur’ān, in other words, and so [as a result] they do not comprehend it; and in their ears a deafness, a heaviness, and so they do not hear it; and though you call them to guidance, they will not be guided in that case, that is, given the casting [of veils] mentioned, ever.
Verse 58
And your Lord is the Forgiver, Full of Mercy. Were He to take them to task, in this world, for what they have earned, He would have hastened for them the chastisement, therein; but they have a tryst, which is the Day of Resurrection, from which they will not find any escape, any refuge.
Verse 59
And those towns, that is to say, the inhabitants of those [towns], such as ‘Ād and Thamūd, as well as others, We destroyed them when they did evil, [when] they disbelieved, and We appointed for their destruction (a variant reading [for mahlikihim] has muhlakihim) a tryst.
Verse 60
And, mention, when Moses, son of Amram (‘Imrān), said to his lad, Joshua son of Nun (Yūsha‘ bin Nūn), who used to follow him around, serve him and acquire knowledge from him, ‘I will not give up, I will not stop journeying, until I have reached the juncture of the two seas — the point where the Byzantine sea and the Persian sea meet, beyond the east, — though I march on for ages’, for a very long time before reaching it, if it be far.
Verse 61
So when they reached a juncture between the two, between the two seas, they forgot their fish — Joshua forgot his luggage [leaving it behind] at the moment of departure, and Moses forgot to remind him — and so it, the fish, made its way into the sea, that is, it formed it — through God’s forming it — by burrowing, that is, like [through] a burrow, which is a passage that is long and enclosed; this was [so] because God, exalted be He, held back the flow of the water [preventing it] from [engulfing] the fish and it [the water] withdrew from around it [the fish] and remained thus like a cleft without closing, and what was beneath it [the cleft] stood still.
Verse 62
And when they had made the traverse, of that location, having journeyed until the morning of the following day, he, Moses, said to his lad, ‘Bring us our breakfast, (ghadā’) that [meal] which is consumed at the beginning of the day. We have certainly encountered on this journey of ours much fatigue’, exhaustion, which took its effect [on them] after the traverse.
Verse 63
He said, ‘Do you see? — in other words, remember, when we sheltered at the rock, in that location, indeed I forgot the fish — and none but Satan made me forget (al-shaytān, ‘Satan’, substitutes for the [suffixed pronoun] hā’ [of ansānī-hu]) to mention it (an adhkurahu, an inclusive substitution, in other words [it should be understood as] ansānī dhikrahu, ‘he [Satan] made me forget the mentioning of it’) — and it, the fish, made its way into the sea in an amazing manner’ (‘ajaban constitutes the second direct object), that is to say, Moses and his lad were amazed by it, because of what has already been explained concerning it.
Verse 64
Said he, Moses, ‘That, namely, our losing the fish, is what we have been seeking!’, what we have been after, for it is a sign for us of the presence of the one whom we seek. So they turned back, retracing their footsteps, until they reached the rock.
Verse 65
So [there] they found one of Our servants, namely, al-Khidr, to whom We had given mercy from Us — according to one opinion this [mercy] was prophethood; according to another it was authority, and this [latter] is the opinion of the majority of scholars — and We had taught him knowledge from Us (‘ilman is the second direct object), in other words, some knowledge of unseen things; al-Bukhārī reports the [following] hadīth: ‘Moses was delivering a sermon among the Children of Israel and was asked, “Who is the most knowledgeable of people?”, to which he [Moses] said, “Myself”. God then reproached him for not having attributed [his] knowledge as [coming] from Him. God then revealed to him the following: “Truly, there is a servant of Mine at the juncture of the two seas; he is more knowledgeable than you”. Moses then asked, “My Lord, how do I reach him?” He [God] said, ‘Take a fish with you and place it in a basket and [the place] where you lose the fish will be [the place] where he is.” He [Moses] took a fish and placed it in a basket and departed together with his lad Joshua son of Nun until they reached the rock. [There] they placed their heads back and fell asleep. The fish began to move about in the basket, until it escaped from it and fell into the sea, and it made its way into the sea in an amazing manner. God then held back the flow of the water [preventing it] from [engulfing] the fish, forming a kind of arch over it. When he awoke, his companion [Joshua] forgot to inform him of [what had happened to] the fish, and so they journeyed on for the remainder of that day and night until on the morning [of the second day] Moses said to his lad, ‘Bring us our breakfast’, to where he says, and it made its way into the sea in an amazing manner’. He [Bukhārī] said, ‘For the fish, it [the way into the sea] was [by] ‘burrowing’ (saraban), and for Moses and his lad it [this way] was ‘amazing’ (‘ajaban) …’ [and so on] to the end [of Bukhārī’s report].
Verse 66
Moses said to him, ‘May I follow you for the purpose that you teach me of what you have been taught [in the way] of probity?’, namely, [something] of right conduct through which I might be rightly-guided (a variant reading [for rashadan] has rushdan, ‘probity’); he asked him this because to increase [one’s] knowledge is [something which is] always sought.
Verse 67
Said he, ‘Truly you will not be able to bear with me.
Verse 68
And how can you bear with that whereof you have never been informed?’: in the above-mentioned hadīth [of Bukhārī] after this verse [there is the following statement]: ‘O Moses, I possess knowledge which God has taught me and which you do not have, and [equally] you possess knowledge which God has taught you and which I do not have’. (His saying khubran, ‘informed’, is a verbal noun meaning that which you have never encompassed, in other words, the truth of which you have never been informed of.)
Verse 69
He said, ‘You will find me, God willing, patient, and I will not disobey, in other words, and [you will also find me] non-disobedient [towards], you in any matter’, with which you charge me. He [Moses] made this [statement] conditional upon the Will [of God] because he was not confident of himself in what he had committed himself to. Indeed, this is the custom of prophets and saints, namely, that they do not put their trust in themselves for a single moment.
Verse 70
He said, ‘If you follow me then do not question me (lā tas’alnī, a variant reading has lā tas’alannī) concerning anything, that you might find objectionable in what I do, according to your [limited] knowledge, and be patient, until I [myself] make mention of it to you’, in other words, [until] I mention it to you with [an explication of] the reason for it. Moses accepted his precondition bearing in mind the respect which a student should exercise in the presence of a teacher.
Verse 71
So they set off, making their way on foot along the coast of the sea, until, when they embarked on the ship, which was carrying them, he, al-Khidr, made a hole in it, by destroying a plank or two on the starboard side with an axe after they had sailed into deep waters. Said he, Moses, to him, ‘Did you make a hole in it to drown its people? (li-tughriqa ahlahā, ‘for you to drown its people’; a variant reading has li-yaghraqa ahluhā, ‘so that its people might drown’). You have certainly done a dreadful thing’, that is, a grave and reprehensible thing — it is reported that the water did not [actually] penetrate it.
Verse 72
He said, ‘Did I not say [that] you would not be able to bear with me?’
Verse 73
He said, ‘Do not take me to task on account of that which I forgot, that is, [on account of the fact that] I was not mindful of submitting to you [in the matter] and of refraining from showing disapproval of your actions, and do not exhaust me, [do not] charge me, in this affair of mine with difficulty’, [with] hardship during my companionship of you, in other words, treat me throughout it with forgiveness and indulgence.
Verse 74
So they set off, after leaving the ship, making their way on foot, until, when they met a boy, who had not yet reached puberty, playing with [other] boys, among whom his face was the fairest — and he, al-Khidr, slew him, by slitting his throat with a knife while he lay down, or by tearing his head off with his hand, or by smashing his head against a wall, all of which are [different] opinions (the coordinating fā’ [of fa-qatalahu, ‘and he slew him’] is used here because [it indicates that] the slaying took place after the encounter; the response to idhā, ‘when’ is [the following statement, qāla …]) — he, Moses, said, to him: ‘Have you slain an innocent soul, that is, a pure one that had not reached the age of [legal] responsibility (a variant reading [for zākiya] has zakiyya), [one slain] not in retaliation for another soul?, in other words, one that has not slain any soul. Verily you have committed an dreadful thing’ (read nukran or nukuran), that is to say, an abomination.