Verse 75
He said, ‘Did I not say to you that you would never be able to bear with me?’ (laka, ‘to you’, has been added to that [same statement] which was made before because this time there could not be any excuse [for Moses’s impatience].
Verse 76
And for this reason, he said, ‘If I ask you about anything after this, after this instance, then do not keep me in your company, do not allow me to follow you, for truly you [will] have found from me (read ladunnī or ladunī), on my part, [sufficient enough] excuse’, for you to part company with me.
Verse 77
So they set off, until, when they came to the folk of a [certain] town, namely, Antioch (Antākya), they asked its folk for food, they asked them for food by way of hospitality, but they refused to extend them any hospitality. They then found in it a wall, one hundred cubits high, about to collapse, that is, it was close to falling down because of its tilt; so he, al-Khidr, straightened it, with his [own] hands. He, Moses, said, to him, ‘Had you wished, you could have taken (a variant reading [for la-ttakhadhta] has la-takhidhta) a wage for it’, some [sort of] payment, since they did not extend us any hospitality despite our need for food.
Verse 78
Said he, al-Khidr, to him, ‘This is the parting, that is, the moment for parting, between me and you (baynī wa-baynika, here [the preposition] bayna has been annexed to a non-multiple [noun], but this is allowed [grammatically] because it is then repeated with [its other noun together with] the coordinating wāw). I will inform you, before I part company with you, the interpretation of that over which you were not able to maintain patience.
Verse 79
As for the ship, it belonged to poor people, ten [in number], who earned a living on the sea, with it, leasing it [to others], as a way of gaining [a living]; and I wanted to make it defective, for behind them, whenever they returned — or [meaning] before them now — was a king, a disbeliever, seizing every ship, that was usable, by force (ghasban, is in the accusative as a verbal noun containing an explanation of the nature of such ‘seizure’).
Verse 80
And as for the boy, his parents were believers and We feared lest he should overwhelm them with insolence and disbelief — for he is as [described] by the hadīth of Muslim, ‘He was [incorrigibly] disposed to disbelief, and had he lived [longer] this [disposition of his] would have oppressed them, because of their love for him, they would have followed him in such [a path of disbelief]’.
Verse 81
So We desired that their Lord should give them in exchange (read yubaddilahumā or yubdilahumā) one better than him in purity, that is, in righteousness and God-fearing, and closer, than him, to mercy (read ruhman or ruhuman, in other words [it is to be understood as] rahmatan, ‘by way of mercy’) namely, [closer to] dutifulness towards his parents. Thus God, exalted be He, gave them in exchange a girl, who [afterwards] married a prophet and gave birth to a prophet through whom God guided an entire community.
Verse 82
And as for the wall, it belonged to two orphan boys [who lived] in the city, and beneath it there was a treasure, a buried trove of gold and silver, belonging to them. Their father had been a righteous man, and so because of his righteousness they were protected both in [terms of] their souls and their possessions, and your Lord desired that they should come of age, that is, [He desired for them] the attainment of maturity, and extract their treasure as a mercy from your Lord (rahmatan min rabbik is a direct object denoting reason, operated by [the verb] arāda, ‘He desired’). And I did not do it, namely, what has been mentioned of [his] making a hole in the ship, the slaying of the boy and the repair of the wall, of my own accord, that is, [out of] my own choosing; nay, it was because of a command in the form of an inspiration from God. This is the interpretation of that over which you could not maintain patience’ (one may say istā‘a or istatā‘a to mean ‘he had the capacity for [something]’; in this instance and the previous one both forms [of the verb] have been used. Moreover, there is a variety of expression in the use of fa-aradtu, ‘I desired’, fa-aradnā, ‘We desired’, and fa-arāda rabbuk, ‘Your Lord desired’).
Verse 83
And they, the Jews, question you concerning Dhū’l-Qarnayn, whose name was Alexander; he was not a prophet. Say: ‘I shall recite, relate, to you a mention, an account, of him’, of his affair.
Verse 84
Indeed We empowered him throughout the land, by facilitating [for him] the journeying therein, and We gave him to everything, of which one might have need, a way, a route to lead him to that which he sought.
Verse 85
And he followed a way, he took a route towards the west,
Verse 86
until, when he reached the setting of the sun, the place where it sets, he found it setting in a muddy spring (‘ayn hami’a: [a spring] containing ham’a, which is black clay): its setting in a spring is [described as seen] from the perspective of the eye, for otherwise it is far larger [in size] than this world; and he found by it, that is, [by] the spring, a folk, of disbelievers. We said, ‘O Dhū’l-Qarnayn — by [means of] inspiration — either chastise, the folk, by slaying [them], or treat them kindly’, by [merely] taking them captive.
Verse 87
He said, ‘As for him who does wrong, by way of [practising] idolatry, we shall chastise him, We shall slay him. Then he shall be returned to his Lord and He shall chastise him with an awful chastisement (read nukran or nukuran), that is, a severe [one], in the Fire.
Verse 88
But as for him who believes and acts righteously, he shall have the fairest reward, namely, Paradise (the annexation construction [jazā’u l-husnā, ‘the fairest reward’] is explicative; a variant reading has jazā’an al-husnā, ‘[he shall have] as a requital that which is fairest’; al-Farrā’ said that this accusative [reading of jazā’an] is [intended] as an explanation [of the nature of the requital] by way of attribution [to ‘that which is fairest’]; and we shall speak to him mildly in our command’, that is to say, we shall command him with what he will find easy [to bear].
Verse 89
Then he followed a way, towards the east,
Verse 90
until, when he reached the rising of the sun, the place where it rises, he found it rising on a folk, namely, Negroes (zanj), for whom We had not provided against it, that is, [against] the sun, any [form of] cover, in the way of clothing or roofing, as their land could not support any structures; they had underground tunnels into which they would disappear at the rising of the sun and out of which they would emerge when it was at its highest point [in the sky].
Verse 91
So [it was], in other words, the situation was as We have stated; and We encompassed whatever pertained to him, that is, what Dhū’l-Qarnayn possessed in the way of machinery, men and otherwise, in knowledge.
Verse 92
Then he followed a way,
Verse 93
until, when he reached between the two barriers (read al-saddayn or al-suddayn here and [likewise] further below [at verse 94, saddan or suddan]) — [these were] two mountains [lying] in the remote regions beyond the land of the Turks; Alexander sealed the breach between the two, as will be described [below] — he found on this side of them, that is, in front of them, a folk that could scarcely comprehend speech, in other words, they could only understand it after much agonising (a variant reading [for yafqahūna, ‘comprehend’] has yufqihūna, ‘be understood’).
Verse 94
They said, ‘O Dhū’l-Qarnayn, truly Gog and Magog (read Ya’jūj wa-Ma’jūj or Yājūj wa-Mājūj: these two are non-Arabic names of two tribes and are therefore indeclinable) are causing corruption in the land, plundering and oppressing [us] when they come forth to attack us. So shall we pay you a tribute, some [form of] payment (a variant reading [for kharjan] is kharājan), on condition that you build between us and them a barrier?, an obstruction, so that they will not be able to reach us.
Verse 95
He said, ‘That, wealth and so on, wherewith my Lord has empowered me (makkannī, a variant reading has makkananī) is better, than the tribute that you offer me, and so I have no need for it. I shall build for you the barrier without [demanding] a fee; so help me with strength, in that which I [will] demand from you, and I will build between you and them a rampart, a fortified barricade.
Verse 96
Bring me ingots of iron!’, namely, pieces thereof, as large as the [blocks of] stone to be used in the construction; he used these [ingots] in his construction, placing between them firewood and coal. Until, when he had levelled up [the gap] between the two flanks (read al-sudufayn, or al-sadafayn or al-sudfayn, meaning, the two flanks of the two mountains) he set up bellows and [lit a] fire around this [construction] — he said, ‘Blow!’, and they blew, until, when he had made it, namely, the iron, a fire, that is, like a fire, he said, ‘Bring me molten copper to pour over it’ (the two verbs [ātūnī, ‘bring me’, and ufrigh, ‘pour’] are in contention over this [direct object, qitran, ‘molten copper’]; it [this direct object] has been omitted before the first [verb] because it is being governed by the second [verb]). Thus he poured the molten copper over the hot iron so that it penetrated between the [individual] ingots, making a [solid] single whole.
Verse 97
And so they, Gog and Magog, were not able to scale it, to climb up its length, because of its [great] height and smoothness, nor could they pierce it, because of its firmness and thickness.
Verse 98
Said he, Dhū’l-Qarnayn, ‘This, namely, the barrier, the ability to make it, is a mercy from my Lord, a grace [from Him], because it prevents them from coming forth. But when the promise of my Lord comes to pass, [the promise] of their coming forth, which will be near [the time of] the Resurrection, He will level it, pulverised and flattened, for my Lord’s promise, of their coming forth and [of] other things, is [always] true’, it will be. God, exalted be He says:
Verse 99
And on that day, the day of their coming forth, We shall let some of them surge against others, mixing with one another, on account of their multitude, and the Trumpet, namely, the Horn signalling the Resurrection, shall be blown and We shall gather them, namely, creatures, in one place, on the Day of Resurrection, a [single] gathering.
Verse 100
And on that day We shall present, We shall bring close, Hell to the disbelievers, plain to view,
Verse 101
those [disbelievers] whose eyes (alladhīna kānat a‘yunuhum substitutes for al-kāfirīna, ‘the disbelievers’) were masked from My remembrance, namely, the Qur’ān, such that they were blind, unable to be guided thereby, and who could not [bear to] hear, that is to say, they were unable to listen to what the Prophet used to recite to them, out of spite for him, and so they did not believe therein.
Verse 102
Do the disbelievers reckon that they can take My servants, namely, My angels, [as well as] Jesus and Ezra, as patrons, as lords, beside Me? (awliyā’a, ‘as patrons’, constitutes the second [direct] object of [the verb] yattakhidhū, ‘that they can take’; the second direct object of [the verb] hasiba, ‘reckon’, has been omitted). The meaning is: do they suppose that the mentioned ‘taking [as patrons]’ will not incur My wrath and that I will not punish them for this? No! Truly We have prepared Hell for the disbelievers, these [the ones mentioned above] and others, as [a place of] hospitality, in other words, it has been prepared for them just as a house is prepared for a guest.
Verse 103
Say: ‘Shall We inform you who will be the greatest losers in [regard to] their works? (al-akhsarīna a‘mālan, a specification that happens to correspond to that which is specifically meant); and these [losers] are described in His words [as being]:
Verse 104
Those whose effort goes astray in the life of this world, [those] whose deeds are invalid, while they reckon, they think, that they are doing good work, [good] deeds for which they will be rewarded.
Verse 105
Those are they who disbelieve in the signs of their Lord, in the proofs of His Oneness, [proofs] such as the Qur’ān and otherwise, and the encounter with Him’, that is, and [who disbelieve] in resurrection, reckoning, reward and punishment. So their works have failed, they are invalid, and on the Day of Resurrection We shall not assign any weight to them, in other words, We shall not accord them any value.
Verse 106
That, namely, the matter which I [God] have mentioned concerning the failure of their deeds and so on (dhālika, ‘that’, constitutes the subject) is their requital — Hell — because they disbelieved and took My signs and My messengers in mockery, that is to say, [taking] both of them as something to be derided.
Verse 107
Truly those who believe and perform righteous deeds — theirs will be, according to God’s prescience, the gardens of Firdaws, which are at the centre of Paradise and [at] its highest part (the annexation thereto [of firdaws to jannāt, ‘gardens’] is explicative) as [a place of] hospitality, as an abode;
Verse 108
wherein they will abide, with no desire, demand, to be removed from them, to be transferred to some other [gardens].
Verse 109
Say: ‘If the sea, in other words, [if] its waters, were ink (midād is what one writes with) for the Words of my Lord, [Words] that testify to His laws and His marvels, such that these [Words] are written with it, the sea would be spent, in recording them, before the Words of my Lord were spent (read as tanfada or yanfada) even though We brought the like of it, namely, [the like of] the sea, as replenishment’, in order to add it to the other [sea], it would [also] be spent, while they [God’s Words] would not be exhausted (madadan, ‘as replenishment’, in the accusative because it is a specification).
Verse 110
Say: ‘I am only a human being, a son of Adam, like you; it has been revealed to me that your God is only One God (annamā, the anna assimilated with the mā retains [its function of referring to] the verbal noun), in other words, the Oneness of the Divine is [what is being] revealed to me. So whoever hopes to encounter his Lord, through the Resurrection and the Requital, let him do righteous work and not associate with the worship of his Lord, that is to say, [let him not commit idolatry] in [performing] it by feigning [faith] before, anyone’.
Verse 1
Kāf hā yā ‘ayn sād: God knows best what He means by these [letters].
Verse 2
This is, a mention of your Lord’s mercy to His servant (‘abdahu, a direct object of rahma, ‘mercy’) Zachariah (an explication of it [the direct object]),
Verse 3
when (idh is semantically connected to rahma, ‘mercy’) he called out to his Lord a call, entailing a supplication, in secret, in the middle of the night, because this [time of the night] invites a faster response [to one’s supplication].
Verse 4
He said, ‘My Lord, truly the bones, all [the bones], within me have become feeble, weak, and my head is alight with grey hair (shayban, a specification derived from the subject of the verb in other words, hoariness has spread throughout his hairs just as a spark of fire spreads through firewood) and I wish to supplicate to you, and I have never been in my supplications to You, my Lord, unsuccessful, that is, [I have never been] disappointed, in the past, so do not disappoint me in what follows.
Verse 5
And truly I fear my kinsfolk, namely, those who will succeed me [as closest after me] in kinship, such as [my] paternal cousins, after me, that is, after my death, [I fear] for the religion, lest they forsake it, as You have witnessed in the case of the Children of Israel, in the way that they changed [their] religion, and my wife is barren, she does not conceive. So grant me from Yourself a successor, a son,
Verse 6
who may inherit from me (read yarithnī in apocopated form as a response to the imperative statement [fa-hab lī, ‘grant me’], or read yarithunī as an adjectival qualification of waliyyan, ‘a successor’) and inherit (also read in both ways [mentioned]), from the House of Jacob, my forefather, [inherit] knowledge and prophethood, and make him, my Lord, acceptable’, that is, pleasing to you.
Verse 7
God, exalted be He, in responding to his request for a son that will be the incarnation of His mercy, says: ‘O Zachariah! Indeed We give you good tidings of a boy, who will inherit in the way that you have requested — whose name is John. Never before have We made anyone his namesake’, that is, [never has there been] anyone with the name ‘John’.
Verse 8
He said, ‘My Lord, how shall I have a son when my wife is barren and I have reached infirm old age?’ (‘itiyyan, [derives] from [the verb] ‘atā, ‘it became withered’) in other words, [he had reached] extreme old age, 120 years; and his wife had reached the age of 98 (‘atiya in terms of its root derives from ‘utuwwun, but the tā’ is vowelled as -ti-, to soften it, the first wāw [vowel] is changed into a yā’ to be in harmony with the –ti- vowelling, while the second [wāw letter] is changed into a yā’ so that the [previous] yā’ can be assimilated with it).
Verse 9
He said, ‘It, the matter [in question], of creating a boy from both of you, shall be so! Your Lord says, “It is easy for Me, namely, to restore your sexual potency and tear open your wife’s womb [in preparation] for conception, for I certainly created you before when you were nothing”’, [you were nothing] before your created form became manifest. As God wished to manifest this great power, He inspired him [the form of] the question, in order for him to receive the response that will indicate it [this power]. And when his soul yearned for the prompt arrival of that whereof he had been given good tidings:
Verse 10
He said, ‘Lord, appoint for me some sign’, namely, some indication of my wife’s becoming pregnant. Said He, ‘Your sign, for this, is that you shall not speak to people, that is, that you [should] refrain from speaking to them, but not [from speaking] the remembrance of God, exalted be He, for three nights, that is, together with the days thereof, as [stated] in [sūrat] Āl ‘Imrān, ‘for three days’ [Q. 3:41], while [you are] in sound health’ (sawiyyan, a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of the verb tukallima, ‘you shall [not] speak’) in other words, despite there being no defect [in you].
Verse 11
So he emerged before his people from the sanctuary, that is, from the temple — they had been waiting for him to open it in order to perform [their] prayers therein after his command, as was the custom — and signalled, indicated, to them, ‘Make glorifications, perform prayers, at morning and evening’, at the beginning of the day and [at] its end, as per usual. He then realised, upon his being prevented from speaking to them, that she was pregnant with John.
Verse 12
And two years after his birth, God, exalted be He, said to him: ‘O John! Hold on to the Scripture, namely, the Torah, firmly’, earnestly. And We gave him judgement, prophethood, while still a child, a three-year old;
Verse 13
and compassion, a mercy for mankind, from Us, from Our presence, and purity, a charity for them, and he was God-fearing — it is related that he never committed a sin, nor contemplated [committing] one;
Verse 14
and dutiful to his parents, that is, virtuous towards them. And he was not arrogant or rebellious, disobedient to his Lord.
Verse 15
‘And peace, from Us, be upon him, the day he was born, and the day he dies, and the day he shall be raised alive!’, that is, [on] those fearful days in which he sees what he will never have seen before — in these he will be given security [from fear].
Verse 16
And mention in the Book, [in] the Qur’ān, Mary, that is, [mention] her tale, when she withdrew from her family to an easterly place, that is, [when] she secluded herself in a place on the east side of [her] home.
Verse 17
Thus she veiled herself from them, she draped herself in a veil to conceal herself while she washed her hair [from lice], or [washed] her clothes, or cleansed herself from her menses; whereupon We sent to her Our Spirit, Gabriel, and he assumed before her, after she donned her clothes, the likeness of a well-proportioned human, perfect in physical form.
Verse 18
She said, ‘Lo! I seek refuge in the Compassionate One from you! If you fear God’, and leave me alone on account of my invocation of refuge in God.
Verse 19
He said, ‘I am only a messenger of your Lord, that I may give you a boy [who shall be] pure’, in [his] prophethood.
Verse 20
She said, ‘How shall I have a boy when no human being has [ever] touched me, by way of conjugality, neither have I been unchaste?’, [neither have I been] a fornicator.
Verse 21
He said, ‘It, the matter in question, of creating a boy from you without a father, shall be so! Your Lord has said: “It is easy for Me, in other words, by Gabriel’s breathing into you, by My command, so that you become pregnant with him — since what has been mentioned is meant as a reason, the following [statement] is added as a supplement thereto: and so that We may make him a sign for mankind, of Our power, and a mercy from Us, to whoever believes in him. And it, the creation of him, is a thing [already] decreed”’, according to My knowledge. So Gabriel breathed into the opening of her shirt, whereupon she sensed the formed foetus in her womb.
Verse 22
Thus she conceived him and then withdrew, retreated, with him to a distant place, far from her family.
Verse 23
And the birth pangs, the pains of childbirth, brought her to the trunk of the palm-tree, that she may support herself against it, and then she gave birth: the conception, formation [of the foetus] and delivery [all] took place within one hour. She said, ‘O (yā is [used] to call attention [to something]) would that I had died before this, affair, and become a forgotten thing, beyond recall!’, a thing abandoned which no one knows or mentions.
Verse 24
Then he called her from below her, namely, Gabriel — for he was lower than her, ‘Do not grieve. Your Lord has made below you a rivulet, a river of water, which had dried up.
Verse 25
And shake the trunk of the palm-tree towards you, [a palm-tree] which had withered (the bi- [in bi-jidh‘i’l-nakhlati, ‘the trunk of the palm-tree] is extra) — there will drop (tusāqit, originally this is tatasāqat, but the second tā’ is changed into a sīn and is assimilated with the [second] sīn; a variant reading omits it [the second tā’] altogether) on you dates (rutaban, a specification) fresh and ripe (janiyyan, an adjectival qualification of it [of rutaban, ‘dates’]).
Verse 26
So eat, of the dates, and drink, from the rivulet, and [let] your eye be comforted, by the child (‘aynan, ‘[your] eye’, a specification derived from the subject of the verb, in other words [what is meant is] li-taqarra ‘aynuki bihi, ‘that your eye may be comforted by him’) that is, let it [your eye] be at peace and not covet any other than him; and if (immā: the nūn of the conditional particle in is here assimilated with the extra mā) you [happen to] see (tarayinna: the third consonantal root [the yā’] and the second [the hamza] have been omitted, with the [fatha] vowel therein transferred to the [first consonant] the letter rā’, and a kasra vowel applied to the yā’ of the [feminine] person, because of two unvowelled consonants coming together) any human being, and should he ask you about your child, then say, “I have vowed to the Compassionate One a fast, that is to say, an abstention from speaking of his affair and from [speaking to] any other humans — which is indicated by [the following statement]), so I will not speak to any human today”’, that is, after [saying] this.
Verse 27
Then, carrying him, she brought him to her folk (tahmiluhu, ‘carrying him’, a circumstantial qualifier), and they saw him, and they said, ‘O Mary, truly you have done a curious thing!, an astounding [thing], for you have begotten a son without [his having] a father.
Verse 28
O sister of Aaron — he was a righteous man, in other words [what is meant is], O you who are like him in [terms of] chastity — your father was not a wicked man, that is, a fornicator, nor was your mother unchaste’, that is, a fornicatress: so how is it that you have this child?
Verse 29
Thereat she pointed, them, to him, intimating [to them that they], ‘talk to him’. They said, ‘How can we talk to one who is, who happens to be, in the cradle, [still] a little child?’
Verse 30
He said, ‘Lo! I am God’s servant. He has given me the Scripture, namely, the Gospel, and made me a prophet.
Verse 31
And He has made me blessed wherever I may be, that is, [He has made me] of great benefit to mankind — [this is] a foretelling of what had been preordained for him — and He has enjoined upon me prayer and alms-giving, He has commanded me to [do] both of these, as long as I remain alive;
Verse 32
and [He has made me] dutiful towards my mother (barran, in the accusative because of the implicit [verb] ja‘alanī, ‘He has made me’). And He has not made me arrogant, haughty, wretched, disobedient to his Lord.
Verse 33
And peace, from God, be upon me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I shall be raised alive!’ — the same is being said about him as [was said above] regarding the lord John. God, exalted be He, says:
Verse 34
That is Jesus, son of Mary, a statement of truth (read qawlu’l-haqqi, as the predicate of an implied subject, in other words, ‘the statement of the son of Mary [is a statement of truth]’; or read qawla’l-haqqi, because of [it being the object of] an implied [verb] qultu, ‘I say’, meaning, ‘[I say] a statement of truth’) concerning which they are in doubt (yamtarūna, derives from [the infinitive] al-mirya) — they are the Christians, who say, ‘Indeed Jesus is the son of God’; [but] they lie.
Verse 35
It is not [befitting] for God to take to Himself a son. Glory be to Him — in affirmation of His being transcendent above [doing] such a thing. When He decrees a thing, that is, [when] He will for it to happen, He only says to it, ‘Be!’, and it is (read fa-yakūnu because of an implied [pronoun] huwa [sc. fa-huwa yakūnu]; or read fa-yakūna because of an implied an [sc. an yakūna]). An example of this is His creating Jesus without [his having had] a father.
Verse 36
And indeed God is my Lord and your Lord. So worship Him (read [the introductory particle] as anna, with an implicit [preceding] udhkur, ‘mention’; or read [it] as inna, with an implicit [preceding] qul, ‘say’, [a reading] indicated by [the fact that God says elsewhere] ‘I only said to them that which You commanded me: “Worship God, my Lord and your Lord” ’ [Q. 5:117]). This, that has been mentioned, is a straight path, a route leading to Paradise.
Verse 37
But the factions differed among themselves, that is to say, the Christians, [they differed] regarding Jesus: was he the son of God? A god alongside Him? Or [was he] the third of three [gods]? So woe — [meaning] severe punishment [will be meted out] — to those who disbelieve, [those who disbelieve] in the way mentioned and in other ways, at the scene of an awful Day, that is to say, [woe to them] when they are present at the Day of Resurrection and [witnessing] its terrors.
Verse 38
How hearing they are and seeing, they are (these two constructions [are used to] express ‘amazement’, meaning, ‘how well they [will] hear and how well they [will] see’) on the Day when they come to Us, in the Hereafter. Yet the evildoers (an example of a proper noun [‘evildoers’] replacing a third person pronominalisation) today, that is, in this world, are in manifest error, that is, [error] that is evident therein, having been deaf [unable] to listen to the truth and blind [unable] to see it. In other words, [the meaning is]: O you, the one being addressed, marvel at how [well] they will [be able to] hear and see in the Hereafter after they had been deaf and blind in this world.
Verse 39
And warn them, threaten, O Muhammad (s), the disbelievers of Mecca, of the Day of Regret, namely, the Day of Resurrection, on which the sinner will regret not having been virtuous in [the life of] this world, when the matter will be decided, for them thereupon, that they be chastised, while they, in this world, are [yet] heedless, of it, and do not believe, in it [the Day of Resurrection].
Verse 40
Indeed We (innā nahnu, [a repetition of the first person] for emphasis), shall inherit the earth and all who are on it, of rational beings and others, by destroying them, and to Us they shall be returned, thereon [on the Day of Resurrection] for requital.
Verse 41
And mention, to them, in the Book Abraham, that is, [mention] his tale. Indeed he was a truthful one ([the intensive form siddīq] means ‘extremely truthful’), a prophet (the following [statement] substitutes for the [preceding] predicate).
Verse 42
When he said to his father, Āzar, ‘O my father! (the [final] tā’ here [of abati] has replaced the [possessive] yā’ of [genitive] annexation [sc. of yā abī]; the two, however, are never used together) — he [Abraham’s father] used to worship idols. Why do you worship that which neither hears nor sees, and is of no avail to you, suffices you [not], in any way? whether in [terms of] benefit or harm.
Verse 43
O my father! Indeed there has come to me of knowledge that which has not come to you. So follow me that I may guide you to a path, a route, that is right, [that is] straight.
Verse 44
O my father! Do not worship Satan, by obeying him through [your] worship of idols. Truly Satan is disobedient ([the intensive form‘asiyyan] means ‘one given to disobedience’) to the Compassionate One.
Verse 45
O my father! I do fear lest a chastisement from the Compassionate One should befall you, if you do not repent, and then you become an ally of Satan, an assistant and a comrade [of his] in the Fire.
Verse 46
He said, ‘Are you renouncing my gods, O Abraham?, so that you are denouncing them [in this way]? If you do not desist, from criticising them, I shall surely assail you, with stones, or with evil words, so beware of me; and stay away from me for a long time’.
Verse 47
He said, ‘Peace be to you, from me — in other words, I shall not cause you any harm. I shall ask forgiveness of my Lord for you. Truly He is ever gracious to me (hafiyyan, from hafiyyun, meaning bārrun, ‘kind’) answering my prayers. And indeed he [Abraham] fulfilled his above-mentioned promise [as described] in [sūrat] al-Shu‘arā’, And forgive my father [Q. 26:86]; but this was before it became clear to him that he [Abraham’s father] was an enemy of God, as mentioned in [sūrat] Barā’a [Q. 9:114].
Verse 48
And I shall shun you and that which you call upon, [that which] you worship, besides God. I will supplicate, I will worship, my Lord — hopefully in calling upon, in worshipping, my Lord I shall not be wretched’, as you have become wretched by your worship of idols.
Verse 49
And so after he had shunned them and that which they worshipped besides God, by having set off to the Holy Land, We gave him, two sons for him to find solace in, Isaac and Jacob, and each, of the two, We made a prophet.
Verse 50
And We gave them, all three [of them], out of Our mercy, wealth and offspring, and We assigned for them a worthy repute [one] that is lofty, sublime, namely, [We assigned] fair praise [of them] among all the members of the [Abrahamic] religions.
Verse 51
And mention in the Book Moses. Indeed he was devoted [to God] (read either as mukhlisan, to mean ‘one sincerely devoted to worship [of God]’; or read mukhlasan, [to mean ‘he was delivered’] as in God had delivered him from defilement) and he was a messenger, a prophet.
Verse 52
And We called him — with the words, ‘O Moses! Verily I am God’ [Q. 27:9] — from the right side of the Mount (al-Tūr, is [actually] the name of a mountain) that is, [from the side] to the right of Moses as he was approaching [the Mount] from Midian; and We brought him near in communion, as God, exalted be He, made him hear His speech.
Verse 53
And We gave him out of Our mercy, Our grace, his brother Aaron (Hārūn, either a substitution [for akhāhu, ‘his brother’], or an explicative supplement [thereof]), [likewise] a prophet (nabiyyan, a circumstantial qualifier, constituting the import of the ‘gift’ [to Moses], which was in response to his [Moses’s] request that He [God] send forth his brother with him; he [Aaron] was older in years than him).
Verse 54
And mention in the Book Ishmael. Indeed he was true to his promise — he never promised anything which he did not fulfil; he [once] waited for three days for someone whom he had promised [to meet]; or [it is said that he waited] an entire year until that person [finally] returned to the place in which he [Ishamel] was [supposed to have met the former]; and he was a messenger, to [the tribe of] Jurhum, a prophet [likewise].
Verse 55
He used to enjoin upon his kinsfolk, that is, his people, prayer and the [payment of] alms, and he was pleasing to his Lord (mardiyyan, ‘pleasing’, is actually marduwwun, but both wāw letters have been changed to two yā’ letters, while the kasra vowel [has also been changed to] a damma vowel).
Verse 56
And mention in the Book Idrīs, who was Noah’s great-grandfather. Indeed he was a truthful one, a prophet.
Verse 57
And We raised him to a high station — he is alive in the fourth, or sixth, or seventh heaven, or [he is] in Paradise into which he was admitted after he was made to experience death and brought back to life, and he has not exited therefrom.
Verse 58
Those (ūlā’ika is the subject) to whom God has been gracious (alladhīna an‘ama’Llāhu ‘alayhim is an adjectival qualification of it [of the subject]) from among the prophets (mina’l-nabīyyīna, an explication of it [of the subject] functioning like an adjectival qualification in terms of import. That which follows it [mina’l-nabīyyīna, ‘from among the prophets’] up to [where] the conditional sentence begins, constitutes an adjectival qualification of al-nabīyyīna, ‘the prophets’; and so His saying … ) of the seed of Adam, namely, Idrīs, and of those whom We carried with Noah, in the Ark, namely, Abraham — [who is the] son of his [Noah’s] son Shem (Sām) — and of the seed of Abraham, namely, Ishmael, Isaac and Jacob, and, of the seed of, Israel — who is Jacob — namely, Moses, Aaron, Zachariah, John and Jesus, and from among those whom We guided and chose, that is to say, from among their number (the predicate of ūlā’ika, ‘those’, is [the following, idhā tutlā …]) when the signs of the Compassionate One were recited to them, they would fall down prostrating and weeping (these [sujjadan and bukīyyan] constitute the plural [forms] of sājid, ‘prostrate’, and bākin, ‘weeping’ [respectively]) in other words [what is meant is]: be [you] like them (bukiyyun is originally [formed from] bakūyyin, but the wāw is changed into a yā’ and the damma vowel into a kasra).
Verse 59
But there succeeded after them a posterity who neglected the prayer, by abandoning [performance of] it, [a posterity] such as the Jews and the Christians, and followed [their] lusts, in the way of acts of disobedience. So they shall [soon] encounter Ghayy — a valley in Hell — that is, they shall fall into it;
Verse 60
whereas those who repent and believe and act righteously — such shall enter Paradise and shall not be wronged, they shall [not] be diminished, in any way, in their reward;
Verse 61
[they shall enter] Gardens of Eden, as [a place of] residence (jannāti ‘Adnin, substitutes for al-janna, ‘Paradise’) which the Compassionate One has promised to His servants [a promise] in the Unseen (bi’l-ghaybi, a circumstantial qualifier, in other words [a promise made while] they do not see it). Indeed His promise, that is to say, that which He promises, is ever fulfilled, meaning that it always arrives (the original [form of ma’tiyyan] is ma’tūyun); or [what is meant by] His promise here is Paradise, to which those deserving of it shall arrive.
Verse 62
Therein they shall not hear anything that is trifling, of talk, but, they shall hear, only [a greeting of] ‘Peace!’, from the angels to them, or from some among them to others. And therein they will have their provision morning and evening, in other words, according to the [equivalent] measure of these two in the [life of this] world, since there is no day or night in Paradise, only everlasting light and illumination.
Verse 63
That is the Paradise which We shall give as inheritance, [which] We shall grant and [in which] We shall lodge, those of Our servants who are God-fearing, through [their] obedience of Him.
Verse 64
When the Revelation did not come for a number of days, the Prophet (s) said to Gabriel, ‘What prevents you from visiting us more often than you do?’ and so the following was revealed: And We do not descend except by the commandment of your Lord. To Him belongs all that is before us, namely, ahead of us, of the affairs of the Hereafter, and all that is behind us, of the affairs of this world, and all that is between those [two], namely, all that takes place from this [point in] time until the coming of the Hour, in other words, to Him belongs knowledge of all of those things. And your Lord is never forgetful, meaning that He is never neglectful of you [even] when the Revelation is postponed from [being sent to] you.
Verse 65
He is, the Lord, the Owner, of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them. So worship Him and be steadfast in His worship, in other words, [continue to] perform it patiently. Do you know [of] anyone who could be His namesake? , [anyone] named with that [same title]? No!
Verse 66
And man, the denier of the Resurrection — namely, Ubayy b. Khalaf or al-Walīd b. al-Mughīra, concerning whom the verse was revealed — says, ‘When (read a-idha, either pronouncing the second hamza, or not, but inserting an alif between the two [hamzas] in both [readings]) I am dead, shall I then be brought forth alive?’, from the grave, as Muhammad (s) says? (the interrogative [here] statement is meant as a denial, in other words [he means to say] I shall not be brought forth alive after death; mā [of mā mittu, ‘I am dead’] is extra, for emphasis, likewise [extra is] the lām [of la-sawfa, ‘shall I then’]). He [God] then responds to him with the following saying [of His], exalted be He:
Verse 67
Does not man then remember (yadhdhakaru, is actually yatadhakkaru, but the tā’ has been changed to a dhāl and assimilated with the [other] dhāl; a variant reading leaves it as yadhkuru) that We created him before, when he was nothing?, and thus infer from the first act [of creation] the [possibility of] resurrection.
Verse 68
For by your Lord, We will surely gather them, namely, the deniers of the Resurrection, and the devils, that is to say, We shall gather every one of them with his devil [bound together] in a chain; then We shall bring them around Hell, [around] the outside of it, crouching, on their knees ([jithiyyan is] the plural of jāthin, and is originally [formed as] jathawuwwin or jathawiyyun [deriving] from [the verb] jathā, [imperfect tense] yajthu or yajthī, two [variant] forms).
Verse 69
Then We shall pluck out from every party, every sect, whichever of them was most hardened in disdain, in insolence, of the Compassionate One.
Verse 70
Then indeed We shall know best those most deserving of it, most worthy of [being in] Hell, the most hardened of them and others [like them], for the burning, for the admission [into it] and the scorching [therein], and We shall start with them ([siliyyan is] originally [formed as] salawiyyun, from [the verb] saliya or salaya).
Verse 71
There is not one of you but shall come to it, that is, [but] shall enter Hell. That is an inevitability [already] decreed by your Lord, [something which] He made inevitable and [which] He decreed; He will not waive it.
Verse 72
Then We will deliver (read nunajjī or nunjī) those who were wary, of [committing] idolatry or disbelief, [We will deliver them] from it, and leave those who did wrong, by way of idolatry and disbelief, crouching therein, on their knees.
Verse 73
And when Our manifest, evident (bayyinātin, ‘manifest’, is a circumstantial qualifier) signs, in the Qur’ān, are recited to them, namely, [to] the believers and the disbelievers, those who disbelieve say to those who believe, ‘Which of the two parties — us or you — is better in station, in lodging and abode (read as maqāman, it is [derived] from [the first form] qāma, ‘he stood’; read as muqāman, it is [derived] from the [fourth form] aqāma, ‘he took up residence’) and more excellent in assembly?’ (nadiyyan, meaning the place in which a folk assemble and converse). They [the disbelievers] mean ‘we [are the better of the two parties]’, and so we will fare better than you. God, exalted be He, says:
Verse 74
And how many — in other words, many — a generation, that is, a community from among the communities of the past, have We destroyed before them, who were superior in [their possession of] gear, in wealth and chattel, and in appearance, [superior] as a sight (ri’yan derives from [the infinitive] al-ru’ya). Thus in the same way that We destroyed those [ones] because of their disbelief, We will destroy these [ones also].
Verse 75
Say: ‘As for him who is in error (man kāna fī’l-dalālati, a conditional clause, the response to which is [fa’l-yamdud, ‘He shall prolong’ and what follows it]) the Compassionate One shall defer (fa’l-yamdud, functions in the sense of a predicate) him, from chastisement by [granting him] some respite, in this world, drawing him on [to his eventual chastisement] gradually, until, when they catch sight of that which they were promised, whether it be chastisement [in this world], by being killed or taken captive, or the Hour, the Resurrection that comprises Hell, they will enter it. Then they will surely know who is worse in [respect of] position and weaker in [respect of the number of] hosts’, in [respect of the number of] supporters, themselves or the believers? Their hosts will be the devils, while the hosts of the believers against them will be the angels.
Verse 76
And God increases in guidance those who found [right] guidance, through faith, [increasing them] by way of the signs He reveals to them; and the enduring things, the righteous deeds — namely, obedience [the reward of] which endures for that person — are better in your Lord’s sight in [terms of] reward, and better in [terms of the] return, that is, as something which will be repaid and returned to him [the believer], in contrast to the deeds of the disbelievers. The [use of the qualification] khayr, ‘better’, here is meant to counter [the use of the same in] their statement, ‘Which of the two parties is better in station?’ [above, Q. 19:73].
Verse 77
Have you seen him who disbelieves in Our signs, namely, al-‘Ās b. Wā’il, and says, to Khabbāb b. al-Aratt — who had said to him, ‘You will be resurrected after death!’, and who had requested from him repayment of money — ‘I shall assuredly be given, on the supposition that there is [such a thing as] resurrection, wealth and children?’, and so I will repay you [then]. God, exalted be He, says:
Verse 78
Has he come to learn [something] of the Unseen, that is, has he been given [some] knowledge of it and [of the fact] that he will be given what he has mentioned (here the interrogative hamza [of a-ittala‘a, ‘has he come to learn?’] suffices in place of the conjunctive hamza, which has therefore been omitted) or has he made a covenant with the Compassionate One?, to [the effect that he] be given what he claims?
Verse 79
Nay, he shall not be given [any of] that, but We will assuredly write down, We shall command that it be written down, that which he says and prolong for him the chastisement endlessly, We shall give him because of that [claim] an extra chastisement, in addition to the chastisement for his disbelief;
Verse 80
and We shall take over from him that which he talks about, of wealth and children, and he shall come to Us, on the Day of Resurrection, alone, with neither wealth nor children.
Verse 81
And they, namely, the disbelievers of Mecca, have taken besides God, graven images [as], [other] gods, for them to worship, that they may be for them a [source of] might, [that they may be] intercessors before God, so that they will not be chastised.
Verse 82
Nay, that is to say, there is none to prevent their being chastised, but they, namely, the [idol] gods, shall reject their worship, that is, they will deny it — as [is stated] in another verse: It was not us that they used to worship [Q. 28:63]) — and they shall be [pitted] against them as opponents, enemies, supporting one another [against them].
Verse 83
Have you not regarded that We unleash the devils against, We have set them upon, the disbelievers to urge them, to incite them to [commit] acts of disobedience, impetuously?
Verse 84
So do not make haste against them, to demand [that they receive] chastisement. Indeed We are only counting for them, the days and the nights, or [their] every breath, carefully, until the time [arrives] for their chastisement.
Verse 85
Mention, the day on which We shall gather those who fear God, by their [adherence to] faith, to the Compassionate One, [honoured] on mounts (wafdan, the [accusative] plural of wāfid, meaning ‘mounted’);
Verse 86
and drive the guilty, [guilty] on account of their disbelief, into Hell, a thirsty herd (wirdan, the [accusative] plural of wārid, meaning ‘one who is thirsty and on foot).
Verse 87
They, namely, mankind, will not have the power to intercede, save him who has made a covenant with the Compassionate One, [the covenant being] the profession of lā ilāha illā’Llāh wa-lā hawla wa-lā quwwata illā bi’Llāh, ‘there is no god but God, and there is no power or strength except in God’.
Verse 88
And they say, that is, the Jews and the Christians and those who claim that the angels are God’s daughters, ‘The Compassionate One has taken a son’. [But] God, exalted be He, says to them:
Verse 89
Truly you have uttered something hideous, that is, a great abomination.
Verse 90
The heavens are almost (read takādu, or yakādu) rent (read takādu tatafattarna), by being torn apart (a variant reading has yanfatirna), because of it and the earth [is almost] split asunder, and the mountains [almost] fall down crashing, collapsing on top of them, because of [the fact]:
Verse 91
that they have ascribed a son to the Compassionate One. God, exalted be He, says:
Verse 92
when it is not meet for [the Majesty of] the Compassionate One to take a son, that is to say, such a thing does not befit Him.
Verse 93
There is none in the heavens and the earth but he comes to the Compassionate One as a servant, servile, submissive, on the Day of Resurrection, including [individuals such as] Ezra and Jesus.
Verse 94
Verily He knows their number and has counted them precisely, and therefore [the knowledge of] their total number does not elude Him, not even [the knowledge] of one of them.
Verse 95
And each one of them will come to Him on the Day of Resurrection, [each one] alone, without wealth or any helper to protect him.
Verse 96
Truly those who believe and perform righteous deeds — for them the Compassionate One shall appoint love, between them, so that they have mutual love and affection, and God, exalted be He, will love them.
Verse 97
Indeed We have made it easy, namely, the Qur’ān, in your tongue, only that you may bear good tidings therewith to the God-fearing, those who will be prosperous because of their faith, and warn, threaten, therewith a folk [who are] contumacious (luddan, the [accusative] plural of aladd), in other words, [extremely] disputatious, [using] false arguments — and they are the disbelievers of Mecca.
Verse 98
And how many — in other words, many — a generation, namely, [how many] a community from among the communities of the past, We have destroyed before them, for their denial of [Our] messengers. Can you see, [can] you find, [so much as] one of them, or hear from them [so much as] the faintest sound? No, indeed! So, just as We destroyed those [folk], We shall destroy these [Meccans].
Verse 1
Tā hā: God knows best what He means by these [letters].
Verse 2
We have not revealed the Qur’ān to you, O Muhammad (s), that you should be miserable, that you should toil because of what you used to do after it was revealed [to you], in the way of long vigils performing night prayers; in other words, so unburden your soul;
Verse 3
but, We have revealed it, only to remind, therewith, him who fears, God;
Verse 4
a revelation (tanzīlan, a substitution, standing in place of the [conjugated] verb [derived] therefrom which renders it [tanzīlan] accusative) from Him Who created the earth and the high heavens (‘ulā, the plural of ‘ulyā, similar [in pattern] to kubrā, kubar, ‘large’);
Verse 5
He is, the Compassionate One presided upon the Throne (al-‘arsh, in the [classical Arabic] language denotes a king’s seat) a presiding befitting of Him;
Verse 6
to Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth and whatever is between them, of creatures, and whatever is beneath the soil (al-tharā, is moist earth) meaning [whatever is beneath] the seven earths, since these lie beneath it.
Verse 7
And should you be loud in your speech, in remembrance [of God] or supplication, then God has no need for this to be [spoken] loud, then indeed He knows the secret and [that which is] yet more hidden, than that [secret], namely, that which the soul whispers [to itself] and that which occurs to the mind but which you do not speak of [to anyone], so do not strain yourself to be loud [in your speech].
Verse 8
God — there is no god save Him. To Him belong the Most Beautiful Names, the ninety nine [Names], cited in the hadīth (al-husnā is the feminine form of al-ahsan, ‘the best’).
Verse 9
Has the story of Moses — indeed, it has — come to you?
Verse 10
When he caught sight of a fire and said to his family, namely, to his wife, ‘Wait, here! — this was when he was leaving Midian, heading for Egypt — Indeed I see a fire [in the distance]. Perhaps I [can] bring you a brand from it, [bring you] a burning wick or a torch, or find at the fire some guidance’, that is, someone to guide me by showing me the [proper] route — for he had lost it in the darkness of the night. He [Moses] said, ‘perhaps’ (la‘alla) because he could not be certain of fulfilling his promise.
Verse 11
And when he reached it — it was a boxthorn — he was called [by name], ‘O Moses!
Verse 12
Indeed (read as innī, if one understands nūdiya, ‘he was called’, as meaning qīla, ‘it was said’; or read it as annī, because of an implied [prefixed] bā’) I am (anā, reiterates the [first person indicator] yā’ [of innī] used by the [direct] speaker) your Lord. So take off your sandals, for lo! you are in the holy, [meaning] either the pure, or the blessed, valley of Tuwā ([this is] either a substitution, or an explicative supplement; read [Tuwan] with nunation or [Tuwā] without: it is [considered] declinable on account of it being a location; but [alternatively considered] indeclinable, if taken as considered a feminine proper noun denoting a place name).
Verse 13
And I [Myself] have chosen you, from among [all of] your people, so listen to what is being revealed, to you from Me.
Verse 14
Verily I am God — there is no god except Me. So worship Me and establish prayer for to make remembrance of Me, in it.
Verse 15
The Hour is assuredly coming. [But] I will to keep it hidden, from mankind — and its nearness [in time] will manifest itself to them through its signs — so that every soul may be requited, thereupon, for what it strives for, of good or evil.
Verse 16
So do not let him bar you, distract you, from it, that is, from believing in it, who believes not in it but follows his own whim, in denying [the truth of] it, lest you perish, that is, lest you be ruined if you are barred from [remembering] it.
Verse 17
And what is that, that happens to be, in your right hand, O Moses?’ (the interrogative is meant as an affirmative, [but it is expressed as an interrogative] in order that the miracle [to be manifested] in it be [shown as] consequent upon it).
Verse 18
He said, ‘It is my staff. I lean, I support myself, upon it, when I leap [across something] or walk, and I beat down [leaves], I strike the leaves on trees, with it, so that they fall, for my sheep, which then consume them; and I have uses for it (ma’ārib, ‘uses’, is the plural of ma’ruba, with the rā’ taking any [one] of the three vowels [sc. ma’ruba, ma’raba or ma’riba] meaning ‘needs’) in other ways, such as [using it] to carry food supplies and waterskins, as well as to drive away [undesirable] animals. He [Moses] gives an extensive response to indicate his [many] needs for it.
Verse 19
He said, ‘Cast it down, O Moses!’
Verse 20
And he cast it down, and lo! it was a serpent, a giant snake, moving swiftly, moving about on its belly swiftly with the speed of a small snake — which is called al-jānn and which is [also] used to refer to this [serpent] in another verse [Q. 27:10; Q. 28:31].
Verse 21
He said, ‘Take [hold of] it and do not fear, it. We will restore it to its former state (sīratahā, in the accusative because the genitive-operating preposition has been removed). And so he placed his hand in its mouth and it became a staff once again; and it became clear that the place into which he put his hand was the place where it [the staff] is held, between its two prongs. Moses was shown this [miracle] lest he be terrified when it turns into a snake in the presence of Pharaoh.
Verse 22
And thrust your hand, the right one, meaning, the palm, into your flank — that is, your left side, below the arm into the armpit, and [then] take it out — it will emerge white, in contrast to the skin-colour that it was, without any fault, that is, [without any sign of] leprosy, radiating like the rays of the sun, blinding to the eyes [of onlookers]. [That is] yet another sign (āyatan ukhrā: this together with baydā’a, ‘white’, constitute two circumstantial qualifiers referring to the subject of [the verb] takhruj, ‘it will emerge’).
Verse 23
That We may show you, thereby, when you do this [as described above] in order to manifest it, of Our greatest signs, the sign that is the greatest proof of [the truth of] your Mission [from God]: and should he want it to be restored to its former state, he would thrust it into his armpit, as has been mentioned, and [then] bring it out.
Verse 24
Go, as a messenger [from God], to Pharaoh, and [to] those with him. He has indeed transgressed’, he has exceeded the [usual] limits in his disbelief by claiming to be a god.
Verse 25
He said, ‘My Lord, expand my breast for me, expand it so that it may accommodate the [weight of the Divine] Message.
Verse 26
And make easy, facilitate, for me my affair, that I may deliver it.
Verse 27
And undo the knot upon my tongue — the result of his having been burnt by a live coal which he had placed [accidentally] in his mouth as a child;
Verse 28
so that they may understand what I [shall] say, when I am delivering the Message.
Verse 29
And appoint for me a minister, an assistant for that [task], from my family,
Verse 30
Aaron (Hārūna, constitutes the second object), my brother (akhī, an explicative supplement).
Verse 31
Confirm through him my strength, my courage;
Verse 32
and let him share in my affair, namely, in [the delivery of] the Message (both verbs [ushdud, ‘confirm’, and ashrikhu, ‘let him share’] are in the imperative and in the apocopated imperfect tense, constituting the response to the request [of Moses]).
Verse 33
So that we may glorify You, [by making] glorifications, over and over again,
Verse 34
and remember You, [by making] remembrance, over and over again.
Verse 35
Indeed You are ever Seeing of us’, ever Knowing, having been gracious [to us] by way of [appointing us to deliver] the Message.
Verse 36
He said, ‘You have been granted your request, O Moses!, as a favour [from Us] to you.
Verse 37
And certainly, We have done you a favour [already] another time,
Verse 38
when (idh, for explanation [of that favour]) We revealed to your mother, either in [her] sleep or by way of inspiration — when she gave birth to you and feared that Pharaoh would have you slain for being one of the newborn [of the Children of Israel] — that which was revealed, regarding your affair (this [mā yūhā, ‘that which was revealed’] is substituted by [what follows, an iqdhifīhi …]),
Verse 39
“Cast him, place him, in the ark, then cast him, [while] in the ark, into the river, [into] the flow of the Nile, and then the river shall throw him up onto the shore, that is, its bank (the imperative here [fa’l-yulqihi, ‘let it throw him’] functions as a predicate); [there] an enemy of Mine and an enemy of his, namely, Pharaoh, shall take him”. And, after he took you, I cast upon you love from Me, that you may be loved by people; and indeed Pharaoh, and all who saw you, loved you; and that you might be reared under My eyes, be nurtured under My guardianship and My protection of you.
Verse 40
When (idh, for explanation) your sister, Maryam, walked up, to obtain news of you, for they had brought wet nurses [for you] but you would not take to the breast of any of them, and she then said, “Shall I show you someone who will take care of him?”. Her offer was accepted and so she brought [them] his mother and he took to her breasts. Thus We restored you to your mother that her eyes might rejoice, in seeing you again, and not grieve, at that point [anymore]. Then you slew a soul, namely, the Copt in Egypt — and you became distressed for having slain him because of [how] Pharaoh [would react]; whereupon We delivered you from [great] distress, and We tried you with various ordeals, We tested you by landing you in some other [ordeal] and [again] delivered you from it. Then you stayed for several years, ten [years], among the people of Midian, after you had reached it having left Egypt, [staying] with the prophet Shu‘ayb and marrying his daughter. Then you came [hither] as ordained, in My knowledge, with the Message [that you will deliver] — and this was when you were forty years old, O Moses!
Verse 41
And I chose you for Myself, to deliver the Message.
Verse 42
Go, you and your brother, to the people, with My, nine, signs, and do not flag, be remiss, in remembrance of Me, by uttering glorifications and otherwise.
Verse 43
Go the two of you to Pharaoh. Truly he has transgressed [the bounds], in claiming to be the Lord.
Verse 44
And speak to him gentle words, for him to renounce such [claims], that perhaps he may be mindful, be admonished, or fear’, God and so repent — the ‘hope’ [for Pharaoh’s repentance] is [expressed] from their perspective, for God knows that he was not going to repent.
Verse 45
The two [of them] said, ‘Our Lord, We truly fear that he may forestall us, that is, by hastening to punish us, or become tyrannical’, against us, that is, be high-handed [with us].
Verse 46
He said, ‘Do not fear, for I shall be with the two of you, by [providing you with] My assistance, hearing, what he says, and seeing, what he does.
Verse 47
So go to him and say, “Truly we are two messengers of your Lord, so let the Children of Israel go with us, to Syria, and do not [continue to] chastise them, in other words, release them from your exploitation of them in those oppressive works of yours, such as digging, construction and the lifting of heavy objects. We have verily brought you a sign, a definitive argument, from your Lord, as proof of our truthfulness in [delivering] the Message; and may peace be upon him who follows [right] guidance, that is to say, may he be secure from [God’s] chastisement.
Verse 48
Indeed it has been revealed to us that the chastisement shall befall him who denies, [the truth of] what we have brought, and turns away” ’, [and who] rejects it. And so they came to him and said [to him] all of what has been mentioned.
Verse 49
He said, ‘So who is your Lord, O Moses?’ — he [Pharaoh] restricted this [question] to him [Moses], because [between him and Aaron] he is the principal [bearer of God’s Message] and also because of his [Pharaoh’s] having pampered him while he was being reared [as a child].
Verse 50
He said, ‘Our Lord is He Who gave to everything, in creation, its [peculiar] nature, through which it is distinguished from another [thing], and then guided [it]’, the animal among them to its source of food, drink and procreation and in other ways.
Verse 51
He, Pharaoh, said, ‘So what of, the status [of], the generations, the communities, of old?’, such as the people of Noah, Hūd, Lot and Sālih, with regard to their having worshipped graven images.
Verse 52
Said he, Moses, ‘The knowledge thereof, that is, the knowledge of their [otherworldly] status, is, preserved, with my Lord, in a Book, namely, the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfūz), and He shall requite them in accordance with it on the Day of Resurrection. My Lord does not err, He is [never] absent from anything, nor does He, my Lord, forget, anything.
Verse 53
He is, the One Who made for you, as well as [for] all creatures, the earth a cradle, a bed, and threaded, facilitated, for you therein ways, roads, and sent down from the heaven water, rain. God, exalted be He, says, as a complement to Moses’s description of Him and as an address to the people of Mecca: and therewith We brought forth various kinds, species, of plants (shattā, ‘various’, adjectivally qualifies azwājan, ‘kinds’), in other words, [plants] of different colours, flavours and [different] in other ways (shattā is the plural of shatīt, similar [in pattern] to marīd, [plural] mardā, as [may be used] in [a phrase like] shatta al-amr, ‘the affair has become divided’).
Verse 54
Eat, thereof, and pasture your cattle, therein (an‘ām, ‘cattle’, is the plural of na‘am, which are camels, cows and sheep; one says ra‘atu’l-an‘āmu, ‘the cattle grazed’ or ra‘aytuhā, ‘I grazed them’; the imperative here is meant as a permissive and a reminder of [God’s] grace, the sentence being a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of [the verb] akhrajnā, ‘We brought forth’, in other words [what is meant is], ‘[We brought forth the plants] permitting you to eat thereof and to graze [your] cattle [thereon]’). In that, which is mentioned here, there are indeed signs, indeed lessons, for people of sense, possessors of intellect (al-nuhā, the plural of nuhya, similar [in pattern] to ghurfa, [plural] ghuraf. The intellect is called by this [term, nuhya] because it shows a person the sense to refrain from committing vile deeds).
Verse 55
From it, that is, from the earth, We created you, by creating your father Adam from it, and into it We shall restore you, [when you are] interred after death, and from it We shall bring you forth, at the Resurrection, a second time’, in the same way that We brought you forth [from it] when We initiated your creation.
Verse 56
And verily We showed him, that is, We made Pharaoh see, all Our signs, [all] nine, but he denied, them, and claimed that they were [the result of] sorcery, and refused, to affirm the Oneness [of God], exalted be He.
Verse 57
He said, ‘Have you come to us so that you may expel us from our land, Egypt, and so that kingship over it may be yours, by your sorcery, O Moses?
Verse 58
Yet We [too] shall produce for you a sorcery like it, [one] which will counter it. So fix a tryst between us and you, for that [purpose], [a tryst] which neither we nor you shall fail to keep, [at] a place (makānan is in the accusative because the genitive-operator preposition [fī, ‘at’] has been removed) of equal distance (read siwān or suwān), in other words, in the middle, equidistant for a person coming from either side.
Verse 59
Said he, Moses, ‘Your tryst shall be the Day of Adornment — a festive day of theirs on which they adorn themselves and [the public] assemble — and let the people assemble, [let] the inhabitants of Egypt gather, at forenoon’, the time for this [tryst], to observe what will transpire.
Verse 60
Then Pharaoh withdrew, retreated, and summoned up his guile, that is to say, those [human] elements of his guile from among the sorcerers, and then came, with them to the tryst.
Verse 61
Moses said to them — and there were 72 of them, each with a rope and a staff in his hand — ‘Woe to you!, meaning, may God make you liable to woe. Do not invent a lie against God, by ascribing partners to Him, lest He annihilate you (read fa-yushitakum or fa-yashatakum) by some chastisement, from Him. For verily he who invents lies, against God, fails’, [he] is the loser.
Verse 62
So they disputed their matter among themselves, regarding Moses and his brother, and kept secret their private counsel, that is, their conversation regarding the two,
Verse 63
They said, to each other, ‘These two men (hādhān, this [form] concords with the forms used by those [grammarians] who use the alif [ending] for all three cases of the dual person; Abū ‘Amr has [the variant reading] hādhayn) are indeed sorcerers who intend to expel you from your land by their sorcery, and do away with your excellent traditions (muthlā, the feminine form of amthal, meaning ‘the noblest’) in other words, [they will do away with the loyalty of] the noblemen among you, because these [latter] will prefer the two of them [Moses and Aaron] on account of their triumph.
Verse 64
So summon up your guile, in the way of sorcery (read fa’jma‘ū, from [the first form] jama‘a, meaning ‘he gathered’, or read fa-ajmi‘ū, from [the fourth form] ajma‘a, meaning ‘he resolved [to do something]’) and come in battle-line (saffan, a circumstantial qualifier, meaning ‘standing in rows’). For truly he who is uppermost, [he who] triumphs, this day shall be the victor!’
Verse 65
They said, ‘O Moses, you choose: either cast, your staff first, or we shall be the first to cast’, their staff.
Verse 66
He said, ‘Nay, you cast!’, and so they cast, and lo! their ropes and their staffs (‘isiyyihim: derives from ‘isūwwun, but the two wāw [letters] have been changed into two yā’ [letters], with the kasra vowelling applied to both the ‘ayn and the sād) appeared to him by [the effect of] their sorcery as though they were, snakes, gliding swiftly, on their bellies.
Verse 67
And Moses sensed fear within himself, that is to say, he feared that if [the effect of] their sorcery was of the same kind as his miracle, he would become suspect in people’s minds and they would not believe in him.
Verse 68
We said, to him, ‘Do not be afraid! Indeed you shall have the upper hand, over them by triumphing.
Verse 69
And cast that which is in your right hand — and this was his staff. It shall swallow up that which they have produced. For what they have produced is only a sorcerer’s trick, that is to say, a kind thereof, and the sorcerer does not succeed wherever he may go’, in his sorcery. So Moses cast his staff and it swallowed up all of that which they [had] produced.
Verse 70
Thereat the sorcerers cast [their heads] down prostrating, they fell down prostrating to God, exalted be He: They said, ‘We [now] believe in the Lord of Aaron and Moses’.
Verse 71
Said he, Pharaoh, ‘Do you profess belief (read a-āmantum pronouncing both hamzas, or with the second changed to an alif) in him before I, myself, give you permission? He is indeed your chief, your teacher, who taught you sorcery. I shall assuredly cut off your hands and feet on opposite sides (min khilāfin, a circumstantial qualifier meaning ‘alternate [hands and feet]’, in other words, the right hands and the left feet) and I shall assuredly crucify you on the trunks of palm trees. And you shall then know which of us — meaning himself and the Lord of Moses — is harsher in [inflicting] chastisement, and [which of us is] more lasting’, more enduring in [sustaining] opposition to him [Moses].
Verse 72
They said, ‘We will not choose you over what has come to us of clear signs, proving the truthfulness of Moses, and [over] Him Who originated us, created us (wa’lladhī fatarana, either an oath, or a supplement to [the preceding] mā, ‘what’). Decree what you will decree, that is, do what you say. What you decree is only [relevant] in the life of this world (al-hayāta’l-dunyā, is in the accusative because the scope [of his decree] is being indicated, in other words ‘[you can only decree] in it’); yet you will be requited for it in the Hereafter.
Verse 73
Indeed We profess belief in our Lord, that He may forgive us our sins, in the way of ascribing partners [to God] and otherwise, and the sorcery to which you forced us, to learn and to perform in order to oppose Moses. And God is better, than you in rewarding if he is obeyed, and more enduring’, than you in chastisement if he is disobeyed.
Verse 74
God, exalted be He, says: Truly whoever comes to his Lord a criminal, a disbeliever, like Pharaoh, for him there shall be Hell wherein he shall neither die, and thus find rest, nor live, a life of any benefit to him.
Verse 75
And whoever comes to Him a believer, having performed righteous deeds — the obligatory and supererogatory deeds, for such shall be the highest degrees (al-‘ulā, the plural of ‘ulyā, the feminine form of a‘lā) —
Verse 76
the Gardens of Eden, that is to say, as a [place of] residence (this [jannātu ‘Adnin, ‘Gardens of Eden’] is an explication thereof [of al-darajātu’l-‘ulā, ‘the highest degrees’]) underneath which rivers flow, abiding therein, and that is the reward of him who keeps pure, of sins.
Verse 77
And verily We revealed to Moses, [saying], ‘Lead My servants on a journey by night (read as an asri, ‘that: lead on a journey by night’, from [fourth form] asrā, ‘he travelled by night’; or read as an’isri, from [first form] sarā, ‘he travelled by night’, both being alternative forms), in other words, travel with them by night from the land of Egypt, and strike for them, make for them, by striking your staff, a dry path in the sea. So he fulfilled what he had been commanded, and God made the ground dry so that they were able to pass through it. Do not fear to be overtaken, that is, [fearing] that Pharaoh might catch you, and do not be afraid’, of drowning.
Verse 78
Then Pharaoh pursued them with his hosts, with him [Pharaoh] alongside them, and there engulfed them what did engulf them of the sea, and it drowned them.
Verse 79
And Pharaoh led his people astray, by calling them to worship him, and he did not guide them, nay he led them to destruction, in contrast to what he said [to them], and I guide you only to the path of rectitude [Q. 40:29].
Verse 80
O Children of Israel, truly We delivered you from your enemy, Pharaoh, by drowning him, and We made a tryst with you on the right side of the [Tūr] Mount, in order to give Moses the Torah, that it may be implemented it [by you], and We sent down to you manna and quails, namely, turunjabīn [citrus fruit] and the quail. The ones being addressed in the vocative [by ‘O Children of Israel’] are those Jews living at the time of the Prophet (s), and they are addressed with reference to the graces which God bestowed on their forefathers at the time of the prophet Moses as a preface to what God [now] says to them:
Verse 81
‘Eat of the good things We have provided you, that is to say, of that which has been bestowed on you as a grace [from God], but do not transgress regarding it, by being ungrateful for the grace thereof, lest My wrath descend on you ([if read] fa-yahilla, it means ‘[lest] it [My wrath] become incumbent [upon you]’; or [if read] fa-yuhilla, it means ‘[lest] it descend [on you]’). And he on whom My wrath descends (read yahlil, ‘becomes incumbent’, or yahlul, ‘descends’) certainly perishes, falls into the Fire.
Verse 82
And indeed I am Forgiving toward him who repents, from ascribing partners [to God], and believes, affirms God’s Oneness, and acts righteously, is sincere in [performing] the obligatory and the supererogatory [deeds], and then follows guidance’, by adhering to what has been mentioned up to his death.
Verse 83
‘And what has hurried you [to depart] from your people, in order to come to the appointed time to receive the Torah, O Moses?’
Verse 84
He said, ‘They are close, behind me, coming, upon my track, and I hastened to You, my Lord, that You may be pleased’, with me, in other words, to please you [even] more — before [giving] the response, he gives an excuse, according to what he supposed [was the situation with his people],
Verse 85
But those he supposed [to be following him] had remained behind, for He, exalted be He, said, ‘Indeed We tried your people after you, that is, after your departure from them, and the Samaritan led them astray’, so they took to worshipping the [golden] calf.
Verse 86
Thereupon Moses returned to his people, angry, with them, and sad, extremely grieved. He said, ‘O my people, did not your Lord promise you a fair promise?, that is, a true [promise] that He will give you the Torah? Did the period, the length of my absence from you, seem too long for you, or did you desire that wrath should become incumbent against you from your Lord, by your worship of the [golden] calf, and so you broke your tryst with me?’, and failed to follow after me?
Verse 87
They said, ‘We did not break our tryst with you of our own accord (read the mīm with any of the three vowellings, meaning ‘by our own power’ or ‘of our own will’), but we were laden with (read hamalnā, ‘we carried’, or hummilnā, ‘we were made to carry’) the burdens, the weight, of the people’s ornaments, of the trinkets of Pharaoh’s folk — which the Children of Israel had borrowed from them on the pretext of [using them for] a wedding, but which had remained with them — and we cast them, we threw them into the fire at the command of the Samaritan, and so, just as We cast, did the Samaritan cast, what he had on him of their trinkets together with the dust that he took from the track left by the hoof of Gabriel’s steed, as follows:
Verse 88
Then he produced for them a calf, which he fashioned from the [melted] trinkets — a [mere] body, of flesh and blood, with a low, in other words, [it made] a sound that was audible; it was transformed into such [a state] because of the dust [from Gabriel’s steed] the effect of which is [to create] life in whatever thing it is placed. After he had fashioned it, he placed it [the dust] in its mouth. And they, namely, the Samaritan and his followers, said, ‘This is your God and the God of Moses: so he, Moses, forgot’, his Lord here and set off in search of him. God, exalted be He, says:
Verse 89
Did they not see that ([in allā] an has been softened in place of the hardened form, with its subject omitted, in other words [it should be] annahu) it, the Calf, did not reciprocate their words, that is, that it did not give them any response in return, nor did it have any power over hurt for them, that is, [any power] to prevent it, or any benefit?, that is, [any power] to procure it [for them], in other words, how can such [a thing] be taken as a god?
Verse 90
And Aaron had certainly said to them beforehand, that is, before the return of Moses, ‘O my people, you are only being tested thereby! But truly your Lord is the Compassionate One, so follow me, in worship of Him, and obey my command’, therein.
Verse 91
They said, ‘We will not cease to cling to it, persisting in worship of it, until Moses returns to us’.
Verse 92
He, Moses, said, upon his return, ‘O Aaron, what held you back when you saw them going astray, by worshipping it,
Verse 93
that ([allā] read an [instead], the lā being extra) you did not follow me? Did you then disobey my command?’, by remaining among those who worship [something] other than God, exalted be He?
Verse 94
He, Aaron, said, ‘O son of my mother (read ya’bna’ummi or ya’bna’umma, meaning ummī, ‘my mother’) the mention of her is more effective in provoking the affection of his heart — do not clutch my beard, which he had seized with his left hand, or my head!, for he had seized his hair with his right hand in anger. Indeed I feared that, if I followed you, for inevitably a group of those who did not worship the calf would have followed me, you would have said, “You have caused division among the Children of Israel — and have been furious with me — and you did not wait for my word”’, concerning what my opinion would have been in this matter.
Verse 95
He said, ‘And what have you to say, what was the motive for [doing] what you did, O Samaritan?’
Verse 96
He said, ‘I perceived what they did not perceive (read [either as third person plural] yabsurū or [as second person plural] tabsurū ‘[what] you [did not] perceive’), in other words, I realised what they did not realise, so I seized a handful, of dust, from the track of, [from] the hoof of the steed of, the messenger, Gabriel, and threw it [in], I cast it onto the figure of the calf that had been fashioned. Thus my soul prompted, [thus] it adorned for, me’ and it was cast into me [the idea] that I seize a handful of the dust from that mentioned [hoof] and cast it onto what possessed no spirit, so that it might [thus] acquire a spirit. I had seen that your people had asked that you make for them a god, and so my soul suggested to me [the idea] that this calf should be their god.
Verse 97
Said he, Moses to him, ‘Begone! It shall be yours [as your lot] throughout life, that is, for the duration of your life, to say, to whomever you may see, “Do not touch [me]!”, that is, do not come near me — he used to wander about [aimlessly] throughout the land, and whenever he touched a person, or a person touched him, both would succumb to a fever. And indeed there will be a tryst for you, for you to be chastised, which you will not fail to keep (read lan tukhlifahu, meaning ‘[a tryst] which you shall not miss’; or lan tukhlafahu, ‘for which you will not be forgotten’, meaning: ‘nay you will be sent forth to [keep] it’). Now look at your god to whom you remained clinging! (zalta is actually zalilta, but the first lām has been omitted in order to soften it), that is to say, [you remained] by his [your god’s] side, worshipping him. We will surely burn it, in fire, and then scatter [the ashes of] it into the waters, we will disperse it into the winds of the sea; and, after having slaughtered it, Moses did [exactly] that which he has mentioned.
Verse 98
Indeed your God is the One God, than whom there is no other god. He embraces all things in [His] knowledge’ (‘ilman, a specification derived from the subject of the verb, in other words, it means ‘His knowledge embraces all things’).
Verse 99
Thus, just as We have related to you O Muhammad (s) this story, We relate to you some stories, [some] accounts, of what is past, of communities, and We have given you from Ourselves a Reminder, a Qur’ān.
Verse 100
Whoever turns away from it, and does not believe in it, he shall indeed, on the Day of Resurrection, bear a burden, a heavy load of sin;
Verse 101
therein, that is, in the chastisement for [such] sin, abiding. And evil for them on the Day of Resurrection is that burden! (himlan, a specification qualifying the person of [the verb] sā’a, ‘evil’; the subject of derision, the implied wizruhum, ‘their sin’, has been omitted; the lām [of lahum] is explicative and substitutes for yawma’l-qiyāma, ‘the Day of Resurrection).
Verse 102
The day the Trumpet is blown, the Horn, the Second Blast, and We shall assemble the criminals, the disbelievers, on that day bruised, in the eye along with their faces blackened.
Verse 103
They will whisper to one another, speaking secretly amongst themselves: ‘You have tarried, in this world, only ten nights’, with the [full ten] days.
Verse 104
We know very well what they will say, regarding this matter — that is, it is not as they say — when the justest, the most upright, of them in the way, in this, will say, ‘You have tarried only a day’: they will deem their stay in this world as having been very brief, on account of the terrors they will witness in the Hereafter.
Verse 105
They will question you concerning the mountains, how will they be on the Day of Resurrection? Say, to them: ‘My Lord will scatter them as ashes, by pulverising them into moving sand and dispersing them with the wind;
Verse 106
then He will leave them a level hollow, a flattened [level] surface,
Verse 107
wherein you will see neither crookedness, [neither] slope, nor any curving’, [nor] any rise.
Verse 108
On that day, that is, on the day the mountains are scattered as ashes, they will follow, that is, mankind [will follow], after rising from their graves, the Summoner, to the Gathering, by [the call of] his voice — this [Summoner] will be [the archangel] Isrāfīl, and he will say: ‘Forward to the parade before God!’ — there will be no deviation therein, that is, in the manner in which they follow [him], in other words, they cannot but follow [him]. Voices will be hushed, will become silent, before the Compassionate One, so that you hear nothing but a faint shuffle, the light tread of feet walking towards the Gathering, similar to the sound of the hoofs of camels as they pass.
Verse 109
On that day intercession will not profit, anyone, except [intercession] from him whom the Compassionate One permits, that he intercede for such [a person], and whose word He approves, that is to say, because such [an intercessor] will say, ‘there is no god but God’ (lā ilāha illā’Llāh).
Verse 110
He knows what is before them, of the affairs of the Hereafter, and behind them, of the affairs of this world, and they do not comprehend such [things] in knowledge: they have no knowledge of such [things].
Verse 111
And faces shall be humbled, they shall be submissive, before the Living, the Eternal Sustainer, namely, God; and he will certainly have failed, he will have lost, [he] who carries [the burden of] evildoing, that is, [of] idolatry.
Verse 112
But whoever does righteous deeds, acts of obedience, being a believer, shall fear neither wrong, by having his evil deeds increased, nor injustice, by having his good deeds diminished.
Verse 113
Thus (kadhālika, a supplement to [the previous] kadhālika naqussu, ‘thus We relate’ [Q. 20:99]), just as We have revealed what has been mentioned, We have revealed it, that is, the Qur’ān, as an Arabic Qur’ān, and We have distributed, We have repeated, in it [statements] of threats, so that they may fear, associating others with God, or it, the Qur’ān, may arouse in them a remembrance, of the destruction of those communities before, and may thus be admonished.
Verse 114
So exalted be God, the King, the Truth, above what the idolaters say. And do not hasten with the Qur’ān, that is, to recite it, before its revelation is completed for you, [before] Gabriel is through delivering it, and say, ‘My Lord, increase me in knowledge’, that is, [knowledge] of the Qur’ān: thus every time something of it was revealed to him his knowledge increased because of it.
Verse 115
And We made a covenant with Adam, We enjoined him not to eat of the tree, before, that is, before he ate of it, but he forgot, he disregarded Our covenant, and We did not find in him any constancy, any resoluteness or patience in [abiding by] what We forbade him from.
Verse 116
And, mention, when We said to the angels, ‘Prostrate before Adam’; so they prostrated, except Iblīs, who was the father of the jinn — he used to keep company with the angels and worship God alongside them: he refused, to prostrate before Adam, he said: ‘I am better than him’ [Q. 7:12].
Verse 117
Then We said, ‘Adam, indeed this is an enemy of yours and of your wife, Eve (read Hawwā’). So do not let him cause you both to be expelled from the Garden, so that you then toil, [so that you then] become fatigued by [the toil of] tillage, sowing, harvesting, milling, baking and otherwise — the statement is restricted to [the mention of] his [Adam’s] ‘toil’ because it is the man who has to strive [to provide] for his wife.
Verse 118
It is indeed [assured] for you that you will neither be hungry therein nor go naked,
Verse 119
And it is indeed [assured] for you (read wa-annaka or wa-innaka, as a supplement to the subject of inna [sc. laka, that is, ‘you’] and its clause) neither to be thirsty therein, nor to suffer the sun’: you will not be exposed to any heat of a midday sun, for there is no sun in Paradise.
Verse 120
Then Satan whispered to him saying, ‘O Adam, shall I guide you to the Tree of Immortality, which gives everlasting life to the one who eats thereof, and a kingdom that does not waste away?’, that does not perish while he remains immortal.
Verse 121
So both of them, Adam and Eve, ate of it, and their shameful parts were exposed to them, that is, the front [private part] of each became visible to the other, as well as the other’s behind — both of these [parts] are called saw’a, ‘shame’, because its exposure ‘shames’ (yasū’u) that person); and they began to piece together, they took to sticking, onto themselves leaves of the Garden, to cover themselves up therewith. And Adam disobeyed his Lord and so he erred, by [his] eating from the tree.
Verse 122
Thereafter his Lord chose him, He brought him close [to Him], and relented to him, He accepted his repentance, and guided him, that is, He guided him to seek repentance regularly.
Verse 123
He said, ‘Go down both of you, that is, Adam and Eve, including all of your progeny, from it, from the Garden, all together, some of you, some of the progeny, being enemies of others, because of some wronging others. Yet if (the nūn of the conditional particle in has been assimilated with the mā, which is extra) there should come to you guidance from Me, then whoever follows My guidance, the Qur’ān, shall not go astray, in this world, neither shall he be miserable, in the Hereafter.
Verse 124
But whoever disregards My remembrance, [disregards] the Qur’ān and does not believe in it, his shall be a straitened life (read dankan with nunation, a verbal noun meaning ‘straitened [circumstances]’). This [statement] has been interpreted in one hadīth to mean the punishment of the grave for the disbeliever. And on the Day of Resurrection We shall bring him to the assembly, namely, the one who disregards the Qur’ān, blind’, blind in eyesight.
Verse 125
He shall say, ‘My Lord, why have you brought be to the assembly blind, though I used to see?’, in the world and at the raising from the grave?
Verse 126
He will say, ‘So it, the affair, is. Our signs came to you, but you forgot them, you neglected them and did not believe in them; and so, just as you forgot Our signs, today you will be forgotten’, abandoned in the Fire.
Verse 127
And so, just as We requite him who disregards the Qur’ān, We requite him who is prodigal, [him who] associates others with God, and believes not in the signs of his Lord. And the chastisement of the Hereafter is more terrible, than the chastisement of the life of this world and the punishment of the grave, and more enduring, longer lasting.
Verse 128
Is it not a guidance, has it not become clear, to them, to the disbelievers of Mecca, how many (kam, is predicative and the object of [the following] ahlaknā) We destroyed, in other words, Our frequent destruction, before them of generations, that is, of past communities, for denying messengers, amid [the ruins of] whose dwelling-places they walk? (yamshūna is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the person of the pronoun lahum, ‘to them’) during their journeys to Syria and other places, that they might thus be admonished? (what has been mentioned [by grammarians] regarding the derivation of [the verb] ihlāk to be that verb that does not contain a particle referring to [the object of] the action of the verb, as a way of preserving the [original] sense [of the statement], is acceptable). Surely in that there are signs, lessons, for people of sense, for possessors of intellect.
Verse 129
And but for a decree that had already preceded from your Lord, that their chastisement be deferred to the Hereafter, it, destruction, would have been an inevitability, [their destruction] would have been necessary in this world, and a specified term, fixed for them (ajalun musamman, a supplement to the pronoun concealed in kāna, ‘it would have been’, the separation [of both subjects] by the predicate of both serves as an emphasis).
Verse 130
So be patient with what they say — this is abrogated by the ‘fighting’ verse [cf. Q. 2:190ff] — and make glorifications, pray, by praising your Lord (bi-hamdi rabbika is a circumstantial qualifier, in other words, ‘ensconced in such [praise]’) before the rising of the sun, the morning prayer, and before its setting — the afternoon prayer — and in the watches of the night, [during] the hours thereof, and make glorifications, perform the sunset and the evening prayer, and at either side of the day (wa-atrāfa’l-nahāri, a supplement to the syntactical locus of the accusative clause wa-min ānā’i, ‘and in the watches’), in other words, perform the noon prayer, because the time for it begins at the point where the sun starts to go down, which is the [end] side of the first half [of the day] and the [start] side of the second half [of the day]; that perhaps you may be pleased, with the reward that you will be given.
Verse 131
And do not extend your glance toward what We have given to some pairs, [certain] categories, among them to enjoy, [as] the flower of the life of this world, its adornment and delight, that We may try them thereby, [to see] if they transgress [the bounds]. And your Lord’s provision, in Paradise, is better, than what they have been given in this world, and more enduring, longer lasting.
Verse 132
And bid your family to prayer, and be steadfast in [the maintenance of] it. We do not ask of you, We [do not] charge you with [the procurement of], any provision, [either] for yourself or for anyone else. We [it is Who] provide you, and the [best] sequel, Paradise, will be in favour of God-fearing, for such people.
Verse 133
And they, the idolaters, say, ‘Why does he, Muhammad (s), not bring us a sign from his Lord?’, of the sort which they request. Has there not come to them (read ta’tihim or ya’tihim) the clear proof, the statements, of what is in the former scriptures?, the tales contained in the Qur’ān relating to past communities and [the details of] their destruction for denying the messengers?
Verse 134
Had We destroyed them with a chastisement before him, before [the coming of] Muhammad (s) the Messenger, they would have said, on the Day of Resurrection: ‘Our Lord, if only You had sent us a messenger, so that we might have followed those signs of Yours, given to the messengers [to convey], before we were [thus] abased, at the Resurrection, and disgraced?’, in Hell.
Verse 135
Say, to them: ‘Each, [one] of us and you, is waiting, to [see] what this affair will lead to. So wait! For you shall indeed know, at the Resurrection, who are the followers of the even path, the straight way, and who is [rightly] guided’, away from error, us or you.