Verse 82
You, O Muhammad (s), will truly find the most hostile of people to those who believe to be the Jews and the idolaters, of Mecca, because of the intensity of their disbelief, ignorance and utter preoccupation with following whims; and you will truly find the nearest of them in love to those who believe to be those who say ‘Verily, we are Christians’; that, nearness of theirs in love to the believers is, because some of them are priests, scholars, and monks, devout worshippers, and because they are not disdainful, of following the truth, as the Jews and the Meccans are.
Verse 83
This [verse] was revealed when the Negus’s delegation from Abyssinia came to him (s): when the Prophet (s) recited sūrat Yā Sīn, they cried and submitted [to Islam], saying, ‘How similar this is to what used to be revealed to Jesus!’ God, exalted be He, says: And when they hear what has been revealed to the Messenger, of the Qur’ān, you see their eyes overflow with tears because of what they recognise of the truth. They say, ‘Our Lord, we believe, we accept the truth of your Prophet and your Book, so inscribe us among the witnesses, those who affirm their acceptance of the truth.
Verse 84
And, in response to those Jews who reviled them for their Islam, they would say: why should we not believe in God and what has come to us of the truth, the Qur’ān, that is to say, there is nothing to prevent us from faith when its prerequisites are present; and hope (natma‘u is a supplement to nu’minu, ‘we believe’) that our Lord should admit us with the righteous people?’, the believers, into Paradise?
Verse 85
God, exalted be He, says: So God has rewarded them for what they have said with Gardens underneath which rivers flow, wherein they will abide; that is the requital of those who are virtuous, by believing.
Verse 86
But those who disbelieve and deny Our signs — they are the inhabitants of Hell-fire.
Verse 87
When a number of Companions resolved to practise fasting and night vigil continuously, and to abstain from women, perfume, consumption of meat, and sleeping on beds, the following was revealed: O you who believe, do not forbid the good things that God has made lawful for you and do not transgress, do [not] exceed God’s command; God does not love transgressors.
Verse 88
And eat of the lawful and good food which God has provided you (halālan tayyiban, ‘lawful and good food’, is the direct object and the preceding genitive construction [mimmā, ‘of … which’] is a circumstantial qualifier connected to the former); and fear God, in Whom you are believers.
Verse 89
God will not take you to task for a slip, contained, in your oaths, which is what the tongue utters spontaneously, without intending to swear an oath, such as when one says, ‘No, by God’, or ‘Yes, by God’; but He will take you to task for that to which you have pledged (read ‘aqadtum, ‘aqqadttum or ‘āqadttum) oaths, where you have sworn an oath intentionally; the expiation thereof, of the oath if you break it, is the feeding of ten of the needy, for each needy person one mudd measure, of the midmost food, from which, you feed your families, that is, the closest or the principal [food you consume], neither better, nor worse; or the clothing of them, with what may be [properly] called clothes, such as a shirt, a turban, or a loin cloth — it is not sufficient that these [items] mentioned be given only to one needy person, according to al-Shāfi‘ī; or the setting free of a, believing, slave, as applies in the expiation for slaying or repudiation through zihār, interpreting the general [stipulation] in a restricted sense; and whoever does not find the means, for any one of the [expiations] mentioned, then the fasting of three days, as an expiation for him — as it appears [in this verse], it is not obligatory to follow the [above] sequence [of alternatives when making an expiation], and this is the opinion of al-Shāfi‘ī. That, which is mentioned, is the expiation of your oaths if you have sworn, and have broken them; but keep your oaths, do not break them, unless it be for a righteous deed or setting right between people, as stated in the verse of sūrat al-Baqara [Q. 2:225]. So, in the same way that He has explained to you what has been mentioned, God makes clear to you His signs, so that you might be thankful, to Him for this.
Verse 90
O you who believe, verily wine, that intoxicates and overcomes the mind, and games of chance, gambling, and idols, and divinatory arrows are an abomination, an evil deemed vile, of Satan’s work, which he adorns; so avoid it, this abomination consisting of the things mentioned, do not do it; so that you might prosper.
Verse 91
Satan desires only to precipitate enmity and hatred between you through wine and games of chance, when you partake of them, because of the evil and discord that result therefrom; and to bar you, by your being preoccupied with them, from the remembrance of God and from prayer — He has specifically mentioned it [prayer] so as to magnify it. So will you then desist?, from partaking of them? In other words: Desist!
Verse 92
And obey God and obey the Messenger, and beware, of disobedient acts; but if you turn away, from obedience, then know that Our Messenger’s duty is only to proclaim plainly, to convey clearly [the Message] — your requital falls on Us.
Verse 93
Those who believe and perform righteous deeds are not at fault in what they may have consumed, of wine and [indulged in] of gambling before the prohibition, so long as they fear, the forbidden things, and believed and performed righteous deeds, and then were God-fearing and believed, [and then] adhered to fear of God and belief, and then were God-fearing and virtuous, in deeds; God loves the virtuous, meaning that He will reward them.
Verse 94
O you who believe, God will surely try you, He will surely test you, with some game, which He releases to you, the smaller of, which will be caught by your hands and, the larger of which by, your lances: this was in [the plain of] al-Hudaybiyya; while they were in [the state of] pilgrimage inviolability, beasts and birds would flock to their caravans; so that God may know, through knowledge outwardly manifested, who fears Him in the Unseen (bi’l-ghayb is a circumstantial qualifier), in other words, while He is absent [to the eyes], one who does not see Him but nonetheless avoids hunting game. Whoever transgresses thereafter, after that prohibition against it, and hunts, his shall be a painful chastisement.
Verse 95
O you who believe, do not slay game while you are in the state of pilgrimage inviolability, for the hajj or the ‘umra; whoever of you slays it wilfully, then the compensation shall be (read fa-jazā’un, ‘then the compensation [shall be]’, followed by a nominative [mithlu, ‘the like of’]) that is to say, a compensation is incumbent on him, and that is, the equivalent of what he has slain, of flocks, in other words, a similar creature (a variant reading has an annexation construction for jazā’, ‘compensation’, [sc. fa-jazā’u mithli, ‘then the compensation of’]), to be judged, that is, the equivalent [is to be judged], by two just men among you, both possessing astuteness, with which they are able to identify the nearest [animal] in equivalence to it [the slain animal]. Ibn ‘Abbās, ‘Umar and ‘Alī, may God be pleased with them, all adjudged a beast of sacrifice [as redemption] for an ostrich [slain]; Ibn ‘Abbās and Abū ‘Ubayda adjudged a cow [as redemption] for wildebeest or wild ass; [‘Abd Allāh] Ibn ‘Umar and [‘Abd al-Rahmān] Ibn ‘Awf, a sheep for a gazelle, and, as Ibn ‘Abbās, ‘Umar and others did, [a sheep] also [as a redemption] for [slaying] pigeons, because they [pigeons] resemble these [sheep] in taking scoops of water [when drinking]; an offering (hadyan is a circumstantial qualifier referring to jazā’, ‘compensation’) to reach the Ka‘ba, that is, to be taken into the Sanctuary, sacrificed there and given as a voluntary offering to its needy [residents], and it cannot be sacrificed wherever [else] it may be (bāligha l-ka‘ba, ‘to reach the Ka‘ba’, is in the accusative because it is an adjectival qualification of what precedes, even if it stands as an annexation, since such an annexation is only morphological and not [valid] as a [grammatical] characterisation); if there is no equivalent beast of flock for the game slain, as in the case of a small bird or locusts, then the person is obliged [to compensate] with [equivalent] value. Or, it is incumbent on him [to make], an expiation: other than compensation, and if he should find the means then this [expiation] is, food for the poor, [food] to be taken from the principal food of the town, equivalent to the value of the compensation, being one mudd measure for each poor person (a variant reading has kaffāra, ‘expiation’, in an annexation with the following noun [sc. kaffāratu ta‘āmin, ‘the expiation of food’] as an explication [of kaffāra, ‘expiation’]); or, it is incumbent on him [to compensate with], the equivalent of that, food, in fasting, so that he fasts one day for every mudd measure [that he is unable to provide]; but if he has the means to [provide the food] then it is incumbent on him to do so, so that he may taste the evil consequence, the burden of the compensation, of his deed, the one he has perpetrated. God has pardoned what is past, of game slain before it was prohibited; but whoever offends again, God will take vengeance on him; God is Mighty, His way will prevail, Lord of Retribution, against those who disobey Him. Unintentional slaying [of game] is also included with intentional slaying in what has been mentioned [of required compensation or expiation].
Verse 96
Permitted to you, O people, be you in pilgrimage inviolability or not, is the game of the sea, for consumption, and it is what can only live in the sea, such as fish, but not what is able to live both in the sea and on land, such as crabs; and food from it, what it casts out that is dead, is a provision for you, for you to consume, and for the wayfarers, the travellers among you, to take as their provisions; but forbidden to you is the hunting of game on the land, and this consists of those edible beasts that live on it; do not hunt them, so long as you remain in pilgrimage inviolability: if it is caught by one not in pilgrimage inviolability, then it is permissible for a person in pilgrimage inviolability to consume it, as is clarified in the Sunna; and fear God, to whom you shall be gathered.
Verse 97
God has appointed the Ka‘ba, the Sacred, inviolable, House as an [enduring] institution for mankind, [an institution] by which their religious affair is sustained, through pilgrimage to it, as is their this-worldly [affair], on account of the security [guaranteed] for those who enter it and the fact that they are not interfered with, and because all manner of fruits are brought to it (a variant reading [for qiyāman] has qiyaman, ‘[always] standing’, as the verbal noun from [1st form] qāma, ‘to remain standing’, without defectiveness [of the middle radical]); and the sacred month, meaning the sacred months of Dhū’l-Qa‘da, Dhū’l-Hijja, Muharram and Rajab, instituted for them to be secure from fighting during them; the offering and the garlands, instituted for their owner so that he does not suffer any interference; that, mentioned appointment, is so that you may know that God knows all that is in the heavens and in the earth, and that God has knowledge of all things: thus that appointing of His in order to secure benefits for you and to ward off harm from you, before such things came to pass, testifies to His knowledge of all that is in existence and all that will be.
Verse 98
Know that God is severe in punishment, of His enemies, and that God is Forgiving, to His friends, Merciful, to them.
Verse 99
The duty of the Messenger is only to convey [the Message], to you; and God knows what you reveal, what deeds you manifest, and what you hide, and what of these you conceal, and He will requite you for it.
Verse 100
Say: ‘The evil, the unlawful, and the good, the lawful, are not equal, even though the abundance of the evil attract you.’ So fear God, in avoiding it, O people of pith, so that you might prosper, triumph.
Verse 101
The following was revealed when they began to ask the Prophet (s) too many questions: O you who believe, do not ask about things which, if disclosed to you, [if] revealed, would trouble you, because of the hardship that would ensue from them; yet if you ask about them while the Qur’ān is being revealed, during the time of the Prophet (s), they will be disclosed to you: meaning that if you ask about certain things during his lifetime, the Qur’ān will reveal them, but once these things are disclosed, it will grieve you. So do not ask about them; indeed: God has pardoned those things, you asked about, so do not ask again; for God is Forgiving, Forbearing.
Verse 102
Verily a people before you asked about them, that is, [they asked] their prophets about such things and they received the response in the form of [revealed] explications of the rules concerning them; and then they disbelieved in them, by neglecting to implement them.
Verse 103
God has not ordained, He has not stipulated [in His Law], anything such as a Bahīra, a Sā’iba, a Wasīla or a Hām, in the way that people did at the time of paganism. Al-Bukhārī reported [in a hadīth] from Sa‘īd b. al-Musayyab, who said: ‘The bahīra is that [camel] whose milk is consecrated to idols and whom no human may milk; the sā’iba is the one they would leave to roam freely for their gods and was forbidden to bear any load; the wasīla is the young she-camel that would give birth to a young female, as its first offspring, followed by another female, bearing one after the other without a male in between: she would then be left to roam freely for their idols; the hām is the mature male camel, which after completing a certain number of copulations with a female, would then be consigned to their idols and be exempt from bearing any load, and they would call it hāmī; but the disbelievers invent lies against God, in this matter, by attributing [the sanctioning of] such [practices] to Him; and most of them do not understand, that this is mendacity, for in this they have [merely] followed the example of their forefathers.
Verse 104
And when it is said to them, ‘Come to what God has revealed and to the Messenger’, that is, to His ruling concerning the permitting of what you have forbidden, they say, ‘What we have found our fathers following suffices us’, in the way of religion and laws. God, exalted be He, says: What, does that suffice them, even if their fathers knew nothing and were not guided?, to any truth (the interrogative is meant as a disavowal).
Verse 105
O you who believe, you are responsible for your own souls, in other words, preserve them and do what is in their best interest; he who is astray cannot hurt you, if you are rightly guided: it is said that this means, ‘None of those misguided ones from among the People of the Scripture can hurt you’; it is also said to mean others, on the basis of the [following] hadīth of Abū Tha‘laba al-Khushanī: ‘I asked the Messenger of God (s) about it [this verse] and he said, “Enjoin one other to decency and forbid one another indecency, and then if you see niggardliness being obeyed, whims being followed, this present world being preferred, and every intelligent person proud of his own opinions, then you are [still] responsible for [looking after] your own soul”,’ as reported by al-Hākim and others. Unto God you shall return, all together, and He will inform you of what you used to do, and requite you for it.
Verse 106
O you who believe, let testimony between you, when death, that is, [one of] its causes, draws near to one of you, at the time of a bequest, be that of two men of justice among you (ithnāni dhawā ‘adlin minkum, ‘two men of justice among you’, is the predicate expressed with the sense of an imperative, in other words, ‘let [two men] bear witness … [etc.]’; the genitive annexation of shahāda, ‘testimony’, and bayn, ‘between’, is meant to allow for a range [of alternatives]; hīn, ‘at the time of’, is a substitute for idhā, ‘when’, or an adverbial qualifier of time for [the verb] hadara, ‘draws near’); or of two others from another folk, that is, [from] other than your own religious community, if you are travelling in the land and the affliction of death befalls you. Then you shall empanel them, you shall detain them (tahbisūnahumā, ‘you shall empanel them’, is an adjectival qualification of ākharān, ‘two others’) after the, mid-afternoon, prayer and, if you are in doubt, [if] you are uncertain about it [their testimony], they shall swear by God, both of them saying: ‘We will not sell it, [our testimony] in [swearing by] God, for any price, [for] any compensation that we might take in exchange for it from this world, neither by swearing by Him [falsely], nor by testifying falsely for the sake of that [price]; even if he, the person before whom it is being sworn or the one for whose sake testimony is being given, be a near kinsman, a close relative of ours, nor will we hide testimony to God, which He has commanded us [to give], for then, if we were to hide it, we would surely be among the sinful’.
Verse 107
But if it be discovered, [if] it be ascertained after they have sworn their oaths, that both of them have merited [the suspicion of] sin, that is, that they have done something to incur it, in the way of a breach of faith or perjury in the testimony; for example, if what they are accused of is found with them and then they claim that they had bought it from the deceased or that he had bequeathed it to them, then two others shall take their place, so that the oaths are to be taken from them, being the nearest (al-awlayān is a substitution for ākharān, ‘two others’; a variant reading has al-awwalīn, plural of awwal, as an adjectival qualification of, or a substitution for, alladhīna, ‘of those’), in kinship to the deceased, of those most concerned, with the bequest, namely, the inheritors, and they shall swear by God, to the breach of faith of the two witnesses, and they shall both say, ‘Verily, our testimony, our oath, is truer, is more faithful, than their testimony, their oath, and we have not transgressed, we have [not] overstepped the [bounds of] truth in our oaths, for then we would assuredly be among the evildoers’: meaning, let the one about to die call two men as witnesses to his bequest, or let him instruct in his bequest that the two be from among his co-religionists or from among others, if he cannot find any [from among the former] because he is travelling or for some similar reason. If the inheritors have doubts about the two men and claim a breach of faith on the part of the two for having taken something or given it to some other person — alleging that the deceased bequeathed it to him — then let the two men swear in full [in the way mentioned above]. If then some indication surfaces that the two men have been lying and these two then claim some motivation for this action [of theirs], the nearest of the inheritors in kinship [to the deceased] shall swear to the perjury of the two men and to the truth of what they [the inheritors] suspected. This stipulation holds for the two trustees, but is abrogated in the case of the two witnesses. Likewise, the testimony of non co-religionists is abrogated. The reason for [stipulating] the mid-afternoon prayer is to consecrate the oaths. The specification in this verse that the oath be from the two inheritors nearest in kinship concerns the incident regarding which it was revealed. This [incident], as reported by al-Bukhārī, involved a man from the Banū Sahm who had set out on a journey with Tamīm al-Dārī and ‘Adiyy b. Baddā’, when they were both [still] Christians. The man from the Banū Sahm died in a place where there were no Muslims. When the two came back with his bequest, they [his relatives] found that a silver bowl plated with gold was missing and so the two were brought before the Prophet (s); thereupon this verse was revealed. The Prophet (s) made the two swear oaths. The bowl was later discovered in Mecca, where the owners said that they had bought it from Tamīm and ‘Udayy. The next verse was then revealed, after which two of the Sahmī man’s close kin came to swear their oaths; in al-Tirmidhī’s version, ‘Amr b. al-‘Ās, who was closer to the deceased man, stood up with one other from among the kin, and they swore an oath; in yet another version, the [Sahmī] man fell ill and instructed them as to his bequest and asked them to deliver what he had left to his family, but when he died, they took the bowl [and sold it] and then gave what remained [of that money] to his family.
Verse 108
That, ruling mentioned, where the oath devolves to the inheritors, [makes it] likelier, brings closer [the eventuality], that they, the witnesses or the trustees, will bear the testimony in its true form, [the form] in which they have been charged to bear it, without distortion or breach of faith, or, it is likelier, that they will be afraid that after their oaths other oaths may be taken, from the inheritors, the plaintiffs, who would swear to the two men’s breach of faith or perjury, in which case they would be disgraced and would incur penalties, and so [because of this] they will not lie. Fear God, by refraining from betrayal and perjury, and listen, to what you have been commanded, listening in acceptance. God does not guide the wicked people, those rebelling against obedience to Him; [He does not guide the wicked] to the way of goodness.
Verse 109
Mention, the day when God shall gather the messengers, which is the Day of Resurrection, and He will say, to them, as a rebuke for their peoples: ‘What answer were you given?’, when you summoned [them] to proclaim God’s Oneness; they shall say, ‘We have no knowledge, of this; You, only You, are the Knower of things unseen’, those things which are hidden from [God’s] servants and that which they [the messengers] have forgotten all knowledge of on account of the great terror of the Day of Resurrection and their fright; but when they have calmed down, they [proceed to] bear witness against their communities.
Verse 110
Mention, when God said, ‘O Jesus, son of Mary, remember My favour to you and to your mother, be thankful for it; when I strengthened you with the Holy Spirit, Gabriel, to speak to people (tukallimu’l-nāsa is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the [suffixed pronoun] kāf in ayyadtu-ka) in the cradle, that is, as a child, and in maturity — this implies that he will descend before the Hour, since he was raised up [to God] before middle age, as has already been mentioned in [sūrat] Āl ‘Imrān [Q. 3:55], and when I taught you the Scripture, and wisdom, and the Torah, and the Gospel; and how you create out of clay the likeness (ka-hay’at: the kāf here functions like a noun and is a direct object), the image, of a bird by My permission, and you breathe into it and it becomes a bird by My permission, by My will, and you heal the blind and the leper by My permission, and you raise the dead, from their graves back to life, by My permission; and how I restrained the Children of Israel from you, when they intended to kill you, when you brought them clear proofs, miracles, and the disbelievers among them said, “This, what you have done, is nothing but manifest sorcery” (a variant reading [for sihrun, ‘sorcery’] has sāhirun, ‘sorcerer’, in other words, [he] Jesus [is nothing but a manifest sorcerer]).
Verse 111
And when I revealed to the disciples, [when] I commanded them by the tongue of Jesus: “Believe in Me and in My Messenger”, Jesus; they said, “We believe, in both; bear witness that we have submitted”.’
Verse 112
Mention, when the disciples said, ‘O Jesus, son of Mary, is your Lord able, that is, would He (a variant reading has hal tastatī‘a rabbaka, ‘Are you able to ask of Him?’) to send down on us a Table from the heaven?’ He, Jesus, said, to them: ‘Fear God, when you request signs, if you are believers’.
Verse 113
They said, ‘We desire, to request this in order, to eat of it and that our hearts be reassured, through increased certainty, and that we may know, that we may acquire more awareness [of the fact], that you (annaka is softened to an) have spoken truthfully to us, in your claim to prophethood, and that we may be among the witnesses thereof’.
Verse 114
Jesus, son of Mary, said: ‘O God, our Lord, send down upon us a Table from the heaven, that it shall be, that is, the day of its sending down [shall be], a celebration for us, which we shall consecrate and honour, for the first (li-awwalinā is an inclusive substitution for lanā, ‘for us’, with the repetition of the [oblique] preposition [li-]) and the last of us, those who will come after us, and a sign from You, of Your power and my prophethood. And provide, it, for us; You are the Best of Providers’.
Verse 115
God said, granting his supplication: ‘Verily I shall send it down (read munziluhā or munazziluhā) to you; but whoever of you disbelieves afterward, after it has been sent down, I shall surely chastise him with a chastisement wherewith I chastise no other being from among all the worlds’: and so the angels descended with it from heaven, on it were seven loaves and seven large fish, and so they ate of it until they were full, as related by Ibn ‘Abbās. In one hadīth it is said that the Table sent down from heaven consisted of bread and meat, and they were commanded not to be treacherous and nor to store anything for the next day: but they were and they stored some of it, and were [consequently] transformed into apes and swine.
Verse 116
And, mention, when God says, that is, when God will say, to Jesus at the Resurrection in rebuke of his followers: ‘O Jesus, son of Mary, did you say to mankind, “Take me and my mother as gods, besides God”?’ He, Jesus, says, shuddering: ‘Glory be to You!, exalted be You above all that does not befit You, such as [having] a partner and so on. It is not mine, it is unjustified [for me], to say what I have no right to (bi-haqq, ‘right to’, is the predicate of laysa, ‘not’; lī, ‘mine’, is explicative). If I indeed had said it, You would have known it. You know what is, hidden by me, in my self, but I do not know what is within Your Self, that is, what You keep hidden of Your knowledge: You are the Knower of things unseen.
Verse 117
I only said to them that which You commanded me, to [say], and that is: “Worship God, my Lord and your Lord.” And I was a witness, a watcher, over them, preventing them from [saying] what they used to say, whilst I was amongst them; but when You took me [to You], [when] You raised me up to the heaven, You were Yourself the Watcher over them, the Observer of their deeds, and You Yourself are Witness over all things, Aware and knowing them, including what I said to them and what they said after me, and whatever else.
Verse 118
If you chastise them, that is, those among them who are fixed upon disbelief, verily they are Your servants, and You are their Master, disposing of them as You will: there can be no objection to [what] You [do]; and if You forgive them, that is, those of them who are believers, You, only You, are the Mighty, in His affair, the Wise’, in His actions.
Verse 119
God says, ‘This, namely, the Day of Resurrection, is the day those who were truthful, in the world, like Jesus, shall profit by their truthfulness, because this is the Day of Requital. Theirs will be Gardens underneath which rivers flow, wherein they shall abide forever. God is well-pleased with them, because of their obedience to Him, and they are well-pleased with Him, with His reward — that is the great triumph’. The sincerity of those who were liars in this world shall not avail them on that Day, just as [it shall not avail] the disbelievers when they believe upon seeing the chastisement.
Verse 120
To God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and of the earth, the storehouses of rain, vegetation, sustenance and everything else, and all that is in them (wa-mā fīhinna: the use of mā, ‘that’, indicates the predominance of all those non-rational creations); and He has power over all things, including the rewarding of the truthful and the punishing of the liar — He is specifically addressing rational beings, for there is none among them with power over all things.
Verse 1
Praise, which means to describe in beautiful terms, be, [ever] established, to God: is this meant to be informative, so that one believes in it? Or, is it meant as a eulogy, or both? These are three possibilities, the most likely of which is the last, as the Shaykh [Jalāl al-Dīn al-Mahallī] states in [his commentary on] sūrat al-Kahf [Q. 18:1]; Who created the heavens and the earth — He singles out these two for mention because for the observer they constitute the most awesome [visible] creation; and He appointed, He created, darknesses and light, that is, every darkness (zulma) and every light: the use of the plural only in the case of the former is because it [darkness] has many causes; and this is one of the proofs of His Oneness; then those who disbelieve, despite the existence of this proof, ascribe equals to their Lord, they worship others equally.
Verse 2
It is He Who created you from clay, by creating your father Adam from it; then He decreed a term, for [each of] you, at the conclusion of which you die. A term is stated, fixed, with Him, for your resurrection; yet thereafter you, O disbelievers, doubt, you are uncertain about the Resurrection, when you know that it was He Who initiated your creation, and One Who has the power to initiate [creation], is even more capable of bringing you back [to life after death].
Verse 3
He is God, the One worthy of being worshipped, in the heavens and in the earth. He knows your secrets and your utterance, what you keep secret and what you utter openly among yourselves, and He knows what you earn, what you do of good and evil.
Verse 4
Not a verse (min āya: min introduces a relative clause) of the verses of their Lord, in the Qur’ān, comes to them, that is, [to] the Meccans, but they turn away from it.
Verse 5
They denied the truth, the Qur’ān, when it came to them, but there shall come to them the news, the consequences, of what they were mocking.
Verse 6
Have they not seen, in their travels to Syria and to other places, how many, (kam is predicative [and not interrogative], meaning ‘many’) a generation, [how many] a community of past communities, We destroyed before them; We established them, We assigned them an [established] place, in the earth, through strength and abundance, as We have not established, [as] We have [not] assigned, you (there is a shift in the address here from third person [to second]); and how We unleashed the heaven, the rain, upon them in torrents, one torrent after another, and made the rivers to flow beneath them?, beneath their dwellings. Then We destroyed them because of their sins, because of their denial of the prophets; and We raised up after them another generation.
Verse 7
And had We revealed to you a Scripture, inscribed, on parchment, as they requested, and had they then touched it with their hands — this is more powerful than saying, ‘had they seen it with their eyes’, since it [touch] is more effective in eliminating doubt; the disbelievers would have said, in disobedience and obduracy: ‘This is nothing but manifest sorcery’.
Verse 8
And they say, ‘Why has an angel not been sent down to him?’, to Muhammad (s), to confirm his truthfulness; yet had We sent down an angel, as they have requested and if they then did not believe, the matter, that they be destroyed, would have been decreed, and then they would not be given any respite, they would [not] be given any extra time for repentance or an excuse, as is God’s custom [in dealing] with those before them, destroying them when they disbelieve after their request is granted.
Verse 9
And had We appointed him, the one who is sent down to them, an angel, We would assuredly have made him, the angel, a man, that is, [We would have sent him] in the form of a man, so that they would be able to see him, since no human being is capable of seeing an angel; and, had We sent him down and made him a man, We would have assuredly confused, obscured, for them what they are confusing, for themselves, when they say, ‘This is but a mere mortal like the rest of you’.
Verse 10
And messengers were indeed mocked before you — this is meant as a consolation for the Prophet, (s) — but those who scoffed at them were encompassed by that which they mocked, namely, [by the] punishment [sent down on them]: those who mock you will be encompassed likewise.
Verse 11
Say, to them: ‘Travel in the land, and see the nature of the consequence for the deniers’, of the messengers, how they were destroyed through chastisement; perhaps they will take heed.
Verse 12
Say: ‘To whom belongs what is in the heavens and in the earth?’ Say: ‘To God, for even if they do not say this, there is no other response. He has prescribed, He has decreed, for Himself mercy, as a bounty from Him — this is a gentle summoning of them to the faith. He will surely gather you together on the Day of Resurrection of which there is no doubt, no uncertainty, in order to requite you for your deeds. Those who have forfeited their own souls (this is the subject) — by exposing them to the chastisement — they do not believe (this is the predicate).
Verse 13
And to Him, exalted be He, belongs all that inhabits, resides [in], the night and the day, that is to say, everything — He is its Lord, its Creator and its Possessor; and He is the Hearer, of what is said, the Knower’, of what is done.
Verse 14
Say, to them: ‘Shall I take as a protector, to worship, other than God, the Originator of the heavens and the earth, the One Who has created them without any precedent, He Who feeds, Who gives sustenance, and is not fed?’, and is not given sustenance. Say: ‘I have been commanded to be the first to submit, to God, from among this community, and, it was said to me: “Do not be among those who associate others” ’, with Him.
Verse 15
Say: ‘Indeed I fear, if I should rebel against my Lord, by worshipping other than Him, the chastisement of a dreadful day’, namely, the Day of Resurrection.
Verse 16
He from whom it is averted (read passive yusraf, ‘it is averted’, namely, ‘the chastisement’; or read active yasrif, ‘He averts’, namely, ‘God’ [as the subject]; the referential noun has been omitted) on that day, He, the Exalted One, will have had mercy on him, He will have desired good for him; that is the manifest triumph, evident salvation.
Verse 17
And if God touches you with an affliction, a trial, such as an illness or impoverishment, then none can remove it, [none can] lift it, except Him; and if He touches you with good, such as health and affluence, then He has power over all things, including His touching you with this, and none other than Him has the power to remove it from you.
Verse 18
He is the Vanquisher, the Omnipotent, for Whom nothing is impossible, Superior [is He], over His servants, and He is the Wise, in His creation, the Aware, of their innermost [thoughts] as well as their outward [actions].
Verse 19
When they said to the Prophet (s), ‘Bring us someone to testify to the truth of your prophethood, for the People of the Scripture have denied you’, the following was revealed: Say, to them: ‘What thing is greatest in testimony?’ (shahādatan: this is for specification, and is derived from the [implied] subject of the sentence). Say: ‘God — even if they do not say this, there is no other response — He, is Witness between me and you, to my truthfulness; and this Qur’ān has been revealed to me that I may warn you, [that I may] make you fear, O people of Mecca, thereby, and whomever it may reach (wa-man balagha: this is a supplement to the [suffixed] pronoun [‘you’] of undhira-kum, ‘I may warn you’), that is to say, whomever among men and jinn the Qur’ān may reach. Do you indeed bear witness that there are other gods with God?’ (this interrogative is meant as a disavowal). Say, to them: ‘I do not bear witness’, to this. Say: ‘He is only One God, and I am innocent of what you associate’, with Him of idols.
Verse 20
Those to whom We have given the Scripture recognise him, that is, Muhammad (s), by the descriptions of him in their Scripture, as they recognise their sons; those, of them, who have forfeited their own souls do not believe, in him.
Verse 21
And who, that is, none, does greater evil than he who invents a lie against God, by ascribing to Him an associate, or denies His signs?, the Qur’ān; it is verily the case that, they the evildoers shall not prosper, on account of this.
Verse 22
And, mention, on the day We shall gather them all together, then We shall say, in rebuke, to those who associated other gods with God, ‘Where are those associates of yours whom you were claiming?’, to be associates of God?
Verse 23
Then their dissension (read accusative fitnatahum or nominative fitnatuhum) their apology, was (read lam takun or lam yakun) only to say, in other words, [was only] their saying, ‘By God, our Lord (read rabbinā as an adjective of [wa’Llāhi, ‘by God’], or rabbanā as a vocative) we were never idolaters’.
Verse 24
God, exalted be He, says: See, O Muhammad (s), how they lie against themselves, by denying that their idolatry, and how that which they were forging, against God, in the way of associates, has failed, is absent [before], them!
Verse 25
And there are some of them who listen to you, when you recite, and We have placed veils, covers, upon their hearts so that they do not understand it, [so that] they [do not] comprehend the Qur’ān; and in their ears a heaviness, a deafness, so that they do not hear it with a willingness to accept it. And if they were to see every sign, they would not believe in it, so that when they come to you to argue with you, the disbelievers say, ‘This, Qur’ān, is nothing but the fables, the lies, of the ancients’, similar to [their] jokes and strange tales (asātīr, ‘fables’, is the plural of ustūra).
Verse 26
And, to people, they forbid it, the following of the Prophet (s), and keep away from it, and so they do not believe in him: it is said that this was revealed regarding Abū Tālib, who used to forbid [people from] hurting him, but did not [himself] believe in him; and it is only themselves they destroy, when they keep away from him, because the harm thereof will befall them, but they do not perceive, this.
Verse 27
If you, O Muhammad (s), could see when they are made to stand, [when] they are exposed, before the Fire, and they say, ‘Oh (yā is for exclamation) would that we might be returned, to the world; then we would not deny the signs of our Lord, but we would be among the believers!’ (read nukadhdhibu and nakūnu as a new [independent] sentence; or read nukadhdhiba and nakūna as the [subjunctive] response to the optative [clause]; or read nukadhdhibu and nakūna). The response to the clause ‘if [you could see]’ would be ‘you would be seeing a terrible thing indeed’.
Verse 28
God, exalted be He, says: Nay — [here used] in order to reject the desire to believe implied by the optative [exclamation] — that which they used to conceal, to hide, before, by their saying, By God, our Lord, we were never idolaters! [Q. 6:23]) has now become evident to them, as their limbs have borne witness [against them], and so they [now] wish for that [mentioned in the previous verse]; and even if, hypothetically, they were returned, to the world, they would return to that which they are forbidden, of idolatry; they are truly liars, when they promise that they would believe [if they were to be returned].
Verse 29
And they, those who deny the Resurrection, say, ‘There is no other, life, than our present life; we shall not be resurrected’.
Verse 30
If you could see when they are made to stand, [when they are] presented, before their Lord, you would certainly see an awesome thing! He will say, to them, by the tongue of the angels, in rebuke: ‘Is this, resurrection and reckoning, not the truth?’ They will say, ‘Yes indeed, by our Lord’, it is the truth! He will say, ‘Then taste the chastisement because you disbelieved’, during life on earth.
Verse 31
They indeed are losers who deny the encounter with God, through resurrection, until (hattā is purposive to expose the [extent of their] mendacity) when the Hour, the Resurrection, comes upon them suddenly, they shall say, ‘Alas for us (yā hasratanā, ‘O grief of ours’, expresses extreme suffering, the [vocative] call to which is figurative, meaning ‘Now is the time for you [O grief], so come forth!’) that we neglected it!’, the worldly life. On their backs they shall be bearing their burdens, so that these come to them at the Resurrection in the vilest of forms and with the most putrid of smells, and they ride them. Ah, evil is that, burden of theirs, which they bear!
Verse 32
The life of this world, that is, preoccupation with it, is nothing but a game and a diversion, while obedience and what is conducive to it are of the things of the Hereafter; surely the abode of the Hereafter (wa-la’l-dāru is also read wa-la-dāru’l-ākhirati), namely, Paradise, is better for those who fear idolatry. What, do they not understand? this, and so believe? (read a-fa-lā ya‘qilūna, ‘do they not understand’, or a-fa-lā ta‘qilūna, ‘do you not understand?’).
Verse 33
We know indeed (qad is a confirmative particle) that it grieves you that, matter, which they say, to you, in denial; yet it is not that they deny you, in secret, for they know that you are truthful (a variant reading [for lā yukadhdhibūnaka, ‘not [that] they deny you’] has lā yukdhibūnak, that is to say, ‘they do not associate you with mendacity’) but evildoers (al-zālimīn replaces the previous pronominalisation [‘they’]) knowingly reject, deny, the signs of God, the Qur’ān.
Verse 34
Messengers indeed have been denied before you — herein is a consolation for the Prophet (s) — yet they endured patiently the denial and the persecution until Our victorious help came to them, through the destruction of their peoples, so be patient until the victorious help comes to you through the destruction of your people. There is none to change the words of God, His promises, and there has already come to you tidings of the messengers, [tidings] through which your heart can be at peace.
Verse 35
And if their aversion, to Islam, is grievous, [too] great, for you, on account of your concern for them, then, if you can, seek out a hole, an underground passage, in the earth, or a ladder, a stairway, to heaven, that you may bring them a sign, from among those they have requested, then go ahead: the meaning is that you will not be able to do this, so be patient until God delivers His judgement — but had God willed, to guide them, He would have gathered them together in guidance, but He did not will this, and so they do not believe; so do not be among the ignorant, of this matter.
Verse 36
Only those who hear, in such a way so as to understand and take heed, will answer, your call to faith; as for the dead, that is, the disbelievers — they are likened to them on account of their inability to hear — God will resurrect them, in the Hereafter, and then to Him they will be returned, and He will requite them for their deeds.
Verse 37
And they, the disbelievers of Mecca, say, ‘Why has a sign not been sent down to him from his Lord?’, [a sign] such as the she-camel [of the prophet Sālih] or the staff [of Moses] or the Table [of Jesus]. Say, to them: ‘Surely God has the power to send down (read yunazzil or yunzil) a sign, from among those they have requested, but most of them do not know’, that its sending down would be a trial for them, for if they then [still] denied it, they would necessarily be destroyed.
Verse 38
There is no (mā min: min is extra) animal, that crawls, on the earth and no bird that flies, through the air, with its wings, but they are communities like to you, in the way that its creation has been ordained, together with its sustenance and affairs. We have neglected nothing (min shay’: min is extra) in the Book, in the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfūz), [nothing] that We have not written; then to their Lord they shall be gathered, and judgement shall be passed upon them, and the hornless sheep shall retaliate against the horned ram, and then it will be said to them [the animals], ‘Be dust’.
Verse 39
And those who deny Our signs, the Qur’ān, are deaf, to hearing them in such a way so as to accept [them], and dumb, [unable] to utter truth, in darkness, in unbelief. He whom God wills, to send astray, He sends astray, and whom He wills, to guide, He sets him on a straight path, [a straight] road, the religion of Islam.
Verse 40
Say, O Muhammad (s), to the Meccans: ‘Do you see yourselves, [that is] inform me, if God’s chastisement comes upon you, in this world, or the Hour, the Resurrection, which includes this [chastisement], comes upon you, suddenly, will ye call upon any other than God? No! If you speak truly!’, that the idols can benefit you, then call upon them.
Verse 41
Nay; upon Him, and upon none other, you will call, in [times of] tribulation, and He will remove that which you call upon Him, to remove from you, such things as suffering, if He wills, to remove it, and you will forget, you will neglect, what you associate with Him, of idols and will not call them.
Verse 42
Indeed We sent to communities before you (min qablika: min is extra), messengers, but they denied them, and We seized them with misery, abject poverty, and hardship, illness, so that they might be humble, abased, that they might believe.
Verse 43
If only, when Our might, Our punishment, came upon them, they had been humble, in other words, they were not so, even though the necessitating factor was there. But their hearts were hard, and would not yield to faith, and Satan adorned for them what they were doing, in the way of disobedient acts, and so they persisted in them.
Verse 44
So, when they forgot, [when] they neglected, that whereof they were reminded, that with which they were admonished and threatened, in the way of misery and hardship; and they did not heed the admonition, We opened (read fatahnā or fattahnā) to them the gates of all things, in the way of graces, in order to draw them on by degrees, until, when they rejoiced in what they were given, a wanton rejoicing, We seized them suddenly, with chastisement, and lo! they were confounded, despairing of anything good.
Verse 45
So the last remnant of the people who did evil was cut off, by having them annihilated. Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds, for giving victory to the messengers and destroying the disbelievers.
Verse 46
Say, to the people of Mecca: ‘Have you considered, inform me, if God were to seize your hearing, [if] He were to make you deaf, and your sight, [if] He were to make you blind, and set, stamp, a seal upon your hearts, so that you no longer knew anything, who is the god other than God to give it back to you?’, that which He took away from you, as you [are wont to] claim? See how We dispense, [how] We make clear, the signs, the proofs of Our Oneness! Yet thereafter they are turning away, they reject them and do not believe.
Verse 47
Say, to them: ‘Have you considered for yourselves, if God’s chastisement were to come upon you, suddenly or openly?, at night or during the day; Would any be destroyed, except the evildoing, the unbelieving, folk?’ That is to say, none but these will be destroyed.
Verse 48
We do not send messengers, except as bearers of good tidings, to those who believe, [good tidings] of Paradise, and as warners, to those who disbelieve, [warning] of the Fire. Whoever believes, in them, and makes amends, in his deeds, no fear shall befall them, neither shall they grieve, in the Hereafter.
Verse 49
But those who deny Our signs, the chastisement shall afflict them because they were wicked, rebelling against obedience.
Verse 50
Say, to them: ‘I do not say to you, “I possess the treasure houses of God”, from which He provides sustenance; and I do not have knowledge of the Unseen, that which is hidden from me and has not been revealed to me. And I do not say to you, “I am an angel”, from among the angels; I only follow what is revealed to me.’ Say: ‘Is the blind man, the disbeliever, equal to the seeing man, the believer? No! Will you not then reflect’ upon this and believe?
Verse 51
And warn, threaten, therewith, that is, [with] the Qur’ān, those who fear they shall be gathered to their Lord: apart from Him, other than Him, they have no protector, to help them, and no intercessor, to intercede for them (the negative sentence stands as a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of [the verb] yuhsharū, ‘they shall be gathered’, and constitutes the object of [what they] fear) — the sinning believers are meant here; so that they might be wary, of God, by desisting from what they engage in and performing deeds of obedience.
Verse 52
And do not drive away those who call upon their Lord at morning and evening desiring, through their worship, His countenance, exalted be He, and not [desiring] any of the transient things of this world — and these are the poor. The idolaters had reviled them and demanded that he [the Prophet] expel them, so that they could sit with him. The Prophet (s) wanted [to do] this, because of his desire that they become Muslims. You are not accountable for them in anything (min shay’in: min is extra), if what they hide in themselves be displeasing; nor are they accountable for you in anything, that you should drive them away (this is the response to the negative sentence) and be of the evildoers, if you do this.
Verse 53
And even so We have tried, We have tested, some of them by others, that is, the noble one by the commoner, the rich man by the poor man, preferring the [latter] one by giving [him] precedence in [attaining] faith, so that they, the noble ones and the rich, may say, in disavowal, ‘Are these, the poor, the ones whom God has favoured from among us?’, with guidance? In other words [so that they may say]: if what they follow is [true] guidance, they would not have preceded us [in attaining it]. God, exalted be He, says: Is God not best aware of those who are thankful?, to Him, to guide them? Indeed [He is].
Verse 54
And when those who believe in Our signs come to you, say, to them: ‘Peace be upon you. Your Lord has prescribed, He has decreed, for Himself mercy, to the effect that, truly (innahu, ‘truly’, may also be read as annahu, ‘that’, as a substitution for al-rahma, ‘mercy’) whoever of you does evil in ignorance, of it when he did it, and repents thereafter, after his [evil] deed, [repents] of it, and makes amends, in his actions — truly He, God, is Forgiving, Merciful’, towards him (a variant reading [for innahu, ‘truly He’] has annahu, ‘then He’), in other words, forgiveness shall be for him.
Verse 55
And thus, in the same way that We have explained what has been mentioned, We distinguish, We expound, the signs, the Qur’ān, so that truth becomes manifest and is implemented in [people’s] deeds, and that the way, the path, of the sinners may be become clear, evident, and hence avoided (wa-li-yastabīna may also be read wa-li-tastabīna, ‘that you may discern’, with sabīla, ‘the way’, read in the accusative [as opposed to the nominative, sabīlu], implying a direct address to the Prophet [s]).
Verse 56
Say: ‘Truly I have been forbidden to worship those whom you call upon, [those whom] you worship, besides God.’ Say: ‘I shall not follow your whims, by worshipping them, for then, if I did follow them, verily I would have gone astray and I would not be of the rightly guided’.
Verse 57
Say: ‘I am upon a clear proof, a [clear] statement, from my Lord, and you have, already, denied Him, my Lord, when you associated others with Him. I do not have that which you seek to hasten, of the chastisement; the judgement, in this matter and in [all] others, is God’s alone. He decrees the, judgement of, truth, and He is the Best of Deciders’, [the Best of] Judges (a variant reading [for yaqdī, ‘He decrees’] has yaqussu, that is, ‘He relates [the truth]’).
Verse 58
Say, to them: ‘If I did have what you seek to hasten, the matter between you and me would have been decided, by my hastening it for you, so that I might find rest; but God has it; and God knows best the evildoers’, and when to punish them.
Verse 59
And with Him, exalted be He, are the keys of the Unseen, its treasure houses, or the paths that lead to knowledge of it; none but He knows them, and these are the five things mentioned in His saying: Surely God, He has knowledge of the Hour [and He sends down the rain and He knows what is in the wombs. And no soul knows what it has earned for the morrow; nor does any soul know in what land it will die. Truly God is Knowing, Aware, Q. 31:34], as reported by al-Bukhārī. He knows what is, happening, on land, [in] the deserts, and in the waters, [in] the towns along the rivers; and not a leaf (min waraqatin: min is extra) falls, but He knows it. Not a grain in the shadows of the earth, nothing of wet or dry ([this entire clause] wa-lā habbatin fī zulumāti l-ardi wa-lā ratbin wa-lā yābisin is a supplement to waraqatin, ‘a leaf’) but it is in a clear book, namely, the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfūz). The exceptive clause [illā fī kitābin mubīn, ‘but it is in a clear book’] constitutes an inclusive substitution for the previous exceptive clause [illā ya‘lamuhā, ‘but He knows it’].
Verse 60
It is He Who takes you at night, seizing your spirits during sleep, and He knows what you commit, [what] you earn, by day. Then He raises you up therein, that is, in the daytime, by restoring your spirits, so that an appointed term, namely, the term of life, may be accomplished; and afterward to Him is your return, through resurrection. Then He will inform you of what you used to do, and so requite you for it.
Verse 61
He is the Vanquisher, Superior, over His servants. And He sends guardians over you, angels, to record your deeds, until, when death approaches one of you, Our messengers, the angels charged with the seizing of the spirits, take him (tawaffathu; a variant reading has tawaffāhu) and they neglect not, they do not fall short of what they have been commanded.
Verse 62
Then they, creatures, are restored to God their Protector, their Possessor, the True, the Eternal, the Just, so that He might requite them. Surely His is the judgement, the decree that will be carried out in their case. He is the swiftest of reckoners, reckoning with the whole of creation in half a day of the days of this world, on the basis of a hadīth to this effect.
Verse 63
Say, O Muhammad (s), to the people of Mecca: ‘Who delivers you from the darkness of the land and the sea, [from] their terrors, during your journeys? When, you call upon Him openly and secretly, saying: “Verily, if (la-in, the lām is for oaths) You, God, deliver us (anjaytanā, is also read anjānā, ‘[if] He delivers us’), from this, darkness and hardship, we shall truly be among the thankful”’, the believers.
Verse 64
Say, to them: ‘God delivers you (read yunjīkum or yunajjīkum) from that and from every distress, [from every] other anxiety. Yet you associate others with Him’.
Verse 65
Say: ‘He has the power to send forth upon you a chastisement from above you, from the heaven, such as stones [cf. Q. 8:32] or a Cry [cf. Q. 11:67], or from beneath your feet, such as the causing of the earth to cave in [cf. Q. 29:40], or to confound you, to confuse you, in parties, sects with differing whims, and to make you taste the violence of one another’, through fighting. When this [verse] was revealed, the Prophet (s) said, ‘This [chastisement etc.] is easier and lighter’; but when the last statement was revealed, he said, ‘I seek refuge with Your Countenance!’, as reported by al-Bukhārī. Muslim reports the [following] hadīth: ‘I requested from my Lord not to make my community violent towards each other, but He denied me this [request]’. In another hadīth, when it was revealed, he [is reported to have] said, ‘As for this, it will surely come to pass, even though its proper meaning has not yet come’. See how We dispense, [how] We clarify for them, the signs, the proofs of Our power, that perhaps they might understand, that they might realise that what they follow is falsehood.
Verse 66
Your people have denied it, the Qur’ān. Yet it is the truth. Say, to them: ‘I am not a guardian over you, to requite you. I am only a warner and your affair is left to God — this was [revealed] before the command to fight [the idolaters].
Verse 67
Every tiding, [every] announcement, has a conclusion, a [fixed] time in which it will take place and be concluded, including [the tiding concerning] your punishment. And you will come to know’ — this is a threat for them.
Verse 68
When you see those who engage in discourse about Our signs, the Qur’ān, in mockery, turn away from them, and do not sit with them, until they discourse on some other topic. And if (immā: the letter nūn of the conditional particle in has been assimilated with the extra mā) Satan should make you forget (read yunsiyannaka or yunassiyannaka), and you sit with them, then do not sit, after the reminder, that is, [after] you remember, with the evildoing folk (the overt noun [al-qawm al-zālimīn, ‘the evildoing folk’] replaces the [third person] pronominalisation).
Verse 69
The Muslims then said, ‘If we get up [and leave] every time they delve [into the matter of the Qur’ān], we would never be able to sit in the Mosque or perform circumambulations. Therefore, the following was revealed: Those who fear God, are not accountable for them, [for] those who discourse [in mockery], in anything (min shay’in: min is extra), if they should sit with them; but it is the reminder, that they are accountable for; [a reminder given] to make them remember and to admonish them, so that perhaps they will be wary, of discoursing thus.
Verse 70
And forsake, leave alone, those who take their religion, with which they have been charged, as a game and a diversion, making a mockery of it, and whom the life of this world has deluded, and so do not interfere with them — this was [revealed] before the command to fight [them]. Remind, admonish people, thereby, by the Qur’ān, lest a soul perish, [lest] it be given up for destruction, for what it has earned, what it has done; it has no protector, [no] helper, besides God, other than Him, and no intercessor, to ward off the chastisement from it; and though it offer every compensation, [though] it pay every ransom, it shall not be accepted from it, that which it offers as ransom. Those are the ones who perish by what they have earned; for them shall be a draught of boiling water and a painful chastisement, because they disbelieved, that is, for their unbelief.
Verse 71
Say: ‘Shall we call upon, shall we worship, instead of God, that which neither profits us, if we worship them, nor hurts us, if we neglect [to worship] them — these are the idols; and so be turned back, [and so] return to idolatry, after God has guided us, to Islam? — Like one whom the devils have lured, led astray, in the earth, bewildered, confused, not knowing where to go (hayrān, ‘bewildered’, is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the [suffixed pronoun] hā’ [of istahwat-hu, ‘whom they have lured’]); he has companions, a group, who call him to guidance, that is to say, [they are there] in order to guide him to the [right] path, saying to him: “Come to us!”’, but he does not respond to them, and he perishes (the interrogative statement is meant as a disavowal; the comparative statement [beginning with ka’lladhī, ‘like one whom’] is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject [of the verb] nuraddu, ‘be turned back’). Say: ‘Truly, God’s guidance, which is Islam, is [the true] guidance, everything else being error, and we have been commanded to submit to the Lord of the Worlds,
Verse 72
and to, that is, [to submit] by, establishing prayer and fearing Him, exalted be He; He it is to Whom you shall be gathered’, you shall be brought together, on the Day of Resurrection for reckoning.
Verse 73
He it is Who created the heavens and the earth in truth, that is to say, with the purpose of [manifesting] truth. And, mention, the day He says, to a thing, ‘Be’, and it is — this is the Day of Resurrection, when He says to creatures, ‘Rise up’, and they do. His words are the truth, the truth that will doubtless come to pass; and His is the Kingdom the day when the trumpet, the horn, is blown, the second blast by [the angel] Isrāfīl, when there shall be no kingdom for any other than Him: ‘Whose is the Kingdom today? God’s’ [Q. 40:16]. He is the Knower of the Unseen and the visible, what is hidden and what may be seen. He is the Wise, in His creation, the Aware, of things inwardly hidden and outwardly manifest.
Verse 74
And, mention, when Abraham said to his father Āzar, which was his cognomen, his [first] name being Terah (Tārikh): ‘Do you take idols as gods, to worship? (an interrogative meant as a rebuke). I see you and your people, by [this act of] taking them [as gods], in manifest error’, far from the truth.
Verse 75
And so, just as We show him the misguidance of his father and his people, We show Abraham the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, that he might infer thereby [the truth of] Our Oneness, and that he might be of those knowing, it, with certainty (the sentence beginning with wa-kadhālika, ‘and so’, and what follows it, is a parenthetical statement and a supplement to [the one beginning with] qāla, ‘he said’).
Verse 76
When night descended, [when] it darkened, upon him he saw a star — said to have been Venus — and said, to his people, who were astrologers: ‘This is my Lord’, as you [are wont to] claim. But when it set, when it disappeared, he said, ‘I love not those that set’, to take them as lords, because it is not possible for a [true] Lord to be transformed or to change place, as such [attributes] pertain to accidents — but this had no effect on them.
Verse 77
And when he saw the moon rising, appearing, he said, to them: ‘This is my Lord.’ But when it set he said, ‘Unless my Lord guides me, [unless] He establishes me within [true] guidance, I shall surely become one of the folk who are astray’ — an intimation to his people that they are astray, but still this had no effect on them.
Verse 78
And when he saw the sun rising, he said, ‘This is my Lord; this is greater!’ than the star and the moon (the masculine [demonstrative pronoun] hādhā, ‘this’, is used [for the feminine shams, ‘sun’] because the predicate [rabbī, ‘my Lord’] is masculine). But when it set, and the argument against them had become stronger and they still had not repented, he said, ‘O my people, surely I am innocent of what you associate, with God, in the way of idols and accidental bodies, which require an originator. They then asked him, ‘What do you worship?’
Verse 79
He said: Verily I have turned my face to, I am seeking in worship, Him Who originated, created, the heavens and the earth, namely, God; a hanīf, inclining towards the upright religion, and I am not of those that associate others’, with Him.
Verse 80
But his people disputed with him, they argued with him about his religion and threatened him that the idols would strike him with evil if he abandoned them. He said, ‘Do you dispute with me (read a-tuhājjūnnī, or a-tuhājūnī where one of the two letters nūn is omitted, the nūn which grammarians refer to as nūn al-raf‘, ‘the nūn of [modal] independence’, and which the Qur’ānic reciters refer to as nūn al-wiqāya, ‘the nūn of preservation’); do you argue with me, concerning, the Oneness of, God when He, exalted be He, has guided me, to it? I have no fear of what you associate with Him, in the way of idols, that they might strike me with some evil, since they have no power to do anything, unless my Lord wills something, harmful to befall me and it does. My Lord encompasses all things through His knowledge; will you not remember, this and believe?
Verse 81
How should I fear what you have associated, with God, when it can neither profit nor harm, and you fear not, God [in], that you have associated with God, in worship, that for which He has not revealed to you any warrant?’, [any] argument or proof, when He has power over all things. Which of the two parties has more right to security, is it us or you, if you have any knowledge, of who has more right? In other words: it is us, so follow Him. God, exalted be He, says:
Verse 82
Those who believe and have not confounded, mixed, their belief with evildoing, that is, idolatry — explained as such by a hadīth in the two Sahīhs [of Bukhārī and Muslim] — theirs is security, from chastisement; and they are rightly guided.
Verse 83
That (tilka is the subject [of the sentence] and is substituted by [the following hujjatunā]) argument of Ours, with which Abraham inferred God’s Oneness, as in the case of the setting stars and what came afterwards; (the predicate is [what follows]) We bestowed upon Abraham, We guided him to it, as an argument, against his people. We raise up in degrees whom We will (read this as [a genitive] annexation, darajāti man nashā’, or as [accusative] nunation, darajātin man nashā’), [degrees] in knowledge and wisdom; surely your Lord is Wise, in His actions, Knowing, of His creation.
Verse 84
And We bestowed upon him Isaac and, his son, Jacob; each one, of the two, We guided. And Noah We guided before, that is, before Abraham, and of his seed, that is, Noah’s [seed], David and, his son, Solomon, and Job and Joseph, son of Jacob, and Moses and Aaron; and so, in the same way that We have requited them, We requite the virtuous.
Verse 85
And Zachariah and, his son, John, and Jesus, son of Mary — this shows that [the term] ‘seed’ (dhurriyya) can include offspring from the female [side] — and Elias, the paternal nephew of Aaron, brother of Moses; all, of them, were of the righteous.
Verse 86
And Ishmael, son of Abraham, and Elisha (Ilyasa‘, the lām is extra), and Jonah and Lot, son of Hārān, brother of Abraham, all, of them, We preferred above all the worlds, through prophethood.
Verse 87
And of their fathers, and of their seed, and of their brethren (this [clause] is a supplement either to [the previous] kullan, ‘all of them’, or to Nūhan, ‘Noah’; min, ‘of’, is partitive, because some of them did not have offspring, while others had disbelievers among their offspring); and We chose them and We guided them to a straight path.
Verse 88
That, religion to which they were guided, is God’s guidance wherewith He guides whom He will of His servants; had they, hypothetically speaking, been idolaters, all that they did would have been in vain.
Verse 89
They are the ones to whom We gave the Scripture, meaning the Books [of God], judgement, wisdom, and prophethood; so if these, people of Mecca, disbelieve therein, that is, in these three, then indeed We have entrusted it to, We have set aside for it, a people who do not disbelieve in it, namely, the Emigrants (Muhājirūn) and the Helpers (Ansār).
Verse 90
They are the ones whom God has guided; so follow their guidance, their way of affirming God’s Oneness and of [exercising] patience (read iqtadih, ‘follow’, with the silent hā’, whether pausing or continuing the recitation; a variant reading omits it in continuous recitation). Say, to the people of Mecca: ‘I do not ask of you, to give me, any wage for it, the Qur’ān; it, the Qur’ān, is only a reminder, an admonition, to all the worlds’, of mankind and jinn.
Verse 91
They, that is, the Jews, measured not God with His true measure, that is, they have not extended Him the grandeur that truly befits Him, or [it means] they have not attained the true knowledge of Him, when they said, to the Prophet (s), disputing with him about the Qur’ān: ‘God has not revealed anything to any mortal.’ Say, to them: ‘Who revealed the Book which Moses brought, a light and guidance for mankind? You put it (in all three instances [the verbs may be] read either in the third person plural [yaj‘alūnahu, ‘they put it’; yubdūnahā, ‘they reveal it’; wa-yukhfūna, ‘and they hide’] or in the second person plural [taj‘alūnahu, ‘you put it’; tubdūnahā, ‘you reveal it’; wa-tukhfūna, ‘and you hide’]) on parchments, that is, you write it down on fragments of notes, which you disclose, that is, what you choose to disclose thereof, but you hide much, of what is in them, as in [the case of] the descriptions of Muhammad (s); and you have been taught, O Jews, in the Qur’ān, what you did not know, neither you nor your fathers’, in the Torah, through the elucidation therein of what you were confused about and in disagreement over. Say: ‘God’, revealed it — and if they do not say it, there is no other response — then leave them to play in their discourse, their falsehood.
Verse 92
And this, Qur’ān, is a blessed Book We have revealed, confirming that which was before it, of scriptures, and that you may warn (li-tundhira, or read li-yundhira, ‘that it may warn’, as supplement to the import of the preceding statement [sc. ‘to confirm that which was before it and to warn’]), in other words, We have revealed it for [the] blessings [it gives], as a vindication [of previous scripture] and for you to warn therewith, the Mother of Towns and those around it, that is, the inhabitants of Mecca and all other people; and those who believe in the Hereafter believe in it, and they observe their prayers, fearing the punishment thereof.
Verse 93
And who, that is, none, does greater evil than he who invents lies against God, by claiming prophethood when he has not been called to it, or who says, ‘It is revealed to me’, when nothing has been revealed to him — this was revealed regarding [the false prophet] Musaylama [al-Kadhdhāb] — or he who says, ‘I will reveal the like of what God has revealed’? — these were the mockers who would say: If we wish we can speak the like of this [Q. 8:31]; If you could only see, O Muhammad (s), when the, mentioned, evildoers are in the agonies, the throes, of death and the angels extend their hands, against them, beating and torturing them, saying to them in stern censure: ‘Give up your souls!, to us that we may seize them. Today you shall be requited with the chastisement of humiliation because you used to say about God other than the truth, of claiming prophethood and inspiration falsely, and that you used to scorn His signs’, disdaining to believe in them. The response to the conditional [statement beginning with] law, ‘if [you could only see]’, is: ‘you would be seeing a terrifying thing’.
Verse 94
And, it is said to them upon their resurrection: ‘And now you have come to Us singly, each alone without family, possessions or children, as We created you the first time, that is, barefoot, naked and with foreskins, and you have left what We conferred on you, of wealth, behind your backs, in the world, without you having any choice; and — it is said to them in rebuke — We do not see with you your intercessors, the idols, whom you claimed to be associates, of God, amongst you, that is, in deserving your worship; it has been severed between you, that is to say, your bond has been dissolved (a variant reading [for baynukum, ‘your union’] has baynakum, ‘between you’, making it an adverbial qualifier, that is, the bond ‘between you’ [has been severed]’), and that, intercession of theirs, which you claimed, in the world, has failed, abandoned, you’.
Verse 95
God it is Who splits the grain, from the plants, and the date-stone, from the palm-trees. He brings forth the living from the dead, such as the human being from the sperm, and the bird from the egg; and is the Bringer-forth of the dead, the sperm and the egg, from the living. That, Splitter and Bringer-forth, is God. How then are you deluded?, so how then are you turned away from faith, despite the proof being established?
Verse 96
He is the Cleaver of the daybreak (al-isbāh is the verbal noun, meaning al-subh, ‘dawn’), in other words, He splits the morning shaft, the first light that appears after the darkness of night, and He has appointed the night for stillness, in which creatures rest from toil, and the sun and the moon (read both in the accusative, wa’l-shamsa wa’l-qamara, as a supplement to the [syntactical] status of al-layla, ‘the night’) for reckoning, for the calculation of [periods of] time (or [if the prefixed preposition] bā’ is [considered to have been] omitted [bi-husbān], making it [husbān] a circumstantial qualifier referring to an implied verb [such as yajriyān, ‘they follow courses’], that is, ‘they follow courses precisely calculated [bi-husbān]’, as is stated in the verse of [sūrat] al-Rahmān [Q. 55:5]).That, mentioned, is the ordaining of the Mighty, in His kingdom, the Knowing, of His creation.
Verse 97
And He it is Who appointed for you the stars that you may guide your course by them amid the darkness of land and sea, when travelling. Verily We have distinguished, We have elucidated, the signs, the proofs of Our power, for a people who have knowledge, [a people] who reflect.
Verse 98
And He it is Who produced you, created you, from a single soul, namely, Adam, such that some, of you, are established, in the womb, and some, of you, are deposited, in the loins (a variant reading [of mustaqirrun, ‘established’] has mustaqarrun, that is, a resting place for you). Verily We have distinguished the signs for a people who understand, what is being said to them.
Verse 99
And He it is Who sent down water from the heaven and therewith, with the water, We bring forth (there is a shift away from the third [to the second person in this address]) plants of every kind, that produces shoots, and therefrom, from the shoots, We bring forth, some, verdure, meaning ‘the greens’ [in other words, vegetation], bringing forth from it, from the verdure, thick-clustered grain, in dense clusters — such as the spikes of wheat and the like — and from the palm-tree (wa-mina’l-nakhli is the predicate, and is substituted by [the following, min tal‘ihā, ‘from its pollen’]) from its pollen — that which is the first to be produced by it — spring bunches of dates (qinwānun is the subject of the sentence), stalks with date clusters, bunched up, one near the other, and, We bring forth from it, gardens, orchards, of grapes, and olives, and pomegranates, the leaves of both [of these] being, similar (mushtabihan is a circumstantial qualifier), but, the fruits of which are, not alike. Look, O you addressed, in reflection, upon their fruits (read thamarihi or thumurihi, the plural of thamara, like shajara, ‘tree’, [as plural of] shajar, and khashaba, ‘[a piece of] wood’, for khashab) when they have borne fruit, when this first begins, how it looks, and, [look] upon, their ripening, after they have reached full growth, and the state to which they return. Surely, in all that are signs, proofs of His power, exalted be He, to resurrect and to do all other things, for a people who believe: it is these [people] that are specifically mentioned because they are the ones to profit from those [signs] by their believing in them, in contrast to the disbelievers.
Verse 100
Yet they ascribe to God (li’Llāhi, the indirect object) as associates (shurakā’a, the direct object, which is substituted by [the following, al-jinn]) the jinn, since they obey them by worshipping graven images, even though He created them: so how can they be associates? And they falsely impute to Him (read kharaqū or kharraqū), that is, they invent, sons and daughters without any knowledge, saying, Ezra (‘Uzayr) is the son of God, and the angels are the daughters of God. Glory be to Him — an affirmation of His transcendence — and exalted be He above what they describe!, of Him having a child.
Verse 101
He is, the Originator of the heavens and the earth, which He originated uniquely without precedent; how should He have a son, when He has no consort, spouse, and He created everything, that was meant to be created, and He has knowledge of all things?
Verse 102
That then is God, your Lord. There is no god but Him, the Creator of all things. So worship Him, affirm His Oneness. And He is Guardian over, [He is] Keeper of, all things.
Verse 103
Vision cannot attain Him, that is, they [the eyes] cannot see Him — this is [a denial that applies] in particular [circumstances], since [it is accepted] that the believer will see Him in the Hereafter, as indicated by God’s words, On that Day faces shall be radiant, gazing upon their Lord [Q. 75:22f.], and by the hadīth of the two Shaykhs [Bukhārī and Muslim]: ‘Verily you shall see your Lord, as clearly as you see the full moon at night’) — and it is also said [to mean] that it [vision] cannot encompass Him; but He attains [all] vision, that is to say, He perceives them, whereas they cannot perceive Him; it is not possible in [the case of] anyone other than Him to attain all vision while it [vision] cannot attain Him or encompass Him in knowledge. And He is the Subtle, [in dealing] with His friends, the Aware, of them.
Verse 104
Say, O Muhammad (s), to them: Clear proofs have come to you from your Lord; whoever perceives, them and believes, then it is for his own good, that he has perceived [them], since the reward resulting from his perception will be his; and whoever is blind, to them and goes astray, then it, the evil consequence of his being astray, will be to his own hurt. And I am not a keeper, a watcher, over you, of your deeds: I am but a warner.
Verse 105
And so, in the same way that We have explained what has been mentioned, We dispense, We elucidate, the signs, that they might take heed, and that they, the disbelievers, may say, at the end of this: ‘You have studied with someone’, that you have consulted with (dārasta) the People of the Scripture or [that] you have studied (darasta, variant reading) the scriptures of past peoples and brought this [Qur’ān] therefrom; and that We may make it clear for a people who have knowledge.
Verse 106
Follow what has been revealed to you from your Lord, namely, the Qur’ān. There is no god but Him; and turn away from the idolaters.
Verse 107
Had God willed, they would not have been idolaters; and We have not set you as a keeper over them, a watcher, so that you might then requite them for their deeds; nor are you a guardian over them, so that you might [be able to] coerce them to faith — this was [revealed] before the command to fight [them].
Verse 108
Do not revile those whom they call upon, besides God, namely, the idols, lest they then revile God out of spite, out of aggression and wrongfully, through ignorance, that is, through their ignorance of God. So, in the same way that We have adorned for these that which they practise, We have adorned for every community their, good and evil, deeds, and they commit them; then to their Lord they shall return, in the Hereafter, and He will tell them what they used to do, and requite them for it.
Verse 109
They, that is, the disbelievers of Mecca, have sworn by God the most earnest oaths that if there came to them a sign, of what they requested, they will believe in it. Say, to them: ‘Signs are only with God’, and He sends them down as [and when] He wills; I am but a warner. But what will make you realise?, how would you know if they have believed, if these [signs] did come [to them]? In other words, you would not know this; truly, when they come, they will not believe, because of what I already know (a variant reading [for lā yu’minūna, ‘they will not believe’] has lā tu’minūna, ‘you will not believe’, making the address to the disbelievers; another [variant reading] has annahā [instead of innahā, ‘that truly’] as meaning la‘alla, ‘that perhaps’, or as governed by the preceding clause [la’in jā’athum āyatun, ‘if there came to them a sign’).
Verse 110
And We shall confound their hearts, We shall turn their hearts away from the truth, so that they cannot understand it, and their eyes, away from it, so that they do not see it and thus do not believe; just as they did not believe in it, that is, in the verses that have been revealed, the first time; and We shall leave them in their insolence, in their misguidance, wandering blindly, hesitating, perplexed.