Verse 1
God has certainly heard the words of her who disputes with you, [her who] consults you, O Prophet, concerning her husband, who has repudiated her by zihār — he had said to her, ‘You are to me [as untouchable] as the back of my mother’. She asked the Prophet (s) about this and he told her that she was [thenceforth] forbidden to him, as was customary among them [at the time of Jāhiliyya], namely, that repudiation by zihār results in permanent separation. She was Khawla bt. Tha‘laba and he was Aws b. al-Sāmit — and complains to God, of her being alone and of her impoverishment while having young children, whom if she were to leave with him, they would go astray, but whom, if they remained with her, would go hungry. And God hears your conversation, your consulting. Assuredly God is Hearer, Seer, [He is] Knower.
Verse 2
Those of you who repudiate their wives by zihār (yazzahharūna is actually yatazahharūna, in which the tā’ has been assimilated with the zā’; a variant reading has yazzāharūna, and still another has yuzāhirūna, similar [in form] to yuqātilūna; the same applies for the second instance [of this verb below]), they are not their mothers; their mothers are only those who (read allā’ī, or without the [final long] yā’, allā’i) gave birth to them, and indeed they, [in repudiating them] by zihār, utter indecent words and a calumny, a lie. Yet assuredly God is Pardoning, Forgiving, to the one who repudiates by zihār through an atonement [which he must offer].
Verse 3
And those who repudiate their wives by zihār and then go back on what they have said, instead doing the opposite of this and retaining the woman divorced by zihār, that which is contrary to the purpose of zihār in which a woman is characterised as being forbidden — then [the penalty for them is] the setting free of a slave, an obligation upon him, before they touch one another, in sexual intercourse. By this you are being admonished; and God is Aware of what you do.
Verse 4
And he who cannot find [the wherewithal], [to set free] a slave, then [his redemption shall be] the fasting of two successive months before they touch one another. And if he is unable, to fast, then [the redemption shall be] the feeding of sixty needy persons, as an obligation upon him, that is, before they touch one another: understanding the unrestricted [prescription] as [having the same restriction as] the restricted one. For every needy person [he should give] one mudd measure of the principal food of the town. This, namely, lightening of the atonement is, so that you may believe in God and His Messenger. And these, namely, the rulings mentioned, are God’s bounds; and for the rejecters, of them, there is a painful chastisement.
Verse 5
Indeed those who oppose God and His Messenger will be abased, humiliated, just as those before them were abased, for opposing their messengers. And verily We have revealed clear signs, indicating the truthfulness of the Messenger, and for those who disbelieve, in the signs, there is a humiliating chastisement.
Verse 6
The day when God will raise them all together, He will then inform them of what they did. God has kept count of it, while they forgot it. And God is Witness to all things.
Verse 7
Have you not seen, [have you not] realised, that God knows all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth? Not secret conversation of three takes place but He is their fourth [companion], by [virtue of] His omniscience, nor of five but He is their sixth, nor of fewer than that or more but He is with them wherever they may be. Then He will inform them of what they did, on the Day of Resurrection. Assuredly God has knowledge of all things.
Verse 8
Have you not seen, [have you not] observed, those who were forbidden from conversing in secret [but] then returned to that they had been forbidden, and [all the while] hold secret conversations [tainted] with sin and [plans for] enmity and disobedience to the Messenger? These were the Jews, whom the Prophet (s) had forbidden them what they used to do in their secret talks, that is, their [habit of] conversing secretly with one another and giving the believers looks in order to cast doubt into their hearts [about the faith]. And [who] when they come to you, they greet you, O Prophet, with that with which God never greeted you — namely, their saying [to the Prophet]: al-sāmu ‘alayka, meaning, ‘Death [be upon you]’, and they say within themselves, ‘Why does God not chastise us for what we say?’, in the way of such a greeting and [our saying] that he is not a prophet, if he [truly] were a prophet. Hell will suffice them! In it they will be made to burn — and [what] an evil journey’s end!, it is.
Verse 9
O you who believe, if you do talk in secret, then do not talk in secret sinfully and in enmity and disobedience to the Messenger, but talk secretly in piety and fear of God. And fear God to Whom you will be gathered.
Verse 10
Secret conversations, [tainted] with sin and the like, are of [the work of] Satan, [a result] of his deception, that those who believe may end up grieving; but he cannot harm them in any way, except God’s leave, that is, [except by] His will. And in God let the believers put [all] their trust.
Verse 11
O you who believe, when it is said to you, ‘Make room’ during the assembly, during the assembly [convened] with the Prophet (s) or for remembrance, so that those arriving to [join] you may [find room to] sit (al-majlis, ‘assembly’, may also be read [in the plural] al-majālis) then make room; God will make room for you, in Paradise. And when it is said, ‘Rise up’, stand up for prayer or for other good deeds, do rise up (a variant reading [for unshuzū fa’nshuzū] has anshizū in both instances [sc. anshizū fa’nshizū]); God will raise those of you who have faith, [thereby] obeying this [command], and, He will raise, those who have been given knowledge by degrees, in Paradise. And God is Aware of what you do.
Verse 12
O you who believe, when you converse in secret with the Messenger, when you wish to converse with him privately, offer some voluntary alms before your secret talk. That is better for you and purer, for your sins. But if you find nothing, to offer as alms, then God is indeed Forgiving, of your secret conversation, Merciful, to you. In other words: nothing will be held against you for holding a secret conversation without having offered some voluntary alms [beforehand]. However, He [God] abrogated this later by saying:
Verse 13
Do you fear (read a-ashfaqtum, either pronouncing both hamzas fully, or by replacing the second one with an alif, or not pronouncing it, but inserting an alif between the one not unpronounced and the other one, or without [this insertion]), poverty [when you fear], to offer [voluntary] alms before your secret talks. So, as you did not do this, giving of voluntary alms, and God relented to you, waiving this [requirement] for you, maintain prayer and pay the alms and obey God and His Messenger, that is to say, observe these [duties] regularly. For God is Aware of what you do.
Verse 14
Have you not regarded, [have you not] seen, those who — these being the hypocrites — fraternise with a folk — these being the Jews — at whom God is wrathful? They, the hypocrites, neither belong with you, the believers, nor with them, the Jews, but are suspended in between, and they swear falsely, in other words, saying that they are believers, while they know, that they are lying in this.
Verse 15
God has prepared for them a severe chastisement. Evil indeed is that which they [are wont to] do, in the way of acts of disobedience.
Verse 16
They have taken their oaths as a shield, a [means of] protection for themselves and their possessions, and so they bar, thereby the believers, from the way of God, that is, from engaging in a struggle against them, thereby slaying them and seizing their possessions. So for them there will be a humiliating chastisement.
Verse 17
Neither their possessions nor their children will avail them in any way against God, against His chastisement. Those — they are the inhabitants of the Fire, wherein they will abide.
Verse 18
Mention, the day when God will raise them all together, whereupon they will swear to Him, that they are believers, just as they swear to you [now], and suppose that they are [standing] on something, beneficial by swearing in Hereafter just as [they supposed it to have been beneficial for them] in this world. Yet assuredly it is they who are the liars!
Verse 19
Satan has prevailed upon them, by their obedience of him, and so he has caused them to forget the remembrance of God. Those are Satan’s confederates, his followers. Yet it is indeed Satan’s confederates who are the losers!
Verse 20
Indeed those who oppose God and His Messenger — they will be among the most abased, the vanquished.
Verse 21
God has inscribed, in the Preserved Tablet, or [it means] He has decreed: ‘I shall assuredly prevail, I and My messengers’, by means of definitive proof or the sword. Truly God is Strong, Mighty.
Verse 22
You will not find a people who believe in God and the Last Day loving, befriending, those who oppose God and His Messenger, even though they, the opposers, were their fathers, that is to say, the believers’ [fathers], or their sons or their brothers or their clan, rather [you will find that] they intend to do them harm and they fight them over [the question of] faith, as occurred on one occasion with some Companions, may God be pleased with them. [For] those, the ones who are not loving of them, He has inscribed, He has established, faith upon their hearts and reinforced them with a spirit, a light, from Him, exalted be He, and He will admit them into gardens underneath which rivers flow, wherein they will abide, God being pleased with them, for their obedience of Him, and they being pleased with Him, because of His reward. Those [they] are God’s confederates, following His command and refraining from what He has forbidden. Assuredly it is God’s confederates who are the successful, the winners.
Verse 1
All that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth glorifies God, that is to say, [all that is in them] exalts Him as being transcendent (the lām [of li’Llāhi, ‘God’] is extra; the use of mā [instead of the personal min] is meant to indicate a predominance [of non-rational beings in the heavens and the earth]). And He is the Mighty, the Wise, in His kingdom and [in] His actions [respectively].
Verse 2
It is He Who expelled those who disbelieved of the People of the Scripture, namely, the Jews of the Banū al-Nadīr, from their homelands, [from] their dwellings at Medina, at the first exile, that is, their exile to Syria, the last [exile] being their banishment to Khaybar by ‘Umar during his caliphate. You did not think, O believers, that they would go forth, and they thought that they would be protected (māni‘atuhum is the predicate of an, ‘that’) by their fortresses (husūnuhum, the agent of the verb [māni‘atuhum], with which the predication is completed) from God, from His chastisement. But God, His command and His chastisement, came at them from whence they had not reckoned, [from whence] had never occurred to them, from the part of the believers, and He cast terror (ru‘b or ru‘ub) into their hearts, by having their chief Ka‘b b. al-Ashraf slain, destroying [as they did] (read yukharribūna; or yukhribūna, [derived] from [4th form] akhraba) their houses, in order to take away with them what they valued of wood and so on, with their own hands and the hands of the believers. So take heed, O you who have eyes!
Verse 3
And had God not prescribed, [had He not] decreed, banishment for them, departure from their homeland, He would have chastised them in this world, by having them killed or taken captive, as He did with the Jews of [Banū] Qurayza, and in the Hereafter there is for them the chastisement of the Fire.
Verse 4
That is because they defied, they opposed, God and His Messenger; and whoever defies God, indeed God is severe in retribution, against him.
Verse 5
Whatever palm-trees you cut down, O Muslims, or left standing on their roots, it was by God’s leave: He gave you the choice in this matter, and in order that, by giving [you] leave to cut them down, He might disgrace those who are immoral, the Jews, in return for their objection that the cutting down of productive trees was [deliberate] spoiling [of the land].
Verse 6
And whatever spoils God has given to His Messenger from these, you did not, O Muslims, spur for it any (min is extra) horses or camels, that is to say, you did not suffer any hardship in [securing] it, but God gives His messengers sway over whomever He will, and God has power over all things: hence you have no right to any of this [booty], rather it is exclusively for the Prophet (s) and those of the four categories mentioned with him in the next verse, [to be dispensed] in accordance with the way in which he used to divide it up, such that each would receive a fifth of the fifth and the rest being the Prophet’s (s), for him to do with as he pleases — thus he gave of it to the Emigrants and three from among the Helpers, on account of their poverty.
Verse 7
Whatever spoils God has given to His Messenger from the people of the towns, such as al-Safrā’, Wādī al-Qurā and Yanbu‘, belong to God, dispensing with it as He will, and to the Messenger and to the near of kin, the Prophet’s kin, from among the Banū Hāshim and the Banū al-Muttālib, and the orphans, the [orphaned] children of Muslims, those whose parents have died and who are impoverished, and the needy, those Muslims in need, and the traveller, the Muslim who may be cut off [from all resources] on a remote journey: in other words, they [these spoils] are the due of the Prophet (s) and [those of] the four categories, divided up in the way that he used to, where each category received a fifth of the fifth, with the rest being his [the Prophet’s], so that these, the spoils — this being the justification for the division of these [spoils] in this way, do not (kay-lā: kay functions like lā with a following implied an [sc. an-lā]) become a thing circulating, handed round, between the rich among you. And whatever the Messenger gives you, of spoils or otherwise, take it; and whatever he forbids you, abstain [from it]. And fear God. Surely God is severe in retribution.
Verse 8
[At] the poor Emigrants (li’l-fuqarā’i is semantically connected to an omitted [verb], that is to say, a-‘ajibū, ‘What! Do they marvel [at the poor Emigrants]’) who have been driven away from their homes and their possessions that they should seek bounty from God and beatitude and help God and His Messenger? Those — they are the sincere, in their faith.
Verse 9
And those who had settled in the hometown, that is, Medina, and [had abided] in faith, that is to say, [those who] had embraced it with enthusiasm — these being the Helpers, before them, love those who have emigrated to them, and do not find in their breasts any need, any envy, of that which those [others] have been given, that is to say, of what the Prophet (s) had given the Emigrants from the [seized] possessions of the Banū al-Nadīr, [a share which was] exclusively theirs; but prefer [others] to themselves, though they be in poverty, in need of that which they prefer for [those] others [to have]. And whoever is saved from the avarice of his own soul, its covetousness for [acquiring] possessions, those — they are the successful.
Verse 10
And those who will come after them, after the Emigrants and the Helpers, up to the Day of Resurrection, say, ‘Our Lord, forgive us and our brethren who preceded us in [embracing] the faith, and do not place any rancour, any spite, in our hearts toward those who believe. Our Lord, You are indeed Kind, Merciful!’.
Verse 11
Have you not considered, [have you not] seen, the hypocrites who say to their brethren who disbelieve from among the People of the Scripture, namely, the Banū al-Nadīr, their brethren in disbelief, ‘If (la-in: the lām is for oaths in all four instances) you are expelled, from Medina, we will assuredly go forth with you, and we will never obey anyone against you, to forsake you. And if you are fought against (wa-in qūtiltum: the prefatory lām [of la-in] has been omitted), we will certainly help you’. And God bears witness that they are truly liars.
Verse 12
[For] indeed if they are expelled, they would not go forth with them, and if they are fought against, they would not help them. And even if they were to help them, that is to say, even if they came to help them, they would surely turn their backs [to flee] (the implied response to the oath suffices in place of the response to the conditional, in all five instances) — then they, the Jews, would not be helped.
Verse 13
You indeed arouse greater awe, fear, in their hearts, that is, [the hearts of] the hypocrites, than God — [but only] because He has deferred His chastisement [to the Hereafter]. That is because they are a people who do not comprehend.
Verse 14
They, that is, the Jews, will not fight against you together, [all] in a [single] body, except in fortified towns or from behind some wall (jidār: a variant reading has [plural] judur, ‘walls’), some [kind of protective] fence. Their might, their belligerence, is great among themselves. You [would] suppose them to be all together, united as a [single] body, but their hearts are disunited, scattered, contrary to supposition. That is because they are a people who have no sense;
Verse 15
their likeness in relinquishing faith is, as the likeness of those who, recently before them, a short time before — these being the idolaters from among those [who fought] at Badr — tasted the evil consequences of their conduct, the punishment for it in this world, by being killed or otherwise. And for them there will be a painful chastisement, in the Hereafter.
Verse 16
In addition, their likeness in heeding the [words of the] hypocrites and their forsaking of them is, like Satan when he says to man, ‘Disbelieve!’; so that when he [man] disbelieves, he says, ‘Lo! I am absolved of you. Indeed I fear God, the Lord of the Worlds’, out of mendacity and dissimulation on his part.
Verse 17
So the sequel for both will be, that is, [the sequel for both] the one who leads astray and the one led astray (a variant reading for [‘āqibatahumā] has the nominative ‘āqibatuhumā, as the subject of kāna, ‘will be’), that they are in the Fire, therein abiding. And that is the requital of the evildoers, that is, the disbelievers.
Verse 18
O you who believe, fear God and let every soul consider what it has sent ahead for tomorrow, for the Day of Resurrection. And fear God. God is indeed Aware of what you do.
Verse 19
And do not be like those who forget God, [those who] neglect obedience to Him, so that He makes them forget their own souls, [to forget] to send ahead good deeds for its sake. Those — they are the immoral.
Verse 20
Not equal are the inhabitants of the Fire and the inhabitants of Paradise. It is the inhabitants of Paradise who are the winners.
Verse 21
Had We sent down this Qur’ān upon a mountain, and had it [the mountain] been endowed with a faculty of discernment like man, you would have surely seen it humbled, rent asunder by the fear of God. And such similitudes, as those mentioned — do We strike for mankind, that perhaps they may reflect, and so become believers.
Verse 22
He is God, than Whom there is no other god, Knower of the unseen and the visible, what is secret and what is proclaimed — He is the Compassionate, the Merciful.
Verse 23
He is God, than Whom there is no other god, the King, the Holy, the One sanctified from what does not befit Him, the Peace, unblemished by any defects, the Securer, the One Who confirms the sincerity of His messengers by creating miracles for them, the Guardian (al-muhaymin: [derives] from haymana, yuhayminu, meaning that one is watcher over something), in other words, the One Who is Witness to the deeds of His servants, the Mighty, the Strong, the Compeller, compelling His creatures to what He will, the Exalted, above what does not befit Him. Glorified be God — He is declaring His transcendence — above what partners they ascribe!, to Him.
Verse 24
He is God, the Creator, the Maker, the Originator from nothing, the Shaper. To Him belong the, ninety nine, Most Beautiful Names, cited in hadīth (al-husnā is the feminine of al-ahsan). All that is in the heavens and the earth glorify Him, and He is the Mighty, the Wise — already explained at the beginning of this [sūra].
Verse 1
O you who believe, do not take My enemy and your enemy, namely, the disbelievers of Mecca, for friends. You offer, you communicate to, them, the Prophet’s plan (s) to attack them, which he had confided to you, and had kept secret, at Hunayn, [communicating this to them out of], affection, between you and them. Hātib b. Abī Balta‘a sent them a letter to that effect, on account of his having children and close relatives, idolaters, among them. The Prophet (s) intercepted it from the person to whom he [Hātib] had given it to deliver, after God apprised him of this. Hātib’s excuse for this [conduct of his] was accepted [by the Prophet]; when verily they have disbelieved in the truth that has come to you, that is, [in] the religion of Islam and the Qur’ān, expelling the Messenger and you, from Mecca, by oppressing you, because you believe in God, your Lord. If you have gone forth to struggle in My way and to seek My pleasure … (the response to the conditional is indicated by what preceded, that is to say, [understand it as being] ‘then do not take them as friends’). You secretly harbour affection for them, when I know well what you hide and what you proclaim. And whoever among you does that, that is, to secretly communicate the Prophet’s news to them, has verily strayed from the right way, he has missed the path of guidance (originally, al-sawā’ means ‘the middle [way]’).
Verse 2
If they were to prevail over you, they would be your enemies, and would stretch out against you their hands, to kill and assault you, and their tongues with evil [intent], with insults and reviling; and they long for you to disbelieve.
Verse 3
Your relatives and your children, the idolatrous [ones], for whose sake you secretly communicated the news, will not avail you, against the chastisement in the Hereafter. On the Day of Resurrection you will be separated (passive yufsalu; or read active yafsilu, ‘He will separate you’) from them, so that you will be in Paradise, while they will be alongside the disbelievers in the Fire. And God is Seer of what you do.
Verse 4
Verily there is for you a good example (read iswa or uswa in both instances, meaning qudwa) in [the person of] Abraham, in terms of [his] sayings and deeds, and those who were with him, of believers, when they said to their people, ‘We are indeed innocent of you (bura’ā’ is the plural of barī’, similar [in form] to zarīf, ‘charming’) and of what you worship besides God. We repudiate you, we disavow you, and between us and you there has arisen enmity and hate forever (wa’l-baghdā’u abadan: pronounce both hamzas fully, or replace the second one with a wāw) until you [come to] believe in God alone’, except for Abraham’s saying to his father, ‘I shall ask forgiveness for you — [this statement is] excepted from ‘a [good] example’, so it is not [right] for you to follow his example in this [respect] by asking forgiveness for disbelievers. As for his saying: but I cannot avail you anything against God’ — that is, either against His chastisement or [to secure for you of] His reward — he [Abraham] is using it to intimate [to his father] that he can do nothing for him other than to ask forgiveness [for him], which [saying] is itself based on that [former statement] albeit excepted [from it] in terms of what is meant by it, even if on the face of it, it would seem to be [semantically] part of the [good] example to be followed: Say, ‘Who can avail you anything against God’ [Q. 48:11]; his [Abraham’s] plea of forgiveness for him was before it became evident to him that he [his father] was an enemy of God, as mentioned in sūrat Barā’a [Q. 9:114]. ‘Our Lord, in You we put our trust, and to You we turn [penitently], and to You is the journeying: these are the words of the Friend [of God, Abraham] and those who were with him, in other words, they were saying:
Verse 5
Our Lord, do not make us a cause of beguilement for those who disbelieve, that is to say, do not make them prevail over us, lest they think that they are following the truth and are beguiled as a result, in other words, [lest] they lose their reason because of us; and forgive us. Our Lord, You are indeed the Mighty, the Wise’, in Your kingdom and Your actions.
Verse 6
Verily there is for you, O community of Muhammad (s) (laqad kāna lakum is the response to an implied oath) in them a good example, for those [of you] who (li-man kāna is an inclusive substitution for –kum [of lakum, ‘for you’] with the same preposition [li-] repeated) anticipate God and the Last Day, that is, [for those] who fear these two, or who expect reward or punishment. And whoever turns away, by befriending the disbelievers, [should know that] God is the Independent, [without need] of His creatures, the Worthy of Praise, to those who obey Him.
Verse 7
It may be that God will bring about between you and those of them with whom you are at enmity, from among the disbelievers of Mecca out of [your] obedience to God, exalted be He, affection, by His guiding them to faith, so that they then become your friends. For God is Powerful, [able] to do that — and He did do this after the conquest of Mecca — and God is Forgiving, to them of their past [deeds], Merciful, to them [also].
Verse 8
God does not forbid you in regard to those who did not wage war against you, from among the disbelievers, on account of religion and did not expel you from your homes, that you should treat them kindly (an tabarrūhum is an inclusive substitution for alladhīna, ‘those who’) and deal with them justly: this was [revealed] before the command to struggle against them. Assuredly God loves the just.
Verse 9
God only forbids you in regard to those who waged war against you on account of religion and expelled you from your homes and supported [others] in your expulsion, that you should make friends with them (an tawallawhum is an inclusive substitution for alladhīna, ‘those who’). And whoever makes friends with them, those — they are the wrongdoers.
Verse 10
O you who believe, when believing women come to you, [saying] with their tongues [that they are], emigrating, from the [company of] disbelievers — [this was] following the truce concluded with them [the disbelievers] at al-Hudaybiyya to the effect that if any of their number should go to [join] the believers, that person should be sent back — test them, by making them swear that they had only gone forth [from Mecca] because of their [sincere] wish to embrace Islam, and not out of some hatred for their disbelieving husbands, nor because they might be enamoured by some Muslim man: that was how the Prophet (s) used to take from them their oaths. God knows best [the state of] their faith. Then, if you know them, if you suppose them, on the basis of their oaths, to be believers, do not send them back to the disbelievers. They [the women] are not lawful for them, nor are they [the disbelievers] lawful for them. And give them, that is to say, their disbelieving husbands, what they have expended, on them [on such women], in the way of dowries. And you would not be at fault if you marry them, on that [previous] condition, when you have given them their dowries. And do not hold on (read tumassikū or tumsikū) to the [conjugal] ties of disbelieving women, your wives, for your Islam automatically prohibits you from this, or [to the ties of] those apostatising women who return to the idolaters, for [likewise] their apostatising automatically prohibits you from marrying them, and ask for, demand, [the return of] what you have expended, on these women, of dowries, in the event of apostasy, from those disbelievers to whom they are married. And let them ask for what they have expended, on those women who have emigrated, as explained above, that it may be repaid to them. That is God’s judgement. He judges between you, therewith, and God is Knower, Wise.
Verse 11
And if you lose any of your wives, that is to say, [if you lose] one or more of them — or [it means if you lose] anything of their dowries — by [their] going, to the disbelievers, as apostates, and so you retaliate, you embark upon a raid and capture spoils [from them], then give those whose wives have gone, from the spoils, the like of what they have expended, for their having lost it to the disbelievers. And fear God in Whom you believe. And indeed the believers did what they had been commanded to do in the way of paying [back] the disbelievers [the dowries of their former wives] and the believers [the dowries of the women who had apostatised]. Afterwards, however, this stipulation was annulled.
Verse 12
O Prophet, if believing women come to you, pledging allegiance to you that they will not ascribe anything as partner to God, and that they will not steal, nor commit adultery, nor slay their children, as used to be done during the time of pagandom (jāhiliyya), when they would bury new-born girls alive, fearing ignominy and impoverishment, nor bring any lie that they have invented [originating] between their hands and their legs, that is, [by bringing] a foundling which they then [falsely] ascribe to the husband — it [the lie] is described in terms of a real child, because when a woman gives birth to a child, it falls between her hands and legs; nor disobey you in, doing, what is decent, which is that which concords with obedience to God, such as refraining from wailing, ripping apart [their] clothes [in grief], pulling out [their] hair, tearing open the front of [their] garments or scratching [their] faces, then accept their allegiance — the Prophet (s) did this [but] in words, and he did not shake hands with any of them — and ask God to forgive them; surely God is Forgiving, Merciful.
Verse 13
O you who believe, do not befriend a people against whom God is wrathful, namely, the Jews. They have truly despaired of the Hereafter, of [attaining] its reward — despite their being certain of its truth, out of obstinacy towards the Prophet, even though they know him to be sincere — just as the disbelievers have despaired — they [themselves] being — of those who are in the tombs, that is to say, those who are entombed [and barred] from the good of the Hereafter, for they are shown [both] their [would-have-been] places in Paradise, had they believed, and the Fire for which they are destined.
Verse 1
All that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth glorifies God, that is to say, [everything] proclaims His transcendence (the lām [of li’Llāhi] is extra, and mā has been used instead of min in order to indicate the predominance [of non-rational creatures]) and He is the Mighty, in His kingdom, the Wise, in His actions.
Verse 2
O you who believe, why do you say, in demanding [to participate in] the struggle, what you do not do?, for you retreated at Uhud.
Verse 3
It is greatly loathsome (maqtan is for specification) to God that you say (an taqūlū constitutes the agent of [the verb] kabura, ‘it is great[ly]’) what you do not do.
Verse 4
Indeed God loves, He assists and honours, those who fight for His cause in ranks (saffan is a circumstantial qualifier, in other words [understand it as] sāffīna), as if they were a solid structure, with all of its parts compacted together, firm.
Verse 5
And, mention, when Moses said to his people, ‘O my people, why do you harm me — [for] they had said that he had a hernia in his testicles, which he did not have, and they denied him — when certainly (qad is for confirmation) you know that I am the messenger of God to you?’ (annī rasūlu’Llāhi ilaykum: this sentence is a circumstantial qualifier) and [when you know that] messengers ought to be respected. So when they deviated, when they swerved away from the truth by harming him, God caused their hearts to deviate: He turned them away from guidance, in accordance to what He had preordained since pre-eternity, and God does not guide the immoral folk, those who, in His knowledge, are disbelievers.
Verse 6
And, mention, when Jesus son of Mary said, ‘O Children of Israel — he did not say ‘O my people’ [as did Moses] because he was not related to them in any way — I am indeed God’s messenger to you, confirming what is before me of the Torah and bringing good tidings of a messenger who will come after me, whose name is Ahmad.’ God, exalted be He, says: Yet when he brought them, [when] Ahmad brought the disbelievers, the clear signs, the revelations and the indications, they said, ‘This, namely, what has been brought, is manifest sorcery!’ (sihrun: a variant reading has sāhirun, ‘a sorcerer’, meaning the one who has brought them [is a manifest sorcerer]).
Verse 7
And who does — that is to say, none does — greater wrong than he who invents lies against God, by ascribing a partner and a child to Him and describing His signs as being sorcery, when he is [actually] being summoned to submission [to God]? And God does not guide the wrongdoing folk, the disbelieving [folk].
Verse 8
They desire to extinguish (li-yutfi’ū is in the subjunctive form because of an implicit an [sc. an yutfi’ū], the lām being extra) the light of God, His Law and His proofs, with their mouths, with their sayings, that this is sorcery, or poetry or soothsaying; but God will perfect, He will manifest, His light (mutimmun nūrahu: some have read this in the form of a genitive annextation, mutimmu nūrihi) though the disbelievers be averse, to this.
Verse 9
It is He Who has sent His Messenger with the guidance and the religion of truth, that He may make it prevail, that He may raise it, over all [other] religions, [over] all the religions which oppose it, though the disbelievers be averse, to this.
Verse 10
O you who believe, shall I show you a commerce that will deliver you (read tunjīkum or tunajjīkum) from a painful chastisement? It is as if they had replied, ‘Yes’, so that He then says:
Verse 11
You should believe, you should maintain faith, in God and His Messenger and struggle for the cause of God with your possessions and your lives. That is better for you, should you know, that it is better for you, then do it.
Verse 12
He will [then] forgive you (yaghfir is the response to an implied conditional, that is to say, ‘if you do this, He will then forgive you’) your sins and admit you into gardens underneath which rivers flow and pleasant dwellings in the Gardens of Eden, as a residence. That is the supreme triumph.
Verse 13
And, He will give you, another, grace, which you love: help from God and a victory near at hand. And give good tidings to the believers, of assistance and victory.
Verse 14
O you who believe, be helpers of God, of His religion (a variant reading [of ansāran li’Llāhi] has the genitive annexation ansāra’Llāhi) just as said (kamā qāla to the end [of the statement] means ‘just as the disciples were so’, as is indicated by [what follows]) Jesus son of Mary to the disciples, ‘Who will be my helpers unto God?’, that is to say, who [of you] will be helpers alongside me turning to help God? The disciples said, ‘We will be God’s helpers!’ [These] al-hawāriyyūn [were] the intimates of Jesus, for they were the first to believe in him. They were twelve men of pure white complexion (hawar); but it is also said that [their epithet derives from the fact that] they were bleachers (qassārūn) who bleached (yuhawwirūna) clothes. So a group of the Children of Israel believed, in Jesus, saying: ‘He is [indeed] the servant of God, [who has been] raised to heaven’, while a group disbelieved, because they said that he was the son of God, whom He had raised unto Himself. Thus the two groups waged war against one another. Then We strengthened those who believed, of the two groups, against their enemy, the disbelieving groups, and so they became the triumphant, the victors.
Verse 1
All that is the heavens and all that is in the earth glorifies God, [all] proclaims His transcendence (the lām [of li’Llāhi] is extra; mā is used instead of min in order to indicate the predominance [of non-rational beings]), the King, the Holy, the One Who transcends what does not befit Him, the Mighty, the Wise, in His kingdom and in His actions.
Verse 2
It is He Who sent to the unlettered [folk], [among] the Arabs (ummī means ‘one who cannot write or read a book’), a messenger from among them, namely, Muhammad (s), to recite to them His signs, the Qur’ān, and to purify them, to cleanse them from idolatry, and to teach them the Book, the Qur’ān, and wisdom, [in] the rulings that it contains, though indeed (wa-in: in has been softened from the hardened form, with its subject having been omitted, that is to say, [understand it as] wa-innahum) before that, [before] his coming, they had been in manifest error.
Verse 3
And [to] others (wa-ākharīna is a supplement to al-ummiyyīna, ‘the unlettered’), that is to say, those who are alive, from among them, and [to] those of them who will come after them, who have not yet joined them, with regard to precedence and merit; and He is the Mighty, the Wise, in His kingdom and in His actions: those [mentioned as coming afterwards] are the Successors (al-tābi‘ūna); and it suffices to mention these [Successors] in order to illustrate the [greater] merit of the Companions, among whom the Prophet (s) was sent, over all those others, of humans and jinn, to whom he was [also] sent and who [believed and] will believe in him up until the Day of Resurrection, for every generation is better than the succeeding one.
Verse 4
That is the bounty of God, which He gives to whom He will — [such as] the Prophet and those mentioned with him — and God is [dispenser] of tremendous bounty.
Verse 5
The likeness of those who were entrusted with the Torah, those who were charged with implementing it, then failed to uphold it, [then] failed to act in accordance with it, in what pertains to the descriptions of the Prophet (s), and so did not believe in him, is as the likeness of an ass carrying books, in that it does not benefit from them. Evil is the likeness of the people who deny God’s signs, those confirming the truth of the Prophet (s) — (the object of rebuke is omitted but is implied to be hādhā’l-mathalu, ‘this likeness’). And God does not guide the evildoing folk, the disbelievers.
Verse 6
Say: ‘O you of Jewry, if you claim that you are the [favoured] friends of God, to the exclusion of other people, then long for death, if you are truthful’ (in kuntum sādiqīna is semantically connected to tamannū, ‘long for’; as for the two conditions, the first is dependent on the second, that is to say, if you are truthful in your claim that you are the [favoured] friends of God, and given that [such] a friend would prefer the Hereafter [to this world] and that it [the Hereafter] begins at death, then long for it).
Verse 7
But they will never long for it, because of what their hands have sent ahead, in the way of their disbelief of the Prophet, [which itself is] a necessary consequence of their denial; and God is Knower of the evildoers, the disbelievers.
Verse 8
Say: ‘Assuredly the death from which you flee (fa-innahu: the fā’ is extra) will indeed encounter you; then you will be returned to the Knower of the Unseen and the visible, [the Knower of] what is [kept] secret and what is in the open, and He will inform you of what you used to do’, whereat He will requite you for it.
Verse 9
O you who believe, when the call for prayer is made on Friday, hasten, set off, to the remembrance of God, to the prayer, and leave aside [all] commerce, suspend [all] such contracts. That is better for you, should you know, that it is better for you, then do it.
Verse 10
And when the prayer is finished, disperse in the land (this is an imperative denoting permissibility) and seek, provision through, God’s bounty, and remember God, with remembrance, frequently, that perhaps you may be successful, [that perhaps] you may be the winners.
Verse 11
On one occasion the Prophet (s) was delivering the Friday sermon when a caravan arrived and so, as was the custom, drums were beaten to announce its arrival, whereat the people began to leave the mosque [to go to it], all except for twelve men. The following [verse] was then revealed: But when they sight some [opportunity for] business or a diversion, they scatter off towards it, that is, towards the business, since it is what they seek more than diversion, and leave you, during the sermon, standing. Say: ‘That which is with God, in the way of reward, is better, for those who believe, than diversion and commerce. And God is the best of providers’. They say that every person ‘provides for’ (yarzuqu) his dependants, [by which they mean that such a person does so] by means of the provision given by God (min rizqi’Llāhi), exalted be He.
Verse 1
When the hypocrites come to you they say, with their tongues, in contradiction of what is in their hearts: ‘We bear witness that you are indeed the Messenger of God.’ And God knows that you are indeed His Messenger, and God bears witness, He knows, that the hypocrites truly are liars, in what they conceal, that which is contrary to what they say.
Verse 2
They have taken their oaths as a shield, as a [means of] protection for their possessions and their lives, and so they have barred, thereby, from the way of God, that is, from using them for the struggle. Evil indeed is that which they are wont to do.
Verse 3
That, namely, their evil deed, is because they believed, by [affirming faith only with] the tongue, then disbelieved, in [their] hearts, that is to say, they persist in harbouring disbelief in it; therefore their hearts have been stamped, sealed, with disbelief. Hence they do not understand, faith.
Verse 4
And when you see them, their figures please you, on account of their fairness; and if they speak, you listen to their speech, because of its eloquence. [Yet] they are, by virtue of the enormous size of their figures, [yet] in their lack of comprehension, like blocks of timber (read khushbun or khushubun) [that have been] propped-up, set reclining against a wall. They assume that every cry, made, like a battle-cry or one made to [retrieve] a lost camel, is [directed] against them, because of the [extent of] terror in their hearts, lest something should be revealed deeming their blood licit. They are the enemy, so beware of them, for they communicate your secrets to the disbelievers. May God assail them!, destroy them! How can they deviate?, how can they be turned away from faith after the proofs [for it] have been established?
Verse 5
And when it is said to them, ‘Come, offer apologies, and God’s Messenger will ask forgiveness for you’, they twist (read lawwaw or lawū), they turn, their heads, and you see them turning away, rejecting this [offer], disdainful.
Verse 6
It will be the same for them, whether you ask forgiveness for them (a’staghfarta: the interrogative hamza here has taken the place of the conjunctive hamza) or do not ask forgiveness for them: God will never forgive them. Indeed God does not guide the immoral folk.
Verse 7
They are the ones who say, to their companions from among the Helpers: ‘Do not expend on those who are with the Messenger of God, from among the Emigrants, until they scatter off’, until they part with him. Yet to God belong the treasuries of the heavens and the earth, with [what they contain of] provision, and so He is the provider for the Emigrants and others, but the hypocrites do not understand.
Verse 8
They say, ‘Surely if we return, from the raid against the Banū al-Mustaliq, to Medina, the powerful, by which they meant themselves, will [soon] expel from it the weaker’, by which they meant the believers. Yet [the real] might, victory, belongs to God and to His Messenger, and to the believers, but the hypocrites do not know, that.
Verse 9
O you who believe, do not let your possessions and your children divert you, distract you, from the remembrance of God, [from] the five prayers; for whoever does that — it is they who are the losers.
Verse 10
And expend, in alms, of that with which We have provided you before death comes to any of you, whereat he will say, ‘My Lord, if only (law-lā means hal-lā, ‘why [do You] not’; or the lā is extra and the law is optative) You would reprieve me for a short time so that I might give charity (assaddaq: the original tā’ [of atasaddaqa] has been assimilated with the sād), that I might offer alms, and become one of the righteous!’, by making the Pilgrimage. Ibn ‘Abbās, may God be pleased with both [him and his father], said, ‘Every person who has fallen short of [his duty regarding] alms and the Pilgrimage will ask to be returned [to this world] at the moment of death’.
Verse 11
But God will never reprieve a soul when its term has come. And God is Aware of what you do (ta‘malūna; also read [as the third person plural] ya‘malūna, ‘they do’).
Verse 1
All that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth glorifies God, [everything] proclaims His transcendence (the lām [of li’Llāhi] is extra; mā is used instead of min in order to indicate the predominance [of non-rational beings]). To Him belongs the Kingdom and to Him belongs [all] praise, and He has power over all things.
Verse 2
It is He Who created you. Then some of you are disbelievers and some of you are believers, in [terms of] your original disposition; then He makes you die and brings you back to life in that same [disposition]; and God is Seer of what you do.
Verse 3
He created the heavens and the earth with the truth, and He shaped you and made your shapes excellent, for He made the human form to be the best of forms; and to Him is the journey’s end.
Verse 4
He knows all that is in the heavens and the earth, and He knows what you hide and what you disclose, and God is Knower of what is in the breasts, in terms of the secrets and convictions they contain.
Verse 5
Has there not come to you, O disbelievers of Mecca, the tidings, the story, of those who disbelieved before and thus tasted the evil consequences of their conduct?, [they tasted] the punishment for disbelief in this world. And there will be for them, in the Hereafter, a painful chastisement?
Verse 6
That, chastisement in this world, is because (bi-annahu contains the pronoun of the matter) their messengers used to bring them clear signs, manifest proofs for [the validity of] faith, but they said, ‘Shall [mere] humans (basharan is meant as generic) be our guides?’ So they disbelieved and turned away, from faith, and God was independent, [without need] of their faith. And God is Independent, [without need] of His creatures, Praised, praiseworthy in His actions.
Verse 7
Those who disbelieve claim that (an is softened, its subject having been omitted, that is to say, annahum) they will never be resurrected. Say: ‘Yes indeed, by my Lord! You will be resurrected; then you will be informed of what you did. And that is easy for God’.
Verse 8
So believe in God and His Messenger and the Light, the Qur’ān, which We have revealed. And God is Aware of what you do.
Verse 9
Mention, the day when He will gather you for the Day of Gathering, the Day of Resurrection, that will be the Day of Dispossession, [on which] the believers will dupe the disbelievers by occupying [what would have been] their places in Paradise, had they believed, as well as [appropriating] their [believing] spouses. And [as for] those who believe in God and act righteously, He will absolve them of their misdeeds and admit them into gardens underneath which rivers flow (a variant reading for both verbs has the first person plural) wherein they will abide. That is the supreme triumph.
Verse 10
And [as for] those who disbelieved and denied Our signs — the Qur’ān — those, they will be the inhabitants of the Fire, wherein they will abide. And [what] an evil journey’s end!, it is.
Verse 11
No affliction strikes except by the leave of God, by His decree. And whoever believes in God, in His saying that every affliction is by His decreeing [it], He will guide his heart, to endure it [patiently]. And God is Knower of all things.
Verse 12
And obey God and obey the Messenger; but if you turn away, then the Messenger’s duty is only to communicate [the Message] clearly.
Verse 13
God — there is no god except Him. And in God let [all] believers put their trust.
Verse 14
O you who believe! Indeed among your wives and children there are enemies for you, so beware of them, of obeying them in neglecting [the performance of] good [deeds], such as struggling or emigrating — because the reason why this verse was revealed was [precisely their] obedience [of them] in such [matters]. And if you pardon, them, for their impeding you from such good [deeds], justifying it on account of the distress that parting with you causes them, and overlook [such enmity] and forgive, then assuredly God is Forgiving, Merciful.
Verse 15
Your possessions and your children are only a trial, for you, distracting [you] from the concerns of the Hereafter, and God — with Him is a great reward, so do not forfeit it by preoccupying yourselves with possessions and children.
Verse 16
So fear God as far as you can — this abrogates His saying: Fear God as He should be feared [Q. 3:102] — and listen, to what you have been enjoined to, listening disposed to accept, and obey and expend, in obedience [to Him]; that is better for your souls (khayran li-anfusikum is the predicate of an implied yakun, ‘[that] is’, and the response to the imperative). And whoever is shielded from the avarice of his own soul, such are the successful, the winners.
Verse 17
If you lend God a good loan, by giving voluntary alms out of the goodness of [your] hearts, He will multiply it for you (yudā‘ifhu: a variant reading has yuda‘‘ifhu), from tenfold up to seven hundredfold or more for each one — this [loan] being the giving of voluntary alms out of the goodness of the heart — and He will forgive you, whatever He will, and God is Appreciative, rewarding of obedience, Forbearing, in refraining from [always] punishing disobedience;
Verse 18
Knower of the Unseen, the hidden, and the visible, the disclosed, the Mighty, in His kingdom, the Wise, in His actions.
Verse 1
O Prophet, meaning [to address] his community, on account of what follows; or, [it means] say to them: when you [men] divorce women, when you intend to [effect a] divorce, divorce them by their prescribed period, at the beginning of it, such that the divorce is effected while she is pure and has not been touched [sexually], based on the Prophet’s (s) explaining it in this way, [as] reported by the two Shaykhs [al-Bukhārī and Muslim]. And count the prescribed period, keep record of it, so that you may repeal [your decision] before it is concluded; and fear God your Lord, obey Him in His commands and prohibitions. Do not expel them from their houses, nor let them go forth, from them until their prescribed period is concluded, unless they commit a blatant [act of] indecency, [such as] adultery (read mubayyana or mubayyina, corresponding [respectively] to buyyinat, ‘one that has been proven’, and bayyina, ‘blatant’), in which case they are brought out in order to carry out the [prescribed] legal punishment against them. And those, mentioned [stipulations], are God’s bounds; and whoever transgresses the bounds of God has verily wronged his soul. You never know: it may be that God will bring something new to pass afterwards, [after] the divorce, [such as] a retraction, in the event that it was the first or second [declaration of divorce].
Verse 2
Then, when they have reached their term, [when] they are near the end of their prescribed period, retain them, by taking them back, honourably, without coercion, or separate from them honourably, leave them to conclude their waiting period and do not compel them to go back [to you]. And call to witness two just men from among yourselves, [to witness] the retraction or the separation, and bear witness for the sake of God, and not [merely] for the sake of what is being witnessed or for the sake of the man. By this is exhorted whoever believes in God and the Last Day. And whoever fears God, He will make a way out for him, from the distress of this world and the Hereafter;
Verse 3
and He will provide for him from whence he never expected, [from whence] it never occurred to him. And whoever puts his trust in God, regarding his affairs, He will suffice him. Indeed God fulfils His command, His will (a variant reading [for bālighun amrahu] has the genitive construction [bālighu amrihi]). Verily God has ordained for everything, [even things] such as comfort and hardship, a measure, a fixed time.
Verse 4
And [as for] those of your women who (read allā’ī or allā’i in both instances) no longer expect to menstruate, if you have any doubts, about their waiting period, their prescribed [waiting] period shall be three months, and [also for] those who have not yet menstruated, because of their young age, their period shall [also] be three months — both cases apply to other than those whose spouses have died; for these [latter] their period is prescribed in the verse: they shall wait by themselves for four months and ten [days] [Q. 2:234]. And those who are pregnant, their term, the conclusion of their prescribed [waiting] period if divorced or if their spouses be dead, shall be when they deliver. And whoever fears God, He will make matters ease for him, in this world and in the Hereafter.
Verse 5
That, which is mentioned regarding the prescribed [waiting] period, is God’s command, His ruling, which He has revealed to you. And whoever fears God, He will absolve him of his misdeeds and magnify the reward for him.
Verse 6
Lodge them, that is, the divorced women, where you dwell, that is to say, in some part of your dwellings, in accordance with your means (min wujdikum is an explicative supplement, or a substitution of what precedes it with the repetition of the same preposition [min] and with an implied genitive annexation, in other words, [something like] amkinat sa‘atikum, ‘[house them in] the places of your means and not otherwise’) and do not harass them so as to put them in straits, with regard to accommodation, such that they would then need to go elsewhere or [be in need of] maintenance [to provide for themselves] so that they [are forced to] ransom themselves from you. And if they are pregnant, then maintain them until they deliver. Then, if they suckle for you, your children [whom you have] from them, give them their wages, for the suckling, and consult together, with them, honourably, with kindness, for the sake of the children, by mutual agreement on a fixed wage for the suckling. But if you both make difficulties, regarding the suckling, with either the father withholding [payment of] the wage or the mother refraining from performing it, then another woman will suckle [the child] for him, for the father, and the mother should not be compelled to suckle it.
Verse 7
Let the affluent man expend, on the divorced or the suckling woman, out of his affluence. And let he whose provision has been straitened, restricted, for him, expend of what God has given him, in accordance with his means. God does not charge any soul save except with what He has given it. God will assuredly bring about ease after hardship — which He indeed did by way of the [Muslim] conquests.
Verse 8
And how many (ka’ayyin: the kāf is the genitive prepositional particle which has been added to ayy, ‘which’, to give the meaning of kam, ‘how many’) a town — that is to say, many a town, meaning its inhabitants, disobeyed the command of its Lord and His messengers, then We called it, in the Hereafter — even if it has not yet arrived, [God says so] because of the fact that it will surely come to pass — to a severe reckoning and chastised it with a dire chastisement (read nukran or nukuran), namely, the chastisement of the Fire.
Verse 9
So it tasted the evil consequences of its conduct, the punishment for it, and the consequence of its conduct was [utter] loss, failure and destruction.
Verse 10
God has prepared for them a severe chastisement (the reiteration of the threat is for emphasis). So fear God, O people of pith, O possessors of intellect, [you] who believe! (this is a description of the vocative, or an explication of it) God has certainly revealed to you a [source of] remembrance, that is, the Qur’ān;
Verse 11
a messenger, that is, Muhammad (s) (rasūlan is in the accusative because of an implied verb, that is to say, wa-arsala, ‘and He sent you [a messenger]’) reciting to you the clear signs of God (read mubayyanāt or mubayyināt, as [explained] above) that He may bring forth those who believe and perform righteous deeds, after the arrival of the remembrance and the Messenger, from darkness, the disbelief to which they adhered, to light, the faith that was established in them after [a life of] disbelief. And those who believe in God and act righteously, He will admit them (a variant reading has the first person plural [nudkhilhu, ‘We will admit them’]) into gardens underneath which rivers flow, wherein they will abide forever. God has verily made a good provision for him, namely, the provision of Paradise, the bliss of which never ends.
Verse 12
God it is Who created seven heavens, and of earth the like thereof, that is to say, seven earths. The command, the revelation, descends between them, between the heavens and the earth: Gabriel descends with it from the seventh heaven to the seventh earth, that you may know (li-ta‘lamū is semantically connected to an omitted clause, that is to say, ‘He apprises you of this creation and this sending down [that you may know]’), that God has power over all things and that God encompasses all things in knowledge.
Verse 1
O Prophet! Why do you prohibit what God has made lawful for you, in terms of your Coptic handmaiden Māriya — when he lay with her in the house of Hafsa, who had been away, but who upon returning [and finding out] became upset by the fact that this had taken place in her own house and on her own bed — by saying, ‘She is unlawful for me!’, seeking, by making her unlawful [for you], to please your wives? And God is Forgiving, Merciful, having forgiven you this prohibition.
Verse 2
Verily God has prescribed, He has made lawful, for you [when necessary] the absolution of your oaths, to absolve them by expiation, as mentioned in the sūrat al-Mā’ida [Q. 5:89] and the forbidding of [sexual relations with] a handmaiden counts as an oath, so did the Prophet (s) expiate? Muqātil [b. Sulaymān] said, ‘He set free a slave [in expiation] for his prohibition of Māriya’; whereas al-Hasan [al-Basrī] said, ‘He never expiated, because the Prophet (s) has been forgiven [all errors]’. And God is your Protector, your Helper, and He is the Knower, the Wise.
Verse 3
And, mention, when the Prophet confided to one of his wives, namely, Hafsa, a certain matter, which was his prohibition of Māriya, telling her: ‘Do not reveal it!’; but when she divulged it, to ‘Ā’isha, reckoning there to be no blame in [doing] such a thing, and God apprised him, He informed him, of it, of what had been divulged, he announced part of it, to Hafsa, and passed over part, out of graciousness on his part. So when he told her about it, she said, ‘Who told you this?’ He said, ‘I was told by the Knower, the Aware’, namely, God.
Verse 4
If the two of you, namely, Hafsa and ‘Ā’isha, repent to God … for your hearts were certainly inclined, towards the prohibition of Māriya, that is to say, your keeping this secret despite [knowing] the Prophet’s (s) dislike of it, which is itself a sin (the response to the conditional [‘if the two of you repent to God’] has been omitted, to be understood as, ‘it will be accepted of both of you’; the use of [the plural] qulūb, ‘hearts’, instead of [the dual] qalbayn, ‘both [your] hearts’, is on account of the cumbersomeness of putting two duals together in what is effectively the same word); and if you support one another (tazzāharā: the original second tā’ [of tatazāharā] has been assimilated with the zā’; a variant reading has it without [this assimilation, tazāharā]) against him, that is, the Prophet, in what he is averse to, then [know that] God, He (huwa, [a pronoun] for separation) is indeed his Protector, His supporter, and Gabriel, and the righteous among the believers, Abū Bakr and ‘Umar, may God be pleased with both of them (wa-Jibrīlu wa-sālihu’l-mu’minīna is a supplement to the [syntactical] locus of the subject of inna [sc. ‘God’]), who will [also] be his supporters, and the angels furthermore, further to the support of God and those mentioned, are his supporters, assistants of his, in supporting him [to prevail] over both of you.
Verse 5
It may be that, if he divorces you, that is, [if] the Prophet divorces his wives, his Lord will give him in [your] stead (read yubaddilahu or yubdilahu) wives better than you (azwājan khayran minkunna is the predicate of ‘asā, ‘it may be’, the sentence being the response to the conditional) — the replacement [of his wives by God] never took place because the condition [of his divorcing them] never arose — women submissive [to God], affirming Islam, believing, faithful, obedient, penitent, devout, given to fasting — or given to emigrating [in God’s way] — previously married and virgins.
Verse 6
O you who believe! Guard yourselves and your families, by enjoining obedience to God, against a Fire whose fuel is, disbelieving, people and stones, such as those idols of theirs made of that [stone] — the meaning is that it is extremely hot, fuelled by the above-mentioned, unlike the fire of this world which is fuelled by wood and the like — over which stand angels, its keepers — numbering nineteen as will be stated in [sūrat] al-Muddaththir [Q. 74:30] — stern, a sternness of the heart, mighty, in [their power of] assault, who do not disobey God in what He commands them (mā amarahum is a substitution for His Majesty [‘God’]), in other words, they do not disobey the command of God, but do what they are commanded — this is [reiterated] for emphasis; the verse is meant as a threat to deter believers from apostatising and for hypocrites who believe only with their tongues and not with their hearts.
Verse 7
‘O you who disbelieve! Do not make any excuses today — this is said to them upon their entering the Fire — in other words, because this [excusing] will be of no use to you. You are only being requited for what you used to do’, that is, [only] the [due] requital thereof.
Verse 8
O you who believe! Repent to God with sincere repentance (read nasūhan or nusūhan), a truthful [repentance], so that one does not return to [committing] that sin again, nor have the desire to return to it. It may be that your Lord (‘asā: [an expression denoting] ‘a hope’ that will be realised) will absolve you of your misdeeds and admit you into gardens, orchards, underneath which rivers flow, on the day when God will not let down, by admitting into the Fire, the Prophet and those who believe with him. Their light will be running before them, in front of them, and, it will be, on their right. They will say (yaqūlūna: this denotes the beginning of a new [syntactically independent] sentence), ‘Our Lord! Perfect our light for us, towards Paradise — whereas the hypocrites, their light will be extinguished — and forgive us, Our Lord. Assuredly You have power over all things’.
Verse 9
O Prophet! Struggle against the disbelievers, with the sword, and the hypocrites, by the tongue and with argument, and be stern with them, in rebuke and hatred. For their abode will be Hell — and [what] an evil journey’s end!, it is.
Verse 10
God has struck a similitude for those who disbelieve: the wife of Noah and the wife of Lot. They were under two of Our righteous servants, yet they betrayed them, in [their] religion, for they both disbelieved — Noah’s wife, called Wāhila, used to say to his people that he was a madman, while Lot’s wife, called Wā‘ila, used to tell his people the whereabouts of his guests when they stayed with him, at night by lighting a fire, and during the day by making smoke. So they, that is, Noah and Lot, did not avail the two women in any way against God, against His chastisement, and it was said, to the two women: ‘Enter, both of you, the Fire along with the incomers’, from among the disbelievers of the peoples of Noah and Lot.
Verse 11
And God has struck a similitude for those who believe: the wife of Pharaoh — she believed in Moses, her name was Āsiya; Pharaoh chastised her by tying her hands and feet to pegs and placing a huge millstone on her chest, and having her laid out in the sun; but when those in charge of her would leave her, the angels would [come to] shade her — when she said, during her torture, ‘My Lord, build for me a home near You in Paradise, — so He disclosed for her [a veil of the Unseen] and she saw it, which in turn alleviated for her the torture — and deliver me from Pharaoh and his work, his torture, and deliver me from the evildoing folk’, the followers of his [Pharaoh’s] religion, whereat God took [unto Himself] her spirit [in death]. Ibn Kaysān said, ‘She was raised to Paradise alive, where she eats and drinks’.
Verse 12
And Mary (wa-Maryama is a supplement to imra’ata Fir‘awna) daughter of ‘Imrān, who preserved [the chastity of] her womb, so We breathed into it of Our Spirit, namely, Gabriel — when he breathed into the opening of her shirt, by God’s creation of this action of his which reached her womb, thus conceiving Jesus — and she confirmed the words of her Lord, His prescriptions, and His, revealed, Scriptures and she was of the obedient, [one] of the obedient folk.