Verse 1
Blessed, exalted above the attributes of created beings, is He in Whose hand, at Whose disposal, is [all] sovereignty, [all] authority and power, and He has power over all things.
Verse 2
[He] Who created death, in this world, and life, in the Hereafter — or both of them in this world, since the sperm-drop is imbued with life, [life being] that [power] by which sensation becomes possible, death being the opposite of this or the non-existence of it — these being two [alternative] opinions; in the case of the latter [life in the Hereafter], ‘creation’ implies ‘ordainment’ — that He may try you, that He may test you in [this] life, [to see] which of you is best in conduct, [which of you] is most obedient to God, and He is the Mighty, in His vengeance against those who disobey Him, the Forgiving, to those who repent to Him;
Verse 3
Who created seven heavens in layers, one above the other without any contact [between them]. You do not see in the Compassionate One’s creation, of these or of other things, any irregularity, any disparity or discordance. Then cast your eyes again, turn them toward the heaven: Do you see, in it, any fissure?, any cracks or ruptures?
Verse 4
Then cast your eyes yet again, once and then twice, and your sight will return to you humbled, abject on account of it not perceiving any fissure, and wearied, unable to see any fissure.
Verse 5
And verily We have adorned the lowest heaven, the one closest to the earth, with lamps, with stars, and made them missiles against the devils, should they [attempt to] listen by stealth, in which case a meteor of fire detaches itself from the star, just like a brand is taken from a fire, and either kills that jinn or deprives him of his senses: it is not that the star itself is displaced from its position; and We have prepared for them the chastisement of the Blaze, the ignited Fire.
Verse 6
And for those who disbelieve in their Lord there is the chastisement of Hell, and [what] an evil journey’s end!, it is.
Verse 7
When they are flung into it they hear it blaring, [producing] a horrid sound like that of an ass, as it seethes,
Verse 8
almost exploding (tamayyazu: a variant reading has the original [form] tatamayyazu) ripped apart, with rage, in wrath against the disbelievers. Whenever a host, a group of them, is flung into it, its keepers ask them, an interrogation of rebuke: ‘Did there not come to you a warner?’, a messenger to warn you of God’s chastisement.
Verse 9
They will say, ‘Yes, a warner did indeed come to us, but we denied and said, “God has not revealed anything; you are assuredly in great error”’: this [last words] may be the words of the angels [spoken] to the disbelievers when they are told of the denial, or they may belong to the words of the disbelievers [spoken] to the warners.
Verse 10
And they will say, ‘Had we listened, that is, listening so as to understand, or comprehended, that is, comprehension entailing reflection [upon the truth], we would not have been among the inhabitants of the Blaze’.
Verse 11
Thus they will confess, when confession is of no avail, their sin, which was their denial of the warners. So away (suhqan or suhuqan) with the inhabitants of the Blaze!, so far away may they be from God’s mercy.
Verse 12
Assuredly those who fear their Lord in secret, while they are absent from people’s eyes, being obedient to Him in secret, such that openly [before people] it is all the more likely [that they fear their Lord] — there will be for them forgiveness and a great reward, namely, Paradise.
Verse 13
And [whether you] keep secret, O people, your speech or proclaim it, He indeed, exalted be He, is Knower of what is in the breasts, of what they contain: so how much more so [is He Knower] in the case of what you utter [openly] — the reason for the revelation of this [verse] was that the idolaters said to one another: ‘Speak secretly, and Muhammad’s god will not hear you’.
Verse 14
Will He Who has created not know?, what you keep secret, in other words: will His knowledge of [things] be precluded by such [secret speech]? And He is the Subtle, in His knowledge, the Aware, therein.
Verse 15
It is He Who made the earth tractable for you, easy for you to walk on; so walk in its flanks and eat of His provision, that has been created for you; and to Him is the resurrection, from the graves for the Requital.
Verse 16
Are you secure (read a-amintum pronouncing both hamzas fully, or by not pronouncing the second one, inserting an alif between it and the other one, or without [the insertion] but replacing it with an alif instead) [in thinking] that He Who is in the heaven, [that He] Whose authority and power [is in the heaven], will not cause the earth to swallow you (an yakhsifa substitutes for man, ‘He Who’) while it quakes?, [while] it moves underneath you and rises above you?
Verse 17
Are you secure [in thinking] that He Who is in the heaven will not unleash (an yursila substitutes for man, ‘He Who’) upon you a squall of pebbles?, a wind hurling pebbles at you. But you will [soon] come to know, upon seeing the chastisement with your own eyes, the nature of My warning, My warning of chastisement, in other words, [you will soon see] that it was true.
Verse 18
And verily those, communities, who were before them denied, then [see] how was My rebuttal!, [how was] My rebuttal of them in destroying them when they denied: in other words, [how] it was true.
Verse 19
Or have they not seen the birds above them, in the air, spreading their wings and closing?, their wings after spreading them? (in other words [read wa-yaqbidna] as wa-qābidātin [similar to sāffātin, ‘spreading’]). Nothing sustains them, from falling, either when they are spreading them or closing them, except the Compassionate One, by His power. Indeed He is Seer of all things. The meaning is: have they not inferred from the fact that the birds [are able to] remain in the air that We have the power to do with them what has been mentioned above as well as [inflicting upon them] other kinds of chastisement?
Verse 20
Or who (am-man: the subject) is it (hādhā: its predicate) that (alladhī: a substitution for hādhā, ‘is it’) will be an army, supporters, for you (lakum belongs to the relative clause of alladhī, ‘that’) to help you (yansurukum is an adjectival qualification of jundun, ‘an army’) besides the Compassionate One?, that is to say, other than Him, who [is there that] will [be able to] avert His chastisement from you, in other words, you have no helper. The disbelievers are in nothing but delusion: Satan has deluded them [into believing] that the chastisement will not befall them.
Verse 21
Or who is it that will provide for you if He, the Compassionate One, withholds His provision?, that is to say, [if He withholds] the rain from you (the response to the conditional has been omitted, but is indicated by what preceded it, namely [the statement to the effect] ‘who will provide for you?’, and so [the response would be]: you have no provider other than Him. Nay, but they persist in disdain and aversion, moving away [further] from the truth.
Verse 22
Is he who walks cast down, fallen, on his face more rightly guided, or he who walks upright on a straight path? (the predicate of the second man, ‘who’, has been omitted, but is indicated by the predicate of the first, namely, ahdā, ‘more rightly guided’; the similitude refers to the believer and the disbeliever and to which of the two is more rightly guided).
Verse 23
Say: ‘It is He Who created you and endowed you with hearing and sight and hearts. Little do you thank!’ (mā tashkurūna: mā is extra; the sentence itself is a new [independent] one, informing of how extremely little they give thanks for these graces).
Verse 24
Say: ‘It is He Who multiplied you, created you, on earth, and to Him you will be gathered’, for the Reckoning.
Verse 25
And they say, to the believers: ‘When will this promise be [fulfilled], the promise of the gathering, if you are truthful?’, about it.
Verse 26
Say: ‘The knowledge, of its coming, is only with God, and I am but a plain warner’, one whose warning is plain.
Verse 27
But when they see it, that is, the chastisement, after the gathering, near at hand, the faces of those who disbelieved will be awry, blackened, and it will be said, that is, the keepers [of Hell] will say to them: ‘This is that, chastisement, which, the warning of which, you used to make claims about’, [claims to the effect] that you would not be resurrected — this is the narration of a situation that will take place [in the future], and which has been expressed using the past tense in order to confirm that it will actually take place.
Verse 28
Say: ‘Have you considered: If God destroys me and those with me, of believers, by His chastisement, as you would have it, or has mercy on us, and does not chastise us, who then will protect the disbelievers from a painful chastisement?’: in other words, they will have no protector from it.
Verse 29
Say: ‘He is the Compassionate One; we believe in Him, and in Him we put our trust. And assuredly you will [soon] know (sa-ta‘lamūna is also read sa-ya‘lamūna, ‘they will know’) upon seeing the chastisement with your own eyes, who is in manifest error’: is it us, or yourselves or them?
Verse 30
Say: ‘Have you considered: If your water were to sink deep into the earth, who then will bring you running water?’, which hands and buckets would be able to reach, like [they do] your water: in other words, none but God, exalted be He, would be able to bring it, so how can you reject that He will resurrect you? It is commendable for one to say Allāhu rabbu’l-‘ālamīna, ‘God, Lord of the Worlds!’, after ma‘īn, ‘running water’, as is stated in a hadīth. This verse was recited before a certain tyrant who then replied, ‘Hatchets and pickaxes will bring it!’, whereupon the water of his eyes dried up and he became blind. We seek refuge with God against that we should be insolent towards Him or His verses.
Verse 1
Nūn, one of the letters of the alphabet: God knows best what He means by it. By the Pen, with which He has inscribed [the records of] all creatures in the Preserved Tablet, and what they inscribe, that is, the angels, of good and righteousness.
Verse 2
You are not, O Muhammad (s), by the grace of your Lord, a madman, that is to say, madness is precluded in your case, on account of your Lord’s grace to you by way of [His assigning to you] prophethood and in other ways — this was a refutation of their saying that he was a madman.
Verse 3
And assuredly you will have an unfailing reward.
Verse 4
And assuredly you possess a magnificent nature, [a magnificent] religion.
Verse 5
Then you will see and they will see,
Verse 6
which of you is demented (al-maftūn is a verbal noun, similar [in expressional form] to al-ma‘qūl, ‘intelligible’; al-futūn meaning al-junūn, ‘insanity’) in other words, is it [this insanity] in you or in them?
Verse 7
Assuredly your Lord knows best those who stray from His way, and He knows best those who are guided, to Him.
Verse 8
So do not obey the deniers.
Verse 9
They desire, they yearn, that (law relates to the verbal action) you should be pliable, [that] you should yield to them, so that they may be pliable [towards you], [so that] they may yield to you (fa-yudhinūna is a supplement to tudhinu, ‘you should be pliable’, but if it is understood to be the response to the optative clause of waddū, ‘they yearn’, then [a free standing pronoun] hum should be read as implied before it after the fā’ [sc. fa-hum yudhinūna]).
Verse 10
And do not obey any mean, despicable, oath-monger, given to frequent swearing by falsehood,
Verse 11
backbiting, faultfinder, that is to say, calumniator, scandal-monger, spreading [evil] talk among people in order to sow dissension between them,
Verse 12
hinderer of good, niggardly with his wealth against deserving causes, sinful transgressor, wrongdoer,
Verse 13
coarse-grained, crude, moreover ignoble, an adopted son of Quraysh — namely, al-Walīd b. al-Mughīra, whose father claimed him after eighteen years; Ibn ‘Abbās said, ‘We know of no one whom God has described in the derogatory way in which He describes him, blighting him with ignominy that will never leave him (the adverbial qualifier [ba‘da dhālika, ‘moreover’] is semantically connected to zanīm, ‘ignoble’) —
Verse 14
[only] because (an should be understood as li-an, ‘because’, and it is semantically connected to that [meaning] which it is indicating) he has wealth and sons.
Verse 15
When Our signs — the Qur’ān — are recited to him, he says, that they are [merely], ‘Fables of the ancients!’, in other words, he denies them [in arrogance] on account of the mentioned things which We have bestowed on him out of Our grace (a variant reading [for an of the previous verse] has [the interrogative] a-an).
Verse 16
We shall brand him on the snout: We shall leave a distinguishing mark upon his nose, one by which he will be reviled for as long as he lives; and so his nose was chopped off by a sword at Badr.
Verse 17
Indeed We have tried them, We have tested the people of Mecca with drought and famine, just as We tried the owners of the garden, the orchard, when they vowed that they would pluck, [that] they would pick its fruits, in the morning, so that the poor folk would not notice them and so that they would not then have to give them of it that [portion] which their father used to give them of it by way of charity.
Verse 18
And they did not make any exception, to their vow, for God’s will (the sentence is a new [syntactically independent] one, in other words: and that was their condition).
Verse 19
Then a visitation from your Lord visited it, [that is] a fire consumed it during the night, while they slept.
Verse 20
So by the morning it was like the darkness of night, in other words, black.
Verse 21
They then called out to one another in the morning,
Verse 22
[saying], ‘Go forth early to your tillage, your produce (ani’ghdū ‘alā harthikum constitutes an explication of [the import of] tanādaw, ‘they called out to one another’; otherwise, an relates to the verbal action, [to be understood as] being bi-an) if you are going to pluck’, if your intention is to pick [the fruits] (the response to the conditional is indicated by what preceded it).
Verse 23
So off they went, whispering to one another, talking secretly:
Verse 24
‘No needy person shall today come to you in it’ (this constitutes the explication of the preceding [verse]; or else, an relates to the verbal action, [to be understood] to mean bi-an).
Verse 25
And they went forth early, supposing themselves, able to prohibit, to prevent the poor folk [from enjoying the fruit].
Verse 26
But when they saw it, blackened and charred, they said, ‘Assuredly we have strayed!’, from it, that is to say: this is not the one. Then when they recognised it, they said:
Verse 27
‘Nay, but we have been deprived!’, of its fruits, by our denying it to the poor folk.
Verse 28
The most moderate, the best one, among them said, ‘Did I not say to you, “Why do you not glorify?” ’, God, repenting [to Him].
Verse 29
They said, ‘Glory be to God, our Lord. Verily we have been wrongdoers’, by denying the poor folk [what is] their due.
Verse 30
They then turned to one another, blaming each other.
Verse 31
They said, ‘O ([yā is] for calling attention to something) woe to us!, [O] destruction of ours. We have indeed been unjust.
Verse 32
It may be that our Lord will give us in its place (read yubaddilanā or yubdilanā) one that is better than it. Truly we turn humbly to our Lord’, that He might accept our repentance and give us back [a garden that is] better than our garden — it is reported that they were indeed given a better one in its place.
Verse 33
Such, that is to say, like the chastisement for these [people], will be the chastisement, for those disbelievers of Mecca and others who contravene Our command; and the chastisement of the Hereafter is assuredly greater, did they but know, its chastisement, they would not have contavened Our command. When they said ‘If we are resurrected, we shall be given better than [what] you [have been given], the following was revealed:
Verse 34
Verily for the God-fearing there will be the Gardens of Bliss near their Lord.
Verse 35
Are We then to treat those who submit [to Us] as [We treat] the sinners?, that is to say, as belonging with them in terms of reward?
Verse 36
What is wrong with you? How do you judge?, with such corrupt judgement?
Verse 37
Or (am lakum means a-lakum) do you have a Scripture, revealed, wherein you learn, [wherein] you read,
Verse 38
that you will indeed have in it whatever you choose?
Verse 39
Or do you have oaths, pledges, binding, secured, on Us until the Day of Resurrection (ilā yawmi’l-qiyāmati is semantically connected to ‘alaynā, ‘on Us’; these words [‘alaynā bālighatun, ‘binding on Us’] contain the sense of an oath [given], in other words, ‘Did We swear to you?’, the response to which is [what follows]) that you will indeed have whatever you decide?, to have for yourselves.
Verse 40
Ask them, which of them will aver, will guarantee for them, that?, [that] decision which they have made for themselves, namely, that they will be given better [reward] than the believers in the Hereafter?
Verse 41
Or do they have partners?, who agree with them in this claim of theirs and able to guarantee it for them; if that is the case: Then let them produce their partners, those who will guarantee this for them, if they are truthful.
Verse 42
Mention, the day when the shank is bared (an expression denoting the severity of the predicament during the reckoning and the requital on the Day of Resurrection: one says kashafati’l-harbu ‘an sāqin, ‘the war has bared its shank’, to mean that it has intensified) and they are summoned to prostrate themselves, as a test of their faith, but they will not be able [to do so] — their backs will become as [stiff as] a brick wall.
Verse 43
With humbled (khāshi‘atan is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the person [of the verb] yud‘awna, ‘they are summoned’) that is to say, with abject, gazes, which they do not raise, they will be overcast, enveloped, by abasement; for they had indeed been summoned, in this world, to prostrate themselves while they were yet sound, but they never used to do it, by the fact that they never performed prayer.
Verse 44
So leave Me [to deal] with those who deny this discourse — the Qur’ān. We will draw them on by degrees, We will seize them little by little, whence they do not know.
Verse 45
And I will grant them respite; [for] assuredly My devising is firm, [My devising is] severe and cannot be withstood.
Verse 46
Or are you asking them a fee, in return for delivering the Message, so that they are weighed down with debt?, [so that they are weighed down] with what they will [have to] give you, and that is why they do not believe.
Verse 47
Or do they possess [access to] the Unseen, that is, [access to] the Preserved Tablet which contains [knowledge of] the Unseen, so that they are writing down?, from it what they say.
Verse 48
So await patiently the judgement of your Lord, regarding them in the way that He wills, and do not be like the one of the whale, in terms of impatience and haste — this is Jonah, peace be upon him — who called out, [who] supplicated his Lord, choking with grief, filled with anguish inside the belly of the whale.
Verse 49
Had it not been for a grace, a mercy, from his Lord that reached him, he would have surely been cast, out of the belly of the whale, onto a wilderness, a desolate land, while he was blameworthy — but he was shown mercy and was therefore cast out blameless.
Verse 50
But his Lord chose him, for prophethood, and made him one of the righteous, the prophets.
Verse 51
Indeed those who disbelieve would almost throw you down [to the ground] (read la-yuzliqūnaka or la-yazliqūnaka) with their looks, looking at you in a severe way, almost hurling you to the ground or making you fall from your place, when they hear the Reminder, the Qur’ān, and they say, out of envy: ‘He is truly a madman!’, on account of the Qur’ān that he has brought.
Verse 52
Yet it, namely, the Qur’ān, is just a Reminder, an admonition, for all the worlds, of [both] humans and jinn, and cannot be the cause of any dementia.
Verse 1
The Reality, the Resurrection in which is realised [the truth of] all that was rejected in the way of the raising [from the graves], the reckoning and the requital, or [it means the Resurrection] which will manifest all of that.
Verse 2
What is the Reality? (ma’l-hāqqa: [an interrogative] to emphasise its enormity; this is the subject as well as the predicate of [the previous] al-hāqqa, ‘the Reality’).
Verse 3
And how would you know what the Reality is? ([repeated as] an extra emphasis of its enormity; the first mā [of the previous verse] is the subject, the second one, its predicate; the second mā and its predicate also function as the second direct object of [the verb] ‘knowing’).
Verse 4
Thamūd and ‘Ād denied the Clatterer, the Resurrection, because its terrors cause the hearts to clatter.
Verse 5
As for Thamūd, they were destroyed by the [overwhelming] Roar, an excessively severe cry.
Verse 6
And as for ‘Ād, they were destroyed by a deafening, intensely clamorous, violent wind, [that was] powerful and severe [in its assault] upon ‘Ād, despite their power and might.
Verse 7
He forced it upon them for seven nights and eight days, the first of which was the morning of Wednesday, eight days before the end of [the month of] Shawwāl, and this was at the height of winter, successively, one after the next (husūman: it [the action of the wind] is likened to the repeated actions of a hāsim, ‘one cauterizing a wound’, time and again until it [the blood] has been cut off, inhsama) so that you might have seen the people therein lying prostrate, lying dead on the ground, as if they were the hollow, collapsed, trunks of palm-trees.
Verse 8
So do you see any remnant of them? (min bāqiyatin: this is either the adjectival qualification of an implicit nafs, ‘soul’, or the [final suffixed] tā’ is for hyperbole, in other words [understand it as fa-hal tarā lahum] min bāqin, ‘any one remaining?’ No!).
Verse 9
And Pharaoh and those of his followers (man qibalahu: a variant reading has man qablahu, that is to say, those disbelieving communities who came before him) and the Deviant [cities], that is, their inhabitants — these being the cities of the people of Lot — brought iniquity, [they committed] deeds that were iniquitous.
Verse 10
Then they disobeyed the messenger of their Lord, namely, Lot and others, so He seized them with a devastating blow, one surpassing others in its severity.
Verse 11
Truly when the waters rose high, [when] they rose above all things including mountains and otherwise at the time of the Flood, We carried you, meaning, your forefathers, you being in their loins, in the sailing vessel, the ark which Noah built and by which he and those with him were saved while all the others drowned,
Verse 12
so that We might make it, namely, this act, the saving of the believers and the destruction of the disbelievers, a reminder, a lesson, for you and that receptive ears, [ears] which remember what they hear, might remember it.
Verse 13
Thus when the Trumpet is blown with a single blast, to [announce] the passing of judgement upon all creatures — this being the second [blast] —
Verse 14
and the earth and the mountains are lifted and levelled with a single levelling,
Verse 15
then, on that day, the [imminent] Event will come to pass, the Resurrection will take place,
Verse 16
and the heaven will be rent asunder — for it will be very frail on that day —
Verse 17
and the angels will be [all] over its borders, the edges of the heavens, and above them — the angels that have been mentioned — on that day eight, angels or [eight] files of them, will carry the Throne of your Lord.
Verse 18
On that day you will be exposed, before the Reckoning. No hidden thing of yours, in the way of secrets, will remain hidden (read [feminine person] takhfā or [masculine person] yakhfā).
Verse 19
As for him who is given his book in his right hand, he will say, addressing those around him, on account of the joy that has come to him: ‘Here, take [and], read my book! (kitābiyah: both hā’ūmu, ‘here [is]’, and iqra’ū, ‘read’, compete for [government of] this [direct object]).
Verse 20
I was truly certain that I would encounter my account’.
Verse 21
So he will enjoy a pleasant living,
Verse 22
in a lofty Garden,
Verse 23
whose clusters, whose fruits, are in easy reach, nearby, reached [easily] by one who may be standing, or sitting or reclining.
Verse 24
And so it will be said to them: ‘Eat and drink in enjoyment (hanī’an is a circumstantial qualifier, that is to say, mutahanni’īna, ‘while you are enjoying [them]’) for what you did in advance in former days’, [in days] that have passed during the [life of the] world.
Verse 25
But as for him who is given his book in his left hand, he will say, ‘O (yā is for calling attention [to something]) would that I had not been given my book,
Verse 26
and not known what my account were!
Verse 27
O would that it, namely, death in [the life of] this world, had been the [final] end, that had terminated my life, so that I am not resurrected.
Verse 28
My wealth has not availed me.
Verse 29
My authority, my strength, my argument, has gone from me’ (the [final] hā’ in kitābiyah, ‘my book’, hisābiyah, ‘my account’, and sultāniyah, ‘my authority’, is for [consonantal] quiescence; and it is retained [when reciting] with a pause as well as without a pause, in accordance with the authoritative [version of the] Qur’ānic text and the transmitted reports; some elide it when reciting without a pause).
Verse 30
‘Seize him — addressing the keepers of Hell — then fetter him, bind his hands to his necks in fetters,
Verse 31
then admit him into Hell-fire, into the scorching Fire,
Verse 32
then in a chain whose length is seventy cubits — [each cubit being] that of an angel’s forearm — insert him, after admitting him into the Fire (the fā’ [of fa’slukūhu] does not prevent the verb from being semantically connected to the preceding adverbial clause).
Verse 33
Lo! he never believed in God the Tremendous,
Verse 34
and never urged the feeding of the needy;
Verse 35
therefore here today he has no [loyal] friend, [no] relative to avail him,
Verse 36
nor any food except pus, the vile excretions of the inhabitants of the Fire — or it [ghislīn] may denote certain trees therein —
Verse 37
which none shall eat but the sinners’, the disbelievers.
Verse 38
So indeed (fa-lā: lā is extra) I swear by all that you see, of creatures,
Verse 39
and all that you do not see: of them, in other words, [I swear] by all creatures:
Verse 40
it, that is to say, the Qur’ān, is indeed the speech of a noble messenger, in other words, he has spoken it as a message from God, exalted be He.
Verse 41
And it is not the speech of a poet. Little do you believe!
Verse 42
Nor [is it] the speech of a soothsayer. Little do you remember! (read both verbs either in the second person plural or in the third person plural; the mā [preceding both verbs] is extra, intended for emphasis). The meaning is: they believed and remembered only very few things of what the Prophet (s) did, [things] such as [his] good acts, [his] kindness to kin and abstinence; yet this will be of no avail to them.
Verse 43
Rather, it is, a revelation from the Lord of the Worlds.
Verse 44
And had he, namely, the Prophet (s), fabricated any lies against Us, by communicating from Us that which We have not said,
Verse 45
We would have assuredly seized him, We would have exacted vengeance [against him], as punishment, by the Right Hand, by [Our] strength and power;
Verse 46
then We would have assuredly severed his life-artery, the aorta of the heart, a vein that connects with it, and which if severed results in that person’s death,
Verse 47
and not one of you (ahadin is the subject of mā, min being extra, used to emphasise the negation; minkum is a circumstantial qualifier referring to ahadin) could have defended him (hājizīna is the predicate of [the preceding] mā, and it is used in the plural because ahad, when employed in a negatory context, denotes a plural sense; the [suffixed] pronoun in ‘anhu refers to the Prophet), in other words, there is none to prevent Us from punishing him.
Verse 48
And assuredly it, that is, the Qur’ān, is a reminder for the God-fearing.
Verse 49
And assuredly We know that some of you, O people, are deniers, of the Qur’ān, and [some of you are] believers [in it].
Verse 50
And assuredly it, that is, the Qur’ān, is a [cause of] anguish for the disbelievers, when they see the reward of those who affirmed its truth and the punishment of those who denied it.
Verse 51
And assuredly it, that is, the Qur’ān, is the certain truth.
Verse 52
So glorify, exalt as transcendent, the Name (bi’smi: the bā’ [bi-] is extra) of your Lord, the Tremendous: glory be to Him.
Verse 1
A petitioner petitioned, a supplicator supplicated [for], an impending chastisement
Verse 2
— which in the case of the disbelievers none can avert: this was al-Nadr b. al-Hārith who said, ‘O God, if this be indeed the truth from You … [then rain down upon us stones from the heaven’ [Q. 8:32],
Verse 3
from God (mina’Llāhi is semantically connected to wāqi‘in, ‘impending’), Lord of the Ascensions, the ascension routes of the angels, which are the heavens.
Verse 4
To Him, to the place in the heaven to which His command descends, ascend (read [feminine person] ta‘ruju or [masculine person] ya‘ruju) the angels and the Spirit, Gabriel, in a day (fī yawmin is semantically connected to an omitted clause, that is to say, ‘[in a day] in which the chastisement befalls them’, on the Day of Resurrection) whose span is fifty thousand years, from the perspective of the disbeliever, on account of the calamities he will encounter in it — but as for the believer, it [the mentioned day] will be easier for him than an obligatory prayer which he performs in this world, as stated in hadīth.
Verse 5
So be patient — this was [revealed] before he [the Prophet] was commanded to fight — with a graceful patience, that is, one in which there is no anguish.
Verse 6
Lo! they see it, that is, the chastisement, as [being] far off, as never taking place;
Verse 7
while We see it [to be] near, taking place without a doubt.
Verse 8
The day when the heaven will be (yawma takūnu’l-samā’u is semantically connected to an omitted clause, implicitly taken to be yaqa‘u, ‘it will take place’) as molten silver,
Verse 9
and the mountains will be as flakes of wool, in terms of [their] lightness and [their] floating about in the wind.
Verse 10
And no friend will inquire about his friend, [no] relative [will inquire] about his relative, each being preoccupied with his own predicament.
Verse 11
They will [however] be made to see them, that is, friends will catch sight of one another, recognising one another but refraining from speaking [to one another] (the sentence [yubassarūnahum] is a new [independent] one). The guilty one will desire, the disbeliever will yearn, to ransom himself from the chastisement of that day (read [min ‘adhābi] yawmi’dhin or [min ‘adhābin] yawma’idhin) at the price of his children,
Verse 12
and his companion, his wife, and his brother,
Verse 13
and his kin, his clan ([expressed as fasīla] because he is a [detached] part [fasl] of it) that had sheltered him, embraced him,
Verse 14
and all who are on earth, if it, that ransom, might then deliver him (thumma yunjīhi is a supplement to yaftadī, ‘to ransom himself’).
Verse 15
Nay! — a refutation of his wish. Lo! [for him] it, namely, the Fire, will be the Churning Fire (lazā) — a name for Hell, [so called] because it churns its flames [tatalazzā] against the disbelievers,
Verse 16
ripping out the scalp (shawā is the plural of shawāt, the skin of the head);
Verse 17
it will call him who turned his back and ignored, faith, saying [to him]: ‘To me ! to me [come hither]!’,
Verse 18
and amassed, wealth, then hoarded, keeping it in containers and refraining from paying from it what is God’s due.
Verse 19
Indeed man was created restless: (halū‘an is an implied circumstantial qualifier, the explanation of which [follows]):
Verse 20
when evil befalls him, [he is] anxious, at the point of that evil befalling [him],
Verse 21
and when good befalls him, [he is] grudging, at the point of that good befalling [him], that is to say, [when] wealth [befalls him], [he is grudging to give] of it what is due to God;
Verse 22
except those who perform prayers, that is, the believers,
Verse 23
those who maintain, [those who] regularly observe, their prayers,
Verse 24
and in whose wealth there is an acknowledged due, namely, alms,
Verse 25
for the beggar and the deprived, the [latter being the] one who refrains from begging and thus becomes deprived,
Verse 26
and who affirm the truth of the Day of Judgement, [of] Requital,
Verse 27
and who are apprehensive of the chastisement of their Lord —
Verse 28
lo! there is no security from the chastisement of their Lord, [from] its being sent down —
Verse 29
and those who guard their private parts,
Verse 30
except from their wives and those whom their right hands own, in the way of slavegirls, for in that case they are not blameworthy;
Verse 31
but whoever seeks beyond that, those are the infringers, who transgress [the bounds of] what is lawful [stepping] into what is unlawful;
Verse 32
and those who are keepers, [faithful] guardians, of their trusts (amānātihim: a variant reading has the singular [amānatihim]), that to which they are entrusted of religion and the affairs of this world, and their covenant, the one taken from them regarding such things,
Verse 33
and who are forthwith with their testimony (bi-shahādatihim: a variant reading has the plural [bi-shahādātihim, ‘their testimonies’]), [those who] offer them and do not withhold them,
Verse 34
and who preserve their prayers, by observing them in their appointed times.
Verse 35
Those will be in Gardens, honoured.
Verse 36
So what is wrong with those who disbelieve that they keep staring towards you (muhti‘īna is a circumstantial qualifier),
Verse 37
to the right and to the left, of you, in droves? (‘izīna is also a circumstantial qualifier), in other words, in groups standing in circles, one next to the other, saying, in mockery of the believers, ‘Verily if [the likes of] these are to enter Paradise, we shall enter it before them’. God, exalted be He, says:
Verse 38
Does each one of them hope to be admitted into a Garden of Bliss?
Verse 39
Nay! — meant to thwart their hopes of [entering] Paradise. Indeed We created them, as others, from what they know, from drops of sperm, and so one cannot hope for Paradise [merely] on account of this: one hopes for it by being God-fearing.
Verse 40
For verily (fa-lā: lā is extra) I swear by the Lord of the rising-places and the setting-places, of the sun, the moon and all the stars, that We are able
Verse 41
to replace [them], to bring in their place, with [others] better than them, and We are not to be outmanoeuvred, [We will not be] frustrated in this.
Verse 42
So leave them to indulge, in their falsehoods, and to play, in this world of theirs, until they encounter that day of theirs, in, which they are promised, chastisement;
Verse 43
the day when they will come forth from the graves hastening, to the site of the Gathering, as if racing to a [standing] target (nasbin: a variant reading has nusubin, meaning something that has been erected [mansūb], such as a flag or a banner),
Verse 44
with their eyes humbled, abject, overcast by abasement, shrouded in it. Such is the day which they are promised (dhālika is the subject and what follows it is the predicate), meaning: the Day of Resurrection.
Verse 1
Verily We sent Noah to his people [saying]: ‘Warn your people before there come on them — should they not believe — a painful chastisement’, in this world and in the Hereafter.
Verse 2
He said, ‘O my people, I am indeed a plain warner to you, one whose warning is plain,
Verse 3
[to tell you] that [you should] worship God and fear Him and obey me,
Verse 4
that He may forgive you some of your sins (min dhunūbikum, ‘some of your sins’: min may be taken as extra, because submission to God (islām) expunges everything [of sin that was committed] previous to it; or it [min] may be understood as partitive, to point out that which is due to [those who were already God’s] servants) and defer you, without chastising [you], until an appointed term, the term for death. Indeed when God’s term, for your chastisement — should you not believe — comes, it cannot be deferred, if only you knew’, this, you would believe.
Verse 5
He said, ‘My Lord, I have summoned my people night and day, that is to say, continuously without interruption,
Verse 6
but my summon has only increased their evasion, of faith.
Verse 7
And indeed whenever I summoned them, so that You might forgive them, they put their fingers in their ears, in order not to hear what I say, and draw their cloaks over themselves, they cover their heads with them in order not to catch sight of me, and they persist, in their disbelief, and act in great arrogance, disdaining faith.
Verse 8
Then indeed I summoned them aloud, that is to say, at the top of my voice;
Verse 9
then assuredly I proclaimed to them, with my voice, and I confided, my words, to them secretly,
Verse 10
saying, “Ask your Lord for forgiveness, from idolatry. Assuredly He is ever Forgiving.
Verse 11
He will release the heaven, the rain — for they had been deprived of it — for you in torrents, in plenteous showers,
Verse 12
and furnish you with wealth and sons, and assign to you gardens, orchards, and assign to you, running, rivers.
Verse 13
What is wrong with you that you do not hope for dignity from God, that is to say, [that] you [do not] hope that God will dignify you by becoming believers,
Verse 14
when verily He created you in stages? (atwār is the plural of tūr, which means a state). Thus the sperm-drop is one state, the blood clot is another state, and so on, until the creation of the human being is complete: reflecting on [the manner of] his creation necessarily leads to belief in his Creator.
Verse 15
Have you not seen how God created seven heavens in layers, one on top of the other,
Verse 16
and made the moon therein — that is to say, within their totality, [but] which is [effectively] true in the case of the heaven of this world — as a light and made the sun as a lamp?, as an illuminating lantern, more powerful than the light of the moon.
Verse 17
And God has caused you to grow, He has created you, from the earth, for He created your father Adam from it.
Verse 18
Then He will make you return into it, entombed [in your graves], and bring you forth, for the resurrection, [with a veritable bringing forth].
Verse 19
And God has made the earth a flat [open] expanse for you,
Verse 20
so that you may follow throughout it spacious routes.” ’
Verse 21
Noah said, ‘My Lord, they have disobeyed me and followed, that is, the riffraff and the paupers [among them have followed], those whose wealth and children, namely, their leaders who have been blessed with such things (read wulduhu or waladuhu, ‘whose children’, the first of which is said to be the plural of walad, similar [in pattern] to khasab, khushb, or in fact [it is said to be] of the same meaning [as walad, but an alternative form] as in the case of bukhl or bakhal, ‘niggardliness’), only add to their loss, [to] their insolence and disbelief.
Verse 22
And they have devised, namely, the leaders, a mighty plot, extremely outrageous, by denying Noah and harming him as well as his followers,
Verse 23
and have said, to the riffraff: “Do not abandon your gods, and do not abandon Wadd (read Wadd or Wudd) nor Suwā‘, nor Yaghūth and Ya‘ūq and Nasr” — these being the names of their idols.
Verse 24
And they have certainly led astray, by these [gods], many, people, by commanding them to worship them. And do not [O God] increase the evildoers except in error!’ (wa-lā tazidi’l-zālimīna illā dalālan is a supplement to qad adallū, ‘they have certainly led astray’): He [Noah] invoked God against them when it was revealed to him that, ‘None of your people will believe except he who has already believed’ [Q. 11:36].
Verse 25
Because of (mimmā: mā indicates a relative clause) their iniquities (khatāyāhum: a variant reading has khatī’ātihim) they were drowned, by the Flood, then made to enter the Fire, with which they were punished underwater after drowning. And they did not find for themselves besides, that is to say, other than, God any helpers, to protect them against the chastisement.
Verse 26
And Noah said, ‘My Lord, do not leave from among the disbelievers a single dweller upon the earth (dayyār means ‘one who inhabits a dwelling [dār]’), in other words, not one.
Verse 27
Assuredly if You leave them, they will lead Your servants astray, and will beget only disbelieving profligates (fājir and kaffār derive [respectively] from yafjuru and yakfuru): he said this on account of the mentioned revelation that had been given to him.
Verse 28
My Lord, forgive me and my parents — both of whom were believers — and whoever enters my house, my dwelling or my place of worship, as a believer, and believing men and believing women, to the Day of Resurrection, and do not increase the evildoers except in ruin’, in destruction — and thus they were destroyed.