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.
Verse 1
Say, O Muhammad (s), to people: ‘It has been revealed to me, that is to say, I have been informed by way of revelation from God, exalted be He, that (annahu: the [suffixed] pronoun is that of the matter) a company of the jinn, the jinn of Nasībīn. This was at the time of the morning prayer at Batn Nakhla, a location between Mecca and Tā’if — these [jinn] being those mentioned in God’s saying, And when We sent a company of jinn your way…’ [Q. 46:29] — listened, to my recitation, then said, to their people upon returning to them: “We have indeed heard a marvellous Qur’ān, whose clarity, the richness of its meanings and other aspects one marvels at,
Verse 2
which guides to rectitude, to faith and propriety. Therefore we believe in it and we will never, after this day, associate anyone with our Lord.
Verse 3
And [we believe] that (annahu: the pronoun in this and in the next two instances is that of the matter) — exalted be the majesty of our Lord, transcendent is His majesty and magnificence above what is ascribed to Him — He has taken neither spouse nor son.
Verse 4
And that the fool among us, the ignorant one among us, used to utter atrocious lies against God, extreme calumny by attributing to Him a spouse and a son.
Verse 5
And we thought that (an: softened, that is to say, annahu) humans and jinn would never utter a lie against God, by attributing such things to Him, until we discovered their mendacity thereby. God, exalted be He, says:
Verse 6
And that certain individuals of mankind used to seek the protection of certain individuals of the jinn, when they stopped over in dangerous places during their journeys — whereat every man would say, ‘I seek the protection of the lord of this place against the evil of the insolent ones in it’ — so that they increased them, by their seeking their protection, in oppressiveness, such that they would say, ‘We are now lords of jinn and humans!’.
Verse 7
And they, namely, the jinn, thought just as you, O humans, thought, that (an: softened in place of the hardened form, that is to say, annahu) God would never raise anyone, after his death.
Verse 8
The jinn say: And we made for the heaven, we desired to listen by stealth, but we found it filled with mighty guards, from among the angels, and meteors, scorching stars: this was at the time of the sending of the Prophet (s).
Verse 9
And we used to, that is to say, before his Mission, sit in [certain] places therein to listen in; but anyone listening now will find a meteor lying in wait for him, aimed at him, ready to strike him.
Verse 10
And we do not know, by not being able to eavesdrop by stealth, whether ill is intended for those who are in the earth, or whether their Lord intends for them good.
Verse 11
And that among us some have become righteous, after having listened to the Qur’ān, and some of us are otherwise, that is to say, a folk who are unrighteous; we are [made up of] different sects, opposing groups, [some] submitters to God and [others] disbelievers.
Verse 12
And we assume that (an: softened in place of the hardened form, that is to say, annahu) we will never be able to elude God in the earth, nor will we be able to elude Him by fleeing — we will not be able to escape Him, whether we are on earth or, fleeing from it, in the heavens.
Verse 13
And that when we heard the guidance, the Qur’ān, we believed in it. For whoever believes in his Lord (read an implied huwa, ‘he’, [before fa-lā yakhāfu]) shall fear neither loss, a diminishing of his good deeds, nor oppression, [nor] injustice, by having his evil deeds increased.
Verse 14
And that among us some have submitted [to God], while some of us are unjust, tyrants — on account of their disbelief. So whoever has submitted [to God], those are the ones who seek right guidance.
Verse 15
And as for those are unjust, they will be firewood, fuel, for Hell!” ’ (annā, annahum, and annahu totalling all twelve instances [above], including innahu ta‘ālā and annā minnā’l-muslimūna and what comes in between them may be read with a kasra [sc. innā, innahum etc.] indicating a new sentence [every time], or with a fatha [sc. annā, annahum etc.] indicating the statement that will follow [as a relative clause]).
Verse 16
God, exalted be He, says [the following] about the Meccan disbelievers: And [it has been revealed to me] that if they (allaw: softened in place of the hardened form, its subject having been omitted, that is to say, annahum [law], which is a supplement to annahu istama‘a, ‘that [a company of jinn] listened’) adopt the [right] path, the path of submission [to God], We will give them abundant water to drink, plenteous [water], from the heaven — this was after rain had been withheld from them for seven years —
Verse 17
so that We may try them, test them, therein, and so know, through knowledge outwardly manifested, the nature of their gratitude. And whoever turns away from the remembrance of his Lord, [from] the Qur’ān, We will admit him (naslukhu, or read [first person] yaslukhu, ‘He will admit him’) into a tortuous chastisement.
Verse 18
And [it has been revealed to me] that the places of prayer belong to God, so do not invoke, in them, anyone along with God, by associating others with Him, like the Jews and Christians do, who, when they enter their churches and temples, they ascribe partners to God.
Verse 19
And that (annahu; or innahu as a new sentence, the pronoun being that of the matter) when the servant of God, the Prophet Muhammad (s), rose to invoke Him, to worship Him, at Batn Nakhla, they, that is, the jinn listening to his recitation, were almost upon him in heaps (libadan or lubadan, the plural of libda [or lubda], like felt in the way they were heaped on top of one another, crowding in their eagerness to listen to the Qur’ān).
Verse 20
He said, in response to the disbelievers saying, ‘Abandon this affair of yours!’ (a variant reading [for qāla, ‘he said’], has qul, ‘Say:’) ‘I invoke only my Lord, as God, and I do not associate anyone with Him’.
Verse 21
Say: ‘I truly have no power to bring you any harm, to lead [you] astray, or any guidance’, any good.
Verse 22
Say: ‘Indeed none shall protect me from God, from His chastisement, were I to disobey Him, and I shall never find besides Him, that is, other than Him, any refuge.
Verse 23
[I have power to bring you] only a communication (illā balāghan is excepted from the direct object clause of amliku, ‘I have power [to bring]’, that is to say, I have power only to communicate [the Message] to you, from God, that is, on His behalf, and His Messages (wa-risālātihi is a supplement to balāghan, ‘a communication’; what comes between the excepted clause and the clause from which it is excepted is a parenthetical statement intended to emphasise the preclusion of [the Prophet’s] ‘ability [to bring them anything else]’). And whoever disobeys God and His Messenger, concerning the affirmation of [His] Oneness, and hence does not believe — indeed there will be for him the fire of Hell, abiding (khālidīna is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the person indicated by man, ‘whoever’, in lahu, ‘for him’, taking into account its [plural] import; it [khālidīna] is also an implied circumstantial qualifier, in other words, they shall enter it with their abiding having been preordained) therein forever’.
Verse 24
Such that when they see (hattā is for inceptiveness, [but] also entailing a purposive sense to an implied preceding clause, that is to say, they persist in their disbelief until they come to see …) what they are promised, of chastisement, they will then know, at the moment that it befalls them, [either] on the day of Badr or on the Day of Resurrection, who is weaker in supporters and fewer in numbers, in assistants: is it them or the believers — according to the former [reading]? Or, is it Me or them, according to the latter. Some of them said, ‘When will this promise be [fulfilled]?’, whereupon the following was revealed:
Verse 25
Say: ‘I do not know if what you are promised, of chastisement, is near, or if my Lord has set a [distant] length for it, an extent and a term which only He knows.
Verse 26
Knower [He is] of the Unseen, what is hidden from servants, and He does not disclose, He [does not] reveal, His Unseen to anyone, from mankind,
Verse 27
except to a messenger of whom He approves. Then, in addition to disclosing to him what He will [to disclose] of it, by way of [making it] a miracle for him, He despatches, He appoints and sends forth, before him, namely, the Messenger, and behind him watchers, angels to preserve him until He has conveyed [it] to him as part of the [entire] revelation,
Verse 28
so that He, God, may know, by knowledge outwardly manifested, that (an: softened in place of the hardened form, that is to say, annahu) they, that is, the messengers, have conveyed the Messages of their Lord (the plural person [of the verb ablaghū, ‘they have conveyed’] takes into account [the plural] implication of man, ‘whom’), and He encompasses all that is with them (wa-ahāta bimā ladayhim is a supplement to an implied clause, that is to say: so He has knowledge of that) and keeps count of all things’ (‘adadan, ‘count’, is for specification; it is transformed from a direct object [sc. ‘adada], originally: ahsā ‘adada kulli shay’in, ‘He keeps count of all things’).
Verse 1
O you enwrapped in your garment!, the Prophet (al-muzzammil is actually al-mutazammil, but the tā’ has been assimilated with the zāy), that is to say, the one who wraps himself up in his clothes when the Revelation [Gabriel] comes to him, in fear of him because of his awe-inspiring presence.
Verse 2
Stand vigil, perform prayer, through the night, except a little,
Verse 3
a half of it (nisfahu substitutes for qalīlan, with ‘little’ [being little by] taking into account the whole [night]), or reduce of it, of the half, a little, up to a third,
Verse 4
or add to it, up to two thirds (aw implies [free] choice), and recite the Qur’ān, recite it carefully, in a measured tone.
Verse 5
Verily [soon] We shall cast on you a weighty, an awe-inspiring or stern, word, [a weighty] Qur’ān, because of the prescriptions [imposed] in it.
Verse 6
Assuredly rising in the night, to wake up after [having been in] sleep, is firmer in tread, [more] conducive to [establishing] harmony between the hearing and the heart for the purpose of comprehending the Qur’ān, and more upright in respect to speech, clearer for utterance [of devotions].
Verse 7
[For] assuredly during the day you have extended engagements, administering your affairs, and you do not have the time to recite Qur’ān.
Verse 8
And mention the Name of your Lord, that is, say, bi’smi’Llāhi’l-rahmāni’l-rahīm, ‘In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful’, to begin your recitation, and devote yourself [exclusively] to Him with complete devotion (tabtīlan is the verbal noun from batala, used here [instead of tabattulan] in order to concord with the end-rhyme of the verses) for he [the Prophet] is obliged to devote himself to God.
Verse 9
He is, Lord of the east and the west; there is no god except Him, so take Him for a Guardian, entrusting your affairs to Him,
Verse 10
and bear patiently what they say, that is, the disbelievers of Mecca, in the way of their maltreatment [of you], and part with them in a gracious manner, without any anguish — this was [revealed] before the command to fight them.
Verse 11
And leave Me [to deal] with the deniers (wa’l-mukadhdhibīna is a supplement to the direct object, or [it is] an object of accompaniment; the meaning is: ‘I will avail you of them’, they being the doughty [leaders] of Quraysh), those enjoying affluence, and respite them a little, while — they were killed soon afterwards at Badr.
Verse 12
[For] indeed with Us are heavy fetters (ankāl is the plural of nikl), heavy shackles, and a hell-fire, a scorching Fire,
Verse 13
and a food that chokes, one that causes the throat to choke, and this is [either] zaqqūm [cf. Q. 44:43], darī‘ [cf. Q. 88:6], ghislīn [cf. Q. 69:36] or thorns of fire, which can neither be vomited nor ingested, and a painful chastisement, in addition to the [punishment] mentioned, for those who deny the Prophet (s),
Verse 14
on the day when the earth and the mountains will quake and the mountains will be like heaps of shifting sand (mahīl derives from hāla, yahīlu; it is actually mahyūl, but the damma sound is considered too heavy for the yā’ and is therefore transposed onto the hā’, while the wāw, the second of two unvocalised consonants, is omitted on account of it being extra, and the damma is replaced by a kasra because of its [phonetic] affinity the [letter] yā’).
Verse 15
We have indeed sent to you, O people of Mecca, a Messenger, namely, Muhammad (s), to be a witness against you, on the Day of Resurrection to any disobedience that you engage in, just as We sent to Pharaoh a messenger, namely, Moses, peace be upon him.
Verse 16
But Pharaoh disobeyed the messenger, so We seized him with a severe seizing.
Verse 17
So, if you disbelieve, in this world, how will you guard against a day (yawman is the direct object of tattaqūna, ‘you guard against’) that is, against the chastisement thereof, by what defence will you defend yourselves against the chastisement of a day, that will make the children grey-haired (shīb is the plural of ashyab) by the severity of its terrors, this being the Day of Resurrection (the shīn of shīb should actually have a damma, but it is given a kasra because of its [phonetic] affinity with the yā’) — a distressing day is described as being ‘a day that makes the forelocks of children turn grey’, which is [usually] understood figuratively; but it may be that in the case of this verse it is meant literally —
Verse 18
with the heaven being rent asunder thereon, on that Day, because of its severity. His promise, exalted be He, of the coming of that [Day], shall be fulfilled, that is to say, it will come to pass without doubt.
Verse 19
Indeed these, threatening verses, are a reminder, an admonition for all creatures. Let him who will, then, choose a way to his Lord, a path [to Him], through faith and obedience.
Verse 20
Assuredly your Lord knows that you stand vigil less than two thirds of the night, or [at times] a half of it or a third of it (if read wa-nisfihi wa-thuluthihi, then these constitute a supplement to thuluthay, ‘two thirds’; if read wa-nisfahu wa-thuluthahu, then a supplement to adnā, ‘less than’) — his keeping vigil in the way mentioned is in accordance with what was enjoined on him at the beginning of this sūra — along with a group of those with you (wa-tā’ifatun mina’lladhīna ma‘aka constitutes a supplement to the subject [of the verb] taqūmu, ‘you stand vigil’, but it may also constitute, although it is not certain, a separating clause). The keeping vigil by some of his companions in this way indicates their emulation of him. Some of them could not tell how much of the night they had spent in prayer and how much of it had remained, and would therefore keep vigil all night as a precaution; and so they used to keep vigil [in this way] for a whole year or more with their feet swollen, until God alleviated matters for them. He, exalted be He, says: and God keeps measures, He keeps count of, the night and the day. He knows that (an: softened in place of the hardened form, its subject having been omitted, that is to say, annahu) you will not be able to keep count of it, that is, the [length of the] night, so that you may perform the vigil at the time in which it is required unless you stay up all night, which is hard on you, and so He has relented to you, making you revert to what is easier. So recite as much as is feasible of the Qur’ān, during prayer, by performing as much prayer as is feasible. He knows that (an: softened in place of the hardened form, that is to say, annahu) some of you will be sick, while others will be travelling in the land, seeking the bounty of God, seeking of His provision through commerce and otherwise, and others will be fighting in the way of God: for each of the three groups mentioned the keeping of nightly vigil is hard, and so God has alleviated things for them by [enjoining on them] what is feasible. Later this was abrogated by the five [daily] prayers. So recite as much as is feasible of it (as [explained] above) and perform, obligatory, prayer and pay alms and lend God, by expending in the way of good in addition to what is due from your wealth [as alms], a goodly loan, out of the goodness of [your] hearts. For whatever good you send ahead for [the sake of] your souls, you will find that, with God, it will be better, than what you left behind (huwa khayran: huwa is for separation; what follows it [khayran, ‘better’] is comparable to a definite, even if it is not [actually] so, on account of the impossibility of it being given [the al- of] definition) and greater in terms of reward. And seek forgiveness from God; assuredly God is Forgiving, Merciful, to believers.
Verse 1
O you enveloped in your mantle, the Prophet (s) (al-muddaththir is actually al-mutadaththir, but the tā’ has been assimilated with the dāl) that is to say, the one who is enwrapped in his clothes when the Revelation [Gabriel] comes down on him,
Verse 2
arise and warn: threaten the people of Mecca with [punishment in] the Fire should they refuse to believe;
Verse 3
and magnify your Lord, exalt [Him] above what is ascribed [to Him] by the idolaters;
Verse 4
and purify your clothes, from impurity, or [it means] shorten them, instead of [imitating] the way in which the Arabs [are wont to] let their robes drag [behind them], out of vanity, for perhaps they will be sullied by some impurity;
Verse 5
and shun [all] defilement, [this rijz] was explained by the Prophet (s) to be the graven images; in other words, persist in shunning them.
Verse 6
And do not grant a favour seeking greater gain (read tastakthiru as a circumstantial qualifier) in other words, do not give something in order to demand more in return: this [stipulation] is specific to the Prophet (s), since he is enjoined to [adopt] the fairest traits and the noblest of manners;
Verse 7
and endure patiently for the sake of your Lord, [all His] commands and prohibitions.
Verse 8
For when the trumpet is sounded, when the trumpet is blown, that is, the Horn (qarn), at the second blast,
Verse 9
that day, that is to say, the time of the sounding (yawma’idhin is a substitution for the preceding subject, and is not declined because it is annexed to something that cannot be declined; the predicate of the subject [is the following]) will be a harsh day (idhā is operated by what is indicated by the statement: ishtadda’l-amru, ‘[for when the trumpet is sounded] the situation will be terrible’),
Verse 10
for the disbelievers, not at all easy: herein is an indication that it will be easy for believers despite its harshness.
Verse 11
Leave Me [to deal] with him whom I created (wa-man khalaqtu is a supplement to the direct object, or [it is] an object of accompaniment) lonely (wahīdan is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the man, ‘whom’, or to the pronoun referring to it but omitted from khalaqtu [sc. khalaqtuhu]), alone, without family or wealth — this was al-Walīd b. al-Mughīra al-Makhzūmī —
Verse 12
and [then] assigned him ample means, abundant and continuous, [generated] from [his] crops, livestock and commerce,
Verse 13
and sons, ten or more, present [by his side], present at social gatherings and whose testimonies are listened to,
Verse 14
and facilitated, extended, for him greatly, [his] livelihood, duration of life and children.
Verse 15
Still he is eager that I should give [him] more.
Verse 16
Nay!, I shall not give him more than that. He is indeed stubborn to Our signs, [to] the Qur’ān.
Verse 17
[Soon] I shall burden him with a trying chastisement; alternatively [sa‘ūdan means] a mountain of fire which he will be made to ascend and then fall down from, forever.
Verse 18
Indeed he pondered, what to say about the Qur’ān which he heard from the Prophet (s), and decided, this, in his mind.
Verse 19
Perish he, may he be cursed and chastised, how he decided!, [perish he] whatever the nature of his decision may have been.
Verse 20
Again, perish he, how he decided!
Verse 21
Then he contemplated, the faces of his people; or [he contemplated] with what [words] he might cast aspersions upon it.
Verse 22
Then he frowned, he contracted his face and glowered, anguished by what he wanted to say, and scowled, increasing the contracting and the glowering [in his face].
Verse 23
Then he turned his back, to faith, in disdain, scornful of following the Prophet (s),
Verse 24
and said, of what he [the Prophet] had brought: ‘This is nothing but handed-down sorcery, learnt from sorcerers;
Verse 25
this is nothing but the speech of humans’, similar to what they [the idolaters] had said: ‘It is only a human that is teaching him’ [Q. 16:103].
Verse 26
I shall [soon] admit him into Saqar! — Hell.
Verse 27
And how would you know what is Saqar? — this [interrogative] is intended to emphasise its enormity.
Verse 28
It neither spares nor leaves behind, anything of flesh or nerve, but destroys it [all], after which he is restored to his former state.
Verse 29
It burns away the flesh, scorching the surface of skin.
Verse 30
There are nineteen [keepers] standing over it, angels, its keepers; a certain disbeliever, who was a mighty stalwart, said, ‘I will avail you seventeen of them, if you avail me [just] two’. God, exalted be He, says:
Verse 31
And We have appointed only angels as wardens of the Fire, in other words, and so they cannot be withstood as these [disbelievers are wont to] imagine; and We have made their number, so, only as a stumbling-block, a cause for error, for those who disbelieve, when they then say, ‘Why are there nineteen of them?’, so that those who were given the Scripture, namely, the Jews, may be certain, of the sincerity of the Prophet (s) in [saying that] they are nineteen, for this concords with what is in their Scripture; and that those who believe, from among the People of the Scripture, may increase in faith, in affirmation of the truth, given that what the Prophet (s) has said concords with what is in their Scripture, and that those given the Scripture and the believers, [those] other than these [Jews], may not be in doubt, concerning the number of [these] angels, and that those in whose hearts there is a sickness, an uncertainty, [those] in Medina, and the disbelievers, in Mecca, may say, ‘What did God mean by this, number [as a], similitude?’ (mathalan: they referred to it thus [as a mathal] on account of it being a curious matter; in terms of syntax, it [mathalan] is a circumstantial qualifier). Thus, that is, just as the one who rejects this number is led astray and the one who affirms the truth of it is guided, God leads astray whom He will and guides whom He will. And none knows the hosts of your Lord, namely, the angels, [none knows them] in terms of their strength and their assistants, except Him. And it, that is, Saqar, is nothing but a reminder for humans.
Verse 32
Nay, (kallā: denoting a commencement [of a new sentence], to be understood as alā) by the moon!
Verse 33
And by the night when it returns! (if read as idhā dabara), when it comes back after day (a variant reading has idh adbara, meaning ‘when it has receded’).
Verse 34
And by the dawn when it appears!
Verse 35
Verily it, that is, Saqar, is one of the enormities, [one of] the greatest calamities —
Verse 36
a warning (nadhīran is a circumstantial qualifier referring to ihdā, ‘one of’, and it is masculine because it denotes [masculine] ‘adhāb, ‘chastisement’) to [all] humans;
Verse 37
[alike] to those of you who wish (li-man shā’a minkum is a substitution for li’l-bashar, ‘to [all] humans’) to advance, towards good, or towards Paradise by means of faith, or linger behind, in evil, or in Hell because of [their] disbelief.
Verse 38
Every soul is held to ransom by what it earns, [it is] ransomed and requited for its deeds with the Fire,
Verse 39
except those of the right [hand], namely, the believers who will be saved from it, and [who] will be,
Verse 40
in gardens, questioning one another,
Verse 41
about the guilty, and their predicament; and they will say to them, after all those who believed in the One God (muwahhidūn) are brought out of the Fire:
Verse 42
‘What has landed you in, [what has] made you enter, Saqar?’
Verse 43
They will say, ‘We were not of those who prayed.
Verse 44
Nor did we [ever] feed the needy.
Verse 45
And we used to delve, into falsehood, along with those who delved,
Verse 46
and we used to deny the Day of Judgement, [the Day] of Resurrection and Requital,
Verse 47
until [finally] the inevitable came to us’ — death.
Verse 48
Thus the intercession of the intercessors, from among the angels, the prophets and the righteous, will not avail them, in other words, there will be no intercession for them.
Verse 49
So what (fa-mā: the subject) is wrong with them (lahum: the predicate thereof, semantically connected to an omitted clause, the person of which has been transposed onto it) that they turn away (mu‘ridīna is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the [suffixed] pronoun [in lahum, ‘them’]) from the Reminder — in other words, ‘what has happened to them that they have turned away from admonition’ —
Verse 50
as if they were wild asses
Verse 51
fleeing from a lion?, that is to say, fleeing from it with absolute fright.
Verse 52
Nay, but everyone of them desires to be given unrolled scrolls, from God, exalted be He, [enjoining them] to follow the Prophet (s), as they said [before], ‘And [even then] we will not believe your ascension until you bring down for us a book that we may read’ [Q. 17:93].
Verse 53
No indeed! (kallā: a deterrent of what they desire). Rather they do not fear the Hereafter, that is, the chastisement thereof.
Verse 54
No indeed! (kallā: a commencement [of a new sentence]) Assuredly it, that is, the Qur’ān, is a Reminder, an admonition.
Verse 55
So whoever wills shall remember it, he shall read it and be admonished by it.
Verse 56
And they will not remember (yadhkurūna or [read second person plural] tadhkurūna) unless God wills [it]. He is [the One] worthy of [your] fear, and [the One] worthy to forgive, by forgiving those who fear Him.
Verse 1
Nay! (the lā is extra in both instances) I swear by the Day of Resurrection.
Verse 2
And, nay, I swear by the (self-)reproaching soul, the one that reproaches itself, even if it should expend great effort in being virtuous (the response to the oath has been omitted, that is to say, la-tub‘athunna, ‘you shall indeed be resurrected!’, as indicated by [what follows]):
Verse 3
Does man, that is, [does] the disbeliever, suppose that We shall not assemble his bones?, for the raising [from the graves] and [for] the bringing back to life.
Verse 4
Yes, indeed!, We shall assemble them. We are able, in addition to assembling them, to reshape [even] his fingers, that is to say, to restore their bones just as they had been, despite their smallness: so how much more so [are We able to restore] the larger ones!
Verse 5
Nay, but man desires to deny (li-yafjura: the lām is extra, and the subjunctive mood is because of an implied [preceding] an, ‘that’) what lies ahead of him, namely, the Day of Resurrection, as is indicated by:
Verse 6
He asks, ‘When is the Day of Resurrection?’ — the question is meant in mockery and denial.
Verse 7
But when the eyes are dazzled (read bariqa or baraqa), startled and perplexed upon seeing some of those things which it used to deny;
Verse 8
and the moon is eclipsed, darkening, its light disappearing,
Verse 9
and the sun and the moon are brought together, so that both of them will rise from the west; or [it means when] the light of both of them disappears — and this will be on the Day of Resurrection —
Verse 10
on that day man will say, ‘Where is the escape?’
Verse 11
No indeed! — a deterrent against seeking to escape — There is no refuge, no shelter to seek protection in.
Verse 12
On that day the recourse will be to your Lord, the [final] recourse of all creatures, whereupon they will be reckoned with and requited.
Verse 13
On that day man will be informed of what he has sent ahead and left behind, [he will be informed] of the his first and last deeds.
Verse 14
Rather man has insight into his [own] soul, for his limbs will speak of his deeds (the hā’ [sc. the tā’ marbūta in basīratun] is for hyperbole), and so he must be requited,
Verse 15
though he should offer his excuses (ma‘ādhīr is the plural of ma‘dhira, but following a different pattern [from the usual ma‘dhira, ma‘ādhir]) that is to say, whatever excuse he offers will not be accepted from him.
Verse 16
God, exalted be He, says to His Prophet: Do not move your tongue with it, with the Qur’ān, before Gabriel is through with [reciting] it, to hasten it, fearing to lose it.
Verse 17
Assuredly it is for Us to bring it together, in your breast, and to recite it, your reciting of it, that is, its flowing off your tongue.
Verse 18
So, when We recite it, to you, by means of Gabriel’s recital, follow its recitation, listen to its recitation: thus the Prophet (s) would listen to it and then repeat it.
Verse 19
Then, it is for Us to explain it, by making you comprehend [it]: the connection between this verse and what preceded [it] is that those [verses before] imply turning away from God’s signs, whereas this one implies applying oneself to them by memorising them.
Verse 20
No indeed! (kallā is for commencement, with the sense of alā) Rather you love the transitory [life], this world (both verbs [here and below] may be read in the second or third person plural),
Verse 21
and forsake the Hereafter, thus neglecting to work towards [attaining bliss in] it.
Verse 22
Some faces on that day, that is, on the Day of Resurrection, will be radiant, fair and resplendent,
Verse 23
looking upon their Lord, in other words, they will see God, glorified and exalted be He, in the Hereafter.
Verse 24
And other faces on that day will be scowling, glowering, frowning terribly,
Verse 25
certain that a spine-crushing calamity will fall on them, a great catastrophe, one that ‘crushes the spine’ (fiqār).
Verse 26
No indeed! (kallā: in the sense of alā) When it, the soul, reaches up to the collar bones,
Verse 27
and it is said, [and] those around him [the dying one] say: ‘Where is the enchanter?’, to perform incantations on him and cure him,
Verse 28
and he suspects, [he] the one whose soul has reached this [stage], that it is the [time of] parting, the parting with this world,
Verse 29
and the shank is intertwined with the [other] shank, that is, one of his shanks [will be intertwined] with his other shank at the moment of death; or [it means] the distress of parting with this world is intertwined with the distress of the arrival of the Hereafter;
Verse 30
on that day to your Lord will be the driving [of the souls] (al-masāq means al-sawq; this indicates the operator of the [above] idhā, ‘when’, the meaning being: ‘when the soul reaches the throat, it will be driven towards the judgement of its Lord’).
Verse 31
For he, man, neither affirmed [the truth] nor prayed,
Verse 32
but he denied, the Qur’ān, and he turned away, from faith,
Verse 33
then went off to his family swaggering, strutting about in self-conceit.
Verse 34
[Woe be] nearer to you (there is a shift from the third [to the second] person address here; the term [awlā] is a noun of action, with the [following] lām being explicative, in other words, ‘what you are averse to is [now] near to you’) and nearer, that is because you are more deserving of it [woe] than anyone else,
Verse 35
then [may woe be] nearer to you and nearer! — [repeated] for emphasis.
Verse 36
Does man suppose that he is to be left aimless?, left to his own devices without being obligated to the [prescribed] laws: let him not suppose that!
Verse 37
Was he not — that is, [indeed] he was — a drop of emitted semen? (read yumnā or tumnā) deposited into the womb.
Verse 38
Then it, the drop of semen, became a clot; then He, God, created, from it man, and proportioned [him], making the parts of his body upright,
Verse 39
and made of it, of the drop of semen that became a blood-clot, then an embryo, a [small] mass of flesh, the two sexes, the two kinds, the male and the female, at times coming together and at times each being on their own.
Verse 40
Is not such, a Doer of [all] these things, able to revive the dead? — the Prophet (s) would say, ‘Yes, indeed!’
Verse 1
Has there [ever] been — there has indeed [been] — for man, Adam, a period of time, forty years, in which he was a thing unmentioned? — he was during this [period] a fashioned in clay and not mentioned; alternatively what is meant by insān, ‘man’, is the generic noun and by hīn, ‘a period of time’, the period of gestation.
Verse 2
Verily We created man, the species, from a drop of mixed fluid, [from] a mixture, that is from the [seminal] fluid of the man and the [ovarian] fluid of the woman that have mixed and blended, so that We may test him, trying him with the moral obligations [of religion] (nabtalīhi is either a new sentence [‘We will test him’], or an implied circumstantial qualifier, meaning ‘intending to test him when he is ready’). So We made him, for that [very] reason, hearing, seeing.
Verse 3
Verily We have guided him to the way, We have pointed out to him the path of guidance by sending messengers [to mankind], whether he be grateful, that is to say, [whether he be] a believer, or ungrateful (both [shākiran and kafūran] are circumstantial qualifiers referring to the direct object; in other words, We have pointed out to him in both presupposed states, whether his gratefulness or his unthankfulness; immā is used to list the ‘states’).
Verse 4
We have assuredly prepared for the disbelievers chains, with which they are dragged through the Fire, and fetters, around their necks to which the chains will be attached, and a hell-fire, a fire set ablaze, burning fiercely, in which they shall be chastised.
Verse 5
Truly the righteous (abrār is the plural of barr or bārr), namely, the obedient ones, will drink from a cup (ka’s is a vessel for drinking wine and this [wine] will be in it; what is meant is [that they will drink] from ‘wine’, [a case where] the actuality is referred to by the name of the locus [in which it is found]; min, ‘from, is partitive) whose mixture, that with which it is mixed, is camphor;
Verse 6
a spring (‘aynan substitutes for kāfūran), containing the scent thereof, from which the servants of God, His friends, drink, making it gush forth plenteously, directing it to wherever they wish of their dwellings.
Verse 7
They fulfil their vows, [pledged] in obedience to God, and fear a day the evil of which will be widespread.
Verse 8
And they give food, despite [their] love of it, that is to say, [despite their love] of food and their craving for it, to the needy, the poor, and the orphan, who does not have a father, and the prisoner, meaning the one who has been rightly imprisoned.
Verse 9
‘We feed you only for the sake of God, seeking His reward. We do not desire any reward from you, nor any thanks: this contains the reason for the giving of the food. Now, do they actually say this, or is it that God knows this [to be true] of them and has thus praised them by [mentioning] it? The two are different opinions [regarding this matter].
Verse 10
Indeed we fear from our Lord a day of frowning, one in which faces scowl, in other words, a horrid day to observe on account of its severity, calamitous’, severe in that respect.
Verse 11
God has therefore shielded them from the evil of that day, and has granted them radiance, fairness and resplendence in their faces, and joy.
Verse 12
And He has rewarded them for their patience, for their steadfastness in refraining from disobedience, with a Garden, into which they are admitted, and silk, which they are given to wear;
Verse 13
reclining (muttaki’īna is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of the implicit [verb] udkhilūhā, ‘they are admitted into it’) therein upon couches (arā’ik are beds inside canopies). They will not find (lā yarawna is a second circumstantial qualifier) therein either sun or bitter cold, neither heat nor cold; but it is also said that zamharīr means ‘the moon’, and so, in other words, it [means that it] will be bright without any sun or moon.
Verse 14
And close (dāniyatan is a supplement to the [syntactical] locus of the clause lā yarawna, in other words, [it is a supplement to the import] ghayra rā’īna) over them will be its shades, its trees, and its clusters [of fruits] will hang low, its fruits will brought close, so that they are reached by the one standing, the one sitting or the one lying down.
Verse 15
And they will be waited upon from all around them, in it, with vessels of silver, and goblets (akwāb are cups without handles) of crystal —
Verse 16
crystal of silver, that is, they are made of silver which is transparent like crystal — which they, that is, the ones passing around them [in service], have measured in a precise measure, according to the measure required by the one drinking it, neither more nor less, which makes for a most delightful drink.
Verse 17
And they will be given to drink therein a cup, wine, whose mixture, that with which it is mixed, is ginger,
Verse 18
a spring (‘aynan substitutes for zanjabīlan, ‘ginger’) therein named Salsabīl, meaning that its water is like ginger, which the Arabs find very tasteful, [and which is] very palatable for the throat.
Verse 19
And they will be waited upon by immortal youths, [immortally] in the form of youths, never ageing, whom, when you see them you will suppose them, because of their beauty and the way in which they are scattered about [offering] service, to be scattered pearls, [strewn] from their string, or from their shells, in which they are fairer than [when they, the pearls, are] otherwise [not in their shells].
Verse 20
And when you look there, that is to say, when you begin to look about in Paradise, you will see (ra’ayta is the response to idhā, ‘when’) bliss, that is indescribable, and a great kingdom, vast, without limit.
Verse 21
Upon them (‘āliyahum is in the accusative as an adverbial clause, and constitutes the predicate of a subject that will follow; a variant reading has ‘ālīhim as a subject, with what follows as its predicate; the suffixed pronoun [-hum] denotes those persons to whom the supplement refers) will be garments of fine green silk and [heavy] silk brocade (sundus is fine silk and constitutes the outer cushion, while istabraq is coarse silk and constitutes the inner lining; either read thiyābu sundusin khudrun wa’stabraqin or thiyābu sundusin khudrin wa’stabraqun, or thiyābu sundusin khudrun wa’stabraqun, or wa-thiyābu sundusin khudrin wa’stabraqin). And they will be adorned with bracelets of silver — elsewhere it is stated, ‘of gold’, in order to show that they will be adorned with both types at the same time or separately — and their Lord will give them a pure drink to drink (tahūran, ‘pure’, is intended as a hyperbolic qualification of its purity and cleanness, in contrast to the wine of this world).
Verse 22
‘Verily this, bliss, is a reward for you, and your endeavour has been appreciated’.
Verse 23
Assuredly We (nahnu reiterates the subject of innā, ‘assuredly, for the purpose of emphasis; alternatively it is a separating pronoun) have revealed the Qur’ān to you as a gradual revelation (tanzīlan is the predicate of inna, ‘assuredly’), in other words, We have divided it into parts instead of not revealing it all at once.
Verse 24
So submit patiently to your Lord’s decree, to you to deliver His Message, and do not obey of them, that is, [of] the disbelievers, any sinner or disbeliever, namely, ‘Utba b. Rabī‘a and al-Walīd b. al-Mughīra — both of whom said to the Prophet (s), ‘Abandon this affair of yours!’; it is also possible that what is meant is every sinner or disbeliever, in other words, ‘Do not obey any of these, whichever of the two he may be, in what he may summon you to of sin or disbelief’.
Verse 25
And mention the Name of your Lord, during prayer, at dawn and with the declining of the sun, that is, at dawn (fajr), noon (zuhr) and in the afternoon (‘asr);
Verse 26
and prostrate to Him for a portion of the night, that is, at after sunset (maghrib) and at night (‘ishā’), and glorify Him the length of the night: perform supererogatory prayers during it, as mentioned above, for either two thirds, a half or a third of it.
Verse 27
Assuredly these love the transitory [life], this world, and leave behind them a burdensome day, an awful [one], namely, the Day of Resurrection, not working towards it.
Verse 28
We created them and made firm their frames, their limbs and their joints, and, whenever We will, We can completely replace them with others like them, in terms of their created form, in place of them, by destroying them (tabdīlan, ‘completely’, is for emphasis; idhā, ‘when’, functions in the sense of in, ‘if’, similar to [where God says in several places], in yasha’ yudhhibkum, If He will, He can take you away [cf. Q. 14:19]; but because He, exalted be He, has not willed this, it has not happened thus far).
Verse 29
This, sūra, is indeed a reminder, an admonition for [all] creatures. Let him who will, then, choose a way to his Lord, a path, through obedience.
Verse 30
But you will not (tashā’ūna, may also be read yashā’ūna, ‘they will’), choose a way through obedience, unless God wills, this. Assuredly God is ever Knower, of His creatures, Wise, in what He does.
Verse 31
He admits whomever He will into His mercy, His Paradise, namely, the believers; and as for the evildoers (al-zālimīna is in the accusative because of an implied verb, that is to say, a‘adda, ‘He has prepared’, as explained by [what follows]), He has prepared for them a painful chastisement — these are the disbelievers.
Verse 1
By those sent in succession (‘urfan), that is, [by] the winds that follow [one another] in succession, like the mane (‘urf) of a horse, one part [of hair] coming after the other (‘urfan is in the accusative because it is a circumstantial qualifier);
Verse 2
by the raging hurricanes, the violent winds;
Verse 3
by the sweeping spreaders, [by] the winds that scatter the rains;
Verse 4
by the decisive discriminators, that is, [by] the verses of the Qur’ān, which discriminate between truth and falsehood, and between what is lawful and what is unlawful;
Verse 5
by the casters of the remembrance, that is, [by] angels that descend with the revelation upon the prophets and messengers, casting the revelation onto the [various] communities [of mankind],
Verse 6
to excuse or to warn, that is to say, in order to excuse or to warn on behalf of God, exalted be He (a variant reading [for nudhran and ‘udhran] has nudhuran and ‘udhuran).
Verse 7
Surely that which you are promised, O disbelievers of Mecca, in the way of resurrection and chastisement, will befall: it will be, without any doubt.
Verse 8
So when the stars are obliterated, [when] their light is extinguished,
Verse 9
and when the heaven is rent asunder,
Verse 10
and when the mountains are blown away, crushed to pieces and blown in the air,
Verse 11
and when the time is set for the [testimony of the] messengers (read uqqitat or wuqqitat), that is to say, [when] they are gathered to an appointed time,
Verse 12
For what day — for a tremendous day — has it been appointed?, [it has been appointed] for witnessing [of the messengers] against their communities [to the effect] that they delivered [their messages from God].
Verse 13
For the Day of Decision, for creatures (from this one may infer the response to [the clauses beginning with] idhā, ‘when’, in other words, ‘[when …], the decision will be made for [all] creatures’).
Verse 14
And how would you know what the Day of Decision is? — emphasising the enormity of its terror.
Verse 15
Woe to the deniers on that day! — a threat of chastisement for them.
Verse 16
Did We not destroy the ancients, for their denial, in other words, We certainly destroyed them,
Verse 17
then made the latter folk follow them?, [the latter folk] of those who denied, such as the disbelievers of Mecca, whom We will destroy.
Verse 18
So, just as We dealt with those who denied, will We deal with the guilty, with every individual who will be guilty in the future, and destroy them.
Verse 19
Woe to the deniers on that day! — [reiterated] for emphasis.
Verse 20
Did We not create you from a base fluid, one that is delicate — and this is semen,
Verse 21
then lodged it in a secure abode, that is, the womb,
Verse 22
for a known span?, namely, the time for delivery.
Verse 23
Thus We were able, to do this; so [how] excellent able ones We are!
Verse 24
Woe to the deniers on that day!
Verse 25
Have We not made the earth a receptacle (kifātan is a verbal noun, from kafata, meaning damma, ‘enclosed’), that is, an enclosure,
Verse 26
for the living, on its surface, and the dead, inside it,
Verse 27
and set therein soaring mountains and give you sweet water to drink?
Verse 28
Woe to the deniers on that day!
Verse 29
And on the Day of Resurrection it will be said to the deniers: Depart to that, chastisement, which you used to deny!
Verse 30
Depart to a triple-forked shadow — this is the smoke of Hell, which, as it rises, splits into three parts because of its magnitude —
Verse 31
which is neither shady, [neither] protective, [unable] to shade them from the heat of that Day, nor of any avail against, [nor] wards off from them anything of, the flame, the Fire.
Verse 32
Indeed it, that is, the Fire, throws up sparks, namely, those [flame] that are thrown by it into the air, [huge] like palace edifices, in terms of their enormity and vertical extension,
Verse 33
as if they were [dark] yellow camels (jimālātun is the plural of jimalatun, the plural of jamalun; a variant reading has jimālatun), in terms of their shape and colour. In hadīth [it is stated], ‘The sparks of humans [thrown into the air by the Fire] are black as pitch (qīr)’; the Arabs call dark camels sufr, ‘yellow’, because a touch of yellow is mixed with their blackish colour, and therefore it is said that ‘yellow’ in this verse [actually] means ‘black’, on account of what has been mentioned; but some say no [to this interpretation]; (sharar is the plural of sharāra; qīr is qār, ‘pitch’).
Verse 34
Woe to the deniers on that day!
Verse 35
This, namely, the Day of Resurrection, is the day in which they will not utter, anything,
Verse 36
nor will they be given permission, to offer excuses, and so offer excuses (fa-ya‘tadhirūna is a supplement to yu’dhanu, ‘given permission’, but without being a direct result of it, since it belongs within the confines of the [general] denial [of permission], in other words, ‘there will be no permission, hence no excuses’).
Verse 37
Woe to the deniers on that day!
Verse 38
‘This is the Day of Decision. We have brought you, O deniers from this community, and the ancients together, [the ancients] from among the deniers before you, so that you will [all] be reckoned with and chastised together;
Verse 39
So if you have any stratagems, any ploy to ward off your chastisement, try your strategems against Me!’ — put them into effect!
Verse 40
Woe to the deniers on that day!
Verse 41
Truly the God-fearing will be amid shades, that is, amid clusters of trees, since there is no sun therein from whose heat to seek shade, and springs, issuing forth with water,
Verse 42
and fruits such as they desire: this is meant to point out that eating and drinking in Paradise is [done] according to their desires, in contrast to [the case in] this world, where it is predominantly determined by what people are able to procure. It will also be said to them:
Verse 43
‘Eat and drink in [full] enjoyment (hanī’an is a circumstantial qualifier, in other words, mutahanni’īna) for what you used to do’, in the way of obedience.
Verse 44
Indeed so, in the same way that We reward the God-fearing, do We reward the virtuous.
Verse 45
Woe to the deniers on that day!
Verse 46
‘Eat and enjoy — addressing the disbelievers in this world — for a little, time, at the end of which comes death — this is meant as a threat for them. Indeed you are guilty!’
Verse 47
Woe to the deniers on that day!
Verse 48
For when it is said to them, ‘Bow down!’, perform prayer, they do not bow down, they do not perform prayer.
Verse 49
Woe to the deniers on that day!
Verse 50
In what discourse, then, after this, namely, the Qur’ān, will they believe? In other words, they cannot believe in any other of God’s Scriptures after having denied this [Qur’ān], since it comprises that inimitability (i‘jāz) which none of the others do.