Verse 111
They said, ‘Shall we believe in you, in your words, when it is the lowliest people who follow you?’ (wa’ttaba‘aka: a variant reading has wa-atbā‘uka, ‘[when] your followers’, plural of tābi‘, ‘follower’, as a subject) the riffraff, such as the weavers and the shoemakers.
Verse 112
He said, ‘And what do I know of what they may have been doing?
Verse 113
Their reckoning is only my Lord’s concern, and He will requite them, if only you were aware — had you known this, you would not have reviled them.
Verse 114
And I am not about to drive away the believers.
Verse 115
I am just a plain warner’.
Verse 116
They said, ‘Lo! if you do not desist, O Noah, from what you say to us, you will assuredly be among those assailed’, with stones or curses.
Verse 117
He, Noah, said, ‘My Lord, my people have denied me,
Verse 118
so judge conclusively between me and them, and deliver me and the believers who are with me’.
Verse 119
He, exalted be He, says: So We delivered him and those who were with him in the laden ark, [the ship] filled with humans, animals and birds.
Verse 120
Then afterwards, after We delivered them, We drowned the rest, of his people.
Verse 121
Surely in that there is a sign; but most of them are not believers.
Verse 122
Truly your Lord, He is the Mighty, the Merciful.
Verse 123
‘Ād denied the messengers,
Verse 124
when Hūd, their brother, said to them, ‘Will you not fear God?
Verse 125
Truly I am a trusted messenger [sent] to you.
Verse 126
So fear God and obey me.
Verse 127
I do not ask of you any reward for this; for my reward lies only with the Lord of the Worlds.
Verse 128
Do you build on every prominence, every high place, a monument, an edifice as a signpost for passers-by, so that you may hurl abuse?, at those who pass by you and deride them (ta‘bathūna, is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of [the verb] tabnūna, ‘you build’).
Verse 129
And you set up structures, for [extracting] water underground, that perhaps you might, as though you will, last forever, therein and not die.
Verse 130
And when you assault, to smite or slay, you assault like tyrants, mercilessly!
Verse 131
So fear God, in this, and obey me, in what I have commanded you.
Verse 132
And fear Him Who has provided you, Who has been gracious to you, in a way that you know,
Verse 133
provided you with cattle and sons,
Verse 134
and gardens, orchards, and springs, rivers.
Verse 135
Indeed I fear for you the chastisement of a tremendous day’, in this world and in the Hereafter should you disobey me.
Verse 136
They said, ‘It is the same to us whether you admonish [us] or are not one of those who admonish, anyway. In other words, we will not heed your admonition.
Verse 137
This, that you threaten us with, is merely the fabrication of the ancients, that is, their inventions and lies (a variant reading [for khalq, ‘fabrication’] is khuluq, ‘ethos’, in other words, this denial of resurrection to which we adhere is merely ‘the ethos of the ancients’, in other words, their nature and wont);
Verse 138
and we will not be chastised’.
Verse 139
So they denied him, concerning the chastisement, whereupon We destroyed them, in this world with the [barren] wind [cf. Q. 51:41]. Surely in that there is a sign; but most of them are not believers.
Verse 140
Truly your Lord, He is the Mighty, the Merciful.
Verse 141
Thamūd denied the messengers,
Verse 142
when Sālih, their brother, said to them, ‘Will you fear God?
Verse 143
Truly I am a trusted messenger [sent] to you.
Verse 144
So fear God and obey me.
Verse 145
I do not ask of you any reward for this; for my reward lies only with the Lord of the Worlds.
Verse 146
Will you be left secure in that which is here, of good things —
Verse 147
amid gardens and springs,
Verse 148
and farms and date palms with slender, delicate and tender, spathes?
Verse 149
And you hew dwellings out of the mountains arrogantly (a variant reading [of farihīna, ‘arrogant’] has fārihīn, ‘skilfully’).
Verse 150
So fear God and obey me, in what I have commanded you,
Verse 151
and do not obey the command of the prodigal,
Verse 152
who cause corruption in the earth, through acts of disobedience, and act righteously’, by being obedient to God.
Verse 153
They said, ‘You are indeed one of the bewitched, those who have succumbed so many times to sorcery that their minds have been overcome.
Verse 154
And, moreover, you are just a human being like us. So bring [us] a sign, if you are sincere’, in your Mission.
Verse 155
He said, ‘This is a she-camel; she shall drink, a share of the water, and you shall drink [each] on a known day.
Verse 156
And do not cause her any harm, for then you shall be seized by the chastisement of an awful day’, [awful] because of the awfulness of the chastisement.
Verse 157
But they hamstrung her — a group of them hamstrung her with the approval of others; and then became remorseful, for having hamstrung it.
Verse 158
So they were seized by the chastisement, which had been promised and were destroyed. Surely in that there is a sign; but most of them are not believers.
Verse 159
Truly your Lord, He is the Mighty, the Merciful.
Verse 160
The people of Lot denied the messengers,
Verse 161
when Lot, their brother, said to them, ‘Will you not fear God?
Verse 162
Truly I am a trusted messenger [sent] to you.
Verse 163
So fear God and obey me.
Verse 164
I do not ask of you any reward for this; my reward lies only with the Lord of the Worlds.
Verse 165
What! Of all people you come unto males [to fornicate],
Verse 166
and forsake the wives your Lord has created for you?, in other words, [you forsake intimacy with] their front parts? Nay, but you are a transgressing folk’, overstepping [the bounds of] what is lawful into what is unlawful.
Verse 167
They said, ‘If you do not desist, O Lot, from reproaching us, you will assuredly be of those expelled’, from our land.
Verse 168
He, Lot, said, ‘Truly I abhor, I detest, what you do.
Verse 169
My Lord, deliver me and my family from what they do’, that is, from the punishment for it.
Verse 170
So We delivered him and all his family,
Verse 171
except an old woman — his wife — among those who stayed behind, whom We destroyed.
Verse 172
Then We destroyed [all] the others,
Verse 173
and We rained on them a rain, [We rained on them] stones — this [detail] pertains to [the previous] statement concerning their destruction — and evil was, their rain, the rain of those who were warned!
Verse 174
Surely in that there is a sign; but most of them are not believers.
Verse 175
Surely your Lord, He is the Mighty, the Merciful.
Verse 176
The dwellers in the wood (a variant reading [for ashābu’l-aykati] has ashābu laykata), a thicket of trees near Midian, denied the messengers,
Verse 177
when Shu‘ayb — He [God] does not say ‘their brother’ [in this instance] because he [Shu‘ayb] was not [in terms of lineage] one of them — said to them, ‘Will you not fear God?
Verse 178
Truly I am a trusted messenger [sent] to you.
Verse 179
So fear God and obey me.
Verse 180
I do not ask of you any reward for this; indeed my reward lies only with the Lord of the Worlds.
Verse 181
Give full measure and do not be of those who give short measure,
Verse 182
and weigh with an even balance,
Verse 183
and do not defraud people in their goods, do not diminish anything of what is due to them, and do not be degenerate in the earth, seeking corruption, by killing or otherwise ([ta‘thaw, ‘degenerate’] derives from ‘athiya, meaning afsada, ‘to corrupt’; mufsidīna, ‘seeking corruption’, is a circumstantial qualifier emphasising the import of its operator [ta‘thaw]).
Verse 184
And fear Him Who created you and the former generations’, [all] creation [before you].
Verse 185
They said, ‘You are indeed one of the bewitched.
Verse 186
You are just a human being like us. And we indeed (in, softened in place of the hardened form, its subject omitted, in other words [it would be] innahu) think that you are one of the liars.
Verse 187
Then make fragments (read kisfan or kisafan) of the heaven fall upon us, if you are of the truthful’, in your Mission.
Verse 188
He said, ‘My Lord knows best what you are doing’, and will requite you for it.
Verse 189
But they denied him, so they were seized by the chastisement of the day of the shade (al-zulla) — a cloud which gave them shade when they suffered a bout of extreme heat but which then rained down fire on them and they were incinerated. Assuredly it was the chastisement of a tremendous day.
Verse 190
Surely in that there is a sign; but most of them are not believers.
Verse 191
Surely your Lord, He is the Mighty, the Merciful.
Verse 192
Truly it, the Qur’ān, is the revelation of the Lord of the Worlds,
Verse 193
brought down by the Trustworthy Spirit, Gabriel,
Verse 194
upon your heart, that you may be [one] of the warners,
Verse 195
in a clear Arabic tongue (a variant reading [for nazala, ‘he brought down’, verse 193] has nuzzila, ‘was sent down’, and al-rūha, ‘the Spirit’, in the accusative, the subject of the verb being God).
Verse 196
And truly it, the allusion to the Qur’ān [that would be] revealed to Muhammad (s), is in the Scriptures, the Books, of the ancients, such as the Torah and the Gospel.
Verse 197
Is it not a sign, of this fact, for them, for the disbelievers of Mecca, that the learned of the Children of Israel recognise it?, [those] such as ‘Abd Allāh b. Salām and his companions, from among those who became [Muslim] believers: they are able inform [you] of this (read yakun with āyatan in the accusative, or takun with āyatun in the nominative).
Verse 198
For had We revealed it to some non-Arabs (a‘jamūn is the plural of a‘jam),
Verse 199
and had he recited it to them, that is, [to] the disbelievers of Mecca, they would not have believed in it, disdaining to follow it.
Verse 200
So, in the same way in which We would have caused denial of it to penetrate [the hearts of disbelievers] had it been recited by a non-Arab, We have caused, denial of, it to penetrate the hearts of the criminals, the Meccan disbelievers, when Muhammad (s) recites it.
Verse 201
They will not believe in it until they behold the painful chastisement,
Verse 202
so that it will come upon them suddenly while they are not aware.
Verse 203
Thereupon they will say, ‘Shall we be granted any respite?’, that we might become believers?; and it shall be said to them, ‘No!’, and they will say, ‘When will this chastisement be?’ God, exalted be He, says:
Verse 204
So do they [seek to] hasten Our chastisement?
Verse 205
Consider [this] then — inform Me: If We were to let them enjoy [life] for [many] years,
Verse 206
then there were to come on them that which they have been promised, of chastisement,
Verse 207
in what way (mā here is interrogative) would that enjoyment which they were given avail them?, in averting the chastisement or mitigating it? It would be of no avail!
Verse 208
And We have not destroyed any town but it had warners, messengers to warn its inhabitants;
Verse 209
as a reminder, an admonition for them; for We were never unjust, for We destroy them [only] after they have been warned. The following was revealed to refute what the idolaters were saying:
Verse 210
It, the Qur’ān, has not been brought down by the devils.
Verse 211
Neither would it behove, befit, them, to bring it down, nor are they capable, [of doing] that.
Verse 212
Truly they are barred, restrained with blazing stars, from the hearing, of the sayings of the angels.
Verse 213
So do not invoke any other god with God, lest you be among the chastised — if you were to do what they call you to.
Verse 214
And warn the nearest of your kinsfolk, namely, the Banū Hāshim and the Banū al-Muttalib: ‘He [the Prophet] warned them publicly …’, as reported by al-Bukhārī and Muslim.
Verse 215
And lower your wing, show your gentle side, to the believers, the affirmers of God’s Oneness, who follow you.
Verse 216
But if they, your kinsfolk, disobey you, say, to them: ‘I am absolved of what you do’, in worshipping [gods] other than God.
Verse 217
And put your trust (wa-tawakkal, or read fa-tawakkal, ‘then put your trust’) in the Mighty, the Merciful, God, in other words, entrust Him with all your affairs,
Verse 218
Who sees you when you stand, for prayer,
Verse 219
and your movements — in [performing] the [various] parts of prayer: standing, sitting, bowing and prostrating — among those who prostrate, those who perform the prayers.
Verse 220
Truly He is the Hearing, the Knowing.
Verse 221
Shall I inform you, O disbelievers of Mecca, upon whom the devils descend? (tanazzalu: one of the tā’ letters in the original [tatanazzalu] has been omitted).
Verse 222
They descend upon every sinful, profligate, liar, such as Musaylama and other soothsayers.
Verse 223
They, the devils, report the heard [sayings], what they hear from the angels [they report] to the soothsayers, but most of them are liars, adding much that is false to what they hear — this was [revealed] before the devils were barred from the heaven.
Verse 224
As for the poets, [only] the perverse follow them, in their poetry, propounding it and reciting it on their behalf to others; they are thus reprehensible.
Verse 225
Have you not noticed that — are you not aware that — in every valley, of the valleys of rhetoric and the art thereof, they rove, overstepping the bounds [of decency] in [their] eulogies and diatribes,
Verse 226
and that they say, we do, what they do not do?, in other words, that they lie.
Verse 227
Save those, poets, who believe and perform righteous deeds and remember God frequently, in other words, [those whom] poetry does not distract from the remembrance [of God], and vindicate themselves, by lampooning the disbelievers, after they have been wronged, by the disbelievers’ reviling of them [as belonging] together with all believers — such [individuals] are not reprehensible. God, exalted be He, says: God does not like the utterance of evil words out loud, unless a person has been wronged [Q. 4:148]; He, exalted be He, also says: so whoever commits aggression against you, commit aggression against him in the manner that he committed against you [Q. 2:194]; and those, poets and others, who are wrongdoers will soon know the reversal, the return, with which they will meet, [by which] they will return, after death.
Verse 1
Tā sīn: God knows best what He means by these [letters]. Those, namely, these signs, are the signs of the Qur’ān, signs from it, and a Manifest Book, manifesting [what is] truth from [what is] falsehood (wa-kitābin, ‘Book’, is a supplement [to al-qur’ān] with the addition of an adjective [mubīn, ‘manifest’]).
Verse 2
It is, a guidance, guiding from error, and good tidings for the believers, who believe in it, of Paradise;
Verse 3
those who observe prayer, performing it in the way that it should be [performed], and give alms and who are certain of the Hereafter, knowing it [to be true] through the [many] proofs thereof (hum, ‘they’, is repeated because a separation has taken place between it [the first hum] and the predicate [yūqinūna]).
Verse 4
Truly those who do not believe in the Hereafter, We have adorned their, vile, deeds for them, by making such [deeds] seem sensuous so that they then deem them wholesome, and so they are bewildered, confused about why We deem these [deeds] to be vile.
Verse 5
Those are they for whom there is an awful chastisement, the worst [chastisement] in this world: being killed or being taken captive; and in the Hereafter they will be the greatest losers, because they will end up in the Fire which has been made everlasting for them.
Verse 6
And truly you — this is an address to the Prophet (s) — are receiving the Qur’ān, it is being transmitted to you intensely, from One Wise, Knowing, in such [transmission].
Verse 7
Mention, when Moses said to his family, [to] his wife, during his journey from Midian [back] to Egypt: ‘Assuredly I notice, I see in the distance, a fire. I will bring you news from there, about the [journey’s] route — for he had lost his way — or bring you a firebrand (read as a genitive annexation [bi-shihābi qabasin] as an explication [of shihāb, ‘flame’]; or read without [annexation, bi-shihābin qabasin] meaning, a flame of fire at the end of a wick or a wooden stick) that perhaps you might warm yourselves’, (tastalūn: the tā’ replaces the tā’ of the [8th verbal form] ifta‘ala [sc. istalā]; it derives from salaya or saliya, ‘to be exposed to the blaze of fire’), [that perhaps] you might warm yourselves from the cold.
Verse 8
But when he reached it, he was called [with the following words]: ‘Blessed is he, that is to say, God bless him, who is in the fire, namely, Moses, and who is around it, namely, the angels — or vice-versa ([the verb] bāraka may be followed immediately by the direct object or by a preposition and then the direct object; [a noun such as] makān, ‘location’, is implied after fī, ‘in’, [sc. man fī makāni’l-nār, ‘who is in the area of the fire’]); and Glory be to God, the Lord of the Worlds — this is included in the call, and is meant to declare that God is above all evil [associations].
Verse 9
O Moses, lo!, in other words, the fact is that, it is I, God, the Mighty, the Wise.
Verse 10
Throw down your staff’, and he threw it down. And when he saw it wriggling, moving, like a serpent, a slender snake, he turned his back in flight and did not come back. God, exalted be He, says: ‘O Moses, do not fear, it. Surely in My presence, before Me, the messengers do not fear, any snake or otherwise,
Verse 11
except him who has wronged, his soul, but then changed [his wrong] for good — he [then] performs [good deeds] — after [having done] evil, in other words, [he has] repented, then truly I am Forgiving, Merciful, I will accept his repentance and forgive him.
Verse 12
And insert your hand into your bosom, into the collar of your shirt, and it will emerge, not in its usual skin colour, but, white without any blemish, any [vestige of] leprosy, with a glare that dazzles the eyes, as one sign, among nine signs, with which you shall be sent [as God’s messenger], to Pharaoh and his folk; indeed they are an immoral lot’ .
Verse 13
But when Our signs came to them plain to see, illuminating and clear, they said, ‘This is manifest sorcery’, clear and evident [sorcery].
Verse 14
And they denied them, they did not affirm them, though, in reality, their souls had been convinced, in other words, [though] they were certain that these [signs] were from God, wrongfully and arrogantly, in defiance of believing in what Moses had brought ([these two adverbs] refer back to [the cause of] their denial). So behold, O Muhammad (s), how was the sequel for the agents of corruption, [a sequel] which you know: they were destroyed.
Verse 15
And verily We gave David and Solomon, his son, knowledge, of rendering [decisive] judgement between people, and [knowledge] of the speech of birds and of other things, and they said, giving thanks to God, ‘Praise be to God Who has favoured us, with prophethood and the disposal of jinn, humans and devils [to our service], over many of His believing servants’.
Verse 16
And Solomon inherited from David, prophethood and knowledge exclusively from among all his other children; and he said, ‘O people, we have been taught the speech of the birds, that is, the ability to understand their sounds, and we have been given of all things, given to prophets and kings. Indeed this, gift, is the manifest, the evident, favour’.
Verse 17
And, on one journey, Solomon’s hosts of jinn and humans and birds stood assembled for him as they were being arrayed, brought together [in groups] and marshalled.
Verse 18
When they came to the Valley of the Ants — which is [located] either in Tā’if or in Syria, and whose ants are either small or large — an ant, the queen ant, who had seen Solomon’s hosts, said, ‘O ants, enter your dwellings, lest Solomon and his hosts crush you while they are unaware!’ — the ants are likened to rational beings in their use of the latter’s speech.
Verse 19
Whereat he, Solomon, smiled (fa-tabassama, the beginning [of the sentence]) amused (dāhikan, the end [of the sentence]) at its words, which he had heard from three miles away and which was carried to him by the winds. When he was on the verge of [entering] their valley, he [Solomon] made his hosts halt until they [the ants] had entered their dwellings — on this journey his hosts consisted of cavalry and infantry. And he said, ‘My Lord, inspire me to be thankful for Your grace with which You have favoured me and my parents, and to do good that will please You, and include me, by Your mercy, among Your righteous servants’, the prophets and saints.
Verse 20
And he reviewed the birds, to see the hoopoe — which would locate water beneath the ground and indicate its location by pecking at it, whereupon the devils would extract it, for Solomon required it for when he prayed; but he could not see him — then he said, ‘Why is it that I do not see the hoopoe?, in other words, is there something preventing me from seeing him? Or is he among the absent?, and so I cannot see him because he is absent?’ And when he became certain [of the hoopoe’s absence],
Verse 21
He said, ‘Assuredly I will chastise him with a severe chastisement, by having [all] his feathers as well as his tail plucked and leaving him out in the sun, where he would not be able to escape from reptiles, or I will slaughter him, by slitting his throat, unless he brings me (read la-ya’tiyannī or la-ya’tinannī) a clear warrant’, plain manifest proof for his [having a valid] excuse.
Verse 22
But he did not remain (read fa-makutha or fa-makatha) long [in absence], in other words, [he was away only] for a short while, and came to Solomon humbly, with his head up and his wings and tail lowered. Solomon pardoned him and asked him about what he had encountered during his absence: and he said, ‘I have discovered something of which you have no knowledge, and I have brought you from Sheba (this may be read in declined form [min Saba’in] or left as indeclinable [min Saba’a]) — a tribe in Yemen, whose name is taken from the name of one of their ancestors (which is also the reason why it may be declined) — a verified report.
Verse 23
I found a woman ruling over them, in other words, she was their queen, her name Bilqīs; and she has been given [an abundance] of all things, that kings might require, in the way of machines and instruments, and she possesses a great throne — its length was 80 cubits, its width 40 cubits, its height 30 cubits, and was made of gold and silver, encrusted with pearls, rubies, chrysolite, and emeralds, with its legs made of rubies, chrysolite and emeralds, containing seven [inner] doors, the door of each chamber shut.
Verse 24
I found her and her people prostrating to the sun instead of God, and Satan has adorned for them their deeds and he has barred them from the Way, from the path of truth, so that they are not guided
Verse 25
to prostrate themselves to God (allā yasjudū should be read as an yasjudū: the lā is extra and with it has been assimilated the nūn of an, similar to [the construction] where God says, li-allā ya‘lama ahlu’l-kitābi, so that the People of the Scripture may know [Q. 57:29]; the sentence functions as the direct object of yahtadūna, ‘guided’, whose ilā, ‘to’, has been omitted); [He] Who brings forth the hidden (al-khab’ is a verbal noun, with the same meaning as al-makhbū’, ‘that which is hidden’) of rain and plants, in the heavens and the earth, and He knows what they conceal, within their hearts, and what they proclaim, with their tongues.
Verse 26
God — there is no god except Him, the Lord of the Mighty Throne’ (this clause constitutes an [independent] new sentence, which is a eulogy comprising [praise of] the Throne of the Compassionate One to counter the [description of the] throne of Bilqīs: between the two, however, is an unfathomable difference).
Verse 27
He, Solomon, said, to the hoopoe: ‘We shall see whether you have spoken the truth, in what you have informed us, or whether you are of the liars, that is, of their ilk — for [to say] that is rhetorically more powerful than [simply] saying ‘or whether you have lied’. He [the hoopoe] indicated to them the place of the water and it was extracted. They thus drank, performed their ablutions and prayed. Solomon then composed a letter in the following form: ‘From the servant of God, Solomon son of David, to Bilqīs, Queen of Sheba. In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful: Peace be upon those who follow Guidance. To wit: do not rise up against me [in defiance], but come to me in submission’. He then stamped it with musk and sealed it with his ring, and said to the hoopoe:
Verse 28
Take this letter of mine and deliver it to them, that is, to Bilqīs and her people, then turn away, withdraw, from them, but remain close by them, and see what [response] they shall return’, [and see] what kind of response they shall give. Thus, he took it and approached her [Bilqīs]. But as her soldiers were all around her, he cast it into her private chamber. When she saw it, she shuddered and was consumed by fear. She read what it said.
Verse 29
Then, she said, to the noblemen of her people: ‘O [members of the] council, lo! (read yā ayyuhā’l-mala’u innī, pronouncing [in the last two words] both hamzas; or by not pronouncing the second one and changing it into a wāw with kasra vowelling) a noble, a sealed, letter has been delivered to me.
Verse 30
It is from Solomon and lo! it is, in other words, its text says: “In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
Verse 31
Do not rise up against me [in defiance], but come to me in submission”’.
Verse 32
She said, ‘O [members of the] council, give me an opinion (read yā ayyuhā’l-mala’u aftūnī, pronouncing both hamzas, or by not pronouncing the second and changing it into a wāw), in other words, guide me, in this matter of mine. I never decide on a matter, I never conclude it, until you are present’.
Verse 33
They said, ‘We possess force and we possess great might, in other words, we are hardy in war. The matter is for you [to decide]. So see what you will command’, us, and we will obey you.
Verse 34
She said, ‘Indeed kings, when they enter a town, ruin it, with destruction, and reduce the mightiest of its inhabitants to the most abased. That is what they too will do, namely, the senders of this letter.
Verse 35
Now I will send them a gift and wait to see with what [response] the envoys return’, in the way of accepting the gift or rejecting it. If it be a king [to whom we have sent it], he will accept it; but if it be a prophet, he will reject it. Thus, she sent male and female servants, one thousand in total, together with five hundred bricks of gold, a crown studded with jewels, and musk, ambergris and other things with an envoy carrying a letter. The hoopoe thus hurried back to bring the news to Solomon, who ordered bricks of gold and silver to be made and laid out across a [vast] square the distance of nine parasangs from his seat and for a towering wall of gold and silver to be constructed around it, and for the most splendid creatures of the land and the sea, together with the children of the jinn, to be brought to line the right and left sides of the square.
Verse 36
But when he, the envoy, came to Solomon, with the gift and the servants, he said, ‘Are you supplying me with wealth? What God has given me, of prophethood and kingship, is better than what He has given you, of [the things of] this world. Nay, but it is you [and not I] who exult in your gift, for you pride yourselves upon [the possession of] the ornaments of this world!
Verse 37
Go back to them, with the gifts that you have brought, for We shall assuredly come to them with hosts which they will not be able to face and we shall expel them from there, from the land of Sheba (Saba’) — named [thus] after their tribal ancestor — humiliated, and they shall be utterly abased’, unless they come to me in submission. When the envoy returned to her with the gift, she had her throne placed inside seven doors inside her palace, with her palace inside seven palaces, and had all the doors locked with guards at them. She then prepared to make the journey to Solomon to see what he would command her. She departed with twelve thousand chieftains (qayl), each accompanied by thousands [of men] until when she came to within a parasang of him, he sensed her [arrival].
Verse 38
He said, ‘O [members of the] council, which of you (regarding the two hamzas read them in the way mentioned above [verse 32]) will bring me her throne before they come to me in submission?’, compliant and obedient? For I may only [rightfully] seize it before this [submission] and not afterwards.
Verse 39
An afreet from among the jinn — a [jinn who is] powerful and stalwart — said, ‘I will bring it to you before you rise from your place, the one in which you sit when adjudicating — the period from morning to midday. Indeed I have the strength for it, that is, for carrying it, and I am trustworthy’, over what it may contain of jewels and other [precious] things. Solomon said, ‘I want something faster than that!’
Verse 40
The one who had knowledge of the, revealed, Scripture — and this was [one] Āsif b. Barkhiyā, a righteous individual with knowledge of God’s Greatest Name, which when invoked [in supplication] for something it is [immediately] granted — said: ‘I will bring it to you before your glance returns to you, after you look at something. So he [the afreet] said to him, ‘Look up towards the heaven’, which he did, and when his glance returned [in front of him] he found it [Bilqīs’ throne] placed before him — for in the instance in which Solomon looked up to the heaven, Āsif supplicated by invoking the Greatest Name that God bring it [thereto]; and this was done by having it travel under the earth until it sprung up below Solomon’s seat (kursī). Then, when he saw it standing, still, before him, he said, ‘This, bringing it to me, is of my Lord’s bounty, that He may try me, test me, whether I give thanks (read a-ashkur, pronouncing both hamzas; or by replacing the second one with an alif; or by not pronouncing the second one, but inserting an alif between the one not pronounced and the other one or without [the insertion]) or am ungrateful, for the favour. And whoever gives thanks, gives thanks only for his own sake, because the reward for his thanks shall be his, and whoever is ungrateful, for the favour, [should know] then my Lord is surely Independent, with no need of his thanks, Generous’, by being bounteous to those who are ungrateful for it.
Verse 41
He said, ‘Disguise her throne for her — in other words, transform it such that when she sees it, it will be in an unrecognisable form — that we may see whether she will be guided, to recognising it, or be of those who cannot be guided’, to recognise when things are transformed around them. He [Solomon] sought thereby to test her mind, for it was said to have something wrong with it. Thus they transformed it by adding or taking away [certain things] and in other ways.
Verse 42
So when she came, it was said, to her: ‘Is your throne like this?’ She said, ‘It as though it is the one’. She had, in fact, recognised it; but she made a pretence to them just as they made a pretence to her, given that [when she was asked about the throne] it was not said, ‘Is this your throne?’, for had it been so, she would have replied, ‘Yes, it is’. When Solomon realised that she was perceptive and knowledgeable, he said: ‘And we were given the knowledge before her and we had submitted [to God].
Verse 43
And what she worshipped besides God, that is, other than Him, barred her, from the worship of God, for she belonged to disbelieving folk’.
Verse 44
It was, also, said to her, ‘Enter the palace [hallway]’ — this was a transparent white glass floor underneath which flowed sweet water that contained fish. Solomon had it made when he was told that her legs and feet resembled the shanks of a mule. And when she saw it, she supposed it to be a pool, of water, and so she bared her legs, to wade through it. Meanwhile Solomon was seated on his throne at the front part of the palace [hallway], and he saw that her legs and feet were [in fact] fair. He said, to her: ‘It is a hallway paved [smooth] with crystal’, and thereafter he called her to submit [to God]. She said, ‘My Lord, indeed I have wronged myself, by worshipping other than You, and I submit with Solomon to God, the Lord of the Worlds’. He wanted to marry her but disliked the hair on her legs. So the devils made a [depilatory] lime mixture (nūra) and she removed it therewith. He married her and had [great] love for her. And he let her remain as ruler of her kingdom and would visit her once a month, staying for three days [every time]. Her reign came to an end at the same time as that of Solomon. It is reported that he became king at the age of 13 and died at the age of 53 — Glory be to the One whose enduring sovereignty will never end!
Verse 45
And verily We sent to Thamūd their brother, in terms of [his belonging to the same] tribe, Sālih, with the following [decree]: ‘Worship God!’, affirm His Oneness. And lo! they [then] became two parties quarrelling with one another, over religion, one party having become believers upon his arrival as messenger to them and the other party disbelievers.
Verse 46
He said, to the deniers: ‘O my people, why do you [seek to] hasten on evil before [seeking] good?, in other words, [why do you seek to hasten on] chastisement instead of mercy, when you say, ‘If what you bring us is true, then bring us the chastisement!’ Why do you not ask God to forgive you, [your] idolatry, so that you might be shown mercy?’, and not be chastised.
Verse 47
They said, ‘We augur evil (ittayyarnā is actually tatayyarnā, but the tā’ has been assimilated with the tā’, and a conjunctive hamza added) of you and of those who are with you’, namely, the believers — when they [the tribe of Thamūd] were deprived of rain and suffered hunger. He said, ‘Your evil augury is with God — He has given it to you; nay, but you are a people being tried’, being tested with good and evil [turns of fortune].
Verse 48
And there were in the city, the city of Thamūd, a band of nine men, that is, [nine] men, who were causing corruption in the land, with acts of disobedience, which included their corroding of dinar and dirham coins [rendering them worthless], and did not reform [their ways], through obedience [to God].
Verse 49
They said, that is, some said to others, ‘Swear to one another by God that we will attack him by night (la-nubayyitannahu; or [read] la-tubayyitunnahu, ‘that you will attack him by night’) together with his folk, that is, those who believed in him, in other words, [swear] that we will kill them at night; then we will surely say (la-naqūlanna; or [read] la-taqūlunna, ‘you surely will say’) to his heir, the avenger of his blood, that we did not witness, we were not present at, the destruction of his folk (read muhlika or mahlika, meaning ‘the destroying of them’ or ‘their death’ [respectively]), and so we do not know who killed them, and [that] indeed we are being truthful’.
Verse 50
So they plotted, thereby, a plot, but We [also] plotted a plot, in other words, We requited them by hastening on their punishment, while they were not aware.
Verse 51
So behold how was the consequence of their plot! For lo! We destroyed them and all their people, with Gabriel’s cry, or by the angels’ pelting them with stones, which they could see even though they could not see them [the angels].
Verse 52
So those then are their houses [lying] deserted (khāwiyatan is in the accusative because it is a circumstantial qualifier, the operator of which is the import of the demonstrative pronoun [tilka, ‘those’]) because of the evil which they did, that is, their disbelief. Surely in that there is a sign, a lesson, for a people who have knowledge, of Our power and are thus admonished.
Verse 53
And We delivered those who believed, in Sālih — and they numbered 4,000 — and were fearful, of idolatry.
Verse 54
And Lot (Lūtan is in the accusative because of an implied udhkur, ‘mention’, before it, and it [Lūtan] is substituted by [the following, idh qāla …]), when he said to his people, ‘What! Do you commit [such] abomination, namely, homosexual intercourse, while you watch?, that is to say, while you watch one another, [so] engrossed [are you] in the sinful act?
Verse 55
What! Do you (read a-innakum, pronouncing both hamzas, or by not pronouncing the second and inserting an alif between the two in both cases) come unto men in lust instead of women? Nay, but you are truly a people in ignorance’, of the consequence of your action.