Verse 93
The way [of blame] is only against those who ask leave of you, to stay behind, when they are rich. They are content to be with those who stay behind and God has set a seal on their hearts, so that they do not know: a similar statement has already been made.
Verse 94
They will make excuses to you, for having stayed behind, when you return to them, from the campaign. Say, to them: ‘Do not make excuses; we will never believe you! God has already told us tidings of you, that is, He has already informed us of your [true] status. And God will see your work, and [so will] His Messenger, then you will be returned, through resurrection, to the Knower of the unseen and the visible, meaning [to] God, and He will tell you what you used to do’, and requite you for it.
Verse 95
They will swear to you by God, when you turn back, [when] you return, to them, from Tabūk, that they had [genuine] excuses for staying behind, so that you may leave them be, refraining from reproaching them. So leave them be, for they are an abomination, filth, on account of their inner vileness, and their abode shall be Hell, as requital for what they used to earn.
Verse 96
They will swear to you, that you may be satisfied with them; but if you are satisfied with them, God will surely not be satisfied with the wicked folk, that is, with them: your satisfaction is of no avail in the face of the wrath of God.
Verse 97
The Bedouins, the [Arab] nomads, are more intense in unbelief and hypocrisy, than the city-dwellers, on account of their harshness and crude nature and their being too remote to hear the Qur’ān, and are more likely not to know the bounds of what God has revealed to His Messenger, in the way of rulings and [legal] prescriptions; and God is Knower, of His creatures, Wise, in what He does with them.
Verse 98
And of the Bedouins there is he who takes what he expends, in the way of God, as a penalty, as a liability and a [financial] loss, because he does not aspire to be rewarded for it, but expends it out of fear: these were Banū Asad and [Banū] Ghatafān; and awaits for you [evil] turns of fortune, the fortunes of time, for you, that these should turn against you, and so be rid [of you]. Theirs shall be the evil (read as al-sū‘, or al-saw‘) turn of fortune, that is, chastisement and destruction shall turn on them, not on you. And God is Hearer, of the sayings of His servants, Knower, of their actions.
Verse 99
And of the Bedouins there is he who believes in God and the Last Day, such as [men from among the tribes of] Juhayna and Muzayna, and takes what he expends, in the way of God, as [pious] offerings to bring [him] nearer to God, and, as a means, to [secure] the prayers, the supplications, of the Messenger, for him. Surely these, the expenditure of such [men], will bring them nearer (read qurubatun or qurbatun), to Him. God will admit them into His mercy, His Paradise. Truly God is Forgiving, to those who obey Him, Merciful, to them.
Verse 100
And the first to lead the way, of the Emigrants and the Helpers, namely, those who were present at [the battle of] Badr, or [it means] all the Companions, and those who follow them, up to the Day of Resurrection, by being virtuous, in deeds, God will be pleased with them, for their obedience of Him, and they will be pleased with Him, for His reward [to them]; and He has prepared for them Gardens — with rivers flowing beneath them (a variant reading adds min [min tahtihā, ‘beneath which’]) — to abide therein forever: that is the supreme triumph.
Verse 101
And among those around you, O inhabitants of Medina, of the Bedouins there are hypocrites, such as [the tribes of] Aslam, Ashja‘ and Ghifār, and among the townspeople of Medina, there are also hypocrites, who are obstinate in hypocrisy, engrossed in it and persisting [in it]. You do not know them — an address to the Prophet (s) — but We know them, and We shall chastise them twice, by disgracing them or having them killed in this world, and by way of punishment in the grave, then they will be returned, in the Hereafter, to a terrible chastisement, namely, the Fire.
Verse 102
And [there are] others (ākharūn is the subject), [another] folk, who have confessed their sins, for having stayed behind (i‘tarafū bi-dhunūbihim is an adjectival qualification of it [the subject] and the predicate is [the following, khalatū ‘amalan sālihan]) they have mixed a righteous deed, that is, their former [participation in the] struggle, or the their confession of their sins, or otherwise, with another that was bad, which is their having stayed behind. It may be that God will relent to them. Truly God is Forgiving, Merciful: this was revealed regarding Abū Lubāba and a group of men who tied themselves to the walls of the mosque after they heard what had been revealed regarding those who stayed behind; they swore that only the Prophet (s) would untie them, which he did when this [verse] was revealed.
Verse 103
Take of their wealth some alms, to purify them and to cleanse them thereby, of their sins; he thus took a third of their wealth and gave it away as charity; and pray for them, that is, supplicate for them; truly your prayers are a comfort, a mercy, for them: it is also said [to mean] reassurance [for them], that their repentance has been accepted. And God is Hearer, Knower.
Verse 104
Do they not know that God is He Who accepts repentance from His servants and takes, accepts, the voluntary alms, and that God is He Who is the Relenting, to His servants, by accepting their repentance, and the Merciful?, to them (the interrogative is intended as an affirmative [statement] and is meant to incite them to [offer] repentance and charity).
Verse 105
And say, to them, or to people [in general]: ‘Act, as you will, for God will surely see your actions, and [so will] His Messenger and the believers, and you will be returned, through resurrection, to the Knower of the unseen and the visible, that is, [to] God, and He will tell you what you used to do’, and so requite you for it.
Verse 106
And [there are] others, from among those who stayed behind, who are deferred (read murja’ūna or murjawna), whose repentance is delayed, to God’s command, concerning them, according to His will, whether He chastises them, by causing them to die without [their having made any] repentance, or relents to them; and God is Knower, of His creatures, Wise, in what He does with them. These [others mentioned] are the three, who will be mentioned afterwards: Murāra b. al-Rabī‘, Ka‘b b. Mālik and Hilāl b. Umayya. They stayed behind out of laziness and their inclination for peace and quiet, not out of hypocrisy. Unlike the others, however, they did not excuse themselves before the Prophet (s), and so the matter regarding them was suspended for fifty days, during which time people avoided them, until it was later revealed that God had relented to them.
Verse 107
And, among them, those who have chosen a mosque — these were twelve men from among the hypocrites — by way of harm, to cause distress for those of the mosque of Qubā’, and disbelief, since they built it on the orders of the monk Abū ‘Āmir, as a sanctuary for him, so that whoever comes from his side may stay there: he had gone to the Byzantine Emperor (qaysar) to bring troops to fight against the Prophet (s), and to cause division among the believers, who pray in the mosque of Qubā’, by having some of these pray in their [the hypocrites’] mosque, and as an outpost, an observation post, for those who waged war against God and His Messenger before, that is, before it was built — meaning the above-mentioned Abū ‘Āmir — they will swear: ‘We desired nothing, by building it, but, to do, good’, by way of kindness towards the poor in times of [heavy] rain or [extreme] heat and in order to provide [a place of worship] for the Muslims; and God bears witness that they are truly liars, in this [claim of theirs]. They had asked the Prophet (s) to perform prayers in it, and so the following was revealed:
Verse 108
Never stand, [never] perform prayer, there: and so he sent a group of men to destroy and burn it, and in its place they left a refuse pit where decaying cadavers would be dumped. A mosque which was founded, one whose foundations were built, upon piety from the first day, constructed the day you arrived in Medina (dār al-hijra) — this was the mosque of Qubā’, as mentioned in Bukhārī — is worthier, than that [other one], for you to stand, to perform prayer, therein; in it are men, namely, the Ansār, who love to purify themselves; and God loves those who purify themselves (muttahhirīn: the original tā’ [of mutatahhirūn] has been assimilated with the tā’) that is, He will reward them. Ibn Khuzayma reported in his Sahīh [by way of an isnād] from [‘Uwaym] b. Sā‘ida that: ‘The Prophet (s) came to them at the mosque of Qubā’ and said, “God, exalted be He, has praised handsomely the way you purify yourselves in the story about your mosque, so what is this purification which you perform?” They said, “By God, O Messenger of God, all that we know is that we used to have Jews in our vicinity and they used to wash their behinds after defecation, and so we began to wash in the way they did”’. According to one hadīth reported by al-Bazzār [they said]: ‘We use stones [to scrape off remnants] and follow this with water’; to which he [the Prophet] said, ‘That is the way [for proper purification]. Let this be your way’.
Verse 109
Is he who founded his building upon fear of God and, in hope of, beatitude, from Him, better, or he who founded his building upon the brink, the edge, of a bank, an overhang, that is crumbling, about to collapse (read juruf or jurf) so that it toppled with him, so that it collapsed [taking] with it the one who built it, into the fire of Hell?: [this is] an excellent similitude for building upon that which constitutes the opposite of fear of God and [for] what it leads to; the interrogative is meant as an affirmative: in other words, the former is the better, which is the likeness of the [building of the] mosque of Qubā’, while the latter is the likeness of the mosque of ‘harm’ (masjid al-dirār). And God guides not the evildoing folk.
Verse 110
The buildings which they have built will never cease to be a misgiving, a point of doubt, in their hearts unless their hearts are cut, torn, to pieces, such that they die; and God is Knower, of His creatures, Wise, in what He does with them.
Verse 111
Indeed God has purchased from the believers their lives and their possessions, that they expend it in obedience of Him — for example by striving in His way — so that theirs will be [the reward of] Paradise: they shall fight in the way of God and they shall kill and be killed (this sentence is independent and constitutes an explication of the [above-mentioned] ‘purchase’; a variant reading has the passive verb come first [sc. fa-yuqtalūna wa-yaqtulūn, ‘they shall be killed and shall kill’], meaning that some of them are killed while those who remain, fight on); that is a promise which is binding (both [wa‘dan, ‘promise’, and haqqan, ‘binding’] are verbal nouns, and are in the accusative on account of their omitted [implicit] verbs) upon Him in the Torah and the Gospel and the Qur’ān; and who fulfils his covenant better than God?, that is, no one is better in fulfilling it. Rejoice then (there is a shift from the third [to second] person here) in this bargain of yours which you have made, for that, bargain, is the supreme triumph, the one that secures the ultimate goal.
Verse 112
Those who repent (al-tā’ibūna is in the nominative as a laudative, the subject being implicit), from idolatry and hypocrisy, those who worship, who devote their worship sincerely to God, those who give praise, to Him in every state, those who fast, those who bow, those who prostrate themselves, that is, those who perform prayers, those who enjoin decency and forbid to indecency, those who maintain God’s bounds, His rulings, by implementing them, and give good tidings to the believers, of Paradise.
Verse 113
The following was revealed regarding the Prophet (s) asking forgiveness for his uncle Abū Tālib, and some of the Companions asking forgiveness for their idolatrous parents: It is not for the Prophet, and those who believe, to ask forgiveness for the idolaters, even though they be kinsmen, relatives, after it has become clear to them that they are inhabitants of the Hell-fire, for having died as disbelievers.
Verse 114
Abraham’s prayer for the forgiveness of his father was only because of a promise he had made to him, when he said to him, I will ask my Lord forgiveness for you [Q. 19:47], in the hope that he would submit [to God]; but when it became clear to him that he was an enemy of God, upon his death as an disbeliever, he declared himself innocent of him, and refrained from asking forgiveness for him; truly Abraham was soft of heart, making frequent entreaty and supplication [to God], forbearing, enduring harm patiently.
Verse 115
And God would never send a people astray after He had guided them, to Islam, until He had made clear to them that which they should be wary of, in the way of deeds, but when they are not wary of it, then they deserve to be sent astray. Surely God is Knower of all things, including who deserves to be sent astray, or to be guided.
Verse 116
Surely to God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and of the earth. He gives life and He makes to die; and you do not have, O mankind, besides God, that is, other than Him, any protector, to preserve you from Him, or helper, to defend you against His hurt.
Verse 117
God has truly relented, that is, He has [truly] perpetuated His relenting, to the Prophet and the Emigrants and the Helpers who followed him in the hour of hardship, that is, during the time of this [hardship], which was their predicament during the raid at Tabūk, where two men would share a single date, ten men would take turns on one camel, and where the heat became so intense that they resorted to drinking filth; after the hearts of a party of them had almost deviated (read either as tazīghu or yazīghu), [had almost] inclined away from following him, in favour of staying behind due to the hardship that afflicted them, then He relented to them, by making them steadfast. Truly He is Gentle, Merciful to them.
Verse 118
And, He relented, to the three who were left behind, [formerly denied] His relenting to them, for the same reason [as those mentioned above], when the earth was straitened for them, for all its breadth, that is, despite its vastness, so they could find no place wherein to feel secure, and their souls, that is, their hearts, were straitened for them, because of the anxiety and their [sense of] alienation resulting from the delay of God’s relenting to them [with mercy], such that they [their souls] could not find happiness or solace; until they thought, they were certain, that (read the softened an) there is no refuge from God except in Him. Then He turned [relenting] to them, He made them successful in finding repentance, that they might also turn [in repentance]. Truly God is the Relenting, the Merciful.
Verse 119
O you who believe, fear God, by refraining from [acts of] disobedience to Him, and be with those who are truthful, in [their] faith and covenants, by adhering to sincerity.
Verse 120
It is not for the people of Medina and for the Bedouins [who dwell] around them to stay behind God’s Messenger, when he sets out on a campaign, and to prefer their lives to his life, by guarding them against hardships which he [the Prophet] is content [to suffer] himself (this statement is a prohibition expressed as a predicate); that, prohibition against staying behind, is because neither thirst nor toil nor hunger afflicts them in the way of God, nor tread they any tread (mawti’an is a verbal noun, meaning wat’an) that enrages the disbelievers, nor gain any gain from the enemy, of God, be it through slaughter, capture or plunder, but a righteous deed is therefore recorded for them, that they may be rewarded for it. Truly God does not leave the wage of the virtuous to go to waste, that is, the wage of those [mentioned], rather He rewards them.
Verse 121
Nor expend they, therein [in the way of God], any sum, small, even if it be a single date, or great, nor do they cross a valley, during a [campaign] march, but it is recorded for them, as a righteous deed, that God may reward them the best of what they used to do, that is, the [due] reward thereof.
Verse 122
When the Prophet (s) was about to dispatch a raiding party — after they [certain Muslims] had been reproached for staying behind — all of them went forth, and so the following was revealed: It is not for the believers to go forth, on a raid, altogether: why should not a party, a group, of every section, of every tribe, of them go forth, while the others remain behind, so that they, those who remain behind, may become learned in religion and that they may warn their folk when they return to them, from the raid, by teaching them some of the rulings which they have come to learn, so that they may beware? of God’s punishment, by adhering to His commands and prohibitions. Ibn ‘Abbās said that this [verse] is specifically [intended] for raiding parties, while the previous one is [specifically] to prohibit any individual staying behind when the Prophet (s) sets out [on a campaign].
Verse 123
O you who believe, fight those of the disbelievers who are near to you, that is, the nearest, followed by the next nearest of them, and let them find harshness in you, that is, severity, in other words, be harsh with them, and know that God is with the pious, helping and granting [them] victory.
Verse 124
And whenever a sūra, of the Qur’ān, is revealed, there are some of them, that is, the hypocrites, who say, to their companions, mockingly: ‘Which of you has this increased in faith?’, and God says: As for those who believe, it has increased them in faith, because they accept that it is true, and they rejoice, because of it.
Verse 125
But as for those in whose hearts is sickness, a weakness of faith, it only adds abomination to their abomination, that is, [it only adds] disbelief to their disbelief, since they disbelieve in it, and they die while they were disbelievers.
Verse 126
Do they not see, that is, the hypocrites ([in which case] read a-wa-lā yarawna; or if read a-wa-lā tarawna, ‘do you, O believers, not see’) that they are tested, afflicted, every year once or twice?, with drought and diseases. Still they do not repent, of their hypocrisy, nor do they remember, [nor] do they heed admonition.
Verse 127
And whenever a sūra is revealed, wherein is mention of them, and the Prophet (s) recites it, they look at one another, desiring to flee, and saying: ‘Will anyone see you?’, if you get up [and flee]?, and so if no one can see them they get up [and leave], otherwise they stay put. Then they turn away, persisting in their disbelief. God turns their hearts away, from guidance, because they are a folk who do not understand, the truth, for they do not reflect [on it].
Verse 128
Verily there has come to you a messenger from among yourselves, that is, one of you — Muhammad (s) — for whom it is grievous, hard, that you should suffer, that is, your suffering, your experiencing hardship and encountering harm [is hard on him]; who is full of concern for you, that you should be rightly guided; to the believers full of pity, profoundly compassionate, merciful, desiring good for them.
Verse 129
So if they turn away, [refraining] from believing in you, say: ‘God suffices me. There is no god except Him. Upon Him I rely, in Him have I put my trust, and in none other, and He is the Lord of the Tremendous Throne’ (al-‘arsh al-azīm), the kursī, which is singled out for mention because it is the greatest of all things created. Al-Hākim reported in al-Mustadrak [by way of an isnād] from Ubayy b. Ka‘b that he [Ubayy] said: ‘The last verse to be revealed was [from], Verily there has come to you a messenger… to the end of the sūra’ [sc. Q. 9:128-129].
Verse 1
Alif lām rā’: God knows best what He means by these [letters]. Those, namely, these signs, are the signs of the wise Book, that is, the Qur’ān (the genitive annexation [āyāt al-kitāb] has the meaning of min [sc. min āyāti’l-kitāb, ‘from among the verses of the Book’]), which has been made clear.
Verse 2
Is it for the people, the people of Mecca (this interrogative is meant as a disavowal; the preposition [li-, ‘for’] and its dependent genitive noun [al-nās, ‘the people’] constitute a circumstantial qualifier of His saying): a wonder (‘ajaban: read in the accusative as a predicate of kāna; or if read in the nominative [‘ajabun] as its subject: its predicate, which is also its subject if read according to the former [accusative] reading, is [the following, an awhaynā]) that We have inspired a man from among them, Muhammad (s), [saying] (an, ‘that’, is explicative): ‘Warn, threaten, the people, the disbelievers, with chastisement, and give good tidings to those who believe that they have a prior, a preceding, [promise of] truth with their Lord’?, that is a [preceding] fair reward, in return for the deeds they have sent forward. The disbelievers say, ‘Truly this, Qur’ān that comprises all of that [mentioned], is manifest sorcery’: a variant reading [for la-sihrun] has la-sāhirun, ‘a sorcerer’, where it is the Prophet (s) to whom they are referring [as being ‘a manifest sorcerer’].
Verse 3
Truly your Lord is God Who created the heavens and the earth in six days, of the days of this world, that is, in the same measure [of time], since there was no sun or moon then: had He willed He could have created them in an instant, but the reason for His not having done so is that He wanted to teach His creatures to be circumspect; then He presided upon the Throne, a presiding befitting of Him, directing affairs, among creatures. There is no (mā min indicates a relative clause) intercessor, to intercede for anyone, save after His permission: a refutation of their saying, ‘The idols intercede for us!’; that, Creator and Director, is God, your Lord, so worship Him, affirm His Oneness. Will you not remember? (tadhakkarūna: the original tā’ [of tatadhakkarūna] has been assimilated with the dhāl).
Verse 4
To Him, exalted be He, is the return of all of you: God’s promise, in truth (both [wa‘da and haqqan] are verbal nouns, and in the accusative because of the verbs implicit in them). Truly He (read innahu as a new sentence, or annahu with an implied lām [sc. li-annahu, ‘Because He’] originates creation, that is, He began it by originating [it], then recreates it, through resurrection, that He may requite, reward, those who believe and perform righteous deeds, justly. And those who disbelieve, for them will be a draught of boiling water and a painful chastisement because they disbelieved.
Verse 5
He it is Who made the sun a radiance, that is, emitting light, and the moon a light, and determined it, with respect to its movement, in stations: 28 stations in 28 nights every month, becoming concealed for two nights when a particular month has 30 days, or [concealed] for one night, when it has 29 days, so that you might know, thereby, the number of the years and the reckoning. God did not create that, which is mentioned, save in truth, not in vain, exalted be He above such things. He details (read yufassilu or nufassilu, ‘We detail’) the signs for a people who know, who reflect.
Verse 6
Truly in the alternation of night and day, in [their] coming and going, increasing and diminishing, and [in] what God has created in the heavens, of angels, sun, moon, stars and other things, and, in, the earth, of animals, mountains, seas, rivers, trees, and other things, there are signs, indications of His power, exalted be He, for a people who fear, Him, and so believe: He singles these out for mention because they are the ones to benefit from them [such signs].
Verse 7
Truly those who do not expect to encounter Us, through resurrection, and are content with the life of this world, instead of [the life] the Hereafter, since they reject [the truth of] it, and feel reassured, feel secure, in it, and those who are heedless of Our signs, [of] the proofs of Our Oneness, neglecting to ponder them,
Verse 8
those, their abode will be the Fire because of what they used to earn, in the way of [practising] idolatry and [performing] acts of disobedience.
Verse 9
Truly those who believe and perform righteous deeds, their Lord will guide them, He will lead them, through their faith, in Him, by appointing for them a light with which they will be able to find their way on the Day of Resurrection. Rivers will flow beneath them in the Gardens of Bliss,
Verse 10
their prayer therein, their request for what they desire in Paradise will be to say: ‘Glory be to You, O God!’, so that, lo!, what they request they find before them; and their greeting, between them, therein will be: ‘Peace.’ And their final prayer will be: ‘Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds’.
Verse 11
When the idolaters sought to hasten [their] chastisement, the following was revealed: And if God should hasten for mankind evil as they would hasten good, their term [of life] would already have been concluded for them (read as the passive, with nominative ajaluhum [sc. la-qudiya ajaluhum]; or read as the active with accusative ajalahum [sc. la-qadā ajalahum, ‘He would have already concluded their term’]), by His destroying them, but He gives them respite. But We leave those, who do not expect to encounter Us, to wander blindly in their insolence, hesistant and perplexed.
Verse 12
If misfortune, illness or poverty, should befall a, disbelieving, man, he calls upon Us on his side, that is, lying down, or sitting or standing, in other words, in every state; but when We have relieved him of his misfortune, he passes on, in his unbelief, as if (ka-an is softened, its subject omitted, in other words [read as] ka-annahu) he had never called upon Us because of a misfortune that befell him. So, in the same way that supplication during misfortune and abstention [from supplication] in times of comfort were adorned for him, is adorned for the prodigal, the idolaters, that which they do.
Verse 13
And indeed We have destroyed generations, communities, before you, O people of Mecca, when they did evil, by way of idolatry, and, indeed, their messengers brought them clear proofs, indicating their truthfulness; but they would not believe (wa-mā kānū li-yu’minū: this is a supplement to zalamū, ‘they did evil’). So, just as We destroyed those, We shall requite the sinning, the unbelieving, folk.
Verse 14
Then We made you, O people of Mecca, successors (khalā’if is the plural of khalīfa) in the earth after them, that We might behold how you would behave, in it, and whether you would take heed from their example and believe in Our messengers.
Verse 15
And when Our clear, manifest (bayyināt is a circumstantial qualifier), verses, [from] the Qur’ān, are recited to them, those who do not expect to encounter Us, those who do not fear the Resurrection, say, ‘Bring a Qur’ān other than this, one in which our gods are not denigrated, or change it’, of your own accord. Say, to them: ‘It is not for me to change it of my own accord. I only follow that which is revealed to me. Truly I fear, if I should disobey my Lord, by changing it, the chastisement of a dreadful day’, that is, the Day of Resurrection.
Verse 16
Say: ‘If God had willed I would not have recited it to you, nor would He have made it known to you, [nor] would He have made you aware of it (the lā [of wa-lā adrākum] is for negation, and is a supplement to what preceded; a variant reading has the lām [sc. la-adrākum, ‘He would have made it known to you’] as the response to the [conditional] law, ‘if’, in other words, He would have made it known to you by the tongue of someone other than myself). For I have already dwelt among you a [whole] lifetime, of forty years, before this [Qur’ān], not relating to you anything [of the sort], so will you not understand?’, that this [Qur’ān] is not from myself?
Verse 17
And who, that is, no one, does greater evil than he who invents a lie against God, by ascribing a partner to Him, or denies His signs?, [denies] the Qur’ān. Surely, it is that, the sinners, the idolaters, shall not prosper, they shall [never] find happiness.
Verse 18
And they worship, besides God, that is, other than Him, that which can neither hurt them, should they not worship it, nor profit them, if they do worship it — and these are the idols; and they say, of them: ‘These are our intercessors with God’. Say, to them: ‘Would you tell, would you inform, God of what He does not know in the heavens or in the earth?’ (the interrogative is meant as a disavowal), for if He had a partner, He [Himself] would know it, since nothing can be hidden from Him. Glory be to Him!, in [affirmation of] His transcendence, and High be He exalted above what they associate! with Him.
Verse 19
Mankind was but one community, following one religion, that is submission [to the One God], from the time of Adam to the time of Noah; but it is also said [that this was the case] from the time of Abraham to that of ‘Amr b. Luhayy; then they differed, some of them remaining firmly [upon belief in One God], while others disbelieved. And had it not been for a word that had already preceded from your Lord, [to the effect] that requital would be deferred until the Day of Resurrection, it would have been decided between them, that is, [between] mankind, in this life, regarding that over which they differed, in religion, by the disbelievers being punished.
Verse 20
And they, the people of Mecca, say, ‘Why has a sign not been sent down on him, on Muhammad (s), from his Lord?’, as was the case with [previous] prophets, in the way of a she-camel, a staff or a [glowing] hand. Then say, to them: ‘The Unseen, that which is concealed from servants, in other words, its affair, belongs only to God, and it is from this [Unseen] that signs come forth; therefore He alone can bring them forth: mine is only to covey the Message. So wait, for the chastisement, if you do not believe. I am waiting with you’.
Verse 21
And when We made people, that is, the disbelievers of Mecca, taste of mercy, [of] rain and fertility, after adversity, misery and drought, that had afflicted them, behold! they have some plot concerning Our signs, in the way of mockery and denial. Say, to them: ‘God is swifter at plotting, at requiting; surely Our, guardian, messengers are writing down that which you are plotting’ (tamkurūn, is also read yamkurūn, ‘they are plotting’).
Verse 22
He it is Who conveys you (yusayyirukum: a variant reading has yanshurukum) across the land and the sea, until when you are in ships and they sail with them (there is a shift of address from second [to third] person) with a fair, gentle, breeze and they rejoice therein, there comes upon them a stormy wind, blowing violently, destroying everything, and waves come on them from every side, and they think that they are overwhelmed, that is, [that] they shall perish, they call upon God, secure in their faith, their supplication, only to Him: ‘If (la-in: the lām is for oaths) You deliver us from these, terrors, we shall verily be of the thankful’, [of those] who affirm [Your] Oneness.
Verse 23
Yet when He has delivered them, behold! they are insolent in the earth wrongfully, by associating others with God. O mankind, your insolence, wrongdoing, is only against yourselves, since the sin thereof shall fall against them; it is [but], the enjoyment of the life of this world, which you will enjoy for a short while, then to Us is your return, after death, and We shall inform you of what you used to do, and then requite you for it (a variant reading [for nominative matā‘u] has accusative matā‘a, ‘an enjoyment’, in other words [read as with an omitted verb such as] tatamatta‘ūna, ‘[one which] you shall enjoy’).
Verse 24
The likeness, the description, of the life of this world is only as water, rain, which We send down from the heaven, then the plants of the earth mingle with it, [they mingle] because of it, attaching themselves one to another, whereof mankind eat, [plants] such as wheat and barley and so on, and cattle [eat], of pasture, until, when the earth has taken on its ornaments, its splendour of plants, and has adorned itself, with flowers (izzayyanat, ‘adorned itself’, is originally tazayyanat, but the tā’ has been substituted with the zāy and assimilated with it) and its inhabitants think that they are masters of it, fully capable of harvesting its fruits, Our command, Our decree or Our chastisement, comes upon it by night or day, and We make it, that is, its crops, as reaped corn, like that which has been reaped with sickles, as though (ka-an is softened, in other words [read it as] ka-annahā) the previous day it had not flourished, [as though] it never were. Thus do We detail, [do] We make clear, the signs for a people who reflect.
Verse 25
And God summons to the Abode of Peace, that is, [the Abode] of security, which is Paradise, by summoning [people] to faith, and He guides whomever He wills, that he be guided, to a straight path, the religion of Islam.