Verse 41
And O my people! [Think] what makes me call you to deliverance when you call me to the Fire?
Verse 42
You call me to disbelieve in God and to associate with Him that whereof I have no knowledge, whereas I call you to the Mighty, Whose way [always] prevails, the Forgiver, to those who repent.
Verse 43
No doubt, verily, that to which you call me, to worship, has no call [that is heard], in other words, [has no] call answered, in this world or in the Hereafter, and indeed our return will be to God, and indeed the prodigal, the disbelievers, it is they who will be the inhabitants of the Fire.
Verse 44
For you will [soon] remember what I have said to you, when you see the chastisement with your own eyes. And I entrust my affair to God. Truly God is Seer of [His] servants’ — he said this after they threatened him [with retribution] for opposing their religion.
Verse 45
So God shielded him from the evils of what they had plotted, against him, in the way of killing [him], and there besieged, befell, the folk of Pharaoh, his people as well as him, a dreadful chastisement, drowning,
Verse 46
then: the Fire, to which they are exposed, in which they are burnt, morning and evening. And on the day when the Hour comes, it will be said: ‘Enter, O, folk of Pharaoh (a variant reading [for udkhulū, ‘enter’] has adkhilū, ‘admit’, being a command to the angels) the most awful chastisement!’, the chastisement of Hell.
Verse 47
And, mention, when they will be arguing, [when] they, the disbelievers, will be disputing, [with one another] in the Fire, and the weak will say to those who were arrogant, ‘Indeed we were your followers (taba‘an is the plural of tābi‘); so will you [now] avail, [will you] defend, us against any portion of the Fire?’
Verse 48
Those who were arrogant will say, ‘Indeed we are all [together] in it. God has indeed judged [fairly] between His servants’, admitting believers into Paradise and disbelievers into the Fire.
Verse 49
And those who are in the Fire will say to the keepers of Hell, ‘Call on your Lord that He relieve us of [at least] a day, in other words, the equivalent of one day, of the chastisement!’
Verse 50
They, that is, the keepers, will say, mockingly: ‘Did not your messengers bring you clear signs?’, manifest miracles? They will say, ‘Yes indeed’ — in other words, they disbelieved them. They will say, ‘Then supplicate [God]!’, yourselves, for we do not intercede for disbelievers. God, exalted be He, says: but the supplications of the disbelievers can only be misguided, void.
Verse 51
Truly We shall help Our messengers and those who believe, in the life of this world and on the day when the witnesses rise up (ashhād is the plural of shāhid) — these are the angels, who will testify in support of the messengers, that they indeed delivered [their Messages], and against the disbelievers, that they denied [them];
Verse 52
the day when their excuses will not benefit (read lā yanfa‘u, or lā tanfa‘u) the evildoers, [even] if they were to offer them, and theirs will be the curse, in other words, the banishment from [God’s] Mercy, and theirs will be the ills of the [ultimate] abode, in the Hereafter, meaning, the most severe of its chastisements.
Verse 53
And verily We gave Moses the guidance, the Torah and miracles, and We made the Children of Israel, after Moses, heirs to the scripture, the Torah,
Verse 54
as a guidance, to guide, and as a remembrance for people of pith, a reminder for possessors of intellect.
Verse 55
So be patient, O Muhammad (s). Surely God’s promise, to grant victory to His friends, is true — for you and whoever follows you are among such [friends]. And ask forgiveness for your sin, so that you will be emulated in this [by your community], and glorify, perform prayer, continuously, with praise of your Lord at night — which means after sunset — and in the early hours: the five prayers.
Verse 56
Truly those who dispute the signs of God, the Qur’ān, without any warrant, any evidence, that has come to them — there is only vanity in their breasts, [only] arrogance and an [evil] desire to get the better of you, which they will never attain [and satisfy]. So seek refuge with God, from their evil. Surely He is the Hearer, of their sayings, the Seer, of their state.
Verse 57
The following was revealed regarding the deniers of resurrection: Assuredly the creation of the heavens and the earth, as an [unprecedented] first act, is greater than the creation of mankind, a second time — which is the restoration [of them after death]; but most people, namely, the disbelievers of Mecca, do not know, this, and so they are like the blind, whereas those who know it are like those who have sight.
Verse 58
And the blind one and the seer are not equal; nor are [they equal] those who believe and perform righteous deeds — such a person being the virtuous one — and the evildoer (wa-lā’l-musī’u: lā here is extra). Little do they reflect, [little] are they admonished (read yatadhakkarūna, or [second person plural] tatadhakkarūna, ‘do you reflect’), in other words, their reflections are very few.
Verse 59
Truly the Hour is coming; there is no doubt in it. But most people do not believe, in it.
Verse 60
And your Lord has said, ‘Call on Me and I will respond to you, in other words, worship Me and I will reward you — judging [this to be the meaning] by what follows. Surely those who disdain to worship Me shall enter (sa-yadkhulūna, or [passive] sa-yudkhalūna, ‘they shall be admitted into’) Hell [utterly] humiliated’, abased.
Verse 61
God it is Who made for you night that you may rest in it, and day for seeing — the attribution of sight (ibsār) to ‘day’ is figurative, and it is [so attributed] because one is able to see in it. Surely God is a Lord of bounty to mankind, but most people are not thankful, to God, and so they do not believe.
Verse 62
That then is God, your Lord, the Creator of all things; there is no god except Him. How then are you made to deviate?, how then are you turned away from faith, despite the evidence having been established [for it]?
Verse 63
So deviate, that is, in the same way that these [Meccans] deviate, deviate, those who used to deny the signs of God, His miracles.
Verse 64
God it is Who made for you the earth as a [stable] abode and the heaven as a canopy, a ceiling. And He formed you and perfected your forms, and provided you with [all] the wholesome things. That then is God, your Lord, so blessed be God, the Lord of the Worlds.
Verse 65
He is the Living; there is no god except Him. So supplicate Him, worship Him, devoting [your] religion purely to Him, [free] from any idolatry. Praise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds.
Verse 66
Say: ‘I have been forbidden to worship those on whom you call, [those whom] you worship, besides God, since there have come to me clear signs, proofs of His Oneness, from my Lord; and I have been commanded to submit to the Lord of the Worlds’.
Verse 67
He it is Who created you from dust, by having created your father Adam from it, then from a drop [of sperm], then from a blood-clot, congealed blood, then He brings you forth as infants, then, He sustains you, that you may come of age, [until you have attained] your full strength — [this being] from the age of thirty to forty — then that you may become aged (read shuyūkhan or shiyūkhan)— though there are some of you who die earlier, that is, before coming of age or becoming aged. He does this to you so that you may live [on], and that you may complete an appointed term, a defined length of time, that perhaps you might understand, the proofs of [His] Oneness and thus become believers.
Verse 68
He it is Who gives life and brings death. So when He decides upon a matter, [when] He wants to bring something into existence, He only says to it ‘Be!’ and it is (read fa-yakūnu, or fa-yakūna [in the subjunctive] on account of an implied [preceding] an). In other words, it comes into existence after He has willed it, that which is signified by the said words.
Verse 69
Have you not regarded those who dispute the signs of God, the Qur’ān, how they are turned away?, from faith —
Verse 70
those who deny the Book, the Qur’ān, and that wherewith We have sent Our messengers, in the way of the affirmation of [God’s] Oneness and [belief in] the Resurrection — and these [deniers] are the Meccan disbelievers. But they will come to know, the punishment for their denials;
Verse 71
when (idh has the meaning of idhā) [with] fetters around their necks and chains (wa’l-salāsilu, a supplement to al-aghlālu, ‘fetters’, so that the meaning is that these [chains] are also around their necks; or it [al-salāsilu, ‘chains’] is the subject, the predicate of which has been omitted, in other words [the meaning being]: around their feet [will be these chains] — or [alternatively] its predicate is [the following, yushabūna]), they are dragged, in other words, they are dragged away by these [chains].
Verse 72
into the boiling water, that is, [into] Hell, then in the Fire they are set aflame.
Verse 73
Then it will be said to them, in reproach: ‘Where are those whom you used to make partners,
Verse 74
besides God?’, alongside Him, and these are the idols. They will say, ‘They have forsaken, abandoned, us, and so we cannot see them. Nay, but [actually] we were not invoking anything before’. They deny that they used to worship these [idols]; but then these [idols] are brought [before them] — [which is where] God, exalted be He, says: ‘Truly you and what you worship besides God shall be fuel for Hell’ [Q. 21:98]). So, in the same way that these disbelievers have been led astray, God leads astray the disbelievers.
Verse 75
And it will also be said to them: ‘That, chastisement, is because you used to exult in the earth without right, by [your] idolatry and denial of resurrection, and because you were insolent, committing acts of disobedience in abundance.
Verse 76
Enter the gates of Hell, to abide therein’. Evil then is the [ultimate] abode of the arrogant!
Verse 77
So be patient. Assuredly God’s promise, to chastise them, is true. And if We show you (fa-immā contains an assimilated conditional particle in; the mā is extra and emphasises the conditional import at the beginning of the verb, while the nūn emphasises it at the end) a part of what We promise them, of chastisement, in your lifetime (the response to the conditional has been omitted, in other words [it is something like]: ‘then so be it!’) … or We take you unto Us [in death], before their chastisement, then [in any case] to Us they will be returned, whereupon We shall chastise them with the most severe punishment (this [last] mentioned response is that of the supplement only).
Verse 78
And verily We sent messengers before you. Of them are those whom We have recounted to you, and of them are those whom We have not recounted to you: it is reported that God, exalted be He, sent 8,000 prophets, 4,000 prophets [sent] from among the Children of Israel and [the other] 4,000 from among the remainder of mankind. And it was never [permitted] for any messenger, from among them, to bring a sign except with God’s permission, for they are [also] servants enthralled [by Him]. Hence when God’s command comes, for the chastisement to be sent down on the disbelievers, judgement, between the messengers and their deniers, is passed justly; and it is thence that the advocates of falsehood become losers, that is to say, [it is thence that] the judgement and the loss become manifest for mankind, although such [advocates of falsehood] will have always been losers always before that.
Verse 79
God it is Who made for you cattle — it is said that ‘camels’ are specifically meant here, even though it seems to signify cows and sheep also — that you may ride some of them and eat of some.
Verse 80
And there are [other] uses for you in them, such as [their] milk, offspring, fur and wool, and that by them you may satisfy any need that is in your breasts, namely, to transport heavy loads to [other] lands, and on them, on land, and on the ships, in the sea, you are carried.
Verse 81
And He shows you His signs. So which of God’s signs, that is, [the signs] that prove His Oneness, do you reject? (the interrogative here is meant as a rebuke; ayya, ‘which of’ is more commonly made masculine than feminine).
Verse 82
Have they not travelled across the land to see the nature of the consequence for those before them? They were more powerful than them in might and in [their] vestiges on earth, in the way of large structures and palaces. But what they used to earn did not avail them.
Verse 83
And when their messengers brought them clear signs, manifest miracles, they, the disbelievers, exulted in the knowledge they, the messengers, possessed, an exultation that entailed mockery and amusement, as they rejected such [knowledge], and there besieged, befell, them that which they used to deride, namely, the chastisement.
Verse 84
Then, when they saw Our doom, that is, the severity of Our chastisement, they said, ‘We believe in God alone, and we disavow what we used to associate with Him’.
Verse 85
But their faith was of no benefit to them when they saw Our doom — [This is] God’s way (sunnata’Llāhi is in the accusative because it functions as a verbal noun from an implicit verb of the same expression) with the believers, among all communities, which is that faith is of no benefit to them once the chastisement has been sent down, which has its precdent; and it is thence that the disbelievers will be losers — [it is thence that] their status as losers will become apparent to all [of mankind], even though they will have always been losers before that.
Verse 1
Hā mīm: God knows best what He means by these [letters].
Verse 2
A revelation from the Compassionate, the Merciful (tanzīlun mina’l-rahmāni’l-rahīm, the subject).
Verse 3
A Book (kitābun, the predicate thereof) whose signs have been set out in detail, [whose signs have been] expounded through [various] rulings, stories and admonitions, as an Arabic Qur’ān (qur’ānan ‘arabiyyan, a circumstantial qualifier referring to kitābun, ‘a Book’, by qualifying it adjectivally) for a people (li-qawmin is semantically connected to fussilat, ‘set out in detail’) who have knowledge, [who] understand this [fact] — and they are the Arabs;
Verse 4
[containing] good tidings (bashīran is an adjective describing qur’ānan, ‘a Qur’ān’) and a warning. But most of them turn away so that they do not hear, in a way so as to accept [its message].
Verse 5
And they say, to the Prophet, ‘Our hearts are veiled, [they are] masked, from that to which you call us, and in our ears there is a deafness and between us and you there is a partition, a variance over religion, so act, according to your religion; indeed we shall be acting!’, according to our religion.
Verse 6
Say: ‘I am only a human being like you. It has been revealed to me [simply] that your God is One God. So be upright [in your conduct] before Him, through faith and obedience, and seek forgiveness from Him. And woe (waylun is an expression implying ‘chastisement’) to the idolaters,
Verse 7
who do not pay the alms and who are disbelievers in the Hereafter ([the repetition of] hum, ‘they’, is for emphasis).
Verse 8
Indeed those who believe and perform righteous deeds shall have an enduring reward’, [one that is] unceasing.
Verse 9
Say: ‘Do you [really] (read a-innakum, pronouncing both hamzas, or by not pronouncing the second one but inserting an alif between the two in both cases) disbelieve in Him Who created the earth in two days, Sunday and Monday, and ascribe to Him associates? That is the Lord, in other words, the Possesser, of [all] the Worlds (al-‘ālamīn, the plural of ‘ālam, which denotes everything apart from God. On account of the variety [of beings] that it subsumes, it has been expressed in the plural form ending with –īn, as a way of giving prevalence [in the address] to rational beings).
Verse 10
And He set (wa-ja‘ala, the beginning of a new [independent] sentence and cannot be a supplement to [the preceding] relative clause containing alladhī, ‘Who’, because of the intervening clause that is [syntactically] unrelated) therein firm mountains [rising] above it, and blessed it, with an abundance of water, crops and stock, and ordained, divided, therein its [various means of] sustenance, for human beings and beasts, in four, complete, days — in other words, the ‘setting therein [of mountains]’ together with what has been mentioned in addition [all] took place on Tuesday and Wednesday — evenly (sawā’an, in the accusative because it is a verbal noun) in other words, the four days were exactly four, neither less nor more, for [all] enquirers, about the creation of the earth and all that is in it.
Verse 11
Then He turned to the heaven when it was smoke, [consisting of] rising vapours, and He said to it and to the earth, “Come both of you, to what I desire from you, willingly, or unwillingly!” (taw‘an aw karhan, their [syntactical] locus is that of a circumstantial qualifier, in other words, ‘[Come] being obedient or coerced’). They said, “We come, together with all those inhabiting us, willingly!” (tā’i‘īna mainly indicates masculine rational beings; it may also be that they are referred to in this way because they are being addressed thus).
Verse 12
Then He ordained them (the [suffixed] pronoun refers back to al-samā’, ‘the heaven’, because it [al-samā’] actually denotes that plural [sense] to which it will lead [in the following clause), in other words, He made them to be, seven heavens in two days — Thursday and Friday. He completed them in the last hour thereof, in which He created Adam — which is why He does not say sawā’an, ‘evenly’ here [as He did earlier]; what is said here concords with those verse in which it is stated that the heavens and the earth were created in six days; and in each heaven He revealed its commandment’, that to which He commanded those in it [to follow], in the way of obedience and worship. And We adorned the lowest heaven with lamps, with stars, and [this was also] to guard them (hifzan is in the accusative because of its implicit verbal sense, in other words, ‘We guarded it against the devils lest they try to listen therein [to the angels] by stealth with meteors’). That is the ordaining of the Mighty, in His kingdom, the Knower, of His creatures.
Verse 13
But if they, that is, the Meccan disbelievers, turn away, from belief, after this clear statement, then say, ‘I warn you of, I threaten you [with], a thunderbolt like the thunderbolt of ‘Ād and Thamūd’, in other words, a chastisement that will destroy you like the one that destroyed them.
Verse 14
When the messengers came to them from in front of them and from behind them, that is, coming to them [to warn them] and leaving them behind [as they departed], but they disbelieved, as will be stated shortly — the destruction [of them meant] would only take place in his time — saying, ‘Worship none but God’, they said, ‘Had our Lord willed, He would have surely sent down, to us, angels; therefore we indeed disbelieve in what you, according to your claim, have been sent with!’
Verse 15
As for ‘Ād, they acted arrogantly in the earth without right, and they said, upon their being threatened with the chastisement, ‘Who is more powerful than us in might?’, in other words, [they believed] no one [to be so] — a single man among them could pull out a huge rock from a mountainside and [have the strength to] place it wherever he wished. Did they not see, [did they not] realise, that God, He Who created them, was more powerful than them in might? And they used to deny Our signs, the miracles [We sent down].
Verse 16
So We unleashed upon them a raging wind, cold and violent, but without rain, during [some] ill-fated days (read nahisātin, or nahsātin), [days that were] calamitous for them, that We might make them taste the chastisement of disgrace, humiliation, in the life of this world; yet the chastisement of the Hereafter is indeed more disgraceful, more severe, and they will not be helped, to have it warded off from them.
Verse 17
And as for Thamūd, We offered them guidance, We pointed out to them the path of guidance, but they preferred blindness, they chose disbelief [as opposed], to guidance. So the thunderbolt of the humiliating chastisement seized them on account of what they used to earn.
Verse 18
And We delivered, from it, those who believed and feared, God.
Verse 19
And, mention, the day when God’s enemies are gathered ([read either] yuhsharu a‘dā’u’Llāhi, or nahshuru a‘dā’a’Llāhi, ‘[when] We gather God’s enemies’) to the Fire, for they will be driven [thereto],
Verse 20
until, when they reach it (idhā mā: the mā is extra), their hearing and their eyes and their skins will bear witness against them concerning what they used to do.
Verse 21
And they will say to their skins, ‘Why did you bear witness against us?’ They will say, ‘God made us speak, Who gave speech to all things, in other words, [all things] which He wanted to [be able to] speak. And He created you the first time, and to Him you will be returned: it is said that this statement is made by their skins; but it is also said to be God’s words, as is the case with what follows, for it is similar in context to what preceded, namely, that the One with the power to originate you without any precedent and restore you to life after death, also has the power to make your skins and your limbs speak.
Verse 22
And you did not use to conceal yourselves, when you used to commit lewd acts, lest your hearing or your eyes or your skins should bear witness against you, because you were never certain about [the truth of] resurrection; but you thought, when you used to conceal yourselves, that God did not know most of what you did.
Verse 23
And that (wa-dhālikum, the subject) supposition of yours (zannukum, substitutes for it) which you supposed of your Lord (alladhī zanantum bi-rabbikum, a descriptive clause; the predicate [is the following, ardākum]) has ruined you, that is, it has brought about your destruction. So you have become among the losers’.
Verse 24
So if they endure, the chastisement, the Fire will [still] be their abode; and if they seek reconciliation, if they seek the satisfaction [of God], then they will not be among the reconciled, those deemed satisfactory [by God].
Verse 25
And We have assigned, We have occasioned [for], them companions, from among the devils, who have adorned for them that which is before them, of what concerns this world and the following after lusts, and that which is behind them, of what concerns the Hereafter, when they [make them] say that there will be neither resurrection nor reckoning. And the word, of chastisement — namely, the verse: Assuredly I will fill Hell … [Q. 11:119]) — became due against them, being among, all those, communities that passed away, [that] were destroyed, before them of jinn and mankind. Truly they were losers.
Verse 26
And those who disbelieve say, during the Prophet’s (s) recitation [of the Qur’ān], ‘Do not listen to this Qur’ān and hoot it down, make a din and so forth, and clamour whenever he is reciting, that perhaps you might prevail’, so that he will then desist from recitation.
Verse 27
God, exalted be He, says regarding them: But verily We will make those who disbelieve taste a severe chastisement, and We will verily requite them the worst of what they used to do, in other words, [with] the worst requital for their deeds.
Verse 28
That, severe chastisement and worst requital, is the requital of God’s enemies (jazā’u a‘dā’i, the second hamza may be pronounced fully or replaced with a wāw) — the Fire! (al-nāru, an explicative supplement to jazā’u, ‘the requital’, alluded to by [the demonstrative] dhālika, ‘that’). Therein will be their everlasting abode, that is, as a place of [permanent] residence, from which there will be no removal, as a requital (jazā’an is in the accusative as a verbal noun from the implicit verbal action) for their denial of Our signs, [for their denial of] the Qur’ān.
Verse 29
And those who disbelieve will say, [while] in the Fire: ‘Our Lord, show us those who led us astray from among the jinn and mankind — namely, Iblīs and Cain [respectively], both of whom established disbelief and slaying as something to be emulated — so that we may have them underneath our feet [to trample them], in the Fire, that they may be among the lowermost’, in other words, in a chastisement more severe than ours.
Verse 30
Truly those who say, ‘Our Lord is God!’ and then remain upright, [adhering] to the affirmation of [God’s] Oneness and to whatever else has been enjoined on them, the angels descend upon them, at the point of death, [saying to them], ‘Do not fear, death and what will come after it, nor grieve, for any family or children that you have left behind, for we will look after them after you, and rejoice in the good tidings of the paradise which you were promised.
Verse 31
We are your friends in the life of this world, that is, we will look after you in it, and in the Hereafter, in other words, we will be alongside you thereat until you enter Paradise; and therein you will have whatever your souls desire, and therein you will have whatever you request,
Verse 32
as a hospitality, a pre-prepared provision (nuzulan is in the accusative because of an implied [preceding verb] ‘appointed [for you]’) from One Forgiving, Merciful’, namely, God.
Verse 33
And who speaks better [words] — in other words, no one speaks better [words] — than him who summons [others] to God, by affirming His Oneness, and acts righteously and says, ‘Indeed I am one of those who submit [to God]’?
Verse 34
And they are not equal, the good deed and the evil deed, [even] with respect to their subdivisions, because any number of such [good deeds] are [always] above any number of the latter. Repel, the evil deed, with that, in other words, with that trait, which is better, such as [repelling] anger with endurance, ignorance with forbearance, and [the intention to inflict] harm with pardon, then, behold, he between whom and you there was enmity will be as though he were a dear friend, in other words, then your enemy will become like a close friend in terms of [his] affection [for you], if you act in such a way (alladhī, ‘he … whom’, is the subject; ka-annahu, ‘as though’, is the predicate; idhā is an adverbial particle for [expressing] the comparative import).
Verse 35
But none is granted it, in other words, [none] is given that better trait, except those who are steadfast; and none is granted it except one [deserving] of a great reward.
Verse 36
And if (wa-immā: here the nūn of the conditional particle in has been assimilated with the mā, which is extra) some temptation from Satan should provoke you, in other words, if some diversion should turn you away from that [better] trait and other good acts, then seek refuge in God (this is the response to the conditional [‘and if’]; the response to the command clause is omitted, being ‘and He will ward it off from you’). Truly He is the Hearer, of what is said, the Knower, of what is done.
Verse 37
And among His signs are the night and the day, and the sun and the moon. Do not prostrate to the sun and moon, but prostrate to God Who created them, namely, these fours signs, if it is Him Whom you worship.
Verse 38
But if they disdain, to prostrate to God alone, still those who are with your Lord, that is to say, still the angels, glorify, perform prayers to, Him night and day, and they tire not, they never weary [thereof].
Verse 39
And among His signs is that you see the earth desolate, dried out, without any vegetation, but when We send down water upon it, it stirs, it moves, and swells, [swells] and rises. Truly He Who revives it is indeed the Reviver of the dead. Surely He has power over all things.
Verse 40
Indeed those who blaspheme (yulhidūna derives from [the verb] alhada, or lahada, ‘he blasphemed’) Our signs — the Qur’ān, by denying [its truth] — are not hidden from Us, and We will requite them. Is one who is cast into the Fire better [off], or one who arrives secure on the Day of Resurrection? Act as you wish; indeed He is Seer of what you do — this is [meant as] a threat for them.
Verse 41
Truly those who disbelieve in the Remembrance — the Qur’ān — when it comes to them …, We will requite them — and truly it is an unassailable Book:
Verse 42
falsehood cannot approach it from before it or from behind it, in other words, there is no scripture before it or after it that contradicts it; [it is] a revelation from One Wise, Praised, that is to say, [from] God, the One Who is praised in His affair.
Verse 43
Nothing is said to you, in terms of denial [of you], except, the like of, what has already been said to the messengers before you. Surely your Lord is One of forgiveness, to believers, and [also] One of painful punishment, for disbelievers.
Verse 44
And had We made it, namely, the Remembrance, a non-Arabic Qur’ān, they would have said, ‘Why have its signs not been explained [clearly]?, so that we might understand them? What!, a Qur’ān [that is], non-Arabic and an Arab, prophet?’ (this is an interrogative of denial [spoken] by them; read [a-a‘jamiyyun] pronouncing [both the first and] the second hamza, or by changing it into an alif and either writing it out in full or not). Say: ‘For those who believe it is guidance, from error, and a healing, from [the disease of] ignorance; but as for those who do not believe, there is a deafness in their ears, a heaviness, and so they are unable to hear it, and they are blind to it, so they are unable to comprehend it. Those, they are [as if they were being] called from a distant place’, that is to say, they are like one who is called from far away, unable to hear or comprehend what is being called out to him.
Verse 45
And verily We gave Moses the Scripture, the Torah, but differences arose concerning it, in terms of [some] affirming the truth [of it] and [others] denying [it], as with the Qur’ān; and were it not for a Word that had [already] preceded from your Lord, to defer the reckoning and requital of creatures until the Day of Resurrection, judgement would have been made between them, in this world, concerning that over which they differed; for indeed they, the deniers of it, are in grave doubt concerning it, [doubt] which leads to [utter] uncertainty.
Verse 46
Whoever acts righteously, it is for [the good of] his own soul, that he acts [thus], and whoever does evil, it is to the detriment thereof, in other words, the harm consequent from his evildoing will [only] be to him. And your Lord is not [at all] a tyrant to His servants, that is, He is not One of injustice, as He, exalted be He, says: Surely God shall not wrong so much as the weight of an atom [Q. 4:40].