Verse 24
Say: ‘Who provides for you from the heavens, rain, and [from] the earth?’, vegetation. Say: ‘God!’ — [even] if they do not say it, there is no other [valid] answer. And indeed either we or you are — in other words [either] one of the two parties [is] — rightly guided or in manifest error. The ambiguity here [concerning which of the two is rightly guided] is intended as a gentle invitation for them to [embrace] faith if their way to it is facilitated [by God].
Verse 25
Say: ‘You will not be questioned about the sins we committed, nor shall we be questioned about what you do’, for we are quit of you.
Verse 26
Say: ‘Our Lord will bring us together, on the Day of Resurrection, then He will judge between us with truth, and He will admit the truthful into Paradise and the liars into the Fire. And He is the Judge, the Knowing’, in what He judges.
Verse 27
Say: ‘Show me, apprise me of, those whom you have joined to Him as associates, in worship. No indeed! — [this is] meant to deter them from [even] supposing that He has an associate. Rather He is God, the Mighty, Whose way will prevail, the Wise’, in the way in which He manages [the affairs of] His creation and so He could not have any associate in His kingdom.
Verse 28
And We did not send you except to all (kāffatan is a circumstantial qualifier referring to al-nās, ‘mankind’, and is made to precede [li’l-nās] because of the importance attached to it) of mankind [both] as a bearer of good tidings, to believers, of Paradise, and a warner, to the disbelievers, of chastisement, but most people, such as the disbelievers of Mecca, do not know, this.
Verse 29
And they say, ‘When shall this promise, of chastisement, be [fulfilled], if you are being truthful?’, concerning it.
Verse 30
Say: ‘Yours is the tryst of a Day which you can neither defer nor advance by a single hour’, and this is the Day of Resurrection.
Verse 31
And those who disbelieve, from among the people of Mecca, say, ‘We will not believe in this Qur’ān, nor in that which was [revealed] before it’ — in other words, what preceded it, such as the Torah and the Gospel, both of which contain proofs of the Resurrection — because they reject the truth of this [last]. God, exalted be He, says of them: But if you were to see, O Muhammad (s), when the evildoers, the disbelievers, are brought to stand before their Lord, bandying arguments against one another. Those who were oppressed — the followers — will say to those who were arrogant — the leaders: ‘Had it not been for you, barring us from faith, we would have been believers’, in the Prophet.
Verse 32
Those who were arrogant will say to those who were oppressed, ‘Was it us who barred you from guidance after it had come to you?, Nay! Rather you were guilty’, of your own accord.
Verse 33
And those who were oppressed will say to those who were arrogant, ‘Nay, but [it was your] scheming night and day, in other words, [such were] your schemes against us during both [of these times], when you used to command us to disbelieve in God and set up partners with Him’. And they, that is, the two parties, will conceal their remorse, for not having believed in Him, when they see the chastisement, in other words, each person will hide it [his remorse] from the next for fear of being reviled; and We will place fetters around the necks of the disbelievers, [while they are] in the Fire. Shall they be requited except, the requital, for what they used to do?, in the world.
Verse 34
And We did not send a warner to any town without its affluent ones, its leaders, those enjoying [life’s] comforts, saying, ‘Indeed we disbelieve in that [Message] with which you have been sent’.
Verse 35
And they say, ‘We possess more wealth and children, than those who are believers, and we shall not be chastised’.
Verse 36
Say: ‘Truly my Lord extends provision, He makes it abundant, for whomever He will, as a test, and restricts [it], for whomever He will, to try [them], but most people, such as the disbelievers of Mecca, do not know’, this [truth].
Verse 37
Nor is it your wealth or your children that will bring you near to Us in closeness, except for, but [it is], those who believe and act righteously: those, they shall have a twofold reward for what they did, in other words, [they shall have it] as the reward of their action — as a good deed, for example, is rewarded tenfold or more — and they shall be in the lofty abodes, of Paradise, secure, from death and otherwise (a variant reading [for al-ghurufāt] is al-ghurfa [the generic noun] implying a plural).
Verse 38
And those who strive against Our signs, namely, the Qur’ān, [seeking] to invalidate it, supposing [Us] to be inomnipotent — or [supposing] that they can elude Us — those, they will be arraigned into the chastisement.
Verse 39
Say: ‘My Lord extends provision, He makes it abundant, for whomever He will of His servants, as a test, and restricts [it] for him, after having extended it — or [He restricts it] for him whom He will to try, and whatever thing you may expend, for [the cause of] good, He will replace it. And He is the best of providers’. It is said that every man ‘provides for’ his dependants (yarzuqu ‘ā’ilatahu), meaning that [he does so] from the provision given [to him] by God.
Verse 40
And, mention, on the Day when He will gather them all together, namely, [all] the idolaters, He will say to the angels, ‘Was it these who used to worship you?’ (read a-hā’ūlā’i iyyākum, pronouncing both hamzas, or by replacing the first with a yā’ or dropping it altogether).
Verse 41
They will say, ‘Glory be to You, exalted above that You should have an associate! You are our Supporter, not they, in other words, as far as we are concerned there are no bonds of association between us and them. Nay, (bal, is to indicate transition) rather, they used to worship the jinn, the devils, in other words, [they used to] obey them and [agree to] worship us; most of them were believers in them’, accepting as truth what these [jinn] used to say to them.
Verse 42
God, exalted be He, says: ‘So today none among you has any power over another, in other words, none of those worshipped [have any power] over any of those who worshipped, either to benefit, [through] intercession, or to hurt’, [through] chastisement. And We shall say to those who did wrong, who disbelieved: ‘Taste the chastisement of the Fire which you used to deny!’
Verse 43
And when Our signs, [from] the Qur’ān, are recited to them, [being] clear signs, evident [ones], by the tongue of our Prophet Muhammad (s), they say, ‘This is just a man who desires to bar you from [worshipping] what your fathers used to worship’, of idols. And they say, ‘This, Qur’ān, is nothing but a calumny, a lie, that has been invented, against God. And those who disbelieve say to the truth, the Qur’ān, when it comes to them, ‘This is nothing but plain sorcery’. God, exalted be He, says:
Verse 44
And We did not give them any scriptures for them to study, nor did We send them any warner before you, so on what grounds do they deny you?
Verse 45
And those who were before them [also] denied, and they, these ones [the Meccans], have not received [even] a tenth of what We gave those [others], in the way of might, long life and abundance of wealth. Yet they denied My messengers, [who were sent] to them, so how was My abhorrence! [so how was] My rebuttal against them through punishment and destruction, in other words, it was appropriate.
Verse 46
Say: ‘I will give you just one [piece of] admonition: namely, that you rise up for God, in other words, for His sake, in twos and individually, and then reflect: and realise [that], there is no madness in your companion, Muhammad (s). He is just a warner to you before [the befalling of] a severe chastisement’, in the Hereafter, if you disobey him.
Verse 47
Say, to them: ‘I have not asked you, in return for [my] warning and delivering the Message [to you], any reward, since it is for [the benefit of] you, in other words, I do not ask you for any reward in return for this. Indeed my reward lies only with God, and He is Witness over all things’, observing [them all], knowing my truthfulness.
Verse 48
Say: ‘Indeed my Lord hurls the truth, He casts it onto His prophets — [He is] the Knower of the Unseen’, [of] all that is hidden from His creatures throughout the heavens and the earth.
Verse 49
Say: ‘The truth, Islam, has come. And falsehood, disbelief, neither originates nor restores [anything]’, in other words, it leaves no trace [of itself] behind.
Verse 50
Say: ‘If I go astray, from the truth, I will be going astray only to my own loss, that is to say, the sin of my going astray shall be held against me; and if I am rightly guided, it will have been by what my Lord reveals to me, of the Qur’ān and wisdom. Truly He is Hearer, of supplications, Nigh’.
Verse 51
If you could but see, O Muhammad (s), when they are stricken with terror, at the Resurrection, you would see a dreadful thing, and so there is no escape, for them, from Us, that is to say, they will not [be able to] elude Us, and they are seized from a close quarter, namely, [from] the graves.
Verse 52
And they will say, ‘We believe in him [now]’, in other words, [in] Muhammad (s) — or [if read ‘We believe in it’, then] in the Qur’ān. But how can they attain [it] (read tanāwush or tanā’ush), that is, attain faith, from a place that is far away, from the place for [attaining] it — as they are [now] in the Hereafter, and the [proper] place for [attaining] it was in this world —
Verse 53
when they disbelieved in it before?, in this world. And they throw guesses at the Unseen from a far-off place, in other words, [they make guesses] about something the knowledge of which was hidden far away from them, as when they would say that the Prophet was a sorcerer, or a poet, or a soothsayer, or that the Qur’ān was sorcery, poetry or soothsaying.
Verse 54
And a barrier is set between them and what they crave, in the way of faith — in other words, [their craving] to embrace it — just as was done with their counterparts, in [respect to] disbelief, formerly, in other words, before them. Indeed they used to be in grave doubt, [doubt] causing them to have misgivings about that in which they now believe, but the proofs for which they never considered in this world.
Verse 1
Praise be to God, God praises Himself with in these [terms], as explained at the beginning of [the preceding] sūrat Saba’, Originator of the heavens and the earth, the One Who created them without any precedent, Appointer of the angels as messengers, to [His] prophets, having wings in [sets of] two or three or four. He multiplies in creation, in angels and other [creatures], what He will. Surely God has power over all things.
Verse 2
Whatever mercy God unfolds for mankind, in the way of provision or rain, none can withhold it; and whatever He withholds, thereof, none can release it after Him, that is, after His withholding it. And He is the Mighty, Whose way prevails, the Wise, in what He does.
Verse 3
O people, that is, the people of Mecca, remember God’s grace to you, in His making you dwell within the [Meccan] Sanctuary and preventing raids against you. Is there any creator (min khāliqin: min is extra; khāliq is the subject) other than God (read ghayru’Llāhi or gharyri’Llāhi, as an adjectival qualification of khāliq, ‘creator’, either concording with the [oblique] form [of min khāliqin] or concording with the syntactical status [thereof]; the predicate of the subject [is the following]) who provides for you from the heaven, rain, and, from the, earth?, vegetation (the interrogative is [actually] an affirmative, that is to say, ‘there is no creator or provider other than Him). There is no god except Him. So how then do you deviate?, how are you turned away from affirming His Oneness when you already affirm that He is the Creator and the Provider?
Verse 4
And if they deny you, O Muhammad (s), with regard to your coming with [the message of] God’s Oneness, resurrection, reckoning and punishment, verily [other] messengers before you were denied, in this respect, so be steadfast as they were steadfast; and to God all matters are returned, in the Hereafter, when He will requite the deniers and grant victory to the messengers.
Verse 5
O mankind! Indeed God’s promise, of resurrection and of other issues, is true. So do not let the life of this world deceive you, from believing in [all of] that, and do not let the Deceiver, Satan, deceive you concerning God, on account of His forbearance and respiting [of sinners in this life].
Verse 6
Truly Satan is an enemy to you. So treat him as an enemy, by being obedient to God and do not obey him; he only summons his faction, his followers in disbelief, so that they may be among the inhabitants of the Blaze, the fierce Fire.
Verse 7
Those who disbelieve, theirs will be a severe chastisement; but those who believe and perform righteous deeds, theirs will be forgiveness and a great reward — this is a declaration of what [fate] will be for the adherents of Satan and what will be for his opponents [respectively].
Verse 8
The following was revealed regarding Abū Jahl and others: Is he, the evil of whose deeds is made [to seem] fair to him, by distortion, so that he deems it good […]? (a-fa-man, ‘is he [whose]’ constitutes the subject, the predicate of which is [an omitted] ‘like one whom God has guided?’ No! And this [predicate] is indicated by [what follows]). Indeed God leads astray whomever He will and guides whomever He will. So do not let your soul expire for their sake, for those to whom it has made [to seem] fair, out of sighings, by becoming anguished lest they do not believe. Indeed God is Knower of what they do, and He will requite them for it.
Verse 9
And it is God Who unleashes the winds (al-riyāha: a variant reading has al-rīha) and they raise clouds (fa-tuthīru’l-sahāba: the imperfect tense here is used to narrate the past), that is, they stir them up, then We drive them (there is a shift here from the third person [to the first person] address) to a dead land (read mayyitin or maytin), wherein is no plant life, and therewith revive the earth, of that land, after it has been dead, [after] its having been dried-out. In other words, We made seeds and grass grow in it: Such will be the Raising, that is, the Resurrection and the bringing [of the dead] back to life.
Verse 10
Whoever desires glory [should know that] all glory belongs to God, in this world and in the Hereafter, and it cannot be obtained from Him except through obedience to Him, so let such [a one] be obedient to Him. To Him ascends good words, that is to say, He is aware of such [good words], and these are [statements such as] ‘there is no god except God’ and the like; and as for righteous action, He exalts it, He accepts it; but those who plot evil, schemes against the Prophet — [as was the case] at the council assembly, in the way of imprisoning him, killing him or expelling him, as mentioned in [sūrat] al-Anfāl [Q. 8:30] — theirs shall be a severe chastisement and their plotting shall come to nothing: it shall be ruined.
Verse 11
And God created you from dust, by having created your father Adam from it, then from a drop of [seminal] fluid, in other words, from sperm, by creating his seed from it; then He made you pairs, males and females. And no female bears or brings forth except with His knowledge (illā bi-‘ilmihi is a circumstantial qualifier, in other words, ‘[except] that it is known by Him’) and no long-living person is given long life, in other words, the life of none is increased for one who has a long life, nor is anything diminished of his life, in other words, [of the life of] that same long-living person or some other long-living person, but it is [recorded] in a Book, namely, the Preserved Tablet. Surely that is easy for God.
Verse 12
Nor are the two [kinds of] seas alike: this one is extremely sweet, pleasant to drink and that one is salty, extremely bitter. Yet from each, of the two, you eat fresh meat, namely, fish, and obtain, from the salt — and it is also said, from both of them — ornaments which you wear, namely, pearls and coral. And you see, you sight, the ships therein, in each of the two [seas], ploughing through (mawākhira, in other words, tamkhuru’l-mā’a, meaning, ‘it cleaves it as it makes its way through it, coming and going by the same wind) that you may seek of His bounty, exalted be He, through commerce, and that perhaps you may give thanks, to God for this [bounty].
Verse 13
He, God, makes the night pass, enter, into the day, so that it becomes longer, and He makes the day pass into the night, so that it becomes longer, and He has disposed the sun and the moon, each, of them, moving, in its course, to an appointed term — [to] the Day of Resurrection. That is God, your Lord; to Him belongs [all] sovereignty. As for those on whom you call, [whom] you worship, besides Him, in other words, other than Him — and they are the idols — they do not possess [even] so much as the husk of a date-stone.
Verse 14
If you call on them, they will not hear your call, and [even] if they heard —hypothetically [speaking] — they would not [be able to] respond to you; and on the Day of Resurrection they will disown your [idolatrous] associations, in other words, your associating them with God [in power], that is to say, they will declare themselves innocent of you and of your worship of them. And none can inform you, about the state in the two abodes, like One Who is Aware, Knower, and this is God, exalted be He.
Verse 15
O mankind! You are the ones who are in need of God, in every state. And God, He is the Independent, [without any need] of His creatures, the Praised, the One Who is praised in whatever He does with them.
Verse 16
If He will, He can take you away and bring about a new creation, instead of you.
Verse 17
And that is not an arduous thing for God.
Verse 18
And no burdened soul shall bear the burden of another [sinful soul]. And should one, soul, burdened heavily, with sin, call for, some of, its burden to be borne, by another, nothing of it will be borne, even if, the one called, be a relative, kin, such as a father or a son — the impossibility of ‘having something borne [by another]’ in both instances is something ordained by God. You can only warn those who fear their Lord in secret, in other words, those who fear Him despite not having seen Him, for they are the ones to benefit from the warning, and observe the prayer, maintain [performance of] it. For whoever purifies himself, cleansing himself of idolatry and other [similar abominations], is purifying himself only for [the sake of] his own soul, because the reforming of his self pertains to him. And to God is the [end of the] journeying, the return in the Hereafter when He will requite according to deeds.
Verse 19
Nor are the blind and the seer equal, that is, the disbeliever and the believer [are not equal],
Verse 20
nor darkness — disbelief — and light — faith;
Verse 21
nor shade and torrid heat, namely, Paradise and the Fire;
Verse 22
nor are the living equal to the dead, the believers and the disbelievers [respectively] (the addition of the particle lā, ‘nor’, in all three instances is for emphasis). Indeed God makes to hear whomever He will, to be guided, so that such [a person] then responds to Him by embracing faith. But you cannot make those who are in the graves to hear, namely, the disbelievers — whom He has likened to the dead — [to hear] and so respond.
Verse 23
You are but a warner, to them.
Verse 24
Truly We have sent you with the truth, with [right] guidance, as a bearer of good tidings, to him who responds to it, and a warner, to him who does not respond to it. And there is not a community but there has passed, there has been, in it a warner, a prophet to warn it.
Verse 25
And if they, that is, the people of Meccans, deny you, those before them also denied: their messengers brought them manifest signs, miracles, and with scriptures, such as the scrolls of Abraham, and with the illuminating Book, namely, the Torah and the Gospel, so endure [patiently] as they endured.
Verse 26
Then I seized those who disbelieved, for their denial, and how was My abhorrence!, [how was] My rebuttal against them by way of punishment and destruction, in other words, it was appropriate.
Verse 27
Have you not seen, [have you not] realised, that God sends down water from the heaven, wherewith We bring forth (there is here a shift from the third person [to the first person] address) fruits of diverse hues, such as green, red, and yellow [fruits] and so on? And in the mountains are streaks (judad is the plural of judda, which is a mountain trail or the like) white and red, and yellow, of diverse hues, some intense and some pale, and [others] pitch-black? (gharābību sūd is a supplement to judadun, ‘streaks’, meaning, dark-black rocks: one commonly says aswad ghirbīb, but rarely ghirbīb aswad).
Verse 28
And of humans and beasts and cattle, there are diverse hues likewise, like the diversity of the [hues of] fruits and mountains. Indeed only those of God’s servants who have knowledge fear Him, in contrast to the ignorant, such as the disbelievers of Mecca. Truly God is Mighty, in His kingdom, Forgiving, of the sins of His faithful servants.
Verse 29
Indeed those who recite the Book of God and observe prayer, they maintain [performance of] it, and expend of what We have provided them secretly and openly, [to give] as alms and otherwise, anticipate a commerce that will never be ruined,
Verse 30
that He may pay them in full their rewards, the reward for their mentioned deeds, and enrich them out of His bounty. Truly He is Forgiving, of their sins, Appreciative, of their obedience.
Verse 31
And that which We have revealed to you of the Book, the Qur’ān, is the truth, confirming what was [revealed] before it, in other words, [confirming] the Books that came before it. Indeed, with regard to His servants, God is truly Aware and Seeing, knowing [both their] inward and outward aspects.
Verse 32
Then We gave the Book, the Qur’ān, to those of Our servants whom We chose, namely, your community. Yet some of them are those who wrong themselves, by failing to act fully in accordance with it, and some of them are moderate, acting in accordance with it most of the time, and some are those who take the lead in [performing] good works, so that in addition to his [acquiring] knowledge he disseminates it and shows [others] the way [to proper conduct] as well as acting in accordance [with the Qur’ān], by the leave of God, by His will. That, bequest to them of the Book, is the greatest favour!
Verse 33
Gardens of Eden, as a [permanent] residence, into which they will be admitted, the three [types of servants mentioned] (read active yadkhulūnahā, ‘they will enter it’, or passive yudkhalūnahā, ‘into which they will be admitted’, as the predicate of the subject jannāt, ‘gardens’) — therein they will be adorned (yuhallawna is a second predicate) with, some, bracelets of gold and pearls, studded with gold, and their garments therein will be of silk.
Verse 34
And they will say, ‘Praise be to God Who has removed, all, grief from us. Truly our Lord is Forgiving, of sins, Appreciative, of obedience,
Verse 35
Who out of His favour has made us to dwell in the Abode of [everlasting] Stay, wherein no toil shall touch us, nor shall we be touched by any fatigue’, lack of strength caused by exhaustion, [and this is] because [religious] obligations no longer apply therein (the second of these [‘fatigue’], which is consequent upon the first [‘toil’], is mentioned in order to make explicit the non-existence [of any toil in Paradise]).
Verse 36
And as for those who disbelieve, there will be for them the fire of Hell: they will neither be done away with, through death, so that they may die, and find rest, nor will any [aspect] of its chastisement be lightened for them, [not even for] a single moment. In this way, in the way that We requite these, We requite every ingrate, [every] disbeliever (read yujzā kullu kafūrin, ‘every ingrate is [so] requited’; or najzī kulla kafūrin, ‘[so] We requite every ingrate’).
Verse 37
While therein they will be crying out, calling for help in distress, howling and saying: ‘Our Lord! Bring us forth, from it, and we will act righteously, other than how we used to act’. But it will be said to them: ‘Did We not give you long life, enough, time, in which to take heed, for him who would take heed? And [moreover] the warner, the Messenger, came to you, but you did not respond to his call, so taste now [this chastisement]! For the evildoers, the disbelievers, have no helper’, to ward off from them the chastisement.
Verse 38
Truly God is Knower of the Unseen of the heavens and the earth; truly He knows well what is in the breasts, what is in the hearts — thus there is all the more reason that He should [also] have knowledge of other things, given the way people are.
Verse 39
It is He Who made you successors in the earth (khalā’if, ‘successors’, is the plural of khalīfa) in other words, one succeeding the other. So whoever disbelieves, of you, his disbelief will be to his own detriment, that is, the evil consequences of his disbelief [will be so]. And their disbelief does not increase the disbelievers with their Lord [in anything] except disfavour, wrath. And their disbelief does not increase the disbelievers [in anything] except loss, of [the reward of] the Hereafter.
Verse 40
Say: ‘Have you considered your associates on whom you call, [those whom] you worship, besides God?, in other words, other than God — and they are the idols whom you asserted to be partners of God, exalted be He. Show me, apprise me of, what [part] of the earth they have created. Or do they have some partnership, some share alongside God, in, the creation of, the heavens?’ Or have We given them a scripture, so that they are [acting] upon a clear proof, a definitive argument, therefrom?, to the effect that they have some partnership with Me? Nothing of the sort! Nay, but the evildoers, the disbelievers, promise one another nothing but delusion, falsehood, when they say that the idols will intercede for them.
Verse 41
Truly God sustains the heavens and the earth lest they disappear, in other words, He prevents them from disappearing. And if (wa-la-in: the lām is for oaths) they were to disappear there is none that can sustain them after Him, in other words, other than Him. Truly He is ever Forbearing, Forgiving, in deferring the punishment of the disbelievers.
Verse 42
And they, that is, the disbelievers of Mecca, swore by God their most solemn oaths, [they swore] with utmost effort [to be sincere] in them, that if a warner, a messenger, were to come to them, they would be more readily guided than any one of the communities, [than] the Jews, the Christians or others, in other words, [more readily guided] than any one of these — having [themselves] seen the extent to which these [groups] called each other liars, given that: The Jews say, ‘The Christians stand on nothing’, and the Christians say, ‘The Jews stand on nothing’, [Q. 2:113]. But when a warner, namely, Muhammad (s), did come to them, this, coming of his, only increased them in aversion, further away from [right] guidance,
Verse 43
acting with disdain in the land, against faith (istikbāran fī’l-ardi, an object denoting reason) and devising, acts of, evil, in the way of idolatry and otherwise; and evil schemes will beset, surround, only their authors, namely, the one who devises [such evil] (the qualifying of makr, ‘scheme’, with the noun al-sayyi’, ‘evil’, is intrinsic [to the fact that it is a scheme], and so the annexation of the former to the latter is said to be alternative usage in which the annexed term is implied, as a precaution against annexing a noun to an adjective). So do they expect, do they await, anything but the precedent of the ancients?, God’s way [of dealing] with them, such as chastising them for their denial of the messengers? Yet you will never find any change in God’s precedent, and you will never find any revision in God’s precedent, that is to say, chastisement is never replaced by anything else, nor is it ever meted out other than to the one who deserves it.
Verse 44
Have they not travelled in the land and seen the nature of the consequence for those who were before them — and they were mightier than these in power?, but [still] God destroyed them for their denial of the messengers. And God is not such that anything in the heavens or in the earth can escape Him, pre-empt Him or elude Him. Truly He is ever Knower, of all things, Omnipotent.
Verse 45
Were God to take mankind to task for what they have acquired, of acts of disobedience, He would not leave on its surface, that is, the earth’s, a single creature, a single living thing moving thereon. But He reprieves them to an appointed term, namely, [to] the Day of Resurrection. And when their term comes — then truly [they will know that] God is ever Seer of His servants, and so He will requite them according to [the nature of] their deeds, rewarding the believers and punishing the disbelievers.
Verse 1
Yā sīn: God knows best what He means by these [letters].
Verse 2
By the Definitive Qur’ān, made definitive by its marvellous arrangement and unique meanings,
Verse 3
you, O Muhammad (s), are indeed of those sent [by God],
Verse 4
on a (‘alā is semantically connected to the preceding [statement]) straight path, that is, [you follow] the way of the prophets before you, [enjoining] the affirmation of God’s Oneness and guidance (the emphasis expressed by the oath [in ‘by the definitive Qur’ān’] and the remainder [of the statement] is a response to the disbelievers’ saying to him, ‘You have not been sent [by God]!’ [Q. 13:43].
Verse 5
A revelation from the Mighty, in His kingdom, the Merciful, to His creatures (tanzīla’l-‘azīzi’l-rahīm is the predicate of an implicit subject, namely, al-qur’ān),
Verse 6
that you may warn, therewith, a people (qawman, connected to tanzīla, ‘a revelation’) whose fathers were not warned, in the period of the interval (al-fatra), so they, this people, are oblivious, to faith and right guidance.
Verse 7
The word, for chastisement, has already proved true, it has become due, for most of them, for they, in other words, most of them, will not believe.
Verse 8
Indeed We have put fetters around their necks, to bind to them their hands (because ghull [is a fetter that] shackles the hands to the neck), such that they, the hands, are, bound, up to the chins (adhqān is the plural of dhaqan, which is where the two sides of the beard meet) so that their heads are upturned, they are unable to lower them: this [statement] is figurative and is meant to indicate their inability to yield to faith or to lower their heads to it.
Verse 9
And We have set before them a barrier (read saddan or suddan in both instances) and behind them a barrier; so We have covered them, so they do not see — this is also figurative, depicting the way in which the paths of faith are closed to them.
Verse 10
And it is the same to them whether you warn them (read a-andhartuhum, pronouncing both hamzas; or by substituting an alif for the second one; 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 do not warn them, they will not believe.
Verse 11
You can only warn, in other words, your warning will only benefit, him who follows the Remembrance, the Qur’ān, and fears the Compassionate One in secret, who fears Him despite not having seen Him; so give him the good tidings of forgiveness and a noble reward, namely, Paradise.
Verse 12
Truly it is We Who bring the dead to life, for the resurrection, and record, in the Preserved Tablet, what they have sent ahead, during their lives, of good or evil, that they may be requited for it, and their vestiges, what conduct was followed after them as good practice. And everything (kulla shay’in is in the accusative because of the verb that governs it [and is the following]) We have numbered, We have recorded precisely, in a clear register, a clear Book, namely, the Preserved Tablet.
Verse 13
And strike for them as a similitude (mathalan is the first direct object) the inhabitants (ashāba is the second direct object) of the town, [of] Antioch (Antākya), when the messengers, namely, Jesus’s disciples, came to it (idh jā’ahā’l-mursalūna is an inclusive substitution for ashāba’l-qaryati, ‘the inhabitants of the town’).
Verse 14
When We sent to them two men, and they denied them both (from idh arsalnā ilayhim ithnayni fa-kadhdhabūhumā to the end is a substitution for the previous idh, ‘when’), so We reinforced [them] (read fa-‘azaznā or fa-‘azzaznā, in other words, We reinforced the two men) with a third, and they said, ‘We have indeed been sent to you [by God]’.
Verse 15
They said, ‘You are nothing but humans like us, and the Compassionate One has revealed nothing. You are only lying!’
Verse 16
They said, ‘Our Lord knows (qālū rabbunā ya‘lamu functions like an oath. Emphasis is intensified by this [oath] and also by the [addition of the] lām to what was before [simply, mursalūna, ‘we have been sent’] to counter their intensified denial) that we have indeed been sent to you [by Him]!
Verse 17
And our duty is only to communicate in clear terms’, to deliver the Message clearly and manifestly with plain proofs, such as the curing of the blind, the leper and the diseased and the bringing of the dead back to life.
Verse 18
They said, ‘We augur ill of you, for we have been deprived of rain because of you. If (la-in: the lām is for oaths) you do not desist, we will surely stone you and there shall befall you, at our hands, a painful chastisement’.
Verse 19
They said, ‘May your augury of ill be with you!, [as punishment] for your disbelief. What! [Even] if (a-in: the interrogative hamza has been added to the conditional in, ‘if’, the hamza may be pronounced or elided, but in both cases add an alif between it and the other one) [it be that] you are being reminded?, [even if] you are being admonished and made to fear [God’s chastisement]? (the response to the conditional has been omitted, that is to say, ‘do you augur ill and disbelieve [even if it be that you are being admonished]?’ and this [response] constitutes the object of the interrogative, which is meant [rhetorically] as a rebuke). Nay, but you are a profligate people!’, who transgressing the bounds [set by God] with your [practice of] idolatry.
Verse 20
And there came a man from the furthest part of the city — this was Habīb the carpenter, who had believed in these messengers and whose house lay at the far end of the city — hastening, with a hurried pace, after he had heard that the people had denied the messengers. He said, ‘O my people, follow the messengers!
Verse 21
Follow (ittabi‘ū, this reiterates the preceding [ittabi‘ū]) them who do not ask you for any reward, in return for [delivering to you] the message, and who are rightly guided. And so he was asked, ‘Do you follow their religion?’ So he replied:
Verse 22
And why should I not worship Him Who originated me, [Him Who] created me — in other words: there is nothing to prevent me from worshipping Him when the necessitating factors for this exist, and the same applies to you — and to Whom you shall be returned?, after death, whereupon He will requite you for your disbelief.
Verse 23
Shall I take (a-attakhidu: regarding the two hamzas here, the same applies as mentioned with regard to a-andhartuhum above; this is an interrogative meant as a denial) besides Him, in other words, other than Him, [other] gods, idols, whose intercession, [that intercession of theirs] which you assert, if the Compassionate One should wish me any harm, will not avail me in any way, nor will they [be able to] save me? (wa-lā yunqidhūn is an adjectival qualification of ālihatan, ‘gods’).
Verse 24
Truly then, in other words, in the case of me worshipping [gods] other than God, I would be in manifest error.
Verse 25
Lo! I believe in your Lord. So listen to me!’, in other words, hear what I have to say; but they stoned him and he died.
Verse 26
It was said, to him upon his death: ‘Enter Paradise!’ — but it is also said that he entered it while he was [still] alive. He said, ‘O (yā is for calling attention [to something]), would that my people knew
Verse 27
with what [munificence] my Lord has forgiven me, [would that they knew] of His great forgiveness, and made me of the honoured ones!’