Verse 53
Yet I do not exculpate my own soul, of slipping into error; verily the soul, as such, is ever inciting to evil, except that whereon, meaning the person [upon whom], my Lord has mercy, and so protects [from sin]. Truly my Lord is Forgiving, Merciful’.
Verse 54
And the king said, ‘Bring him to me, that I may use him for myself’, that I may make him mine exclusively, with none to share [him with me]. The messenger came to him [to Joseph] and said, ‘Respond to the king!’, and so he got up and bid farewell to [his] fellow-prisoners and prayed for them. He then washed himself, put on some good clothes and entered upon him. And when he had spoken with him, he said, to him: ‘Indeed you are on this day in our presence established and trustworthy’, a person of status, entrusted over our affair, so what do you think we should do? He said, ‘Gather food [stocks] and sow abundantly in these fertile years, then store the corn in its ears. People [from far and wide] will come to you and ask you to supply them [with provisions]’. He [the king] said, ‘Whom can I delegate this [task] to?’
Verse 55
He, Joseph, said, ‘Place me in charge of the storehouses of the land, the land of Egypt. I am indeed a skilled custodian’, one worthy of custodianship thereof, and knowledgeable in such affairs — it is also said [that he meant]: [I am indeed] a [competent] scribe and accountant.
Verse 56
Thus, in the same way that We were graceful towards Him by delivering him from prison, We established Joseph in the land, the land of Egypt, that he may settle in it wherever he wished, after [having suffered] hardship and imprisonment. According to the story, the king crowned him, gave him a signet-ring to wear, and appointed him in place of the Court officer, whom he removed from his position, and who later died; and so he [the king] made him [Joseph] take the latter’s spouse as a wife. He [Joseph] discovered that she was [still] a virgin and she bore him two children. He [Joseph] established justice in Egypt and people became subject to him. We confer Our mercy on whomever We will and We do not waste the wage of the virtuous.
Verse 57
Yet the wage of the Hereafter is better, than the wage of this world, for those who believe and are God-fearing. And so the years of drought arrived and afflicted the land of Canaan and Syria.
Verse 58
And Joseph’s brothers came — except for Benjamin — in order to secure provisions, when they found out that the [new] Court officer of Egypt was providing food at its [fair] price; and they entered to him, and he recognised them, to be his brothers, but they did not recognise him, not knowing who he was, because it had been a long time since they had seen him, and because they supposed that he had died. They spoke to him in Hebrew and he said to them, as if reproaching them: ‘What brings you to my land?’ They replied, ‘[We have come] for supplies’. He said, ‘You might be spies!’ They said, ‘God forbid!’ He said, ‘So where are you from?’ They said, ‘From the land of Canaan, our father is Jacob, the prophet of God.’ He said, ‘Does he have children other than you?’ They said, ‘Yes. We used to be twelve, but the youngest of us passed away: he perished in the wild. He was the most beloved to him [our father] from among us; only his full brother remains, and so he keeps him by his side, in order to comfort himself with him in place of the other.’ He [Joseph] commanded that they be given lodging and treated well.
Verse 59
And when he had equipped them with their provision, [when] he had given them the full measure [of food], he said, ‘Bring me a brother of yours from your father, namely, Benjamin, that I might know that you have been truthful in what you said. Do you not see that I give the full measure, that I complete it, without any fraud, and that I am the best of hosts?
Verse 60
But if you do not bring him to me, there will be no measure, that is, no provisions, for you with me; and do not come near [me]’ (wa-lā taqrabūn is [either] a prohibition, or a supplement to the [syntactical] locus of fa-lā kayla, in other words, ‘and you shall be denied [the measure] and will not [be allowed to] come near [me]’).
Verse 61
They said, ‘We will try to tempt his father away from him, that is, we will try our hardest to seek him from him. That we will surely do’.
Verse 62
And he said to his young men (li-fityatihi: a variant reading has li-fityānihi, ‘his servants’): ‘Place their merchandise, that [money] with which they bought the supplies, and these were a few dirhams, in their saddlebags, their [supply] sacks, so that they may recognise it when they return to their folk, and empty their sacks, and so come back’, to us, deeming it unlawful to retain these [monies].
Verse 63
So when they went back to their father, they said, ‘O father, the measure will be denied us, unless you send forth our brother to him [to the Court officer]; so send forth our brother with us, that we may obtain the measure (read naktal or yaktal, ‘that he may obtain the measure [for us’]). Surely we will guard him well’.
Verse 64
He said, ‘Should I — [I will] only — trust you with him like I trusted you with his brother, Joseph, before? despite [the fact] that you have done to him what you have done? Yet God is best at guarding (hifzan: a variant reading has hāfizan, ‘a guardian’, as a specification, similar to when they say li’Llāhi darruhu fārisan, ‘By God, how excellent a horseman he is!’); and He is the Most Merciful of merciful ones’, and so I hope that He will show favour [to me] by guarding him.
Verse 65
And when they opened their belongings, they found that their merchandise had been restored to them. They said, ‘O father, what [more] should we desire? (mā nabghī: mā is interrogative, that is to say: what greater thing than this can we ask for from the king’s generosity?’; a variant reading has mā tabghī, ‘what [more] do you desire?’, as an address to Jacob — for they had mentioned to him his [the king’s] generosity towards them). Here is our merchandise restored to us. And we shall get provisions for our family, we shall obtain supplies for them, namely, food, and guard our brother, and we shall receive an extra camel’s load, because of our brother; that will be an easy measure’, for the king [to grant us], given his munificence.
Verse 66
He said, ‘I will not send him with you until you give me a [solemn] pledge, a covenant, in the name of God, by your swearing an oath, that assuredly you will bring him back to me, unless you are besieged’, such that you die, or are overwhelmed and thus unable to bring him back. They agreed to this. And when they gave him their [solemn] pledge, to this effect, he said, ‘God shall be Guardian, Witness, over what we say’, we and you. Thus he sent him with them.
Verse 67
And he said, ‘O my sons, do not enter, Egypt, by one gate, but enter by separate gates, lest the evil eye smite you. Yet I cannot avail, protect, you, by this that I have said, against God (min Allāhi: min is extra) anything, which He might have decreed against you; this [that I have said] is only out of affection [for you]. Judgement belongs to God, alone. On Him I rely, in Him I trust, and on Him let all the trusting rely’.
Verse 68
God, exalted be He, says: And when they entered in the manner which their father had bidden them, that is, separately, it did not avail them anything (min shay’in: min is extra) against God, that is, [against] His decree; it was but a need in Jacob’s soul which he [thus] satisfied, and this [need] was his desire to fend off the evil eye [from them], out of affection [for them]. And verily he was possessed of knowledge, because We had taught him; but most of mankind — and they are the disbelievers — do not know, [about] God’s inspiring His elect.
Verse 69
And when they entered to Joseph, he took his brother into his arms, saying [to him]: ‘Truly it is me, your brother, therefore do not despair, do not be grieved, at what they did’, in the way of envying us. He commanded him not to tell them anything, and he [Joseph] agreed with him that he would devise a trick to keep him [Benjamin] with him.
Verse 70
And when he had equipped them with their provision, he put the drinking-cup, a golden cup studded with jewels, into the saddlebag of his brother, Benjamin. Then a crier shouted, a herald cried, after they were dismissed from Joseph’s court: ‘O cameleers, caravan, you are surely thieves!’
Verse 71
They said, after, coming towards them, ‘What is it that you are missing?’
Verse 72
They said, ‘We are missing the king’s goblet, [his] cup. And he who brings it shall have a camel’s load, of food [supplies], and I will guarantee that’, the [camel’s] load.
Verse 73
They said, ‘By God,’ (ta’Llāhi is an oath, entailing astonishment) ‘You know very well that we did not come to work corruption in the land, and we are certainly not thieves’, that is, we have never stolen [anything].
Verse 74
They, the crier and his men, said, ‘So, what shall be his requital, that is, the thief’s, if you prove to have been liars?’, when you said, ‘we are certainly not thieves’, and [if] it is found among your belongings?
Verse 75
They said, ‘His requital (qālū jazā’uhu: the subject, the predicate of which is [the following, man wujida fī rahlihi) shall be [the requital of] him in whose saddlebag it is found, that he be enslaved — this is then reiterated by His words: He, the thief, shall be the requital for it, that is, [for] the stolen item, and nothing else: this was the customary practice of the family of Jacob. Thus, [with such] a requital, do we requite those who do evil’, through theft. They thus permitted Joseph to have their saddlebags searched.
Verse 76
And so he began with their sacks, and searched them, before his brother’s sack, lest he be accused [of the theft]; then he pulled it, the drinking-cup, out of his brother’s sack. God, exalted be He, says: Thus, [through such] contrivance, did We contrive for Joseph, [thus] We taught him how to devise a plot to take his brother; he, Joseph, could not have taken his brother, as a slave, on account of theft, according to the king’s law, [according] to the laws of the king of Egypt — since his [a thief’s] requital according to his law would have been a beating and a penalty of twice [the value of] the stolen item, but not enslavement — unless God willed, for him to be taken according to the law of his father [Jacob]; in other words, he was only able to take him with God’s will, by God’s inspiring him to ask his brothers [about the nature of requital] and their responding according to [what is decreed by] their customary practice. We raise by degrees whom We will (read with a genitive annexation, darajāti man nashā’, or [simply] with nunation, darajātin man nashā’), in terms of knowledge, as [We did] with Joseph; and above every man of knowledge, from among creatures, is one who knows better, better than him [and so on] until it ends with God, exalted be He.
Verse 77
They said, ‘If he is stealing, a brother of his stole before’, that is, Joseph — he had stolen a golden idol from his maternal grandfather and smashed it, lest he worship it. But Joseph kept it secret in his soul and did not disclose it, manifest it, to them (the [suffixed] pronoun [in yubdi-hā, ‘disclose it’] refers to the word[s] in his [following] saying); he said, within himself: ‘You are a worse case, than Joseph and his brother, because of your stealing a brother of yours from your father, and your wronging him. And God knows very well what you are describing’, [what] you are mentioning with regard to him.
Verse 78
They said, ‘O Court officer, lo! he has a father, an aged man, who loves him more than we do, and who finds solace in him from [the anguish he feels for] his dead son; and it will grieve him to part with him, so take one of us, enslave him, in his place, instead of him: indeed we see that you are among the virtuous’, in [terms of] your actions.
Verse 79
He said, ‘God forbid (ma‘ādha’Llāhi, [lit.] ‘refuge is with God’, is in the accusative because it is a verbal noun, the verb having been omitted and placed in a genitive annexation with its direct object, in other words, [understand it as] na‘ūdhu bi’Llāhi, ‘we seek refuge with God’) that we should take anyone save him with whom we found our property — he did not say ‘[save] him who stole [our property]’, being careful not to lie; for then truly — if we were to take anyone other than him — we would be evildoers’.
Verse 80
So when they despaired of [moving] him, they withdrew to confer privately [together] (najiyyan is a verbal noun that can be used to refer to one person or more, in other words [understand it as meaning] yunājī ba‘duhum ba‘dan, ‘one conferring with the other’). The most senior of them, in years — Reuben — or, [the most senior of them] in opinion — Judah, said: ‘Are you not aware that your father has taken a solemn pledge, a covenant, from you by God, concerning your brother, and formerly (wa-min qablu mā: the mā is extra) you failed regarding Joseph? (but it [the mā] is also said to be relating to the verbal action, [in other words it is] a subject, the predicate of which is min qabl, ‘formerly’). So I will never leave, part with, this land, the land of Egypt, until my father permits me, to return to him, or God judges for me, through the deliverance of my brother; and He is the best, the fairest, of judges.
Verse 81
Go back to your father and say, “O our father, your son has indeed stolen and we testified, against him, only regarding what we knew, from the certainty of having seen the [king’s] cup in his saddlebag; we could not have guarded against the Unseen, that which was hidden from us, when we gave our pledge: had we known that he would steal, we would not have taken him [with us to Egypt].
Verse 82
And ask the city in which we were — namely Egypt — in other words, send forth [someone] to ask its people, and the caravan, the men of the caravan, with which we approached — and these were a group of Canaanites. Surely we speak the truth” ’, in what we say. So they went back to him and told him as much.
Verse 83
‘Nay,’ he said, ‘but your souls have beguiled you into, have adorned [for you], something, and you did it: he accused them because of what had happened with them before concerning Joseph. Yet comely patience, will be my [course of] patience! It may be that God will bring them, Joseph and his two brothers, all [back] to me. Indeed He is the Knower, of my predicament, the Wise’, in His actions.
Verse 84
And he turned away from them, no longer addressing them, and said, ‘Alas, my grief for Joseph!’ (yā asafā: the [final] alif [of asafā] has taken the place of the [possessive] yā’ of genitive annexation [sc. yā asafī], in other words [it means] yā huznī [‘O my sorrow’]). And his eyes turned white, their dark colour was effaced and became white on account of his tears, with grief, for him, such that he was [filled] with suppressed agony, anguished and grief-stricken, but not manifesting his grief.
Verse 85
They said, ‘By God, you will never cease remembering Joseph until you are consumed, on the verge of perishing, on account of your illness (it [haradan, ‘consumed’] is a verbal noun equally [applicable] to one person or more) or you are of those who perish’, [of] the dead.
Verse 86
He said, to them: ‘I complain of my anguish — (bathth is) severe grief, which cannot be endured unless it is proclaimed [yubaththu] to others — and grief only to God, not to any other than Him, for it is worth complaining to Him; and I know from God what you do not know, [and that is] that Joseph’s dream is true and that he is alive. Then he said:
Verse 87
O my sons, go and enquire about Joseph and his brother, seek news of them, and do not despair of God’s [gracious] Spirit, His mercy. Indeed none despairs of the [gracious] Spirit of God save the disbelieving folk’: and so they departed to Egypt [to look] for Joseph.
Verse 88
And so when they entered to him, they said, ‘O Court officer, misfortune, hunger, has befallen us and our family; and we have come with reject merchandise, refused by any person who sees it, because of its worthlessness — it consisted of counterfeit dirhams or something else — so fill up, complete, for us the measure and be charitable to us, by overlooking the worthlessness of our merchandise; truly God requites the charitable’, He rewards them: he [Joseph] thus took pity on them and he was overtaken by compassion [for them] and removed the partition between them and himself.
Verse 89
Then, he said, to them, in rebuke: ‘Do you realise what you did to Joseph, in the way of beating [him] and selling [him] and otherwise, and his brother, oppressing him, after having separated him from his brother, while you were ignorant?’, of where the affair of Joseph will lead?
Verse 90
They said — after recognising him by his noble traits — cautiously [inquiring]: ‘Is it really (read a-innaka, either pronouncing both hamzas, or by not pronouncing the second, but in both cases inserting an alif) you, Joseph?’. He said, ‘I am [indeed] Joseph, and this is my brother. God has truly shown favour, He has been gracious, to us, by bringing [us] together. Verily if one fears, [if] one fears God, and endures, what happens to him, God does not waste the wage of those who are virtuous’, in this [respect] (the overt noun [al-muhsinīn, ‘the virtuous’] has replaced the [third person] pronominalisation).
Verse 91
They said, ‘By God, truly God has preferred you over us, with kingship and in other ways, and indeed we (wa-in: in is softened, in other words [it is understood as] innā, ‘indeed we’) have been erring’, sinful towards you and treated you disgracefully.
Verse 92
He said, ‘There shall be no reproach, [no] blame, on you this day — he specifically mentions this [day] because it was [the day] when they expected to be reproached, although any other day would have been more appropriate [for them to be reproached on]. God will forgive you, and He is the Most Merciful of the merciful.
Verse 93
He [Joseph] asked them about his father; and they told him that his eyesight had gone. And so he said: Go with this shirt of mine — and this was the shirt of Abraham, the one he wore when he was thrown into the fire; he [Joseph] had it around his neck when he was at the bottom of the well. It [the shirt] had come from Paradise: Gabriel commanded him [Joseph] to send it off [to Jacob] saying that the scent of Paradise lingers in it, and whenever it is cast upon a sufferer, it heals him — and lay it on my father’s face, and he will recover his sight; and bring me all your folk’.
Verse 94
And as the caravan set forth, leaving behind the palm fields of Egypt, their father said, to those of his sons and their children present, ‘Truly I sense the scent of Joseph — which the east wind had brought to him, with God’s permission, across a distance of three or eight or more days’ journey; if only you did not think me doting’, [if only] you [did not] regard me as foolish, you would believe me.
Verse 95
They said, to him: ‘By God, you are certainly in your misguidance, your error, of old’, in your excessive adoration of him, and your [enduring] hope of encountering him [again] despite the length of time [that has passed].
Verse 96
Then, when (fa-lammā an: an is extra) the bearer of good tidings, Judah, came, with the shirt — he had [been the one who] brought the blood-stained shirt, and so now he wished to bring him joy, after he had [previously] brought him grief — he laid it, he cast the shirt, on his face and he regained his sight. He said, ‘Did I not say to you, “Indeed I know from God what you do not know?” ’
Verse 97
They said, ‘O our father, ask forgiveness for us of our sins; truly we have been sinful’.
Verse 98
He said, ‘Assuredly I shall ask forgiveness for you of my Lord. Lo! He is the Forgiving, the Merciful’: he [Jacob] put off this [plea of forgiveness] until [the last hour] before dawn, in order to be closer to [the likelihood of] it being accepted, or [he put it off] until the eve of Friday. They then departed for Egypt, where Joseph and the senior courtiers came out to meet them.
Verse 99
And when they entered to Joseph, in his tent, he took his parents, his father and his mother — or [and] his maternal aunt — into his arms, and said, to them: ‘Enter into Egypt, if God will, in safety’, and they entered, and Joseph sat down on his throne.
Verse 100
And he raised his parents, he seated them next to him, upon the throne, and they fell down, that is, his parents and brothers, prostrating before him — a prostration that was [actually] a bowing down, not placing their foreheads down [on the ground]; this was their standard [form of] greeting at that time. Then he said, ‘O father, this is the interpretation of my vision of old. Indeed my Lord has made it true. And indeed He has been gracious to me, since He brought me out of the prison — he did not say ‘out of the well’, in [a show of] magnanimity, lest his brothers feel ashamed — and has brought you from the desert after Satan had incited ill feeling, made trouble, between me and my brethren. Truly my Lord is Subtle in [bringing about] what He will. Truly He is the Knower, of His creatures, the Wise, in His actions. His father [Jacob] remained with him for 24 years, or for 17 years. The duration of his separation [from Joseph] had been 18, or 40, or 80 years. When death approached him, he charged Joseph to take him and bury him by his father [Isaac], and so he [Joseph] himself went and buried him there. He [Joseph] then returned to Egypt and remained [alive] for another 23 years.
Verse 101
When he was nearing his end, realising that he would not remain [alive] forever, he longed for the everlasting kingdom and said: My Lord, indeed You have given me [something] of sovereignty and You have taught me the interpretation of events, the ability to explain dreams. Originator, Creator, of the heavens and the earth! You are my Protector, Guardian of my best interests, in this world and the Hereafter. Take me [in death] to You in submission [to You] and join me to the righteous’, from among my fathers. He lived after that for another week or more. He died at the age of 120 years. The Egyptians were very covetous with regard to his grave; [eventually] they placed him in a marble coffin and buried him at the top of the Nile so that both banks would be blessed [by his body] — Glory be to the One Whose Kingdom never ends.
Verse 102
That, which is mentioned of the matter of Joseph, is of the tidings, the tales, of the Unseen, what has been hidden from you O Muhammad (s), which We reveal to you; for you were not with them, with Joseph’s brothers, when they agreed upon their plan, to plot against him, that is, [when] they resolved upon it, and schemed, against him; in other words, you were not present among them to know their story and so tell it to others: knowledge of it has come to you through revelation.
Verse 103
Yet, most people, that is, the people of Mecca, however eager you might be, that they believe, will not believe.
Verse 104
Nor do you ask them any wage, that you should take, for it, that is, [for] the Qur’ān — it, namely, the Qur’ān, is but a reminder, an admonition, to all the worlds.
Verse 105
And how many a sign, indicating the Oneness of God, is there in the heavens and the earth which they pass by, which they witness, but disregard!, not reflecting upon it.
Verse 106
And most of them do not believe in God, such that they might affirm that He is the Creator and the Sustainer, without ascribing partners, to Him, by worshipping idols; which is why, when crying their [ritual] response to God, they used to say: ‘At Your service, no partner have You, save a partner that belongs to You; You possess him and all that he possesses’, meaning it [when they said it].
Verse 107
Do they deem themselves secure from the coming upon them of a pall, a calamity enveloping them, of God’s chastisement, or the coming of the Hour upon them suddenly, while they are unaware?, of the time of its arrival beforehand?
Verse 108
Say, to them: ‘This is my way — which He explains by saying: I call to, the religion of, God, being upon sure knowledge, plain proof, I and whoever follows me, [whoever] believes in me (man ittaba‘anī is a supplement to anā, ‘I’, the subject, predicated by what preceded [sc. ‘being upon sure knowledge’]). So Glory be to God!, [in affirmation] of His being exalted high above having partners, and I am not of the idolaters’ — this [sentence] is also subsumed by the [explanation of] his statement about ‘his way’.
Verse 109
And We did not send before you [any messengers] save men inspired by revelation (yūhā ilayhim: a variant reading has nūhī ilayhim, ‘to whom We revealed’) — and not angels — from among the people of the towns, the principal towns, since they are more knowledgeable and wiser than the people of the desert, who are crude and ignorant. Have they, the people of Mecca, not travelled in the land and seen the nature of the consequence for those who were before them?, that is, how they ended up, when they were destroyed for denying their messengers? And verily the abode of the Hereafter, that is, Paradise, is better for those who are wary, of God. Will they not understand? (read a-fa-lā ya‘qilūn, or a-fa-lā ta‘qilūn. ‘Will you not understand?’), this, O people of Mecca, and so have faith?
Verse 110
Until (hattā indicates the end [result] indicated by [the previous statement] wa-mā arsalnā min qablika illā rijālan, And We did not send before you [any messengers] save men [above, Q. 12:109]), that is, [to whom] Our support waned until, when the messengers despaired and thought, [when] the messengers were certain, that they were denied (read kudhdhibū, to mean [that they were denied] to such an extent that [they believed that] there would not be any [possible acceptance of] faith thereafter; or read kudhibū, to mean that the communities thought that their messengers had been lied to concerning the victory which they had been promised), Our help came to them and whomever We willed We delivered (read fa-nunajjī or fa-nunjī; or fa-nujjiya, as past tense, ‘[whomever We wished] was delivered’). And Our wrath, Our chastisement, cannot be averted from the sinning, the idolatrous, folk.
Verse 111
Verily there is in their stories, that is, the messengers’ [stories], a lesson for people of pith, possessors of intellect. It, this Qur’ān, is not a fabricated, an invented, discourse but, it is, a confirmation of what was [revealed] before it, of scriptures, and a detailing, an elucidation, of everything, that one needs for [the proper observance of] religion, and a guidance, from error, and a mercy for a folk who believe: such [folk] are singled out for mention because they are the ones to benefit from it, to the exclusion of others.
Verse 1
Alif lām mīm rā’: God knows best what He means by these [letters]. Those, these verses, are the verses of the Book, the Qur’ān (the genitive annexation carries the meaning of [partitive] min, ‘from’), and that which has been revealed to you from your Lord, namely, the Qur’ān (this [preceding sentence] constitutes the subject, the predicate of which is [the following]), is the Truth, wherein is no doubt, but most people, that is, the people of Mecca, do not believe, that it is from God, exalted be He.
Verse 2
God is He Who raised up the heavens without visible supports (‘amad is the plural of ‘imād, which is [the same as] an ustuwāna, ‘a column’; and this [statement] is true, since there are no actual supports) then presided upon the Throne, a presiding befitting Him, and disposed, made subservient, the sun and the moon, each one, of them, moving, along its course, until [the conclusion of] an appointed time, that is, [until] the Day of Resurrection. He directs the command, He conducts the affairs of His Kingdom. He details, He expounds, the signs, the indications of His power, so that you, O people of Mecca, might be certain of the encounter with your Lord, through resurrection.
Verse 3
And He it is Who spread out, extended [flat], the earth and set, created, therein firm mountains and rivers, and of every fruit He has made in it two kinds, of every species. He covers, He cloaks, the night, and its darkness, with the day. Surely in that, which is mentioned, are signs, indications of His Oneness, exalted be He, for a people who reflect, upon God’s handiwork.
Verse 4
And on the earth are tracts, diverse terrains, neighbouring each other, joined side by side, some good, some briny, some of little yield and some fruitful — and these constitute proofs of His power, exalted be He — and gardens, orchards, of vines and sown fields (read zar‘un, in the nominative, as a supplement to jannātun, ‘gardens’, or read zar‘in, in the genitive, [as a supplement] to a‘nābin, ‘of vines’); similarly [constituting proofs of His power are] His words: and date-palms sharing one root (sinwān is the plural of sinw, which are date-palms belonging to the same root, but with many offshoots) and date-palms otherwise, [each] of individual root, watered (read tusqā as [referring to] jannāt, ‘gardens’, and what is in them, or read yusqā as [referring to] the mentioned [date-palms]) by the same [source of] water; and We make some of them to excel (wa-nufaddil, or read wa-yufaddil, ‘and He [God] makes [some of them] to excel’) others in flavour (read fī’l-ukul or fī’l-ukl): and so some are sweet, others, bitter — and these are [also] proofs of His power, exalted be He. Surely in that, which is mentioned, are signs for a people who understand, [who] reflect.
Verse 5
And if you wonder, O Muhammad (s), at the disbelievers denying you, then surely wondrous, [surely] deserving wonder, is their saying, in denial of resurrection: ‘When we have become dust, shall we indeed then be [raised] in a new creation?’, [it is wondrous] because the One Who has the power to originate creation and [to originate] what has been mentioned [above], without any precedent, has [also] the power to restore them [to life] (both hamzas, in both instances [a-idhā and a-innā], are pronounced; or [one may] pronounce the first and not pronounce the second, but in both cases inserting an alif or not [inserting it]; one variant reading has the first [a-idhā] as the interrogative, and the second one [a-innā] as the predicate, while another variant reading has the [exact] opposite). Those are the ones who disbelieve in their Lord; those — fetters shall be around their necks; and those, they shall be the inhabitants of the Fire, abiding therein.
Verse 6
The following was revealed regarding their hastening on, out of mockery, of the chastisement: And they would have you hasten on the evil, the chastisement, rather than the good, [rather than] mercy, when there have indeed occurred before them exemplary punishments (mathulāt is the plural of mathula, similar [in pattern] to samura [pl. samurāt], ‘acacia’), that is to say, the punishments of disbelievers like them: will they not take warning from these? Truly your Lord is forgiving to mankind despite their evil-doing, for otherwise He would not have left a single creature on the face of it [the earth]; and truly your Lord is severe in retribution, against those who disobey Him.
Verse 7
And those who disbelieve say, ‘Why has not some sign been sent down upon him, upon Muhammad (s), from his Lord!’, the like of the staff and the [glowing] hand, or the she-camel. God, exalted be He, says: You are only a warner, one to threaten the disbelievers, for it is not your duty to bring forth signs; and for every folk there is a guide, a prophet, to guide them to their Lord with the signs that He gives him, and not what with they request.
Verse 8
God knows what every female bears, of male or female, one or more, and otherwise, and what the wombs reduce, of the time of gestation, and what they increase, of it. And everything with Him is according to a [precise] measure, a [precise] amount and limit which it does not exceed;
Verse 9
[He is] the Knower of the unseen and the visible, [of] what is hidden and what is witnessed; the Great, the Tremendous, the High Exalted, above His creation, through His [overpowering] subjugation (read al-muta‘ālī or al-muta‘āl, ‘the High Exalted’).
Verse 10
[They are all] the same, according to His knowledge, exalted be He, those of you who speak secretly and those who do so openly, and those who lurk, [who] hide themselves, in the night, in its darkness, and those who go forth, [those who] are manifest [to view] when they make their way, by day.
Verse 11
For him, for man, are attendants, angels who follow him, to his front and to his rear, guarding him through God’s command, that is, by His command, from [the danger of] the jinn and others. Indeed God does not alter the state of a people — He does not deprive them of His grace — unless they have altered the state of their souls, from [their] comely nature, through an act of disobedience. And if God wills misfortune, chastisement, for a people there is none that can repel it, either from among the attendant angels or others; and they, for whom God wills misfortune, have no protector (min wālin: min is extra) to avert it from them, apart from Him, that is, other than God.
Verse 12
He it is Who shows you the lightning, [inspiring] fear, in travellers, of thunderbolts, and hope, for those who are at home, of rain; and He produces, He creates, the clouds that are heavy, with rain.
Verse 13
And the thunder — this is an angel, who is in charge of the clouds, driving them, [while he] constantly, proclaims His praise, that is, he says, ‘Glory be to God through His praise’ (subhāna’Llāh wa-bi-hamdihi), and so too the angels, proclaim His praise, in awe of Him, that is, of God. He unleashes the thunderbolts — these are a fire which issues forth from the clouds — and smites with them whom He will, such that it burns [that person]: this was revealed regarding a man to whom the Prophet (s) had sent someone to invite [to Islam] and who said, ‘Who is the Messenger of God? And what is God? Is He [made] of gold, or of silver, or of copper?’, whereupon a thunderbolt came down on him and blew off the top of his head; yet they, that is, the disbelievers, dispute, argue with the Prophet (s), about God, though He is great in might, in power, or in [the severity of His] retribution.
Verse 14
His, exalted be He, is the call of truth, that is, the words that constitute it [the truth], and these are: ‘there is no god but God’ (lā ilāha illā’Llāh); and those upon whom they call (read yad‘ūn or tad‘ūn, ‘you call’), [those whom] they worship, apart from Him, that is, other than Him — namely, the idols — do not answer them anything, of which they ask; save as, is the response to, one who stretches forth his hands towards water, at the edge of a well, calling to it, that it may reach his mouth, by its rising through the well to [reach] him, but it would never reach it, that is, [reach] his mouth, ever: likewise they [the idols] will not answer them; and the call of the disbelievers, their worship of idols — or their actual supplication — goes only astray, [it is only] in perdition.
Verse 15
And to God prostrate whoever is in the heavens and the earth, willingly, such as believers, or unwillingly, such as hypocrites and those coerced by the sword, and their shadows also, prostrate, in the mornings and the evenings.
Verse 16
Say, O Muhammad (s), to your people: ‘Who is the Lord of the heavens and the earth?’ Say: ‘God’ — and even if they do not say it, there can be no other response. Say, to them: ‘Then have you taken beside Him, other than Him, protectors, idols, to worship, who have no power to benefit or harm themselves?’, and you abandon the One Who is their Possessor? (an interrogative meant as a rebuke). Say: ‘Are the blind one and the seer, [respectively], the disbeliever and the believer, equal? Or are darkness, disbelief, and the light, faith, equal? No! Or have they set up for God associates who have created the like of His creation, so that creation seems alike, that is, [is] what the associates create and the creation of God [alike], to them?’, so that they believe them worthy of being worshipped on account of what these [associates] have created? (an interrogative of disavowal); in other words, not so! None save the Creator is worthy of being worshipped. Say: ‘God is the Creator of all things, having no associate therein, and so He cannot have an associate in terms of worship; and He is the One, the Subjugator’, of His servants.
Verse 17
He then strikes a similitude of truth and falsehood, saying: He, exalted be He, sends down water, rain, from the sky, whereat the valleys flow according to their measure, according to their full capacity, and the flood carries a scum that swells, rising above it, and this [scum] is the filth and the like that lies on the surface of the earth, and from that which they smelt (read tūqidūn, ‘you smelt’, or yūqidūn, ‘they smelt’) in the fire, of the earth’s minerals, such as gold, silver or copper, desiring, seeking [to make], ornaments, adornment, or ware, which is useful, such as utensils, when they [the minerals] are melted; [there rises] a scum the like of it, that is, the like of the scum of the flood, and this [latter scum] consists of the impurities expelled by the bellows. Thus, in the way mentioned, God points out truth and falsehood, that is, [He points out] the similitude thereof. As for the scum, of the flood and of the minerals smelted, it passes away as dross, useless refuse, while that which is of use to mankind, in the way of water and minerals, lingers, remains, in the earth, for a time: likewise, falsehood wanes and is [eventually] effaced, even if it should prevail over the truth at certain times. Truth, on the other hand, is established and enduring. Thus, in the way mentioned, God strikes, He makes clear, similitudes.
Verse 18
For those who respond to their Lord, [those who] answer Him, by way of obedience, there shall be the goodly reward, Paradise, and those who do not respond to Him, namely the disbelievers — if they possessed all that is in the earth, and therewith the like of it, they would offer it to redeem themselves therewith, against the chastisement. For such there shall be an awful reckoning, and that is that they will be requited for every single thing they did, none of which will be forgiven, and their abode shall be Hell, an evil resting place, it is!