English Al-Mukhtasar — Yunus 10:1 – Al-Isra 17:111

Alif Lām Rā’ – the placement of such letters has been discussed at the beginning of Sūrah Al-Baqarah.

Are the people amazed that Allah has sent revelation to a man like themselves, instructing him to warn them about the punishment of Allah, and telling those who have faith in Allah the good news that they will have a high rank with their Lord, glory be to Him, as a reward for the good actions they did? The disbelievers said that this man who came with these verses was clearly a magician.

Truly, your Lord is Allah, Who created the heavens in their greatness and the earth in its vastness in six days, and then established Himself on the Throne. Why do they wonder that a man from amongst them should be sent to them? Allah alone determines whatever He wills and no one can plead with Him on behalf of anyone unless Allah gives permission and is pleased with the one who pleads. That is Allah, your Lord, so devote your worship to Him alone being sincere to Him. Will you not then consider all of these proofs evidences that there is no god but He. Whoever heeds this reminder will know it to be true, and believe in Him.

You will return to Him alone on the Day of Judgement, when He will repay you for what you have done. Allah’s promise to humankind about this is a true. He is well capable of that. He made people from clay without precedent. He will bring them back again after their death to reward with justice those who had faith in Allah and did good actions, neither subtracting from their good actions nor increasing their bad actions. As for those who disbelieved in Allah and His Messenger, they will have a drink of boiling water which will affect their insides and for them is a painful punishment because of their disbelief in Allah and His Messenger.

It is He Who made the sun radiate light and made the moon a light illuminated by it, determining its progression through twenty-eight phases – a phase being the change it goes through every twenty-four hours – so that people would know the number of days by the sun and the number of months and years by the moon. Allah did not create the heavens and the earth and what is in them except with the truth, revealing His power and might to people. Allah makes clear these obvious signs and evidence that there is no god but Him for a people who know how to draw conclusions from such facts.

In the succession of the night and day, and the darkness and light that accompany this, and the shortness of one and length of the other, and in the created things in the heavens and the earth, are signs showing the power of Allah for a people who are Mindful, following what He instructs and staying away from what He has prohibited.

The disbelievers who do not prepare themselves for their meeting with Allah, not fearing it or desiring it, who are satisfied with the life of the world, which is passing, instead of the eternal life of the Afterlife, feeling themselves at home in this world and content with it, and who do not consider Allah’s signs –

Their dwelling place on the Day of Judgement will be the fire of Hell, because of what they earned through their disbelief and rejection.

Those who have faith in Allah and do good actions, Allah will guide them because of their faith to doing more good actions that lead to His Pleasure. Then on the Day of Judgement, Allah will enter them into gardens of eternal bliss with rivers flowing beneath them.

Their prayer in Paradise will be the glorifying of Allah; and the greeting of Allah to them and the angels and their greeting to each other will be ‘Peace’ and the end of their prayer will be praising Allah, the Lord of all creation.

If Allah responded quickly to people who pray for evil upon themselves, their children, or their wealth when they are angry, in the way He responds to them when they pray for good, they would have been destroyed. But Allah gives them time. He abandons those who do not expect to meet Him, because they do not fear the consequences of their actions, or hope for a reward, leaving them wavering and uncertain, sceptical about the Day of Judgement.

When those who transgress suffer from an illness or misfortune, they call on Allah, humbling themselves and invoking Him, lying on their sides, or sitting or standing, wanting Him to remove the misfortune from them; but when Allah answers their prayers, removing their suffering, they continue doing what they had been doing before, as if they had never called on Allah to remove their misfortune. Just as continuing in their error is made to look attractive to them, the disbelief and disobedience of the person who oversteps the limits is made to look attractive to them, so they do not give it up.

And indeed I destroyed communities before you, because they rejected the messengers of Allah and fell to sin. Though their messengers came to them with clear proofs showing the truth of what they brought from their Lord, they were not keen to believe and so Allah abandoned them. Just as Allah repaid those previous, disobedient communities, He repays those who are like them in every time and place.

Then He made you successors to these communities who rejected the truth and who were destroyed, to see what you would do, and whether you would do good, for which you would be rewarded; or do evil, which you would have to face the consequences of.

If the clear ayahs of the Qur’ān are recited to them proving the Oneness of Allah, those who deny the resurrection and who do not expect a reward or fear any consequences tell Muhammad to bring a different Qur’ān other than this Qur’ān which attacks the worship of idols, or to change it, substituting some or all of it for what agrees with their desires. Allah told Muhammad to say to them that it is not up to him to change anything himself, and what is more, he would not be able to come with something else. Rather, it is Allah alone Who changes what He wills of it, and the Messenger only follows what Allah reveals to him, fearing that if he went against Allah, by doing as they asked him to, he would be punished for it on a mighty day, the Day of Judgement.

Say to them O Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): If Allah had willed I would not have recited the Qur’ān to you, and it would not have been conveyed to you. And if Allah had willed, you would not have come to know this Qur’ān from my mouth. For I have lived among you for a long time- for forty years, not reading or writing, nor did I seek this type of knowledge or search for it. Can you not reason and realise that what I have brought you is from Allah, and not invented by myself?

There is no greater wrongdoer then he who makes up a lie about Allah, so how could I make a change in this Qur’ān, inventing a lie about it as you want me to? Those who overstep the limits of Allah by inventing lies about Him will not succeed.

The idolaters worship what they claim to be gods beside Allah, which cannot benefit or harm them, while Allah can benefit and harm as He wills; and they say that the things they worship will plead with Allah on their behalf, so that they will not be punished for their sins. Ask them O Messenger, 'Would you inform Allah, the Knowing, that He has a partner, when He does not know of a partner for Himself in the heavens or the earth?!' Allah is divine and far above the falsehood and lies of the idolaters.

People were just one believing, unified nation, then they differed: some of them still had faith, while others disbelieved. If it had not been for the decree of Allah that He would not judge between them in what they differed about, then it would have been made clear which of them were guided and which of them were astray.

The idolaters ask why a sign is not sent to Muhammad from his Lord to prove the truth of what he says. Say to them O Messenger, 'The sending down of signs is Allah’s knowledge alone, so wait for the sign you ask for, as I am also waiting along with you for it.'

If Allah makes the idolaters experience some mercy, such as rain and abundance after drought and suffering, they start to plot and scheme in rejection of Allah’s signs. Say O Messenger to these idolaters, that Allah is quicker at plotting and in enticing and luring them, and quicker in dealing His Punishment. The angels record what they plan in the way of scheming, and nothing escapes them, so how could it escape their Creator? Allah will repay them for their scheming.

It is Allah Who makes people travel on the land, on foot or riding, and it is He Who makes them travel in ships on the sea. They sail in them with a good wind, which the people in them are glad about. Then a gale wind comes to them, and the waves of the sea come to them from every side, until when they are certain they will be destroyed they start to call upon Allah alone, not associating anything with Him, saying: 'If You save us from this deadly situation we will be truly thankful for what You have blessed us with.'

But when He answers their prayer, and saves them from their distress, they cause corruption in the earth, disbelieving and committing wrongdoing and sins. Wake up and realise O People! The evil consequences of your sins and transgression only falls upon yourselves and does not hurt Allah in any way. They enjoy it in the life of this world which is passing, and then they return to Allah on the day of Judgement, and He will inform them of the wrongdoing they used to do, and repay them for it.

The example of the life of this world, and the enjoyment in it, and how quickly it comes to an end, is that of the rain which is absorbed by the plants of the earth, from which people eat grains and fruits, and animals benefit from its vegetation. When the earth has taken on its bright colour and looks beautiful because of the different plants growing on it, and the people think that they will be able to harvest and gather what has grown, Allah’s command comes to destroy it, so as if it had been harvested and not been full of anything. This is how Allah makes clear the true reality of the wroldly life and how He expounds upon His verses and signs so you may think about them and take a powerful lesson.

And Allah calls all people to His Paradise which is the Home of Peace, where people will be safe from difficulties and worries, and safe from death; and Allah enables whom He wills of His servants to come to Islam, guiding and leading them to this Home of Peace.

Those who do good, including that which Allah made obligatory on them, and stay away from the sins that Allah has prohibited, will receive the best reward, which is Paradise, and even more, which is to see the noble face of Allah. Neither dust, nor humiliation nor disgrace will cover their faces. Such people who do good are the companions of Paradise, where they will remain eternally.

Those who do bad actions – disbelieving and doing wrong – will receive equal repayment in the Afterlife for the sins they committed in this life. Their faces will be covered in humiliation and disgrace, and there will be no one to save them from the punishment that Allah will give them. It will be as if their faces were covered by patches of blackness of the dark night because of the great amount of smoke and blackness that will reach them from the fire of Hell. Such people are the companions of the fire of Hell, where they will live eternally.

And remember O Messenger, the Day of Judgement, when Allah will gather together all of creation, and will tell those who associated partners with Allah in the world to stay in their place – they and the ‘gods’ they used to worship beside Allah. Then He will separate those who were worshipped from those who worshipped them; and those who were worshipped will free themselves from those who worshipped them, saying, ‘It was not us you worshipped’.

Their so called gods dissasociate themselves from them, saying that Allah is sufficient as a witness that they were not happy being worshipped by them, nor did they command them to do so, nor were they aware of their worship of them!

In that great place each soul will be informed of what it did in the life of the world. Then the idolaters will return to their true Lord, Who is Allah, Who has power over their reckoning, and the intercession of idols that they made up will be non-existent.

Say O Messenger to these idolators, 'Who is it that provides for you from the sky, sending down rain; who provides for you from the earth, with the plants that grow in it and what it contains of metals and minerals; and who brings the living from the dead, like humanity from a drop of semen and the bird from the egg; and who brings the dead from the living, like semen from animals, and the egg from the bird? And who governs everything in the heavens and the earth and what has been created in them? They will reply that Allah is the One Who does all of this. Say to them that, if they know this, they should be mindful of Him, following what Allah instructs and staying away from what He has prohibited.

The One who does all of that O people is Allah, The Truth, your Creator and the Manager of your affairs. Then besides truth, what is there except error and loss? How do you turn away from the clear truth, with its proofs, to falsehood whims and desires?

Just as the Lordship of Allah is established, His Decree has also been established; that those who turn away from the truth out of pride will not have faith.

Say to them O Messenger: 'Is there are any of their ‘partners’ who they worship beside Allah, who originate creation from nothing, and bring it back to life after death?' Tell them: 'Allah originates creation from nothing, and then brings it back to life after death, so how can you O idolaters turn away from the truth to falsehood?'

Say to them O messenger: 'Is there are any of their ‘partners’ who they worship beside Allah, one who guides to the truth? Is He Who guides people to the truth and calls them to it more worthy of being followed, or your so-called gods which cannot guide themselves unless they are guided? What is wrong with you that you judge so falsely, claiming that they are ‘partners’ to Allah? Allah is far above what you say.'

Most of the idolaters only follow matters that they have no knowledge about, only guessing and assuming. Mere assumption cannot take the place of knowledge and can be of no use against it. Allah knows all that they do, nothing of what they do is hidden from Him, and they will be rewarded accordingly.

This Qur’ān, miraculous in its eloquence and law-giving, could not be fabricated, and it cannot be attributed to anyone but Allah, because people are not capable of coming up with anything similar to it. Rather, it confirms the scriptures that were revealed before it, and clarifies the laws in it, and there is no doubt that it was revealed by the Lord of all created things.

Or do these idolaters say that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) came up with the Qur’ān himself claiming that it is from Allah? Say to them O Messenger, 'If I as a human being like you, have been able to come up with it, then you also should bring a chapter like it, and call upon whomever you wish to assist you, if you are telling the truth in claiming that the Qur’ān is not really from Allah. But you have not be able to do so, even though you are talented and eloquent in the language – showing you that the Qur’ān has been revealed by Allah.'

Yet the disbelievers do not respond to these challenges, but reject the Qur’ān before even thinking about it, without understanding it, and the punishment about which they have been warned has not yet come to them, although it is near!. In the same way, past communities rejected the truth, and Allah sent His punishment upon them. So reflect upon the end of these communities who rejected the truth, because they were destroyed by Allah.

There are idolaters who believe in the Qur’ān before their death, and there are those who do not believe in it out of stubbornness and pride until they die. Allah knows best those who persist in their disbelief and ingratitude, and will repay them for their actions.

If they reject you O Messenger, then you will be rewarded for what you do, and your actions are your responsibility; and that they will be repaid for what they do, and they will have to deal with the consequences of their actions. They will not be responsible for what happens to you, and you are free from what happens to them.

And some of the idolaters listen to you O Messenger as you recite the Qur’ān not wanting to accept it and follow it. Are you able to make deaf people hear? Likewise you cannot guide those who are deaf to the truth, as they will not understand it.

And from them are those who see you O Messenger with their normal eyesight, but not with the vision of insight. Is it possible for you to make the blind see? You are not able to do so, and likewise you is unable to guide those who lack perception and understanding.

Without doubt, Allah is far too High and Exalted that He would wrong people, and He does not wrong them by even the weight of an atom. Rather, it is they who wrong themselves, bringing about their own ruin because of clinging to falsehood, pride and stubbornness.

On the day that Allah gathers people on the Day of Judgement, to bring them to account, it will be as if they had lived on earth and then waited after death for the Day of Judgement for only an hour, and no more. They will recognise each other on that day, but then their acquaintances will be cut off from them because of the intensity of the terrors they witness on the Day of Judgement. The losers will be those who rejected the meeting with their Lord on the Day of Judgement and who did not believe in the day or resurrection so that they could safeguard themselves from loss.

Regardless of whether Allah shows the Messenger (peace be upon him)some of the punishment He promises them before his death, or He makes him die before this, they will return to Allah on the Day of Judgement. Moreover, Allah is a witness to what they used to do, none of it being hidden from Him, and they will be repaid for their actions.

Every past nation had a messenger sent to them. When the messenger delivered to them what he was instructed to, and they rejected him, it was judged justly between him and them. Allah saved the messenger out of His grace, and destroyed them through His justice; and they were not wronged in any way in the repayment for what they did.

The stbborn disbelievers say: 'When will the punishment you promised to us occur, if you are telling the truth.'

Say to them O Messenger, 'I have no control over anything benefiting or harming me, so how can I control benefit or harm for other people, apart from what Allah wills? How then do I know the Ghaib? Allah has appointed a set time for the destruction of every nation; but only Allah knows the times. If the time of your destruction has arrived, it cannot be brought forward or delayed by even a second.'

Say O Messenger to these people who wish to hasten on the punishment: 'Inform me if the punishment of Allah came toy ou at any time of the night or day, what is it of this punishment exactly that you want to be brought quickly– happiness and joy? Or would it be sorrow and regret? Therefore, you should not seek to hasten it.'

Or is it that they will believe after the promised punishment has come down upon them, when believing will not benefit anyone who had not previously brought faith? Is it now that they will believe? And before they were seeking to hasten it because they did not believe in it?!

Then when they have been made to enter the punishment and they will seek to be removed from it, it will be said to them: 'Taste the everlasting torment of the Hereafter. Are you not being repaid except for your disbelief and disobedience?

The idolaters ask you O Messenger f this punishment which they have been promised is true? Tell them: 'By Allah! It is the very truth and you cannot get away from it.'

If every person who associated partners with Allah possessed all the valuable wealth on earth, they would offer it as ransom from Allah’s punishment if they were given the opportunity to do so. The idolaters will conceal their regret for their disbelief when they see the punishment on the Day of Judgement. Allah will decide between them with justice and they will not be wronged, and they will only be repaid for their actions.

The control of whatever is in the heavens and earth is only Allah’s. Allah’s promise of punishment for the disbelievers will undoubtedly occur, but most of them do not know that and are therefore in doubt.

He, may He be glorified, raises the dead and causes the living to die. It is to Him alone that you will be returned on the Day of Judgement. He will then repay you for your actions.

O people, now this Qur’ān has come to you, a powerful reminder, encouragement and warning. It is a cure for the illnesses of doubt and uncertainty that are in the hearts. It contains guidance to the path of truth and is a mercy for the believers, who are the ones who benefit from it.

Say, O Messenger, to the people: The Qur’ān that Muhammad (peace be upon him) brought to you is Allah’s grace and mercy to you. So rejoice in Allah’s grace and mercy to you by way of the revelation of this Qur’ān, and not in anything besides this. What Muhammad (peace be upon him)brought to them from His Lord is better than the temporary and trivial things of this world.

Say, O Messenger, to these idolaters: Tell me about Allah’s favour to you by way of the provision that He sent down, which you treated as you wished by making some unlawful and some lawful. Also, say to them: Did Allah give you permission in declaring those things lawful or unlawful, or are you making up lies about Allah?

What do those who invent lies about Allah think will happen to them on the Day of Judgement? Do they think they will be forgiven? Never! Allah is Bountiful to people by giving them respite and not punishing them immediately; but most people deny Allah’s favours to them and are not grateful for them.

You, O Messenger, do not get involved in any matter, nor do you recite any portion of the Qur’ān, nor do you, O believers, do any action, except that I see you. I know about you when you act, and I hear you. The weight of an atom, in the sky or on earth, is not hidden from the knowledge of your Lord. Nor is there anything lesser or more in weight, except that it is recorded in a clear book that does not omit anything, no matter how small or big it may be.

The friends of Allah will not have any fear of the terrors to come on the Day of Rising and they will not grieve over the pleasures of the world that they missed.

The friends of Allah are those who possess the qualities of having faith in Allah and following His Messenger; they are mindful of Allah by fulfilling His instructions and avoiding His prohibitions.

There is good news for these friends of Allah from their Lord, which will make them happy in the life of this world by means of good dreams and praise from people. They will also receive good news from the angels when they take away their souls. Allah’s promise will never be broken. That reward is the great success because it entails the fulfilment of their desires and salvation from what they fear.

Do not grieve, O Messenger, over what these people say in an attempt to insult or attack your religion. All power and dominion belongs to Allah. Nothing is outside His ability. He is the One Who hears their statements and knows their actions, and He will repay them for that.

The control of whoever is in the heavens and earth is only Allah’s. What is it that the idolaters who worship partners besides Allah are following? In reality, they are only following doubt and they are only lying when they attribute partners to Allah. Allah is far above their statements.

It is He alone Who has made the night for you, O people, to take rest from tiredness. He has made the day bright for you to work and earn your livelihood. In that there are clear evidence for a people who listen with a view to being mindful and accepting.

Some of the idolaters said, ‘Allah has taken the angels as daughters’. Allah is free of their statement. He, may He be glorified, is Self-sufficient and is not in need of any of His creation. The control of whatever is in the heavens and the earth is His. You, O idolaters, do not have any proof for this statement of yours. Are you saying such a serious statement about Allah – by attributing a child to Him – even though you do not know the reality of this and you have no proof?

Say to them, O Messenger: Those who invent lies about Allah – by attributing a child to Him – will not achieve what they desire and will not be saved from what they fear.

They should not be deceived by the luxuries of the world they enjoy. This is a brief and temporary enjoyment and then they will return to Me on the Day of Judgement. I will then make them taste the fierce punishment because of their disbelief in Me and rejection of My Messenger.

Relate, O Messenger, to these denying idolaters the story of Noah (peace be with him) when he said to his people: O my people, if my being amongst you is hard for you, and my reminding you of Allah’s signs and advising you is too difficult, and you have resolved to kill me, so I place my reliance in Allah alone to make your plots fail. So make a firm decision about your matter: resolve to destroy me and call your gods to help you and do not let your plot be an obscure secret. After your plan to kill me, go ahead and finish what you secretly intend and do not give me a moment of respite.

If you ignore my invitation, then you know that I have not asked for any reward from you for my conveying the message of my Lord to you. My reward is only from Allah, whether you have faith in me or not. Allah has instructed me to be of those who devote themselves to Him with obedience and good actions.

Noah’s people denied him and did not accept him. I therefore saved him and those believers who were with him in the ship. I made them the successors of those before them; and I destroyed those who rejected the signs and evidence that he brought by means of the Flood. So reflect, O Messenger, over the fate of the people who were warned by Noah (peace be with him) but did not believe.

Then, after a period of time, We sent, after Noah, messengers to their people. The messenger came to their communities with overwhelming miracles and pure laws. But they had no intention to believe on account of their previous insistence on rejection of the messengers. Allah therefore sealed their hearts. Just as We sealed the hearts of the followers of the messengers of the past We will seal the hearts of the disbelievers who overstep Allah’s limits by committing disbelief in every time and place.

After a period of time, following these messengers, I sent Moses and his brother, Aaron, to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and the nobles from his people. I sent them with miracles indicating their truthfulness, but the people of Pharaoh were too proud to accept what the messengers brought. They were a sinful people because of their disbelief in Allah and rejection of His messengers.

When the truth was brought by Moses and Aaron (peace be upon them) to Pharaoh and the nobles from his people, they said: These miracles – of the staff and the hand – that Moses has brought is clear magic and is not the revealed truth.

Moses said to them in disapproval: Are you calling the truth, when it has come to you, magic? Never! This is not magic. I know that a magician can never be successful, so why would I practise magic?

The people of Pharaoh gave Moses the following response: Have you brought this magic to turn us away from the religion we found our fathers following, so that you and your brother can gain control of us? We are not going to believe you two, O Moses and Aaron.

Pharaoh said to his people, ‘Bring me every person who is knowledgeable and skilled in magic’.

When the magicians were brought to Pharaoh, Moses (peace be upon him) said to them with full faith that he would defeat them, ‘Throw down, O magicians, whatever you have to throw’.

When they threw down their magical spells, Moses (peace be upon him) said to them: What you have shown is magic. Allah will cause what you have done to be nothing and of no effect. You cause corruption on earth by means of your magic and Allah does not set right the action of a person who causes corruption.

Allah will establish the truth and give it weight with His words of decree and with the proof and evidence contained in His words of law, even though the sinful disbelievers from the people of Pharaoh dislike it.

The people resolved to turn away and none accepted Moses (peace be upon him), despite the open miracles and clear proof he brought, besides a few youth from his people, the Israelites. Those who persisted in rejection did so out of fear that Pharaoh and the nobles from his people would turn them away from their faith by imposing a punishment on them if they came to know of their belief. Pharaoh was high-handed in his authority over Egypt and its people, and he was of those who overstepped the limit with respect to disbelief and in killing and punishing the Israelites.

Moses (peace be upon him) said to his people, ‘O my people, if you have true faith in Allah, place your reliance in Him alone, if you have submitted. Placing reliance in Allah will protect you from harm and will bring you good’.

They responded to Moses (peace be upon him) and said to him: In Allah alone we place our trust. O our Lord, do not give the wrongdoers power over us because they will try to take us away from our religion by inflicting punishments on us, by killing us and by tempting us.

Rescue us through Your mercy, O our Lord, from the hands of the people of Pharaoh who are disbelievers, because they have made us into slaves and have harmed us by inflicting punishments on us and by killing us.

I revealed to Moses and his brother, Aaron (peace be upon them), that they should select and make homes for their people to worship Me alone; that they should make their homes face the direction of the qiblah (which was then Jerusalem); and that they should perform the ritual prayer with perfection. I also told Moses to inform the believers of news that will please them: the news of My assistance and support for them; My destruction of their enemy; and My making them successors on earth.

Moses (peace be upon him) said: O our Lord, You have given Pharaoh and the nobles from his people the glitz and glamour of this world. You have also given them wealth in this worldly life; but they were not grateful to You for what You gave them. Instead, they used that to mislead others from Your path. O our Lord, utterly destroy their wealth. Make their hearts hard so that they do not believe, unless they see the painful punishment at a time when their belief will be of no benefit to them.

Allah said to Moses and Aaron that He had accepted their prayer against Pharaoh and the nobles from his people. He instructed them to remain firm on their religion and not to deviate from it by following the path of the ignorant ones who do not know the path of truth.

I made the Israelites safely cross the sea after I split it open. Pharaoh and his troops pursued them out of oppression and enmity. Then, when the sea closed on him, bringing them to the point of drowning and he lost all hope of being saved, he said, ‘I believe that there is no being worthy of worship besides the One Whom the Israelites have accepted, and I am one of those who submit to Allah by following Him’.

Do you believe now after losing hope of life? You, O Pharaoh, had gone against Allah before the punishment by disbelieving in Him and preventing others from His path and you were one of those who spread corruption because of your own misguidance and your leading others astray.

So today I will take you out, O Pharaoh, from the sea and place you on a high piece of ground so that those who come after you can take a lesson from you. But many people are unmindful of My proof and evidence indicating My power, and they do not reflect over them.

I settled the Israelites in a fine and excellent place in the blessed lands of the Levant; and I provided them with pure and lawful provision. They did not differ in the matter of religion until the Qur’ān came to them confirming what they read in the Torah about the description of Muhammad (peace be upon him). When they rejected the revelation, their homelands were taken away from them. Your Lord, O Messenger, will decide between them on the Day of Judgement regarding the things they differed about; and He will repay those who were on truth, as well as those who were false, with what they deserve.

If you, O Messenger, are in doubt or confusion about the reality of the Qur’ān that I have revealed to you, then ask those Jews who read the Torah and the Christians who read the Gospel to confirm it. They will tell you that what was revealed to you is the truth because they have the description of it in their scriptures. The truth, about which there is no doubt, has come to you from your Lord, so do not be of those who have doubt.

Do not be of those who deny Allah’s proof and evidence, because that will make you one of those who have lost their own souls by bringing them to the point of destruction because of their disbelief. All these warnings are meant to show the seriousness of doubt and denial, despite the fact that the Prophet is protected from such things.

Those against whom Allah’s decree – that they will die as disbelievers due to their insistence on it – is established will never believe –

Even if every explanatory or universal sign comes to them, until they witness the painful punishment and believe at a time when their belief will not benefit them.

Never did a town to which I sent messengers to believe in faith validly and beneficially and before seeing the punishment, except the people of Jonah. When they truly accepted faith, I removed the punishment of disgrace and humiliation from them in the worldly life, and I let them have enjoyment until the end of their lives.

If your Lord, O Messenger, had willed for everyone on earth to believe, they would have done so. However, He did not will it to be so for a wise reason. He misguides whomever He wills through His justice; and He guides whomever He wills through His grace. You do not have the ability to force people to become believers: their guidance to faith lies only in Allah’s Hands.

It is not possible for any soul to believe by itself unless Allah permits. Belief only happens with His will, so do not lose yourself in grief over them. Allah places suffering and disgrace on those who do not apply their minds to His proof, instructions and prohibitions.

Say, O Messenger, to the idolaters who ask you for signs: Think about the signs that are in the heavens and the earth, which indicate Allah’s Oneness and power. Sending down signs and messengers are of no use for people who will not believe because of their insistence on disbelief.

Are these denying people waiting for something similar to what Allah imposed on the past communities who had denied? Say, O Messenger, to them, ‘Wait for Allah’s punishment. I too am waiting with you for Allah’s promise’.

Then I will send down the punishment on them and I will save My messengers and those of faith with them, so that they are not injured by what hurts their people. Just as I saved those messengers and the believers with them, I will most certainly save Allah’s Messenger and the believers with him, which is My duty to them.

Say, O Messenger: O people, if you are in doubt about my religion which I call you towards, the religion of monotheism, then I am certain of your religion being false and I will therefore not follow it. I will not worship those whom you worship besides Allah, but I will only worship Allah, the One Who will cause you to die. He has instructed me to be of those who are sincere to Him in religion.

He has likewise instructed me to remain firm on the true religion, inclining away from all other religions, and He has prohibited me from being one of those who associate partners with Him.

Do not worship, O Messenger, besides Allah, the idols and false gods that have no ability to benefit others, nor can they inflict harm on others. If you worship them, you will then be one of the wrongdoers who breaks Allah’s right and the right of their own souls.

If Allah afflicts you, O Messenger, with a disaster and you desire to remove it, then know that no one can remove it except Him, may He be glorified. If He wants ease for you, then there is no one who can repel His grace. He makes His grace reach whomever He wills of His servants. No one can compel Him. He is Forgiving and Merciful to those of His servants who repent to Him.

Say, O Messenger: O people, the Qur’ān has come to you as a revelation from your Lord. Whoever follows the right path and has faith in it, the benefit of that will return to him, because Allah is in no need of the obedience of His servants. Yet whoever strays, the effect of his straying will only harm him, because Allah is not affected by the disobedience of His servants. I am not a guardian over you, to watch over your actions and to take you to account for them.

Follow, O Messenger, what your Lord reveals to you and act on it. Be patient with the harms caused by those who oppose you from your people, whilst you convey the message as instructed. Remain firm on this path until Allah passes judgement with respect to them: by giving you victory over them in the world and by punishing them in the Afterlife, if they die as disbelievers.

The discussion on the meaning of such verses has been previously mentioned in Sūrah Al-Baqarah. The Qur’ān is a book whose verses have been perfectly constructed, in which you will see no flaw nor any deficiency. Then it was explained by mention of the lawful and unlawful, instructions and prohibitions, promises and threats, narrations etc. It is from the One Who is Wise in His handling of affairs and legislation and Who is Aware of the condition of His servants and what is in their best interests.

These verses revealed to Muhammad (peace be upon him) prohibit people from worshipping anyone besides Allah. I, O people, warn you of Allah’s punishment if you disbelieve in Him and do not obey Him; and I give you good news of His reward if you have faith in Him and practise His sacred law.

Seek, O people, forgiveness for your sins from your Lord and repent to Him with remorse over your shortcomings. He will give you good provision in this worldly life until the end of your fixed lifespan. He will give every person who has merit, by following Him and doing good, a full reward for such behaviour without any decrease. If you turn away from having faith in what I have brought from my Lord, then I fear for you the punishment of a day whose horrors are intense, which is the Day of Judgement.

To Allah alone is your return, O people, on the Day of Judgement and He, may He be glorified, has power over everything. Nothing is outside His ability. It is not difficult for Him to give you life and take you to account after you die and are raised up.

These idolaters bend their backs and lower their heads in order to hide from Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him). When they cover their heads with their clothing so that Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him) does not see them, turning away from what he brought, Allah knows what they conceal and what they reveal. He knows the intentions that are in the heart. Nothing is hidden from Him.

There is no creature that walks on the surface of the earth, whatever it may be, except that Allah has undertaken, through His grace, to provide for it. He, may He be glorified, knows where it lives on earth and He knows where it will die. The provision, place of living and place of death for everything – including creatures – are in a clear book, which is the Preserved Tablet.

He, may He be glorified, is the One Who created the heavens and the earth in their magnificent form, and He created whatever is in them in a period of six days. Before He created them, His Throne was on water. He created all of this in order to test which of you, O people, is best in doing actions that please Allah and which of you does actions that anger Him. He will repay each group according to what they deserve. If you, O Messenger, say, ‘You, O people, will be resurrected after you die to be taken to account’, then those who disbelieve in Allah and reject the resurrection will say, ‘This Qur’ān that you recite is nothing but sheer magic and it is clearly false’.

If I postpone the punishment that the idolaters deserve in this world for a period of a few days, they will attempt to mock the punishment by asking for it to come quickly, by saying, ‘What is it that is holding the punishment back from us?’ Of course, the punishment that they deserve has a fixed time with Allah, and on the day when it comes to them they will not find anyone to avert it from them. Instead, the punishment that they used to poke fun at by asking for it to come quickly will fall upon them and surround them.

If I give man a blessing from Me, such as health or wealth, and then I take away that blessing from him, he loses all hope of My mercy and becomes extremely ungrateful for My blessings, which he forgets when they are taken away.

If I let such a person have much provision and good health, after having experienced poverty and illness, he will say, ‘My troubles have gone and my difficulty is over’. He does not thank Me for such blessings, but instead he becomes boastful and vain, holding his head high with pride over people because of what I have blessed him with.

This is the case with all people except those who are patient in hard times, do good actions and leave sins. Such good people are different to the arrogant ones described previously, as they do not lose hope in hard times, nor are they ungrateful for Allah’s blessings and nor are they arrogant. So they will receive forgiveness for their sins from their Lord and they will receive a great reward in the Afterlife.

Perhaps you, O Messenger, because of their disbelief, stubbornness and demand for signs, will leave out conveying some of what Allah has instructed you to convey because they will find it difficult to practise; and perhaps your heart will be reluctant to convey it, so that they do not say, ‘Why has no rich treasure been sent down to him or why has no angel come with him to confirm his truthfulness?’ Do not leave some of what is revealed to you because of that. You are only a warner who conveys what Allah has instructed you to convey. You do not have to bring the signs they request for. Allah takes care of everything.

Do the idolaters say that Muhammad made up the Qur’ān, and that it is not revelation from Allah? Allah tells the Messenger (peace and blessing be upon him) to challenge them to write ten similar sūrahs themselves like the Qur’ān, and to call upon whomever they could call upon to help them to do this, if they were telling the truth in claiming that the Qur’ān was fabricated.

If they do not bring what the Messenger challenges them to – and they are unable to do it! – then the believers should know with certainty that the Qur’ān is revealed from Allah by His knowledge to His Messenger, and that it is not fabricated, and that there is no true god except for Him. Allah asks whether you surrender to Him in devotion after these conclusive proofs?

Whoever desires the life of this world and its passing pleasures through what they do, and does not desire the Afterlife through their actions, Allah will give them the reward for their actions in this world: health, safety and ample provision. They will not be short-changed in the reward for their actions in any way.

Such people with this blameworthy aspiration will not have any reward on the Day of Judgement, except for the fire of Hell, which they will enter; and the reward of their actions will disappear, and their actions will be useless, because they were not based on faith or on a valid intention, and they did not desire the countenance of Allah and the home of the Afterlife through their actions.

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)has a clear proof from His Lord, the Exalted, which is the noble Qur’ān that testifies to the truth of what he says; and the Torah, revealed to Moses (peace be upon him), also testifies to the truth of his prophethood. He was sent as a guide and a mercy to people. He and those who believe with him are not the same as the disbelievers, who wander aimlessly in error; for they believe in the Qur’ān and in Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), to whom the Qur’ān was revealed. As for those who disbelieve in it from the different groups, the fire of Hell will be their promised destination on the Day of Judgement. So the Messenger (peace be upon him)should not be in any doubt about the Qur’ān, and about their destination, because it is the truth, in which there is no doubt. However, most people do not have faith, despite the coming together of clear signs and evidence.

No one is a greater wrongdoer than someone who makes up a lie about Allah, associating a partner or a son with Him. Those who make up lies about Allah will be brought before their Lord on the Day of Judgement to be asked about their actions, and the witnesses against them, from among the angels and the messengers, will say that they were the ones who lied about Allah by attributing a partner or son to Him. Allah’s depriving them of His mercy is due to their lies about Allah.

Those who turn people away from Allah’s straight path, and want it to be twisted from its straightness so that, who deny that they will be brought back to life after death –

Such people cannot escape from Allah in this world if He wills to send down a punishment on them, and they have no protectors besides Allah who could stop the punishment of Allah from reaching them. Their punishment on the Day of Judgement will be increased because they turned away themselves and turned others away from Allah’s path. In this world, they were not able to hear the truth and guidance and accept it, and they did not see the signs of Allah in the universe in a way that was beneficial to them, because of their strong aversion to the truth.

These are people who have lost themselves, heading towards their own ruin through associating partners with Allah; and the partners and intercessors they have invented will abandon them.

It is certain that on the Day of Judgement they will be the greatest losers, because they exchanged faith for disbelief, the Afterlife for the world, and mercy for suffering.

Those who have faith in Allah and His messengers, and who do good actions, are humble and fear Allah, they are the companions of Paradise, where they will live eternally.

The examples of the two groups – the disbelievers and the believers – are, firstly, like the blind who do not see and the deaf who do not hear: where it is the disbelievers who do not hear and accept the truth, and do not see in a way that is beneficial to them; and secondly, like someone who can hear and see: where it is the believers who can both hear and see. Are these two groups the same in their state and in their qualities? They are not the same. Will you not consider how truly different they are to each other? When the turning away from the faith by the idolaters became clear, Allah consoled His Prophet (peace be upon him), saying that he was not the first who had been rejected, and then He mentioned the stories of other prophets who had been treated in a similar way: The examples of the two groups – the disbelievers and the believers – are, firstly, like the blind who do not see and the deaf who do not hear: where it is the disbelievers who do not hear and accept the truth, and do not see in a way that is beneficial to them; and secondly, like someone who can hear and see: where it is the believers who can both hear and see. Are these two groups the same in their state and in their qualities? They are not the same. Will you not consider how truly different they are to each other?

I sent Noah (peace be upon him) as a messenger to his people. Noah told them that he was sent to warn them about Allah’s punishment, whilst making very clear the message he had been sent to them with.

Noah called his people to worship Allah alone, and not to worship any besides Him, because he feared the punishment of a painful day for them.

The nobility and leaders of Noah’s people said that they would not respond to his call, saying that he was no better than them, being a man like them, and that they only saw the least important people among them following him straightaway upon a simple suggestion, without considering carefully or examining the situation. They said that the believers were not more noble or wealthy than them, nor did they have a higher rank than them, which might make them worthy of being followed by them; rather, they considered them to be lying in their claims.

Noah asked his people to tell him whether he and the believers would be able to enter faith into his people’s hearts against their will if he had a clear proof from his Lord, showing that what he said was the truth, and that they must believe him? They would be unable to do so, because it is Allah alone Who gives people faith.

Noah told his people that he did not ask for any payment for the delivery of his message: his reward would only be from Allah. He would not drive away the poor among the believers, who the disbelievers asked to be removed from his company. They will be meeting their Lord on the Day of Judgement, and Allah will reward them for their faith. Noah said that he saw them as a people who did not understand the reality of what he was calling them to when they asked him to drive away the weak people among the believers.

Noah asked his people about who would be able to protect him from Allah’s punishment if he drove away these poor believers unjustly for no crime. Would they not reflect and strive for what was best and of most benefit to themselves?

Noah told his people that he would not say that he had the treasuries of Allah, which he could spend on them if they believed; and he would not say to them that he had knowledge of the Ghaib. He would not say to them that he was an angel, because he was a man like them; nor would he say of the poor people, whom they scorned and thought of as inferior to them, that Allah would not give them success and guidance: Allah knew best their intentions and their states. If Noah claimed any of these things, then he would be among the wrongdoers, deserving of Allah’s punishment.

Noah’s people said to him, out of stubbornness and pride, that he had debated and disputed long enough, and told him to bring them the punishment he had promised them, if he was telling the truth in what he claimed.

Noah said to them that he could not bring the punishment upon them, and that only Allah would bring it to them, if He willed; and that they would not be able to escape from the punishment of Allah if He willed for them to be given a punishment.

Noah told them that his advice and counsel would not benefit them if Allah willed that they be led astray from the right path, and if He willed to leave them without guidance because of their stubbornness. He was their Lord and it was He Who had control over their lives, so He would lead them astray if He willed; and to Him alone they would be returned on the Day of Judgement, when they would be repaid for their actions.

The disbelief of Noah’s people led them to claim that he had made up something about Allah with this faith that he brought to them. Allah told His messenger to say to them that if he had invented it, then he would be a wrongdoer and the punishment of his crime would fall upon him alone; and if they rejected the truth he brought them, out of stubbornness and pride, then they were the wrongdoers, and he was not responsible for their crime in any way, but was innocent of it.

Allah revealed to Noah that none of his people would believe, except those who already believed; and He told him not to be saddened by their rejection and ridicule over the many years.

Allah told Noah to build the Ark, under His observation and protection; and with His inspiration, He taught him how to build it. He told him not to address Him with a request to give time to those who wronged themselves through their disbelief. They would be drowned, inevitably, in the Flood, as a consequence of persisting in their disbelief.

Noah followed the command of his Lord, and immediately started building the Ark. Whenever the leaders and noblemen among his people passed by, they made fun of him, because he was building the Ark and there was no water or rivers around. When they continued to mock him, he said to these important people that if they mocked him and his people today when they were building the Ark, they also mocked them because of their ignorance of the fact that they would be drowned.

Noah told them that they would come to know who would be punished in this world in a way that disgraced and humiliated them, and upon whom the eternal punishment would come on the Day of Judgement.

Noah (peace be upon him) finished building the Ark that Allah had commanded him to build. Then His command came to destroy them, and the water boiled up from the furnace they used to bake in, signalling the beginning of the Flood. Allah told Noah (peace be upon him) to take on board the Ark a pair of every type of animal on the earth, a male and a female, and to take his family, except for those who it had already been determined would drown because they did not believe. He was told to also take those who believed with him from among his people. Only a small number from his people believed with him, despite the long period of time he had remained among them calling them to have faith in Allah.

Noah said to those who believed among his family and his people to board the Ark, and that its sailing and landing would be in the name of Allah, saying that his Lord was Forgiving of the sins of those of His servants who repent to Him, and was Compassionate with them. By His mercy to the believers, He saved them from being destroyed.

The Ark sailed with the people and animals in it, through the great waves like mountains. Noah (peace be upon him) called to his son, who did not believe, and who was isolated from his father and his people in some place. Noah told him to believe, and to get onto the Ark with them so that he would be saved from the Flood; and he told him not to be with the disbelievers, or he would be drowned as they would be.

Noah’s son said to him that he would take refuge on a high mountain so that the water could not reach him. Noah told his son that nothing would save anyone from Allah’s punishment of being drowned by the Flood, except those who Allah would save in His mercy. A wave came between Noah and his disbelieving son, and his son was drowned by the Flood because of his disbelief.

After the Flood, Allah told the earth to absorb the water, and He told the sky to hold back and not send down rain; and so the water decreased, until the land became dry. By then, Allah had destroyed the disbelievers. The Ark stopped on Mount Jūdī. It was said, ‘Be gone and destroyed the people of disobedience, for they had overstepped the limits of Allah through their disbelief.

Noah (peace be upon him)called upon his Lord, saying that his son was of his family, whom He had promised him would be saved. He said that Allah’s promise is always true and that Allah is the most just of judges Who knows best.

Allah said to Noah that his son, who he asked Him to save, was not from his family, whom He had promised to save, because he was a disbeliever. Noah’s question was not appropriate coming from him, and was not right for someone of his rank. Allah told him not to ask Him about what he had no knowledge about, cautioning him not to be among those who are ignorant, by asking Him for things that go against His knowledge and wisdom.

Noah (peace be upon him) asked his Lord to help him by preventing him from asking Him for what he had no knowledge about. He said that if Allah did not forgive him his sin, and have mercy on him, then he would be among the losers who lost their share in the Afterlife.

Allah told Noah (peace be upon him) to get down from the Ark on to the ground in safety and security, and with many blessings from Allah upon him and on the believing descendants of those who were with him on the Ark, who would come after them. There would also be other peoples from their descendants who would disbelieve whom Allah would for a time give enjoyment in the life of this world, giving them their livelihood, but then a painful punishment from Him would come to them.

This story of Noah is from the news of the Ghaib, which the Messenger (peace be upon him)did not know beforehand, and his people did not have knowledge of it either before this revelation from Allah. Allah tells him to be patient in the face of the injury and rejection of his people, just as Noah (peace be upon him) was patient. Help and victory is for those who follow what Allah instructs and who stay away from what He has prohibited.

Allah sent to the people of ‘Ād their brother Hūd (peace be upon him). He told them to worship Allah alone, and not to associate anyone with Him. He told them that they had no real god other than Him, glory be to Him, and that they were not telling the truth in claiming that he had a partner.

Hūd told his people that he asked for no reward from them for what he conveyed from his Lord, calling them to it, and that his reward was only from Allah Who created him. Would they not think about this, and respond to what he called them to?

Hūd told his people to ask for forgiveness from Allah, and to repent to Him, away from their sins, the biggest of which was associating others with Him. He would reward them by sending abundant rain, and would add strength to their strength by increasing their descendants and wealth. He told them not to turn away from what he was calling them to, because they would then be wrongdoers due to their disbelief in Allah and rejection of what he brought to them.

Hūd’s people said to him that he had not brought them clear proof that would make them believe him. They said that they would not abandon their gods because of his word alone without proof, and that they did not believe him in his claim that he was a messenger.

Hud said, He told them to plot against him together with their gods, which they claimed had afflicted him with madness, and not to give him any respite.

Hud said, He told them to plot against him together with their gods, which they claimed had afflicted him with madness, and not to give him any respite.

Hūd told them that he put his trust in Allah and relied upon Him alone in everything, because He was his Lord and their Lord. He told them that there is nothing walking on the face of the earth except that it is under His power and control, and He deals with it as He wills. He also told them that His Lord was true and just, and so would not give them power over him, since he stood for the truth and they stood for falsehood.

He told them that if they continued to turn away from what he brought them, then he had no responsibility to do more than convey the message to them. He had delivered to them everything that Allah had sent him with and instructed him to convey. The proof would be against them, and his Lord would destroy them and bring another people to succeed them. They would not do Allah the slightest harm through their rejecting and turning away, because He has no need of His creation. He told them that his Lord watches over all things, and that it was He Who protected him from the evil they plotted against him.

When Allah’s command came to destroy them, He saved Hūd and those who believed with him by a mercy from Him, and He saved them from a stern punishment given to the disbelievers of his people.

Such were the people of ‘Ād. They disbelieved in the signs of Allah, their Lord, and went against His messenger Hūd. They followed the instruction of every tyrant who was proud against the truth, not accepting it or dedicating themselves to it.

They were then cursed with contempt and removed from Allah’s mercy in this world, and on the Day of Judgement they will also be without Allah’s mercy. Due to their disbelief in Allah, the Exalted, He distances them from every good and allows them to approach every evil.

Allah sent to the people of Thamūd their brother Ṣāliḥ. He told his people to worship Allah alone, and that they had no god worthy of worship other than Him. He created them from the clay of the earth when He created their father Adam from it, and made them settle in it. He told them to ask for forgiveness from Him, and that his Lord was Near to those who devoted themselves to worshipping Him, responding to their prayers.

Ṣāliḥ’s people said to him that he had had a high position among them before this, and they had hoped he would be wise, advising them and counselling them. Did he tell them not to worship what their fathers had worshipped? They said that they doubted what he called them to – which was worshipping Allah alone – making them suspect him of making things up about Allah.

In reply, Ṣāliḥ asked his people to tell him that, if he had clear proof from his Lord, and He had given him mercy, which was his prophethood, then who would protect him from His punishment if he went against Him by not delivering what He instructed him to deliver to them? They would, then, only increase him in error, distancing him from Allah’s pleasure.

Ṣāliḥ told his people about a particular camel of Allah’s which was a clear miracle for them, and a sign of the truth of what he said. He told them to leave her to graze in Allah’s land and not to harm her in any way or a punishment would come to them near to the time that they harmed her.

They denied what he said and harmed her, pushing their denial to extremes. So Ṣāliḥ told them to enjoy life in their land for three days from the time they harmed her, then the punishment of Allah would come to them; and the coming of His punishment after that was a certain promise that there would be no possibility of denying, as it would come true.

When Allah’s command came to destroy them, He saved Ṣāliḥ and those who had faith with him, by a mercy from Him, and He saved them from the disgrace and humiliation of that day. Without doubt, your Lord is the Powerful, the Mighty Who no one can overcome; and therefore He destroyed the disbelieving peoples.

The great scream overtook the people of Thamūd, so that they perished from the strength of it; and in the morning, they lay face down upon the ground.

It was as if they had never lived in their land in comfort and ease. Certainly, Thamūd disbelieved in Allah, their Lord, and so they remain outcasts from His mercy.

Then the angels came to Abraham (peace and blessing be upon him) in the form of men, giving good news to him and his wife of Isaac and Jacob. The angels said ‘Peace’, so he replied by saying ‘Peace’. Then he went quickly and brought them a roasted calf to eat, thinking that they were men.

But when Abraham saw that their hands did not reach out for the calf and that they were not eating it, he was confused by them, and felt fear of them. When the angels saw his fear of them, they told him not to be afraid, and that they had been sent by Allah to the people of Lot to give them their punishment.

Abraham’s wife, Sarah, was standing. Then they told her something that greatly pleased her, that she would bear Isaac, and that Isaac would have Jacob. She laughed and was delighted by what she heard.

When the angels gave Sarah this amazing good news, she asked how she could have a child when she was an old woman and her husband was also advanced in age. Having a child at such an age was incredible, and was not normal.

When Sarah was amazed at the news, the angels asked her if she was amazed by Allah’s decree and command, because people like her know that Allah is able to do such things. ‘The mercy of Allah and His blessings be upon you, people of Abraham!’ they said. Allah is praised in His attributes and actions, the Possessor of Glory and the Honourable.

After the departure of the fear that Abraham (peace be upon him) had felt because of his guests not eating his food, the discovery that the guests were angels, and receiving the joyous news that he would have Isaac, who would have Jacob, he then started to debate with the messengers about the people of Lot, asking that the punishment for them be delayed, and that Lot and his family be saved.

Abraham was forbearing, wanting to delay the punishment, praying often to his Lord, calling upon Him, and turning to Him.

The angels told Abraham to leave off debating about the people of Lot: the command of his Lord had come that they would receive the punishment He had decreed for them, and there was a great punishment coming to the people of Lot, which no debate or prayer could turn back.

When the angels came to Lot in the form of men he was distressed by their coming to him, and he was upset because he feared for them due to the fact that his people went to men with desire instead of women. Lot said that it was a terrible day because he thought his people would force themselves on his guests.

The people of Lot came rushing to him, intending to commit an outrage against his guests. They were used to going to men with desire instead of women. In order to put his people off his guests, Lot told them that they should marry the women among his people, because they were purer for them than the outrage they committed. He told them to fear Allah and not to disgrace him concerning his guests, asking if there was a single right-minded man among them who would tell them not to commit such a shameful act.

His people said to him that he knew that they had no need of the women among his people, and no desire, and he knew very well what they wanted, as they only desired men.

Lot said that if only he had strength to use against them or people to support him, then he would be able to come between them and his guests.

The angels said to Lot (peace be upon him) that they were messengers sent by Allah, and that his people would not be able to touch him with their evil. They told him to leave the town at night, when it was dark, with his family. They said that no one should turn to look at what was behind them, except for his wife, who would turn back wrongly, because the punishment that would come upon his people would also come upon her. They told Lot that the appointed time for their destruction would be the morning, and that it was nearly time.

When My command to destroy the people of Lot came, I turned their towns upside down by raising and overturning them together with the people; and I rained down on them stones of hard-layered baked clay that came down one after the other.

These stones were marked by Allah with a special sign, and they are not far away from the wrongdoers of the Quraysh and others. Instead, it is near and will come down on them when Allah decrees it to come down.

We sent to Madyan their brother, Shu’ayb, who said: O my people, worship Allah alone. You have no other god that deserves to be worshipped besides Him. Do not give people less in the measure of volume and weight when you deal with them. I see you in prosperity and with blessings, so do not change Allah’s favour to you by committing sins. I fear for you the punishment of an encompassing day that will reach every one of you and from which you will not find any place to run to or seek refuge in.

He said: O my people, give complete and just measure of volume and weight when you measure for others. Do not cheat people of their rights by giving short measure and deceiving them. Do not spread corruption on earth by killing and committing other sins.

He further said: The lawful that Allah leaves for you after giving people their rights in full and with fairness is of more benefit and contains more blessing than the extra obtained through giving short measure and spreading corruption on earth. If you are indeed believers, then be content with that remainder. It is not my duty to watch over you, record your actions and hold you to account for them. The One Who watches over you is the One Who knows all secrets and private conversations.

The people of Shu’ayb said to him: O Shu’ayb, does the prayer that you offer instruct you that we should leave the worship of the idols our fathers used to worship? Does it instruct you that we should leave dealing in our wealth as we wish, and investing it as we wish? You are indeed the sensible and wise person we knew you to be before this invitation. What has happened to you?

Shu’ayb said to his people: O my people, tell me what will be your position if I am on clear proof and insight from my Lord, and He has given me lawful provision from Him, as well as prophethood? I do not wish to prohibit you from something and go against you and do it myself. I only wish to set your matter right, to the best of my ability, by inviting you to declare the Oneness of your Lord and to obey Him. My success in achieving this is only with Allah, may He be glorified! I place my trust in Him alone and I turn to Him in all my affairs.

He continued: O my people, do not let your hatred for me make you deny what I have brought. You should fear that you will suffer like the people of Noah, the people of Hūd or the people of Ṣāliḥ. The people of Lot are not far from you, in time nor place. You know what happened to them, so take a lesson from that.

Seek forgiveness from your Lord. Then repent to Him from your sins. My Lord is Compassionate to those who repent and is Most Loving to those who turn to Him.

The people of Shu’ayb said to him: O Shu’ayb, we do not understand much of what you have brought. We regard you to be weak amongst us, and you are not one of the senior leaders. If it were not that your family follows our religious beliefs, we would have killed you by stoning. To us, you are not a person of honour such that we would be afraid of killing you. The only reason we did not kill you is out of respect for your family.

Shu’ayb said to his people: O my people, is my family more respectable and honoured to you than Allah, your Lord? Did you throw Allah behind you when you did not accept the prophet He sent to you? My Lord surrounds what you do. No action of yours is hidden from Him. He will repay your behaviour in the world with destruction, and in the Afterlife with punishment.

O my people, do what you are able to in the manner you wish. I will also act in the manner I wish, as far as I can. Soon, you will come to know which of us is to receive a punishment of humiliation as justice, and who is lying in their claim. So wait for Allah’s decision and I will also wait with you.

When My command to destroy the people of Shu’ayb came, I rescued Shu’ayb and the people of faith with him through mercy from Me. Those of his people who did wrong were afflicted with the intense blast and they died. In the morning, they were found lying on the ground with their faces in the dust.

It was as if they had never resided there previously. Without doubt, Madyan was distanced from Allah’s mercy when His punishment fell on them, just as Thamūd was driven away from it by Allah’s sending down His anger on them.

I had sent Moses with My signs that indicated My Oneness and with clear evidence that proved the truth of what he brought.

I sent Moses to Pharaoh and the nobles from his people. These nobles followed Pharaoh’s command to them to disbelieve in Allah. The command of Pharaoh was not one that was right to be followed.

Pharaoh will go ahead of his people on the Day of Judgement until he enters them and himself into the fire of Hell. What a wretched place he will lead them to!

Together with the destruction and drowning that afflicted them, Allah followed that with a curse and with their being driven away and distanced from His mercy in this world and on the Day of Judgement. What an evil thing happened to them in that they became the subject of two curses and punishment in the world and the Afterlife!

I inform you, O Messenger, of the incidents of the towns that have been mentioned in this sūrah. The landmarks of some of these towns still exist and the landmarks of others have been wiped out without any trace.

I did not wrong them by afflicting them with destruction, but they wronged their own souls by bringing them to the point of destruction when they disbelieved in Allah. The gods they used to worship besides Allah did not push back the punishment that came down on them when the command of your Lord, O Messenger, came for their destruction. These gods of theirs only increased them in loss and destruction.

Such is the grip and annihilation with which Allah seizes the towns that deny, in every time and place. His grip of such disobedient towns is a painful and strong one.

In Allah’s severe punishment of those disobedient towns there is a lesson and warning for the one who fears the punishment of the Day of Judgement. Allah will gather people on that day to take them to account, and it will be witnessed by all people on the plains of the resurrection.

I only postpone that witnessed day for a time that is known.

When that day comes no soul will be able to present any argument or make any intercession, except after He gives permission. People on that day will be of two types: a miserable person who will enter the fire of Hell and a delighted person who will enter Paradise.

Those who are wretched, because of their disbelief and corrupt actions, will enter the fire of Hell, in which their voices and their breath will be raised due to the severity of the blazing fire that they will suffer from.

They will live in it eternally and will not come out of it for as long as the heavens and the earth last, except for those sinful monotheists whom Allah wills to remove from it. Your Lord, O Messenger, is the One Who does whatever He wishes and nothing can force Him to do something.

Those who were made fortunate by Allah because of their faith and good actions will be in Paradise. They will live there eternally for as long as the heavens and the earth last, except for those sinful monotheists whom Allah wills to enter into the fire of Hell for a time. The delight that Allah will provide for the people of Paradise will never be cut off from them.

So do not be, O Messenger, in doubt about the invalidity of what these idolaters worship. They have no proof based on logic or any proof from the sacred law to justify such worship. The only thing that makes them worship other than Allah is their blind following of their forefathers. He will give them their full portion of the punishment without any reduction.

I had given Moses the Torah, but people differed with respect to it: some of them believed, while others did not. Had it not been for Allah’s prior decree that the punishment will not come quickly, but will be postponed until the Day of Judgement for a reason, the punishment they deserve would have come down on them in this world. The disbelieving Jews and idolaters are in doubt about the Qur’ān, which creates uncertainty in them.

Your Lord, O Messenger, will certainly give each group who disagreed a full repayment for their actions. Any good action will receive a good repayment and any evil action will receive an evil repayment. Allah is Aware of what they do. No action of theirs is hidden from Him.

So remain patient, O Messenger, as Allah has instructed you. Fulfil His instructions and stay away from His prohibitions. Let those believers who have repented with you also remain patient. Do not overstep the limits by committing sins, because He sees what you do. No action of yours is hidden from Him and He will repay you for what you do.

Do not incline to the disbelievers who do wrong by being kind to them or showing them love, or the fire of Hell will afflict you because of such inclination; and you will not have any friends besides Allah to save you from it. Then you will not find anyone to help you.

Maintain, O Messenger, the prayer in the best manner at the two ends of the day: at the beginning and end of the day. Also, maintain the prayer during the hours of the night. Good actions wipe out minor sins. This is a warning for those who pay attention and a lesson for those who accept.

Be patient in doing what you have been instructed to do with respect to being upright and avoiding the things you have been prohibited from, such as transgression and leaning towards the wrongdoers. Allah will not cause the reward of those who do good to be wasted. Instead, He will accept from them the best of what they did and will give them their reward in accordance with their best actions.

If only there were, among the communities who were punished before you, remnants of the people of virtue and piety who prohibited those communities from disbelief and from corruption on earth through sins. But there were no such remnants among them, except for a few of them who used to prohibit corruption and whom I saved when I destroyed their people who did wrong. The wrongdoers from their people pursued the luxuries they had and were wrong in doing so.

Your Lord, O Messenger, would not destroy any town if its inhabitants were acting correctly on earth. He would only destroy it if the inhabitants were causing corruption by disbelief, disobedience and sins.

If your Lord, O Messenger, willed to make people one nation on the truth, He would have done so; but He did not will that, so they continue to differ with respect to it because of their following their desires and doing wrong.

This is so except for those whom Allah showed mercy by giving them guidance. They do not differ with respect to His Oneness, may He be glorified. For this test of disagreement, He created them. Some of them are wretched and others fortunate. The word of your Lord, O Messenger, in which He decreed in pre-eternity to fill Hell with jinn and humans who follow Satan, is final.

Every incident I relate to you, O Messenger, from the lives of the messengers before you is to make your heart firm on the truth and to strengthen it. In this sūrah, the truth, about which there is no doubt, has come to you. In it there has come to you a warning for the disbelievers and a reminder for the believers (who benefit from such a reminder).

Say, O Messenger, to those who do not have faith in Allah and do not accept His Oneness: Act according to your way of ignoring the truth and preventing others from it. We will also act according to our way of remaining firm on it, inviting towards it and being patient in it.

Wait to see what comes down on us. I am also waiting to see what comes down on you.

Allah alone has knowledge of the Ghaib in the heavens and the earth. Nothing is hidden from Him. The entire matter will be returned to Him alone on the Day of Judgement. So worship Him alone, O Messenger, and place your trust in Him in all your affairs. Your Lord is not unaware of what you do. Instead, He knows about it and He will repay each person for what they did.

Alif Lām Rā’ – the placement of such letters has been discussed at the beginning of Sūrah Al-Baqarah. The verses that are revealed in this sūrah are from the verses of the Qur’ān which are clear in their meaning.

I have revealed the Qur’ān in the language of the Arabs, so that you, O Arabs, can understand its meanings.

By revealing this Qur’ān to you, I narrate, O Messenger, the best of stories, in their accuracy, the soundness of their words and their eloquence. Before I revealed it, you were unaware of these stories, without any knowledge of them.

I tell you, O Messenger, about the time when Joseph said to his father, Jacob, ‘O my father, I dreamt of eleven stars and I saw the sun and the moon. I saw all of them prostrating to me’. This dream was an early sign of good news for Joseph (peace be upon him).

Jacob said to his son, Joseph: O my son, do not mention your dream to your brothers because they will understand it and become jealous of you. They will then plot against you because of their envy. Satan is a clear enemy to man’.

Just as you have seen that dream, your Lord will choose you, O Joseph, and teach you the interpretation of dreams; and He will perfect His favour on you by giving you prophethood, as well as kingdom, just as He completed His blessing on your two forefathers before you, Abraham and Isaac, with the favours of this world and the Afterlife that He blessed them with. Your Lord is One Who knows His creation and Who is Wise in His planning.

In the story of Joseph and his brothers there are lessons and advices for those who ask about the incident.

At that time, the brothers said among themselves: Joseph and his full brother are more beloved to our father than we are, whereas we are a group large in number. Why does he prefer them to us? We think that our father is mistaken in preferring them to us without any apparent reason.

It was further said: Kill Joseph or expel him to a far-off land and your father’s attention will be all yours and he will love you completely. After killing him and expelling him, you can be righteous when you repent from your sin.

One of the brothers said: Do not kill Yousuf, rather throw him into a well and some passers by may find him and take him, this is a lesser evil if you really want to get rid of him.

When they agreed to get rid of him, they said to their father, Jacob: O our father, why do not you trust us with Joseph? We have compassion for him and we will take care of him against anything that might harm him. We want good for him, so we will protect and look after him until he comes back to you safely. So, what stops you from sending him with us?

Let us take him with us tomorrow, so he can have a good time and play with us and we will protect him from any harm that may come to him.

Jacob said to his sons: I am saddened by your taking him because I cannot bear to be away from him. I also fear that a wolf may eat him when you are not paying attention to him, absorbed in your enjoyment and play.

They said to their father: If a wolf was to eat Joseph when there are so many of us, then, in such a case, we are good for nothing and we are losers because we could not save him from the wolf.

So Jacob sent Joseph with his brothers. They took him a long distance and were determined to throw him to the bottom of a well. In this condition, I sent revelation to Joseph saying, ‘You will inform them of this act of theirs at a time when they will not realise that it is you’.

The brothers of Joseph came to their father in the evening, pretending to cry in order for him to believe them.

They said: O our father, we went off on foot racing with one another and shooting arrows and we left Joseph by our clothes and provisions to look after them. Then the wolf ate him. You are not going to believe us, even though we are absolutely truthful in what we have told you.

They confirmed their story with a trick. They brought the shirt of Joseph stained with the blood of something else, giving the impression that it was a sign of the wolf’s having eaten him. Jacob realised that they were lying, because the shirt was not torn, and he said to them: The matter is not as you have said. Instead, your souls have made an evil action that you committed seem good to you. I will exercise beautiful patience without any complaint. Allah is the One from Whom aid is requested against what you mention about the matter of Joseph.

A passing caravan came by and they sent someone to draw water for them. He lowered his bucket into the well and Joseph caught hold of the rope. When the person who had lowered the bucket saw him, he happily said, ‘Good news! Here is a boy!’ The water-drawer and a few others hid him from the rest of the caravan, regarding him to be merchandise that they could trade. Allah knew what they were doing with Joseph when they treated him as an item of sale. No action of theirs was hidden from Him.

The water-drawer and his companions sold him in Egypt for a petty amount of a few silver coins that could be easily counted due to their small number. They sold him cheaply because they wanted to get rid of him quickly. They had realised from his condition that he was not a slave and they were afraid of his family. Allah was Merciful to him by not keeping him with them for very long.

The man from Egypt who had purchased him said to his wife, ‘Be good to him and look after him well. He may benefit us by doing some of the things we need, or we may adopt him as a child’. Just as I saved Joseph from being killed, removed him from the well and made the heart of the minister soft towards him, I established him in Egypt, to teach him the interpretation of dreams. Allah is in full control of His affair, and His affair will come into effect. No one can compel Him, may He be glorified; but most people – who are actually disbelievers – do not know that.

When Joseph reached the height of his spiritual and physical strength, I gave him understanding and knowledge. With a reward similar to what I gave him, I reward those who do good by following Me.

The wife of the minister tried cunningly and by the use of a trick to get Joseph (peace be upon him) to commit an indecent act. She shut the doors to ensure that they were alone and she said to him, ‘Come towards me!’ Joseph said: I seek protection in Allah from what you are calling me toward. My master has taken good care of me in my stay here and I will never betray him. If I betray him, I will be a wrongdoer; and those who do wrong do not succeed.

She had desired to commit the indecent act and the same thought would have crossed his mind had he not seen Allah’s signs that prevented him and distanced him from that. I showed him My proofs to keep him pure from evil and distance him from unlawful sexual relations and betrayal. Joseph was one of My servants whom I chose for messengership and prophethood.

They raced for the door: Joseph to save himself, and she to prevent him from leaving. She caught hold of his shirt to stop him from leaving and she tore it from behind. At the door they found her husband. The minister’s wife deceptively said to him: The punishment for the person who intended to commit an indecent act with your wife, O minister, can only be prison or that he be given a painful punishment.

Joseph (peace be upon him) said: It was she who tried to get me to commit an indecent act. I did not intend it from her. Allah then made a child from her family speak in the cradle and it testified saying: If Joseph’s shirt is torn from the front, then it indicates that she is truthful, because she was trying to stop him from coming on to her; and then he will be lying.

But if his shirt is torn from behind, then that is an indication that he is truthful, because she was trying to seduce him whilst he was running away; and she will be lying.

When the minister saw that Joseph’s shirt was torn from behind, he realised that Joseph was telling the truth and he said: This accusation that you cast on him is part of your trickery, O women. Your trickery is certainly strong.

He said to Joseph: O Joseph, completely ignore this and do not mention it to anyone. And you, woman, ask forgiveness for your sin, for you committed a sin by trying to seduce Joseph.

The news spread in the city and a group of women disapprovingly said: The wife of the minister is calling her slave towards herself. His love has penetrated her heart. We think she is clearly misguided in trying to seduce him and because of her love for him despite his being her slave.

When the wife of the minister heard of their disapproval of her and their gossip about her, she sent an invitation to them to come and see Joseph, so that they would excuse her. She prepared for them a place with cushions and pillows and she gave each one of the women who were invited a knife to cut food. She then said to Joseph (peace be upon him), ‘Go out to them!’ When they saw him, they were taken aback by his beauty and stunned by his handsomeness. As a result, they cut their hands with the knives that were meant for cutting food and they said: Allah is free of faults! This boy is not human. The beauty he possesses is not found in human beings. He can only be one of the noble angels.

The wife of the minister said to those women when she saw what happened to them, ‘This is the slave who you blamed me for loving. I desired him and tried to entice him, but he remained pure and refused. If he does not, in the future, do what I desire, he will go to prison and will become one of those who are disgraced’.

Joseph (peace be upon him) prayed to his Lord saying: O my Lord, prison, which they threaten me with, is preferable to me than the shameful act they call me towards. If You do not remove their scheme from me, I may incline to them and I will become one of the ignorant ones – if I give in to them and do what they want me to do.

Allah answered his prayer and removed the scheme of the minister’s wife and that of the women of the city from him. He, may He be glorified, heard the prayer of Joseph – He hears the prayer of any person who prays to Him. He knew the condition of Joseph and He knows the condition of everyone besides him.

Then the view of the minister and his people, after they had seen evidence of his innocence, was that they should put him in prison for an unknown period, so that the scandal was not exposed.

They put him in prison and two youngsters entered the prison with him. One of these youngsters said to Joseph, ‘I saw in my dream that I was pressing grapes to make wine’. The other said: I saw that I was carrying bread on my head, from which birds were eating. Tell us, O Joseph, the interpretation of what we saw. We regard you to be from those who do good, so be good to us by interpreting our dreams.

Joseph (peace be upon him) said: No food allocated to you by the king or anyone else will come you, except that I will explain to you its essence and form before it comes to you. The interpretation I give you is what my Lord has taught me. It is not soothsaying or astrology. I have left the religion of a people who do not have faith in Allah and who denounce the Afterlife, although they acknowledge it within themselves.

Joseph said that he followed the path of his fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: the path of worshipping Allah alone. He said it was not right for them to associate anything with Allah, Who is alone in His Oneness. Enabling them to worship Allah alone and have the faith which he and his fathers had was from the grace of Allah upon them. It was also from the grace of Allah upon all people, since He sent the prophets to them with that message; yet most people are not thankful to Allah for His blessings, and instead ungratefully disbelieve in Him.

Joseph then addressed the two men in the prison, asking whether worshipping many gods was better or worshipping Allah, the One, Who has no partner, the Prevailing over all else, Who none can prevail over.

Joseph told them that they only worshipped names besides Allah, which have not been designated by Allah, but were what they and their ancestors had called gods – yet they had no share in divinity. Allah had sent no proof showing that giving these names was correct. The command in all creation is Allah’s alone, and does not belong to these names, which they and their ancestors had come up with. Allah, glory be to Him, has instructed that you worship Him alone, and has forbidden that you should associate others with Him. Worshipping Allah alone is the straight path, which has no deviation in it. Most people do not know this, and therefore they associate other things with Allah, worshipping some of what Allah has created.

Joseph told his two companions in the prison that he would interpret their dreams for them. He told them that the one who dreamed that he was pressing grapes to make wine would get out of the prison, and return to his work, and would serve the king. As for the one who dreamed that he was carrying bread on his head that the birds were eating from, he would be killed and crucified, and the birds would eat from his head. The matter they asked for an opinion on was settled and would come to pass. It was an inevitable reality.

Joseph asked the one he considered to be saved of the two, the wine bearer of the king, to mention his story and his situation to the king, so that he might release him from prison. Satan made the man forget to mention Joseph to the king, so he stayed in prison for several years after that.

One day the king said that he had seen a dream in which seven fat cows were being eaten by seven thin ones, and seven green ears of corn and seven dry ears of corn. He asked the notables and nobles to tell him the interpretation of his dream, if they knew how to interpret dreams.

They said that his vision was a jumble of dreams, and because of this it could not be interpreted; and that they were not knowledgeable about the interpretation of mixed-up dreams.

The wine bearer – who, of the two men who had been imprisoned, had been saved – then remembered Joseph (peace be upon him) after some time and that he was able to interpret dreams, so he said that he would tell them the interpretation of the king’s vision after asking someone who knew how to interpret it. He asked to be sent by the king to Joseph so that he could interpret his dream.

When the man who had been saved reached Joseph, he asked Joseph, the truthful, to inform them of the interpretation of someone dreaming about seven fat cows being eaten by seven thin cows, and seven green ears of corn and seven dry ears of corn, so that he might return to the king and those with him and they might know the explanation of the king’s dream, and also know the virtue and rank of Joseph.

Explaining this dream, Joseph said that they should plant really well for seven consecutive years. And what they harvested in each of these seven years, they should leave in the ears of corn so that it would not rot, except for a little which they needed to eat from the corn.

Then after these seven fertile years in which they successfully grew food, seven barren years would come, when the people would eat all they had harvested in the fertile years, except for a little of what they had stored, from which they would be able to sow seeds.

Then after these barren years a year would come in which the rains would fall, and the crops would grow, and the people would press those things that need pressing, such as grapes, olives and cane.

The king told his servants, when Joseph’s explanation of his dream reached him, to release Joseph from prison and bring him to him. When the king’s messenger came to Joseph, he told him to return to his master, the king, and ask him about the story of the women who cut their hands, so that his innocence would be made clear before he left the prison. Joseph said that his Lord was aware of how they had tried to seduce him, as nothing is hidden from Him.

The king, addressing the women, asked what happened when they called Joseph through trickery. Was it to commit immorality with them? The wife of the minister, confessing what she had done, said that now the truth had become clear, that she tried to seduce him, and he did not try to seduce her, and that he was truthful in claiming that he was innocent of what she had accused him of.

The wife of the minister said that this disclosure was so that Joseph would know through her confession that it was she who had tried to seduce him and that he was truthful, and that she had not lied about him in his absence, as it had become clear to her from what had happened that Allah does not give success to those who lie and scheme.

The minister’s wife continued speaking, saying that she was not free of blame from having wanted to do something bad, and she was not trying to justify herself, because the human self commands often to evil. This is because of its inclination towards what it desires and the difficulty of holding back from it, except for those whom Allah shows mercy to, preventing their egos from commending them to evil. Allah is Forgiving and Compassionate towards those of His servants who repent to Him.

When Joseph’s innocence and knowledge became evident, the king asked his servants to bring Joseph to him to serve him. So they brought Joseph to him, and when Joseph spoke to him, his knowledge and high intelligence became evident so the king said to him “from this day, you are someone of rank, status and trust”.

Joseph asked the king to put him in charge of taking care of the storehouses of wealth and food in the land of Egypt, because he would be a trustworthy guardian, with knowledge and insight about what he was taking care of.

Just as Allah proved Joseph’s innocence and released him from prison, He also established him in Egypt, so that he could go and live in any place he wished. Allah gives from His mercy to whomever of His servants He wills in this world, and does not allow the reward of those who do good to be lost, giving it to them in full, and nothing less.

The reward of Allah, which He has prepared in the Afterlife, is certainly better than the reward of this life for those who have faith in Allah and who were mindful of Him, following what He has ordered and staying away from what He has prohibited.

The brothers of Joseph came to Egypt with their merchandise, and came before Joseph. He recognised that they were his brothers; but they did not recognise that he was their brother, because of the length of time that had passed and because of how much he had changed, since he had been just a boy when they threw him in the well.

When he had given them the supplies and provisions they came for, and after they had informed him that they had a brother on their father’s side who they had left with their father, Joseph asked them to bring their brother on their father’s side and he would give them more supplies. He asked them if they did not see that he gave full measure, not subtracting from it at all, and that he was the best of hosts.

Joseph told them that if they did not bring the brother asked for, then it would be clear that they were not telling the truth in their claim that they had a brother on their father’s side. He told them that in that case he would not give them any measure of food, and they should not approach his country.

His brothers replied to him, saying that they would ask for him from their father, and would work hard to bring him, doing what Joseph instructed them without fail.

Joseph told his servants to return the merchandise of these people to them, so that they would realize on their return that they did not do trade with it, which would force them to return again with their brother, to prove their integrity to Joseph, and so that he would receive their merchandise from them.

When they returned to their father, and told him about the generosity of Joseph to them, they also told their father that any further measure would be denied to them if they did not bring their brother with them. They asked him to send him with them, because if he did so they would be given provisions. They promised their father that they would take good care of him, bringing him back safely.

Their father asked them if he should trust them with him as he had trusted them with his full brother, Joseph. He had trusted them with Joseph and made them promise to take care of him, and they had not done what they promised, so he did not trust their promise to take care of his brother; but he trusted in Allah, for He is the best of guardians to whom He wills, and the most Merciful of the merciful to whom He wills.

When they opened the bags containing the food which they had brought, they found what they had traded for it had been returned to them. They asked their father what more could they ask for from this king after such generosity. What they had traded for their food had been returned by the king as a favour from him to them. They told their father that they would get food for their family and protect their brother from what he feared might happen to him, and they would get an extra camel load because of him accompanying them – an extra camel load being an easy matter for the king.

Their father told them he would not send their brother with them until they had sworn by Allah that they would bring him back, unless destruction overwhelmed them all and none of them remained, and they were unable to do anything about it or to return. When they had given their father a firm promise in Allah's name, he said that Allah was a witness over what they said, and His witnessing was sufficient for them.

Also, their father advised them not to enter Egypt from one gate all together, but to enter from different gates. This would be safer in terms of someone harming all of them if someone wished to do so. He did not say this so as to be able to stop any harm that Allah willed for them, or to bring them any benefit which Allah did not will for them, because the decree is Allah’s alone, and the command is His alone. Their father said that he placed his trust in Him alone concerning everything in his life, and that those who trust should put their trust in Him alone concerning everything in their lives.

So they journeyed with Joseph’s full brother. When they entered through different gates, as their father had instructed them, it did not stop what Allah had decreed for them in any way. It was just Jacob’s concern for his sons which he showed, advising them, knowing that the decree is Allah’s alone. He knew what Allah had taught him in terms of faith in the divine decree and taking precautions, but most people do not know this.

When the brothers of Joseph came before him, together with his full brother, he drew his full brother close to him and said to him privately that he was his brother Joseph, and that he should not feel sad about the reckless behaviour of his other brothers, hurting and resenting the two of them, and throwing Joseph in the well.

So when Joseph instructed his servants to load the camels of his brothers with food, he put the measuring bowl of the king, which the food was measured with for those who came to get provisions, into the bag of his full brother, without their knowledge, in order to have him stay with him. When they were to travel and return back to their family, a caller called after them, saying that they, with their camels loaded with provisions, were thieves.

The brothers of Joseph, turning towards the person calling after them and his companions who were with him, asked what they were missing that made them accuse them of stealing.

The caller and his companions, who were with him, said to the brothers of Joseph that they were missing the bowl of the king which they measured with. Whoever produced the bowl of the king before the inspection would get a reward, which would be a camel load, and the speaker guaranteed this to whoever did so.

The brothers of Joseph swore by Allah that those accusing them knew they were free of blame and innocent of this, as they could see from their situation, and that they had not come to the land of Egypt to cause corruption in it, and that they had never been thieves.

The caller and his companions asked what the punishment for theft among them was, in case they should be proved to be liars in their claim that they were innocent of the theft.

Joseph’s brothers said that the payment for any thief among them was that the person in whose bag the stolen item was found would become the slave of whoever he stole from. This punishment of being made into a slave is the way they punished thieves.

So they returned them to Joseph to inspect their bags. He started by inspecting the bags of his half-brothers before inspecting the bag of his full brother, to cover up what he was doing. Then he inspected the bag of his full brother, and took the bowl of the king out of it. As Allah planned things for Joseph by arranging to have the bowl put into the bag of his brother, He also arranged – for the benefit of Joseph – that his brothers would be given the punishment of their country, which was the enslavement of the thief. This would not have come to pass if it had been according to the punishment of the king for thieves, which was beating and fining. Allah is able to arrange matters in whatever way He wills. He raises the ranks of those of His servants whom He wills, as He raised the rank of Joseph. Above every possessor of knowledge is someone more knowledgeable than them, and above the knowledge of everyone is the knowledge of Allah, Who knows all things.

The brothers of Joseph said that if he had stolen it was not surprising, since a full brother of his had stolen before he had, meaning Joseph (peace be upon him). Joseph hid his hurt at what they said, thinking to himself that their envy and the bad actions they had committed were evil itself in this context, and Allah knew best the lies that came from them.

Joseph’s brothers told him that their father was old and elderly and loved their brother dearly. They asked him to take one of them instead of him, saying that they saw that he was a doer of good in his dealings with them and others, and they asked him to be generous with them by doing this.

Joseph asked for protection from Allah that they should wrong someone innocent with the sin of a wrongdoer. If they took someone other than the person in whose bag they found the bowl of the king, then they would be wrongdoers, because they would be punishing someone who was innocent and letting a criminal go free.

When they despaired of Joseph responding to their request, they went away from the people to consult with each other. Their oldest brother asked them if they remembered that their father had taken a firm promise in the name of Allah from them that they would return his son to him, unless they were completely overwhelmed by what they were unable to repel, and that before that they had failed with regards to Joseph, and had not kept their promise to their father concerning him. He said that he would not leave the land of Egypt until his father permitted him to return to him, or Allah decreed that he take his brother back. Allah is the Best of Judges, judging with truth and justice.

The oldest brother told them to return to their father and tell him that his son had stolen, and the minister of Egypt had taken him as a slave as a punishment for his theft, and that they only related to him what they knew from seeing the bowl produced from his bag. They did not know that he stole things, and if they had known this they would not have made a promise to their father to return him.

In order to confirm that they were telling the truth, the brothers told their father to ask the people of the town where they had been, and to ask the people of the caravan they had come with, and that these people would tell him the same thing as they had. They said they were telling the truth in what they told him about his son’s theft.

Their father told them that the matter was not as they said with regards to him having stolen. Rather, their souls made deception in this attractive to them, as they had been deceptive about their brother Joseph before. He said my patience is of a beautiful type, which directs complaints to Allah alone. He said that perhaps Allah would return Joseph, his full brother and their oldest brother all together. He, glory be to Him, knew Jacob’s situation and was Wise in the way He arranged everything for him.

He pulled away, turning from them, saying, ‘O my grief for Joseph!’ The blackness of his eyes had become white out of his great mourning for him, because he was filled with grief and sorrow, yet hiding his grief from the people.

The brothers of Joseph said to the father, swearing by Allah, that he would not stop remembering Joseph and grieving over him until he became very ill or actually died.

Their father said to them that he only complained to Allah of the grief and sorrow that had occurred him, and that he knew of the kindness and generosity of Allah and His response to those who were in need, and His reward for those who suffered, which they did not know.

Their father told them to go and find out news about Joseph and his brother, and not to despair of relief from Allah and His release of His servants. Without doubt, only disbelieving people despair of relief from Allah and His release of His servants, because they do not know the greatness of Allah’s power and His subtle favour upon His servants.

So they did as their father instructed, and went in search of Joseph and his brother. When they came before Joseph, they said they had experienced hardship and poverty and had brought inferior, cheap goods. They asked him to give them a sufficient measure, as he had given them before, and to be charitable to them by giving them more than this, or overlooking their poor merchandise, saying that Allah rewards those who are charitable with the best of rewards.

When he heard their words he felt compassion towards them, and let them know who he was, asking them if they knew what they did to Joseph and his full brother when they were ignorant of the consequences of what they did to them.

They were amazed, and asked whether he was in fact Joseph. Joseph said to them that he was indeed Joseph, and that the person with him was his full brother. Allah had favoured them, saving them from their previous situation, raising them in rank. Whoever is Mindful, following what He instructs and staying away from what He has prohibited, and being patient with hardship, their actions are good, and Allah does not allow the reward of those who do good to be lost; rather, He keeps it in store for them.

The brothers apologised to Joseph for their behaviour towards him, and they said that Allah had indeed preferred him over them through the attributes of perfection He had given to him, and that they had committed evil and disobedience in what they had done to him.

Joseph accepted their apology, saying that there would be no blame on them requiring a punishment, nor any criticism, from that day. He asked that Allah forgive them, and He, glory be to Him, is the most Merciful of the merciful.

Joseph gave them his shirt when they informed him of what had happened to his father’s eyesight, telling them to take his shirt and to lay it over the face of his father, and that it would return his sight to him. He also told them to bring their whole family to him.

And when the caravan left, departing from Egypt and leaving the inhabited area, Jacob, peace be upon him, said to his people and those with him where he lived, that he could smell the scent of Joseph, although they might say he was foolish and an old senile man who doesn’t know what he says.

The people with him swore by Allah that he was still lost in his previous imaginings concerning Joseph’s importance to him and the possibility of seeing him again.

So when the person bearing news came with what would delight Jacob, he lay Joseph’s shirt over his face, and he became able to see again. Then he asked his sons if he had not said to them that he knew about the kindness and grace of Allah in a way that they did not know.

The sons apologised to their father Jacob (peace be upon him) for what they had done to Joseph and his brother, and they asked their father to ask Allah to forgive the sins they had committed in the past, saying that they had been sinners and wrongdoers in what they did to Joseph and his full brother.

Their father said to them that he would ask for forgiveness for them from his Lord. Truly, He is Forgiving of the sins of those of His servants who repent to Him, and is Compassionate with them.

Jacob and his family left their land to travel to Joseph in Egypt. When they came before him he embraced his father and mother, and told his brothers and their family to enter Egypt safely, Allah willing, not experiencing any harm there.

He sat his parents on the throne where he sat, and his parents and eleven brothers honoured him by prostrating to him, which was allowed in their sacred laws. Joseph (peace be upon him) said to his father that this honouring of him by their prostrating to him was the explanation of the dream which he had had before, and which he had told his father. His Lord had made it a reality through this happening. Joseph said his Lord had been kind to him by bringing him out of prison, and bringing them all to him from the desert after Satan had ruined things between him and his brothers; and that His Lord was subtle in planning what He wills to occur, Knowing the situations of His servants, Wise in His planning.

Then Joseph called upon his Lord, saying that He had given him power in Egypt and had taught him the interpretation of dreams; and that He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, originating them when there was nothing like them, the Protector of all his affairs in the life of this world and the Protector of all of them in the Afterlife. Joseph asked Him to take his soul at the end of his life whilst being in a state of submission to God, and to join him with the righteous prophets from his fathers and others in the highest level of Paradise.

Allah revealed all that has been mentioned from the story of Joseph and his brothers to the Messenger (peace be upon him). He had no knowledge of it beforehand, since he was not there with the brothers of Joseph when they agreed to throw him into the bottom of a well, and when they planned their trick; but Allah revealed this all to the Messenger (peace be upon him).

Most people will not have faith, even if the Messenger should make every effort for them to believe; so he should not lose himself in grief over them.

If they used their reason they would believe the Messenger (peace be upon him), because he did not ask any reward for the Qur’ān or for what he called them to. The Qur’ān is only a reminder for all people.

The signs showing that there is only one Allah, glory be to Him, are many, spread out through the heavens and the earth. The disbelievers pass by them, turning away from thinking about them and considering them, not paying attention to them.

Most people do not admit Allah as the Creator and Provider, Who brings to life and causes death, without also worshipping images and idols next to Him, or claiming that He has a son, glory be to Him!

Do the idolaters feel safe from a punishment in this world enveloping and overwhelming them, so that they cannot repel it; or from the Hour coming to them suddenly, when they are unaware so that they might prepare for it? Is it because of this that they do not believe?

Allah tells the Messenger (peace be upon him) to say to those he calls to the truth that this is his way which he calls people to, with insight, as do those who follow him, guided by his guidance and following the Sunnah; and that he is not of those who associate partners with Allah, but worships Allah alone, glory be to Him!

Allah only sent men, not angels, before the Messenger (peace be upon him), whom He gave revelation as He does to the Messenger, and they were from the people of the towns and not the desert. Their peoples denied them and Allah destroyed them. Do those who deny the Messenger not travel through the earth and think about what the end was of those who denied the truth before them, learning from their example? The bliss in the home of the Afterlife is better for those who are Mindful in this world. Do they not realise that is better, and so become mindful of Allah by following what He instructs (with faith being the most important instruction) and staying away from what He has prohibited (with not associating others with Allah being the most important prohibition)?

Allah gave time to the enemies of these messengers He sent, not being quick to punish, but luring them gradually until when their destruction was overdue, and the messengers despaired of it and the disbelievers thought that their messengers had lied to them in their promises of a punishment for those who deny the truth and the rescue of those who have faith; then Allah’s help came to His messengers, saving the messengers and believers from the destruction which the disbelievers suffered, and Allah’s punishment cannot be turned away from the sinners when He sends it down.

In the stories of the messengers and their peoples, as in the story of Joseph and his brothers, are lessons to be learnt by those of sound mind. The Qur’ān, which contains such narrations, is not words which are made up and fabricated about Allah, but a confirmation of the divine scriptures revealed from Allah and a detailed explanation of everything that needs explaining through sacred laws; and guidance to all that is good, and a mercy for those who have faith in it, because it is they who benefit from what is in it.

We have spoken about similar phrases at the beginning of Sūrah Al-Baqarah. These sublime verses in this Sūrah, and the Qur’ān that God has revealed to you - O Messenger - is the truth in which there is no uncertainty. There is no doubt that it is from God, but most people do not believe in it due to stubbornness and pride.

Allah is the One Who made the heavens high without any supports that you can see. Then He established Himself on the Throne and He subjugated the sun and the moon for the benefit of His creation. Both the sun and the moon run along for a specified period of time that is known only to Allah. He, may He be glorified, disposes of all matters in the heavens and the earth as He wills. He explains the signs that indicate His Power in the hope that you may be certain about meeting your Lord on the Day of Judgement and prepare for it by doing good actions.

He, may He be glorified, is the One Who spread out the earth and created on it firm mountains so that it does not cause the people to become unsettled. From all types of fruit He made two kinds, like the male and female in animals. He draws the veil of night over the day so that it becomes dark after being bright. In that which is mentioned, there are signs and proof for a people who reflect and ponder over Allah’s creation, for they are the ones who benefit from such signs and proof.

On Earth there are neighbouring plots, gardens of vineyards, crops, palm trees sharing one root and others with individual roots. All of these gardens and crops are watered with the same water, I make some of them better than others in taste and other benefits despite their being next to one another and being watered with the same water, there are signs and proof for those who reason, for they are the ones who pay heed to it.

If you are amazed, O Messenger, at anything, then you should surely be amazed at their denial of resurrection and their statement of proof for their denial: What, when we die and become dust and decayed and decomposed bones, shall we be resurrected and restored to life? Those who reject the resurrection after death are the ones who disbelieved in their Lord and as a result they disbelieved in His Power to resurrect the dead. They are the ones around whose necks chains of fire will be placed on the Day of Judgement. They will be the inhabitants of the Fire and they will remain there forever, without ever ceasing to exist and without their punishment coming to an end.

The idolaters ask you, O Messenger, to bring on the punishment and they enquire as to why it is taking so long to come on them before they completely enjoy the favours that Allah has decreed for them. Many such punishments have come before on people like them from the nations who disbelieved. Why do they not take a lesson from them? Your Lord, O Messenger, is one who pardons people despite their wrongdoing. He, therefore, does not rush to take retribution from them giving them a chance to repent to Allah. He is truly severe in punishing those who persist in their denial if they do not repent.

Those who disbelieved in Allah - persisting in their rejection and obstinance - say: Why has no sign been sent down to Muhammad from his Lord, just as was sent down to Moses and Jesus? You, O Messenger, are only a warner who warns people of Allah’s punishment. You only have signs that Allah has given you. Every community has a prophet who shows them and guides them to the path of truth.

Allah knows what every female bears in her womb. He knows everything about it. He knows about any shrinking, swelling, health or illness that occurs in the womb. By Him, may He be glorified, everything is determined with a measure that will neither decrease nor increase.

This is because He, may He be glorified, knows about everything that is not perceived by His creation as well as everything that is perceived by them. He is the Majestic in His attributes, names and actions. The Supreme over every creation of His in His self and attributes.

He knows what is secret and what is even more hidden. Whether you, O people, hide your statements or proclaim them, it is the same in His knowledge. A person who hides from the eyes of people under the darkness of the night and the one who acts openly in the light of day, are equally known by Him.

He, may He be glorified, has angels that come upon a person one after the other. Some of them come at night and some during the day. They protect the person by Allah’s command and they record his statements and actions. Allah does not change the good condition of a people for the worse unless they change the state of gratitude within themselves. When Allah, may He be glorified, wills destruction for a people, then no one can ward off what He wills. You, O people, do not have any one apart from Him who will take charge of your affairs and to whom you can resort to ward off the calamity that afflicts you.

It is He who shows you, O people, the lightning, inspiring in you both fear of the lightning bolts and hope of rain. It is He who forms the clouds laden with rain water.

The thunder pronounces His glory together with His praises, may He be glorified. The angels pronounce the glory of their Lord in awe of Him and out of respect and honour for Him. He sends thunderbolts to strike and eliminate whichever of His creation He wills. Yet the disbelievers still dispute about Allah’s Oneness. Allah is mighty in power and strength and severe in punishing those who go against Him.

The call of monotheism is for Allah alone and no one shares this with Him. The idols on whom the idolaters call besides Him do not respond to the call of those who call them in any matter. Their calling them is simply like a thirsty person stretching his hand towards water for it to reach his mouth so that he can drink from it. The water is not going to reach his mouth. The call of the disbelievers to their idols is only in vain and far from being right, because they have no power to draw any benefit for them nor ward off any harm from them.

All that are in the heavens and on earth submit themselves in prostration to Allah alone. A believer and disbeliever are equal in this, except that a believer submits and prostrates to Him willingly, while a disbeliever unwillingly submits even though his natural disposition dictates that he should do so willingly. The shadow of every creation that has a shadow submits to Him at the beginning and at the end of the day.

Say, O Messenger, to the disbelievers who worship others together with Allah: Who is the creator and the controller of the heavens and the earth? Say, O Messenger, It is Allah who is their Creator and Controller and you acknowledge this. Say, O Messenger, to them: Have you taken for yourselves protectors other than Allah who are themselves helpless! They cannot draw any benefit for themselves nor remove any harm. How then will they be able to do so for others? Say to them, O Messenger, Is the disbeliever, who has no insight, equal to the believer who can see and who is guided? And is disbelief, which is layers of darkness, equal to faith, which is light? Have they assigned in the creation partners to Allah, may He be glorified, who have created anything like Allah’s creation so that their creation is indistinguishable from His? Say to them, O Messenger, Allah alone is the Creator of all things. He has no partner in creation. He is the One and Only deity, who solely deserves to be worshipped, and He is the All Compelling.

Allah strikes an example of the erosion of falsehood and the survival of truth with rainwater that comes down from the sky and causes riverbeds to flow, each according to its size, whether big or small. The overflowing water carries on its surface scum and froth that rise above the water. He then gives another example of falsehood and truth with some of the metals that people put into a furnace in order to melt down and to make ornaments for people. Falsehood is like the scum and froth that floats above the water and like the slag expelled by smelting the metal. Truth is like the pure water that can be drunk and that causes fruits, grass and vegetation to grow; and like the metal that remains after smelting, which is of benefit to people. Just as Allah has given these two examples, He gives many examples to people so that truth may be distinguished from falsehood.

Those believers who responded to their Lord when he called them towards His Oneness and obedience will have the best reward, which is Paradise. But those disbelievers who did not respond to His call towards His Oneness and obedience, even if they possessed all the different types of wealth on earth, and twice as much, they would offer all of that to redeem themselves from the punishment. Those who did not respond to His call will be taken to account for all their wrong deeds and the home in which they will reside will be Hell— What a miserable place the Fire is to rest and settle in!

The one who knows that what Allah has revealed to you, O Messenger, is undoubtedly the Truth from your Lord, and who has faith in and responds to Allah, cannot be equal to someone who is blind, who disbelieves in Allah and does not respond to Him. Only those with sound understanding will pay heed to and take a lesson from this.

Those who respond to Allah are the ones who fulfil the pledges they made to Allah or the pledges they made to His servants and who do not break the pledges made with Allah or with others.

They are those who join everything that Allah commands to be joined, such as ties with family and their fellow brothers for the sake of Allah, who are in such awe of their Lord that it moves them to carry out His instructions and refrain from His prohibitions, and who fear that Allah will take them to account for every sin they commit, for any person whose account is scrutinised will be ruined.

They are those who remained steadfast in following Allah and in the ease and hardship that Allah decreed for them, and they remained firm in refraining from going against Him, seeking Allah’s pleasure. They kept up the prayer perfectly, they discharged their obligations from the wealth that We gave them, and they willingly gave from that wealth, secretly to avoid ostentation, and openly so that others could follow their lead. They repel the evil of those who harm them by doing good to them. These people who have these qualities will have a praiseworthy outcome on the Day of Judgement.

This praiseworthy outcome refers to gardens in which they will permanently reside in luxury. To complete the favour, those of their fathers, mothers, wives and children who were upright will enter these gardens together with them so as to make their stay even more enjoyable by meeting them. In addition, the angels will come in to visit and congratulate them from every door of their homes in Paradise.

The angels will greet them whenever they come to visit them saying: Peace be on you, i.e.: You are safe from calamities because of your being steadfast in following Allah and in difficult times and being firm in not going against Him. What a wonderful final home is your outcome!

As for those who break their pledge with Allah after it has been made binding, and cut off the relationships that Allah has commanded to be joined, those are the unfortunate and wretched ones who will be distanced from Allah’s mercy, and they will have a dreadful home in the Fire.

Allah expands provision for anyone He wills and restricts it for any of His servants that He wills. Being given abundant provision is not a sign of being fortunate or of having attained Allah’s love. Similarly, restriction of provision is not a sign of being wretched. The disbelievers rejoiced in the life of this world and inclined to it becoming comfortable therein. Yet the life of this world, compared to the Hearafter, is only a brief enjoyment that will soon pass.

Those who disbelieved in Allah and His verses say: If only a physical sign was sent down to Muhammad from his Lord proving his truthfulness and then we will believe. Say, O Messenger, to those who suggest this: Allah, through His justice, leaves whoever He will to stray, and through His grace He guides to Himself those who turn towards Him in repentance. Guidance is not in their hands so that they could link it to the sending down of signs.

These people whom Allah guides are those who have faith and whose hearts find comfort in the remembrance of Allah and in His glorification and praise and by reciting and listening to His book. Truly it is only natural that in the remembrance of Allah hearts find comfort.

These people who have faith in Allah and do good actions that bring them close to Allah, will have a pleasant life in the afterlife and will have a beautiful outcome in Paradise.

Just as we sent previous messengers to their communities, We sent you, O Messenger, to your community so that you may recite to them the Qur’ān that We revealed to you, for it is sufficient evidence of your truthfulness. Yet the condition of your people is that they reject this miracle because they deny the Benevolent One as they associate others with Him as partners. Say, O Messenger, : The Benevolent One, with whom you associate others as partners, He is my Lord; there is no one deserving of being worshipped but He; in Him I put my trust for all my affairs, and to Him I turn in repentance.

If any of the divine scriptures had the quality of being able to make the mountains move from their places or the earth split and turn into rivers and springs, or be recited to the dead who would then come to life, it would have been this Qur’ān that is revealed to you, O Messenger, for its evidence is clear and its effect is profound, if only their hearts were mindful - but they reject it. Instead, the matter of sending down miracles and other matters are entirely in Allah’s control. Do those who have faith in Allah not know that if Allah willed to guide all the people together without sending down any miracles He would have done so? But He did not will that. Those who reject Allah continue to be struck with a severe disaster that shakes them, or such disaster falls close to their homes until Allah’s promise of the continuous punishment comes to pass. Allah does not fail to accomplish what He promised when the time specified for it comes.

You are not the first messenger to be rejected and mocked at by his people. The communities before you, O Messenger, mocked at their messengers and rejected them. But I gave respite to those who rejected their messengers until they thought I would not destroy them. Then I seized them after that respite, with various forms of punishment. What do you think of My punishment of them? It was really a severe punishment!

Is the One who watches over the actions of every soul and who recompenses it for its actions more deserving of being worshipped, or these idols who do not have any right to be worshipped? Yet the disbelievers have unjustly and falsely made them partners to Allah. Say to them, O Messenger, : Tell us the names of the partners that you worship together with Allah if you are true in your claim. Or is it that you are informing Allah of partners on earth that He does not know of? Or are you informing Him with a show of words that have no reality? Rather, Satan has made the evil designs of the disbelievers seem good to them. Thus they rejected Allah and He turned them away from the path of righteousness and guidance.

There is a punishment for them in this world in the form of being killed and imprisoned at the hands of the believers, but the punishment of the Hereafter that awaits them will be more severe and more difficult than the punishment of this world because of its never-ending severity and continuity. They will have no one to protect them from Allah’s punishment on the Day of Judgement.

The description of Paradise that those mindful of Allah, by fulfilling His instructions and avoiding His prohibitions, have been promised is that rivers flow below its palaces, its fruits are perpetual and do not ever end unlike the fruit of the world, and its shade is everlasting without ever retracting. That is the outcome that awaits those who are mindful of Allah, by fulfilling His instructions and avoiding His prohibitions. The outcome of the disbelievers is the Fire, which they will enter to remain there forever.

Those Jews to whom We gave the Torah and those Christians to whom We gave the Gospel, rejoice in what has been revealed to you, O Messenger, because it conforms to some of what was revealed to them. Some factions of the Jews and Christians deny parts of what has been revealed to you because it does not conform to their desires, or it describes them as having altered or distorted their religion. Say to them, O Messenger, Allah has only instructed me to worship Him alone, and not to associate any partners with Him. To Him alone I invite and not to anyone else. To Him alone is my return. This is what the Torah and the Gospel taught.

Just as We sent down the previous scriptures in the language of their people, We have sent down to you, O Messenger, the Qur’ān as a decisive word indicating the truth in the Arabic language. If you, O Messenger, follow the desires of the People of the Scripture, in their request to you to delete what does not conform to their desires, after you have received the knowledge that Allah has taught you, then you will not have anyone to take charge of your affairs and to assist you against your enemies and you will not have anyone to protect you from Allah’s punishment.

We sent messengers before you, O Messenger, who were human - so you are nothing new among the messengers. We gave them wives and children like other human beings. We did not make them angels who do not marry and have children. You are one of these messengers who marry and have children. Why then are these idolaters surprised at this? No messenger can bring a miracle except if Allah gives permission for him to do so. For every matter decreed by Allah there is a Book in which it is mentioned and a time which will neither come too early nor too late.

Allah removes whatever good, evil, fortune or misfortune He wills to remove and He confirms whatever He wills. With Him is the Preserved Tablet, which is the source of all of that, and any erasure or confirmation that appears conforms to what is in it.

If I show you, O Prophet, some of the punishment that We promise them before your death, then that is My choice. If I cause you to die before showing you that, then your duty is only to convey what We have instructed you to convey. It is not your duty to recompense them or to take them to account - that is My duty.

Have these disbelievers not seen that We come to the land of the disbelievers diminishing it from its borders by spreading Islam and by the Muslims conquering it? Allah decides and decrees whatever He wills amongst His servants. No one can reverse, amend or alter His decision. He, may He be glorified, is swift in reckoning and He will take the earlier people and the later ones to account within one day.

The previous communities had plotted and devised schemes against their prophets and they rejected what they brought to them. What did they manage to do by such schemes? Nothing! This is because the effective plan is only that of Allah and no other. He, may He be glorified, is the One Who knows what their souls earn and He will recompense them for it. Then they will know how wrong they were in not having faith in Allah, and how right the believers were as they would have acquired Paradise and the best outcome.

Those who disbelieved in Allah say: You, O Muhammad, have not been sent by Allah. Tell them, O Messenger, Allah is sufficient as a witness between me and you to the fact that I have been sent from my Lord to you, as well as those who have knowledge of the heavenly scriptures that contain my description. The one for whom Allah is a witness to His truthfulness, is not harmed by the rejection of those who deny him.

Alif Lam Ra, this is a book which I have revealed to you, so that you may lead people out of darkness and into light, by the will of their Lord, to the path of the Almighty, the PraiseworthyThe discussion on similar letters has already passed in Sūrah Al-Baqarah.This Qur’ān is a book that I revealed to you, O Messenger, so that you may remove people from disbelief, ignorance and misguidance to faith, knowledge and guidance - to the religion of Islam which is the way of Allah, the Mighty whom no one can overpower, the One Who deserves praise in everything.

Allah, to Whom alone belongs whatever is in the heavens, and to Whom alone belongs whatever is on earth. He alone is the One Who deserves to be worshipped and that nothing of His creation be associated as partner to Him. Those who disbelieved in Allah will received a severe punishment.

Those who disbelieved in Allah prefer the life of the world and its transient pleasures over the afterlife with its eternal bliss. They turn people away from Allah’s path and they seek to distort His path, make it divert from the truth and move away from uprightness, so that no one treads it. Those described with such attributes are in error that is far from the truth and righteousness.

We did not send any messenger except that We sent him speaking the language of his people, so that they could easily understand what he brought from Allah. We did not send him to compel them to have faith in Allah, for Allah misguides whoever He wills out of His justice, and guides whoever He wills through His grace. He is the Mighty, whom no one can overpower, and the Wise in His creation and planning.

We had sent Moses and supported him with miracles indicating his truthfulness and that he was indeed sent by His Lord. We instructed him to remove his people from disbelief, ignorance and slavery to faith, knowledge and freedom from the enslavement of Pharaoh and his people. We instructed him to remind them of Allah’s days on which He blessed them with His favours and of the days of His retribution on which He took the deniers to task. In those days there are clear signs of Allah’s Oneness, His magnitude of power, His favour to the believers and His punishment of the wrongdoing deniers. This is something that will be of benefit to those who are steadfast in following Allah and who constantly show gratitude for His favours and blessings.

Remember, O Messenger, when Moses fulfilled the instruction of his Lord and said to his people, the Israelites, reminding them of Allah’s favours to them: O my people, remember Allah’s favour on you when He saved you from the people of Pharaoh and gave you safety from their affliction. They were making you suffer greatly, killing your sons, so that no one would be born amongst you to take over Pharaoh’s kingdom, and letting your women live to humiliate and disgrace them. In their doing so was a great test of patience for you. Allah then rewarded you for your patience in this trial by saving you from the affliction of the people of Pharaoh.

Moses said to them: Remember when your Lord clearly announced to you: If you are grateful to Allah for the above-mentioned favours that He has blessed you with, then He will give you more from His favour and grace. But, if you deny His favours to you and do not show gratitude for them, His punishment is severe for those who deny His favours and are not grateful for them.

Moses said to his people: O my people, if you yourselves reject the truth and together with you all those on earth also reject the truth, the harm of your rejection will be on you, for Allah is self-sufficient and deserving of praise by Himself. The faith of the believers does not benefit Him and the rejection of the disbelievers does not harm Him.

Has not the news of the destruction of the communities who disbelieved before you reached you, O disbelievers? The people of Noah, the Ad, the people of Hud, Thamud - the people of Salih - and the communities that came after them, which are so numerous that their full number is known only to Allah? Their messengers came to them with clear signs as well as miracles. But they did not respond to their messengers and did not believe them. They did not utter anything that indicated their faith. Instead they said to their messengers: We reject what you have been sent with. We have disturbing doubts about what you are calling us to.

Their messengers said in response to them: Can there be any doubt about Allah’s Oneness and about worshipping Him alone, when He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, who brought them into existence without any precedent?! He calls you to have faith in Him so that He can wipe out your previous sins and defer you until such time that you can complete your fixed period of life in this world. Their people said to them: You are only human like us. You have no merit over us. You want to turn us away from what our forefathers used to worship. Bring us clear proof indicating the truthfulness of your claim that you are messengers from Allah to us.

In response to them, their messengers said: We are people like you, so we are not blaming you for imitating your forefathers in that respect. Just because you are people, it does not mean that you should imitate them in everything. Amongst His servants, Allah bestows unique favors on whomever He wishes, so He will choose some to be messengers to mankind. It is forbidden for us to grant you whatever evidence you desire, except if Allah so chooses. It is not within our power to bring you such evidence; instead, Allah alone is the One capable of doing so. Those who entrust all of their affairs to Allah will have trust in Him.

What sort of objection or excuse would cause us to cease having trust in Him? He has guided us to the clearest and most upright path. We will be patient against the harm you caused to us by belying and mocking us. Those who put their trust in Allah will entrust all of their affairs to Him alone.

When those who disbelieved in Allah, from amongst the people to whom the messengers were sent, were unable to respond to the messengers’ arguments, they said: “We will drive you out from our town, or you will have to reject your religion and return to ours.” Allah then sent revelation to His messengers, as a way to strengthen them: “We will surely destroy the wrongdoers who disbelieved in Allah and His messengers.”

O messengers, we will cause you to dwell on the earth after their destruction. What has been mentioned of the destruction of the denying disbelievers and causing their believing messengers to dwell on the earth after the disbelievers’ destruction is for whoever reflects on My majesty and observance of it, as well as for who feared My warning to him of the punishment.

The messengers asked Allah to make them victorious over their enemies. Every person who is arrogant and stubborn towards the truth, who does not follow it despite it being apparent to him, is a loser.

Hellfire is in front of this arrogant person, awaiting him. He will be given the puss that oozes from the people of Hellfire to drink, but it will not quench his thirst. He will continue to be punished with thirst and other types of punishments.

He will continue to sip it over and over because of the severity of its bitterness, its heat, and its rottenness. But he will not be able to swallow it. He will then be overcome by death from every direction due to the severity of the punishment. But he will not die and be relieved. Instead, he will remain alive and complain of the punishment. In front of him there is another severe punishment that awaits him.

The righteous actions of the disbelievers, such as giving charity and having kindness and mercy towards a weak person, are like ashes on a windy day. They are carried away by the wind and scattered all over the place until no trace of them remains. Such are the deeds of the disbelievers, which are blown away by disbelief. These deeds will not benefit their owners on the Day of Judgement. Actions that are not based on faith are deviations that are far from the path of truth.

Do you not know—and this language is directed to anyone it suits—that Allah created the heavens and the earth with truth, and He did not create them in vain? If He wishes to remove you, O people, and replace you with a different creation that will worship and obey Him in your place, He would have done so and produced a different creation that would worship and obey Him. It would be an easy matter for Him.

Destroying you and replacing you with a different creation is not difficult for Him, may He be Glorified. Allah is capable of all things, and Nothing is outside His ability.

The created things emerged from their graves towards Allah on the Appointed Day. The weak followers said to their eminent leaders: “O masters, we were followers to you. We were commanded by your command, and forbidden by your prohibition. So will you protect us against any of Allah’s punishments? The eminent leaders said: “If Allah had directed us towards guidance, we would have ushered you towards it. Then we would all have been saved from His punishment. However, we were misguided and we lead you astray. It is the same for the both of us, whether we are too weak to bear the punishment or are patient, there is no escaping the punishment for us”.

When the people of paradise entered paradise, and the people of hellfire entered hellfire, Iblis said: “Indeed Allah gave you a true promise, and he carried out his promise to you. I gave you a false promise and I failed to fulfil my promise to you. With whatever strength I have I will use to compel you in this world towards disbelief and misguidance. I invited you towards disbelieve and made sins attractive to you, so you were quick to follow me. Do not blame me for what befell you of misguidance, but blame yourselves because yourselves are more deserving of blame. I will not help you in averting your penalty, and you will not help me in averting my penalty. I denounce that you made me a partner with Allah in your worship. Those who do wrong by associating partners with Allah in this world and disbelieve in Him have a painful penalty that awaits them on the Day of Judgment.

By contrast to the fate of the wrongdoers, Allah caused those who have faith and do good deeds to enter Paradise with rivers flowing under its palaces and trees. They will dwell in it eternally in the presence of their Lord. They will greet one another, the angels will greet them and their Lord, may He be Glorified, will greet them with peace.

O Messenger, do you not know how Allah presented an example of the monotheistic phrase: “There is no deity but Allah”, when He likened it to an excellent tree, the date palm. Its trunk shoots into the earth’s floor and it drinks water with its excellent roots. Its branches reach out into the sky, drinking from the moisture and inhaling the good wind.

This excellent tree provides its sweet fruit each time by the permission of its Lord. Allah, the Exalted, may He be Glorified, provides examples for people to encourage them to remember.

The example of the bad word of disbelief is that of a bad tree, the colocynth. It is removed from its foundation with no stability on the earth. Nor does it extend into the sky, so it dies and is scattered by the wind. The word of disbelief results in ruin, and its owner’s good deeds will not reach Allah.

Through the monotheistic word, Allah makes the believers firm in their belief in the world until they die upon belief, as well as in the Transitory Stage in their graves when they are asked, and He will make them firm on the Day of Judgment. By causing them to associate partners with Him and disbelieve in Him, Allah will lead the wrongdoers away from guidance and what is correct. Allah does as He wishes when it comes to leading astray whomever He wants in accordance with His justice and guiding whomever He wants in accordance with His grace. Allah cannot be coerced (may He be glorified).

You have seen the circumstance of those who disbelieved in Allah and His Messenger from amongst Quraysh when they rejected Allah’s favor of having kept them safe in the Sacred Precinct. And in sending Muhammad, peace be upon Him, to them, they chose disbelief in His favours when they belied what he had brought them from their Lord. They caused their people that followed them in disbelieving to descend into the abode of destruction.

The abode of destruction is the Hellfire that they will enter. They will suffer its heat, and the worst of dwellings with be theirs to dwell in.

The idolaters made idols and counterparts for Allah so that they would lead their followers away from Allah’s path after they had been lead away from it. O Messenger, say to them: “Enjoy the objects of desire in your possession, and the spreading of doubt in the world. On the Day of Judgment your recompense will be the Hellfire, and you will have no other recompense besides it”.

O Messenger, say to the believers: “O believers! Perform the prayer with perfection. With the wealth Allah has given you, give obligatory and recommended charity in a secretive manner to avoid conceit, but also openly so others will take you as an example. Do so before a day arrives in which there is no trade or ransom to redeem yourself from Allah’s punishment, nor is there any friendship where a friend may intercede on the other’s behalf”.

Allah is the One Who has generated the heavens and the earth as things unlike anything else. He caused water to fall as rain from the heavens, and from that water He caused different types of crops to sprout as sustenance for you, O people. In accordance with His judgment, Allah subjugated ships for you to travel over water, and He subjugated rivers so that you could drink from them and water your livestock and crops.

Allah subjugated the sun and the moon to continuously orbit. He subjugated the day and the night to alternate, the night for your sleep and rest and the day for your activity and work.

He gave you from everything you requested, and even from what you did not request. If you try to count Allah’s favors, you will not be able to due to their plenitude and variety. What was mentioned is but examples of His favours to you. Indeed, man is ever oppressive towards himself and very ungrateful of Allah’s (the Exalted, may He be Glorified) favours.

O Messenger, recall when Ibrahim said, after relocating his son Ismael and Ismael’s mother, Hajar, in the valley of Makkah: “Oh Lord! Make this city, Makkah, in which I have placed my family, a city of peace wherein no blood is shed and no person oppresses another. Distance myself and my children from the worship of idols”.

“O Lord! The idols have misguided many people when they believed that the idols would intercede for them. They were allured to the idols, and they worshipped them instead of Allah. Whoever follows me in claiming Allah as One and obeying Him, then he is among my party and followers. Whoever disobeys me and does not follow me in claiming Allah as One and obeying Him, then You, O Lord, are Forgiving of the sins of whomever You wish and You are Merciful towards them”.

“Our Lord, I have placed some of my decedents, Ismael and his children, to dwell in a valley (i.e., Makkah) in which there is no crop and no water inside Your sacred House. Our Lord, You caused them to dwell by Your House so they may uptake praying in it, so cause peoples’ hearts to have compassion towards them and this city. And grant them sustenance from the crops in the hope that they will be thankful for the favors You have bestowed upon them”.

Our Lord, You know all that we keep secret and make known. Nothing on Earth or in the heavens remains hidden from Allah. He knows of it, so our need and dependence on Him does not remain hidden from Him.

Thanks and praise are due to Allah, may He be glorified, Who answered my supplication to grant me someone righteous. In my old age, He gave me Ismael from Hajar and Ishaq from Sara. My Lord, praised be He, hears the supplication of the supplicant.

O Lord, make me able to perform my prayer with perfection, and make my descendants people who do that also. Our Lord, answer and accept our prayer.

“Our Lord, forgive me my sins, and forgive the sins of my father (he said that before he knew that his father was an enemy of Allah. When it became clear to him that his father was Allah’s enemy, he repudiated his father). And forgive the sins of the believers on the day that mankind goes forth to be taken to account in front of their Lord.”

O Messenger, do not think that if Allah delays the punishment of the wrongdoers that He neglected their acts of lying, obstructing the path to Allah and other such deeds. Allah is aware of these things and nothing remains hidden from Him. Indeed, Allah delays their punishment until the Day of Judgment, the day that people’s eyes will stare in horror at the terror they will witness.

When people will come forth from their graves, hurrying towards the caller, with their heads raised and anxiously gazing at the sky. Their gaze does not come back to them, but remains fixed because of the horror they witness. Their hearts are empty and are unable to comprehend, and they have no sense of understanding due to the terrifying thing they witness.

O Messenger, make your people fear Allah’s punishment on the Day of Judgment. Those who wronged themselves by disbelieving in Allah and associating partners with Him will say: “Our Lord, give respite to us, and delay for us the punishment. Return us to the world for a short period so we can believe in You and follow the messengers you sent to us”. They will be given a reprimanding response: “Did you not swear, while you were on earth, that you would not be transferred from the world to the afterlife, and you disbelieved in the resurrection after death?”

You took residence in the living spaces of previous nations, who before you had wronged themselves by disbelieving in Allah, such as the nations of Hūd and Ṣāliḥ. The destruction I caused to befall them was made clear to you. We also gave you examples in the book of Allah so that you would be warned, but you did not take them as a warning.

Those who took up residence in the living spaces of the wrongful nations arranged a plot to kill the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and put an end to his mission. Allah knows of their plans and nothing remains hidden from Him. Their plan was weak, for it is unable to move the mountains or anything else, contrary to Allah’s plan against them.

O Messenger, do not think that Allah, Who promised His messengers victory and the establishment of the religion, has given up on His promise to His messengers. Allah is noble and nothing overcomes His decree. He will strengthen and support His allies whilst reserving severe vengeance for His enemies and the enemies of His Messengers.

This revenge against the disbelievers will occur on the Day of Judgement, on the day that this earth will be exchanged for a barren and dustless earth and the skies will be exchanged for different skies. People will exit their graves with their bodies and deeds so that they can stand before Allah, Who alone is the possessor and owner of kingdom and majesty. He subdues and is never subdued and He defeats and is never defeated.

Their clothes will be made from resin (a highly flammable substance), and their sullen faces will be covered with fire.

Their clothes will be made from resin (a highly flammable substance), and their sullen faces will be covered with fire.

Allah will recompense each soul for the good and evil it did, and Allah is swift in taking account. He will account for the first ones on a single day, and His accounting for one will not distract Him from accounting for another.

This Qur’ān, which was revealed to Muhammad (peace be upon him), is a forewarning from Allah to mankind so that they may take heed of the warnings and severe threats in it; and so they may know that the one who is obeyed in truth is Allah alone so that they will worship Him and not associate any partners with Him. Also, so that those with sound intellects will be admonished and warned by it, as they are the ones who will benefit from admonitions and warnings.

This sūrah begins with the disconnected letters, the explanation for which has already preceeded in Sūrah Baqarah. These verses are very significant, which indicates that they are revealed from Allah. They are verses of a Qur’ān that clarifies monotheism and sacred laws.

On the Day of Judgement, when things become clear to them, the disbelievers will wish they were Muslim. The falsity of their ways in the world will be made clear to them.

O Messenger, leave these beliers to eat as the beasts eat, and to avail themselves of the finite pleasures of the world and let their hopes distract them from faith and righteous actions. They will come to know the loss they are in when they face Allah on the Day of Judgement.

For each oppressive town that became destroyed, Allah already knew of its fixed time. The destruction will neither come before or after its time.

A nation will not be destroyed before its appointed time, and its destruction will not be delayed when its time arrives. The wrongdoers should not have hope in Allah delaying their fate.

The disbelievers from Makkah said to the Messenger (peace be upon him): O you to whom the remembrance was revealed (as the Messenger himself used to claim), your claims make you out to be one who is possessed, and you behave as possessed people do.

Why do you not call forth the angels to testify on your behalf, or why do you not ask for us to be destroyed because of our disbelief?

In response to their idea of having the angels brought forth, Allah said: I will not send the angels except when it becomes wise to do so, that is, when your time comes to be penalised. And if the angels were sent and they did not believe, then their punishment would become imminent.

I alone revealed this Qur’ān to the heart of Muhammad (peace be upon him) as a reminder for people. I will guard the Qur’ān from anything being added to it or subtracted from it, or anything in it being exchanged or altered.

O Messenger, I sent before you messengers to prior groups of disbelievers and they belied them. So you are not an exceptional messenger from the perspective of being made out as a liar by your people.

Previous groups of disbelievers did not receive a messenger except that they belied and ridiculed him.

As I left the lies in the hearts of those nations, I will leave it as well in the hearts of the Makkahn idolaters, because of their opposition and stubbornness.

They do not believe in this Qur’ān that was revealed to Muhammad (peace be upon him). Allah’s custom in destroying those who bely their messengers has occurred before, so the beliers should take that into consideration.

These liars will remain stubborn even if the truth became obvious to them through clear proofs, even if I opened for them a door from the heavens and they continued to ascend through it.

They would not believe, and they said: Our eyes could no longer see, and what we saw was the effects of magic, so we are bewitched.

We placed in the heavens great stars so as to guide people on their travels in the darkness of the desert and the sea. We also created them for those who ponder them, so that they would come to understand the ability of Allah, may He be glorified.

We protected the heavens from every satan that is rejected from Allah’s mercy.

Except for those who try to secretly listen to the high realm, they will be struck with a flaming meteor and they will be burned.

I flattened the earth so that people would dwell on it, and we placed sturdy mountains on it so that it (i.e. the earth) would not shake the people, and I planted in it a variety of crops [...]

O people, I have placed for you on the earth foods and drinks that would sustain you so long as you are in the worldly life.

For all that benefits people and animals I am able to produce it and benefit people with it. I do not provide such things except according to a specific quantity determined by My wisdom and will.

I sent the winds to fertilise the cloud, and I sent rain down from the fertilised clouds and I nourished you from rain water. O people, you are not containers of this water on earth in springs and wells, rather Allah is the One Who contains the water in them.

I revive the dead by creating them out of nothing and resurrecting them after death. And I cause the living to die when their time comes. I am the One Who will remain and inherit the earth and whatever is upon it.

I know of who was born and died before you, and of those who will be born and die after. Nothing of that is hidden from Me.

O Messenger, your Lord will gather them all on the Day of Judgment in order to credit the good doer for his good deeds, and the evil doer for his sins. He is Wise in His arrangement and knowledgeable. Nothing is hidden from Him.

I created Adam from dried clay, if it is struck it sounds. This clay that he was created from is black and of an altered scent beacuse of the duration it has been left.

I created the father of the jinn from scolding fire before I created Adam (upon him be peace).

O Messenger, remember when Allah said to the angels and Iblis, who was with them: I will create a being from dried clay that rings when it is hit, it is black and of an altered scent.

If I fashion his image and perfect his creation then prostrate to him in obedience to My command and to greet him.

The angels obeyed, so they all prostrated as their Lord commanded them.

As for Iblis, who was with the angels but was not one himself, refused to prostrate to Adam along with the angels.

After Iblis refused to prostrate to Adam, Allah said to him: What kept you and prevented you from prostrating with the angels, who prostrated out of obedience to My command?

Iblis arrogantly said: It is not proper for me to prostrate to a being You created out of dried clay that used to be black, malleable clay.

Allah said to Iblis: Exit from paradise, for you are banished.

Upon you is My damnation and banished you are from My mercy until the Day of Judgment.

Iblis said: O Lord, allow me to live and do not cause me to die until the day that Adam and his offspring are resurrected.

Allah (the Exalted) said: You are of those who I will grant a long life.

Until the time when all created things will die, upon the first blow of the Horn.

Iblis said: O Lord, because You misguided me, I will make sins on earth seem attractive to them, and I will lead them all astray from the straight path.

Except for those servants You select to be worshipful to You.

Allah said: This is a straight path that leads to Me.

You have no power or sway over tempting My sincere servants, except for those who follow you who are led astray.

Hellfire is the promised abode of Iblis and all those who follow him who have been led astray.

Hellfire has seven doors through which they enter. For each of its doors, there is a known amount of the followers of Iblis who will enter through it.

Those who were mindful of Allah, by obeying His command and staying away from disobedience will have gardens and springs.

When they enter, it will be said to them: Enter it with safety from any misfortune and security from any fears.

I removed what was in their chests of enmity and envy. They are brethren beloved to one another, sitting upon thrones and looked upon one another.

Fatigue does not affect them, and they will not be made to leave it. Rather, they will remain in it forever.

O Messenger, inform My servants that I am the Forgiving towards whomever of them repents, and I am Merciful to them.

And inform them that My punishment is the severe punishment, so they should repent to Me so they can receive My forgiveness and be safe from My punishment.

And inform them of the story of the guests of Ibrahim (peace be with him) that were angels who came to give him glad tidings of a child, and news of the destructions of the people of Lot.

When they came to him and said, Peace. He answered them with a greeting that was better than theirs and presented them with a roasted calf for them to eat because he thought that they were human. When they did not eat of it he said: We are afraid of you.

The Messenger from the Angels said: Do not be afraid! We will tell you something that will make you glad. You are going to have a son with great knowledge.

Abraham, being surprised at the good news of a baby boy they gave him, said to them: Do you bring me this good news despite the fact that old age has reached me? What kind of good news are you bringing me?

The Messengers from the Angels said to Abraham: We bring you good news of the truth in which there is no doubt, so do not be among those who despair from the good news we bring you.

Abraham said: Does anyone despair from the mercy of his Lord but those who have deviated from Allah’s straight path?!

Abraham said: What is the matter that has brought you - O Messengers - from Allah?

The Messenger from the Angels said: Allah has sent us to destroy a people who are guilty of great corruption and evil, the people of Lot.

Except the family of Lot and the believers that follow him for they will not be included in the destruction and We will save them all from it.

Except for his wife, for We have decreed her to be one of those who stay behind included in the destruction.

When the Messengers from the Angels came to the family of Lot in the form of men.

Lot (peace be with him) said to them: I do not recognise you, nor do I know who you are.

The Messengers from the Angels said to Lot: Do not fear! We have brought to you - O Lot - the destructive punishment that your people have doubts about.

We have brought to you the truth in which there is no joke, and we are truthful in the information we give you.

So travel with your family after a portion of the night has passed. Travel behind them and let none of you look back to see what happens to them. Proceed to where Allah has instructed you to go.

We made known to Lot by means of revelation the matter that We had decreed, which was that those people will be annihilated by the last of them being destroyed when morning comes.

The people of Sodom came rejoicing at the guests of Lot, with the desire to commit indecency.

Lot said to them: These people are my guests, so do not disgrace me by what you want with them.

Fear Allah by leaving this indecent behaviour and do not humiliate me by this heinous act of yours.

His people said to him: Did we not forbid you from hosting anyone? One who provides a warning has in effect excused himself for taking someone to account for not abiding by it.

Lot (peace be with him) said to them: These are the women of my people, who are like daughters to me. Marry them if you want to satisfy your desires.

By your life - O Messenger - the people of Lot wander blindly in pursuit of their lusts.

The destructive punishment seized them at the time of sunrise.

We turned their towns upside down and rained on them a shower of petrified clay.

In the incident mentioned about the punishment that descended on the people of Lot there are signs for those who ponder.

The towns of the people of Lot are on an existing road and can be seen by travellers who pass by.

In that which occurred there is a sign for the believers to take lesson from.

The people of Shuayb, who lived in a town surrounded by intertwined trees, were wrongdoers; because of their denial of Allah and rejection of His Messenger, Shuayb (peace be with him).

We took retribution from them when the punishment seized them. The towns of the people of Lot and the dwellings of the people of Shuayb are on a path clear to those who pass by.

Indeed the Thamud, who were the people of Hijr (a place between Hijaz and the Levant) had in effect rejected all the Messengers when they rejected their prophet, Salih (peace be with him.)

We gave them proofs and signs to indicate his truthfulness in what he brought from his Lord. One of these was the she-camel. But they did not take a lesson from those signs and paid no attention to them.

They used to carve out dwellings in the rocks of the mountains in which they lived safe from that which they feared.

Then the bolt of the punishment seized them in the morning.

The wealth and the dwellings that they had gained did not ward off Allah’s punishment.

We did not create the heavens and the earth and we did not create everything between them in vain without any wisdom. We only created all of that with a true purpose. The Hour will certainly come, so, O Messenger, ignore those who reject you and pardon them graciously.

Your Lord, O Messenger, is the Creator and the Knower of everything.

We have given you ‘The Opening (Sūrah Al-Fātiḥah)’ which consists of seven verses and We have given you the Grand Qur’ān.

Do not extend your sight to the temporary enjoyments We have given to some classes of disbelievers and do not grieve over their rejection. Be humble with the believers.

Say - O Messenger: I am indeed a warner of the punishment and I make clear that which will guide you.

I warn you of a punishment similar to that which Allah sent down on those who formed an alliance to deny the messengers.

Those who accepts parts of the Qur’ān and allege other parts to be sorcery, soothsaying or poetry.

By your Lord, O Messenger, I will on the Day of Judgement bring all those who break it into parts to account.

We will question them about the disbelief and sins they committed in the world.

So announce, O Messenger, the invitation towards Allah that He has instructed you to do and do not pay any attention to what the idolaters say and do.

Do not be afraid of them, for we are enough for you against those leaders of disbelief from the Quraysh who mock at you.

Those who take another deity along with Allah. They will soon come to know the evil outcome of their associating partners with Allah.

We know that your heart, O Messenger, is constrained by the rejection and mockery of you that emanates from them.

So resort to Allah by declaring His transcendence from everything not appropriate for Him, and by praising Him with the attributes of His perfection; and be one of those who worship Allah and pray to Him. In that there is a cure for the strain on your heart.

Go on worshipping your Lord and continue doing so as long as you live until death comes to you in that state.

The Hour and the punishment that Allah has decreed for you - O disbelievers - is close, so do not ask for it to come sooner than its time. Exalted is He and High above that which they associate with Him in their worship.

He sends down the angels to whichever of His Messengers He wills with revelation that brings life to the souls: Saying: Warn O Messengers, the people against associating partners with Allah, for there is no one deserving of worship besides Me. Be mindful of me - O People - by fulfilling my instructions and avoiding my prohibitions.

Allah created the heavens and the earth without any precedent for a true purpose. He did not create them in vain, but created them to serve as a sign of His greatness. He is Exalted and high above their ascribing others as partners to Him.

He created man from a despised drop of fluid who then progressed from one form to another until he became a harsh contender using falsehood to attempt to invalidate with it the truth, being an obvious opponent in his arguing.

He also created livestock such as camels, cattle and goats for your benefit - O People. Some of these benefits include deriving warmth from their wool and hair and other benefits from their milk, skin and backs. Some of them serve as food that you eat.

There is beauty in them for you in the evening and in the morning when you take them out to graze.

These livestock that We created for you carry your heavy goods when you travel to places that you would only be able to reach after bearing great hardship on yourselves. Your Lord - O People - is Kind and Merciful to you as He has subjugated these livestock to you.

He created horses, mules and donkeys for you to ride and carry your goods on and for them to be an adornment for you that you can beautify yourselves with amongst people. He will create in the future means of transport and other things that you do not know about.

Allah has made it a duty upon Himself to show the Path that leads to His Pleasure, which is Islam. Some paths are that of Satan that deviate away from the truth. Any path other than the path of Islam is deviated. Had Allah willed to guide you all to Faith He would have guided you alltogether.

He, may He be glorified, is the One Who sent down for you water from the clouds. From this water you have a drink that you and your livestock can drink of. From it you get vegetation on which you can graze your animals.

With that water, Allah grows for you the crops that you eat. He also grows for you olives, date-palms and grapes as well as other types of fruit. In that water and the things that it gives rise to there is a sign of Allah’s power for people who ponder over His creation and use it as evidence of Allah’s greatness.

Allah subjugated the night for you so that you can find peace and rest in it, and the day so that you can earn your livelihood in it. He put the sun at your service and made it bright and the moon, which He made a light. The stars are subjugated for you by His decree, which you use for navigation in the darknesses of the sea and land and by which you come to know time etc. In the subjugation of all of these things there are clear signs of Allah’s power for people who apply their minds, for they are the ones who will grasp the wisdom in them.

He, may He be glorified, also subjugated for you the things on earth that He created having diverse colours such as minerals, animals, plants and crops. In what He has created and subjugated for you there is a clear sign of Allah’s power for people to pay heed and realise that Allah is a powerful benefactor.

He, may He be glorified, is the One Who subjugated the sea for you and enabled you to travel on it and to extract what is in it, so that you can eat the fresh and soft meat of the fish that you catch and that you can extract from it jewellery that you and your wives can wear such as pearls and coral. You see the ships splitting the waves of the ocean and you travel on these ships in search of Allah's bounty in the form of profit you gain from trade. All of this is for you to be grateful to Allah for the favours He has given you and to worship Him alone.

He spread out mountains on earth to keep it firm so that it does not shake and cause you to become unsettled. He caused rivers to flow so that you can drink from them and give water to your livestock and crops. He split in it pathways for you to tread and reach your destinations without losing your way.

He made for you on earth clear landmarks that you could be guided by when travelling during the day. He also made for you stars in the sky that you could use as a guide at night.

Is the one who creates all these things like the one who does not create anything?! Do you not think about the greatness of Allah who created everything and worship Him alone without ascribing as partners to Him what has not created anything?

If you - O people - tried to count and list Allah’s many blessings that He has favoured you with, you will not be able to do so because they are so numerous and diverse. Allah is Forgiving, as He did not take you to task for being neglectful of showing thanks to Him, and Merciful, as he did not stop these blessings from you on account of your sins and failure to thank Him.

Allah knows the actions that you - O servants - conceal and those that you reveal. None of those actions are hidden from Him and He will recompense you for them.

Those whom the idolaters worship besides Allah, do not create anything no matter how little. Those who worship them besides Allah are the ones who make them. How do they worship besides Allah those idols which they make with their own hands?!

Despite the fact that the idol worshippers made their gods with their own hands, they are also lifeless things that have no life nor knowledge. They do not know when they will be resurrected with their worshippers on the Day of Judgement, to be thrown together with them into the fire of Hell.

The only being that truly deserves to be worshipped is only one being who has no partner and that is Allah. Those who deny the resurrection and the recompense, their hearts are arrogant and they do not fear the reckoning. They therefore do not believe that there will be any reckoning or retribution. They are arrogant and refuse to accept the truth.

Truly, Allah knows the actions that these people conceal and He knows the actions they reveal. Nothing is hidden from Him and He will recompense them for that. He, may He be glorified, does not love those who are too proud to worship and submit to Him. Instead he detests such people intensely.

When these people who deny the oneness of the Creator and who reject the resurrection are asked: What did Allah reveal to Muhammad (peace be upon him)? They say: He did not reveal anything to him. It is only that he himself has brought stories and fables of the earlier ones.

So that their outcome will be that they will bear their sins without any reduction, and they will also bear some of the sins of those they misled from Islam on account of ignorance and blind imitation. How terrible will be that which they will carry from their own sins and the sins of their followers.

The disbelievers before these people devised plots against their Messengers. Allah then destroyed their buildings from the foundations and as a result their roofs fell on them from above. The punishment came to them from where they did not expect as they had expected their buildings to protect them but they were destroyed by them.

Then on the Day of Judgment Allah will humiliate and disgrace them with His punishment and He will say to them: Where are my partners whom you used to associate with me in worship and because of which you used to oppose the prophets and the believers? Those who were righteous scholars will then say:: Indeed! Humilation and torment on this Day will necessarily cover the disbelievers.

Those whose souls are taken by the angel of death and his aides while wronging themselves in their disbelief will submit with full surrender when death actually comes to them, and they will deny the disbelief and sins they used to do, thinking that such denial will be of benefit to them. It will be said to them: You have lied. You were disbelievers who used to commit sin. Allah knows everything that you used to do in the world. Nothing is hidden from Him and He will recompense you for that.

It will be said to them: Enter in accordance with your deeds through the doors of Hell to live therein forever. What an evil place of residence for those who were too arrogant to have faith in Allah and worship Him alone.

Yet those who were mindful of their Lord by fulfilling His instructions and avoiding His prohibitions were asked: What did your Lord send down to your Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)? They replied: Allah has sent down on him great good. For those who worshipped Allah well and treated His creation well in this worldly life there is an excellent reward including victory and abundance of sustenance. And the reward that Allah has prepared for them in the Hearafter will be better then what He has already given them in the world. What an excellent home is the home of the afterlife for those who are mindful of their Lord by fulfilling His instructions and avoiding His prohibitions!

They will enter gardens of residence and permanence with rivers flowing below their palaces and trees. In these gardens they will have every type of food, drink and other pleasures that they desire. This type of reward, which He gives to those who are mindful from the nation of Muhammad (peace be upon him), He also gives to those who were mindful from the previous communities.

Those whose souls are taken by the angel of death and his aides while their hearts were free from disbelief, the angels will address them saying: Peace be on you. You are safe from every difficulty. Enter paradise because of the correct belief and good actions that you used to do in the world.

Are these denying idolaters waiting for anything but the angel of death and his aides to come to take their souls and strike their faces and their backs, or for Allah’s command to come to eradicate them by means of a punishment in the world? Similar to those idolaters who came before who were destroyed because if their idolatry; so too the idolaters of Makkah may perhaps meet the same fate. Allah did not wrong them when He destroyed them but they wronged their own souls by bringing them to the point of destruction because of their disbelief in Allah.

So the retribution of the actions they used to do came down on them and they were surrounded by the punishment they used to mock at whenever they were reminded of it.

Those who associated others with Allah in their worship said: Had Allah willed for us to worship Him alone and not to ascribe any partners to Him, we would not have worshipped anything besides Him, neither us, nor our ancestors before us. Had He willed for us not to prohibit anything we would not have done so. The disbelievers of the past also presented such false arguments. The duty of the Messengers is only to clearly communicate what they have been instructed to convey and they have done so. The disbelievers cannot present fate as an argument after Allah has given them free will and choice and sent to them His Messengers.

We had sent to every previous nation a Messenger instructing his nation to worship Allah alone, and leave the worship of others beside Him such as idols, satans etc. Some of them were guided by Allah and had faith in Him, while others rejected Allah and went against His Messenger so He did not guide them and they deserved misguidance. So travel through the earth to see for yourselves what the end result of the deniers was after the punishment and destruction came upon them.

Even though you - O Messenger - try everything you can to call these people being so eager for their guidance, Allah will not guide those whom He misguides and they will have none besides Allah to assist them by protecting them from the punishment.

These deniers swore their most serious oaths: Allah will not resurrect anyone who dies, without their having any proof of that. Yes indeed, Allah will resurrect everyone who dies, being His binding promise, because the one who brought them to life from non-existence without any precedent is able to bring them back to life after having caused them to die. But most people do not know that Allah will resurrect the dead and they therefore deny the resurrection.

Allah will resurrect them all on the Day of Judgement to make clear to them the things they differed about such as His Oneness, the resurrection and prophethood and so that the disbelievers may realise that they were false in their claim of Allah’s having partners and in their denial of the resurrection.

Indeed when I want to bring the dead to life and ressurect them then there will be nothing to prevent Me from doing so. When We will something to happen, all that We say is, ‘Be,’ and it definitely becomes.

Those who left their homes, families and wealth emigrating from the land of disbelief to the land of Islam in search for Allah’s pleasure after having been persecuted by the disbelievers, we will make them settle in the world in a place in which they will be honoured. But the reward of the afterlife is greater because it includes paradise. If those who remained behind from emigration knew the reward of those who emigrate they would not have remained behind.

These emigrants in Allah’s way are the ones who were patient against the harm of their people and the separation from their families and homes. They were steadfast in Allah’s obedience. They rely only on their Lord in all their affairs and Allah therefore gave them this great reward.

I did not send before you - O Messenger - except men who were human beings, to whom I sent revelation. I did not send Messengers that were angels. This is Our constant practice. If you all deny that then ask the people of the previous scriptures and they will tell you that Messengers were on;y human beings.

We sent those Messengers from amongst humans with clear signs and revealed scriptures. We have revealed to you, O Messenger, the Qur’ān so that you can give people the explanation they require and so that they can apply their minds and take a lesson from what it contains.

Do those who make plots to prevent people from Allah’s path feel secure that Allah will not cause the earth to cave in with them as He caused it to cave in with Qarun, or that the punishment will not come to them from where they least expect.

Or that the punishment will not afflict them whilst they are going about on their journeys and in their quest for earnings. They will not escape nor protect themselves from it.

Or do they feel secure that Allah’s punishment will not come to them while they are afraid of it? Allah is able to punish them in every condition. Your Lord is compassionate and merciful. He does not take retribution hastily for perhaps His servants will turn to Him in repentance.

Do these deniers not look with contemplation at His creation? Their shadows incline right and left following the movement of the sun in the day and that of the moon at night, in humility and prostration to their Lord, whilst they are submissive to Allah and are subject to His domination.

It is to Allah alone that all creatures in the heavens and on earth prostrate. It is to Him alone that the angels prostrate. They are not too proud to worship Allah and obey Him.

They - despite their constant worship and obedience - fear their Lord who is above them by His Self, Dominance and Authority and they carry out the acts of obedience that their Lord instructs them to.

Allah, may He be glorified, said to all His servants: Do not take two beings of worship. The being deserving of worship is only one who has no second nor any partner. So fear Me only and do not fear others besides Me.

To Him alone belongs everything in the heavens and on earth: He created, owns and controls all of it. To Him alone obedience, submission and sincerity is due always. Will you, then, fear anyone other than Allah? No, instead fear Him alone!

Whatever blessing you - O people - have in this world or in the afterlife is from Allah, may He be glorified, and not from anyone else. Then when some calamity, sickness or poverty afflicts you, it is to Him alone that you plead in supplication to remove what has afflicted you. Thus, the One who grants blessings and who removes difficulties is the One Who must be worshipped alone.

Then when He answers your prayer and removes the harm from you, a group of you begin associating partners with their Lord and worshipping others with Him. What unjust behaviour is this!

Their associating partners with Allah meant that they in fact reject Allah’s favours to them, including Allah saving them from their distress after they had called on Him alone. It was therefore said to them: Enjoy the luxuries that you have until Allah’s penalty comes to you sooner or later.

The idolaters allocate to their idols, which do not know anything - as they are lifeless objects that can neither benefit nor harm - a portion of the wealth that We provided for them, as a means of seeking closeness to those idols. By Allah, you - O idolaters - will be questioned on the Day of Judgement about your assertions that these idols are gods and that they are entitled to a portion of your wealth.

The idolaters attribute daughters to Allah and they believe that these are the angels. Thus they attribute lineage to Allah and select for him what they do not like for themselves. He is Pure, Glorified and Sanctified from what they assign to Him. They assign for themselves the male offspring that they desire. What crime is greater than this?!

When one of these idolaters is given the news of the birth of a female his face darkens due to the extreme dislike of such news and his heart is filled with worry and grief. Then, he attributes to Allah what he does not like for himself!

He hides from his people because of the bad news of the birth of a girl that was given to him. He asks himself: Shall he keep this girl that he was given news of with humiliation and dejection, or shall he bury her alive and hide her in the dust? How evil is the decision that the idolaters make when they assigned to their Lord what they detest for themselves.

It is those who do not believe in the Hereafter who have a lower description; such as ignorance, disbelief, as well as the need to have offspring. Allah has the praiseworthy attributes of majesty, perfection, independence and knowledge. He, may He be glorified, is Mighty in His kingdom and nothing can overcome Him. He is Wise in His creation, planning and legislation.

If Allah, may He be glorified, were to punish mankind for their injustices and for their rejection of Him, He would not leave on earth a single human being or animal that walks on its surface. But He, may He be glorified, postpones them until a time that is fixed in His knowledge. Then, when that time that is fixed in His knowledge comes, they will not delay it nor will they advance it for even a short while.

They assign to Allah, may He be glorified, females that they dislike to attribute to themselves. They claim falsely that if indeed they are resurrected then they will have the best ranks with Allah. Truly, for them is the Fire, and they will be left therein never to come out of it.

By Allah, We sent Messengers to communities before you - O Messenger, but Satan made their evil deeds of idolatry, disbelief and sins seem good to them. He is their so-called helper on the Day of Judgement so let them ask him for help. They will have a painful punishment of the Day of Judgement.

We did not reveal the Qur’ān to you, O Messenger, except for you to make clear to all people what they differ about in respect of Allah’s oneness, resurrection and the details of the sacred law, and for the Qur’ān to be a guidance and mercy for those who have faith in Allah, His Messengers and all what the Qur’ān came with, for they are the ones who will truly benefit.

Allah sends down rain from the direction of the sky, with which He revives the earth by taking out vegetation from it after it had been dry and arid. In the sending down of the rain from the direction of the sky and in the taking out of the earth’s vegetation by means of it, is a clear sign of Allah’s power for people who listen to the words of Allah and ponder over them.

There is a lesson for you to take - O people - in camels, cows and goats: We give you to drink from their udders milk that comes out from in between the waste that the stomach contains and the blood that is in the body. Despite this it comes out as pure milk that is tasty and pleasant to those who drink it.

There is a lesson for you in the provision We give you from the fruits of date palms and grapes. From them you make intoxicants that affect the mind, which are not good, and you also take from them a good provision that is of benefit to you such as dates, raisins, vinegar and trickle. In this there truly is a sign of Allah’s power and favour to His servants for people who use their reason, for they are the ones who take heed.

Your Lord, O Messenger, inspired the bees and guided them saying, “Make homes for yourselves in the mountains, in the trees and in the structures and shelters that people build.”

“Then eat of all the fruits you desire, and go along the pathways that your Lord inspires you to take that are made easy for you.” From the bellies of those bees emerges honey of different colours, such as white, yellow and other colours, which contains a cure for people that they can use to treat their sick. Surely in such inspiring of bees and in the honey that emerges from their bellies is a sign of Allah’s power and planning of the affairs of His creation for people who reflect, for they are the ones who take heed.

Allah created you without a precedent; then He will cause you to die when your term of life ends. The lifespan of some of you will be extended to the worst stage of life, which is the severe old-age, when a person will no longer know anything of what he used to know. Allah is knowing, and no action of His servants is hidden from Him. He is powerful and nothing can overpower Him.

Allah, may He be glorified, has given some of you preference over others in the provision that He has granted you and has made some you some of you rich and others poor, some of you leaders and others subjects. Those whom Allah has given preference in provision are not willing to pass on what Allah has given them to their servants, so that they become equal partners in the ownership thereof. How then are they pleased for Allah to have partners from amongst His servants when they are not pleased for themselves to have partners from amongst their servants who are equal to them? What injustice is this and what rejection of Allah’s favours can be worse than this?!

Allah has made for you - O people - spouses from your species whose company you can enjoy. He has made for you from your spouses children and grandchildren; and has provided you with wholesome foods such as meat, grains and fruit. Will they then believe in false idols and statues, and reject Allah's innumerable favours and not thank Him by having faith in Him alone?!

These idolaters worship, besides Allah, idols who have no power to provide them with any provision from the heavens or the earth and they will never be able to do so because they are inanimate objects that have no life or knowledge.

So - O People - do not make similarities for Allah from these idols that do not benefit nor harm. Allah has no likeness that you can associate with Him in worship. Allah knows the attributes of majesty and perfection that are His and you do not know that and as a result you ascribe partners to Him and claim that your idols are similar to Him.

Allah, may He be glorified, strikes an example to refute the idolaters: A bonded slave that is unable to do anything and who has nothing to spend as compared to a free person to whom We have given from our side lawful wealth that he uses as he wills and spends from it secretly and openly as he wills. These two men are not equal. How then do you make Allah who is the Owner of everything, who spends in His dominion and does what He wills, equal to those powerless idols? Praise be to Allah Who is deserving of all praise. Rather, most of the idolaters do not know that Allah is Single in His divinity and that He alone deserves to be worshipped.

Allah, may He be glorified, strikes another example to refute them, which is the example of two men: One of them is mute and cannot hear, speak or understand due to his deafness and muteness. He is unable to benefit himself or others. He is a heavy burden on the one who is in charge of and looks after him. Whichever direction he sends him, he brings no good and does not attain the objective. Can the person whose condition is like this be equal to one who is sound of hearing and speech, and who is of benefit to others. He instructs people to be just and he himself is upright. He is on a clear path that has no confusion or crookedness. How then do you - O idolater- equate Allah Who possesses the attributes of majesty and perfection with your idols who cannot hear or speak and who cannot bring any benefit or remove any harm?!

To Allah alone belongs the knowledge of the unseen of the heavens and knowledge of the unseen of the earth. He has the exclusive knowledge of that as opposed to anyone of His creation. The coming of the Hour is only known to Allah, and the speed of its coming is only like the closing and opening of the eyelid or closer then that. Allah has power over everything. Nothing can overpower Him. When He intends something He says, “Be” and it is.

Allah brought you - O people - out of your mothers’ wombs after the completion of the term of pregnancy, as babies not realising anything; and He gave you hearing to hear with, eyesight to see with, and hearts to reason; in the hope that you may give thanks to Him for these favours that He has given you.

Have the idolaters not seen the birds that are subdued and designed to fly in the air because of the wings that Allah granted them along with the lighteness and delicate nature of the air? He inspired them to close and open their wings. No one keeps them from falling in the air except Allah, the Powerful. In this subjugation and holding them from falling there are signs for people who have faith in Allah, because they are the ones who benefit from such signs and lessons.

Allah, may He be glorified, has made for you the homes that you build out of stone and other items to settle and rest therein. He has made for you, from the skins of camels, cows and goats, tents and canopies in the desert that are similar to urban homes. These are light for you to carry when you travel from one place to another and are easy to erect when you stop. He has made for you, from the wool of sheep and the hair of camels and goats, furnishings for your homes and garments and coverings that you can enjoy the use of until a specified time.

Allah has made for you trees and buildings that you use as shade from the heat. He has made for you tunnels, caverns and caves in the mountains that you use as a cover from the cold, heat and from enemies. He has made for you shirts and clothing of cotton that protect you from the heat and cold. He has made for you armour that protect you from the violence of others in war so that the weapons do not penetrate and reach your bodies. Just as Allah has given you the above favours He completes His favours to you in the hope that you will submit to Allah alone and not associate anything as partner to Him.

If they turn away from faith and acceptance of what you have brought, then your duty, O Messenger, is only to convey what you have been instructed to in a clear manner. It is not your duty to make them accept guidance.

The idolaters recognise the favours that Allah has given them, such as the sending of the prophet (peace be upon him), but then they deny His favours by not giving thanks and by rejecting His Messenger. Most of them reject His favours, may He be glorified.

Remember, O Messenger, the Day when Allah will raise up from every nation their Messenger who was sent to them to give testimony of the faith of those who believed and the rejection of those who disbelieved. Thereafter those who disbelieved will not be allowed to present an excuse for their rejection and they will not be returned to the world to do actions pleasing to their Lord, as the afterlife is the place of reckoning and not the place of action.

When the wrongdoers and idolaters will see the punishment, it will not be lightened for them and they will not be given respite by it being delayed from them. Instead, they will enter it to live in it forever.

When the idolaters in the afterlife will see the false deities that they used to worship besides Allah, they will say: “O our Lord! These are our partners that we used to worship besides You.” They will say this to make them carry their burdens. Allah will cause their deities to speak and they will respond to them saying: You - O idolaters - were false in your worship of a partner with Allah, for He has no partner deserving of worship.

The idolaters will surrender and submit to Allah alone and all their fabricated claims that their idols will intercede for them before Allah will disappear.

Those who disbelieved and turned others away from the Religion of Allah will have their punishment increased above and beyond what was due to them from their own disbelief, but because they misguiding others also.

Remember, O Messenger, the day when we will raise in every nation a Messenger who will testify against them about their denial or their acceptance of faith. This Messenger will be from their ownselves and will speak their language. We have brought you, O Messenger, as a witness against all communities. We revealed the Qur’ān to you to clarify everything that requires clarification such as the lawful and unlawful, reward and punishment etc. We also revealed it as a guidance for people to the truth, as a mercy to those who have faith in it and practice what it contains, and as good news for those who have faith in Allah of the everlasting bliss that awaits them.

Allah instructs His servants to be just, by discharging Allah’s rights and the rights of fellow human beings and by not giving preference in judgement to anyone unless with a right that demands such preference. He instructs them to be good, by doing more than what is mandatory such as spending voluntarily and forgiving the oppressor. He instructs them to see to the needs of their relatives. He forbids everything that is vile, in words, such as obscene speech, or in deeds, such as fornication. He forbids oppression and arrogance over people. Allah advises you with the instructions and prohibitions in this verse in the hope that you will take heed of His advice.

Fulfil every pledge that you made to Allah or that you made to people. Do not break oaths after making them binding by swearing by Allah, when you have made Allah a witness to the oath that you swore. Allah knows what you do. Nothing is hidden from Him and He will recompense you for that.

Do not be, by breaking your oaths, foolish and dim-witted like a woman who tired herself by spinning her wool and after it was firmly spun she broke it open and unravelled it!. She tired herself by spinning it and then breaking it and she didnt obtain the desired result. You make your oaths as a means of deception to deceive one another, so that your nation can be more in number and stronger than the nation of your enemies. Allah only tests you by the fulfilment of your oaths - will you fulfil them or break them? Allah will make clear to you on the Day of Judgement those things you differed about in the world and He will distinguish those who were on truth from those who were on falsehood and the truthful from the liars.

Had Allah willed, He would have made you one nation in agreement on the truth, but He, may He be glorified, misguides whom He wills from the truth and from fulfilling their oaths by His justice, and He guides whom He wills to do so by His grace. You will surely be questioned on the Day of Judgement about what you used to do in the world.

Do not make your oaths a means of deception thereby allowing you to trick and deceive one another, following your desires - breaking them whenever you wish and fulfilling them when you wish. If you do so your feet will slip from the straight path after being firm on it. You will taste the punishment on account of your deviation from Allah’s path and your misleading others from it and you will receive multiplied punishment.

Do not exchange the oath you took in Allah’s name for a small amount, not fulfilling the pledge or not being sincere in it. The victory and booty that Allah has in the world and the perpetual bliss that He has in the afterlife is better for you than the small amount that you take for breaking the pledge, if only you knew that.

The wealth, pleasures and luxuries that you have - O people - will come to an end no matter how much it may be, but the reward that is with Allah will remain. How then do you give preference to that which is perishable over that which is lasting? We will certainly reward those who remain steadfast on their oaths and who do not break them according to the best of their good deeds by multiplying its reward by ten times up to seven hundred times or even more.

Whoever does good deeds in accordance with the sacred law, whether male or female, while having faith in Allah, We will grant them in this world a good life, by their being pleased with Allah’s decree, content and guided towards righteous actions, and We will reward them in the afterlife in accordance with the best good deeds that they used to do in the world.

When you intend to recite the Qur’ān - O believer - then ask Allah to protect you from the whispering of the Satan, who is rejected from Allah’s mercy.

Satan has no authority over those who have faith in Allah and who rely only on their Lord in all their affairs.

He only has authority by means of His whispering over those who take him as an ally and follow him in his luring and those who because of such luring associate partners with Allah whom they worship along with Him.

When We abrogate the ruling of one verse of the Qur’ān with another verse - and Allah knows well about the part of the Qur’ān that is abrogated for a reason and the part that is not abrogated - they say: You, O Muhammad, are only a liar making up things about Allah. Rather, most of them do not know that abrogation occurs for a divine reason with far-reaching wisdom.

Say to them, O Messenger, This Qur’ān has been brought down by Gabriel (peace be with him) from Allah, may He be glorified, with the truth that contains no error, alteration or distortion, to keep those who have faith in Allah firm on their faith, whether a new part is revealed or a part is abrogated, and to be a guidance for them to the truth and good news for the Muslims about the generous reward that they will obtain.

I know very well that the idolaters say: It is a human being who is teaching Muhammad (peace be upon him). They are lying in this claim of theirs. The language of the person whom they assume is teaching him is non-Arabic, whereas this Qur’ān has been revealed in the clear and highly eloquent Arabic language. How then do they claim that he received it from a non-Arab?!

Those who do not believe that the verses of the Qur’ān are in fact from Allah, may He be glorified, Allah does not bless them with guidance as long as they persist in that. They will receive a painful punishment on account of their rejection of Allah and denial of His verses.

Muhammad (peace be upon him) is not lying about what he brought from His Lord. Lies are only being invented by those who do not accept Allah’s words, because they do not fear any punishment nor have hope of any reward. Those described with the attribute of disbelief are the liars as lying is a habit that they are accustomed to.

Whoever denies Allah after having faith in Him is in one of two situations: His denial is by means of a statement or action that he was coerced to make or do, whilst his heart is firm on his faith. This person is a believer. The second situation is when the person is content with and comfortable with such denial. Such a person and others like him are apostates from Islam, the anger of Allah is on them and in the afterlife they will receive a great punishment.

Such apostasy from Islam is because they gave preference to the trivial things of this world as a benefit for their disbelief in the Hearafter and because Allah does not guide to faith people who disbelieve, but He abandons them.

Those described as being apostates after having faith are the ones whose hearts Allah has sealed, so they do not understand the admonition, He has sealed their hearing, so that they do not hear anything that benefits them, and He has sealed their sight, so that they do not see the signs indicating faith. It is they who are unaware of the causes of happiness and wretchedness and of the punishment that Allah has prepared for them.

Truly it is they who will be the losers on the Day of Judgement, for they have lost their own souls on account of their disbelief after faith. Had they held onto their faith they would have entered paradise.

Then your Lord - O Messenger - is Forgiving and Merciful towards those oppressed believers who migrated from Makkah to Madina after being persecuted by the idolaters to the extent that they uttered words of disbelief whilst their hearts were at peace with faith. Then they strove in Allah’s path to make the Word of Allah supreme, and the word of the disbelievers lowest and they were patient over its difficulties. Your Lord, after the persecution that they underwent, is Forgiving and Merciful towards them because they only uttered words of disbelief under duress.

Remember - O Messenger - the Day when every person will come arguing for himself. He will not argue for anyone else due to the magnitude of the situation. Every soul will be given in full the recompense for what it had done, whether good or bad, and they will not be wronged by any subtraction from their good actions or addition to their evil actions.

Allah cites the example of a town - which is Makkah - that was secure and stable with its people having no fear, whilst people around it lived in fear. Its sustenance comes to it abundantly and easily from every direction. But then its people became unappreciative of Allah's blessings to them and they did not thank Him, so Allah recompensed them with hunger and intense fear that was visible in the panic on their faces and emaciation in their bodies to the extent that this became like a garment for them on account of the disbelief and denial that they used to do.

And a Messenger from among them, whose honesty and truthfulness they knew - who was Muhammad (peace be upon him) - had come to the people of Makka, but they denounced him along with what Allah had revealed to him. As a result, Allah’s punishment of hunger and fear came on them whilst they were wronging their own souls by associating partners with Allah and rejecting His Messenger.

So eat - O people - of the lawful and wholesome things that Allah, may He be glorified, has provided for you, and be thankful for the blessings Allah has given you by acknowledging these blessings of His and using them to seek His pleasure, if it is Him that you worship alone without associating partners with Him.

Allah has made unlawful for you to consume that which died without being slaughtered according to the sacred law, blood that spills forth from an animal at the time of slaughter, all parts of the pig, and what was slaughtered by a person as an offering to other than Allah. This prohibition applies at the time when a person has a choice.If someone is compelled to eat any of these forbidden types, and does so without desiring the forbidden thing itself and without going beyond the limit of what is necessary, then they have done no wrong. Allah is Forgiving and will forgive them for what they consume. He is Merciful in that He permitted that when it is necessary.

Do not say - O idolaters - about the lies that you say about Allah's laws: This thing is lawful and this thing is unlawful, in order to invent lies and attribute them to Allah with respect to making unlawful what He did not make unlawful, or making lawful what He did not make lawful. Those who invent lies about Allah will not succeed in attaining their objective and they will not be saved from what they fear.

They will have a brief and insignificant enjoyment by following their desires in the world and on the Day of Judgment they will receive a painful punishment.

I had made unlawful for the Jews in particular what I had told you about (in verse146 of Sūrah Al-An’am). I did not wrong them by making that unlawful, but they wronged themselves when they committed the causes for retribution. I thus recompensed them for their transgression and I made that unlawful for them as a punishment.

Then your Lord - O Messenger - towards those who do evil deeds out of ignorance of the consequences, even though they do so deliberately, and then they repent to Allah after having done those evil deeds and they make amends to their actions in which there was corruption, your Lord, after repentance, forgives their sins and is merciful to them.

Indeed, Abraham (peace be upon him) possessed all the attributes of goodness and always obeyed His Lord turning away from all other religions to the religion of Submission (Islam). He was never an idolater.

He was thankful for the favours that Allah had given him. Allah had selected Him to be a prophet and had guided him to the true religion of Islam.

I gave him in this world prophethood, praiseworthy mention and pious children. In the afterlife he will be from the righteous for whom Allah has prepared the highest ranks in paradise.

Then we revealed to you - O Messenger - “Follow the creed of Abraham in terms of monotheism, freedom from the idolaters, calling towards Allah and practicing His sacred law, turning away from all other religions to the religion of Islam. He was never an idolater as the idolaters claim but he was a man of pure monotheism.”

Reverence of the Sabbath was only made obligatory on the Jews who differed about it, so that they could free themselves on that day from their occupations for the sake of worship. This was after they had strayed from the day of Friday in which they were instructed to free themselves. Your Lord - O Messenger - will judge between these people who differ on the Day of Judgment about what they used to differ in and He will recompense each person with what they deserve.

Invite - O Messenger - to the religion of Islam, you and the believers who follow you, in a manner that is appropriate for the condition, understanding and mindset of the person who you are inviting and with admonition that contains encouragement and caution. Argue with them in the manner that is best in terms of speech, thought and politeness, for it is not your duty to guide people. You are only required to convey the message to them. Your Lord knows best who has strayed from the religion of Islam and He knows best those who are rightly guided to it, so do not lose yourself in grief over them.

If you want to retaliate against your enemy then retaliate to the same degree that they harmed you and not more. But if you are patient and do not retaliate despite having the ability to do so, then that is better for the patient amongst you than taking revenge by retaliating against them.

So be patient - O Messenger - over the harm that they afflict on you. You are only granted the ability to be patient by Allah’s granting it to you. Do not grieve over the disbelievers’ turning away from you, and do not let your heart be constrained by the schemes and plots they carry out.

Allah is with those who are mindful of Him by leaving out sin and those who are good by doings acts of obedience and by fulfilling what they have been instructed to do. Allah’s help and support is with them.

Allah, may He be glorified, is exalted from everything not appropriate for him. It is He who took His servant, Mohammad (peace be upon him), on the night journey from the sacred masjid (mosque), in Makkah, to the masjid of Jerusalem, whose surroundings I have blessed with fruit, crops and dwellings of prophets (peace be upon them), For him to see some of our signs which show Allah's power and ability, may He be glorified. He is the One Who hears everything, no sound escapes Him, and the One who sees evrything, nothing is hidden from Him, and the One who sees from whom nothing seen is hidden.

I gave Moses (peace be upon him) the Torah and I made it a guide and manual for the Israelites. I said to the Israelites: Do not take besides me any guardian to whom you entrust your affairs. Rather, place your reliance in Me alone.

You are from the progeny of those I had favoured with salvation together with Noah (peace be upon him) from drowning in the flood. So remember this favour and thank Allah by worshipping and following Him alone. In this, follow the example of Noah for he was very thankful of Allah.

I told the Israelites and I informed them in the Torah that definitely they will be guilty of corruption on earth by their sin and arrogance twice, and they will rise over people with injustice and oppression, transgressing the limits in their rise.

When the first corruption occurred, I set against them servants of Ours, possessing great might and power, who killed and displaced them. They ransacked their homes destroying everything they passed by. Allah’s promise of that definitely occurred.

Then once again I gave you - O Israelites - the upper hand and dominance over those who were set against you when you repented to Allah, and I supplied you with wealth after your wealth had been looted, and children after your children were taken captive, and I made you a force more in number than your enemies.

If you do good actions - O Israelites - in the manner that is required of you, then the recompense of that will be to your benefit, for Allah is in no need of your actions. If you do bad actions the consequences of that will be to your detriment. Your good actions do not benefit Allah and nor do your bad actions harm Him. When the second corruption occurs I will set your enemies against you to humiliate you and make shame appear on your faces due to the various types of disgrace they will make you taste, and to enter Jerusalem and destroy it just as they entered and destroyed it the first time, and to completely ruin all the lands that they conquer.

Perhaps your Lord - O Israelites - will have mercy on you after this severe reprisal if you repent to Him and do good actions. But if you revert to causing corruption a third time or more than that, I will revert to taking reprisals from you. I have made Hell a prison for the disbelievers, from which they will not find any release.

This Qur’ān that is revealed to Muhammad (peace be on him) guides to the best way, which is the way of Islam, and it informs those who have faith in Allah and who do good deeds of something that will please them, which is that they will receive a great reward from Allah.

It informs those who do not have faith in the Day of Judgment of something that will distress them, which is that I have prepared for them a painful punishment on the Day of Judgement.

Man on account of his ignorance prays for evil against himself, his children and his wealth when he is angry, just as he prays for good for himself. If we had to answer his prayer for evil he will be ruined and so will his children and his wealth. Human beings are naturally hasty and therefore may hastily bring on something that is harmful.

I have created the night and the day as two signs indicating Allah’s oneness and power, due to their differences in terms of being long or short, hot or cold. I made the night dark for the purpose of rest and sleep and I made the day bright in which people can see and work for their livelihood. This was so that by the alternation of day and night you can know the number of years and calculate the months, days and hours that you require. I have explained everything in detail so that it may all become clear and the truthful can become distinguished from the liars.

For every person I have made the actions that proceed from him attached to him, like how a necklace is attached to the neck. They will not leave him until he is taken to account for them. On the Day of Judgement, I will bring out for him a book that contains every good or bad deed that he did, which he will find spread open before him.

I will say to him on that day: O Man! Read your book and take an account of your soul for your deeds. You are enough to take an account of yourself on the Day of Judgement.

Whoever is guided to faith, then the reward of his being guided is for his own good; and whoever goes astray, the punishment for his going astray is to his detriment. No soul carries the sin of another soul, nor do I ever punish a people until I establish proof against them by sending Messengers to them.

When I decided to destroy a town because of its wrongdoing, I instructed those who became reckless because of affluence, to obey Allah but they did not comply. And instead they disobeyed Him and transgressed, so the word of the decimating punishment became justified against them and I destroyed them completely.

And we have destroyed many generations after Noah, such as the Ad and Thamud. Your Lord - O Messenger - is sufficient as a Knower and Seer of the sins of His servants. Nothing is hidden from Him and He will recompense them for the same.

Whoever desires, by his acts of goodness, the life of the world and does not have faith in the afterlife nor pays any attention to it, I expedite for him the luxury that I want to give him, not what he wants. Then I have made for him Hell, where he will enter on the Day of Judgment to suffer from its heat, being condemned for his choosing the world and his denial of the Hearafter; banished from Allah’s mercy.

But whoever desires, by his acts of goodness, the reward of the Hereafter, and pursues it as it should be pursued, free of show and reputation, while he has faith in that which Allah has made faith obligatory; these people who have these attributes - their effort will be accepted by Allah and He will recompense them for it.

To both these groups - the sinners and the dutiful - we freely extend the gift of your Lord - O Messenger. The gift of your Lord in the world is not withheld from anyone, whether sinner or dutiful.

O Messenger, reflect about how we favoured some over others in the world in respect of provision and rank. Yet the Hereafter is greater in the disparity between the ranks of luxury than that of the world, and greater in favours, so a believer should be eager for that.

O servant! Do not set up another deity that you worship together with Allah, or you will become condemned in the sight of Allah and His righteous servants, and forsaken by Him.

Your Lord - O servant - has instructed and made obligatory that you worship none but Him, and He has instructed that you be good to your parents, especially when they become old. If either of them or both of them reach old age with you, do not become annoyed with them by uttering words that indicate the same, do not scold them and do not be harsh when speaking to them, but say to them kind words that are soft and courteous.

Humble yourself before them in humility and out of compassion, and say: O My Lord, be merciful to them as they have brought me up in my childhood.

Your Lord - O People - knows best what is within you of the sincere devotion to Him in worship, acts of goodness and being dutiful to parents. If the intention in your acts of worship, treatment of your parents and other acts is righteous, then He, may He be glorified, is Forgiving towards those who frequently turn to Him in repentance. If anyone repents from his prior failure to be dutiful to his Lord or to his parents, Allah will forgive him.

O believer - give the relative his rights by keeping family ties, give to the poor and needy, and give the traveller who is stranded. Do not spend your wealth in sin or in a manner that is wasteful.

Those who spend their wealth in sin and those who are wasteful in their spending are the brothers of the devils, they follow their instructions of being wasteful and extravagant Satan is ever ungrateful towards His Lord, and he only does things that are sinful and only instructs that which displeases His Lord.

But if you refrain from giving these people, due to not having anything to give them, while waiting for Allah to bless you with provision, then say to them gentle and polite words such as praying for them to have abundant provision or promising to give them if Allah grants you wealth.

Do not withhold your hand from spending, and do not be wasteful when spending, if you do, you will be blameful amongst the people for your miserliness, or you will become uable to spend due to your extravagant expenditure.

Your Lord expands the provision for whoever He wills, and restricts it for whoever He wills based on far-reaching wisdom. He is fully aware and observant of His servants. Nothing of theirs is hidden from Him, and He disposes of His matter with respect to them however He wills.

Do not kill your children for fear of poverty in the future if you spend on them. I take charge of providing for them, and for you too. Killing them is a major sin, as they have done nothing wrong and there is no reason requiring them to be killed.

Be careful of fornication and avoid things that prompt it. It is extremely detestable and bad path to traverse as it leads to the mixing of lineages and punishment from Allah.

Do not kill the soul whose life Allah has protected through faith or a pledge of security, except if the killing is merited on the basis of treason or legal retribution. If someone is killed unjustly, without a valid reason permitting his being killed, I have given his successor who takes charge of his affairs certain authority over the killer. He may demand that the killer be killed in retribution, or he may forgive him without asking for any thing in return, or he may forgive him and take the blood money. But he shall not mutilate the killer, or by killing him with something that he did not use to kill, or by killing someone other than the killer, even if he was a helper and supporter.

Do not transact in the property of a child whose father has passed away, except in his best interests such as investing or preserving it until he reaches the age of mental and prudential maturity. Fulfill any pledge between yourselves and Allah, or between yourselves and His servants, without breaking or falling short in them. Allah will question the one who made a pledge on the Day of Judgement. Did he fulfill it, in which case He will reward him, or did he not fulfil it, in which case He will punish him.

Give full measure when you measure for others and do not cheat them. Weigh with an accurate scale that does not diminish or undervalue anything. That giving of full weight and measure is better for you in this world and the Hearafter, than giving short measure or weight.

Do not follow - O son of Adam - that which you have no knowledge of, by following suspicions and conjecture. A person will be questioned about the good or bad that he used his hearing, sight and heart for and he will rewarded for the good and punished for the bad.

Do not walk on earth with pride and arrogance. If you walk haughtily on earth you will not be able to split the earth, nor will your stature reach the mountains in height and elevation. Why then are you so proud?!

The evil of all that has been mentioned above is prohibited by your Lord - O man! Allah is not pleased with those who perpetrate this and He in fact detests them.

Those instructions, prohibitions and laws that we have explained to you are part of what your Lord has revealed to you. Do not take - O man - another deity together with Allah, for you will be thrown into Hell on the Day of Judgement, blamed by your own soul and by people and banished from every good.

O you who claim that the angels are Allah’s daughters! Has your Lord chosen you - O idolaters - to have male children, while taking for Himself daughters from among the angels? Allah is above what you are saying. You are indeed saying a terrible thing about Allah by ascribing children to him and claiming that He has daughters persisting in you disbelief.

I have explained in this Qur’ān laws, admonitions and examples so that people may take heed and tread the path that benefits them leaving that which harms them. But the situation is that the nature of some of them has degenerated to the extent that this only makes them further from the truth and they detest it even more.

Say - O Messenger, to these idolaters: If there were other deities along with Allah as they say as a fabrication and lie, then those supposed deities would have sought a way to Allah, the Owner of the Throne, to try to defeat and combat with Him over His dominion.

Allah, may He be glorified, is pure and sanctified from what the idolaters attribute to Him and He is far above what they say.

The heavens glorify Allah. The earth glorifies Allah. Every creation in the heavens and the earth also glorifies Allah. There is nothing except that it declares His purity together with His praise, but you do not comprehend their manner of glorifying Him. This is because you only understand the glorification of those who do so in your language. He is Forbearing, not quick to punish, and He is Forgiving to those who repent to Him.

When you - O Messenger - recite the Qur’ān and they hear the warnings and admonitions it contains, I place between you and those who do not have faith in the Day of Judgment a barrier that prevents them from understanding the Qur’ān, as a punishment for their turning away from it.

I have put covers on their hearts so that they cannot understand the Qur’ān, and heaviness in their ears so that they cannot listen to it in a beneficial manner. When you mention your Lord in the Qur’ān alone, and you do not mention their so-called gods, they turn on their heels being far away from accepting Allah’s pure Oneness.

I know best the way their leaders listen to the Qur’ān. They do not want to take guidance from it, but they want to mock at it and disrupt your recitation. I also know best what they secretly confer about with respect to their denial of and preventing others from it, when these people who wrong themselves by their denial say: You - O People - are only following a man who is bewitched and confused.

Consider - O Messenger - and be surprised at the various blameworthy attributes they describe you with. They have deviated from the truth and are confused. As a result they cannot find the true path.

The idolaters said in denial of resurrection: When we die and become bones and our bodies decompose, will we be resurrected again? This is impossible.

Say - O Messenger: Become if you can, O idolaters, as hard as stones or as strong as iron, but you will never be able to do this.

Or become some other creation greater than them amongst that which is considered great in your hearts. Allah shall restore you just as He initiated you and He shall bring you back to life just as He created you in the first instance. These opponents will say: Who will bring us back to life after we die? Say to them: He who created you in the first instance without any precedent shall restore you. Then they will shake their heads, mocking your response to them, and say unbelievingly: When will this restoration be? Say to them: Perhaps it is near, as everything which is coming will soon arrive.

Allah will restore you on the day He shall call you towards the plain of resurrection. You will then respond to Him, complying with His command and praising Him, and you will think you had not stayed in the grave, except for a while.

Say, O Messenger, to my believing servants: that they should say good words when speaking and refrain from bad off-putting words, because the satan exploits them to spread between them what will spoil their worldly life and their Hearafter. Surely, the satan is an open enemy, so it is necessary to be wary of him.

Your Lord, O people, knows you best. Nothing of yours is hidden from Him. If He wishes to have mercy on you, He will have grace you with having faith and doing good deeds. And if He wishes to punish you, He can punish you by depriving you of faith, leaving you to die on disbelief. And He as not sent the Messenger as a deputy over people, to force them to believe, or stop them from disbelief or to record their deeds. The Messenger is only a conveyor of what Allah has ordered him to convey on His behalf.

Your Lord, O Messenger, has full knowledge of all who are in the heavens and earth, and He fully knows their conditions and what they deserve. And I preferred some prophets over others through numerous followers and by revealing books to them. And I granted David my book, the Psalms.

Say - O Messenger, to these idolaters: O idolaters - call upon those you claim to be gods besides Allah when some harm befalls you. They will neither be able to remove the harm from you nor can they transfer it to someone else, due to their inability. Anything incapable cannot be a god

Those angels and others whom they call upon are themselves seeking good actions to bring them closer to Allah and competing to see who is closest to Him by obeying Him. They hope He has mercy on them and they fear His punishment. The punishment of your Lord, O Messenger, is what should be feared.

And there is no town or city except I will send upon it punishment and destruction in this worldly life due to their disbelief, or afflict it with a mighty punishment such as being killed, due to their disbelief. This destruction and punishment is a divine decree written in the Preserved Tablet.

And I did not stop sending tangible miracles which the idolaters requested, such as reviving the dead, except because I had sent them to previous nations but they rejected them. I had given Thamud a great, clear sign, namely the camel, but they rejected and so I hastened their punishment. And I do not send miracles at the hands of the Messengers except as a warning for their people, so that they believe.

And remember, O Messenger, when I said to you: Your Lord has encompassed the people in His power and they are in His control. Allah will protect you from them, so convey what you have been ordered to convey. And I did not make what I clearly showed you on the Night Journey except as a test for the people; do they believe it or reject it? And I did not make the tree of Zaqqum, which is mentioned in the Qur’ān as growing from the bottom of the Hellfire, except as a test for them. Thus, if they do not believe in these signs, they will never believe in anything else. And I frighten them by sending signs, but they do not increase through them except in disbelief and remaining further in misguidance.

And remember, O Messenger, when I said to the angels: Prostrate to Adam, as a prostration of greeting, not worship, so they complied and all prostrated to him. However, Iblis refused to prostrate to him out of arrogance, saying: Should I prostrate to the one You created out of clay whereas You created me out of fire? I am better than him.

Iblis said to his Lord: Do you see this creature You have honoured above me by ordering me to prostrate to him? If you keep me alive until the end of this worldly life, I shall allure his children and misguide them from Your straight path, except a few of them You have saved and who are Your chosen servants.

His Lord said to him: Go with those amongst them who obey you, because Hell is your recompense and their recompense, a complete and full recompense for your actions.

And mislead those you can mislead through your voice which calls towards disobedience, call out to them through your horsemen and foot soldiers who invite towards obeying you, become a partner to them in their wealth by making attractive every action which opposes the sacred law. And become a partner to them in their children by falsely making a claim to them, attaining them through adultery and making them worship others besides Allah when taking Allah’s name. And make attractive to them false promises and futile aspirations. And the satan only makes false promises which deceive them.

You have no control - O Iblis - over My believing servants who act in My obedience, because Allah has repelled your evil from them. And Allah is sufficient as a guardian for one who relies upon Him in his affairs.

Your Lord - O people - is the one who makes the ships sail for you in the sea, hoping to seek your sustenance through the profits from trade and the like. He is Merciful to you as He facilitated these means for you.

And when you are afflicted - O idolaters - by some calamity or misfortune at sea such that you fear destruction, those whom you worship besides Allah leave your thoughts, and you only remember Allah and seek His assistance. Then when He assists you and saves you from your fears, and you return to land, you turn away from His Oneness and supplicating Him alone, returning to your idols. And man rejects the blessings of Allah.

So do you feel secure - O idolaters - when Allah has delivered you safely to land that He will not make it collapse with you? Or do you feel secure that He will not make stones rain down on you as He did with the people of Lot, then you will not find any protector to protect you nor any helper to save you from being destroyed?

Or do you feel secure that Allah will not return you to sea a second time, then send a strong wind upon you, drowning you due to your being ungrateful for Allah’s blessings after He saved you the first time, then you will not find any claimant against Him for what He did to you and to defend you?

And I have honoured the children of Adam through intellect, making the angels prostrate to their father, and I subjugated for them the animals and vehicles that carry them on land, and the ships that carry them by sea. And I provided them with good food, drink, spouses and other things, and I granted them much virtue over much of My creation. They must be grateful therefore for Allah’s favours on them.

And remember, O Messenger, when every group will be called out by their leader whom they used to follow in life. So whoever is given his book of deeds in his right hand - they will read their books happily. And nothing will be decreased from their reward, be it as small as the thread on a date seed.

And whoever’s heart is blind to accepting and submitting to the truth in this worldly life will be more blind on the Day of Judgment, not finding guidance to the path of paradise, and will be more astray from guidance. And the reward will be equal to the deed.

And the idolaters were about to turn you away, O Messenger, from the Qur’ān I revealed to you, so that you invent something else in my name which conforms to their desires. And if you did what they wanted, they would have chosen you as their beloved friend.

And had I not favoured you by making you firm on the truth, you were about to incline towards them slightly and then agree with them in what they requested of you, due to their severe deception and scheming, alongside your extreme eagerness for them to bring faith. However, I protected you from inclining towards them.

And had you inclined towards them in what they requested you, I would have given you multiplied punishment in this life and the Hereafter, then you would not find any helper to assist you against Me and avert punishment from you.

And the disbelievers were close to troubling you, due to their enmity towards you, to exile you from Makkah. However, Allah stopped them from exiling you until you yourself migrated on the command of your Lord. And had they exiled you, they would not have remained after exiling you except for a short while.

The issue of their not remaining after you except for a short while is the constant practice of Allah with respect to the Messengers before you, namely that whenever a Messenger was exiled by his people, Allah sent punishment upon them. And you will not find, O Messenger, any change in my practice, but rather you will find it to be established and constant.

Establish the prayer by performing it in the most complete manner in its times, which are the declining of the sun from the middle of the sky - and this includes the zuhr and ‘asr prayers - until the darkness of night - and this includes the maghrib and ‘isha prayers. And establish the fajr prayer and lengthen the recitation therein, as the fajr prayer is attended by the angels of night and the angels of day.

And in part of the night, O Messenger, stand and pray, so that your prayer increases your rank, and seeking for your Lord to raise you to the praised station on the Day of Judgment, as an intercessor for the people from the horrors of the Day of Judgment, and so that you attain the position of the great intercession, for which the first and last will praise you.

And say, O Messenger: O my Lord, make all my entrances and exits in Your obedience and for Your pleasure. And give me from Yourself a clear proof through which You help me against my enemy.

And say, O Messenger, to these idolaters: Islam has come, the help which Allah promised has come true, and idolatry and disbelief has gone. Surely, falsehood is going and will disappear, unable to remain in the face of truth.

And I reveal in the Qur’ān that which cures the hearts of ignorance, disbelief and doubt, cures the bodies when treated through it, and that which is a mercy for the believers who practice it. And this Qur’ān only increases the disbelievers in destruction, as listening to it angers them and makes them deny and turn away from it even more.

And when I grant man a blessing such as health and wealth, he turns away from thanking Allah and obeying Him, and moves further away out of pride. But when illness, poverty or the like befalls him, he becomes extremely despondent and hopeless of Allah’s mercy.

Say, O Messenger: Every man acts on the path which resembles his condition in either guidance or misguidance. But your Lord knows best who is most guided towards the truth.

O Messenger, the disbelievers among the People of the Book ask you regarding the reality of the soul. Say to them: The soul is from the command of my Lord. And the knowledge you and all the creation of Allah have been granted is little in comparison to the knowledge of Allah.

By Allah, if I wanted to take away, O Messenger, the revelation I sent to you by erasing it from the hearts and books, I could take it away, then you would not find anyone to help you and take responsibility to return it.

However, I did not take it away, by way of mercy from your Lord, and I left it preserved. Surely, your Lord’s grace on you is great, as He made you a Messenger, sealed the prophets upon you, and revealed the Qur’ān to you.

Say, O Messenger: If all of humankind and jinns united to bring the like of this Qur’ān which was revealed to you, in its eloquence, excellent sequence and pure style, they will never be able to bring anything like it, even if they were to all assist and help one another.

And I have explained to people in this Qur’ān and brought all types of advice, reminders, commands, prohibitions and stories they can take lessons from, in the hope they will believe. But most people have refused except to deny this Qur’ān.

The idolaters said: I will never believe you until you extract for us from the ground of Makkah a spring that does not stop flowing.

Or you have a garden with many flowers in which you make rivers flow profusely.

Or you make the sky fall upon us, as you mentioned, as fragments of punishment, or you bring Allah and the angels visibly before us, so they can testify to the truth of what you claim.

Or you have a house adorned with gold and other things, or you ascend to the sky. And if you do ascend to it, we will never believe you have been sent unless you come down with a book written from Allah in which we can read that you are Allah’s Messenger. Say - O Messenger: My Lord is pure, I am only a human Messenger like all other Messengers. I do not have the ability to bring anything, so how can I bring what you have requested?

And the only thing which stopped the disbelievers from bringing faith upon Allah and His Messengers, and acting upon what the Messenger brought, was their refusal to accept that a Messenger can be from humankind, as they said denyingly: Did Allah send a Messenger from humankind?

Say, O Messenger, in response to them: Had there been angels on earth who reside therein and walk about securely, as is your condition, we would have sent an angel Messenger to them from their own kind, because it is he who can make them understand what he has been sent with. It would not be wise to send to them a Messenger from humankind, and likewise is the case with you.

Say, O Messenger: Allah is sufficient as a witness between me and you that I am a Messenger was sent to you and that I have conveyed what I was sent to you. Surely, He encompasses the conditions of His servants, nothing of them being hidden from Him, and He sees all the secrets of their souls.

And whoever Allah gives the ability for guidance is truly guided. And whoever He removes from it and leads astray, you will never find for them, O Messenger, protectors to guide them to the truth, repel harm from them and bring them benefit. And I will gather them on the Day of Judgment, being dragged on their faces, not seeing, speaking or hearing. Their abode towards which they will go is Hell. Whenever the flames begin to subside, I will make them burn even more.

That punishment which they will meet is their recompense due to their denial of my signs which I sent to my Messengers, and because they said, considering resurrection to be improbable: When we die and turn in to decomposed bones and scattered particles, will we be resurrected after this as a new creation?

Do these deniers of the resurrection not know that Allah, who created the heavens and who created the earth despite their greatness, has power to create the likes of them? So whoever has the power to create something great has the power to create something smaller. And Allah has made a limited time for them in this world in which their lives will come to an end, and He has made a time for their resurrection in which there is no doubt. But despite the proofs for resurrection being clear, the idolaters refuse except to reject the resurrection.

Say - O Messenger, to these idolaters: If you possessed my Lord’s treasures which never deplete or finish, you would desist from spending them, fearing they will deplete until you will turn poor. And it is human nature to be miserly, except if one is a believer who spends hoping for Allah’s reward.

I granted Moses nine clear proofs which bore testimony for him. They are the staff, the hand, the famine, decrease in fruits, the hurricane, locusts, lice, frogs and blood. O Messenger, ask the Jews when Moses brought these miracles to their predecessors and Pharaoh said: I see you, O Moses, as a man afflicted by magic, as you bring strange things.

Moses said in response to him: O Pharaoh, you know for sure that these signs have not been sent except by Allah who is the Lord of the heavens and the earth. He has sent them as proofs of His power and the truthfulness of His Messenger. But you have rejected. And I know, O Pharaoh, that you are going to be a destroyed loser.

So Pharaoh intended to punish Moses (peace be upon him) and his people by exiling them from Egypt, so I destroyed him and all the armies with him by drowning them.

And I said to the Israelites after destroying Pharaoh and his armies: Settle in the land of the Levant. Then when the Day of Judgment comes, I shall bring you all to the plain of gathering for the accounting.

And with truth I revealed the Qur’ān on Muhammad (peace be upon him) and with truth it came down on him, without any change or tampering. And I did not send you, O Messenger, except to give glad tidings of paradise to those mindful of Him and to warn the disbelievers and sinful of Hell.

And I sent it as a Qur’ān which I have separated and explained, in the hope that you read it to people slowly and carefully, as this is more effective for understanding and reflecting. And I revealed it in separate portions according to incidents and conditions.

Say, O Messenger: Believe in it, for your belief will not increase it in any way, or do not believe in it, for your disbelief will not decrease it in any way. Surely, those who read the previous divine books and who understood the revelation and prophecy when the Qur’ān is recited to them fall on their faces, prostrating to Allah out of gratitude.

And they say in their prostration: Our Lord will never break His promise. The promise He made of sending Muhammad (peace be upon him) is going to happen. Surely, our Lord’s promise of this and other matters will definitely occur.

And they fall on their faces, prostrating to Allah and crying out of His fear. And listening to the Qur’ān and contemplating its meanings increases them in submission to Allah and fearing Him.

Say, O Messenger, to those who criticise you for supplicating by saying, ‘O Allah, O Merciful’: Allah and the Merciful are names of His, so supplicate Him with any of them or other names of His. For Him are all beautiful names, and these two are amongst them, so supplicate Him through these two or other beautiful names of His. And do not recite loudly in your prayer in case the idolaters hear you and do not recite so quietly that the believers cannot hear you, but rather choose a middle path between the two.

Say - O Messenger: All praise is for Allah who deserves all types of praise and who is exalted from having a child or a partner, thus He has no partner in His kingdom. And He is not afflicted by disgrace or weakness, hence He has no need for anyone to help and support Him. So exalt Him abundantly, and do not attribute any child or partner to Him nor any helper or supporter.