Tafsir Al Jalalayn - English — Al-Furqan 25:1 – Saba 34:54

Blessed, exalted, is He Who revealed the Criterion (al-furqān), the Qur’ān — called thus [al-furqān] because it has discriminated (faraqa) between truth and falsehood — to His servant, Muhammad (s), that he may be to all the worlds, [to] mankind and the jinn, but not the angels, a warner, a threatening of God’s chastisement.

He to Whom belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, and Who has not taken a son, nor has He any partner in sovereignty; and He created everything, which was meant to be created, and then determined it in a precise measure, He fashioned it in a balanced form.

Yet they, the disbelievers, have taken besides Him, that is, [besides] God, in other words, other than Him, gods, from among the idols, who create nothing but have themselves been created, and who possess no harm for themselves, that is, [the power] to repel it, nor any benefit, that is, [the power] to attract it, nor do they possess [any power over] death or life, that is, [nor do they have the power] to make a person die or to give him life, or resurrection, that is, [nor do they have power] to raise the dead.

And those who disbelieve say, ‘This, Qur’ān, is nothing but a calumny, a lie, that he, Muhammad (s), has invented, and other folk have helped him with it’, who [according to the disbelievers] were from among the People of the Scripture. God, exalted be He, says: Verily thus they have committed wrong and [spoken] falsehood, [they have come with] disbelief and mendacity.

And they say, that it [the Qur’ān] is also, ‘Fables, their lies (asātir is the plural of ustūra) of the ancients which he has had written down, that he has had someone from among those people copy it down for him, so that they are read to him, for him to memorise, morning and evening’. God, exalted be He, responds to them saying:

Say: ‘It has been revealed by Him Who knows the secret, the Unseen, of the heavens and the earth. Truly He is ever Forgiving, of believers, Merciful’, to them.

And they also say, ‘What is it with this Messenger that he eats food and walks about in the marketplaces? Why has an angel not been sent down to him so as to be a warner along with him?, and confirm his truthfulness.

Or a treasure thrown down to him, from the heaven, for him to spend from so as not to be in need of walking through the marketplaces in order to earn his livelihood. Or he has a garden, an orchard, for him to eat from?’, that is, [to eat] from its fruits and satisfy himself therewith (a variant reading [for ya’kulu, ‘for him to eat’] has na’kulu, ‘for us to eat’) and thus possess because of that [garden] an advantage over us. The wrongdoers, namely, the disbelievers, say, to the believers: ‘You are just following a man bewitched!’, one duped, his mind overcome. God, exalted be He, says:

See how they strike similitudes for you, of [the fact that the Prophet is] a person bewitched and one in need of something to expend [from] and of an angel to help him carry out the task [of delivering the Message], so that they go astray, thereby from guidance, and are unable to find a way, a means thereto [to guidance].

Blessed is He, abundant is the good of God, Who, if He will, will give you better than that, treasure or orchard which they mentioned — gardens underneath which rivers flow, in this world, for He has already willed to give him such things in the Hereafter, and will give (read apocopated form wa-yaj‘al) you palaces, as well (a variant reading [of the apocopated yaj‘al] is yaj‘alu, ‘He will give’, beginning a new sentence).

Nay, but they deny the [coming of the] Hour, the Resurrection, and We have prepared for those who deny the Hour a blaze (sa‘īr), a fire that has been set ablaze (musa‘‘ara), in other words, an intense [fire].

When it sees them from a distant place, they will hear it raging, boiling like an enraged person when his heart boils with anger, and roaring, [producing] a powerful noise. Alternatively, what is meant by their ‘hearing it raging’ is their vision of it and awareness of it.

And when they are flung into a narrow place thereof (read dayyiqan or dayqan, ‘narrow’, such that it constricts them; minhā, ‘thereof’, is a circumstantial qualifier referring to makānan, ‘place’, because it is actually an adjectival qualification of it) bound together, shackled, with their hands bound to their necks in chains (the use of the intensive form muqarranīna [as opposed to muqranīna] is meant to indicate a large number), they will at that point pray for [their own] annihilation, and it will be said to them:

‘Do not pray for a single annihilation on this day, but pray for many annihilations!’, which will be [the nature of] your chastisement.

Say: ‘Is that, which is mentioned of the threat of chastisement and the description of the Fire, better, or the Garden of Immortality which has been promised to the God-fearing, which will be, in God’s knowledge, exalted be He, their requital, [their] reward, and journey’s end?’, [their] place of return.

In it they shall have what they wish, abiding [therein] — an irrevocable state — it, the promise to them of what is mentioned, is a promise binding on your Lord, [a promise] much besought, requested by those who have been promised it [as is clear from the following]: Our Lord, grant us what You have promised us through Your messengers [Q. 3:194], or requested on their behalf by the angels [who say]: Our Lord, and admit them into the Gardens of Eden which You have promised them [Q. 40:8].

And on the day when He will assemble them (yahshuruhum; a variant reading has nahshuruhum, ‘We assemble them’) and that which they worship besides God, that is, other than Him, such as the angels, Jesus, Ezra and the jinn, and will say, exalted be He, (fa-yaqūlu; a variant has fa-naqūlu, and We shall say’) to those who were worshipped, as a way of establishing the argument against the worshippers [of the former]: ‘Was it you (read a-antum pronouncing both hamzas, or by substituting the second one with an alif, or not pronouncing this [last] and inserting an alif between the one not pronounced and the former, or without [such an insertion]) who misled these servants of Mine, causing them to fall into error by commanding them to worship you, or did they go astray from the way?, the path of truth, by themselves?

They will say, ‘Glory be to You — exalted be You above what does not befit You! It was not, it would [not] have been right, for us to take any guardians besides You, that is, other than You (min awliyā’a, the first direct object, the min being extra, [added] to emphasise the negation; the preceding [min dūnika, ‘besides You’] is the second [direct object]). So how can we command that we be worshipped? But You gave them and their fathers, before them, ease [of living], by granting [them] long life and abundant provision, until they forgot the Remembrance, [until] they became remiss about admonitions and belief in the Qur’ān, and became a lost folk’, [a folk] destroyed. God, exalted be He, says:

Thus they will deny you, that is, the ones who were worshipped denied those who worshipped [them], in what you allege, namely, that they are gods, and they will neither be able to (read yastatī‘ūna, or [second person plural] tastatī‘ūna) in other words, neither they nor you will be able to, circumvent, ward off the chastisement from you, nor help, nor protect you from it. And whoever of you does evil, [whoever] ascribes partners to God, We shall make him taste an awful, a severe, chastisement, in the Hereafter.

And We did not send before you any messengers but that they ate food and walked in the marketplaces, and so you are like them in this respect, and truly what was said to them is being said to you. And We have made some of you a trial for others:, a test, trying the rich with the poor, the healthy with the sick, the honourable with the vulgar, in each case the latter would say, ‘Why can I not be like the other person?’ Will you be steadfast?, [and endure] what you hear from those with whom you are tried? (the interrogative is meant as an imperative, in other words, ‘Be steadfast!’. And your Lord is ever Watchful, of those who remain steadfast and those who become miserable.

And those who do not expect to encounter Us, [those] who have no fear of the Resurrection, say, ‘Why have the angels not been sent down to us, to act as messengers to us, or why do we not see our Lord?’, so that we might be informed [by Him] that Muhammad (s) is [truly] His Messenger? God, exalted be He, says: Assuredly they are full of arrogance within their souls and have become terribly insolent, in demanding to see God, exalted be He, in this world (read ‘utuwwan, ‘insolence’ with the wāw, according to the original root form, as opposed to ‘itiyyan with the [yā’] substitution as in [sūrat] Maryam [Q. 19:8]).

The day when they see the angels, [while they stand] together with the rest of creation, namely, on the Day of Resurrection (yawma is in the accusative because of an implied [preceding] udhkur, ‘mention’), there will be no good tidings on that day for the guilty, that is, the disbelievers, in contrast to the believers for whom there shall be the good tidings of Paradise, and they will say, ‘A forbidding ban!’, as was their [the pagan] custom in this world whenever a misfortune befell them; in other words [they mean] ‘awdhan ma‘ādhan, seeking refuge from the angels [who will chastise them]. God, exalted be He, says:

And We shall attend to, We shall turn to, the works they did, that were good, such as voluntary alms or kindness to kin, a hospitable reception of a guest or the succour of a troubled person in this world, and turn them into scattered dust (habā’an manthūran), namely, [as] those individual particles of dust which one might observe near a window when the sun is shining through. In other words, [We shall make their good works] like those [particles of dust] in their uselessness, there being no reward for such [works], for lack of any [binding] obligation [to reward them therefor]; but they are rewarded for it in the life of this world.

Those who will be the inhabitants of Paradise on that day, the Day of Resurrection, will be in a [far] better abode, than are the disbelievers in this world, and a [far] better resting place, than theirs [the latter’s]; in other words, a [better] place for qā’ila, which is a rest taken during midday during hot days. From this [last interpretation of maqīlan] it has been inferred that the Reckoning will be concluded in half a day, as is stated in one hadīth.

And on the day when the heaven, each of the [seven] heavens, will be split asunder with the clouds, in other words, [split asunder] together with them [the clouds] (al-ghamām is white cloud) and the angels will be sent down, from every heaven, in a [majestic] descent, and this is the Day of Resurrection (it [yawma, ‘on the day’] is in the accusative because of an implied [preceding] udhkur, ‘mention’; a variant reading [for tashaqqaqu] is tashshaqqaqu, ‘will be split asunder’, where the second tā’ [of the original form tatashaqqaqu] has been assimilated with it the [the shīn]; another variant reading [instead of nuzzila al-malā’ikatu, ‘the angels will be sent down’] has nunzilu al-malā’ikata, ‘We will send down the angels’);

true Sovereignty on that day will belong to the Compassionate One, with no one else sharing it with Him, and it, that day, will be a hard day for the disbelievers, in contrast to the believers.

And [it will be] a day when the wrongdoer, the idolater, ‘Uqba b. Abī Mu‘ayt — who had uttered the two-part profession [‘there is no god but God, Muhammad (s) is His Messenger’] but retracted it in order to please Ubayy b. Khalaf — will bite his hands, in regret and anguish on the Day of Resurrection, saying, ‘O (yā is for drawing attention) would that I had followed a way with the Messenger!, Muhammad (s), a route to guidance.

O woe to me! (yā waylatā: the [final] alif stands in place of the [first person singular] possessive yā’, yā waylatī, meaning ‘[alas] for my destruction!’) Would that I had not taken so and so, in other words, [that] Ubayy, as friend!

Verily he has led me astray from the Remembrance, namely, the Qur’ān, after it had come to me, by causing me to recant my belief in it. God, exalted be He, says: And Satan is ever a deserter of, the disbelieving, man’, abandoning him and dissociating from him in [times of] tribulation.

And the Messenger, Muhammad (s), says, ‘O my Lord, lo! my people, the [tribe of] Quraysh, consider this Qur’ān as something to be shunned’, to be disregarded.

God, exalted be He, says: So, just as We have appointed for you enemies from among the idolaters of your people, We have appointed to every prophet, before you, an enemy from among the guilty, the idolaters — so be steadfast as they were; but your Lord suffices as a Guide, for you, and a Helper, to bring you victory over your enemies.

And those who disbelieve say, ‘Why has the Qur’ān not been revealed to him all at once?’, as the Torah, the Gospel and the Book of Psalms [were]. God, exalted be He, says: We have revealed it, thus, in parts, [it is], that We may strengthen your inner-heart with it, and We have arranged it in a specific order, that is to say, We produce it in stages one part after another, gradually and deliberately, in order to facilitate its comprehension and its memorisation.

And they do not bring you any similitude, to invalidate your mission, but that We bring you the truth, that refutes it, and [what is] better [as] exposition, explanation.

They are, those who will be gathered on their faces, that is, [those who] will be driven [as cattle], toward Hell: they will be in the worst place, namely, Hell, and furthest astray from the way, [they will be] on a path of error worse than that of others; and this [path] is their disbelief.

And verily We gave Moses the Scripture, the Torah, and made Aaron, his brother, [go] with him as a minister, an assistant.

Then We said, ‘Go both of you to the people who have denied Our signs’, that is, to the Egyptians — Pharaoh and his folk. So they went to them with the Message but they [the Egyptians] denied both of them. Then We destroyed them utterly.

And, mention, the people of Noah, when they denied the messengers, in denying Noah — it is as though he were many messengers given the length of time he remained among them; or [it is thus expressed in the plural] because to deny him is [equivalent] to denying all the other messengers, for they all came with the same [Message concerning] affirmation of God’s Oneness — We drowned them (this is the response to lammā, ‘when’) and made them a sign, a lesson, for mankind, thereafter, and We have prepared, in the Hereafter, for the evildoers, the disbelievers, a painful chastisement, in addition to what [chastisement] may befall them in this world.

And, mention, ‘Ād, the people of Hūd, and Thamūd, the people of Sālih, and the dwellers at al-Rass (al-rass) — the name of a ‘well’; their prophet is said to have been Shu‘ayb; although some say it was someone else. [The story is that] they had been sitting around it [on one occasion] when it collapsed beneath them [burying them] together with their dwellings. And many generations, peoples, in between, that is, between [the people of] ‘Ād and the dwellers at al-Rass.

For each [of them] We struck similitudes, when establishing arguments against them, and We destroyed them only after warning [them], and each [of them] We ruined utterly, We destroyed utterly, because of their denial of the prophets sent to them.

And verily they, namely, the disbelievers of Mecca, will have passed by the town on which an evil shower was rained (al-saw’, ‘evil’, is the verbal noun from sā’a, ‘was evil’), that is, [it was showered] with stones. This was the principal town of the towns inhabited by the people of Lot; God destroyed its inhabitants for their committing acts of lewdness. Can it be that they have not seen it?, on their journeys to Syria, and so take heed thereof? (the interrogative is affirmative). Nay, but it is that they do not expect, they have [no] fear of [any], resurrection, and so they do not believe.

And when they see you, they take you in mockery only, as an object of derision, saying, ‘Is this the one whom God has sent as a messenger?, as he is wont to claim? — contemptuously of him as one not worthy of being a messenger.

Indeed (in, softened in place of the hardened form, with its subject omitted, namely, innahu) he was about to lead us astray, turn us away, from our gods, had we not stood by them’, he would have turned us away from them. God, exalted be He, says: And soon they will know, when they behold the chastisement, with their own eyes in the Hereafter, who is further astray from the way, who is further upon the path of error: they or the believers?

Have you seen — inform Me [about] — him who has taken as his god his own desire?, that is, as something that will be bring about his ruin (the indirect object [ilāhahu, ‘as his god’] precedes the direct object because it is more important; the clause [beginning] man ittakhadha, ‘him who has taken’, constitutes the first direct object of a-ra’ayta, ‘have you seen’, the second being [the following, a-fa-anta …]) Will you be a guardian over him?, a protector to preserve him from following his desires? No.

Or do you suppose that most of them listen, listening so as to understand, or comprehend?, what you say to them? They are but as the cattle — nay, but they are further astray from the way, further from these [cattle] upon the path of misguidance, for at least they [cattle] yield to the person who looks after them, whereas these [disbelievers] do not obey their Master, Who is gracious to them.

Have you not seen, contemplated, the work of, your Lord, how He extends the [twilight] shadow?, from the point of daybreak to the point of sunrise. For had He, your Lord, willed, He would have made it still, ever-present so that it does not disappear with the rising of the sun. Then We made the sun an indicator of it, [of] the shadow; were it not for the sun the shadow would not have been known.

Then We retract it, the extended shadow, to Us by gentle retraction, subtle [retraction], through the rising of the sun.

And He it is Who made for you the night as a garment, veiling [you] like a garment, and sleep for repose, rest for bodies through the [temporary] cessation of labour, and He made the day for rising, [a time] in which all rise to seek their livelihood and so on.

And He it is Who sends forth the winds (al-riyāha; a variant has al-rīha, ‘the wind’) dispersing before His mercy (nushuran, ‘dispersing’), scattered before the [coming of the] rain (a variant reading has nushran, the singular of which is nashūr, similar [in pattern] to rasūl, ‘messenger’ [plural rusul]; another reading has nashran, as a verbal noun; and a third variant has bushran, in other words, [the winds function as] mubashshirāt, ‘bearers of good tidings’, the singular of which is bashīr); and We send down from the heaven purifying water,

with which We revive a dead land (read maytan, in the softened form, equally valid for the masculine and the feminine, but in the masculine [here] because of the [masculine] noun indicating ‘place’ [implicit therein]) and We give it, the water, as drink to the many cattle, camels, cows and sheep, and humans We have created (anāsiyy is the plural of insān: properly it [the plural] should be anāsīn but the [final] nūn has been replaced with a yā’, with which the [other] yā’ has been assimilated; or it [anāsiyy] is [simply] the plural of insiyy).

And verily We have distributed it, the water, among them, so that they may remember (li-yadhdhakkarū should actually be li-yatadhakkarū, but the tā’ has been assimilated with the dhāl; a variant reading has li-yadhkurū), that is to say, [so that they may remember] therewith the grace of God. But most people are only intent on ingratitude, on denial of the grace, saying, ‘We have received [this] rain because of such-and-such a storm’.

And had We willed, We could have sent forth in every town a warner, to threaten its inhabitants [with God’s chastisement]; instead We have sent you to the inhabitants of all towns as a warner for your reward to be a great one.

So do not obey the disbelievers, in their desires, but struggle against them therewith, that is, through [adherence to] the Qur’ān, with a great endeavour.

And He it is Who merged the two seas: letting them [flow] one adjacent to the other: this one palatable, sweet, and the other saltish, bitter; and He set between the two an isthmus, so that the one does not mix with the other, and a forbidding ban, a shield that prevents the two from becoming mixed.

And He it is Who created man from water, [He created] from a sperm-drop a human being, and made for him ties of blood and ties of marriage, whether it be a male or a female, they marry for the purposes of procreation. For your Lord is ever Powerful, with the power to do whatever He will.

And they, the disbelievers, worship besides God that which neither benefits them, when they worship it, nor harms them, should they refrain therefrom — and these are idols; and the disbeliever is ever a partisan against his Lord, an assistant to Satan through his obedience to him.

And We have not sent you except as a bearer of good tidings, of Paradise, and as a warner, a threatener [of people] with the [chastisement of the] Fire.

Say: ‘I do not ask of you in return for this, that is, for delivering that [Message] with which I have been sent, any reward, except that whoever wishes to follow a way to his Lord [should do so]’, by expending his wealth for the sake of [attaining] God’s pleasure, exalted be He; then [whoever wishes to do so] I will not prevent him from doing so.

And put your trust in the Living One Who does not die, and make glorifications, ensconced, in His praise, in other words, say: subhāna’Llāhi wa’l-hamdu li’Llāh, ‘Glory be to God and praise be to God’. And He suffices as One Aware, as Knower, of the sins of His servants (khabīran, ‘One Aware’, is semantically connected to bi-dhunūbi, ‘of the sins’).

He it is, Who created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them in six days, of the [length of the] days of this world, since there was no sun at that point — had He willed He could have created them in an instant, but His not having done so is because He will to teach His creatures to be circumspect — then presided upon the Throne (al-‘arsh in the [classical] language is the seat on which a king sits) the Compassionate One (al-rahmānu substitutes for the subject of [the verb] istawā, ‘presided’) a presiding befitting of Him; so ask, O man, about Him, about the Compassionate One, anyone who is well aware, to inform you about His attributes!

And when it is said to them, to the disbelievers of Mecca, ‘Prostrate yourselves before the Compassionate One’, they say, ‘And what is the Compassionate One? Should we prostrate ourselves to whatever you bid us’ (ta’murunā; or read ya’murunā, ‘[whatever] he bids us’) — [in both cases] the one bidding is Muhammad (s) — when we do not know who He is? No! And it, this that is said to them, increases their aversion, to faith.

God, exalted be He, says: Blessed, magnified, is He Who has placed in the heaven constellations, twelve [of them]: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo (al-sunbula), Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. They are the mansions for the seven orbiting planets: Mars rules Aries and Scorpio, Venus: Taurus and Libra, Mercury: Gemini and Virgo, the Moon: Cancer, the Sun: Leo, Jupiter: Sagittarius and Pisces, and Saturn: Capricorn and Aquarius; and has, also, placed in it a lamp, namely, the sun, and a shining moon (a variant reading [for sirājan, ‘sun’] has the plural surujan, which would mean ‘luminous stars’). The moon is singled out for mention because of its particular merit.

And He it is Who made the night and day [to appear] in succession, that is, one succeeding the other, for him who desires to remember (read yadhdhakkara or yadhkura, as before [Q. 25:50]) — so that if he misses [the opportunity to do] some good during the one, he can do it during the other; or desires to be thankful, for the graces of his Lord to him during both [of these periods].

And the [true] servants of the Compassionate One (‘ibādu’l-rahmāni is the subject, and what comes after it, all the way up to ūlā’ika yujzawna, ‘they will be rewarded’ [of verse 75 below] are adjectival qualifiers of this [subject], with the exception of the parenthetical statements) are those who walk upon the earth modestly, that is, peacefully and humbly, and who, when the ignorant address them, with what they are averse to, say [words of] peace (salām), in other words, words by which they are safe (yaslamūna) from [committing] any sin;

and who spend the night before their Lord, prostrating (sujjad is the plural of sājid) and standing [in worship], in other words, they spend the night performing prayers;

and who say, ‘Our Lord, avert from us from the chastisement of Hell. Truly its chastisement is abiding, that is, irrevocable.

It is truly a wretched abode and residence!’, in other words, [it is truly wretched] as a place in which to abide and reside.

And who, when they expend, upon their dependants, are neither prodigal nor parsimonious (read yaqturū or yuqtirū); but between such, prodigality and parsimony, lies — [between the two] their expenditure [is in] — moderation;

and [those] who do not call on another god along with God, nor slay the soul which God has forbidden, that it be slain, except with due cause, and who do not commit fornication — for whoever does that, namely, [whoever does] one of these three things, shall meet with retribution;

doubled (yudā‘af: a variant reading has yuda‘‘af) will be the chastisement for him on the Day of Resurrection and he will abide therein (both verbs may be read in [the imperfect] apocopated form [yudā‘af, ‘it will be doubled’, and yakhlud, ‘he will abide’] as substitutions, or with the [indicative] damma inflection [yudā‘afu and yakhludu] to indicate the beginning of a new sentence) abased (muhānan is a circumstantial qualifier);

except for him who repents, and believes, and acts righteously, from among them, for such, God will replace their, mentioned, evil deeds with good deeds, in the Hereafter, for God is ever Forgiving, Merciful, that is, He is ever possessed of such attributes;

and whoever repents, of his sins, from among other than those mentioned, and acts righteously, indeed turns to God with due repentance, that is, he returns to God a sincere return, and God will requite him with good;

and those who do not give false testimony, that is, [testimony containing] mendacity and falsehood, and, when they come across senseless talk, in the way of vile speech and otherwise, they pass by with dignity, shunning such [vanity];

and those who, when they are reminded, [when] they are admonished, of the revelations of their Lord, that is, [reminded] of the Qur’ān, do not fall on them deaf and blind, but fall [on them] listening, contemplating, benefiting and obedient;

and those who say, ‘Our Lord! Grant us in our spouses and our offspring (read plural dhurriyyātinā or singular dhurriyyatinā) a joyful sight, for us, so that we see them obedient to You, and make us paragons, of virtue, for the God-fearing’.

Those, they will be rewarded with the sublime abode, the highest degree in Paradise, forasmuch as they were steadfast, in obedience to God, and they will be met (read yulaqqawna or yalqawna) therein, in this sublime abode, with a greeting and [words of] peace, from the angels;

abiding therein. Excellent is it as an abode and station, as a place of residence for them (ūlā’ika, ‘those, they …’, and what comes after it constitute the predicate to the subject ‘ibādu’l-rahmāni, ‘the servants of the Compassionate One’).

Say, O Muhammad (s), to the people of Mecca: ‘My Lord would not be concerned with you (mā is for negation) were it not for your supplications, to Him [when you are] in adversity, which He then removes. But, why should He be concerned with you when, you have denied, the Messenger and the Qur’ān, and so that, the chastisement, will remain binding’, permanently bound to you in the Hereafter, in addition to what will befall you in this world; and so on the day of Badr seventy of them were slain (the response to [the conditional] lawlā, ‘were it not for …’ is indicated the preceding words).

Tā sīn mīm: God knows best what He means by these [letters].

Those, namely, these signs, are the signs of the Manifest Book, the Qur’ān (the genitive annexation [āyātu’l-kitābi] conveys the [partitive] meaning of min), [the Manifest meaning] the one that manifests what is truth from what is falsehood.

Perhaps, O Muhammad (s), you might kill yourself, out of distress for the reason, that they, namely, the people of Mecca, will not become believers (la‘alla here expresses sympathy, in other words [what is meant is] ‘have pity on it [your self] by alleviating [the burden of] this distress’).

If We will We will send down to them a sign from the heaven before which their necks will remain (fa-zallat, [although grammatically in the past tense] is being used in the sense of the imperfect tense) bowed in humility, and they will believe (since ‘necks’ are described as ‘bowed in humility’, [a status] which in fact refers to those who possess them, the adjectival form [khādi‘ūn, ‘bowed in humility’] used therein is the one [normally] used for rational beings).

And there would never come to them from the Compassionate One any remembrance, any [revelation from the] Qur’ān, that is new (muhdathin, is an explicative adjective) but that they used to disregard it.

Verily then they have denied, it; but soon there will come to them the news, the consequences, of that which they used to deride.

Have they not contemplated, observed, the earth, how many We have caused to grow therein, in other words, [We have caused to grow therein] many, of every splendid kind [of vegetation], [of every] fair species.

Surely in that there is a sign, an indication of the perfection of His power, exalted be He; but most of them, in God’s knowledge, are not believers (kāna here according to Sībawayhi is extra).

And surely your Lord, He is the Mighty One, Who will exact vengeance from the disbelievers, the Merciful, Who shows mercy to believers.

And, mention, O Muhammad (s), to your people, when your Lord called to Moses, on the night he saw the fire and the bush, [saying]: ‘Go to the wrongdoing folk, as a messenger,

Pharaoh’s folk, to them as well as him — they wronged their souls by disbelieving in God and [wronged] the Children of Israel by enslaving them — Will they not (a-lā: the hamza indicates a negation meant as a rebuke) show fear?’, of God by being obedient to Him and affirm His Oneness?

He, Moses, said, ‘My Lord, I fear they will deny me,

and that anguish will constrain my breast, because of their denial of me, and that my tongue will not utter clearly, to deliver the Message, because of the knot in it. So give the Mission to, my brother, Aaron, alongside me.

And I have sinned against them, by my slaying of the Egyptian man, and I fear they will slay me’, for this.

Said He, exalted be He: ‘Certainly not!, they shall not slay you. Go both of you, you and your brother — this address [although in the dual form] is predominantly for the person present as opposed to the absent one — with Our signs. We will indeed be with you, hearing, what you say and what is said to you (ma‘akum: the two [Moses and Aaron] are referred to here with the plural pronoun).

So the two of you approach Pharaoh and say, “Indeed We are — [indeed] each of the two of us is, the Messenger of the Lord of the Worlds, to you,

that you should let go forth with us, to Syria, the Children of Israel” ’. So they approached him and said to him that which has been mentioned.

He, Pharaoh, said, to Moses, ‘Did we not rear you among us, in our homes, as a child?, as an infant, only recently born but weaned, and did you not stay with us for years of your life?, for thirty years — he would dress from Pharaoh’s clothes and ride chariots of his, and was referred to as Pharaoh’s son.

And you committed that deed of yours — namely, his slaying of the Egyptian — being an ingrate’, a denier of my favours to you in having reared you [among us] and not enslaved you.

He, Moses, said, ‘I did that then, when I was astray, from the knowledge and the Message which God would later give me.

So I fled from you, as I was afraid of you. Then my Lord gave me judgement, knowledge, and made me one of the messengers.

That is a favour with which you now reproach me that you have enslaved the Children of Israel’ (an ‘abbadta banī Isrā’īl, is explicative of tilka, ‘that’) in other words, you have enslaved them but not me: there is no favour in that, for your enslavement of them is wrong (some [scholars] have reckoned there to be an interrogative hamza of denial at the beginning of this verse [a-tilka ni‘matun, ‘is that a favour?’]).

Pharaoh said, to Moses, ‘And what is “the Lord of the Worlds” ’, the One Whose Messenger you say you indeed are? In other words: what exactly is He? And since there is no way for creation to know the true nature of God, but only to know Him through [an articulation of] His attributes, Moses, blessings and peace be upon him, responds to him with [mention of] some of these [attributes]:

He said, ‘The Lord of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them, in other words, the Creator of [all] that — should you have conviction’, that He, exalted be He, is their Creator, then believe in Him alone.

He, Pharaoh, said to those, noblemen among his folk, who were around him, ‘Did you not hear?!’, his response, how it does not correspond to the question [I asked]?

He, Moses, said, ‘Your Lord and the Lord of your forefathers’. Now, even though this [fact] is comprised by what was [said] before it enrages Pharaoh, and therefore:

He said, ‘Verily this messenger of yours sent to you is a madman!’

He, Moses, said, ‘The Lord of the east and the west and all that is between them — should you comprehend,’, that He is such [a Lord] then believe in Him alone.

He, Pharaoh, said, to Moses: ‘If you choose any god other than me, I will surely make you a prisoner!’. His [Pharaoh’s] prison was very harsh, for a person would be shut up [in a dungeon] underground alone, where he could neither see nor hear anyone else.

He, Moses, said, to him: ‘What, would you do this even, if I bring you something manifest?’, patent proof of my Mission?

He, Pharaoh, said, to him: ‘Then bring it, if you are truthful’, in this.

So he threw down his staff, and lo! it was a manifest serpent, a great snake.

Then he drew out his hand, he brought it out of his pocket, and lo! it was white, glowing, before the onlookers, and not its usual skin colour.

He, Pharaoh, said to the council around him, ‘Surely this man is a cunning sorcerer, an expert in the art of magic,

who seeks to expel you from your land by his sorcery. So what do you advise?’

They said, ‘Put him and his brother off for a while, postpone [judgement of] their affair, and send musterers into the cities

to bring you every cunning sorcerer’, to surpass Moses in the art of magic.

So the sorcerers were assembled at a fixed time of a known day, which was the morning of the Festival Day.

And it was said to the people, ‘Will you assemble!’

Maybe we will follow the sorcerers, should they be the victors’ (the interrogative [of the previous verse] is an incitement to assemble and the optative sense [implicit in la‘alla] is due to their anticipation of victory, and hence their continued adherence to their religion and rejection of Moses).

So when the sorcerers came, they said to Pharaoh, ‘Shall we indeed (read a-inna either by pronouncing both hamzas, or by not pronouncing the second, but in both cases inserting an alif) have a reward if we were to be the victors?’

He said, ‘Yes [of course]! And you shall then be among those closest [to me]’.

Moses said to them, after they had said to him, Either you cast, or we shall be the casters [Q. 7:115]: ‘Cast what you have to cast’ — the command to do this signifies an authorisation for them to cast and a means whereby the truth will be made to prevail.

So they cast their ropes and their staffs, and said, ‘By the power of Pharaoh we shall surely be the victors!’

Thereat Moses cast his staff and lo! it was swallowing (talqafu: one of the original two tā’ letters [of taltaqifu] has been assimilated) what they had faked, [what they had] transformed through illusion, making their ropes and staffs appear to be moving serpents.

So the sorcerers fell down prostrating.

They said, ‘We believe in the Lord of the Worlds,

the Lord of Moses and Aaron’, for they realised that what they had witnessed in the case of the staff could not have been the result of [mere] sorcery.

Pharaoh said, ‘Do you believe (a-āmantum, read pronouncing both hamzas or replacing the second one with an alif) him, Moses, though I have not given you leave? He is indeed your chief, the one who has taught you sorcery — so that he only taught you some [tricks] and then surpassed you with others. Soon you will know, what I will do with you! I will assuredly cut off your hands and legs on opposite sides — in other words, the right hand of each one together with his left leg — then I shall surely crucify you all.’

They said, ‘There is no harm [in that], no damage will be done to us thereby. Surely to our Lord, after we die, whichever way that may be, we shall return, in the Hereafter.

Indeed We hope our Lord will forgive us our iniquities, for being the first to believe’, in our time.

And We revealed to Moses, after many years which he spent among them calling them to the truth with God’s signs but all of which only increased them in insolence, [saying], ‘Journey with My servants, the Children of Israel, by night (a variant reading [for an asri] is an isr, from the verb sarā, one form of asrā) go with them by night in the direction of the sea, for indeed you will be pursued’. Pharaoh and his armies will pursue you, but when they enter the sea in pursuit of you, I will deliver you and drown them.

Then Pharaoh, having been informed of their night departure, sent to the cities — it is said that he ruled a thousand cities and twelve thousand villages — musterers, to assemble the army, saying:

‘Lo! these are but a small gang. It is said that they [the Children of Israel] numbered 670,000, while his [Pharaoh’s] vanguard alone numbered 700,000 and so he deemed their number insignificant in comparison to his huge army.

And indeed they have enraged us, their actions infuriate us,

and indeed we are all on our guard’, ready (a variant reading [for hadhirūna] has hādhirūn, meaning ‘alert’).

God, exalted be He, says: So We made them, Pharaoh and his folk, go forth, out of Egypt, in order to pursue Moses and his people, from gardens, orchards on either side of the Nile, and springs, streams running from the Nile through their dwellings,

and treasures, visible riches of gold and silver — these [riches] are called kunūz [as opposed to amwāl, ‘riches’] because that [portion] which is [always] due to God, exalted be He, from them had not been paid — and splendid places, exquisite residences for princes and ministers surrounded by their retinues.

So [it was], that is, Our expulsion [of them] was as We have described, and We made the Children of Israel to inherit these, after drowning Pharaoh and his folk.

Then they pursued them, they caught them up, at sunrise.

And when the two hosts sighted each other, the companions of Moses said, ‘We have been caught!’, Pharaoh’s hosts have caught us up and we have no power against them.

He, Moses, said, ‘Certainly not!, they shall not catch us up; indeed I have my Lord with me, to provide assistance. He will guide me’, to the route of deliverance.

God, exalted be He, says: Thereupon We revealed to Moses: ‘Strike the sea with your staff’, and he struck it, whereupon it parted, it split into twelve parts, and each part was as a mighty mountain, between each of these parts were paths which they followed, such that not even the saddles or the felts of the riders were touched by water.

And there We brought near the others, Pharaoh and his folk, until they followed them across the same paths.

And We delivered Moses and all those who were with him, by bringing them out of the sea while it was in the state mentioned [above].

Then We drowned the others, Pharaoh and his folk by closing the sea on them after they had entered the sea and the Children of Israel had exited therefrom.

Surely in that, drowning of Pharaoh and his folk, there is a sign, a lesson for those [generations] who would come after them; but most of them are not believers, in God. The only ones to believe were Āsiya — Pharaoh’s wife — Hizqīl, the believing man of Pharaoh’s family, and Maryam daughter of Nāmūsī, she who pointed out the bone remains of [the prophet] Joseph, peace be upon him.

And surely your Lord, He is the Mighty, for He wrought vengeance upon the disbelievers by drowning them, the Merciful, to believers, delivering them from drowning.

And recite to them, the disbelievers of Mecca, the tiding, the tale, of Abraham (Ibrāhīma is substituted by [the following, idh qāla, ‘when he said’])

when he said to his father and his people, ‘What do you worship?’

They said, ‘We worship idols — they reiterate the verb [in the response] in order to supplement it with [the following remark] — and remain cleaving to them’, we remain worshipping them all day; they give a longer response to indicate their [misplaced] pride in such [an act].

He said, ‘Do they hear you when you supplicate?

Or do they bring you benefit, when you worship them, or harm?, to you, if you do not?

They said, ‘Rather, we found our fathers so doing’, that is, doing the same as we do.

He said, ‘Have you considered what you have been worshipping,

you and your ancestors?

They are indeed hateful to me, I do not worship them; but the Lord of the Worlds, I do worship Him,

[He] Who created me, it is He Who guides me, to [the proper] religion,

and provides me with food and drink,

and when I am sick, it is He Who cures me;

and Who will make me die, then give me life,

and Who, I hope, will forgive me my iniquity on the Day of Judgement, [the Day] of Requital.

My Lord! Grant me [unerring] judgement, knowledge, and unite me with the righteous, the prophets.

And confer on me a worthy repute, excellent praise, among posterity, those who will come after me up to the Day of Resurrection.

And make me among the inheritors of the Garden of Bliss, among those who will be given it.

And forgive my father, for indeed he is one of those who are astray, by Your relenting to him and forgiving him: this was before it became clear to him [Abraham] that he [his father] was an enemy of God, as mentioned in sūrat Barā’a [Q. 9:114].

And do not disgrace me, do not expose me, on the day when they, mankind, are resurrected;

of which [day] God, exalted be He, says [the following]: the day when neither wealth nor children will avail, anyone,

except him who comes to God with a heart that is sound, [free] from idolatry and hypocrisy — and this is the heart of the believer, whom such [things] will avail.

And Paradise will be brought near for the God-fearing, and they will [be able to] see it,

and Hell will be revealed [plainly] for the perverse, the disbelievers.

And it will be said to them, ‘Where is that which you used to worship

besides God?, that is, other than Him, in the way of idols. Do they help you, by averting from you the chastisement, or do they help one another?’, by averting it from themselves? No [neither]!

Then they will be hurled, cast, into it, they and the perverse,

and the hosts of Iblīs, his followers and those jinn and humans who were obedient to him, all together.

They, the perverse, shall say, as they wrangle therein, with those whom they used to worship:

‘By God, we had indeed (in, softened in place of the hardened form, with its subject omitted, in other words [it would usually be] innahu) been in manifest error,

when we equated you, in worship, with the Lord of the Worlds.

And it was none other than the sinners, the devils or our predecessors, whose example we were following, that led us astray, from guidance.

So [now] we have no intercessors, as the believers have, in the way of angels, prophets and [other] believers,

nor any sympathetic friend, who might be concerned for us.

If only we had another turn, [another] return to this world, we would have been among those who believe!’ (law, ‘if only’, here is for [the conditional] optative, to which nakūna, ‘we would have been’, constitutes the response).

Surely in that, which is mentioned of the tale of Abraham and his people, there is a sign; but most of them are not believers.

And truly your Lord, He is the Mighty, the Merciful.

The people of Noah denied the messengers, by denying him, for they all brought the same message affirming God’s Oneness; or [it is] because he stayed among them for so long that it was as though he was many messengers (the feminine [person of the verb kadhdhabat, ‘denied’, governed by] qawm, ‘the people’, is on account of the import, but it is masculine on account of its [morphological] form);

when Noah, their brother — [their brother only] in terms of lineage — said to them, ‘Will you not fear?, God?

Truly I am a trusted messenger [sent] to you, to deliver the Message with which I have been sent.

So fear God and obey me, in what I enjoin you to of God’s Oneness and obedience to Him.

I do not ask of you any reward for it, for delivering it; for my reward lies only with the Lord of the Worlds.

So fear God and obey me’ — he repeats this [statement] for emphasis.

They said, ‘Shall we believe in you, in your words, when it is the lowliest people who follow you?’ (wa’ttaba‘aka: a variant reading has wa-atbā‘uka, ‘[when] your followers’, plural of tābi‘, ‘follower’, as a subject) the riffraff, such as the weavers and the shoemakers.

He said, ‘And what do I know of what they may have been doing?

Their reckoning is only my Lord’s concern, and He will requite them, if only you were aware — had you known this, you would not have reviled them.

And I am not about to drive away the believers.

I am just a plain warner’.

They said, ‘Lo! if you do not desist, O Noah, from what you say to us, you will assuredly be among those assailed’, with stones or curses.

He, Noah, said, ‘My Lord, my people have denied me,

so judge conclusively between me and them, and deliver me and the believers who are with me’.

He, exalted be He, says: So We delivered him and those who were with him in the laden ark, [the ship] filled with humans, animals and birds.

Then afterwards, after We delivered them, We drowned the rest, of his people.

Surely in that there is a sign; but most of them are not believers.

Truly your Lord, He is the Mighty, the Merciful.

‘Ād denied the messengers,

when Hūd, their brother, said to them, ‘Will you not fear God?

Truly I am a trusted messenger [sent] to you.

So fear God and obey me.

I do not ask of you any reward for this; for my reward lies only with the Lord of the Worlds.

Do you build on every prominence, every high place, a monument, an edifice as a signpost for passers-by, so that you may hurl abuse?, at those who pass by you and deride them (ta‘bathūna, is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of [the verb] tabnūna, ‘you build’).

And you set up structures, for [extracting] water underground, that perhaps you might, as though you will, last forever, therein and not die.

And when you assault, to smite or slay, you assault like tyrants, mercilessly!

So fear God, in this, and obey me, in what I have commanded you.

And fear Him Who has provided you, Who has been gracious to you, in a way that you know,

provided you with cattle and sons,

and gardens, orchards, and springs, rivers.

Indeed I fear for you the chastisement of a tremendous day’, in this world and in the Hereafter should you disobey me.

They said, ‘It is the same to us whether you admonish [us] or are not one of those who admonish, anyway. In other words, we will not heed your admonition.

This, that you threaten us with, is merely the fabrication of the ancients, that is, their inventions and lies (a variant reading [for khalq, ‘fabrication’] is khuluq, ‘ethos’, in other words, this denial of resurrection to which we adhere is merely ‘the ethos of the ancients’, in other words, their nature and wont);

and we will not be chastised’.

So they denied him, concerning the chastisement, whereupon We destroyed them, in this world with the [barren] wind [cf. Q. 51:41]. Surely in that there is a sign; but most of them are not believers.

Truly your Lord, He is the Mighty, the Merciful.

Thamūd denied the messengers,

when Sālih, their brother, said to them, ‘Will you fear God?

Truly I am a trusted messenger [sent] to you.

So fear God and obey me.

I do not ask of you any reward for this; for my reward lies only with the Lord of the Worlds.

Will you be left secure in that which is here, of good things —

amid gardens and springs,

and farms and date palms with slender, delicate and tender, spathes?

And you hew dwellings out of the mountains arrogantly (a variant reading [of farihīna, ‘arrogant’] has fārihīn, ‘skilfully’).

So fear God and obey me, in what I have commanded you,

and do not obey the command of the prodigal,

who cause corruption in the earth, through acts of disobedience, and act righteously’, by being obedient to God.

They said, ‘You are indeed one of the bewitched, those who have succumbed so many times to sorcery that their minds have been overcome.

And, moreover, you are just a human being like us. So bring [us] a sign, if you are sincere’, in your Mission.

He said, ‘This is a she-camel; she shall drink, a share of the water, and you shall drink [each] on a known day.

And do not cause her any harm, for then you shall be seized by the chastisement of an awful day’, [awful] because of the awfulness of the chastisement.

But they hamstrung her — a group of them hamstrung her with the approval of others; and then became remorseful, for having hamstrung it.

So they were seized by the chastisement, which had been promised and were destroyed. Surely in that there is a sign; but most of them are not believers.

Truly your Lord, He is the Mighty, the Merciful.

The people of Lot denied the messengers,

when Lot, their brother, said to them, ‘Will you not fear God?

Truly I am a trusted messenger [sent] to you.

So fear God and obey me.

I do not ask of you any reward for this; my reward lies only with the Lord of the Worlds.

What! Of all people you come unto males [to fornicate],

and forsake the wives your Lord has created for you?, in other words, [you forsake intimacy with] their front parts? Nay, but you are a transgressing folk’, overstepping [the bounds of] what is lawful into what is unlawful.

They said, ‘If you do not desist, O Lot, from reproaching us, you will assuredly be of those expelled’, from our land.

He, Lot, said, ‘Truly I abhor, I detest, what you do.

My Lord, deliver me and my family from what they do’, that is, from the punishment for it.

So We delivered him and all his family,

except an old woman — his wife — among those who stayed behind, whom We destroyed.

Then We destroyed [all] the others,

and We rained on them a rain, [We rained on them] stones — this [detail] pertains to [the previous] statement concerning their destruction — and evil was, their rain, the rain of those who were warned!

Surely in that there is a sign; but most of them are not believers.

Surely your Lord, He is the Mighty, the Merciful.

The dwellers in the wood (a variant reading [for ashābu’l-aykati] has ashābu laykata), a thicket of trees near Midian, denied the messengers,

when Shu‘ayb — He [God] does not say ‘their brother’ [in this instance] because he [Shu‘ayb] was not [in terms of lineage] one of them — said to them, ‘Will you not fear God?

Truly I am a trusted messenger [sent] to you.

So fear God and obey me.

I do not ask of you any reward for this; indeed my reward lies only with the Lord of the Worlds.

Give full measure and do not be of those who give short measure,

and weigh with an even balance,

and do not defraud people in their goods, do not diminish anything of what is due to them, and do not be degenerate in the earth, seeking corruption, by killing or otherwise ([ta‘thaw, ‘degenerate’] derives from ‘athiya, meaning afsada, ‘to corrupt’; mufsidīna, ‘seeking corruption’, is a circumstantial qualifier emphasising the import of its operator [ta‘thaw]).

And fear Him Who created you and the former generations’, [all] creation [before you].

They said, ‘You are indeed one of the bewitched.

You are just a human being like us. And we indeed (in, softened in place of the hardened form, its subject omitted, in other words [it would be] innahu) think that you are one of the liars.

Then make fragments (read kisfan or kisafan) of the heaven fall upon us, if you are of the truthful’, in your Mission.

He said, ‘My Lord knows best what you are doing’, and will requite you for it.

But they denied him, so they were seized by the chastisement of the day of the shade (al-zulla) — a cloud which gave them shade when they suffered a bout of extreme heat but which then rained down fire on them and they were incinerated. Assuredly it was the chastisement of a tremendous day.

Surely in that there is a sign; but most of them are not believers.

Surely your Lord, He is the Mighty, the Merciful.

Truly it, the Qur’ān, is the revelation of the Lord of the Worlds,

brought down by the Trustworthy Spirit, Gabriel,

upon your heart, that you may be [one] of the warners,

in a clear Arabic tongue (a variant reading [for nazala, ‘he brought down’, verse 193] has nuzzila, ‘was sent down’, and al-rūha, ‘the Spirit’, in the accusative, the subject of the verb being God).

And truly it, the allusion to the Qur’ān [that would be] revealed to Muhammad (s), is in the Scriptures, the Books, of the ancients, such as the Torah and the Gospel.

Is it not a sign, of this fact, for them, for the disbelievers of Mecca, that the learned of the Children of Israel recognise it?, [those] such as ‘Abd Allāh b. Salām and his companions, from among those who became [Muslim] believers: they are able inform [you] of this (read yakun with āyatan in the accusative, or takun with āyatun in the nominative).

For had We revealed it to some non-Arabs (a‘jamūn is the plural of a‘jam),

and had he recited it to them, that is, [to] the disbelievers of Mecca, they would not have believed in it, disdaining to follow it.

So, in the same way in which We would have caused denial of it to penetrate [the hearts of disbelievers] had it been recited by a non-Arab, We have caused, denial of, it to penetrate the hearts of the criminals, the Meccan disbelievers, when Muhammad (s) recites it.

They will not believe in it until they behold the painful chastisement,

so that it will come upon them suddenly while they are not aware.

Thereupon they will say, ‘Shall we be granted any respite?’, that we might become believers?; and it shall be said to them, ‘No!’, and they will say, ‘When will this chastisement be?’ God, exalted be He, says:

So do they [seek to] hasten Our chastisement?

Consider [this] then — inform Me: If We were to let them enjoy [life] for [many] years,

then there were to come on them that which they have been promised, of chastisement,

in what way (mā here is interrogative) would that enjoyment which they were given avail them?, in averting the chastisement or mitigating it? It would be of no avail!

And We have not destroyed any town but it had warners, messengers to warn its inhabitants;

as a reminder, an admonition for them; for We were never unjust, for We destroy them [only] after they have been warned. The following was revealed to refute what the idolaters were saying:

It, the Qur’ān, has not been brought down by the devils.

Neither would it behove, befit, them, to bring it down, nor are they capable, [of doing] that.

Truly they are barred, restrained with blazing stars, from the hearing, of the sayings of the angels.

So do not invoke any other god with God, lest you be among the chastised — if you were to do what they call you to.

And warn the nearest of your kinsfolk, namely, the Banū Hāshim and the Banū al-Muttalib: ‘He [the Prophet] warned them publicly …’, as reported by al-Bukhārī and Muslim.

And lower your wing, show your gentle side, to the believers, the affirmers of God’s Oneness, who follow you.

But if they, your kinsfolk, disobey you, say, to them: ‘I am absolved of what you do’, in worshipping [gods] other than God.

And put your trust (wa-tawakkal, or read fa-tawakkal, ‘then put your trust’) in the Mighty, the Merciful, God, in other words, entrust Him with all your affairs,

Who sees you when you stand, for prayer,

and your movements — in [performing] the [various] parts of prayer: standing, sitting, bowing and prostrating — among those who prostrate, those who perform the prayers.

Truly He is the Hearing, the Knowing.

Shall I inform you, O disbelievers of Mecca, upon whom the devils descend? (tanazzalu: one of the tā’ letters in the original [tatanazzalu] has been omitted).

They descend upon every sinful, profligate, liar, such as Musaylama and other soothsayers.

They, the devils, report the heard [sayings], what they hear from the angels [they report] to the soothsayers, but most of them are liars, adding much that is false to what they hear — this was [revealed] before the devils were barred from the heaven.

As for the poets, [only] the perverse follow them, in their poetry, propounding it and reciting it on their behalf to others; they are thus reprehensible.

Have you not noticed that — are you not aware that — in every valley, of the valleys of rhetoric and the art thereof, they rove, overstepping the bounds [of decency] in [their] eulogies and diatribes,

and that they say, we do, what they do not do?, in other words, that they lie.

Save those, poets, who believe and perform righteous deeds and remember God frequently, in other words, [those whom] poetry does not distract from the remembrance [of God], and vindicate themselves, by lampooning the disbelievers, after they have been wronged, by the disbelievers’ reviling of them [as belonging] together with all believers — such [individuals] are not reprehensible. God, exalted be He, says: God does not like the utterance of evil words out loud, unless a person has been wronged [Q. 4:148]; He, exalted be He, also says: so whoever commits aggression against you, commit aggression against him in the manner that he committed against you [Q. 2:194]; and those, poets and others, who are wrongdoers will soon know the reversal, the return, with which they will meet, [by which] they will return, after death.

Tā sīn: God knows best what He means by these [letters]. Those, namely, these signs, are the signs of the Qur’ān, signs from it, and a Manifest Book, manifesting [what is] truth from [what is] falsehood (wa-kitābin, ‘Book’, is a supplement [to al-qur’ān] with the addition of an adjective [mubīn, ‘manifest’]).

It is, a guidance, guiding from error, and good tidings for the believers, who believe in it, of Paradise;

those who observe prayer, performing it in the way that it should be [performed], and give alms and who are certain of the Hereafter, knowing it [to be true] through the [many] proofs thereof (hum, ‘they’, is repeated because a separation has taken place between it [the first hum] and the predicate [yūqinūna]).

Truly those who do not believe in the Hereafter, We have adorned their, vile, deeds for them, by making such [deeds] seem sensuous so that they then deem them wholesome, and so they are bewildered, confused about why We deem these [deeds] to be vile.

Those are they for whom there is an awful chastisement, the worst [chastisement] in this world: being killed or being taken captive; and in the Hereafter they will be the greatest losers, because they will end up in the Fire which has been made everlasting for them.

And truly you — this is an address to the Prophet (s) — are receiving the Qur’ān, it is being transmitted to you intensely, from One Wise, Knowing, in such [transmission].

Mention, when Moses said to his family, [to] his wife, during his journey from Midian [back] to Egypt: ‘Assuredly I notice, I see in the distance, a fire. I will bring you news from there, about the [journey’s] route — for he had lost his way — or bring you a firebrand (read as a genitive annexation [bi-shihābi qabasin] as an explication [of shihāb, ‘flame’]; or read without [annexation, bi-shihābin qabasin] meaning, a flame of fire at the end of a wick or a wooden stick) that perhaps you might warm yourselves’, (tastalūn: the tā’ replaces the tā’ of the [8th verbal form] ifta‘ala [sc. istalā]; it derives from salaya or saliya, ‘to be exposed to the blaze of fire’), [that perhaps] you might warm yourselves from the cold.

But when he reached it, he was called [with the following words]: ‘Blessed is he, that is to say, God bless him, who is in the fire, namely, Moses, and who is around it, namely, the angels — or vice-versa ([the verb] bāraka may be followed immediately by the direct object or by a preposition and then the direct object; [a noun such as] makān, ‘location’, is implied after fī, ‘in’, [sc. man fī makāni’l-nār, ‘who is in the area of the fire’]); and Glory be to God, the Lord of the Worlds — this is included in the call, and is meant to declare that God is above all evil [associations].

O Moses, lo!, in other words, the fact is that, it is I, God, the Mighty, the Wise.

Throw down your staff’, and he threw it down. And when he saw it wriggling, moving, like a serpent, a slender snake, he turned his back in flight and did not come back. God, exalted be He, says: ‘O Moses, do not fear, it. Surely in My presence, before Me, the messengers do not fear, any snake or otherwise,

except him who has wronged, his soul, but then changed [his wrong] for good — he [then] performs [good deeds] — after [having done] evil, in other words, [he has] repented, then truly I am Forgiving, Merciful, I will accept his repentance and forgive him.

And insert your hand into your bosom, into the collar of your shirt, and it will emerge, not in its usual skin colour, but, white without any blemish, any [vestige of] leprosy, with a glare that dazzles the eyes, as one sign, among nine signs, with which you shall be sent [as God’s messenger], to Pharaoh and his folk; indeed they are an immoral lot’ .

But when Our signs came to them plain to see, illuminating and clear, they said, ‘This is manifest sorcery’, clear and evident [sorcery].

And they denied them, they did not affirm them, though, in reality, their souls had been convinced, in other words, [though] they were certain that these [signs] were from God, wrongfully and arrogantly, in defiance of believing in what Moses had brought ([these two adverbs] refer back to [the cause of] their denial). So behold, O Muhammad (s), how was the sequel for the agents of corruption, [a sequel] which you know: they were destroyed.

And verily We gave David and Solomon, his son, knowledge, of rendering [decisive] judgement between people, and [knowledge] of the speech of birds and of other things, and they said, giving thanks to God, ‘Praise be to God Who has favoured us, with prophethood and the disposal of jinn, humans and devils [to our service], over many of His believing servants’.

And Solomon inherited from David, prophethood and knowledge exclusively from among all his other children; and he said, ‘O people, we have been taught the speech of the birds, that is, the ability to understand their sounds, and we have been given of all things, given to prophets and kings. Indeed this, gift, is the manifest, the evident, favour’.

And, on one journey, Solomon’s hosts of jinn and humans and birds stood assembled for him as they were being arrayed, brought together [in groups] and marshalled.

When they came to the Valley of the Ants — which is [located] either in Tā’if or in Syria, and whose ants are either small or large — an ant, the queen ant, who had seen Solomon’s hosts, said, ‘O ants, enter your dwellings, lest Solomon and his hosts crush you while they are unaware!’ — the ants are likened to rational beings in their use of the latter’s speech.

Whereat he, Solomon, smiled (fa-tabassama, the beginning [of the sentence]) amused (dāhikan, the end [of the sentence]) at its words, which he had heard from three miles away and which was carried to him by the winds. When he was on the verge of [entering] their valley, he [Solomon] made his hosts halt until they [the ants] had entered their dwellings — on this journey his hosts consisted of cavalry and infantry. And he said, ‘My Lord, inspire me to be thankful for Your grace with which You have favoured me and my parents, and to do good that will please You, and include me, by Your mercy, among Your righteous servants’, the prophets and saints.

And he reviewed the birds, to see the hoopoe — which would locate water beneath the ground and indicate its location by pecking at it, whereupon the devils would extract it, for Solomon required it for when he prayed; but he could not see him — then he said, ‘Why is it that I do not see the hoopoe?, in other words, is there something preventing me from seeing him? Or is he among the absent?, and so I cannot see him because he is absent?’ And when he became certain [of the hoopoe’s absence],

He said, ‘Assuredly I will chastise him with a severe chastisement, by having [all] his feathers as well as his tail plucked and leaving him out in the sun, where he would not be able to escape from reptiles, or I will slaughter him, by slitting his throat, unless he brings me (read la-ya’tiyannī or la-ya’tinannī) a clear warrant’, plain manifest proof for his [having a valid] excuse.

But he did not remain (read fa-makutha or fa-makatha) long [in absence], in other words, [he was away only] for a short while, and came to Solomon humbly, with his head up and his wings and tail lowered. Solomon pardoned him and asked him about what he had encountered during his absence: and he said, ‘I have discovered something of which you have no knowledge, and I have brought you from Sheba (this may be read in declined form [min Saba’in] or left as indeclinable [min Saba’a]) — a tribe in Yemen, whose name is taken from the name of one of their ancestors (which is also the reason why it may be declined) — a verified report.

I found a woman ruling over them, in other words, she was their queen, her name Bilqīs; and she has been given [an abundance] of all things, that kings might require, in the way of machines and instruments, and she possesses a great throne — its length was 80 cubits, its width 40 cubits, its height 30 cubits, and was made of gold and silver, encrusted with pearls, rubies, chrysolite, and emeralds, with its legs made of rubies, chrysolite and emeralds, containing seven [inner] doors, the door of each chamber shut.

I found her and her people prostrating to the sun instead of God, and Satan has adorned for them their deeds and he has barred them from the Way, from the path of truth, so that they are not guided

to prostrate themselves to God (allā yasjudū should be read as an yasjudū: the lā is extra and with it has been assimilated the nūn of an, similar to [the construction] where God says, li-allā ya‘lama ahlu’l-kitābi, so that the People of the Scripture may know [Q. 57:29]; the sentence functions as the direct object of yahtadūna, ‘guided’, whose ilā, ‘to’, has been omitted); [He] Who brings forth the hidden (al-khab’ is a verbal noun, with the same meaning as al-makhbū’, ‘that which is hidden’) of rain and plants, in the heavens and the earth, and He knows what they conceal, within their hearts, and what they proclaim, with their tongues.

God — there is no god except Him, the Lord of the Mighty Throne’ (this clause constitutes an [independent] new sentence, which is a eulogy comprising [praise of] the Throne of the Compassionate One to counter the [description of the] throne of Bilqīs: between the two, however, is an unfathomable difference).

He, Solomon, said, to the hoopoe: ‘We shall see whether you have spoken the truth, in what you have informed us, or whether you are of the liars, that is, of their ilk — for [to say] that is rhetorically more powerful than [simply] saying ‘or whether you have lied’. He [the hoopoe] indicated to them the place of the water and it was extracted. They thus drank, performed their ablutions and prayed. Solomon then composed a letter in the following form: ‘From the servant of God, Solomon son of David, to Bilqīs, Queen of Sheba. In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful: Peace be upon those who follow Guidance. To wit: do not rise up against me [in defiance], but come to me in submission’. He then stamped it with musk and sealed it with his ring, and said to the hoopoe:

Take this letter of mine and deliver it to them, that is, to Bilqīs and her people, then turn away, withdraw, from them, but remain close by them, and see what [response] they shall return’, [and see] what kind of response they shall give. Thus, he took it and approached her [Bilqīs]. But as her soldiers were all around her, he cast it into her private chamber. When she saw it, she shuddered and was consumed by fear. She read what it said.

Then, she said, to the noblemen of her people: ‘O [members of the] council, lo! (read yā ayyuhā’l-mala’u innī, pronouncing [in the last two words] both hamzas; or by not pronouncing the second one and changing it into a wāw with kasra vowelling) a noble, a sealed, letter has been delivered to me.

It is from Solomon and lo! it is, in other words, its text says: “In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.

Do not rise up against me [in defiance], but come to me in submission”’.

She said, ‘O [members of the] council, give me an opinion (read yā ayyuhā’l-mala’u aftūnī, pronouncing both hamzas, or by not pronouncing the second and changing it into a wāw), in other words, guide me, in this matter of mine. I never decide on a matter, I never conclude it, until you are present’.

They said, ‘We possess force and we possess great might, in other words, we are hardy in war. The matter is for you [to decide]. So see what you will command’, us, and we will obey you.

She said, ‘Indeed kings, when they enter a town, ruin it, with destruction, and reduce the mightiest of its inhabitants to the most abased. That is what they too will do, namely, the senders of this letter.

Now I will send them a gift and wait to see with what [response] the envoys return’, in the way of accepting the gift or rejecting it. If it be a king [to whom we have sent it], he will accept it; but if it be a prophet, he will reject it. Thus, she sent male and female servants, one thousand in total, together with five hundred bricks of gold, a crown studded with jewels, and musk, ambergris and other things with an envoy carrying a letter. The hoopoe thus hurried back to bring the news to Solomon, who ordered bricks of gold and silver to be made and laid out across a [vast] square the distance of nine parasangs from his seat and for a towering wall of gold and silver to be constructed around it, and for the most splendid creatures of the land and the sea, together with the children of the jinn, to be brought to line the right and left sides of the square.

But when he, the envoy, came to Solomon, with the gift and the servants, he said, ‘Are you supplying me with wealth? What God has given me, of prophethood and kingship, is better than what He has given you, of [the things of] this world. Nay, but it is you [and not I] who exult in your gift, for you pride yourselves upon [the possession of] the ornaments of this world!

Go back to them, with the gifts that you have brought, for We shall assuredly come to them with hosts which they will not be able to face and we shall expel them from there, from the land of Sheba (Saba’) — named [thus] after their tribal ancestor — humiliated, and they shall be utterly abased’, unless they come to me in submission. When the envoy returned to her with the gift, she had her throne placed inside seven doors inside her palace, with her palace inside seven palaces, and had all the doors locked with guards at them. She then prepared to make the journey to Solomon to see what he would command her. She departed with twelve thousand chieftains (qayl), each accompanied by thousands [of men] until when she came to within a parasang of him, he sensed her [arrival].

He said, ‘O [members of the] council, which of you (regarding the two hamzas read them in the way mentioned above [verse 32]) will bring me her throne before they come to me in submission?’, compliant and obedient? For I may only [rightfully] seize it before this [submission] and not afterwards.

An afreet from among the jinn — a [jinn who is] powerful and stalwart — said, ‘I will bring it to you before you rise from your place, the one in which you sit when adjudicating — the period from morning to midday. Indeed I have the strength for it, that is, for carrying it, and I am trustworthy’, over what it may contain of jewels and other [precious] things. Solomon said, ‘I want something faster than that!’

The one who had knowledge of the, revealed, Scripture — and this was [one] Āsif b. Barkhiyā, a righteous individual with knowledge of God’s Greatest Name, which when invoked [in supplication] for something it is [immediately] granted — said: ‘I will bring it to you before your glance returns to you, after you look at something. So he [the afreet] said to him, ‘Look up towards the heaven’, which he did, and when his glance returned [in front of him] he found it [Bilqīs’ throne] placed before him — for in the instance in which Solomon looked up to the heaven, Āsif supplicated by invoking the Greatest Name that God bring it [thereto]; and this was done by having it travel under the earth until it sprung up below Solomon’s seat (kursī). Then, when he saw it standing, still, before him, he said, ‘This, bringing it to me, is of my Lord’s bounty, that He may try me, test me, whether I give thanks (read a-ashkur, pronouncing both hamzas; or by replacing the second one with an alif; or by not pronouncing the second one, but inserting an alif between the one not pronounced and the other one or without [the insertion]) or am ungrateful, for the favour. And whoever gives thanks, gives thanks only for his own sake, because the reward for his thanks shall be his, and whoever is ungrateful, for the favour, [should know] then my Lord is surely Independent, with no need of his thanks, Generous’, by being bounteous to those who are ungrateful for it.

He said, ‘Disguise her throne for her — in other words, transform it such that when she sees it, it will be in an unrecognisable form — that we may see whether she will be guided, to recognising it, or be of those who cannot be guided’, to recognise when things are transformed around them. He [Solomon] sought thereby to test her mind, for it was said to have something wrong with it. Thus they transformed it by adding or taking away [certain things] and in other ways.

So when she came, it was said, to her: ‘Is your throne like this?’ She said, ‘It as though it is the one’. She had, in fact, recognised it; but she made a pretence to them just as they made a pretence to her, given that [when she was asked about the throne] it was not said, ‘Is this your throne?’, for had it been so, she would have replied, ‘Yes, it is’. When Solomon realised that she was perceptive and knowledgeable, he said: ‘And we were given the knowledge before her and we had submitted [to God].

And what she worshipped besides God, that is, other than Him, barred her, from the worship of God, for she belonged to disbelieving folk’.

It was, also, said to her, ‘Enter the palace [hallway]’ — this was a transparent white glass floor underneath which flowed sweet water that contained fish. Solomon had it made when he was told that her legs and feet resembled the shanks of a mule. And when she saw it, she supposed it to be a pool, of water, and so she bared her legs, to wade through it. Meanwhile Solomon was seated on his throne at the front part of the palace [hallway], and he saw that her legs and feet were [in fact] fair. He said, to her: ‘It is a hallway paved [smooth] with crystal’, and thereafter he called her to submit [to God]. She said, ‘My Lord, indeed I have wronged myself, by worshipping other than You, and I submit with Solomon to God, the Lord of the Worlds’. He wanted to marry her but disliked the hair on her legs. So the devils made a [depilatory] lime mixture (nūra) and she removed it therewith. He married her and had [great] love for her. And he let her remain as ruler of her kingdom and would visit her once a month, staying for three days [every time]. Her reign came to an end at the same time as that of Solomon. It is reported that he became king at the age of 13 and died at the age of 53 — Glory be to the One whose enduring sovereignty will never end!

And verily We sent to Thamūd their brother, in terms of [his belonging to the same] tribe, Sālih, with the following [decree]: ‘Worship God!’, affirm His Oneness. And lo! they [then] became two parties quarrelling with one another, over religion, one party having become believers upon his arrival as messenger to them and the other party disbelievers.

He said, to the deniers: ‘O my people, why do you [seek to] hasten on evil before [seeking] good?, in other words, [why do you seek to hasten on] chastisement instead of mercy, when you say, ‘If what you bring us is true, then bring us the chastisement!’ Why do you not ask God to forgive you, [your] idolatry, so that you might be shown mercy?’, and not be chastised.

They said, ‘We augur evil (ittayyarnā is actually tatayyarnā, but the tā’ has been assimilated with the tā’, and a conjunctive hamza added) of you and of those who are with you’, namely, the believers — when they [the tribe of Thamūd] were deprived of rain and suffered hunger. He said, ‘Your evil augury is with God — He has given it to you; nay, but you are a people being tried’, being tested with good and evil [turns of fortune].

And there were in the city, the city of Thamūd, a band of nine men, that is, [nine] men, who were causing corruption in the land, with acts of disobedience, which included their corroding of dinar and dirham coins [rendering them worthless], and did not reform [their ways], through obedience [to God].

They said, that is, some said to others, ‘Swear to one another by God that we will attack him by night (la-nubayyitannahu; or [read] la-tubayyitunnahu, ‘that you will attack him by night’) together with his folk, that is, those who believed in him, in other words, [swear] that we will kill them at night; then we will surely say (la-naqūlanna; or [read] la-taqūlunna, ‘you surely will say’) to his heir, the avenger of his blood, that we did not witness, we were not present at, the destruction of his folk (read muhlika or mahlika, meaning ‘the destroying of them’ or ‘their death’ [respectively]), and so we do not know who killed them, and [that] indeed we are being truthful’.

So they plotted, thereby, a plot, but We [also] plotted a plot, in other words, We requited them by hastening on their punishment, while they were not aware.

So behold how was the consequence of their plot! For lo! We destroyed them and all their people, with Gabriel’s cry, or by the angels’ pelting them with stones, which they could see even though they could not see them [the angels].

So those then are their houses [lying] deserted (khāwiyatan is in the accusative because it is a circumstantial qualifier, the operator of which is the import of the demonstrative pronoun [tilka, ‘those’]) because of the evil which they did, that is, their disbelief. Surely in that there is a sign, a lesson, for a people who have knowledge, of Our power and are thus admonished.

And We delivered those who believed, in Sālih — and they numbered 4,000 — and were fearful, of idolatry.

And Lot (Lūtan is in the accusative because of an implied udhkur, ‘mention’, before it, and it [Lūtan] is substituted by [the following, idh qāla …]), when he said to his people, ‘What! Do you commit [such] abomination, namely, homosexual intercourse, while you watch?, that is to say, while you watch one another, [so] engrossed [are you] in the sinful act?

What! Do you (read a-innakum, pronouncing both hamzas, or by not pronouncing the second and inserting an alif between the two in both cases) come unto men in lust instead of women? Nay, but you are truly a people in ignorance’, of the consequence of your action.

But the only response of his people was that they said, ‘Expel Lot’s family from your town. They are indeed a folk who [prefer to] remain pure!’, from [coming unto] the rears of men.

So We delivered him and his family, except his wife — We decreed [for] her, We made her by Our decree, to be of those who remained behind, in the chastisement.

Then We rained on them a rain — these were the stones of baked mud [cf. Q. 15:74] — which destroyed them. And evil indeed was, their rain, the rain of those who were warned, against chastisement.

Say, O Muhammad (s): ‘Praise be to God, for the destruction of the disbelievers of past communities, and peace be on His servants whom He has chosen’. Is God (read a-Allāhu, pronouncing both hamzas; or by substituting an alif for the second one; or by not pronouncing the second one but inserting an alif between the one not pronounced and the other one or without [such an insertion]) better, for those who worship Him, or the partners which they ascribe? (read [either] tushrikūna, ‘you ascribe’, or yushrikūna, ‘they ascribe’), [they being] the people of Mecca, [the partners they ascribe] to Him, in other words, are such gods better for those who worship them?

Or He Who created the heavens and the earth, and sends down for you water from the heaven, whereby We cause to grow (there is a shift here from third person to that of the first person [plural]) splendid gardens (hadā’iq is the plural of hadīqa, which is an enclosed garden) whose trees you could never cause to grow?, because of you do not have the ability for it. Is there a god (a-ilāhun, here and in the seven instances in which it occurs, read by pronouncing both hamzas, or by not pronouncing the second, inserting an alif between the two in both cases) with God?, who has helped Him in [all of] this? In other words, there is no god with Him. Nay, but they are a people who ascribe equals [to Him], who associate with God others.

Or He Who made the earth an abode [of stability], that does not [constantly] shake beneath [the feet of] its inhabitants, and made rivers [to flow] throughout it and set firm mountains for it, with which He fixed the earth [in place], and set an isthmus between the two seas, between the sweet one and the salty one, the one not mixing with the other. Is there a god with God? Nay, but most of them have no knowledge, of His Oneness.

Or He Who answers the desperate one, the anguished person suffering harm, when he calls to Him and Who removes [his] distress, from him and from others, and makes you successors in the earth (the annexation [khulafā’a l-ardi, ‘successors of the earth’] has the same meaning as fī, ‘in’ [khulafā’a fī’l-ardi, ‘successors in the earth’]), in other words, each generation succeeding the one before it. Is there a god with God? Little do you remember, [little] are you admonished ([read] mā tadhakkarūna, ‘do you remember’; or [read] yadhdhakkarūna, ‘do they remember’, where [in both cases] the tā’ has been assimilated with the dhāl; the mā is extra, [used] to make less what is already ‘little’).

Or He Who guides you, shows you the way to your destinations, in the darkness of the land and the sea, by the stars at night, and by [the various] landmarks during the day, and Who sends forth the winds as harbingers of His mercy, ahead of the rain. Is there a god with God? Exalted be God [high] above what, others, they associate, with Him!

Or He Who originates creation, in the wombs, from a sperm-drop, then brings it back again, after death, as established by the proofs for this [resurrection], even if you do not acknowledge it; and Who provides for you from the heaven, rain, and [from] the earth, vegetation. Is there a god with God? In other words, none of the things mentioned is done by anyone other than God, and there is no god with Him. Say, O Muhammad (s): ‘Produce your proof, your definitive argument, if you are truthful’, about their being a god with Me who has done any of the things mentioned.

They [the disbelievers] also asked him when the Hour will come to pass, and the following was revealed: Say: ‘No one in the heavens or the earth knows, be it angels or human beings, the Unseen, namely, what is hidden from them, except God, He knows it, and they are not aware, the disbelievers of Mecca, like others, when, is the time in which, they will be resurrected.

Nay, has their knowledge come to comprise (read adraka, similar to the [4th verbal] form akrama, ‘he was kind to’; a variant reading has iddāraka, which is actually tadāraka, with the tā’ changed into a dāl and assimilated with the [other] dāl, and a conjunctive hamza added, meaning, ‘attained’ or ‘caught up with’) the Hereafter?, such that they [have reason to] ask about the time of its coming — not so: Nay, for they are in doubt of it. Rather they are blind to it (‘amūna, ‘blind’, as in blindness of the heart; this [statement] is rhetorically more powerful than the preceding one; the origin [of the term] is ‘amiyūn, but the damma vowel is deemed too heavy for the yā’ and has been moved to the mīm, after dropping its kasra vowel).

And the disbelievers say, also in rejecting the [idea of] resurrection: ‘What! When we and our fathers are dust shall we indeed be brought forth [again]?, from the graves.

Already we and our fathers have been promised this before. [But] these are just the [legendary] fables of the ancients’ (asātīr is the plural of ustūra, meaning ‘what has been written down [mā sutira] of lies’).

Say: ‘Travel in the land and see how was the sequel for the criminals’, because of their denials — and this [sequel] is that they were destroyed with punishment.

And do not grieve for them, and do not be distressed by their schemes — this is meant to comfort the Prophet (s), in other words, do not be concerned with their plotting against you, for We will grant you victory over them.

And they say, ‘When will this promise, of chastisement, be, if you are truthful?’, regarding it.

Say: ‘It may be that part of what you seek to hasten on is close behind you’ — so they were slain at Badr and the remaining chastisement will come to them after death.

And surely your Lord is bountiful to mankind, an example of which is His deferring chastisement for the disbelievers, but most of them are not thankful — disbelievers are not grateful for the deferring of chastisement since they reject [the fact] that it will ever come to pass.

And surely your Lord knows what their hearts conceal, [what these] hide, and what they proclaim, by their tongues.

And there is not a thing hidden in the heaven and the earth (the hā’ [tā’ marbūta] of ghā’ibatun is hyperbole, in other words, anything that is completely hidden from people) but it is in a manifest Book, namely, [in] the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfūz) and in God’s concealed knowledge, an example of which is the [time of the] chastising of the disbelievers.

Truly this Qur’ān recounts to the Children of Israel — those living at the time of our Prophet — [the means to resolve] most of that concerning which they differ, that is, by virtue of the fact that it expounds the said [differences] as they should be, eliminating any disagreements between them, if only they were to implement it and submit [to its prescriptions].

And truly it is a guidance, from error, and a mercy for believers, from chastisement.

Surely your Lord will decide between them, as [He will] with others on the Day of Resurrection, of His judgement, that is, His justice. And He is the Mighty, the Victor, the Knower, of what He judges, so that none will be able to oppose Him in the way that the disbelievers have opposed His prophets in this world.

So rely on God, trust in Him, for you are indeed upon the manifest truth, [upon] the manifest religion: the sequel shall be in your favour, with victory over the disbelievers. God then draws comparisons between them and the dead, the deaf and the blind, saying:

Indeed you cannot make the dead hear, nor can you make the deaf hear the call when (al-du‘ā’a idhā, read by pronouncing both hamzas, or by not pronouncing the second one, eliding it with the yā’) they have turned their backs [upon you];

nor can you lead the blind out of their error. You can only make those hear — hear so as to comprehend and accept — who believe in Our signs — the Qur’ān — and have therefore submitted, [are therefore] sincere in their affirmation of God’s Oneness.

And when the word [of judgement] falls upon them, [when] they deserve that chastisement befalls them as well as all [other] disbelievers, We shall bring forth for them a beast from the earth which shall speak to them [saying], that is, which shall speak in Arabic to those who are alive at the time when it appears, among its other statements, it will say to them on Our behalf: ‘Indeed mankind (read tukallimuhum inna’l-nāsa; a variant has tukallimuhum bi-anna’l-nāsa, ‘to tell them that mankind’) had no faith in Our signs’, in other words, they did not believe in the Qur’ān and what it comprises [of the mention] of resurrection, reckoning and requital. With its [the beast’s] appearance the enjoining of decency and forbidding of indecency will cease, and thereafter no disbeliever will believe — just as God revealed to Noah [when He said to him]: None of your people will believe except he who has already believed [Q. 11:36].

And, mention, the day when We shall gather from every community a group of those who denied Our signs, namely, their leaders, the ones [whom they] followed, and they will be set in array, assembled, with the last of them brought together with the first and then led away,

until, when they arrive, at the site of the Reckoning, He, exalted be He, shall say, to them: ‘Did you deny, My prophets, by [denying], My signs without comprehending them, from the perspective of your denial, in knowledge, or what (ammā: the interrogative mā has been assimilated with am, ‘or’) was it (dhā is a relative pronoun, in other words [it is in fact] mā alladhī) that you did?, with the commands given to you.

And the word [of judgement] shall fall, the chastisement will be due, upon them because of the evil they committed, that is, [because of] what they associated [with God], and they will not speak, since they will have no [valid] argument.

Do they not see that We made, We created, the night that they, like others, may rest in it, and the day for sight?, meaning, [for people] to see in it, so that they may go about their business therein. Surely in that there are signs, indications of His power, exalted be He, for a people who believe — they [the believers] are singled out for mention because they benefit from such [signs] in their faith, in contrast to the disbelievers.

And the day when the Trumpet will be blown, the Horn [will be blown], the First Blast, by [the archangel] Isrāfīl, and whoever is in the heavens and the earth will be terrified, that is, a fright that brings about death — as is stated in another verse, and whoever is in the heavens and whoever is in the earth will swoon [Q. 39:68] (the past tense [fazi‘a] is used to express the fact that such [events] will have occurred); except whom God will, namely, Gabriel, Michael, Isrāfīl and the Angel of Death. According to Ibn ‘Abbās, however, these [excepted individuals] are the martyrs who are [described as], living with their Lord, provided for [by Him]’ [Q. 3:169]. And all (kullun: the nunation compensates for the [missing] genitive annexation), in other words, and every one of them, after being brought back to life on the Day of Resurrection, will come to Him (read in the form of the verb [atawhu] or the active participle [ātūhu]) in [utter] humility, humbled (the past tense, atawhu, is used to express the fact that this will have happened).

And you see the mountains, you notice them, at the moment of the Blast, supposing them to be still, stationary in their place, because of their tremendous size, while they drift like passing clouds, [like the drifting of the] rain when it is blown around by the wind, in other words, they [the mountains] will be drifting in like manner until they [eventually] fall to the ground, whereby they are flattened before becoming like [tufts of] ‘wool’ [cf. Q. 101:5] and then ‘scattered dust’ [cf. Q. 56:6]. God’s handiwork (sun‘a, a verbal noun emphasising the import of the preceding sentence, and which has been annexed [in a genitive construction] to its agent [Allāhi, ‘God’] after the omission of its operator) Who has perfected everything, that He has made. Truly He is aware of what you do (taf‘alūna; or [read] yaf‘alūna, ‘[what] they do’), namely, His enemies, [what they do] in the way of disobedience, and His friends, in the way of obedience.

Whoever brings a good deed, namely, [the profession of] ‘there is no god but God’, on the Day of Resurrection, shall have good, [shall have] a reward, for it, because of it (this [khayrun] is not the comparative [‘better’], since there is no deed better [than a good deed]). In another verse [it is stated that] he shall have tenfold the like of it [Q. 6:160]; and they, namely, those who bring such [good deeds], shall be secure from the terror of that day (min faza‘i yawmi’idhin, if read as a genitive annexation; or min faza‘in yawma’idhin, ‘from terror on that day’).

And whoever brings an evil deed, namely, the ascribing of partners [to God], their faces shall be thrust into the Fire, having been oriented towards it — ‘faces’ are specifically mentioned here because of all the sensory organs it is where [a person’s] dignity resides, and so other parts [of the body] are more deserving [of punishment]. It shall be said to them in reproach: ‘Are you requited except, the requital, for what you used to do?’, in the way of idolatry and acts of disobedience.

Say to them: I have been commanded only to worship the Lord of this land, namely, Mecca, which He has made inviolable, which He has made a secure Sanctuary, one in which no human blood may be shed, no person may be wronged, none of its prey may be hunted and [a sanctuary] which is never deserted. Such were the graces bestowed [by God] upon its inhabitants, the [tribe of] Quraysh, [graces] whereby God has spared their land the suffering and civil strife common to all the [other] lands of the Arabs; and to Whom, exalted be He, all things belong, for He is their Lord, Creator and Possessor. And I have been commanded to be of those who submit, to God, by affirming His Oneness;

and to recite the Qur’ān, to you as a call to faith. So whoever is guided, to it, is guided only for his own sake, since the reward for his being guided will be his; and whoever goes astray, from faith and errs from the path of guidance, say, to him: ‘I am just one of the warners’, the threateners, and therefore my duty is only to deliver [the Message] — this was [revealed] before the command to fight [against the disbelievers].

And say: ‘Praise be to God. He will show you His signs and you will recognise them. Thus on the day of Badr God showed them how it was to be killed, to be taken prisoner and to be beaten by the angels on their faces and backs; and God hastened on for them the [punishment of the] Fire. And your Lord is not oblivious of what they do’ (ya‘malūna; or [read] ta‘malūna, ‘[what] you do’) but grants them respite until their [appointed] time [of requital].

Tā sīn mīm: God knows best what He means by these [letters].

Those, namely, these signs, are the signs of the Manifest Book (the genitive annexation conveys the [partitive] sense of min, ‘of’ [‘verses from the Manifest Book’]), [the Manifest Book] which reveals truth from falsehood.

We will recount, narrate, to you [something] of the tale of Moses and Pharaoh truthfully, for a people who believe, for their sake, since they are the ones to benefit from such [an account].

Truly Pharaoh had exalted himself in the land, the land of Egypt, and reduced its people into sects, groups, to serve him, oppressing a group of them, namely, the Children of Israel, slaughtering their sons, the new-born, and sparing their women, keeping them alive — for some of the [Egyptian] priests had told him, ‘A new-born of the Children of Israel shall bring about the end of your kingdom’. Indeed he was of those who cause corruption, through [the use of] slaughter and otherwise.

And We desired to show favour to those who were oppressed in the land, and to make them exemplars (read a’immatan, pronouncing both hamzas, or by replacing the second one with a yā’) whose good example would be followed, and to make them the inheritors, of Pharaoh’s kingdom;

and to establish them in the land, the land of Egypt and Syria, and to show Pharaoh and Hāmān and their hosts (a variant reading has wa-yarā Fir‘awnu wa-Hāmānu wa-junūduhumā, ‘so that Pharaoh and Hāmān and their hosts might see’, with all three [nouns] in the nominative) from them that of which they were apprehensive, [that which] they feared of the new-born [Israelite] who would bring about the end of their kingdom.

And We revealed, by inspiration or in a dream, to the mother of Moses — who was the said new-born; his sister was the only other person aware of his birth — ‘Suckle him, then, when you fear for him, cast him into the waters, namely, the Nile, and do not fear, that he should drown, or grieve, for being separated from him, for We will restore him to you and make him one of the messengers’. She suckled him for three months during which he never cried. She then began to fear for him and so she placed him in a basket coated with pitch and made as a cradle for him on the inside. She then closed it and cast it into the waters of the Nile at night.

Then Pharaoh’s folk, aids, picked him up, with him [still] in the basket, the morning following that night — it was placed him in front of him [Pharaoh] and then opened and Moses was brought out of it, sucking milk from his thumb — to be, at the end of the affair, an enemy, slaying their menfolk, and a [cause of] grief to them, enslaving their womenfolk (a variant reading [for hazanan] is huznan, both of which are alternative forms of the verbal noun, and it functions as an active participle, derived from hazanahu, which is like ahzanahu, ‘he caused him grief’). Truly Pharaoh and, his minister, Hāmān, and their hosts were sinners, that is, disobedient, and so they were punished at his [Moses’s] hands.

And Pharaoh’s wife said, after he and his aids had resolved to slay him: he is, ‘A joyous sight for me and you. Do not slay him. Perhaps he will be of benefit to us, or we will adopt him as a son’, and so they obeyed her [wish]. And they were not aware, of the sequel to their affair with him.

And the heart of Moses’s mother, when she found out that they had picked him up, became empty, of everything other than him. Indeed (in, softened from the hardened form, its subject omitted, in other words [understand it as] innaha) she was about to expose him, that is, as being her son, had We not fortified her heart, with patience, that is, We made it at peace, that she might be of the believers, [of] those who have faith in God’s promise (the response to [the conditional] lawlā, ‘had … not’, is given by the preceding [statement]).

And she said to his sister, Mary, ‘Follow him’, in other words, follow where he goes in order to find out his news. So she watched him from afar, from a distance, secretly, while they were not aware, that she was his sister, or that she was [even] watching him.

And We had forbidden him to [take to the breasts of] fostermothers from before, that is to say, we prevented him from taking to the breasts of any suckling mother other than his own mother. Therefore he would not accept the breasts of any of the foster-mothers brought for him. So she, his sister, said, ‘Shall I show you a household — having seen their affection for him — who will take care of him for you, by having him suckled and so on, and who will act in good faith towards him?’ (the [suffixed] pronoun in lahu has been interpreted as referring to the king, as a response to them [when they asked Mary how she could be sure]). Her suggestion was accepted. So she brought his mother and he took to her breast. She explained to them that he had taken to her [breast] because of her pleasant scent and the wholesome taste of her milk. Permission was given to her to breast-feed him in her own house and so she returned with him, just as God, exalted be He, says:

Thus We restored him to his mother so that her eyes might delight, in seeing him [again], and not grieve, thereat, and that she might know that God’s promise, to restore him to her, is true; but most of them, that is, the people, do not know, about this promise, or of the fact that this was his sister and the other was his mother. He [Moses] remained with her until he was weaned during which time she was paid wages at one dinar per day. She took this because it was money from enemy territory (harbī). She then brought him [back] to Pharaoh in whose household he was raised, as God recounts of him in sūrat al-Shu‘arā’ [Q. 26:18], Did we not rear you among us as a child, and did you not stay with us for years of your life?

And when he came of age, namely, at 30 or 33, and [then] was [fully] mature, that is, when he reached the age of 40, We gave him judgement, wisdom, and knowledge, comprehension of religious matters before he was sent as a prophet. And so, just as We rewarded him, do We reward those are virtuous, to their own souls.

And he, Moses, entered the city, Pharaoh’s city, Memphis, having been absent from it for a while, at a time when its people were oblivious, the time of the afternoon nap, and found therein two men fighting, one of his own faction, namely, an Israelite, and the other of his enemies, in other words, an Egyptian, who was exploiting an Israelite to carry firewood to Pharaoh’s kitchen. So the one who was of his faction called to him for help against the one who was of his enemies, and so Moses said to him, ‘Leave him be!’, and it is said that he replied to Moses [thus]: ‘I am truly considering making you carry this [firewood]!’. So Moses punched him, that is, he hit him with his fist clenched — he [Moses] was a strong man with a powerful strike, and did away with him, that is, he killed him, but he had not intended to kill him. He buried him in the sand. He said, ‘This, killing of him, is of Satan’s doing, inciting my anger. Indeed he is an enemy, to the son of Adam, a manifest misleader’, of him.

He said, remorsefully, ‘My Lord, I have indeed wronged myself, by killing him, so forgive me!’ So He forgave him. Truly He is the Forgiving, the Merciful, that is to say, the One Who has always possessed, and will always possess, these two attributes.

He said, ‘My Lord, forasmuch as You have been gracious to me, with forgiveness, protect me [so], I will never be a partisan, a supporter, of the criminals’, the disbelievers henceforth, if you were to protect me.

In the morning he was in the city, fearful, vigilant, waiting to see what would happen to him [in reaction] from the side of the slain man; — when behold, the one who had sought his help the day before cried out to him for help [again], asking for his help against another Egyptian. Moses said to him, ‘Clearly you are a trouble-maker!’, whose trouble-making is evident, judging by what you did yesterday and today.

But when (fa-lammā an: an is extra) he was about to strike the man who was an enemy to both of them, to Moses and the one seeking his help, he, the one seeking help, supposing that Moses was about to strike him, because of what he [Moses] had said to him, said: ‘O Moses, do you want to slay me just as you slew a soul yesterday? You merely want to be a tyrant in the land, and you do not want to be of the reformers’. The Egyptian heard this and realised that the slayer had been Moses. Thus he hurried off to Pharaoh to inform him of this. Pharaoh then ordered slaughterers to slay Moses, and they set off in his direction.

And a man, who was the [only] believer among Pharaoh’s kinsfolk, came from the outskirts of the city, hastening, walking fast, via a route quicker than theirs. He said, ‘O Moses, lo! the council, of Pharaoh’s folk, are conspiring, discussing [the means], to slay you. So leave, the city. Truly I am speaking to you in good faith’, in bidding you to leave.

So he departed from it, fearful, vigilant, lest any of the pursuers catch up with him, or [in the hope] that God might rescue him. He said, ‘My Lord, deliver me from the evildoing people’, Pharaoh’s people.

And when he turned his face towards Midian, in the direction thereof — and this [Midian] was the town of [the prophet] Shu‘ayb, eight day’s journeying from Egypt, [so] named after Midian son of Abraham; he [Moses] did not know the route to it — he said, ‘Perhaps my Lord will show me the right way’, that is to say, which route to follow, in other words, the simplest route to it. God thus sent forth to him an angel with a goat, which he [Moses] set off following towards it [the town].

And when he arrived at the Water of Midian, [the name of] a well therein, he found a group of people there watering, their flocks, and he found, besides them, two women holding back their flock, from the water. He, Moses, said, to the two: ‘What is your business?’, that is, ‘What is the matter with you, that you are not watering?’ They said, ‘We do not water [our flock] until the shepherds have moved on (ri‘ā’u, ‘shepherds’, the plural of rā‘in) that is to say, until they have returned from the watering, for fear of being crushed [by the throng], after which we go to water (a variant reading [for yasdiru, ‘move on’] is the 4th form [subjunctive] yusdira, ‘to drive away’, meaning, until they [the shepherds] have driven their flocks away from the water’) and our father is a very old man’, unable to [come and] water.

So he watered [their flock] for them, from another well nearby, by lifting a rock from on top of it, which only ten men could have lifted; then he retreated to the shade, of an acacia tree (samura), because of the extreme heat of the sun and he was hungry, and said, ‘My Lord, indeed I am in utter need of whatever good, [whatever] food, You send down to me’. The two women returned to their father quicker than usual and so he asked them why [it was so]. They told him about the man who had watered [their flock] for them. So he said to one of them, ‘Summon him to [come to] me’.

God, exalted be He, says: Then one of the two women came to him, walking bashfully — in other words, covering her face with the sleeve of her shirt, being shy of him — and said, ‘My father invites you, that he may pay you a wage for watering [our flock] for us’. He accepted her invitation, while inwardly he disapproved of accepting any wage, for it was as though she sought to remunerate him and as though he were of those who would want it [which he was not]. She walked in front of him but when the wind began to blow off her dress and reveal her legs, he said to her, ‘Walk behind me and show me the way’, which she did. Finally he came to her father, Shu‘ayb, peace be upon him, who was sitting with some supper in front of him. He said to him, ‘Sit and have some supper’. He [Moses] said, ‘I hope that this is not [some sort of] compensation for having watered [their flock] for them? For we are People of a House and do not demand compensation for good deeds’. He [Shu‘ayb] said, ‘No. It is [simply] a custom of mine and of my forefathers to be hospitable to guests and to offer them food’. Thus, he [Moses] ate and informed him of his predicament. God, exalted be He, says: So when he came to him and recounted to him the story (al-qasas is a verbal noun with the sense of al-maqsūs, ‘that which is recounted’), of his slaying of the Egyptian and their intention to slay him and his fear of Pharaoh, he [their father] said, ‘Do not be afraid. You have escaped from the evildoing people’, as Pharaoh had no authority over Midian.

One of the two women, the one that had been sent [by her father], either the elder or the younger, said, ‘O my father, hire him, employ him in return for a wage, that he may tend our flock instead of us. Surely the best [man] you can hire is the strong, the trustworthy man’, in other words, hire him on account of his strength and trustworthiness. He [Shu‘ayb] asked her about him and she told him, as mentioned above, how he had lifted the rock off the well and that he had said to her, ‘Walk behind me’, in addition to his lowering his head when he realised that she was coming towards him, refusing to lift it [until she left]. He [Shu‘ayb] therefore was keen to have him marry [one of his daughters].

He said, ‘I desire to marry you to one of these two daughters of mine, either the elder or the younger one, on condition that you hire yourself to me, that you are employed by me to tend my flock, for eight years. And if you complete ten, that is, the tending of ten years, that, completion, shall be of your own accord. I do not want to be hard on you, by making it [the marriage] conditional on ten [years service]. God willing — [expressed] to seek [God’s] blessing — you shall find me to be one of the righteous’, of those who fulfil their covenants.

He, Moses, said, ‘That, which you have said, is [settled then] between me and you. Whichever of the two terms, the eight or the ten (the mā [in ayyamā, ‘whichever of the two’] is extra), in other words, the tending thereof, I complete, there shall be no injustice [done] to me, by demanding [of me] to do more [tending]. And God is Guardian, Keeper or Witness, over what we, you and I, say’. The contract was agreed in this way. Shu‘ayb bid his daughter to give Moses a staff with which to beat off predatory beasts from his sheep — the staffs of the prophets were in his keeping. It was Adam’s staff, made from the myrtle of Paradise, that fell into her hands and so Moses took it, with Shu‘ayb’s knowledge.

So when Moses had completed the term, of his tending — of eight years, or of ten years, which is what is generally assumed — and was travelling with his family, his wife, with the permission of her father, in the direction of Egypt, he saw in the distance on the side of the Mount [Tūr] a fire (al-Tūr is the name of a mountain). He said to his family, ‘Wait, here; I see a fire in the distance. Maybe I will bring you from it news, about [how to rejoin] the route [to Egypt] — for he had strayed from it [along the way] — or a brand (read with any of the three vowels [jadhwa, jidhwa, or judhwa], which [either] means ‘a bundle’, or ‘a flame’) from the fire, that you may warm yourselves’ (tastalūna: the tā’ replaces the tā’ of the [8th verbal paradigm] ifta‘ala of the verb saliya, or salaya).

And when he reached it, a call came from the right bank, [the right] side, of the valley, to Moses, at the blessed spot, [blessed] for Moses, because of his hearing God’s speech therein, from the tree (mina’l-shajarati substitutes for min shāti’i, ‘from the [right] bank’, and the preposition [min, ‘from’] has been repeated because it [the tree] grows there) — the tree was a jujube, a bramble, or a boxthorn — [saying] that (an here is explicative, and not in its softened form) ‘O Moses! Indeed I am God, the Lord of the Worlds’.

And: ‘Throw down your staff’, and he threw it down. And when he saw it quivering, moving, as if it were a serpent (jānn: is a small snake [so called] because of the speed of its movement) he turned his back, to flee from it, and did not look back, in other words, he did not return, and so there called out [the voice]: ‘O Moses! Come forward, and do not be afraid. Indeed you are safe.

Insert your, right, hand, meaning, the palm, into your bosom (jayb is the neck [area] of the shirt) and [then] take it out, and it will emerge, not in its usual skin colour [but], white, without any blemish, any [vestige of] leprosy. So he inserted it and took it out and it shone as bright as the sun, blinding the eyes; and draw your arm [back] to your side [as a precaution] against fear (read rahab, rahb or ruhb), in other words, [against] the fear produced by the glow of the hand, so that you insert it [back] into your bosom and it is restored to its former state; it [the arm] is referred to as jināh, ‘wing’, because they are for humans what wings are for birds. These then (read fa-dhānika or fa-dhānnika) namely, the staff and the hand (both of which [‘asā and yad] are feminine nouns, but the demonstrative pronoun [dhānika] used for them, being the subject, is in the masculine because its predicate is masculine) shall be two proofs, to be sent, from your Lord to Pharaoh and his council; for surely they are an immoral people’.

He said, ‘My Lord, I have indeed slain a soul among them — the mentioned Egyptian — and so I fear that they will slay me, because of him.

And my brother Aaron is more eloquent, more intelligible, than me in speech. So send him with me as a helper, as an aid (a variant reading [for rid’an, ‘helper’] is ridan) to confirm me (read [either] in apocopated form, yusadiqnī, as a response to the request, or [as an indicative] with damma inflection, yusadiqunī, as an adjectival qualification of rid’an, ‘helper’), for I truly fear that they will deny me’.

He said, ‘We will strengthen your arm, We will make you strong, by means of your brother, and We will give authority, victory, so that they will not be able to touch [either of] you, with any evil; go both of you, with Our signs the two of you, and those who follow you [two], will be the victors’, over them.

But when Moses brought them Our clear signs (bayyinātin, a circumstantial qualifier) they said, ‘This is nothing but concocted, invented, sorcery. And we never heard of such [a thing], to have [ever] existed, in, the days of, our forefathers’.

And Moses said, (wa-qāla, or qāla, without the ‘and’) ‘My Lord knows best who brings guidance from Him (the suffixed pronoun [in ‘indihi] refers to the Lord) and whose (man here is a supplement to the previous man) will be (read takūna or yakūna) the sequel of the [Blissful] Abode, that is to say, the praiseworthy sequel in the Abode of the Hereafter, in other words, it is I [Moses], in both cases, and I speak truthfully in what I have brought [you]. Truly the evildoers, the disbelievers, will not be successful’.

And Pharaoh said, ‘O [members of the] council, I do not know of any god for you other than me. So kindle for me, O Hāmān, [a fire] over the clay, and bake for me bricks [of clay], and make me a tower, a lofty palace, that I may take a look at the god of Moses, to observe him and inspect him; for truly I consider him to be a liar’, in his claim of [the existence of] some other god and that he is his messenger.

And he and his hosts acted arrogantly in the land, the land of Egypt, without right, and thought they would not return to Us (read active yarji‘ūna, or passive yurja‘ūna, ‘they would [not] be brought back’).

So We seized him and his hosts, and flung them into the waters, the sea, and they drowned. So behold how was the sequel for the evildoers, when they ended up being destroyed.

And We made them, in this world, leaders (read a-imma, pronouncing both hamzas, or by changing the second one into a yā’), chieftains of idolatry, who invite to the Fire, by inviting to idolatry, and on the Day of Resurrection they will not be helped, by having the chastisement averted from them.

And We made a curse, ignominy, pursue them in this world, and on the Day of Resurrection they will be among the spurned, those banished [from God’s mercy].

And verily We gave Moses the Scripture, the Torah, after We had destroyed the former generations, the people of Noah, ‘Ād, Thamūd and others, [containing] eye-openers for mankind (basā’ira, is a circumstantial qualifier referring to al-kitāb, ‘the Scripture’, the plural of basīra, which is the [perceptive] light of the heart), in other words, illumination for the hearts [of mankind], and as guidance, from error, for those who implement it, and mercy, for those who believe therein, that perhaps they might remember, [that] they might be admonished by the admonitions it [the Scripture] contains.

And you were not, O Muhammad (s), on the western side, of the mountain, the valley, or the spot, [to the west] of Moses at the time of the communion, when We decreed, revealed, to Moses the commandment, to deliver the Message to Pharaoh and his people, nor were you among the witnesses, to this, to know it and inform of it;

but We brought forth generations, communities, after Moses, and life was prolonged in their case, in other words, they lived long lives and so they forgot the covenants [made with God], knowledge disappeared and revelation ceased. Then We brought you as Messenger and revealed to you the story of Moses and others. And you were not a dweller, a resident, among the people of Midian reciting to them Our revelations (tatlū ‘alayhim āyātinā, a second predicate [after thāwiyan, ‘dweller’), to know their story and inform of it; but truly We are the senders, of you [as Messenger] and [the senders] to you of the stories of former generations.

And you were not on the side of the Mount when We called out, to Moses to take the Scripture earnestly; but, We have sent you, as a mercy from your Lord, that you may warn a people to whom no warner came before you — these are the people of Mecca — and that perhaps they may remember, they may be admonished.

Otherwise, if an affliction, a punishment, should befall them because of what their own hands have sent before them, in the way of disbelief and otherwise, they might say, ‘Our Lord, why did You not send a messenger to us, that we might have followed Your signs, the ones sent with the messengers, and been of the believers?’ (the response to [the conditional particle] lawlā, ‘if’, has been omitted, and what follows it is a [new] subject; the meaning is: ‘were it not for the affliction that is the cause of their saying’, or, ‘were it not for their saying that is the cause of their affliction, We would have hastened on for them their punishment and We would not have sent you as a messenger to them’).

But when the truth, namely, Muhammad (s), came to them from Us, they said, ‘Why has he not been given the like of what Moses was given?’, in the way of signs, such as the glowing hand, the staff and others, or [by having] the Book revealed all at once. God, exalted be He, says: And did they not disbelieve in what was given to Moses before?; [before] when, they said, regarding him and Muhammad (s), ‘Two sorcerers (sāhirān; a variant reading has sihrān, ‘two sorceries’, namely [what they said regarding] the Qur’ān and the Torah) abetting each other.’ And they said, ‘We indeed disbelieve in both’, the two prophets and the two Scriptures [of Moses and Muhammad].

Say, to them: ‘Then bring some Scripture from God that is better in guidance than these two, Scriptures, that I may follow it, if you are truthful’, in what you say.

Then if they do not respond to you, regarding your invitation [to them] to bring a Scripture, know that they are only following their desires, in [persisting in] their disbelief. And who is more astray than he who follows his desire without any guidance from God?, in other words, there is no one more astray than such [a person]. Truly God does not guide the evildoing, the disbelieving, folk.

And now verily We have brought, We have explained [to], them the Word, the Qur’ān, that perhaps they might remember, [they might] be admonished and believe.

Those to whom We gave the Scripture before this, that is, [before] the Qur’ān, they believe in it, too. This was revealed regarding certain Jews who became Muslims, such as ‘Abd Allāh b. Salām and others, and [certain] Christians who had come from Abyssinia and Syria [who also became Muslims].

And, when it is recited to them, the Qur’ān, they say, ‘We believe in it. It is indeed the Truth from our Lord. Lo! [even] before it we had submitted’, we affirmed God’s Oneness.

Those will be given their reward twice over, for believing in both Scriptures, for the patience they showed, for having been steadfast in implementing [the prescriptions in] them; and they ward off, from themselves, evil with good, and expend, give as voluntary alms, of that which We have provided them.

And when they hear vanity, vile words and hurtful intent from the disbelievers, they disregard it and say, ‘To us [belong] our deeds and to you [belong] your deeds. Peace to you — a parting truce (salām mutāraka), in other words you are secure from any abuse or the like on our part. We do not desire [friendship with] the ignorant’, we do not seek companionship with them.

The following was revealed regarding the Prophet’s longing for his uncle Abū Tālib to embrace faith: You cannot guide whom you like, to be guided, but [it is] God [Who] guides whomever He will, and He knows best those who will be guided.

And they, his people, say, ‘If we were to follow the Guidance with you, we will be deprived from our land’, torn out of it swiftly. God, exalted be He, says: Have We not established for them a secure Sanctuary, [one] in which they are secure from the raids and killings that occur among the Arab tribes, to which are brought (read tujbā or yujbā) fruits of all kinds, [fruits] from every direction, as a provision, for them, from Us? But most of them do not know, that what We say is the truth.

And how many a town We have destroyed whose lifestyle was one of arrogant ungratefulness — by ‘town’ is meant the inhabitants thereof. Those are their dwellings, which have not been dwelt in after them except a little, by passers-by, for a day or part of it. And it was We Who were the [sole] inheritors, after them.

And your Lord never destroyed the towns, because of evildoing on their part, until He had raised up in their mother-town, that is, the major [town] among them, a messenger to recite Our signs to them. And We never destroyed the towns unless their inhabitants were committing evil, by denying the messengers.

And whatever things you have been given are [only] the [short-lived] enjoyment of the life of this world and an ornament thereof, in other words, [things] which you enjoy and adorn yourselves with for the days of your lives, after which they perish; and what is with God, in other words, His reward, is better and more lasting. Will you not understand? (ta‘qilūna; or read ya‘qilūna, ‘will they [not] understand’) that what lasts is better than what perishes.

Is he to whom We have given a fair promise, which he will receive, which he will attain, and that [promise] is Paradise, like him to whom We have given the enjoyment of the life of this world, [enjoyment] which will disappear soon, then on the Day of Resurrection he will be of those arraigned?, before the Fire. The former is the believer, the latter the disbeliever: in other words the two are not equal.

And, mention, the day when He, God, will call to them and say, ‘Where [then] are My partners, those whom you used to claim?’, were partners of Mine.

Those against whom the Word [of punishment] will have become due, the justified [Word], that they be admitted into the Fire — and these are the leaders of misguidance — they shall say, ‘Our Lord! These are the ones whom we led astray (hā’ūlā’i’lladhīna aghwaynā is both a subject and an adjectival qualification). We led them astray (aghwaynāhum, the predicate thereof) and they went astray, even as we went astray — we did not compel them to [follow] error. We declare our innocence, of them, before You; it was not us that they worshipped’ (mā, ‘not’, is for negation; the direct object [iyyānā, ‘us’] precedes [the verb ya‘budūna, ‘they worshipped’] in order to concord with the end-rhyme of the verses).

And it shall be said, ‘Call [now] to your associates!’, namely, the idols you alleged to be partners of God. So they will call to them, but they will not answer them, their call, and they, the former, will see, they will sight, the chastisement: [they will wish] if only they had been guided!, in this world, they would not have seen it in the Hereafter.

And, mention, the day when He will call to them and say, ‘What response did you give to those [messengers] who were sent?’, to you.

The tidings, the news of deliverance contained in the response, will be obscured to them on that day, in other words, they will not find any statement that might contain [hope of] deliverance for them; so they will not question one other, about this, and will fall silent.

But as for him who repents, of idolatry, and believes, in the affirmation of God’s Oneness, and acts righteously, he observes the duties [of religion], maybe he will be among the successful, those delivered according to God’s promise.

And your Lord creates whatever He will and chooses, whatever He will. They, the idolaters, do not have the choice, the right to choose anything. Glory be to God and exalted be He above what they associate, [above] their idolatry.

And your Lord knows what their breasts conceal, [what] their hearts keep secret of disbelief and otherwise, and what they proclaim, by their tongues of such things.

And He is God; there is no god except Him. To Him belongs [all] praise in the former, namely, the life of this world, and in the latter, Paradise. And to Him belongs the judgement, the decree effective in [the case of] all things, and to Him you will be returned, through resurrection.

Say, to the people of Mecca: ‘Have you considered, in other words, inform Me: if God were to make the night everlasting over you until the Day of Resurrection, what god other than God, as you [are wont to] claim, could bring you light?, daylight [hours] during which you could earn [a living]. Will you not then listen?’, to this in a way so as to understand it and so repent of your idolatry.

Say, to them: ‘Have you considered, if God were to make the day everlasting over you until the Day of Resurrection, what god other than God, as you [are wont to] claim, could bring you night wherein you rest?, from [any] weariness. Will you not then see?, the error you are upon when you ascribe partners [to God], and so repent of it.

And of His mercy, exalted be He, He has made for you night and day, that you may rest therein, in the night, and that you may seek, in the day, of His bounty, to earn [your livelihood], that perhaps you might give thanks’, for the grace [of God] during both of these [times].

And, mention, the day when He will call to them and say, ‘Where [now] are My associates those whom you used to claim?’ — this is mentioned again in order to expound upon it:

And We shall draw, bring forth, from every community a witness, and this will be their prophet, who will bear witness against what they say, and We shall say, to them: ‘Produce your evidence’, for [the justification of] the idolatry which you asserted. Then they will know that the right, to divineness, is God’s — none share it with Him. And that which they used to invent, in this world, of His having an associate, exalted be He [high] above such [associations], will fail them.

Indeed Korah belonged to the people of Moses — [being] his paternal and maternal cousin, and he had believed in him [in Moses] — but he became insolent towards them, through [his] disdain, haughtiness and great wealth. For We had given him so many treasures that [the number of] their keys would verily have burdened a group of strong men, in other words, they would have been too heavy for such [men] (the bā’ of [bi’l-‘usbati, ‘a group’] is to render transitive [the intransitive] verb); the number of such [men required] is estimated to be 70, 40 or 10; other estimates are also given. Mention, when his people, the believers among the Children of Israel, said to him, ‘Do not be exultant, in [your] great wealth, an exultation of insolence; truly God does not love the exultant, in such [things];

but seek, in that which God has given you, of wealth, the Abode of the Hereafter, by expending it in obedience to God, and do not forget your share of this world, that is, [do not forget] to strive in it for the sake of the Hereafter; and be good, to people, by [giving] voluntary alms, just as God has been good to you. And do not seek to cause corruption in the earth, by committing acts of disobedience. Surely God does not love the agents of corruption’, meaning that He will punish them.

He said, ‘In fact I have been given it, that is, [this] wealth, because of knowledge I possess’, in other words, in return for it — he was the most knowledgeable of the Children of Israel in the Torah, after Moses and Aaron. God, exalted be He, says: Does he not know that God had already destroyed before him generations, communities, of men stronger than him in might and greater in the amassing?, of wealth; in other words, he does know this. And God destroys them, and the guilty will not be questioned about their sins, because of God’s knowledge of these [sins], and so they will be admitted into the Fire without a reckoning.

So he, Korah, emerged before his people in his finery, with his large retinue [all of them] in procession dressed in gold and silk garments and mounted on adorned horses and mules. Those who desired the life of this world said, ‘O (yā is for drawing attention) would that we had the like of what Korah has been given, this world. Truly he enjoys great fortune’, abundant [fortune] in it.

But those to whom knowledge had been given, [knowledge] of what God had promised in the Hereafter, said, to them: ‘Woe to you! (waylakum, is an expression of reprimand) God’s reward, of Paradise in the Hereafter, is better for him who believes and acts righteously, than what Korah has been given in this world; and none will obtain it, namely, the Paradise that is given as a reward, except those who are steadfast’, in [their adherence to] obedience and [refrain] from disobedience.

So We caused the earth to swallow him, Korah, and his dwelling, and he had no host to help him besides God, that is, other than Him, to protect him from destruction, nor was he of those who can rescue themselves, from it.

And those who had longed to be in his place the day before, that is, only recently, were saying, ‘Alas! God expands provision for whomever He will of His servants and straitens [it], He restricts it for whomever He will (way-ka’anna: way is a noun of action, with the sense of ‘How astonished I am’, while the kāf functions as a [causative] lām, ‘because’). Had God not been gracious to us, He would have made us to be swallowed too’ (read active la-khasafa, or passive la-khusifa). Lo! indeed those who are ungrateful, for God’s grace, such as Korah, never prosper.

That is the Abode of the Hereafter, namely, Paradise, which We shall grant to those who do not desire to be haughty in the earth, through insolence, nor [to cause] corruption, by committing acts of disobedience. And the, praiseworthy, sequel will be for those who fear, God’s punishment, by performing deeds of obedience.

Whoever brings a good deed shall have better than it, as a reward, because of it, and this will be the like of it tenfold; while whoever brings an evil deed, those who commit evil deeds shall only be requited, the requital, for what they used to do, in other words, [only] the like of it.

Indeed He Who has prescribed for you the Qur’ān, [He Who] has revealed it, will surely restore you to a place of return, to Mecca — he had yearned for it. Say: ‘My Lord knows best him who brings guidance and him who is in manifest error’ — this was revealed in order to refute what the Meccan disbelievers had said to him: ‘Indeed, you are error’. In other words [God is saying that] he [the Prophet] is the one who has brought guidance, while they are the ones in error.

And you never expected that the Scripture, the Qur’ān, would be conferred on you; but it was, conferred on you, as a mercy from your Lord. So never be a supporter of the disbelievers, in that religion of theirs to which they summon you.

And never let them bar you (yasuddunnaka is actually yasuddūnannaka, but the nūn of the indicative [ending] has been omitted because of the apocopating particle [lā], as has the wāw of the [third person plural] subject of the verb because of its coming together with an unvocalised nūn) from God’s signs after they have been revealed to you, in other words, do not consult with them in such [matters], and summon, people, to your Lord, by affirming His Oneness and worshipping Him, and never be of the idolaters, by supporting them (lā takūnanna: the apocopating particle does not affect the [ending of the] verb here because of its invariability).

And do not call on, [do not] worship, another god with God; there is no god except Him. Everything will perish except His Countenance, except Him. His is the judgement, the effective decree, and to Him you will be brought back, by being raised from the grave.

Alif lām mīm: God knows best what He means by these [letters].

Do people suppose that they will be left to say, that is, [that they will be left alone] because of their saying, ‘We believe’, and they will not be tried?, tested with that which will reveal the sincerity of their belief. This [verse] was revealed regarding a group of individuals who when they became believers endured suffering at the hands of the idolaters.

And certainly We tried those who were before them. So God shall surely know those who are sincere, in their faith — a knowledge of direct vision — and He shall surely know those who are liars, regarding it.

Or do those who commit evil deeds, idolatry and acts of disobedience, suppose that they can elude Us?, so that We will not be able to requite them. Evil is that, judgement of theirs, which they judge!

Whoever expects to encounter God, [should know that] God’s [appointed] term, for this [encounter], will indeed come; so let him prepare for it. And He is the Hearer, of the sayings of His servants, the Knower, of their actions.

And whoever struggles, in war or against [the temptations of] his own soul, struggles only for his own sake, because the benefits [to be reaped] from his struggle will be for his sake and not for God’s. For truly God is Independent of [the creatures of] all the Worlds, mankind, jinn and angels, and [He is also without need] of their worship.

And those who believe and perform righteous deeds, We will surely absolve them of their misdeeds, by their performance of righteous deeds, and We will indeed requite them with the best of what they used to do, namely, their righteous deeds (it [ahsana] is in the accusative because the operator of the oblique [bi] has been omitted).

And We have enjoined on man kindness to his parents, that he should be dutiful towards them; but if they urge you to ascribe to Me as partner that of which you do not have any knowledge, [any knowledge] that accords with reality, and so is meaningless, then do not obey them, in [such incitements to] idolatry. To Me will be your return whereat I will inform you of what you used to do, and I will requite you for it.

And those who believe and perform righteous deeds, assuredly We shall admit them among the righteous, [among] the prophets and the saints, by gathering in the company of one another [at the Resurrection].

And among people there are those who say, ‘We believe in God’, but if such [a person] suffers hurt in God’s cause, he takes people’s persecution, that is, their harming of him, to be [the same] as God’s chastisement, in terms of his fear of it, and so he obeys them and behaves hypocritically. Yet if (la-in: the lām is for oaths) there comes help, to believers, from your Lord, and they take spoils, they will assuredly say (la-yaqūlunna: the [final] nūn [of the indicative] has been omitted because of the other nūn coming after it, and likewise the wāw, indicating the plural person [has been replaced by a damma], because of two unvocalised consonants coming together), ‘We were indeed with you’, in faith, so give us a share of the booty. God, exalted be He, says: Does God not know best what is in the breasts of all creatures?, [what is] in their hearts of faith or hypocrisy? Indeed [He does].

And God shall surely ascertain those who believe, in their hearts, and He shall surely ascertain the hypocrites, and He will requite each group accordingly (the lām in both verbs [la-ya‘lamanna, ‘He shall ascertain’] is for oaths).

And those who disbelieve say to those who believe, ‘Follow our path, our religion, and we will bear [responsibility for] your sins’, when you follow us, should there be any [such sins] (the imperative here functions as a predicate). God, exalted be He, says: But they will not [be able to] bear anything of their sins. Truly they are liars, in [saying] this.

And they shall certainly bear their [own] burdens, their sins, and other burdens along with their [own] burdens, [as punishment] for saying to believers: Follow our path [previous verse] and for their leading astray those who follow them [blindly]; and on the Day of Resurrection they shall surely be questioned concerning what they used to invent, [what] they used to fabricate of lies against God, a questioning of rebuke (the lām in both verbs [la-yahmilunna and la-yus’alunna] is for oaths; in both [verbs] the [plural] indicators of the subject, wāw and nūn [-ūna], have been omitted).

And verily We sent Noah to his people, when he was forty years of age or older, and he remained among them a thousand-less-fifty years, calling them to affirm God’s Oneness, but they denied him; so the Flood engulfed them, a deluge of water drifted against them, rising above them and drowning them, for they were wrongdoers, idolaters.

Then We delivered him, namely, Noah, and the occupants of the ship, those who were with him in it, and We made this a sign, a lesson, for all peoples, for [all] peoples that would come after them, should they disobey the messengers sent to them. Noah lived for a further sixty years or more after the Flood, until mankind multiplied [again].

And, mention, Abraham, when he said to his people, ‘Worship God and fear Him, fear His punishment; that is better for you, than the worship of idols which you practice, if you only knew, what is good from what is otherwise.

What you worship besides God, that is, other than Him, are only graven images and you fabricate a calumny, you speak lies [such as]: ‘[These] graven images are God’s partners’. Truly those whom you worship besides God have no power to provide for you. So seek your provision from God, request it from Him, and worship Him, and be thankful to Him; to Him you shall be returned.

But if you deny, that is, if you deny me, O people of Mecca, then [many] communities have denied before you, that is, before my time; and the messenger’s duty is only to communicate [the Message] clearly’. Both stories are meant to comfort the Prophet (s). And regarding his people, God, exalted be He, says:

Have they not seen (yaraw, or taraw, ‘have you not seen?’), observed, how God originates creation (yubdi’u, from [4th form] abda’a; a variant reading has yabda‘u from [1st form] bada’a, both with the same meaning: ‘He creates them originally’) then, He, restores it, namely, creation, just as He originated them? Surely that, which is mentioned of the first and the second [acts of] creation, is easy for God, so how can they deny the second one?

Say: ‘Travel in the land and observe how He originated creation, of those before you, and [how He] made them die. Then God shall bring about the other genesis (al-nashā’a, or al-nash’a). Truly God has power over all things, among them the origination [of creation] and the restoration [thereof].

He chastises whomever He will, to chastise, and has mercy on whomever He will, to have mercy, and to Him you shall be returned.

And you will never be able to thwart [Him], your Lord [and prevent Him] from catching up with you, on earth, or in the heaven, were you to be in it, in other words, you cannot elude Him; and you do not have besides God, that is, other than Him, any guardian, to defend you against Him, or any helper, to help you [escape] from His chastisement.

And those who disbelieve in God’s signs and the encounter with Him, namely, the Qur’ān and the Resurrection [respectively], they have despaired of My mercy, that is, [of attaining] My Paradise, and for those there shall be a painful chastisement.

God, exalted be He, says with regard to the tale of Abraham, peace be upon him: But the only answer of his people was that they said, ‘Slay him, or burn him!’ Then God delivered him from the fire, into which they threw him, by making it cool and harmless for him. Surely in that, namely, [in that] deliverance of him from it, there are signs — namely, the fact that it did not have any affect on him despite its greatness, and the fact that it was extinguished and that within a brief period meadows sprung up in its place — for a people who believe, [a people who] affirm the truth of God’s Oneness and His power, for they are the ones to benefit from these [signs].

And he, Abraham, said: ‘You have adopted mere idols besides God, which you worship (mā [of innamā] relates to the verbal noun) for the sake of [mutual] affection between you (mawaddatu baynikum: this is the predicate of inna [of innamā]; the accusative reading [mawaddata baynikum] would denote a direct object denoting reason, so that the mā would denote ‘entirety’) — in other words, you are friends of one another in your worship of them, in the life of this world. Then on the Day of Resurrection you will disown one another, the leaders will dissociate from those who followed [them]; and you will curse one another, those who followed will curse their leaders; and your abode, your destination all together, will be the Fire, and you will have no helpers’, to protect you against it.

And Lot believed in him, he affirmed the sincerity of Abraham, and he was his [paternal] nephew, from his brother Hārān, and he, Abraham, said, ‘Indeed I am migrating, away from my people, toward my Lord, to where my Lord commands. So he shunned his people and emigrated from the rural lands of Iraq to Syria. Indeed He is the Mighty, in His kingdom, the Wise’, in what He does.

And We gave him, after Ishmael, Isaac, and Jacob, after Isaac; and We ordained among his descendants prophethood, thus all prophets after Abraham are descended from him, and the Scripture, meaning, the [Holy] Books, the Torah, the Gospels, the Psalms and the Criterion (al-furqān). And We gave him his reward in this world, which is fair praise [of him] by members of all the [Abrahamic] religions. And in the Hereafter he shall truly be among the righteous, for whom there shall be the highest degrees [of reward].

And, mention, Lot, when he said to his people ‘Truly you (read a-innakum, pronouncing both hamzas, or not pronouncing the second and inserting an alif between the two in either case and in both instances) commit lewdness, namely, [coming in unto] the rears of men, such as none in [all] the worlds, of jinn or men, has committed before you.

What! Do you come unto men, and cut off the way, the [travel] roads of passers-by, committing lewd acts with whoever passes your way, such that people ceased to pass by [where] you [live], and you discuss in your gatherings, in your conversations, indecency?’, [you discuss] committing lewd acts with one another. But the only answer of his people was that they said, ‘Bring us the chastisement of God, if you are truthful’, in your deeming such [acts] vile and that chastisement will befall those who do such things.

He said, ‘My Lord, help me, by making that of which I spoke come true regarding the sending down of chastisement, against the people who work corruption’, those who are disobedient, by coming unto men. So God answered his call.

And when Our messengers came to Abraham with the good tidings, of Isaac and Jacob after him, they said, ‘We shall assuredly destroy the people of this town, namely, the town of Lot, for truly its people are evildoers’, disbelievers.

He, Abraham, said, ‘Lo! Lot is in it.’ They, namely, the messengers, said, ‘We know very well who is in it. Assuredly We shall deliver him (read la-nunjiyannahu or la-nunajjiyannahu) and his family, except his wife: she is of those who will stay behind’, [of those] who will remain behind in the chastisement.

And when Our messengers came to Lot, he was distressed on their account, he was grieved because of them, and he was constrained [unable] to help them, because they had handsome faces, dressed as guests, and thus he feared for them from his people. So they informed him that they were the messengers of his Lord. But they said, ‘Do not be afraid, nor grieve. We shall surely deliver you (read munajjūka or munjūka) and your family, except your wife: she is of those who will remain behind (ahlaka, ‘your family’, is in the accusative as a supplement to the [suffixed direct object pronoun] kāf [of munajjūka, ‘We shall surely deliver you’]).

We are indeed going to bring down (read munzilūna or munazzilūna) upon the people of this town a scourge, a chastisement, from the heaven because of, on account of the acts of, their immorality’.

And verily We have left of that a clear sign, a manifest one — namely, the remains of its [the town’s] ruins — for a people who understand, [a people who] reflect.

And, We sent, to Midian, their brother Shu‘ayb. He said, ‘O my people! Worship God and anticipate the Last Day, fear it, namely, the Day of Resurrection; and do not be degenerate in the earth, working corruption’ (mufsidīna is a circumstantial qualifier, emphasising its operator [wa-lā ta‘thaw, ‘do not be degenerate’]; it [the verb] derives from ‘athiya, meaning afsada, ‘he corrupted’).

But they denied him, and so the earthquake, the violent tremor, seized them, and they ended up lying lifeless prostrate in their habitations, keeled over their knees, dead.

And, We destroyed, ‘Ād, and Thamūd (may be fully declined, or not [as diptotes], denoting both the district or the tribe [respectively])— it is indeed evident to you, their destruction, from their [former] dwellings, in al-Hijr and in Yemen. For Satan adorned for them their deeds, of disbelief and disobedience, and thus barred them from the Way, the way of truth, though they had been discerning, perceptive people.

And, We destroyed, Korah, and Pharaoh, and Hāmān! And verily Moses brought them, beforehand, clear signs, manifest proofs, but they acted arrogantly in the land; and they could not thwart Us, they could not elude Our chastisement.

So each, of those mentioned, We seized for his sin; and among them were some upon whom We unleashed a squall of stones, as in the case of the people of Lot, and among them were some who were seized by the Cry, such as Thamūd, and among them were some whom We made the earth swallow, such as Korah, and among them were some whom We drowned, like the people of Noah, Pharaoh and his people. And God never wronged them, by chastising them for [having committed] no sin, but they wronged themselves, by committing sins.

The likeness of those who choose besides God [other] patrons, namely, idols, from whom they hope to profit, is as the likeness of the spider that makes a home, for itself in which to shelter. And truly the frailest, the weakest, of homes is the home of the spider, for it neither protects it from heat nor cold — likewise, idols cannot benefit those who worship them — if they only knew, this, they would not worship them.

Truly God knows whatever thing (mā functions like alladhī) they call on, [what] they worship (read yad‘ūna, ‘they call on’, or tad‘ūna, ‘you call on’) besides Him, other than Him. And He is the Mighty, in His kingdom, the Wise, in what He does.

And such similitudes, in the Qur’ān, We strike them, We coin them, for [the sake of] mankind; but none understands them, [none] grasp them, except those who know, those who reflect.

God created the heavens and the earth with truth, that is, rightly. Surely in that there is a sign, indicating His power, exalted be He, for believers — they are specifically mentioned because they are the ones to benefit thereby in their faith, in contrast to disbelievers.

Recite what has been revealed to you of the Book, the Qur’ān, and maintain prayer; truly prayer prohibits lewd acts and indecency, [defined as such] according to the Law. In other words, that is its purpose provided that the person adheres to [observance of] it. And the remembrance of God is surely greater, than other acts of obedience, and God knows what you do, and He will requite you for them.

And do not dispute with the People of the Scripture unless it be with that — in that manner of disputation, bettering the most virtuous way, such as calling [them] to God by [reference to] His signs and pointing out His arguments; except [in the case of] those of them who have done wrong, by waging war and refusing to accept [to pay] the jizya-tax: dispute with these using the sword, until such time as they submit or pay the jizya-tax; and say, to those who have accepted [the imposition upon them of] the jizya-tax, should they inform you of something stated in their Scriptures: ‘We believe in that which has been revealed to us and revealed to you — and neither believe nor disbelieve them in that [which they tell you] — our God and your God is one [and the same], and to Him we submit’, [to Him] we are obedient.

Thus have We revealed to you the Book, the Qur’ān, in the same way that We have revealed to them the Torah and other [scripture]. And so those to whom We have given the Scripture, the Torah, such as ‘Abd Allāh b. Salām and others, believe in it, in the Qur’ān, and of these, people of Mecca, there are some who believe in it; and none denies Our signs, after they have been manifested, except disbelievers, namely, the Jews, and those for whom it was apparent that the Qur’ān was the truth, and that the one who brought it was truthful but still denied it.

And you did not use to recite before this, namely, [before] the Qur’ān, any [other] Book, nor did you write it with your right hand, for, had you been reciting [something] and writing, then those who follow falsehood, the Jews, would have had doubts, about you and would have said, ‘What the Torah states is that he will be unlettered (ummī), unable to read or write’.

Nay, but it, that is, the Qur’ān which you have brought, is clear signs in the breasts of those who have been given knowledge, namely, the believers, who preserve it [in their hearts], and none denies Our signs except wrongdoers, namely, the Jews — they denied them after they were manifested to them.

And they, namely, the disbelievers of Mecca, say, ‘Why has not some sign been sent down to him, [to] Muhammad (s), from his Lord?’ (āyatun, ‘sign’: a variant reading has āyātun, ‘signs’) such as the she-camel of Sālih, or the staff of Moses, or the Table of Jesus. Say, to them: ‘Signs are only with God, and He sends them down as He will, and I am only a plain warner’, making manifest my warning of [the punishment of] the Fire for disobedient people.

Is it not sufficient for them, regarding what they have demanded, that We have revealed to you the Book, the Qur’ān, which is recited to them? — as it constitutes a ongoing sign that will never terminate, in contrast to the signs mentioned. Surely in that, Book, is mercy and a reminder, an admonition, for a people who believe.

Say: ‘God suffices as a witness between me and you’, of my sincerity. He knows whatever is in the heavens and the earth, including my circumstances and yours. And those who believe in falsehood, namely, all that is worshipped besides God, and [who] disbelieve in God, from among you — those, they are the losers, in their bargain, for they have purchased disbelief in return for faith.

And they ask you to hasten the chastisement. Yet were it not for an appointed term, for this [chastisement], the chastisement would have come upon them, before long, but it shall assuredly come upon them suddenly while they are unaware, of the time of its coming.

And they ask you to hasten the chastisement, in this world. And lo! Hell shall encompass the disbelievers,

on the Day when the chastisement shall envelop them from above them and from under their feet, and We shall say, thereat (read [the verb] as naqūlu, in other words, ‘We shall command that it be said; or [if read] yaqūlu, ‘he shall say’, namely, the one in charge of [meting out] chastisement), ‘Taste now what you used to do!’, that is, [taste] the requital for it, as you will not be able to elude Us.

O My servants who believe! My earth is indeed vast. So worship [only] Me, in whichever land worship is possible, by emigrating to it from a land in which worship is not possible — this [verse] was revealed regarding the oppressed Muslims [living] in Mecca, who were constrained to manifest [their] Islam in it.

Every soul shall taste death. Then to Us you shall be returned (turja‘ūna; or yurja‘ūna, ‘they shall be returned’) after resurrection.

And those who believe and perform righteous deeds, We shall surely lodge them, We shall give them residence (a variant reading has nuthwiyannahum, [derived] from thawā’, ‘residence’; the transitive link to the indirect object ghurafan is made without [the preposition] fī, ‘in’) in lofty abodes of Paradise, underneath which rivers flow, to abide, decreed for them to live forever, in them — excellent is, this reward as, the reward of the toilers;

they are, those who are steadfast, in [enduring] the harm inflicted [upon them] by the idolaters, and in [enduring] the Emigration, in order to make manifest the religion [of Islam], and who put their trust in their Lord, so that He provides for them whence they do not expect.

And how many (ka-ayyin means kam) an animal there is that does not bear its own provision, on account of its inability [to do so]. Yet God provides for it, and for you, O Emigrants (al-muhājirūn), even when you carry with you neither supplies nor substance. And He is the Hearer, of your sayings, the Knower, of your consciences.

And if (wa-la-in: the lām is for oaths) you were to ask them, namely, the disbelievers, ‘Who created the heavens and the earth and disposed the sun and the moon?’ They would assuredly say, ‘God.’ So how then are they turned away?, from affirming His Oneness after affirming that [God created them].

God extends provision, He makes it abundant, for whomever He will of His servants, by way of a test, and He straitens, He restricts it, for him, after having extended it, that is, for whomever He will to try. Truly God has knowledge of all things, among them the occasion in which [it is appropriate for Him] to extend or to straiten.

And if (wa-la-in: the lām is for oaths) you were to ask them, ‘Who sends down water from the heaven, and therewith revives the earth after its death?’ They would assuredly say, ‘God’: so how can they ascribe partners to Him?! Say, to them: ‘Praise be to God!’, that the proof has been established against you. Nay, but most of them do not realise, their contradictiousness in this respect.

And the life of this world is nothing but diversion and play, whereas closeness [to God] pertains to concern for the Hereafter, since the fruits thereof will be revealed in it. But surely the Abode of the Hereafter is indeed the [true] Life, if they only knew, this, [then] they would not prefer this world to it.

And when they board the ship, they call on God, making their supplications purely to Him, in other words, they do not call on any other besides Him, suffering distress which only He is able to remove; but when He delivers them to land, behold! they ascribe partners, to Him,

that they may be ungrateful for what We have bestowed on them, of graces, and that they may seek enjoyment, in consenting to worship idols together (a variant reading [for the purposive wa-li-yatamatta‘ū] has wa’l-yatamatta‘ū, ‘and let them seek their enjoyment’, as an imperative denoting a threat), for they will soon know!, the consequences of this.

Or is it that they have not seen, [have not] realised, that We have appointed, their town of Mecca to be, a secure Sanctuary, while people are snatched away all around them?, by being killed or taken captive, except for them? Is it that they believe in falsehood, [in] the idol, and are [wont to be] ungrateful for God’s grace?, when they ascribe partners to Him?

And who — in other words, there is none [who] — does greater wrong than he who invents a lie against God, by ascribing partners to Him, or denies truth, be it the Prophet or the Book, when it comes to him? Is there not in Hell a lodging, an abode, for the disbelievers?, in other words, there is such [an abode] therein and such [a person] belongs with them.

But as for those who struggle for Our sake, for Our truth, We shall assuredly guide them in Our ways, that is, the means to come to Us, and truly God is with the virtuous, the believers, assisting and helping.

Alif lām mīm: God knows best what He means by these [letters].

The Byzantines — who are among the People of the Scripture — have been vanquished; the Persians vanquished them, and they are not people of a scripture, but worship graven images. The Meccan disbelievers rejoiced in this [defeat of the Byzantines] and said to the Muslims, ‘We shall vanquish you as the Persians vanquished the Byzantines’;

in the nearer [part of the] land, that is, in the Byzantine land [that lies] nearest to Persia in Mesopotamia (al-Jazīra). There the two armies met and the Persians were the ones who had begun the invasion. But they, that is the Byzantines, after their vanquishing (ghalabihim: the verbal noun [ghalab] has been annexed to the direct object [hum], in other words, ghalabatu fāris iyyāhum, ‘the Persians’ vanquishing of them’) shall be the victors, over the Persians,

in a few years (bid‘, [usually means] between three and nine or ten years). So the two armies met again seven years after this former encounter and the Byzantines defeated the Persians. To God belongs the command before and after, that is, before the defeat of the Byzantines and thereafter, that is to say, the Persian victory at first and the Byzantine victory later were [the result of] God’s command, in other words, His will, and on that day, the day when the Byzantines will be victorious, the believers shall rejoice

in God’s help, to them against the Persians. They [the believers] indeed rejoiced in this, as they came to know of it on the day that it took place, on the day of [the battle of] Badr, when Gabriel came down with this [news] thereon, in addition to their rejoicing in their victory over the idolaters on that [same] day. He helps whomever He will; and He is the Mighty, the Victor, the Merciful, to believers.

The promise of God (wa‘da’Llāhi is the verbal noun substituting for the [full] verbal construction; it is actually wa‘adahumu’Llāhu al-nasr, ‘God promised them victory’). God does not fail His promise, of such [help], but most people, namely, the disbelievers of Mecca, are not aware, of His promise to help them [to victory].

They know [merely] an outward aspect of the life of this world, that is to say, its various means of [securing] livelihood, such as commerce, agriculture, construction and cultivation and so on; but they, of the Hereafter, they are oblivious (this repetition of hum, ‘they’, is for emphasis).

Have they not contemplated themselves?, so that they might emerge from their oblivion. God did not create the heavens and the earth, and what is between them, except with the truth and an appointed term, for that [creation], at the conclusion of which this [creation] will perish, and after which will be the Resurrection. But indeed many people, that is to say, [such as] the Meccan disbelievers, disbelieve in the encounter with their Lord, that is, they do not believe in resurrection after death.

Have they not travelled in the land and beheld how was the consequence for those before them?, of [past] communities, which was that they were destroyed for denying their messengers. They were more powerful than them — such were ‘Ād and Thamūd — and they effected the land, they tilled it and churned it up to sow crops and cultivate [trees], and developed it more than these, the Meccan disbelievers, have developed it; and their messengers brought them clear signs, manifest proofs, for God would never wrong them, by destroying them without being guilty, but they used to wrong themselves, by denying their messengers.

Then the consequence for those who committed evil was evil (al-sū’ā is the feminine form of al-aswa’, ‘the worst’; [it may be read as] the predicate of kāna if one reads ‘āqibatu, in the nominative; or it is the subject of kāna if read as ‘āqibata, in the accusative; and so what is meant is Hell [in the former reading], or [according to the latter reading] simply their evil actions) because they denied the signs of God, the Qur’ān, and made a mock of them.

God originates creation, in other words, He produces the creation of mankind, then He will reproduce it, that is, the creation of them, after their death, then to Him you shall be returned (read turja‘ūna; or yurja‘ūna, ‘they shall be returned’).

And on the Day when the Hour comes, the sinners will be dumbfounded, the idolaters will be fall into silence, as their [line of] argument can no longer be continued.

And none from among those partners of theirs, those whom they ascribed as partners of God, namely, the idols, to intercede for them, shall be intercessors for them and they shall disavow these partners of theirs, in other words, they shall dissociate from them.

And on the Day when the Hour comes, that day (yawma’idhin, is [repeated] for emphasis) they, believers and disbelievers, shall be separated.

As for those who believed and performed righteous deeds, they shall be made happy in a garden [of Paradise].

But as for those who disbelieved and denied Our signs, [namely] the Qur’ān, and the encounter of the Hereafter, the Resurrection and other matters, those, they shall be arraigned into the chastisement.

So glory be to God — in other words, [so] glorify God, meaning: perform prayer — when you enter the [time of the] night, in which there are two prayers, the sunset one (maghrib) and the later night one (‘ishā’), and when you rise in the morning, in which there is the morning prayer (subh).

And to Him belongs [all] praise in the heavens and the earth — a parenthetical statement, in other words, the inhabitants in both of these [realms] praise Him — and as the sun declines (wa-‘ashiyyan is a supplement to hīna, ‘when’ [of the previous verse]), in which comes the afternoon prayer (‘asr), and when you enter noontime, in which comes the midday prayer (zuhr).

He brings forth the living from the dead, as in the case of the human being [who is produced] from a sperm-drop and a bird from an egg, and He brings forth the dead, a sperm-drop or an egg, from the living, and He revives the earth, with vegetation, after it has died, dried out. And in such [a manner], of being brought forth, you shall be brought forth, from the graves (read [either as] the active takhrujūna, ‘you shall come forth’, or the passive tukhrajūna, ‘you shall be brought forth’).

And of His signs, exalted be He, indicating His power, is that He created you, in other words, your origin, Adam, of dust, then lo! you are human beings, of flesh and blood, spreading, across the earth.

And of His signs is that He created for you, from yourselves, mates — Eve was created from Adam’s rib and the remainder of mankind from the [reproductive] fluids of men and women — that you might find peace by their side, and become intimate with them, and He ordained between you, all, affection and mercy. Surely in that, mentioned, there are signs for a people who reflect, upon God’s handiwork, exalted be He.

And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the differences of your tongues, that is, your languages, such as Arabic, non-Arabic and so on, and your colours, such as white or black or otherwise, even though [all of] you are [originally] the offspring of the same man and woman. Surely in that there are signs, indications of His power, exalted be He, for all peoples ([this may be vocalised either as] li’l-‘ālamīna or li’l-‘ālimīna, so [it means] either rational creatures, or people of knowledge [respectively]).

And of His signs is your sleep by night and day, by His will, as a repose for you, and your seeking, during the day, of His bounty, in other words, your going about [freely] in order to seek a living [is] by His will. Surely in that there are signs for people who listen, listening in a way so as to [be prompted to] reflect and take heed.

And of His signs is His showing you lightning to arouse fear, in the traveller, of storms, and hope, in the one not travelling, of [the coming of the] rain; and He sends down water from the heaven and with it He revives the earth after it has died, that is, [after] it has dried out, so that it produces vegetation [once again]. Surely in that, mentioned, there are signs for people who understand, [a people who] reflect.

And of His signs is that the heaven and the earth remain standing by His command, by His will, without any supports; then, when He calls you [to come] out of the earth, when Isrāfīl blows the Horn for the raising from the graves [to commence], lo! you shall come forth, from it alive. Thus your coming forth out of it by a call constitutes one of His [many] signs, exalted be He.

And to Him belongs whoever is in the heavens and the earth, as possessions, creatures and servants. All are obedient to Him.

And He it is Who initiates the creation, of mankind, then brings it back, after their destruction, and that is [even] easier for Him, than the initiation — from the perspective of those addressed for whom to repeat something is easier than doing it for the first time — otherwise, in God’s case, exalted be He, both are just as easy. His is the loftiest description in the heavens and the earth, the most sublime attribute, namely that ‘there is no god except God’. And He is the Mighty, in His kingdom, the Wise, in His creation.

He has struck, He has coined, for you, O idolaters, a similitude, that is [actually drawn], from yourselves, and it is [as follows]: do you have among those whom your right hands own, that is to say, among your servants, any partners, of yourselves, [who may share] in what We have provided for you, of property and so on, so that you, and they, are equal therein, fearing them as you fear your own [folk], [just as you fear] those free men like you? (the interrogative is meant as a negation) in other words, ‘your servants are not partners of yours in what you own, so how can you make some of God’s servants partners of His. So We detail the signs, [so] We explain them in such detail, for people who understand, [a people who] reflect.

Nay, but those who do evil, through idolatry, follow their own desires without any knowledge. So who will guide he whom God has led astray?, that is to say, he will have none to guide him. And they have no helpers, [no] protectors against God’s chastisement.

So set your purpose, O Muhammad (s), for religion, as a hanīf, as one inclining to it — in other words, devote your religion, you and whoever follows you, purely to God — a nature given by God, upon which He originated mankind, and this [nature] is His religion: in other words, adhere to it. There is no changing God’s creation, His religion, that is to say, do not change it by becoming idolaters. That is the upright religion, the belief in God’s Oneness, but most people, namely, the Meccan disbelievers, do not know, [anything of] God’s Oneness —

turning, referring, to Him, exalted be He, concerning what He has commanded and what He has forbidden (munībīna, ‘turning’ is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject [of the verb] aqim, ‘set up’, in other words [addressing the third plural person] aqīmū, ‘set up’) and fear Him and establish prayer and do not be among the idolaters,

[of] those (mina’lladhīna is a substitution [for al-mushrikīna, ‘idolaters’] using the same operator of the oblique [min]) who have divided up their religion, by being at variance over what they worship, and have become [dissenting] factions, sects divided over this [matter], each party, among them, rejoicing, delighting, in what they have (a variant reading [for farraqū] is fāraqū, in other words, ‘of those who have parted with the religion to which they have been commanded’).

And when some distress, some hardship, befalls people, that is, [people such as] the Meccan disbelievers, they call on their Lord, turning, returning, in penitence to Him, alone. Then, when He lets them taste mercy from Him, by way of rain, lo! a party of them ascribe partners to their Lord.

Let them be ungrateful for what We have given them (this is [an imperative] meant as a threat). ‘So take your enjoyment. Soon you will know’, the consequences of your enjoyment (there is a shift away from the third person address to the second).

Or (am: the hamza here is meant for denial) have We revealed any warrant, any argument or scripture, to them which might speak, a token speech, of what they associate with Him?, in other words, commanding them to associate others with God? No!

And when We let people, that is, [people such as] the disbelievers of Mecca and others, taste some mercy, some grace, they exult in it, an exultation of arrogance. But if some evil, some hardship, befalls them for what their own hands have sent ahead, behold! they despair, of mercy. It is in the nature of a believer to give thanks in times of grace and to hope [for mercy] from his Lord in times of hardship.

Have they not seen, [have they not] realised, that God extends, He makes abundant, His provision to whomever He will, as a test, and straitens?, and He restricts it for whomever He will, as a trial? Surely in that there are signs for people who believe, in them.

And give the relative what is his due, in the way of dutifulness and kindness, and the needy and the wayfarer, the traveller, [give] voluntary alms — the Prophet’s community must emulate him in this respect. That is better for those who desire God’s Countenance, [who desire] His reward, in exchange for what they do; those, they are the successful, the winners.

And what you give in usury — such as when something is given as a gift or a present for the purpose of demanding more in return; it [the practice of usury] (ribā) is referred to by the same noun denoting that [illicit] ‘extra’ (ziyāda) requested in the [financial] transaction — that it may increase the wealth of the people, giving it, does not increase with God — there is no reward in it for those who give it. But what you give as alms (zakāt), as voluntary alms (sadaqa), seeking, thereby, God’s Countenance, such [of you who do so] — they are the receivers of manifold increase, in their reward for what they sought (there is here a shift of address away from the second person).

God is the One Who created you, then provided for you, then makes you die, then gives you life: is there anyone among your associates, of those whom you have associated with God, who does anything of the kind? No! Glory be to Him and exalted be He above what they associate, with Him.

Corruption has appeared on land, in the wastelands, because of the rain being withheld and the vegetation diminishing, and on sea, in lands near rivers because of their waters diminishing, because of what people’s hands have perpetrated, of acts of disobedience, that He may make them taste (li-yudhīqahum; or [may be read] li-nudhīqahum, ‘that We may make them taste’) something of what they have done, that is, the punishment for it, that perhaps they may repent.

Say, to the Meccan disbelievers: ‘Travel in the land and behold how was the consequence for those who were before; most of them were idolaters’, and so they were destroyed because of their idolatry, and their dwellings and habitations lie [desolate] in ruin.

So set your purpose for the upright religion, the religion of Islam, before there comes the inevitable day from God, namely, the Day of Resurrection. On that day they shall be sundered (yassadda‘ūna: the original tā’ [yatasadda‘ūna] has been assimilated with the sād), that is, they will be split [into separate groups] after the Reckoning [destined] for Paradise or the Fire.

Whoever disbelieves, [the consequence of] his disbelief shall upon him, that is, the evil consequences of his disbelief, which will be [his being punished in] the Fire, and those who act righteously, they will be paving the way for [the salvation of] their own souls, preparing their places in Paradise,

that He may requite (li-yajziya is semantically connected to yassadda‘ūna, ‘they shall be sundered’) those who believe and perform righteous deeds out of His bounty, [that He may] reward them. Indeed He does not like the disbelievers, in other words, He will punish them.

And of His signs, exalted be He, is that He unleashes the winds as bearers of good tidings, meaning, so that they may bring you good tidings of rain, and that He may let you taste, thereby, of His mercy, namely, [in the way of] rain and fertile soil, and that the ships may run, thereby, by His command, by His will, and that you may seek, [that you may] request of, His bounty, provision, by way of commerce at sea, and that perhaps you might [then] give thanks, for these graces, O people of Mecca, and so affirm His Oneness.

And verily We sent before you messengers to their people and they brought them clear signs, plain proofs of their sincerity concerning their Message to them, but they denied them. Then We took vengeance upon those who were guilty, We destroyed those who denied them, and it was ever incumbent upon Us to give victory to the believers, over the disbelievers, by destroying these and delivering the believers.

God is the One Who unleashes the winds which then raise, stir up, clouds, and He then spreads them across the heaven as He will, in small or large quantities, and He forms them into fragments (read kisafan or kisfan: ‘scattered pieces’) then you see the rain issuing out of them, that is, out of the midst of them. Then when He drops it, the rain, upon whomever of His servants He will, lo! they rejoice, they are happy because of the rain.

Though indeed before it was sent down upon them, before that (min qablihi is [repeated] for emphasis) they had been despondent, despairing of its sending down.

So behold the effects (a variant reading has [singular] athar, ‘the effect’) of God's mercy, that is, His grace in giving [them] rain, how He revives the earth after it has died, [after] it has dried out, so that it produces vegetation [again]. Surely He is the Reviver of the dead and He has power over all things.

But if (wa-la-in, the lām is for oaths) We unleash a [different] wind, that damages vegetation, and they see it turn yellow, they would begin (la-zallū is the response to the [conditional] oath) after that, that is, after its turning yellow, to disbelieve, to deny the grace of [having been given] rain.

And so you cannot make the dead hear, nor can you make the deaf hear the call when (read al-du‘ā’a idhā, pronouncing both hamzas, or by not pronouncing the second one [that comes] between it and the yā’) they go away with their backs turned.

Nor can you guide the blind out of their error. You can only make hear, in a way so as to understand and accept, those who believe in Our signs, [in] the Qur’ān, and have thus submitted, sincere in their affirmation of God’s Oneness.

God is the One Who created you from [a state of] weakness, [from] a ‘base fluid’ [cf. Q. 32:8], then He ordained after, a second, weakness, which is the weakness of [the period of] childhood, strength, that is, the strength of youth, then after strength He appointed weakness [again] and grey hair, the weakness of old age and the grey hairs of decrepitude (read [vocalised as] du‘f, ‘weakness’, in all three places). He creates what He will, of weakness and strength, youth and grey hairs, and He is the Knower, of how to manage His creatures, the Omnipotent.

And on the Day when the Hour comes the guilty, the disbelievers, shall swear that they had not remained more than an hour, in the grave. God, exalted be He, says: That is how they use to be deceived, [how] they used to be turned away from the truth — the Resurrection — similar to the way in which they have [now] been turned away from the real truth about how long they had remained.

But those who have been given knowledge and faith, of angels and others, shall say, ‘You have remained according to God’s decree, in accordance with what He had decreed [for you] in His prior knowledge, until the Day of Resurrection. This is the Day of Resurrection, which you rejected, but you did not know’, that it would come to pass.

So on that day their excuses, for denying it, will not profit (read lā yanfa‘u or lā tanfa‘u) the evildoers, nor will they be asked to make amends (yusta‘tabūna means ‘they will [not] be asked for al-‘utbā’, which denotes ‘a return to that which pleases God’).

And verily We have struck, We have coined, for mankind in this Qur’ān every [kind of] similitude, as a way of cautioning them. And if (wa-la-in, the lām is for oaths) you, O Muhammad (s), were to bring them a [miraculous] sign, such as the staff or the hand in the case of Moses, those who disbelieve, from among them, will certainly say (la-yaqūlanna: the indicative nūn has been omitted because of the other nūn coming after it, and likewise the wāw [replaced by the damma in lu], because of two unvocalised consonants coming together and it indicates the plural person), ‘You — in other words, Muhammad (s) and his Companions — are nothing but followers of falsehood’.

Thus does God seal the hearts of those who do not know, [anything of] God’s Oneness, in the same way that He has sealed the hearts of these [aforementioned individuals].

So be patient. Surely God’s promise, to give you victory over them, is true. And do not let them cause you to be inconstant, those who are uncertain, of the Resurrection, in other words, do not let them cause you to succumb to inconstancy and frivolity by abandoning patience, that is to say, do not abandon it.

Alif lām mīm: God knows best what He means by these [letters].

Those, namely, these signs, are the signs of the wise Book, the Qur’ān, the one containing wisdom (the genitive annexation [āyātu’l-kitābi’l-hakīm] has the [partitive] meaning of min, ‘from’);

it is, a guidance and a mercy (read nominative rahmatun; the popular accusative reading [rahmatan] would make it a circumstantial qualifier referring to āyāt, ‘signs’, the operator of which being the implicit demonstrative import of tilka, ‘those’) for the virtuous,

who maintain the prayer (alladhīna yuqīmūna’l-salāta, an explication of al-muhsinīna, ‘the virtuous’) and pay the alms and who are certain of the Hereafter (the repetition of hum, ‘they’ [here translated ‘who’] is for emphasis).

Such follow guidance from their Lord and it is they who are the successful, the winners.

And among people there is he who purchases idle talk, in other words, that [part of it] which diverts [people] from its [true] significance, that he may lead [people] astray (read li-yadilla; or li-yudilla) from the way of God, the religion of Islam, without knowledge and take it (read [subjunctive] wa-yattakhidhahā as a supplement to yudilla, ‘that he may lead astray’; or [indicative] wa-yattakhidhuhā as a supplement to yashtarī, ‘who buys’) in mockery, as something to be mocked. For such there will be a humiliating chastisement, one of abasement.

And when Our signs, in other words, [in] the Qur’ān, are recited to such [a one] he turns away disdainfully as though he never heard them, as though there were a deafness in his ears (both comparisons constitute two circumstantial qualifiers referring to the subject of [the verb] wallā, ‘turns away’; or it is that the second [comparison] is an explication of the first). So give him tidings of, inform him of, a painful chastisement. The use of [the expression] ‘good tidings’ meant derisively against such [a person] — this was al-Nadr b. al-Hārith. He used to visit al-Hīra for commerce and purchase books containing the stories of the non-Arab peoples and then recount these to the people of Mecca. He would say, ‘Muhammad recounts to you the stories of ‘Ād and Thamūd, whereas I relate to you the stories of the Persians and the Byzantines!’ They would thus [go to] enjoy his stories and neglect to listen to the Qur’ān.

Surely those who believe and perform righteous deeds, for them there shall be Gardens of Bliss,

abiding therein (khālidīna fīhā, is a circumstantial qualification [of a future status]), in other words, their abiding therein will have been ordained once they enter it — a promise of God in truth, that is to say, God promised them this and realised it in truth; and He is the Mighty, Whom nothing can overwhelm and so prevent Him from fulfilling His promise and His threat [of chastisement], the Wise, the One Who assigns all things to their rightful places.

He created the heavens without any pillars that you can see (‘amad is the plural of ‘imād, which is an ustuwāna, ‘a column’) — this is the truth since there are no actual pillars — and cast high mountains into the earth, lest it shake with you, and He dispersed therein all kinds beasts. And We sent down (there is a shift from the third [to the second] person) water from the heaven and We caused to grow in it of every splendid kind, [every] fair specimen.

This is God’s creation, in other words, what is created by Him. Now show me, inform me, O people of Mecca, what those [you worship] besides Him, [those] other than Him, have created, namely, your gods, so that you have associated them with Him, exalted be He (mā is an interrogative of denial and a subject; dhā has the significance of alladhī, and what follows it of the relative clause is the predicate [of the subject mā]; arūnī glosses ‘the action’, and what follows it stands in place of two direct objects). Nay (bal, is for transition) but the evildoers are in manifest error, [error] that is evident because of their ascribing partners to God: and you are like them.

And verily We gave Luqmān wisdom, comprising knowledge, religiousness, and right-mindedness in speech; his many wisdoms are well-known. He used to give legal opinions [in matters of religion] before David was summoned [to prophethood], but lived on into the latter’s summoning. He then took to acquiring knowledge from him [David] and refrained from giving [any more] legal opinions, explaining this thus: ‘Should I not be content if someone [like the prophet David] has spared me the trouble?’ He was once asked, ‘What is the worst kind of person?’ He said, ‘The one who does not care that people should see him doing evil’. In other words, [We gave him wisdom] and We said to him: ‘Give thanks to God, for the wisdom that He has given you. Whoever gives thanks only for his own sake, because the reward for his gratitude shall be his, and whoever is ungrateful, for a grace, then surely God is Independent, [without need] of His creation, Praised’, in what He does.

And, mention, when Luqmān said to his son, when he was admonishing him, ‘O my son (yā bunayya is an affectionate diminutive [of yā ibnī]) do not ascribe partners to God: idolatry is truly a tremendous wrong’, so return to him [in repentance] and submit [to Him].

And We have enjoined man concerning his parents, We commanded him to be dutiful towards them — his mother bears him, and weakens, in weakness after weakness, that is to say, she is weakened by the pregnancy, the pains of labour and the delivery; and his weaning is in two years, and We said to him [to man]: ‘Give thanks to Me and to your parents. To Me is the journey’s end, the return.

But if they urge you to ascribe to Me as partner that whereof you have no knowledge, that accords with [any] reality, then do not obey them. And keep them company in this world honourably, in other words, with decency: dutifulness and kindness — and follow the way of him who returns to Me [in penitence], with [acts of] obedience. Then to Me will be your return, and I will inform you of what you used to do, and requite you for it (the [entire] sentence containing the ‘enjoinder’ [verse 14] and what comes after it constitutes a parenthetical statement).

‘O my son! Even if it, namely, the evil trait, should be the weight of a grain of mustard-seed, and [even if] it be in a rock, or in the heavens, or in the earth, in other words, in the most concealed place therein, God will bring it forth, and He will call [that person] to account for it. Truly God is Subtle, in bringing it forth, Aware, of its location.

O my son! Establish prayer and enjoin decency and forbid indecency. And be patient through whatever may befall you, as a result of such enjoining and forbidding. Truly that, which is mentioned, is true constancy, in other words, that is one of those necessary things regarding which one must have firm resolve.

And do not turn your cheek disdainfully from people (tusa‘‘ir: a variant reading has tusā‘ir) do not turn your face away in disdain, and do not walk upon the earth exultantly, in other words, with haughtiness. Truly God does not like any swaggering braggart, strutting in his step, [boasting] in front of people.

And be modest in your bearing, being moderate in it, neither dragging slowly nor rushing, but peaceful and dignified, and lower your voice; indeed the most hideous of voices is the donkey’s voice’, beginning [its hideous bray] with an exhalation and ending with an inhalation.

Do you not see, do you [not] realise, O you who are being addressed, that God has disposed for you whatever is in the heavens, such as the sun, the moon, and the stars, that you may benefit from them, and whatever is in the earth, of fruits, rivers and animals, and He has showered, He has made abundant and made complete, His favours upon you, [both] outwardly, namely, [by giving you your] wholesome form, even limbs and otherwise, and inwardly?, that is, [by giving you] knowledge and so on. Yet among people, that is, [people such as] the Meccan disbelievers, there are those who dispute concerning God without any knowledge or guidance, from a messenger, or an illuminating scripture, revealed by God, rather [they dispute] by [blindly] imitating [others].

And if it is said to them: ‘Follow what God has revealed’, they say, ‘We will rather follow what we found our fathers following’. He, exalted be He, says: What! Would they follow such [things], even though Satan were calling them to the chastisement of the Blaze?, that is, to what will bring it about necessarily? No!

And whoever surrenders his purpose to God, that is, [whoever] takes to obeying Him, and is virtuous, a believer in [His] Oneness, has certainly grasped the firmest handle, the stronger end, which is not in danger of being severed, and to God belongs the sequel of all matters, their [ultimate] return.

And whoever disbelieves, then do not let his disbelief grieve you, O Muhammad (s), do not be concerned with his disbelief. To Us shall be their return and We shall inform them of what they did. Truly God knows [best] what is in the breasts, just as [He knows] other things, and so He will requite [them] accordingly.

We will give them comfort, in this world, for a little [while], for the [duration of the] days of their lives, then We will drive them, in the Hereafter, to a harsh chastisement, namely, the chastisement of the Fire from which they will find no escape.

And if (wa-la-in, the lām is for oaths) you were to ask them, ‘Who created the heavens and the earth?’, they will surely say, ‘God’ (la-yaqūlunna, ‘they will surely say’, the indicative nūn has been omitted because of the like [sc. the nūn] coming after it, and likewise the wāw of the [plural] person, because of two unvocalised consonants coming together). Say: ‘Praise be to God’, for the manifestation of the definitive argument against them by the affirmation of the Oneness [of God]. Nay, but most of them do not realise, that this [affirmation] is an obligation upon them.

To God belongs whatever is in the heavens and the earth, as possessions, creatures and servants, and so none other than Him deserves to be worshipped in them. Indeed God, He is the Independent, [without need] of His creatures, the Praised, in His actions.

And if all the trees on earth were pens, and the sea (wa’l-bahru is a supplement to [mā] the subject of anna) replenished with seven more seas, were ink, the Words of God would not be spent, [those words] expressing all the things He knows, written in those pens with that [amount of] ink or with even more [ink] than that [would not be spent], for His knowledge, exalted be He, is infinite. Truly God is Mighty, nothing being beyond Him, Wise, from Whose knowledge and wisdom nothing escapes.

Your creation and your resurrection are only as [that of] a single soul, in terms of creation and resurrection, because it is the result of the words kun fa-yakūn, ‘“Be!” and it is!’ Truly God is Hearer, hearing everything that may be heard, Seer, seeing everything that may be seen, nothing able to distract Him from anything else.

Have you not seen, have you [not] realised, O you being addressed, that God makes the night pass into the day and makes the day pass into the night, such that the increase of the one is relative to the decrease of the other, and He has disposed the sun and the moon, each, of the two, running, in its course, to an appointed term, namely, [to] the Day of Resurrection, and that God is Aware of what you do?

That, which is mentioned, is [so] because God, He is the Truth, the established [truth], and whatever they call on (read yad‘ūna; or tad‘ūna, ‘you call on’) whatever they worship, besides Him is, evanescent, falsehood, and because God is the High [Exalted], above His creation by virtue of [His] subjugation [of them], the Great, the Mighty.

Have you not seen that the ships run upon the sea by the grace of God, that He may show you, O you who are being addressed in this [statement], some of His signs? Surely in that there are signs, lessons, for every [servant who is] steadfast, [in abstaining] from acts of disobedience to God, grateful, for His grace.

And if waves cover them, that is, [if] these rise above the disbelievers, like awnings, like mountains that act as awnings over those below them, they call on God, sincere before Him in their faith, that is, [in their] supplication, that He may deliver them, in other words, they do not call on any other [god] with Him; but when He delivers them to land, some of them compromise, middling between belief and disbelief, while others persist in their disbelief. And none denies Our signs, an example of which is Our delivering [them] from [such treacherous] waves, except every perfidious ingrate, [ungrateful] for God’s graces, exalted be He.

O people, namely, [such as] the people of Mecca, fear your Lord and fear a day when no parent shall avail a child, thereon in any way; and no child, thereon, shall avail its parent in any way. Surely God’s promise, of resurrection, is true. So do not let the life of this world deceive you, [and divert you] from Islam, and do not let the Deceiver, Satan, deceive you concerning God, because of His forbearance and granting [people] respite.

Lo! God, with Him lies knowledge of the Hour, when it will come to pass; and He sends down (read yunzilu, or yunazzilu) the rain, at times which [only] He knows; and He knows what is in the wombs, whether it is a male or a female; and not one of the three things is known by anyone other than God, exalted be He. And no soul knows what it will earn tomorrow, of good or evil, but God, exalted be He, knows this; and no soul knows in what land it will die, but God, exalted be He, knows this. Truly God is Knower, of all things, Aware, of the inward and outward aspects thereof. Al-Bukhārī reported [by way of an isnād] from [‘Abd Allāh] Ibn ‘Umar the following hadīth: ‘The Keys of the Unseen are five: Lo! God, with Him lies knowledge of the Hour … to the end of the sūra’ [above].

Alif lām mīm: God knows best what He means by these [letters].

The revelation of the Book, the Qur’ān (tanzīlu’l-kitābi, the subject) whereof there is no doubt (lā rayba fīh, the first predicate) from the Lord of the Worlds (min rabbi’l-‘ālamīna, the second predicate).

Or do they say, ‘He, Muhammad (s), has invented it’? Nay, but it is the truth from your Lord, that you may warn, thereby, a people to whom no warner came before you (mā is for negation) that perhaps they may find [right] guidance, by your warning.

God is He Who created the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them in six days, the first of which was Sunday and the last of which was Friday, then He presided upon the Throne (al-‘arsh in the [classical Arabic] idiom denotes the seat of a king), a presiding worthy of Him. You do not have, O disbelievers of Mecca, besides Him, in other words, other than Him, any protector (min waliyyin is the subject of the particle mā with the min added [extra]) in other words, [any] helper, or intercessor, to ward off His chastisement from you. Will you not then remember?, this and become believers.

He directs the command from the heaven to the earth, for the duration of this world, then it ascends, then the command and the direction [thereof] returns, to Him in a day whose measure is a thousand years by your reckoning, in this world. In sūrat sa’ala, [An asker] asked [the measure is said to be]: ‘fifty thousand years’ [Q. 70:4] — and this [day] is the Day of Resurrection, [reckoned so] because of the severity of its terrors for the disbeliever. As for the believer, however, for him it will be easier than performing any one of [his] obligatory prayers in this world — as is stated in hadīth.

That, Creator and Director, is the Knower of the Unseen and the visible, that is, what is hidden from creatures and what is present before them, the Mighty, the Invincible in His kingdom, the Merciful, to those who are obedient to Him,

Who perfected everything that He created (read khalaqahu, as a past tense functioning as an adjectival qualification [of what He perfected]; or khalqahu, ‘its creation’, as an inclusive substitution [for kulla shay’in, ‘everything’]). And He began the creation of man, Adam, from clay,

then He made his progeny, his offspring, from an extract, a blood clot, of a base, delicate, fluid, namely, the sperm-drop;

then He proportioned him, that is to say, He created Adam, and breathed into him of His spirit, in other words, He made him a living sensory being after having been an inanimate thing. And He made for you, in other words, for [you] his descendants, hearing, meaning, ears, and sight and hearts. Little thanks do you give (mā here is extra, emphasising the ‘littleness’ [of the thanks]).

And they, namely, the deniers of resurrection, say, ‘When we are lost beneath the earth, [when] we have gone thereunder, having become dust mixed with its dust, shall we be indeed created anew?’ (an interrogative of denial; [read a-innā] by pronouncing both hamzas, or by not pronouncing the second one and inserting an alif between them either way, in both places). God, exalted be He, says: Nay, but they disbelieve in the encounter with their Lord, through resurrection.

Say, to them: ‘The Angel of death, who has been charged with you, shall receive you [in death], in other words, he shall seize your spirits, then to your Lord you shall be returned’, alive, whereat He will requite you for your deeds.

And if could you but see the guilty, the disbelievers, hanging their heads [low] before their Lord, lowering them in shame, saying: ‘Our Lord! We have seen, the resurrection that we denied, and heard, from You the confirmation of [the truth of] the messengers concerning that in which we used to call them liars. So send us back, to the world, so that we may act righteously, therein, for indeed we are convinced’, now. But none of this is of any use to them and they will not be sent back (the response to [the conditional clause beginning with] law, ‘if’, is [an implicit] ‘you would see a terrible thing’).

God, exalted be He, says: ‘And had We [so] willed, We could have given every soul its [means to] guidance, so that it may be guided through faith and obedience, through its own choice, but My Word became due, and it is that: “Verily I shall fill Hell with jinn and mankind together”.

When they enter [Hell] its Keepers shall say to them: So taste [now], the chastisement, for your having forgotten the encounter of this day of yours, in other words, for your having neglected to believe in it. We [too] shall forget you, we shall abandon you in the chastisement. And taste [now] the everlasting chastisement for what you used to practise’, of disbelief and denial.

Only those believe in Our signs, [such as] the Qur’ān, who, when they are reminded of them, admonished [with them], fall down in prostration and make glorifications, ensconced, in praise of their Lord, in other words, they say, ‘Glory be to God through His praise’ (subhāna’Llāh wa-bi-hāmdihi), and they do not disdain, to believe and to obey.

Their sides withdraw, they rise, from their lying places, the places for lying down [to sleep] together with the bedding, in order to spend the night in prayer (tahajjud), to supplicate to their Lord in fear, of His punishment, and in hope, of His mercy, and they expend of what We have provided them, they give voluntary alms.

For no soul knows what has been kept hidden for them in the way of joyous sights (a variant reading [for ukhfiya] has the imperfect tense ukhfī) as a reward for what they used to do.

Is he who is a believer like him who is a transgressor? They are not equal, namely, the believers and the transgressors.

As for those who believe and perform righteous deeds, for them shall be the Gardens of the Abode — a hospitality (nuzul is what is prepared for a guest) for what they used to do.

But as for those who transgressed, by disbelieving and denying, their abode shall be the Fire. Whenever they seek to exit from it, they shall be brought back into it, and it shall be said to them, ‘Taste the chastisement of the Fire which you used to deny’.

And We shall surely make them taste the nearer chastisement, that is, the chastisement of this world — in their being killed or taken captive, or [through] years of drought and disease — before the greater chastisement, the chastisement of the Hereafter, that perhaps they, namely, those remaining of them, may return, to belief.

And who does greater wrong than he who is reminded of the signs of his Lord, [such as] the Qur’ān, but then turns away from them?, in other words, none does greater wrong than such [a person]. Assuredly We shall take vengeance upon the criminals, the idolaters.

And verily We gave Moses the Scripture, the Torah; so do not be in doubt concerning the encounter with Him, and indeed he and He met on the Night of the Journey; and We appointed him, namely, Moses — or [read ‘We appointed it’] the Scripture, a guidance for the Children of Israel.

And We appointed among them leaders (read a-immatan by pronouncing both hamzas, or by substituting the second one with a yā) who guided, people, by Our command, when they had endured [patiently], in [observing] their religion, and against the hardships [they suffered] because of their enemies (lammā, ‘when’: a variant reading has limā, ‘because’) and had conviction in Our signs, [the ones] indicating Our power and Our Oneness.

Surely your Lord will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection concerning that wherein they used to differ, in matters of religion.

Or is it not an indication for them how many generations, communities, on account of their disbelief, We destroyed before them, that is to say, has [not] Our destruction of many [generations] become clear to the disbelievers of Mecca, amid whose dwellings they walk (yamshūna is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the person of the pronoun lahum, ‘for them’) during their travels to Syria and other places, so that they might take heed? Surely in that there are signs, indications of Our power. Are they not able to hear?, in a way so as to reflect and be admonished.

Or have they not seen how We drive the water to barren land (juruz), [this] is arid land that contains no vegetation), and therewith bring forth crops whereof their cattle and [they] themselves eat? Can they not see?, this and so realise that We have the power to bring them back [to life after death].

And they say, to the believers: ‘When will this [decisive] Judgement, between us and yourselves, be, if you are truthful?’

Say: ‘On the day of [this] Judgement, [which will be effected] by sending the chastisement on them, their [newly found] faith [then] shall not benefit those who had been disbelievers, nor shall they be given respite, to make repentance or [offer] excuses.

So turn away from them, and wait, for the chastisement to be sent down on them. They too are waiting, for your death to take place or [for you] to be killed and so be rid of you — this was [revealed] before the command to fight them.

O Prophet! Fear God, remain in fear of Him, and do not obey the disbelievers and the hypocrites, [and so follow them] in what contravenes your Law. Truly God is Knower, of what will happens before it happens, Wise, in what He creates.

And follow what is revealed to you from your Lord, namely, the Qur’ān. Truly God is Aware of what you do (ta‘malūna; a variant reading has ya‘malūna, ‘[what] they do’).

And put your trust in God, regarding this affair of yours; and God suffices as Guardian, to preserve you. And [the members of] his [the Prophet’s] community are subject to the same [admonitions] in all of the above.

God has not placed two hearts inside any man: [this was revealed] in order to refute those disbelievers who said that they each had two hearts with which they could reason better than Muhammad’s single mind; nor has He made your wives whom (read as allā’ī, or allā’) you repudiate by zihār (read tazzahharūna, or tuzāhirūna; the original tā’ [of tatazāharūna] has been assimilated with the zā’) — a man would say to his wife for example, ‘You are for me as [untouchable as] my mother’s back’ — your mothers, in other words, [He has not made you wives] like [your] mothers, so that they are illicit [for conjugality] in that respect, [a practice] which in pre-Islamic times was considered a [valid form of] divorce. An atonement with [necessary] conditions is necessary in such a case, as mentioned in sūrat al-Mujādila [Q. 58:2-3]. Nor has He made those whom you claim as [adopted] sons (ad‘iyā’, the plural of da‘iyy, which is one claimed as the son of one who is not his [biological] father) your sons, in reality. That is a mere utterance of your mouths, namely, [of] the Jews and the hypocrites. When the Prophet (s) married Zaynab bt. Jahsh, who had been Zayd b. Hāritha’s wife, the adopted son of the Prophet (s), they said, ‘Muhammad married his son’s wife!’, and so God proved them liars in this. But God speaks the truth, in this [matter], and He guides to the way, the way of truth.

Instead, attribute them to their [true] fathers. That is more equitable, [that is] more just, in the sight of God. If you do not know their [true] fathers, then they are your brethren in religion and [as] your associates. And you would not be at fault for any mistake you make, in this respect, except, in, what your hearts may premeditate, after the prohibition [has been issued]. And God is Forgiving, of whatever you said before the prohibition [was issued], Merciful, to you in this respect.

The Prophet is closer to the believers than their [own] souls, in terms of what he calls them to and what their own souls have called them to contravene, and his wives are their mothers, insofar as they [the believers] are forbidden to marry them. And those related by blood, kinsmen, are more entitled, to inherit [from], one another in the Book of God than the [other] believers and the Emigrants, in other words, than inheriting on account of [their sharing] faith and the Emigration, which had been the case at the beginning of Islam but was then abrogated; barring any favour you may do your friends, by [making] a bequest, which is permissible. This, namely, the abrogation of inheritance on account of [shared] faith and Emigration by the inheritance on account of kinship, is written in the Book — in both instances al-kitāb, ‘the Book’, denotes the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfūz).

And, mention, when We took a pledge from the prophets, at the point when they were brought forth from the loins of Adam, the size of atoms, and from you, and from Noah and Abraham and Moses and Jesus son of Mary, that they worship [only] God and call others to worship Him (the mention of the five [names] is an instance of supplementing the specific to the general). And We took from them a solemn pledge, a solid [one], that they fulfil what they have been charged with, and this was [effected] by [swearing] an oath to God, after which the pledge was consummated;

that He, God, may question the truthful about their truthfulness, in delivering the Message, as a way thereby to [justifiably] reproach the disbelievers; and He, exalted be He, has prepared for those who disbelieve, in them, a painful chastisement (‘adhāban alīman is a supplement to akhadhnā, ‘We took’).

O you who believe! Remember God’s favour to you when hosts, of disbelievers, came against you, as confederates, at the time the Ditch (al-khandaq) was being dug, and We unleashed against them a [great] wind and hosts, of angels, you did not see. And God is ever Seer of what you do (read ta‘malūna to imply ‘in the way of [your] digging of the ditch’; or read ya‘malūna, ‘[of what] they do’, to imply ‘the idolaters’ forming of a confederation’).

When they came at you from above you and from below you, in other words, from the higher side of the valley and from its lower side, from the east and from the west, and when the eyes turned away [in fear], from everything, to [gaze at] their enemies [approaching] from every side, and the hearts lept to the throats (hanājir, the plural of hunjura, which lies at the bottom of the gullet) out of intense fear, while you entertained all sorts of, different, thoughts concerning God, [some] of assistance, some of despair;

it was there that the believers were [sorely] tried, [there] they were tested, to distinguish the sincere individual from the one otherwise, and were shaken with a mighty shock, because of the severity of the terror.

And, mention, when the hypocrites, and those in whose hearts is sickness, namely, weakness of conviction, were saying, ‘What God and His Messenger promised us, of assistance [to victory], was [nothing] but delusion’, falsehood.

And when a party of them, namely, the hypocrites, said, ‘O people of Yathrib!, namely, the region of Medina (it [Yathriba] is a diptote because of its being a proper noun and because of the [morphological similarity it bears to a] verbal form) there is not a stand [possible] (read muqām or maqām) for you [here], in other words, no place to stay and no [strategic] position, so turn back, to your dwellings in Medina — they had set out with the Prophet (s) towards the foot of a mountain outside Medina for battle. And a group of them [even] sought the permission of the Prophet, to turn back, saying, ‘Our homes are exposed, unprotected and we fear for them’. God, exalted be He, says: although they were not exposed. They only sought to flee, from battle.

And had they been invaded in it, namely, Medina, from all sides and had they been exhorted, in other words, had the invaders exhorted them, to treachery, [a return to] idolatrous ways, they would have committed it (read la-ātawhā, or la-atawhā, meaning, ‘they would have offered it’, or ‘they would have committed it’ [respectively]) and would have hesitated thereupon but a little.

Though they had assuredly pledged to God before that, that they would not turn their backs [to flee]; and a pledge given to God must be answered for, regarding whether it was fulfilled [or not].

Say: ‘Flight will not avail you should you flee from death or [from] being slain, and then, if you were to flee, you would not be extended comfort, in this world, after you have fled, except a little’, [except for] the remainder of your terms [of life].

Say: ‘Who is it that can protect you, grant you sanctuary, from God should He desire [to cause] you ill, [whether it be] destruction or defeat, or, [who is it that] can cause you ill, should He, God, desire for you mercy?’, good. And they shall not find for themselves besides God, in other words, other than God, any protector, to avail them, or helper, to ward off harm from them.

Indeed God already knows the hinderers among you and those who say to their brethren, ‘Come to us’, and they do not engage in the battle except a little, for show and for [the sake of their] reputation,

grudging to you, in their help (ashihha, ‘grudging’, is the plural of shahīh, and is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject [of the verb] ya’tūna, ‘they engage’). And when there is a panic, you see them looking at you, their eyes rolling like one, that is, like the look of one, or the rolling of one, fainting at death, in other words, [one] in the throes thereof; but when the panic subsides, and the spoils have been secured, they scald you, they hurt you, or they smite you, with [their] sharp tongues, in their greed for the riches, in other words, for the spoils, which they demand [greedily]. Those, they never believed, really. Therefore God has invalidated their works, and that, invalidation, is easy for God, by His will.

They suppose that the confederates, of disbelievers, have not [yet] departed, to Mecca, because of their fear of them, and were the confederates to come, a second time, they would wish that they were in the desert with the Bedouins asking about your news, your encounters with the disbelievers. And if they were among you, this second time, they would fight but a little, for show and for fear of being reviled.

Verily there is for you a good example (read iswa or uswa) in the Messenger of God, to emulate in combat and in holding one’s ground [therein], for whoever (li-man substitutes for lakum, ‘for you’) hopes for [the encounter with] God, fears Him, and the Last Day, and remembers God often, in contrast to those who do not.

And when the believers saw the confederates, of disbelievers, they said, ‘This is what God and His Messenger promised us, in the way of trial and [assistance to] victory, and God and His Messenger were truthful’, about the promise. And that only increased them in faith, in belief in God’s promise, and submission, to His command.

Among the believers are men who are true to the covenant they made with God, in steadfastly remaining alongside the Prophet (s). Some of them have fulfilled their vow, having died or been killed [fighting] for God’s cause, and some are still awaiting, for this [fate], and they have not changed, [their commitment to] the covenant, in the least, and they stand in contrast to the situation with the hypocrites;

that God may reward the truthful for their truthfulness and chastise the hypocrites, if He will, by causing them to die in [a state of] hypocrisy, or relent to them. Surely God is Forgiving, to he who repents, Merciful, to him.

And God repulsed those who were disbelievers, namely, the confederates, in their rage, without their attaining any good, [without achieving] their desire in any way to triumph over the believers. And God spared the believers from fighting, by [unleashing] the wind and the angels. And truly God is Strong, in bringing about what He wants, Mighty, prevailing with His way.

And He brought down those of the People of the Scripture, namely, the [Banū] Qurayza, who had supported them from their strongholds (sayāsī is the plural of sīsa, and is that in which one fortifies himself [against an enemy]) and He cast terror into their hearts, [so that] some, of them, you slew, and these were the combatants, and some, of them, you took captive, namely, their children.

And He made you inherit their land and their homes and their possessions, and a land you had not trodden, thitherto, and this was [the territory of] Khaybar, which was captured after [that of] Qurayza. And God has power over all things.

O Prophet! Say to your wives: — who were nine, and they had asked him for some of the adornments of this world, which he did not possess — ‘If you desire the life of this world and its adornment, come [now], I will provide for you, in other words, the compensation [to be provided] for divorce, and release you in a gracious manner, I will divorce you and will not coerce [you to stay].

But if you desire God and His Messenger and the Abode of the Hereafter, namely, Paradise, then God has indeed prepared for the virtuous among you, [virtuous for] desiring the Hereafter, a great reward’, namely, Paradise: so choose the Hereafter over [the life of] this world.

O wives of the Prophet! Whoever of you commits manifest indecency (read mubayyana, or mubayyina, meaning [respectively], ‘it has become evident’, meaning, ‘one that is evident’) the chastisement shall be doubled (yudā‘af: a variant reading has [2nd form] yuda‘‘af, and still another has nuda‘‘if, ‘We shall double’, in which case [read] al-‘adhāba, as accusative) for her, in other words, twice the chastisement for other women; and that is easy for God.

But whoever of you is obedient to God and His Messenger, and acts righteously, We shall give her a twofold reward, in other words, twice the reward for other women (variant readings [for ta‘mal and nu’tihā] are [impersonal] ya‘mal, ‘[whoever] acts’, and yu’tihā, ‘He will give her’). And We have prepared a noble provision for her, in Paradise, in addition [to the twofold reward].

O wives of the Prophet! You are not like any other, group of, women. If you fear, God, for you are more exalted [in status], then do not be complaisant in your speech, with men, lest he in whose heart is a sickness, hypocrisy, aspire [to you], but speak honourable words, without any complaisance.

And stay in your houses (read qirna or qarna, derived from al-qarār, and is actually, aqrirna or aqrarna from qarirtu or qarartu: the vowelling of the rā’ is moved to the qāf and [the rā’] is omitted together with the conjunctive hamza) and do not flaunt your finery (tabarrajna, with one of the two original tā’ [of tatabarrajna] letters omitted) in the [flaunting] manner of the former Time of Ignorance, in other words, before Islam, when they used to display their beauty to men — [the stipulation regarding] such ‘displays’ after [the coming of] Islam is mentioned in the verse: and not to display their adornment except what is apparent [Q. 24:31]. And maintain prayer and pay the alms, and obey God and His Messenger. Indeed God will but to rid you of sin, O, People of the House, in other words, [O] women of the Prophet (s), and to purify you, of it, with a thorough purification.

And remember that which is recited in your houses of the revelations of God, [of] the Qur’ān, and wisdom, the Sunna. Truly God is Kind, to His friends, Aware, of all His creatures.

Indeed the men who have submitted [to God] and the women who have submitted [to God], and the believing men and the believing women, and the obedient men and the obedient women, and the men who are truthful and the women who are truthful, in their faith, and the patient men and the patient women, [steadfast] in [performing] acts of obedience, and the humble men and the humble women, and the charitable men and the charitable women, and the men who fast and the women who fast, and the men who guard their private parts and the women who guard their private parts, from what is unlawful, and the men who remember God often and the women who remember God often — for them God has prepared forgiveness, of [their] acts of disobedience, and a great reward, for their acts of obedience.

And it is not [fitting] for any believing man or believing woman, when God and His Messenger have decided on a matter, to have (read takūna or yakūna) a choice in their matter, in contravention of the decision of God and His Messenger. This [verse] was revealed regarding ‘Abd Allāh b. Jahsh and his sister Zaynab, whose hand the Prophet had asked for in marriage, but meaning on behalf of Zayd b. Hāritha. They were loathe to this [proposal] when they found out [that it was on the latter’s behalf], for they had thought that the Prophet (s) wanted to marry her himself. But afterwards they consented because of the [following part of the] verse: And whoever disobeys God and His Messenger has certainly strayed into manifest error. Thus the Prophet (s) gave her in marriage to Zayd. Then on one occasion he [the Prophet] caught sight of her and felt love for her, whereafter [when he realised that] Zayd lost his affection for her and so said to the Prophet (s), ‘I want to part with her’. But the Prophet said to him, ‘Retain your wife for yourself’, as God, exalted be He, says:

And when (idh is dependent because of [an implied preceding] udhkur, ‘mention [when]’) you said to him to whom God had shown favour, by [guiding him to] Islam, and to whom you [too] had shown favour: by manumitting him — this was Zayd b. Hāritha, who had been a prisoner of war before [the coming of] Islam (in the period of al-jāhiliyya). The Messenger of God (s) purchased him before his call to prophethood, and then manumitted him and adopted him as his son — ‘Retain your wife for yourself and fear God’, before divorcing her. But you had hidden in your heart what God was to disclose, [what] He was to manifest of your love for her and of [the fact] that should Zayd part with her you would marry her, and you feared people, would say, ‘He has married his son’s wife!’, though God is worthier that you should fear Him, in all things, so take her in marriage and do not be concerned with what people say. Zayd subsequently divorced her and her [obligatory] waiting period was completed. God, exalted be He, says: So when Zayd had fulfilled whatever need he had of her, We joined her in marriage to you — the Prophet consummated his marriage with her without [the customary] permission [from her legal guardian] and gratified the Muslims with [a feast of] bread and meat — so that there may not be any restriction for the believers in respect of the wives of their adopted sons, when the latter have fulfilled whatever wish they have of them. And God’s commandment, that which He has decreed, is bound to be realised.

There is no restriction for the Prophet in what God has ordained, [in what] He has made lawful, for him: [that is] God’s precedent (sunnata’Llāhi is in the accusative because the operator of the oblique has been removed [from the oblique construction ka-sunnati’Llāhi, ‘as is God’s precedent’) with those who passed away before, of prophets, which is that there is no restriction for them in this respect, a [special] dispensation for them regarding marriage — and God’s commandment, what He does, is inexorable destiny

— [those] who (alladhīna qualifies the previous alladhīna) deliver the Messages of God and fear Him, and fear no one except Him, and therefore they do not fear what people [might] say about that which God has made lawful for them. And God suffices as Reckoner, as keeper of the deeds of His creatures and [as One] to reckon with them.

Muhammad is not the father of any man among you: he is not Zayd’s biological father and so it is not unlawful for him to marry his [former] wife Zaynab [after him]; but, he is, the Messenger of God and the Seal of the Prophets, and so he will not have a son that is a [fully grown] man to be a prophet after him (a variant reading [for khātim al-nabiyyīna] has khātam al-nabiyyīn, as in the instrument [known as a] ‘seal’, in other words, their [prophethood] has been sealed by him). And God has knowledge of all things, among these is the fact that there will be no prophet after him, and even when the lord Jesus descends [at the end of days] he will rule according to his [Muhammad’s] Law.

O you who believe! Remember God with much remembrance.

And glorify Him morning and evening, in other words, at the beginning of the day and at the end of it.

It is He Who blesses you, that is to say, Who shows mercy to you, and His angels, ask forgiveness for you, that He may bring you forth, that He may always bring you forth, from darkness, namely, [from] disbelief, into light, namely, faith. And He is Merciful to the believers.

Their greeting, from Him, exalted be He, on the day they encounter Him will be ‘Peace’, [extended to them] by the tongues of the angels. And He has prepared for them a noble reward, namely, Paradise.

O Prophet! Indeed We have sent you as a witness, against those to whom you have were sent, and as a bearer of good tidings, for those who affirm your sincerity, of Paradise, and as a warner, for those who deny you, of the [punishment of the] Fire,

and as a summoner to God, to obedience to Him, by His leave, by His command, and as a illuminating lamp, in other words, the equivalent of it, in terms of one’s being able to find guidance therewith.

And give good tidings to the believers that there will be for them a great bounty from God, namely, Paradise.

And do not obey the disbelievers and the hypocrites, in [assenting to do] what contravenes your Law; and disregard, leave aside, their injuriousness — do not retaliate against them for it until you receive a command [from God] regarding [how to deal with] them. And put your trust in God, for He will suffice you, and God suffices as Guardian, One to Whom matters are entrusted.

O you who believe if you marry believing women and then divorce them before you have touched them (read tamassūhunna or tumāsūhunna) that is, before you have copulated with them, there shall be no [waiting] period for you to reckon against them, [no] waiting period [needed to preclude pregnancy] or otherwise. But provide for them, give them what they can use for [securing] comforts, in cases where no dowry has been fixed for them; otherwise theirs is to retain half of what was fixed, but no more — this is what Ibn ‘Abbās said and it is [the opinion] followed by al-Shāfi‘ī’; and release them in a gracious manner, leave them be without [the intention to cause them any] harm.

O Prophet! Indeed We have made lawful for you your wives whom you have given their dowries and what your right hand owns, of those whom God has given you as spoils of war, from the disbelievers, [whom you have] taken captive, such as Safiyya and Juwayriyya, and the daughters of your paternal uncles and the daughters of your paternal aunts, and the daughters of your maternal uncles and the daughters of your maternal aunts who emigrated with you, as opposed to those who did not emigrate, and any believing woman if she gift herself [in marriage] to the Prophet and if the Prophet desire to take her in marriage, and ask for her hand in marriage without paying [her] a dowry — a privilege for you exclusively, not for the [rest of the] believers (nikāh, ‘marriage’, when expressed by the term hiba, ‘gift’, denotes [marriage] without dowry). Indeed We know what We have imposed upon them, namely, the believers, with respect to their wives, in the way of rulings, to the effect that they should not take more than four wives and should only marry with [the consent of] a legal guardian, [the presence of] witnesses and [the payment of] a dowry, and, with respect to, what their right hands own, of slavegirls, in the way of purchase or otherwise, so that the handmaiden be one lawful for her master, such as a slavegirl belonging to the People of the Scripture (kitābiyya), and not a Magian or an idolater, and that she should be ascertained [as not carrying child] with the necessary waiting period (istibrā’) before copulation; so that (li-kaylā is semantically connected to what came before [this last statement]) there may be no [unnecessary] restriction for you, [no] constraint in marriage [for you]. And God is Forgiving, of what is difficult to guard against, Merciful, in giving dispensations [allowing for latitude] in this respect.

You may put off (read turji’ or turjī), you may postpone [consorting with], whomever of them you wish, namely, of your wives, from their turn [for intimacy], and consort, embrace [in conjugality], whomever you wish, of them, and come unto her, and as for whomever you may desire of those whom you have set aside, from their share, you would not be at fault, to desire her and consort with her [again]. He was given the choice in this respect after it had been obligatory for him to give each wife her [equal] share [of conjugality]. That, freedom of choice, makes it likelier that they will be comforted and not grieve, and that they will be satisfied with what you give them, of what has been mentioned of your freedom to choose [whom to consort with], every one of them (kulluhunna emphasises the subject of [the verb] yardayna, ‘they will be satisfied’) will be well-pleased with what you give her. And God knows what is in your hearts, with respect to [your] women and [your] preferring some [to others]. We have given you the freedom to choose [from among them] in order to make it easier for you to have what you desire. And God is Knower, of His creatures, Forbearing, in refraining from punishing them.

Women are not lawful for you (read lā tahillu, or lā yahillu) beyond that, beyond the nine that have chosen you [as their husband], nor [is it lawful] for you to change (tabaddala: one of the two original tā’ letters [of tatabaddala] has been omitted) them for other wives, by divorcing them or some of them and marry in place of those whom you divorce, even though their beauty impress you, except those whom your right hand owns, of slavegirls, which is [in contrast] lawful for you. In addition to these [slavegirls] the Prophet (s) came to own Māriya [the Copt]. She bore for him Ibrāhīm, who died during his lifetime. And God is Watcher over, Preserver [of], all things.

O you who believe, do not enter the Prophet’s houses unless permission is granted you, to enter by invitation, to [share] a meal, and so you enter, without waiting for the [right] moment, [for] when it is ready (ināhu, a verbal noun from anā, ya’nī). But when you are invited, enter, and, when you have had your meal, disperse, without, lingering for, any [leisurely] conversation, amongst yourselves. Indeed that, lingering, is upsetting for the Prophet, and he is [too] shy of you, to make you leave, but God is not shy of the truth, that you should leave — in other words, He would never refrain from declaring it (a variant reading [for yastahyī] has yastahī). And when you ask anything of [his] womenfolk, in other words, the wives of the Prophet (s), ask them from behind a screen, a curtain. That is purer for your hearts and their hearts, than [entertaining] sinful thoughts. And you should never cause the Messenger of God hurt, in any way; nor ever marry his wives after him. Assuredly that in God’s sight would be very grave, as a sin.

Whether you disclose anything or keep it hidden, regarding marrying them after him, truly God has knowledge of all things, and will requite you for it.

They [the Prophet’s wives] would not be at fault with regard to [socialising with] their fathers, or their sons, or their brothers, or their brothers’ sons, or their sisters’ sons, or their own, believing, women, or what their right hands own, of slavegirls or [male] servants, in seeing them or conversing with them without a screen. And fear [O women] God, in what you have been commanded. Surely God is Witness to all things, with nothing being hidden from Him.

Indeed God and His angels bless the Prophet, Muhammad (s). O you who believe, invoke blessings on him and invoke peace upon him in a worthy manner, in other words, say: ‘O God, bless our master Muhammad and grant him peace’ (Allāhumma sallī ‘alā sayyidinā Muhammad wa-sallim).

Indeed those who are injurious to God and His Messenger — and they are the disbelievers, who attribute to God what He is exalted above of such things as [His having] a son or a partner and they deny His Messenger — God has cursed them in this world and the Hereafter, He has banished them [from His mercy], and has prepared for them a humiliating chastisement, and that is the Fire.

And those who cause hurt to believing men and believing women without the latter’s having done anything, [those who] accuse them of what they have not done, have verily borne [the guilt of] calumny, they have borne lies, and [the burden of] manifest sin.

O Prophet! Tell your wives and daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks closely over themselves (jalābīb is the plural of jilbāb, which is a wrap that covers a woman totally) — in other words, let them pull part of it [also] over their faces, leaving one eye [visible], when they need to leave [the house] for something. That makes it likelier that they will be known, to be free women, and not be molested, by being approached. In contrast, slavegirls did not use to cover their faces and so the disbelievers used to pester them. And God is Forgiving, of any occasion in the past when they may have neglected to cover themselves, Merciful, to them in His veiling them.

If (la-in, the lām is for oaths) the hypocrites do not desist, from their hypocrisy, and likewise those in whose hearts is a sickness, [in their urge] to fornicate, as well as the scaremongers in the city, who alarm the believers by saying [to them things like], ‘Your enemy is here and your raiding parties have been massacred!’, or [they say to them], ‘They have been defeated!’. Assuredly We will urge you [to take action] against them, We will give you sway over them, then they will not be your neighbours, they will not dwell near you, in it except for a little [while], after which they will depart.

Accursed, banished from mercy, [shall they be], wherever they are found they shall be seized and slain violently, that is to say, that is the ruling concerning them — meant as a command [for the Prophet].

God’s precedent, in other words, God has made this His precedent [in dealing], with those who passed away before, with regard to the hypocrites of past communities who used to alarm believers with their scaremongery, and you will find that there is no changing God’s precedent, [no changing of it] from Him.

People, [such as] the people of Mecca, question you concerning the Hour: when will it be? Say: ‘Knowledge thereof lies only with God — and what do you know, [what would] provide you with knowledge thereof? In other words, you do not know it, perhaps the Hour is near’.

God has indeed cursed the disbelievers, He has banished them [from His mercy], and prepared for them a blaze, a violent fire into which they shall be admitted,

to abide, their abiding having been foreordained, therein forever. They shall not find any protector, to preserve them from it, or helper, to ward it off from them.

On the day when their faces are turned about in the Fire they shall say, ‘O (yā is for alerting) would that we had obeyed God and obeyed the Messenger!’

And they, namely, those who had been the followers [of the leaders of error], shall say, ‘Our Lord, we obeyed our leaders (read [plural] sādatanā, or sādātanā, which is the plural of the plural) and elders, and they led us astray from the way, the path of guidance.

Our Lord, give them a double chastisement, in other words, twice the like of our chastisement, and curse them, chastise them, with numerous curses!’, with the equivalent number [of chastisements] (la‘nan kathīran, ‘numerous curses’, is also read la‘nan kabīran, [which means] ‘with a mighty curse’).

O you who believe, do not behave, towards your Prophet, as did those who harmed Moses — when they would say, for example, ‘The only reason he does not wash with us is that he has an inflammation in his testicles’ — whereat God absolved him of what they alleged: when Moses placed his robe on a rock to go to wash, the rock hurtled away with it until it came to a halt amid a group of men from the Children of Israel. As Moses chased it and took his robe to cover himself, they saw that he had no such inflammation (udra is an inflammation of the testicle). And he was distinguished in God’s sight. An instance of our Prophet (s) being subjected to hurt was when [on one occasion] while dividing up the spoils a man said to him, ‘This is a division that I do not want to please God!’, whereat the Prophet (s) became angered and said, ‘May God have mercy upon Moses, for truly he was hurt with worse than this, but endured’ — reported by al-Bukhārī.

O you who believe, fear God and speak words of integrity, what is proper.

He will rectify your deeds for you, He will accept them, and will forgive you your sins. And whoever obeys God and His Messenger has verily achieved a great success, he has attained his ultimate goal.

Indeed We offered the Trust — [the obligation to] prayer and other matters which, when performed, result in reward and when neglected, result in punishment — to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, and created in them the power of comprehension and speech [at the time of that offer], but they refused to bear it and were apprehensive of it; but man, Adam, undertook it, when it was offered to him. Truly he is a wrongdoer, to his own soul because of what he undertook, ignorant, of [the responsibility that comes with] it —

so that God may chastise (li-yu‘adhdhiba, the lām therein is semantically connected to ‘aradnā, ‘We offered’, which resulted in ‘Adam’s undertaking’) the hypocrites, men and women, and the idolaters, men and women, those who forsake the Trust, and that God may relent to the believing men and believing women, who fulfil the Trust. And God is Forgiving, to believers, Merciful, to them.

Praise be to God — God, exalted be He, praises Himself with these [words]; the import constitutes the eulogy that ‘praise’ is ever-established [for God] and it entails the attribution to Him of all that is beautiful, exalted be He — to Whom belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth, as possessions and creation. And to Him belongs [all] praise in the Hereafter, as in this world, for His friends praise Him as they enter Paradise. And He is the Wise, in what He does, the Aware, of His creatures.

He knows what penetrates the earth, of water and so forth, and what issues out of it, of vegetation and so on, and what comes down from the heaven, of provision and so on, and what ascends into it, of deeds and so on, and He is the Merciful, to His friends, the Forgiving, to them.

And those who disbelieve say, ‘The Hour, the Resurrection, will never come to us’. Say, to them: ‘Yes indeed, by my Lord, it shall come to you — [by] the Knower of the Unseen (read ‘ālimi’l-ghaybi as an adjectival qualification [of wa-rabbī, ‘by my Lord’], or read ‘ālimu’l-ghaybi, as the predicate of a [missing] subject [such as huwa, ‘He is’]; or read ‘allāmi’l-ghaybi). Not [even] the weight of an atom escapes, is hidden [from], Him in the heavens or in the earth, nor [is there] anything smaller than that or greater, but it is in a Manifest Book, namely, the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfūz),

that He may requite, thereat, those who believe and perform righteous deeds — for such there will be forgiveness and a fair provision, in Paradise.

And those who strive against, [who strive] to invalidate, Our signs, namely, the Qur’ān, deeming Us inomnipotent (mu‘ajjizīna, a variant reading [of this] here and later on [in verse 38, below] is mu‘ājizīna: [so that respectively these mean] ‘deeming that We are incapable’ [mu‘ajjizīna], or [if read mu‘ājizīna] ‘vying with Us, in order to elude Us’) for they suppose that there is no [such thing as] resurrection or punishment — for such there will be a chastisement of an awful punishment’ (read either alīmin or alīmun [respectively] as an adjectival qualification of rijzin, ‘punishment’ or ‘adhābun, ‘chastisement’).

And those who have been given knowledge — the believers from among the People of the Scripture, such as ‘Abd Allāh b. Salām and his companions — see, they know, that what has been revealed to you from your Lord, that is, the Qur’ān, is the, decisive, truth, and [that] it guides to the path, the way, of the Mighty, the Praised, in other words, of God, the Lord of Might Who is ever-praised.

And those who disbelieve say, that is, some of them say to others in order to provoke disbelief [in them]: ‘Shall we show you a man — namely, Muhammad (s) — who will inform you that when you have been utterly torn to pieces you shall indeed be created anew?’

Has he invented (read a’ftarā; the hamza, read with a fatha vowelling, is for the interrogative and suffices in place of the conjunctive hamza) a lie against God, in this [respect], or is there a madness in him, [does he suffer] a dementia on account of which he has imagined that? God, exalted be He, says: Nay, but those who do not believe in the Hereafter, that comprises resurrection and chastisement, will be in the chastisement, thereat, and in error that is far, from the truth, in this world.

Have they not observed what is before them and what is behind them, in other words, what is above them and what is beneath them, of heaven and earth? If We will [it], We can make the earth swallow them or let fall on them fragments (read kisfan or kisafan: ‘large pieces’) from the heaven (a variant reading has the third person singular for all three verbs [sc. yashā’, ‘He will’, yakhsif, ‘He makes to swallow’, yusqit, ‘He lets fall’]). Surely in that, which is observed, there is a sign for every penitent servant, turning back to his Lord, [signs] indicating God’s power to resurrect and to do what He will.

And verily We bestowed on David a [great] favour from Us — prophethood and scripture — and We said: ‘O mountains, repeat with him [in praise], by making glorifications, and the birds [too]!’ (read wa’l-tayra in the accusative as a supplement to the [syntactical] locus of jibāl, ‘mountains’, in other words, and We also called on them to glorify [God] with him). And We made iron malleable for him, so that it was as dough in his hands.

And We said: ‘Fashion, from it, long coats of mail — complete suits of armour which the person wearing it drags behind him along the ground — and measure [well] the links’, that is, in the weaving of the coats (the maker of these is called sarrād). In other words, make them so that the rings thereof are arranged properly. And act, O family of David, together with him, righteously. Indeed I am Seer of what you do, and will requite you for it accordingly.

And, We disposed, for Solomon the wind (the nominative reading of al-rīhu would be based on an implicit [missing verb] sakhkharnā, ‘We disposed’) its morning course, meaning its journey from the morning to the noon, was a month’s journey and its evening course, that is, its journey from the noon to sunset, was a month’s journey. And We caused a fount of [molten] copper to flow for him, in other words, We caused the copper to melt for him, and so the fount flowed for three days and nights like water, and to this day people have been using of that [copper] which was given to Solomon [at that time]. And of the jinn [there] were those who worked before him by the leave, by the command, of his Lord. And such of them as deviated from Our command, to him to obey him [Solomon], We would make them taste the chastisement of the Blaze, the Fire in the Hereafter — but it is also said, [that their chastisement was] in this world, in which case an angel would smite one of them with a lash thereof that would scorch him.

They fashioned for him whatever he wished: lofty shrines (mahārīb are high edifices which are ascended by stairs) and statues (tamāthīl is the plural of timthāl, which is any thing which you fashion as a likeness [of another]), in other words, brass, crystal or marble figures — the use of figures was not prohibited according to his Law; and basins (jifān is the plural of jafna) like cisterns (jawābin is the plural of jābiya, which is a large basin) — around each ‘basin’ a thousand men would gather to eat — and cauldrons built into the ground, fixed with foundations, and cannot be moved from their places: these were made from the [rocks of the] mountains of Yemen, and to which one ascended by climbing up a ladder. And We said: ‘Work, O, House of David, in obedience to God, in thankfulness, to Him for what He has given you. And few indeed of My servants are thankful’, labouring in obedience to Me in thanks for My favours.

And when We decreed for him, for Solomon, death, in other words, [when] he died — he remained supported against his staff an entire year, while the jinn continued to toil in hard labour as was customary, unaware of his death, until [finally] when a termite ate through his staff, he fell to the ground [and was seen to be] dead — nothing indicated to them that he had died except a termite (al-ard is the verbal noun from uridat al-khashaba, passive verbal form, in other words, ‘it [the piece of wood] was eaten away by a termite [al-arada]’) that gnawed away at his staff (read minsa’atahu or minsātahu, replacing the hamza with an alif, meaning a ‘staff’, so called because [when describing it one would say] yunsa’u bihā, to mean it is used to repel or drive away [creatures]’). And when he fell down, dead, the jinn realised, it became apparent to them, that (an, is softened, in other words, annahum) had they known the Unseen — comprising what was hidden from them in the way of Solomon being dead — they would not have continued in the humiliating chastisement, [in] that hard labour of theirs, [in which they continued] as they supposed him to be alive, which is in contrast to what they would have supposed had they known the Unseen and the fact that he had been there an entire year, judging by how much of the staff the termite had eaten through after his death; in other words, [they would not have continued in the humiliating chastisement] for a single day or even a single night [longer].

Verily there was for Sheba (Saba’, declined [as li-Saba’in] or left as indeclinable [li-Saba’a], is [the name of] a tribe that took its name from one of their Arab ancestors) in their dwelling-place, in Yemen, a sign: indicating God’s power, exalted be He, two gardens (jannatān, a substitution [for āyatun, ‘a sign’]) to the right and to the left, in other words, on the right side of their valley and on its left side. And it was said to them: ‘Eat of your Lord’s provision and give thanks to Him, for the graces He has bestowed on you in the land of Sheba. A good land — in which there was no dung, gnats, flies, fleas, scorpions, or snakes, and in which when a stranger passed through with his clothes lice-infected, these [lice] would be killed off because of the purity of its air — and, God is, a forgiving Lord.’

But they were disregardful, of giving thanks to Him and became disbelievers, so We unleashed upon them the flood of the Dam (al-‘arim is the plural of ‘arima, which is a structure or something similar that holds water back [to be stored] for when it is needed), in other words, [We unleashed upon them] the flood-waters of their valley which had been held back by the mentioned [structure] so that they engulfed their two gardens together with all their property. And We gave them in place of their two gardens two gardens bearing (dhawātay, a dual form of [feminine plural] dhawāt; usually [the form dhātay from] the singular [would have been used]) bitter fruit, bitter and vile (ukul may be read as a genitive annexation [ukulin khamtin] in the sense of ‘that which is eaten [thereof being bitter]; or it may be read without [as ukuli khamtin]; and this [phrase] is supplemented [by the following, wa-athlin wa-shay’in min sidrin qalīl) and tamarisk and sparse lote trees.

That, replacement [of what they had], is what We requited them with for their ingratitude: and is anyone but the ingrate ever [so] requited? (read hal yujāzā illā’l-kafūru; or read as hal nujāzī illā’l-kafūra, ‘Would We requite anyone but the ingrate?’), in other words, it is only the like of such who is called to account.

And We set between them, between Sheba, who were in Yemen, and the towns which We had blessed, with [abundance of] water and trees — these being the towns of Syria, to which they used to travel for commerce — prominent towns, continuous [along the route] from Yemen to Syria, and We facilitated [for travellers] the journeying through them, such that they would rest for the afternoon in one and spend the night in the next, [and so on] until the end of their travel, having no need of any supplies or water along the way; and We said, ‘Travel through them night and day safely’, having no fear by night or by day.

But they said, ‘Our Lord, make far apart (ba‘‘id: a variant reading has bā‘id) the stages of our travel’, to Syria: make these [stages through] deserts, so that they could glory before the poor in riding their camels and bearing their supplies and water, and so they behaved wantonly with the graces [bestowed on them by God], and they wronged their souls, through disbelief, and so We made them bywords, [of wrongdoing] in this respect, for those who came after them, and We caused them to disintegrate totally, We scattered them all over the lands. Surely in that, which is mentioned, there are signs, lessons, for every [servant who is] steadfast, [in refraining] from acts of disobedience, grateful, for [God’s] graces.

And verily Iblīs proved true (read sadaqa or saddaqa) his opinion of them, that is, of the disbelievers among them — [the folk of] Sheba — which was that by his tempting them to go astray, they would follow him. So they followed him ([if the verb above is read] sadaqa, this would mean that ‘he was right in his opinion’, and [if read] saddaqa, it would mean that ‘he found this [opinion of his] to be true’) — [all] except a group of the believers (mina’l-mu’minīna, [the min, ‘of’] is explicative [not partitive], in other words, [all except that group] who were the believers: they did not follow him).

And he did not have any warrant over them, any power to sway [them], from Us, but that We might know, by [this] knowledge being made manifest, him who believed in the Hereafter from him who was in doubt thereof, and so requite each of the two accordingly. And your Lord is Preserver, Watcher, of all things.

Say, O Muhammad (s), to the disbelievers of Mecca: ‘Call on those whom you have asserted, those whom you have asserted to be gods, besides God, in other words, other than Him, so that they might benefit you, as you are wont to assert. God, exalted be He, says of them: They do not possess [even] so much as the weight of an atom, of good or evil, in the heavens or in the earth, and they do not have any share in either of them, nor has He, exalted be He, among them, the gods, any auxiliary’, [anyone required as His] helper.

And intercession will not avail with Him, exalted be He — this was in response to their saying that their gods would intercede [for them] with Him — except for him to whom leave is given, in this respect (read adhina, ‘[to whom] He gives leave’; or udhina, ‘[to whom] leave is given’). Yet, when fear is banished from their hearts (read active fazza‘a, or passive fuzzi‘a), [when fear] is removed from them, upon leave being given for this [intercession], they will say — some will say to others in anticipation of a favourable outcome — ‘What has your Lord said?’, concerning this. They will say: [He has said] the saying that is, ‘The truth’, in other words, leave has been given for it. And He is the Exalted, above His creation, by [His] subjugation [of them], the Great, the Tremendous.

Say: ‘Who provides for you from the heavens, rain, and [from] the earth?’, vegetation. Say: ‘God!’ — [even] if they do not say it, there is no other [valid] answer. And indeed either we or you are — in other words [either] one of the two parties [is] — rightly guided or in manifest error. The ambiguity here [concerning which of the two is rightly guided] is intended as a gentle invitation for them to [embrace] faith if their way to it is facilitated [by God].

Say: ‘You will not be questioned about the sins we committed, nor shall we be questioned about what you do’, for we are quit of you.

Say: ‘Our Lord will bring us together, on the Day of Resurrection, then He will judge between us with truth, and He will admit the truthful into Paradise and the liars into the Fire. And He is the Judge, the Knowing’, in what He judges.

Say: ‘Show me, apprise me of, those whom you have joined to Him as associates, in worship. No indeed! — [this is] meant to deter them from [even] supposing that He has an associate. Rather He is God, the Mighty, Whose way will prevail, the Wise’, in the way in which He manages [the affairs of] His creation and so He could not have any associate in His kingdom.

And We did not send you except to all (kāffatan is a circumstantial qualifier referring to al-nās, ‘mankind’, and is made to precede [li’l-nās] because of the importance attached to it) of mankind [both] as a bearer of good tidings, to believers, of Paradise, and a warner, to the disbelievers, of chastisement, but most people, such as the disbelievers of Mecca, do not know, this.

And they say, ‘When shall this promise, of chastisement, be [fulfilled], if you are being truthful?’, concerning it.

Say: ‘Yours is the tryst of a Day which you can neither defer nor advance by a single hour’, and this is the Day of Resurrection.

And those who disbelieve, from among the people of Mecca, say, ‘We will not believe in this Qur’ān, nor in that which was [revealed] before it’ — in other words, what preceded it, such as the Torah and the Gospel, both of which contain proofs of the Resurrection — because they reject the truth of this [last]. God, exalted be He, says of them: But if you were to see, O Muhammad (s), when the evildoers, the disbelievers, are brought to stand before their Lord, bandying arguments against one another. Those who were oppressed — the followers — will say to those who were arrogant — the leaders: ‘Had it not been for you, barring us from faith, we would have been believers’, in the Prophet.

Those who were arrogant will say to those who were oppressed, ‘Was it us who barred you from guidance after it had come to you?, Nay! Rather you were guilty’, of your own accord.

And those who were oppressed will say to those who were arrogant, ‘Nay, but [it was your] scheming night and day, in other words, [such were] your schemes against us during both [of these times], when you used to command us to disbelieve in God and set up partners with Him’. And they, that is, the two parties, will conceal their remorse, for not having believed in Him, when they see the chastisement, in other words, each person will hide it [his remorse] from the next for fear of being reviled; and We will place fetters around the necks of the disbelievers, [while they are] in the Fire. Shall they be requited except, the requital, for what they used to do?, in the world.

And We did not send a warner to any town without its affluent ones, its leaders, those enjoying [life’s] comforts, saying, ‘Indeed we disbelieve in that [Message] with which you have been sent’.

And they say, ‘We possess more wealth and children, than those who are believers, and we shall not be chastised’.

Say: ‘Truly my Lord extends provision, He makes it abundant, for whomever He will, as a test, and restricts [it], for whomever He will, to try [them], but most people, such as the disbelievers of Mecca, do not know’, this [truth].

Nor is it your wealth or your children that will bring you near to Us in closeness, except for, but [it is], those who believe and act righteously: those, they shall have a twofold reward for what they did, in other words, [they shall have it] as the reward of their action — as a good deed, for example, is rewarded tenfold or more — and they shall be in the lofty abodes, of Paradise, secure, from death and otherwise (a variant reading [for al-ghurufāt] is al-ghurfa [the generic noun] implying a plural).

And those who strive against Our signs, namely, the Qur’ān, [seeking] to invalidate it, supposing [Us] to be inomnipotent — or [supposing] that they can elude Us — those, they will be arraigned into the chastisement.

Say: ‘My Lord extends provision, He makes it abundant, for whomever He will of His servants, as a test, and restricts [it] for him, after having extended it — or [He restricts it] for him whom He will to try, and whatever thing you may expend, for [the cause of] good, He will replace it. And He is the best of providers’. It is said that every man ‘provides for’ his dependants (yarzuqu ‘ā’ilatahu), meaning that [he does so] from the provision given [to him] by God.

And, mention, on the Day when He will gather them all together, namely, [all] the idolaters, He will say to the angels, ‘Was it these who used to worship you?’ (read a-hā’ūlā’i iyyākum, pronouncing both hamzas, or by replacing the first with a yā’ or dropping it altogether).

They will say, ‘Glory be to You, exalted above that You should have an associate! You are our Supporter, not they, in other words, as far as we are concerned there are no bonds of association between us and them. Nay, (bal, is to indicate transition) rather, they used to worship the jinn, the devils, in other words, [they used to] obey them and [agree to] worship us; most of them were believers in them’, accepting as truth what these [jinn] used to say to them.

God, exalted be He, says: ‘So today none among you has any power over another, in other words, none of those worshipped [have any power] over any of those who worshipped, either to benefit, [through] intercession, or to hurt’, [through] chastisement. And We shall say to those who did wrong, who disbelieved: ‘Taste the chastisement of the Fire which you used to deny!’

And when Our signs, [from] the Qur’ān, are recited to them, [being] clear signs, evident [ones], by the tongue of our Prophet Muhammad (s), they say, ‘This is just a man who desires to bar you from [worshipping] what your fathers used to worship’, of idols. And they say, ‘This, Qur’ān, is nothing but a calumny, a lie, that has been invented, against God. And those who disbelieve say to the truth, the Qur’ān, when it comes to them, ‘This is nothing but plain sorcery’. God, exalted be He, says:

And We did not give them any scriptures for them to study, nor did We send them any warner before you, so on what grounds do they deny you?

And those who were before them [also] denied, and they, these ones [the Meccans], have not received [even] a tenth of what We gave those [others], in the way of might, long life and abundance of wealth. Yet they denied My messengers, [who were sent] to them, so how was My abhorrence! [so how was] My rebuttal against them through punishment and destruction, in other words, it was appropriate.

Say: ‘I will give you just one [piece of] admonition: namely, that you rise up for God, in other words, for His sake, in twos and individually, and then reflect: and realise [that], there is no madness in your companion, Muhammad (s). He is just a warner to you before [the befalling of] a severe chastisement’, in the Hereafter, if you disobey him.

Say, to them: ‘I have not asked you, in return for [my] warning and delivering the Message [to you], any reward, since it is for [the benefit of] you, in other words, I do not ask you for any reward in return for this. Indeed my reward lies only with God, and He is Witness over all things’, observing [them all], knowing my truthfulness.

Say: ‘Indeed my Lord hurls the truth, He casts it onto His prophets — [He is] the Knower of the Unseen’, [of] all that is hidden from His creatures throughout the heavens and the earth.

Say: ‘The truth, Islam, has come. And falsehood, disbelief, neither originates nor restores [anything]’, in other words, it leaves no trace [of itself] behind.

Say: ‘If I go astray, from the truth, I will be going astray only to my own loss, that is to say, the sin of my going astray shall be held against me; and if I am rightly guided, it will have been by what my Lord reveals to me, of the Qur’ān and wisdom. Truly He is Hearer, of supplications, Nigh’.

If you could but see, O Muhammad (s), when they are stricken with terror, at the Resurrection, you would see a dreadful thing, and so there is no escape, for them, from Us, that is to say, they will not [be able to] elude Us, and they are seized from a close quarter, namely, [from] the graves.

And they will say, ‘We believe in him [now]’, in other words, [in] Muhammad (s) — or [if read ‘We believe in it’, then] in the Qur’ān. But how can they attain [it] (read tanāwush or tanā’ush), that is, attain faith, from a place that is far away, from the place for [attaining] it — as they are [now] in the Hereafter, and the [proper] place for [attaining] it was in this world —

when they disbelieved in it before?, in this world. And they throw guesses at the Unseen from a far-off place, in other words, [they make guesses] about something the knowledge of which was hidden far away from them, as when they would say that the Prophet was a sorcerer, or a poet, or a soothsayer, or that the Qur’ān was sorcery, poetry or soothsaying.

And a barrier is set between them and what they crave, in the way of faith — in other words, [their craving] to embrace it — just as was done with their counterparts, in [respect to] disbelief, formerly, in other words, before them. Indeed they used to be in grave doubt, [doubt] causing them to have misgivings about that in which they now believe, but the proofs for which they never considered in this world.