[51:4]

and those that apportion by command: the angels who distribute provisions and the rains and other things
across the lands and to [all] servants,

[51:5]

assuredly what you are promised (mā, ‘what’, relates to the verbal action), in other words, the promise
given to them of resurrection and other matters, is true, is indeed a true promise,

[51:6]

and assuredly judgement, requital after the reckoning, will take place!, without doubt.

[51:7]

And by the heaven with all its tracks (hubuk is the plural of habīka, similar [in pattern and meaning] to
turuq, tarīqa, ‘paths’), that is to say, [by the heaven] that is created with tracks similar to tracks made in the
sand,

[51:8]

indeed you, O people of Mecca, with regard to the matter of the Prophet (s) and the Qur’ān, are of differing
opinions: some say [of the Prophet that he is] ‘a poet’, ‘a sorcerer’, or ‘a soothsayer’, and [of the Qur’ān,
that it is] ‘poetry’, ‘sorcery’, or ‘soothsaying’.

[51:9]

He is turned away therefrom, from the Prophet (s) and the Qur’ān, that is, [turned away] from believing
therein, who has deviated, [who has been] turned away from guidance in God’s, exalted be He.

[51:10]

Perish the conjecturers, accursed be the liars, those of differing opinions,

[51:11]

who are in a stupor, in ignorance that has stupefied them, heedless, oblivious of the matter of the Hereafter.

[51:12]

They ask, the Prophet, asking [him] derisively: ‘When is the Day of Judgement?’, in other words, ‘when will
it come?’, and the response [given] to them is that it will come:

[51:13]

on the day when they will be tormented in the Fire, that is to say, chastised in it, and it will be said to them
during the chastisement:

[51:14]

‘Taste this torment of yours, this chastisement of yours. This, chastisement, is what you sought to hasten
on!’, in the world in derision.

[51:15]

613
Truly the God-fearing will be amid gardens, orchards, and springs, flowing therein,

[51:16]

receiving (ākhidhīna is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the person of the predicate of inna, ‘truly’) what
their Lord has given them, of reward, for indeed formerly, [before] their entering Paradise, they had been
virtuous, in the world.

[51:17]

Little of the night did they use to sleep (mā is extra; yahja‘ūna is the predicate of kānū; qalīlan, ‘little’, is an
adverb), in other words, they used to sleep for a small portion of the night and perform prayers during most
of it,

[51:18]

and at dawns they used to seek forgiveness: they used say, ‘Our Lord! Forgive us’,

[51:19]

and there was a share in their wealth [assigned] for the beggar and the deprived, [the latter being] the one
who does not beg, because of his self-restraint.

[51:20]

And in the earth, in the way of mountains, seas, trees, fruits, plants and other things, there are signs,
indications of God’s power, glory be to Him, exalted be He, and of His Oneness, for those who know with
certainty,

[51:21]

and in your souls, there are also signs, from the beginning of your creation to its end, and in the marvelous
aspects of your creation. Will you not then perceive?, [all] that and thus infer therefrom the Creator of it and
His power.

[51:22]

And in the heaven is your provision, that is, the rain from which results the vegetation that is [your]
provision, and [there is also] what you are promised, in the way of [the ultimate] return, reward and
punishment, in other words, all of this is foreordained in the heaven.

[51:23]

So by the Lord of the heaven and the earth, it, that which you are promised, is as assuredly true as [the
fact] that you have [power of] speech (read mithlu, in the nominative, as an adjective, with the mā being
extra; or read mithla, in the accusative, as being a compound with mā), that is to say: [it is as true] as your
speech is in reality, that is, in your knowing it to be [true] necessarily by its issuing from you.

[51:24]

Has the story reached you — addressing the Prophet (s) — of Abraham’s honoured guests? — these were
[said to be either] twelve, ten or three angels, one of whom was Gabriel.

[51:25]

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When (idh is an adverbial qualifier of hadīthu dayfi, ‘the story of the guests’) they entered upon him and
said, ‘Peace!’ — in other words [they said] these very words. He said, ‘Peace!’ — [also] these very words —
[These are] an unfamiliar folk, whom we do not know — he said this to himself (qawmun munkarūna is the
predicate of an implicit subject such as hā’ūlā’i, ‘these are’).

[51:26]

Then he went aside to his family, secretly, and brought a fat calf — in sūrat Hūd [it is said], a roasted calf
[Q. 11:69] —

[51:27]

and he placed it near them saying, ‘Will you not eat?’: he invited them to eat, but they did not respond.

[51:28]

Then he conceived, he kept secret in himself, a fear of them. They said, ‘Do not be afraid!’, we are
messengers from your Lord. And they gave him good tidings of [the birth of] a knowledgeable boy, one
endowed with much knowledge, and this was Isaac, as mentioned in sūrat Hūd [Q. 11:71].

[51:29]

Then his wife, Sarah, came forward clamouring, shouting (fī sarratin is a circumstantial qualifier, that is to
say, she came shouting) and smote, slapped, her face, and said, ‘A barren old woman!’, who has never
given birth to a child, aged ninety-nine, with Abraham being one hundred years old; or [alternatively] he
was a hundred and twenty years old and she was ninety years old.

[51:30]

They said, ‘So, just like what we have said with regard to the good tiding, has your Lord said. Indeed He is
the Wise, in His actions, the Knower’, of His creatures.

[51:31]

He said, ‘So what is your business, O you who have been sent [by God]?’

[51:32]

They said, ‘Lo! we have been sent to a guilty folk, disbelievers — these were the people of Lot —

[51:33]

that we may unleash upon them stones of clay, baked in fire,

[51:34]

marked, bearing the name of the person at whom it will be hurled, by your Lord (‘inda rabbika is an
adverbial qualifier of musawwamatan, ‘marked’) for [the destruction of] the prodigal’, for coming unto males
in addition to their disbelief.

[51:35]

So We brought forth those in them, that is, [in] the towns of the people of Lot, who were believers, in order
to destroy the disbelievers;

[51:36]

615
but We did not find therein other than one house of those who had submitted [to God]: these were Lot and
his two daughters. They have been described [here] with [the terms] ‘belief’ and ‘submission’ because they
had affirmed [faith] in their hearts and used their limbs to perform acts of obedience.

[51:37]

And We left therein, after destroying the disbelievers, a sign, an indication of their destruction, for those
who fear the painful chastisement, so that they may not do what these [sinners] did.

[51:38]

And [a sign too] in Moses (wa-fī Mūsā is a supplement to fīhā, ‘therein’), that is to say, We also left a sign in
the story of Moses, when We sent him to Pharaoh, vested, with a clear warrant, with a manifest proof;

[51:39]

but he turned away, he rejected belief, to his supports (bi-ruknihi), his hosts, [so called] because to him
they are like a support [rukn], saying, to Moses that he [Moses] was: ‘A sorcerer, or a madman!’

[51:40]

So We seized him and his hosts and cast, flung, them into the waters, the sea, and so they drowned, for he,
that is, Pharaoh, was blameworthy, guilty of what is blameworthy, such as denying the messengers and
claiming divinity.

[51:41]

And [also] in, the destruction of, ‘Ād, was a sign, when We unleashed against them a barren wind, [a wind]
which brings nothing of good, for it does not bear any rain and does not pollinate any trees; this [wind] was
the west wind (al-dabūr).

[51:42]

It did not leave anything, any soul or property, that it came upon without making it like decayed bones, like
something that is withered and in scattered pieces.

[51:43]

And [also] in, the destruction of, Thamūd, was a sign, when it was said to them, after the hamstringing of
the she-camel, ‘Enjoy [yourselves] for a while!’, until the end of your terms [of life] — as stated in the
[other] verse, ‘Enjoy [yourselves] in your dwellings for three days’ [Q.11:65].

[51:44]

Then they defied, they scorned, the command of their Lord, [refraining] from implementing it; so the
thunderbolt, that is, the destructive cry, seized them, after the three days had passed, as they were looking
around, in other words, [it seized them] in the daytime.

[51:45]

So they were unable to rise up, they could not get up upon the sending down of the chastisement, nor were
they victors, over the One Who destroyed them.

[51:46]

616
And the people of Noah (read wa qawmi Nūhin, as a supplement to Thamūda, in other words: ‘in the
destruction of these [two peoples] by what [destructive power] exists in the heavens and the earth there is
[also] a sign’; or read wa qawma Nūhin, in other words, ‘We also destroyed the people of Noah’) aforetime,
that is, before the destruction of those mentioned. Indeed they were an immoral lot.

[51:47]

And the heaven, We built it with might, and indeed We are powerful (one says āda’l-rajulu or ya’īdu, to
mean, ‘he is strong’; and awsa‘a’l-rajulu, to mean, ‘he has become capable [dhū sa‘a] and strong’).

[51:48]

And the earth, We spread it out: We made it level: what excellent Spreaders then!, We are.

[51:49]

And of all things (wa-min kulli shay’in is semantically connected to His [following] words khalaqnā) We
created pairs, two kinds, such as male and female, heaven and earth, sun and moon, plain and mountain,
summer and winter, sweet and bitter, light and darkness, that perhaps you might remember (tadhakkarūna:
one of the two original tā’ letters [of tatadhakkarūna] has been omitted), and hence realise that the Creator
of pairs is [Himself] Singular, that you might then worship him.

[51:50]

So flee unto God, that is to say, away from His punishment toward His reward by being obedient to Him and
not disobeying Him. Truly I am a clear warner to you from Him.

[51:51]

And do not set up another god alongside God. Truly I am a clear warner to you from Him (before fa-firrū,
‘so flee’, one may read an implicit [preceding] qul lahum, ‘Say to them’).

[51:52]

Thus there did not come to those who were before them any messenger but they said, that he was: ‘A
sorcerer, or a madman!’, in other words, their denial of you, by saying that you are a sorcerer or a madman,
was like the denial of communities before them of their messengers by saying that [same thing].

[51:53]

Have they, all, enjoined this upon one another? (an interrogative intended as a denial). Nay, but they are an
insolent folk, [a folk] whose own [proclivity to] insolence has made them all say the same thing.

[51:54]

So shun them, for you will not be reproached, because you have conveyed the Message to them.

[51:55]

And remind, admonish by the Qur’ān, for reminding truly benefits believers, [these being] those whom God
knows that they will believe.

[51:56]

And I did not create the jinn and mankind except that they may worship Me: the fact that disbelievers do
not worship [God] does not contradict this [statement], since a purpose does not have to be realised [in an

617
act, for it to be valid], as when you may say: ‘I sharpened this pencil in order to write with it’, even though
you might not actually write with it.

[51:57]

I do not desire from them any provision, [either] for Myself, for themselves, or for others, nor do I desire
that they should feed Me, or [feed] themselves or others.

[51:58]

Indeed it is God Who is the Provider, the Lord of Strength, the Firm, the Stern.

[51:59]

And for those who have wronged, their souls through disbelief, from among the people of Mecca and others,
there will assuredly be a lot, a share of chastisement, like the lot, the share, of their counterparts, who
perished before them. So let them not ask Me to hasten on, the chastisement, should I give them respite
until the Day of Resurrection.

[51:60]

For woe, a terrible chastisement [will come], to those who disbelieve, from, upon, that day of theirs which
they are promised, that is, the Day of Resurrection.
Meccan, consisting of 49 verses.

(At-Tûr)
[52:1]

By the Mount, that is, the [name of the] mountain on which God spoke to Moses,

[52:2]

and an inscribed Book,

[52:3]

on an unrolled parchment, that is, the Torah or the Qur’ān.

[52:4]

By the [greatly] frequented House — which is [located] in the third, or the sixth or the seventh heaven,
directly above the Ka‘ba; it is visited every day by seventy thousand angels, circumambulating it and
performing prayers [around it], and never returning to it;

[52:5]

and the raised roof, that is to say, the heaven,

[52:6]

and the swarming sea: that is to say, the one that is filled:

[52:7]

lo! your Lord’s chastisement will assuredly take place, it will assuredly come down on those who deserve it;

618
[52:8]

there is none that can avert it, from such [a deserving one].

[52:9]

On the day (yawma is operated by la-wāqi‘un, ‘will assuredly take place’) when the heaven will heave with a
great heaving, [when it will] move and spin,

[52:10]

and the mountains move with a great motion, becoming scattered dust, this is the Day of Resurrection.

[52:11]

Woe then, terrible chastisement [will come], on that day to the deniers, of the messengers,

[52:12]

those who play around in vain talk, [in] falsehood, that is to say, those who are busily engaged with their
disbelief;

[52:13]

the day when they will be thrust with a violent thrust into Hell, [when] they will be pushed violently (this
[last clause, yawma yuda‘‘ūna ilā nāri jahannama da‘‘an] is a substitution for yawma tamūru, ‘the day when
[the heaven] will heave’) and it will be said to them in reproach:

[52:14]

‘This is the Fire which you used to deny!

[52:15]

Is this then sorcery, [this] chastisement that you see — as you were wont to say about the revelation, that it
was sorcery — or is it that you do not see?

[52:16]

Burn in it! And whether you endure, it, or do not endure, your endurance and your anguish, will be the same
for you, because your endurance will be of no use to you. You are only being requited for what you used to
do’, that is to say, [only] the requital for it.

[52:17]

Truly the God-fearing will be amid gardens and bliss,

[52:18]

rejoicing, delighting, in what (bi-mā relates to the verbal action) their Lord has given them, and [that] their
Lord has shielded them from the chastisement of Hell-fire (wa-waqāhum rabbuhum ‘adhāba’l-jahīmi is a
supplement to ātāhum, ‘[what He] has given them’, in other words, [rejoicing] in their having been given
[this reward] and shielded [from Hell-fire]).

[52:19]

619
And it will said to them: ‘Eat and drink in full enjoyment (hanī’an is a circumstantial qualifier, that is to say,
muhanna’īna) [as a reward] for what (bi-mā: the bi- is causative) you used to do’.

[52:20]

[They will be] reclining (muttaki’īna is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the concealed subject of God’s
words fī jannātin, ‘amid gardens’) on ranged couches, [arranged] one next to the other, and We will wed
them (zawwajnāhum is a supplement to jannātin, ‘gardens’, meaning ‘We will couple them’) to beautiful
houris, of wide and beautiful eyes.

[52:21]

And those who believed (wa’lladhīna āmanū, the subject) and whom We made to be followed (wa-
atba‘nāhum: a variant reading has wa’ttaba‘athum, ‘and there followed them’, as a supplement to āmanū,
‘who believed’) by their descendants (dhurrīyātihim: a variant reading [for this plural] has dhurrīyatuhum),
young and old, in faith, on the part of the older ones and on the part of the parents in [their] young ones
(the predicate [of the subject above] is [the following, alhaqnā bihim), We will make their, mentioned,
descendants join them, in Paradise, so that they are in the same degree [of reward], even though they
might not have performed the same [meritorious] deeds as them [to deserve this equal status], a way of
honouring the parents by having their children join them [again]; and We will not deprive them (read
alatnāhum or alitnāhum), [We will not] diminish [them], of anything (min shay’in: min is extra) of their
deeds, in order to add it to the deeds of their children. Every man is subject to what he has earned, of good
or evil deeds, and will be requited for evil and rewarded for good.

[52:22]

And We will supply them, We will enhance for them [their provision], from time to time, with fruits and
meat, such as they desire, even if they do not request it openly.

[52:23]

They will pass from one to another therein, in Paradise, a cup, [of] wine, wherein is neither vain talk, which
might come about between them as a result of drinking it, nor cause for sin, thereby, that might befall them
— in contrast to [the case with] the wine of this world.

[52:24]

And there will circulate from all around them, for service, youths, delicate [in demeanour], of their own, as
if, in terms of their beauty and immaculateness, they were hidden pearls, preserved inside shells, because
when it [a pearl] is inside it, it is better than one that is not.

[52:25]

And some among them will turn to one another, questioning each other — they ask one another about how
they were in the past and what they have now attained, in their delight and acknowledgement of the grace
[of God to them].

[52:26]

They say, as an intimation of the reason for this attainment: ‘Truly, before, amid our families, in the world,
we used to be ever anxious, afraid of God’s chastisement;

[52:27]

but God showed us favour, through [His] forgiveness, and shielded us from the piercing chastisement (al-

620
samūm), the Fire, so called because it penetrates the pores (al-masāmm); and they say, also by way of
intimation:

[52:28]

indeed before, that is, in the world, we used to call on Him, worship Him, affirming His Oneness. Verily He is
(read innahu as the beginning of a new [independent] sentence, even if it introduces the reason in terms of
its import; or read annahu as a reason in terms of the [syntactical] order of the words) the Benign, the
Beneficent, the True to His promise, the Merciful, One of tremendous mercy.

[52:29]

So remind, persist in reminding the idolaters and do not desist [from this] even if they say to you that you
are a soothsayer or a madman. For by the grace of your Lord, by His bestowal of grace on you, you are
neither soothsayer (bi-kāhinin is the predicate of mā) nor madman (wa-lā majnūnin, a supplement to it).

[52:30]

Or (am means bal) do they say, that he is: ‘A poet, for whom we may await the accidents of fate?’, the
vicissitudes of time, so that he will just die like other poets.

[52:31]

Say: ‘Await!, my death. For I too will be with you awaiting’, your death. They were then chastised with
[death by] the sword on the day of Badr.

[52:32]

Or do their faculties of understanding prompt them to [say] this?, their saying to him: [you are either] a
sorcerer, a poet, a soothsayer or a madman, in other words, they do not [in reality] prompt them to [say]
this. Or (am, [in effect] means bal, ‘rather’) are they a rebellious lot?, because of their obstinacy.

[52:33]

Or do they say, ‘He has improvised it?’, he has concocted the Qur’ān. He has not concocted it; Rather they
do not believe, out of arrogance. If they [continue to] say that he has concocted it:

[52:34]

Then let them bring a, concocted, discourse like it, if they are truthful, in what they say.

[52:35]

Or were they created out of nothing?, [that is] without a Creator. Or are they the creators?, of themselves.
It makes no sense for a created thing to have no creator, nor can a thing that will cease to existent [have
the power to] create. There must be a Creator of them, and that is God, the One, so why do they not affirm
His Oneness and believe in His Messenger and His Book?

[52:36]

Or did they create the heavens and the earth? Nor can any but God, the Creator, have created them, so why
do they not worship Him? Nay, but they are not certain, of Him, for otherwise they would have believed in
His Prophet.

[52:37]

621
Or do they possess the treasuries of your Lord?, in the way of prophethood, provision and other matters, so
that they are able to assign what they will exclusively to whom they will? Or are they the ones in control?,
[or] are they the mighty ones who hold sway? (the verb [from musaytirūna] is saytara, similar [in root form]
to baytara, ‘to practice veterinary medicine’, or bayqara, ‘to corrupt’, ‘to ruin’).

[52:38]

Or do they have a ladder, a means of ascension into the heaven, whereby they eavesdrop?, that is, at the
top of which [they listen in], on the conversations of the angels, so that they are then able to dispute with
the Prophet, as they claim. If that is what they assert: Then let their eavesdropper, [let] the one claiming to
be able to listen [in on their conversations] on top of this [ladder], produce a manifest warrant, a plain and
evident proof. Now, on account of the similarity of this assertion to their assertion that the angels are the
daughters of God, He, exalted be He, says:

[52:39]

Or does He have daughters, as you claim, whereas you have sons? Exalted be God above what you claim!

[52:40]

Or are you asking them for a fee, a wage in return for what you have brought them in the way of religion,
so that they are weighed down with debt?, [with] the liability for this, so that they are unable to submit [to
God].

[52:41]

Or do they have [access to] the Unseen, that is, the knowledge of it, so that they can write it down?, and
are hence able to dispute with the Prophet (s) regarding the Resurrection and the matters relating to the
Hereafter, as they claim.

[52:42]

Or do they desire to outmanoeuvre?, you and have you killed, at the Assembly Council. But those who
disbelieve, they are the outmanoeuvred ones!, the vanquished and the ones destroyed. God preserved him
from them and then destroyed them at Badr.

[52:43]

Or do they have a god other than God? Glory be to God [exalted is He] above any partners that they may
ascribe!, to Him in the way of gods (the succession of interrogatives with am, ‘or’, are intended to express
censure and rebuke).

[52:44]

And if they were to see a fragment, a portion, of the heaven falling, on them — as they say, Then make
fragments of the heaven fall upon us [Q. 26:187], as a chastisement for them — they would say, this is: ‘A
heap of clouds!’, piled on top of one another, that will bring us water; and so they do not believe.

[52:45]

So leave them until they encounter that day of theirs in which they will be thunderstruck, [in which] they will
die;

[52:46]

the day when their guile will avail them nothing (yawma lā yughnī is a substitution for yawmahumu, ‘that

622
day of theirs’) and they will not be helped, they will [not] be protected from the chastisement in the
Hereafter.

[52:47]

And assuredly for those who do wrong, by their [persistence in] disbelief, there is a chastisement beyond
that, in this world, before their death — thus they were punished with famine and drought for seven years,
and with being killed on the day of Badr; but most of them do not know, that the chastisement will befall
them.

[52:48]

And submit patiently to the judgement of your Lord, that they be reprieved, and do not be grieved, for
surely you fare before Our eyes, [you are] in Our sight, We see you and preserve you. And glorify,
continuously, with praise of your Lord, that is to say, say subhāna’Llāhi wa bi-hamdihi, ‘Glory, and praise, be
to God!’, when you rise, from your sleeping-place or your sitting-place,

[52:49]

and glorify Him at night — also in actual [utterance] — and at the receding of the stars (idbāra is a verbal
noun), that is to say, also glorify Him after these have set; or [it means] in the case of the former, perform
the two evening prayers, and in the case of the latter, the two units (rak‘a) of the dawn prayer, or — it is
said — the morning prayer.
Meccan, except for verse 32, which is Medinese; it consists of 62 verses.

(An-Najm)
[53:1]

By the Star — the constellation Pleiades (al-thurayya) — when it sets, [when] it disappears,

[53:2]

your companion, Muhammad (s), may God bless him and grant him peace, has neither gone astray, from
the path of guidance, nor has he erred, nor has he engaged in error (al-ghayy is ignorance that results from
a false belief);

[53:3]

nor does he, in regard to what he brings you, speak out of [his own] desire, [out of] the whims of his soul.

[53:4]

It is but a revelation that is revealed, to him,

[53:5]

it is, taught to him by, an angel, one of awesome power,

[53:6]

possessed of vigour, of strength and might (or [alternatively it, dhū mirratin, means] possessed of a
beautiful appearance), namely, Gabriel, peace be upon him; and he stood upright, he settled,

[53:7]

623
when he was on the highest horizon, the horizon of the sun, that is to say, at the place from which it rises,
in the form in which he [Gabriel] was created, so that the Prophet (s) saw him; he [the Prophet] had been
at [Mount] Hirā’, where Gabriel had obscured the entire horizon to the west. The Prophet fell down
swooning, after he had asked him [Gabriel] to show himself to him in the form in which he was created.
Thus Gabriel had made a tryst with him at Hirā’, where he came down to him in human form.

[53:8]

Then he drew near, he came close to him, and drew closer still,

[53:9]

until he was, from him [the Prophet], within the length of two bows away or [even] nearer, than that, until
he [the Prophet] had regained consciousness and his fright had subsided,

[53:10]

whereat He, [God] exalted be He, revealed to His servant, Gabriel, what he, Gabriel, revealed, to the
Prophet (s); the thing being revealed is not mentioned [explicitly] in exaltation of its [great] status.

[53:11]

The heart, the heart of the Prophet, did not deny (read khadhaba or kadhdhaba) what he saw, with his own
eyes of the image of Gabriel.

[53:12]

Will you then dispute with him, will you [then] argue with him and [hope to] overwhelm him, concerning
what he saw? — an address to the idolaters who denied the Prophet’s (s) vision of Gabriel.

[53:13]

And verily he saw him, in his [true] image, another time,

[53:14]

by the Lote-tree of the Ultimate Boundary, when he was carried on the night journey [up] through the
heavens — this [lote-tree] is a nabk thorn-tree [that lies] to the right of the Throne (‘arsh), [the tree]
beyond which no angel or any other being pass;

[53:15]

near which is the Garden of the Retreat, to which the angels, the spirits of martyrs and the pious retreat;

[53:16]

when there shrouded the Lote-tree that which shrouded [it], of flying creatures and other [beings] (idh,
‘when’, is operated by ra’āhu, ‘he saw him’),

[53:17]

The eye did not swerve, on the part of the Prophet (s), nor did it go beyond [the bounds], that is to say, his
gaze did not turn away from the object of vision designated for it, nor did it go beyond that [object] on that
night.

[53:18]

624
Verily he saw, in it, some of the greatest signs of his Lord, [some of] the most awesome [of these signs]. He
thus saw from among the marvels of the Realm (malakūt) a green drape (rafraf) that obscured the [entire]
horizon of the heaven and Gabriel with his six hundred wings.

[53:19]

Have you considered al-Lāt and al-‘Uzzā,

[53:20]

and Manāt, the third, of the preceding two, the other? (al-ukhrā, a derogatory qualification of the third one).
These were stone idols which the idolaters worshipped and which they claimed interceded for them with God
(the first direct object of a-fa-ra’aytum, ‘have you seen’, is al-Lāt and what has been supplemented thereto;
the second [direct object] has been omitted). The meaning then is, ‘Inform Me: do these idols have the
power over anything, such that you worship them besides God Who has the power over all that has been
mentioned?’ And because of their assertion also that the angels were God’s daughters, despite their aversion
to daughters, the following was revealed:

[53:21]

Are you to have males, and He females?

[53:22]

That, then, would indeed be an unfair division! (dīzān, ‘unfair’, derives from dāzahu, yadīzuhu, to mean: ‘he
wronged him’, ‘he was unjust to him’).

[53:23]

These, that is, the mentioned [deities], are nothing but names which you have named, by which you have
named, you and your fathers, idols that you worship. God has not revealed any warrant, [any] proof or
evidence, for them, that is to say, [for] the worship of them. They follow nothing but conjecture, in their
worship of them, and that which [ignoble] souls desire, of that which Satan adorned for them, that they may
intercede for them before God, exalted be He, even though guidance has already come to them from their
Lord, by the tongue of the Prophet (s), with definitive proof; yet they do not desist from their ways.

[53:24]

Or shall man, that is, shall every human being among them, have whatever he wishes for?, such as [their
wish] that the idols intercede for them. [No!] It is not so.

[53:25]

Yet to God belong the Hereafter and the former [life], that is to say, [the life of] the world, and so nothing
comes to pass in them except what He, exalted, wills.

[53:26]

And how many an angel, that is to say, many an angel, there is in the heavens, and how honoured they are
in God’s sight [but], whose intercession cannot avail in any way except after God gives permission, to them
for this [intercession], for whomever He wills, of His servants, and, with whom, He is satisfied, because of
His saying: and they do not intercede except for him with whom He is satisfied [Q. 21:28]. It is also well-
known that it [intercession] cannot be forthcoming from them except after permission for it has been
granted: who is there that shall intercede with Him save with His leave [Q. 2:255].

625
[53:27]

Truly those who do not believe in the Hereafter give the angels the names of females, for they say: ‘They
are God’s daughters’.

[53:28]

But they do not have any knowledge thereof, of this claim. They follow, in this [respect], nothing but
conjecture, which they have conjured up, and indeed conjecture can never substitute for the truth, that is to
say, when it comes to acquiring knowledge of that which one is required to have knowledge of.

[53:29]

So shun him who turns away from Our Remembrance, that is, [from] the Qur’ān, and desires nothing but
the life of this world — this was [revealed] before the command to struggle [against the disbelievers].

[53:30]

That, namely, the desire of this world, is the full extent of their knowledge, that is, the limit of their
knowledge, namely, that they have preferred this life to [that of] the Hereafter. Truly your Lord knows best
those who have strayed from His way, and He knows best those who are [rightly] guided: He has knowledge
of both and will requite both.

[53:31]

And to God belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth, that is, He owns [all of] that,
among which [also] are the misguided one and the [rightly] guided one, leading astray whomever He will
and guiding whomever He will, that He may requite those who do evil for what they have done, by way of
idolatry and otherwise, and reward those who are virtuous, by [their] affirmation of [God’s] Oneness and
other acts of obedience, with the best [reward], namely, Paradise. He points out ‘the virtuous’ as being:

[53:32]

Those who avoid grave sins and abominations, excepting lesser offences, that is, minor sins, such as a look,
a kiss or a touch (this constitutes a discontinuous exception, in other words the meaning is: but lesser
offences are forgiven by the avoidance of grave sins). Truly your Lord is of vast forgiveness, for such [lesser
sins] and for accepting repentance. The following was revealed regarding those who used to say, ‘[What of]
our prayers, our fasting, and our pilgrimage!’. He knows you best [from the time] when He produced you
from the earth, that is to say, [when] He created your father Adam from dust, and when you were hidden
[fetuses] (ajinna is the plural of janīn) in the bellies of your mothers. So do not claim purity for yourselves,
do not praise yourselves, that is, in admiration; but [if it is done] in recognition of [God’s] grace, then that is
fine. He knows best those who are God-fearing.

[53:33]

Did you see him who turned away, from faith — that is, [the one who] recanted when he was derided for it.
He said, ‘But I fear the punishment of God!’. But when the one deriding him guaranteed him that he would
bear God’s chastisement for him, provided that he reverted to his [former] idolatry, and he then gave him a
stated sum money, he reverted —

[53:34]

and gave a little, of the stated sum of money, and was then grudging?, refrained from [giving] the
remainder (akdā derives from al-kudya, earth that is hard as rock and which prevents the well-digger from
digging through when he hits it).

626
[53:35]

Does he possess knowledge of the Unseen so that he sees?, [and therefore] from among such [knowledge]
he is able to know that another person may bear the chastisement of the Hereafter for him? No! This was al-
Walīd b. al-Mughīra, or someone else (the sentence beginning with a-‘indahu, ‘does he possess’, is the
second object of the a-ra’ayta, ‘have you seen’, which has the significance of ‘inform Me!’).

[53:36]

Or (am means bal) has he not been informed of what is in the scrolls of Moses, the books of the Torah, or
scrolls before it,

[53:37]

and, the scrolls of, Abraham who fulfilled [his summons], [he who] completed what he had been charged
with, as in: And when his Lord tested Abraham with certain words and he fulfilled them [Q. 2:124] (the
explication of mā, ‘what’, is [the following]):

[53:38]

that no burdened soul shall bear the burden of another (an, ‘that’, has been softened in place of the
hardened form), in other words, no soul shall bear [responsibility for] the sins of another;

[53:39]

and that (wa-an, to be understood as wa-annahu) man shall have only what he [himself] strives for, of good
[deeds], and so he shall not have anything of [the reward for] good [deeds] striven for by another;

[53:40]

and that his endeavour will be seen, it will be inspected in the Hereafter,

[53:41]

then he will be rewarded for it with the fullest reward, the most perfect [reward] (one may say jazaytuhu
sa‘yahu or [jazaytuhu] bi-sa‘yihi [to mean the same thing]),

[53:42]

and that (read wa-anna as a supplement; it is also read wa-inna as the beginning of a new sentence; and
the same applies to what comes after it, in which case, according to this second [reading], these [inna
statements] no longer form part of the content of all that is ‘in the scrolls’) the ultimate end, the return and
the destination after death, is toward your Lord, whereat He will requite them;

[53:43]

and that it is He Who makes to laugh, whomever He will He makes joyous, and makes to weep, whomever
He will He makes him sorrowful,

[53:44]

and that it is He Who brings death, in this world, and gives life, for resurrection,

[53:45]

and that He [Himself] creates the two spouses, the two kinds, the male and the female,

627
[53:46]

from a drop [of semen] once it is emitted, [once] it is poured forth into the womb,

[53:47]

and that with Him rests the second genesis (read al-nashā’ata, or al-nash’ata), the other creation, for the
Resurrection, after the first creation,

[53:48]

and that it is He Who enriches, people by [granting them] sufficient wealth, and grants possessions, [He
Who] gives that wealth that is enjoyed as property,

[53:49]

and that it is He Who is the Lord of Sirius — this is a star [lying] beyond [the constellation of] Gemini, which
was worshipped in the time of pagandom (jāhiliyya);

[53:50]

and that He destroyed former ‘Ād (‘Ādan al-ūlā: a variant reading elides the nunation with the [following]
lām [sc. ‘Āda’l-ūlā]; this [former one] refers to the people of ‘Ād, while the second [‘Ād] is that of the people
of Sālih)

[53:51]

and Thamūd (wa-Thamūda: may be declined, as the name of their forefather, or left as a diptote, being the
name of the tribe; it is a supplement to ‘Ādan) sparing not, a single one of them;

[53:52]

and the people of Noah before that, that is to say, before ‘Ād and Thamūd, We [also] destroyed them;
indeed they were more unjust and more insolent, than ‘Ād and Thamūd, because of the long time that Noah
remained among them: and he remained among them a thousand-less-fifty years [Q. 29:14], for they,
despite their disbelief in him, would [still] harm him and assault him;

[53:53]

and the Deviant [cities], namely, the cities of the people of Lot, He overturned, He hurled them down to the
earth after lifting them up to the heaven upside down, by commanding Gabriel to do this;

[53:54]

so that there covered them, of rocks afterwards, that which covered [them]: this is [purposely] left vague in
order to inspire terror; in [sūrat] Hūd [it is stated]: We made their uppermost the nethermost, and We
rained upon them stones of baked clay [Q. 11:82].

[53:55]

Then which of the bounties of your Lord, [which of] His graces, [graces] which indicate His Oneness and
power, do you dispute?, do you have doubt about, O man, or deny?

[53:56]

628
This, Muhammad (s), is a warner, [in the tradition] of the warners of old, of their kind, that is to say, he is a
messenger like messengers before him, sent to you just as they were sent to their peoples.

[53:57]

The Impending [Hour] is imminent: the Resurrection is near at hand.

[53:58]

None, [no] soul, besides God can disclose it, that is to say, only He can disclose it and manifest it, as where
He says: He alone shall reveal it, at its proper time [Q. 7:187].

[53:59]

Do you then marvel, in denial, at this discourse, the Qur’ān,

[53:60]

and laugh, mockingly, and not weep, when you hear its Promise and Threat,

[53:61]

while you remain oblivious?, unmindful and heedless of what is required of you.

[53:62]

So prostrate to God, Who created you, and worship Him!, and do not prostrate to idols, nor worship them.
Meccan, except for verse 45, which is Medinese; it consists of 55 verses.

(Al-Qamar)
[54:1]

The Hour has drawn near, the Resurrection is close at hand, and the moon has split, it broke in two at
[Mount] Abū Qubays and Qu‘ayqa‘ān, as a sign for the Prophet (s), for it had been demanded of him, and
[when it took place] he said, ‘Bear witness [now]!’ — as reported by the two Shaykhs [al-Bukhārī and
Muslim].

[54:2]

And if they, the disbelievers among Quraysh, see a sign, a miracle of the Prophet (s), they turn away and
say, this is: ‘A powerful sorcery!’ (mustamirr, ‘powerful’, derives from al-mirra, meaning ‘strength’; or it
[mustamirr] means ‘incessant’).

[54:3]

And they denied, the Prophet (s), and followed their own desires, as regards [their] falsehood; and every
matter, that is good or evil, will be settled, with that person [who is responsible for it], either [by his ending
up] in Paradise or in the Fire.

[54:4]

And verily there has come to them such tidings, stories about the destruction of communities which denied
their messengers, as contain a deterrent, to them (muzdajar is a verbal noun, or a noun of place; the dāl [of
muzdajar] replaces the tā’ of [the 8th form] ifta‘ala; one may say, izdajartuhu or zajartuhu, to mean ‘I
forbade him sternly’; mā, ‘such as’, either indicates a relative clause, or it is qualified by an adjective);

629
[54:5]

wisdom (hikmatun is the predicate of an omitted subject, or a substitution for mā, ‘such as’, or for muzdajar,
‘deterrent’) [that is] far-reaching, complete; but warnings (nudhur is the plural of nadhīr, functioning in the
[agent] sense of mundhir, ‘a warner’, that is to say, ‘those matters which warn them’; mā is either for
negation, or it is an interrogative of denial, in which case it stands as a preceding direct object) are of no
avail, [warnings] are of no use with them.

[54:6]

So turn away from them! (this is the import of the preceding statement and it completes what is being said).
On the day when the Summoner, namely, Isrāfīl (yawma, ‘the day’, is rendered accusative by yakhrujūna,
‘they will emerge’, next [verse]), summons to an awful thing (read nukur or nukr, in the sense of munkar,
‘disagreeable’), [a thing] which the souls will find awful, and this is the Reckoning;

[54:7]

with their downcast (khāshi‘an: a variant reading has khushsha‘an), humiliated, looks (absāruhum is a
circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of the verb [yakhrujūna, ‘they will emerge’]) they, that is,
mankind, will emerge from the graves as though they were scattered locusts, not knowing where to go, out
of fear and perplexity (this sentence [ka’annahum jarādun muntashirun] is a circumstantial qualifier referring
to the subject of [the verb] yakhrujūna, ‘they will emerge’, and so is His saying [muhti‘īna]),

[54:8]

scrambling, hastening with their necks stretched out, toward the Summoner. The disbelievers, among them,
will say: ‘This is a hard day!’, a difficult one for disbelievers — as is stated in [sūrat] al-Muddaththir, a day of
hardship for the disbelievers [Q. 74:9-10].

[54:9]

The people of Noah denied (kadhdhabat has feminine inflection on account of the import [referring to a
feminine noun], qawm, ‘tribe’) before them, before Quraysh. Thus they denied Our servant, Noah, and said,
‘A madman!’, and he was reviled: they repulsed him with insults and in other ways.

[54:10]

And so he invoked his Lord, [saying,] ‘I have been (annī, to be understood as bi-annī) overcome, so help
[me]!’

[54:11]

Then We opened (read fa-fatahnā or fa-fattahnā) the gates of the heaven with torrential waters, [waters]
pouring down intensely,

[54:12]

and We made the earth burst forth with springs, that flowed forth, and the waters, the waters of the heaven
and the earth, met for a purpose, a circumstance, that was preordained, [a matter] which had been decreed
since pre-eternity, namely, their destruction by drowning.

[54:13]

And We bore him, that is, Noah, on one, a ship, [made] of planks and nails (dusur is what boards are
fastened down with of nails and the like; the singular is disār, similar [in pattern] to [kutub] kitāb, ‘book’),

630
[54:14]

sailing before Our eyes, that is, in Our sights, in other words, [it was being] protected, as retaliation (jazā’an
is in the accusative because of the implied verbal clause, that is to say, ‘they were drowned by way of
revenge’) for [the sake of] him who was rejected, namely, Noah, peace be upon him (a variant reading [for
passive kufira] has kafara, ‘him who disbelieved’, in other words, they were drowned as a punishment for
them).

[54:15]

And verily We left it, We preserved this [deed], as a sign, for whomever might be admonished by it, in other
words, the news of this [deed] became widely-known and endured. So is there anyone who will remember?,
[anyone who] will take heed from, or be admonished by, it? (muddakir is actually mudhtakir, but the tā’ has
been replaced with a dāl, likewise the dhāl, and it [the dāl] has been assimilated with it [the other dāl]).

[54:16]

How [dreadful] then were My chastisement and My warnings? (this is an interrogative meant as an
affirmative; kayfa, ‘how’, is the predicate of kāna, ‘was’, and it is here being used to inquire about a ‘state’;
the intention is to prompt those who are being addressed to affirm the fact that God’s chastisement of those
who denied Noah was fully deserved).

[54:17]

And verily We have made the Qur’ān easy to remember, We have facilitated its memorisation and disposed
it to serve as a [source of] remembrance. So is there anyone who remember?, [anyone who] will be
admonished by it and memorise it? (the interrogative here is intended as an imperative: in other words,
memorise it and be admonished by it; none of God’s scriptures is memorised by heart other than it [the
Qur’ān]).

[54:18]

‘Ād denied, their prophet Hūd and so they were chastised. How then were My chastisement and My
warnings?, [how then was] My warning them of the chastisement before it was sent down? In other words,
it was justified, and He explains this [chastisement] by saying:

[54:19]

Indeed We unleashed upon them a clamorous wind, intensely noisy, on a day of prolonged ill fortune,
(nahsin mustamirr means) either one of continuous ill fortune, or one of severe ill fortune — and this was
the last Wednesday of the month —

[54:20]

tearing people away, wrenching them from the holes in the ground in which they had been embedded and
flinging them down [to the ground] head first, thereby crushing their necks and severing [their] heads from
[their] bodies, as if they were, [while lying] in this mentioned state, trunks of uprooted palm-trees, severed
and thrown on the ground — they are likened to palm-trees because of their tallness (nakhlun, ‘palm-trees’,
is masculine here but feminine in [sūrat] al-Hāqqa, nakhlun khāwiya, ‘fallen down [or hollow] palm-trees’,
[Q. 69:7], in order to harmonise with the end-rhyme of the verses in both instances).

[54:21]

How then were My chastisement and My warnings?

631
[54:22]

And verily We have made the Qur’ān easy to remember. So is there anyone who will remember?

[54:23]

Thamūd denied the warnings (nudhur is the plural of nadhīr, with the sense of mundhir), that is to say,
[they denied] those matters which their prophet Sālih warned them of if they refused to believe in him and
to follow him,

[54:24]

and they said, ‘Is it a mortal (basharan is in the accusative because it is governed [by a succeeding verb])
alone among us (minnā wāhidan are both adjectives of basharan) that we are to follow? (nattabi‘uhu, this
explains the verb which renders it [basharan, ‘mortal’] accusative; the interrogative is meant as a negative,
in other words: why should we follow him when there are many of us and he is only one among us and not
a king? That is to say, we will not follow him). Then indeed, if we were to follow him, we would be in error,
a parting with reason, and insanity!

[54:25]

Has the Reminder, the revelation, been cast (read a-ulqiya pronouncing both hamzas, or by not pronouncing
the second one but in both cases inserting an intervening alif, or leaving this [insertion] out) upon him
[alone] from among us?, in other words, nothing has been revealed to him. Nay, but he is a conceited, an
arrogant and insolent, liar, in his saying that the mentioned has been revealed to him. God, exalted be He,
says:

[54:26]

‘They will know tomorrow, in the Hereafter, who is the conceited liar, and it is them, for they will be
chastised for having denied their prophet Sālih.

[54:27]

Lo! We are sending the She-camel, We will bring it forth out of the mountain, the rock, as they demanded,
as a trial, a test, for them, that We may try them. So watch them, O Sālih, await [to see] what they will do
and what will be done with them, and remain patient (istabir: the tā’ here has replaced the tā’ of [the 8th
form] ifta‘ala), in other words, endure their harm.

[54:28]

And inform them that the water is to be divided between them, and the She-camel: one day for them and
the next for it, every drinking, [every] portion of water, will be attended’, by the people [drawing water] on
their [designated] day, and by the She-camel on its day. They adhered to this [regime] but eventually
became impatient with it and decided to slaughter the She-camel.

[54:29]

But they called their companion, Qudār, to slay it, so he took, he drew his sword, and he hamstrung, with it
the She-camel, in other words, he slew her in compliance with their wish.

[54:30]

How then were My chastisement and My warnings?, My warning them of chastisement before it was sent
down? In other words, it was justified. He explains it [their chastisement] by saying:

632
[54:31]

Indeed We unleashed upon them a single Cry, and they became like the chaff of a corral builder (al-
muhtazir is one who makes a pen from dried tree-branches and thorns for his sheep, to protect them from
wolves and beasts of prey; the fallen parts which they tread are called hashīm).

[54:32]

And verily We have made the Qur’ān easy to remember. So is there anyone who will remember?

[54:33]

The people of Lot denied the warnings, [they denied] those issues of which they were warned by his [Lot’s]
tongue.

[54:34]

Indeed We unleashed upon them a squall of pebbles, a wind hurling at them pebbles, namely, small stones,
a single one [of these] being no larger than the palm of the hand, and they were destroyed; [all] except the
family of Lot, namely, his two daughters, together with him, whom We delivered at dawn, from among the
dawns, the morning time of an unspecified day (had a specific day been meant [for that mentioned dawn], it
[sahar] would have been treated as a diptote [instead of the declined form saharin], being a definite noun
derived from al-sahar, for with definite nouns one ought to use [the preceding definite article] al). So was
the squall unleashed at first with the family of Lot [still there]? There are two opinions regarding this: in the
case of the former [that it was unleashed upon them including the family of Lot] the exception is understood
as a continuous one, while in the case of the latter [opinion that they were delivered before the squall] the
exception is understood as a discontinuous one, even if it [‘the family of Lot’] is actually subsumed by the
collective noun [‘the people of Lot’, and so they were delivered] as a kindness [from God];

[54:35]

as a grace (ni‘matan is a verbal noun, that is to say in‘āman, ‘an act of grace’) from Us. So, like that requital,
do We requite him who gives thanks, for Our graces and is a believer, or [it means] him who is a believer in
God and His messenger and is obedient to both.

[54:36]

And verily he had warned them, Lot had threatened them, of Our strike, Our seizing them with
chastisement, but they disputed, they contested and denied, the warnings, his warning.

[54:37]

And they had even solicited of him his guests, that he should let them have their own way with those who
had come to him as guests, that they may do wicked things with them — and these [guests] were angels.
So We blotted out their eyes, We blinded them and made them without slits [so that they were continuous
folds of skin] like the rest of the face, by having Gabriel smack them with his wing. ‘So taste [now], so We
said to them: taste, My chastisement and My warnings’, that is to say, [taste] the effects and the substance
of My warning and My threat.

[54:38]

And verily there greeted them in the early morning, the morning time of an unspecified day, an abiding
chastisement, a permanent [chastisement], continuous with the chastisement of the Hereafter.

[54:39]

633
‘So taste [now] My chastisement and My warnings!’

[54:40]

And verily We have made the Qur’ān easy to remember. So is there anyone who will remember?

[54:41]

And verily there came to Pharaoh’s folk, his people, together with him, the warnings, the warning by the
tongue of Moses and Aaron, but they did not believe.

[54:42]

Rather: They denied Our signs, all, nine, of them, which were given to Moses. So We seized them, by way of
chastisement, with the seizing of One [Who is] Mighty, Strong, Omnipotent, Powerful, Whom nothing can
thwart.

[54:43]

Are your disbelievers, O Quraysh, better than those?, mentioned [beginning] from the people of Noah to
those of Pharaoh, which is why they have not been chastised? Or have you, O disbelievers of Quraysh,
[been granted] some immunity, from chastisement, in the Scriptures?, the Books? (the interrogative in both
instances is meant as a denial, in other words: it is not so).

[54:44]

Or do they, the disbelievers of Quraysh, say: ‘We are a host that will be helped to victory’?, against
Muhammad (s)? When Abū Jahl, on the day of Badr, said: ‘We are a host that will be helped to victory’, the
following was revealed:

[54:45]

The host will [truly] be routed and turn its back [to flee], and so they were defeated at Badr and God’s
Messenger (s) was granted victory over them.

[54:46]

Nay, but the Hour is their tryst, for chastisement, and the Hour, that is, the chastisement thereat, will be
more calamitous, greater in affliction, and more bitter, than the chastisement of this world.

[54:47]

Indeed the guilty are in error, in the destruction of being killed in this world, and in a blazing fire, a fire that
has been set ablaze (musa‘‘ara), that is, fiercely ignited in the Hereafter.

[54:48]

The day when they are dragged into the Fire on their faces, in the Hereafter and it is said to them: ‘Taste
[now] the touch of Saqar’, Hell’s affliction of you.

[54:49]

Truly everything (read inna kulla shay’in is [in the accusative as a] dependent clause because of a verb
governing it) have We created in a measure, by ordainment (bi-qadarin, ‘in a measure’, is a circumstantial
qualifier referring to kulla, ‘every’, in other words, ‘[already] predetermined’; a variant reading [for kulla] has
[nominative] kullu as the subject, the predicate of which is khalaqnāhu, ‘We have created’).

634
[54:50]

And Our command, for a thing which We want to bring into existence, is but a single word, like the twinkling
of an eye, in terms of speed, and this is the saying of kun, ‘Be’, whereat it comes into existence. His
command, when He wills a thing, is just to say to it ‘Be’, and it is [Q. 36:82].

[54:51]

And verily We have destroyed the likes of you, the likes of you in terms of disbelief, from among past
communities. So is there anyone who will remember? (this is an interrogative meant as an imperative, that
is to say, ‘Remember and be admonished!’).

[54:52]

And everything they, that is, servants, have done is, recorded, in the scrolls, the books of the Guardian
Angels (al-hafaza),

[54:53]

and every small and great, sin, or deed, is inscribed, is recorded in the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfūz).

[54:54]

Assuredly the God-fearing will be amid gardens, orchards, and rivers (the collective noun is meant here; a
variant reading [for nahar] has the plural nuhur, similar [in form] to asad, ‘lion’, [plural] usud), the meaning
being that they will drink from its rivers water milk, honey and wine;

[54:55]

in an abode of truth, a place of truth, wherein there is no idle talk or cause for sin — (the collective noun
[maq‘ad] is meant here; a variant reading has maqā‘id, ‘abodes’), in other words, they are in congregations
in Paradise that are free from idle talk and cause for sin, in contrast to the congregations of this world,
which are rarely free from such things (syntactically, this statement is considered a second predicate and
also a substitution; it [the ‘abode’] may be understood as being ‘one of truth’ regardless of whether one
reads the substitution as being of the part [for the whole] or otherwise); before a King (malīk: this form is
hyperbolic, that is to say, One of a mighty and vast kingdom) [Who is] Omnipotent, Powerful, Whom
nothing can thwart, namely, God, exalted be He (‘inda indicates [glorious] rank and closeness to His bounty,
exalted be He).
Meccan, except for verse 29, which is Medinese; it consists of 76 or 78 verses.

(Ar-Rahmân)
[55:1]

The Compassionate One, God, exalted be He,

[55:2]

has taught, whomever He will, the Qur’ān.

[55:3]

He created man, the species [mankind],

[55:4]

635
teaching him the [coherent] speech, utterance.

[55:5]

The sun and the moon follow a reckoning, they move according to a [strict] calculation,

[55:6]

and the grass, all stalkless vegetation, and the trees, that [vegetation] which possesses stalk, prostrate,
comply with what is required of them.

[55:7]

And He has raised the heaven and set up the balance, He has established justice,

[55:8]

[declaring] that you should not contravene, that is to say, so that you may not do wrong, with regard to the
balance, that [instrument] with which one weighs.

[55:9]

And observe the weights with justice, fairly, and do not skimp the balance, [do not] decrease [the value of]
what is being weighed.

[55:10]

And the earth, He placed it, He fixed it [in place], for [all] creatures: man, jinn and others.

[55:11]

In it are fruits and, the familiar, date-palms with sheaths, the spathes containing its flowers,

[55:12]

and grain, such as wheat and barley, with husk, and fragrant herb.

[55:13]

So which of your Lord’s favours, graces, will you deny? (tukadhdhibān is mentioned thirty one times; the
interrogative is meant [to be understood] as an affirmative, judging by what al-Hākim [al-Naysābūrī]
reported [by way of an isnād] from Jābir [b. ‘Abd Allāh al-Ansārī], who said, ‘The Messenger of God (s) was
reciting surāt al-Rahmān to us, and when he completed it, he said, “What is wrong with you that you have
been silent [throughout]? Verily the jinn are more responsive than you. Not once did I recite this verse to
them — So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny? — but that they said, ‘Not one of your graces, our
Lord, do we deny, for [all] praise belongs to You’ ”).

[55:14]

He created man, Adam, of dry clay (salsāl, a dry hollow mud producing an echo if tapped), resembling the
potter’s (fakhkhār, clay that has been baked),

[55:15]

and He created the Jann, the father of the jinn, namely, Iblīs, of a smokeless flame of fire.

636
[55:16]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:17]

Lord of the two Easts, [the points of] the winter sunrise and the summer sunrise, and Lord of the two
Wests: likewise [the two points of sunset].

[55:18]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:19]

He has loosed the two waters, the sweet and the salty; [and so] they meet, in the perception of the eye.

[55:20]

Between them there is a barrier, by His power, exalted be He. They do not overstep, neither of the two
encroaches upon the other to become mixed with it.

[55:21]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:22]

From [both of] them, from the point at which they [seem to] meet — but which is actually from [only] one
of the two, and that is, the salt water — is brought forth (yukhraju, passive, may also be read as active,
yakhruju, ‘emerge’) the pearl and the coral (marjān, these are red pieces of shell, or small pearls).

[55:23]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:24]

His are the crafted ships [that sail] in the sea [appearing] like landmarks, like mountains in their tremendous
size and height.

[55:25]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:26]

Everyone who is on it, that is, [on] the earth, of animal beings, will perish (man, ‘who’, is used to indicate
predominance of rational beings);

[55:27]

yet there will remain the countenance of your Lord, His Essence, [the countenance] of majesty,
magnificence, and munificence, towards believers, through His graces to them.

637
[55:28]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:29]

All that is in the heavens and the earth implore Him, either by way of speech or by their very state [of
dependence on Him], for the strength which they require for worship, [for] provision, forgiveness and other
things. Every day, [all the] time, He is upon some matter, something that He manifests in accordance with
what He has decreed since pre-eternity, such as the giving of life, the bringing of death, exalting and
abasing [individuals], giving abundantly and withholding, responding to a supplicating person and giving the
one requesting [something] and so on and so forth.

[55:30]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:31]

We will attend to you, We shall turn to reckon with you, O you two heavy ones!, mankind and jinn.

[55:32]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:33]

O company of jinn and humans, if you are able to pass through, to exit from, the confines, the regions, of
the heavens and the earth, then pass through! — a command [meant] to challenge them to what they are
incapable of [doing]. You will not pass through except with a sanction, [except] with some power, and you
have no power for such a thing.

[55:34]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:35]

Against you will be unleashed a heat of fire (shuwāz, can either mean that the flame thereof has no smoke
or [that it does have it] with it) and a flash of brass, without any flame, and you will not be able to seek
help, you will not be able to defend yourselves against this, nay, it will drive you to the site of the Gathering.

[55:36]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:37]

And when the heaven is split open, when it becomes open with [many] gates [in preparation] for the
descent of the angels, and it turns crimson (wardatan, [literally, ‘a rose’], in other words, red like this
[rose]), like tanned leather, red skins, in contrast to its [the heaven’s] usual appearance (the response to
idhā, ‘when’, is [along the lines of] fa-mā a‘zama’l-hawli, ‘How great will be the terror then!’).

[55:38]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

638
[55:39]

Thus on that day no man will be questioned about his sin, nor any jinn, about his sin; but they are
questioned on some other occasion: By your Lord, We shall question them all [Q.15:92] (al-jānn in this
instance and in what will follow denotes the jinn, and also in both cases al-ins denotes human beings).

[55:40]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:41]

The guilty will be recognised by their mark: blackened faces and bruised eyes; so they will be seized by the
forelocks and the feet.

[55:42]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:43]

‘This is Hell which the guilty [were wont to] deny!’

[55:44]

They shall pass round, they shall pace, between it and boiling hot water, [water] of extreme temperature,
which they are given to drink every time they call to be rescued from the heat of the Fire (ānin is defective,
like qādin).

[55:45]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:46]

But for those who feared, that is, for every one of them, or for all of them together, the station of their Lord,
the standing before Him for the Reckoning and therefore refrained from being disobedient to Him, there will
be two gardens.

[55:47]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:48]

Both with (dhawātā, the dual form of the regular form dhawāt, with its lām [its third consonant] is changed
into a yā’) [abundant] branches (afnān is the plural of fanan, similar [in pattern] to talal [atlāl]).

[55:49]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:50]

In both of them there are two flowing springs.

639
[55:51]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:52]

In both of them, of every fruit (fākiha) of [the fruits of] this world — or [it, fākiha, means] all those things in
which one delights (yutafakkahu bihi) — there are two kinds, two varieties, one juicy, one dried, and those
which in this world are bitter, like colocynth, will be sweet [therein].

[55:53]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:54]

[They will be] reclining (muttaki’īna is a circumstantial qualifier operated by an omitted [verb], that is to say,
yatana‘‘amūna, they will enjoy bliss [while reclining]’) upon couches lined with [heavy] silk brocade,
(istabraq) thick or coarse silk, the outer lining being of fine silk (sundus). And the fruits of both gardens will
be near, so that it may be reached by the one standing up, the one sitting down or the one lying down.

[55:55]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:56]

In them, in the two gardens and what they comprise of upper chambers and palaces, are maidens of
restrained glances, [restricting] their eyes to those spouses of theirs from among [either] the men or the
jinn who are reclining, [maidens] who have not been touched, [who] have not been deflowered — and these
[maidens] are [either] houris or women of this world who [will] have been created [anew], by any man or
jinn before them.

[55:57]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:58]

It is as though they are rubies, in their purity, and pearls, in their fairness.

[55:59]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:60]

Is the reward of goodness, [manifested] through obedience, anything but goodness?, [granted] through
bliss?

[55:61]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:62]

640
And beside these, two mentioned gardens, there will be two [other] gardens, in addition, for those who
feared the standing before their Lord.

[55:63]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:64]

Deep green (mudhāmmatān, [this means that they are almost] black on account of the intensity of their
greenness).

[55:65]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:66]

In both of them will be two gushing fountains, rushing with water, unceasing.

[55:67]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:68]

In both of them will be fruits and date-palms and pomegranates, the [latter] two [fruits] being from among
these [fruits of the two gardens]; but it is also said that they belong to [the fruits of] some other [garden].

[55:69]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:70]

In them, that is, in the two gardens and their palaces and what they comprise, are maidens [who are] good,
in nature [and with], beautiful, faces.

[55:71]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:72]

Houris (hur, this means maidens with intense black eyes set against the [intense] whiteness [of the iris])
secluded, concealed, in pavilions, made of studded gems, annexed to the palaces, like boudoirs.

[55:73]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:74]

Untouched by any man before them, before these [soon-to-be] spouses of theirs, or jinn.

641
[55:75]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:76]

Reclining, namely, their spouses (muttaki’īna, syntactically, it is as [described] above) upon green cushions
(rafraf is the plural of rafrafa, which can mean [either] ‘carpets’ or ‘cushions’) and lovely druggets
(‘abqariyyin, the plural of ‘abqariyya, which are velvet carpets).

[55:77]

So which of your Lord’s favours will you deny?

[55:78]

Blessed be the Name of your Lord, He of Majesty and Munificence (as [explained] above; the word ism is
extra).
Meccan, except for verses 81 and 82, which are Medinese; it consists of 96, 97 or 99 verses.

(Al-Wâqi‘ah)
[56:1]

When the [imminent] Event comes to pass, [when] the Resurrection takes place,

[56:2]

there will be no denying its coming to pass, [there is] no soul to deny [it], by repudiating it as it did in this
world,

[56:3]

[it will be] abasing [some], exalting [others], that is, it will manifest the abasing of some people by [virtue
of] their admission into the Fire, and [manifest] the exalting of others by their admission into Paradise.

[56:4]

When the earth is shaken with a violent shock,

[56:5]

and the mountains are pulverised to [tiny] pieces,

[56:6]

so that they become a scattered dust (the second idh, ‘when’, is a substitution for the first idh),

[56:7]

and you will be, at the Resurrection, three kinds, categories:

[56:8]

Those of the right [hand], those who are given their record [of deeds] in their right hand (fa-ashābu’l-
maymanati is the subject, the predicate of which is [the following mā ashābu’l-maymanati]) — what of those

642
of the right [hand]? — a glorification of their status on account of their admittance into Paradise.

[56:9]

And those of the left [hand] (al-mash’ama means al-shimāl, ‘left’), each of whom is given his record [of
deeds] in their left hands — what of those of the left [hand]? — an expression of contempt for their status
on account of their admittance into the Fire.

[56:10]

And the foremost, in [the race to do] good, namely, the prophets (al-sābiqūna is a subject) the foremost:
(this [repetition] is to emphasise their exalted status; the predicate [is the following, ūlā’ika’l-muqarrabūna])

[56:11]

they are the ones brought near [to God],

[56:12]

in the Gardens of Bliss,

[56:13]

a multitude from the former [generations] (thullatun mina’l-awwalīna, the subject), that is to say, a group of
individuals from communities of old,

[56:14]

and a few from the later ones, from among the community of Muhammad (s), being the foremost from
among the communities of old and this community (the predicate [is the following, ‘alā sururin
mawdūnatin]),

[56:15]

[will be] upon encrusted couches, [their linings] woven onto rods of gold and jewels,

[56:16]

reclining on them, face to face (muttaki’īna ‘alayhā mutaqābilīna constitute two circumstantial qualifiers
referring to the [subject] person of the predicate [‘they’]).

[56:17]

They will be waited on by immortal youths, resembling young boys, never ageing;

[56:18]

with goblets (akwāb are drinking-vessels without handles) and ewers (abārīq [are vessels that] have handles
and spouts) and a cup (ka’s is the vessel for drinking wine) from a flowing spring, in other words, wine
flowing from a spring that never runs out,

[56:19]

wherefrom they suffer no headache nor any stupefaction (read yanzafūna or yanzifūna, [respectively
derived] from nazafa or anzafa al-shāribu, ‘the drinker became inebriated’), in other words, they do not get
a headache from it nor do they lose their senses, in contrast to [the case with] the wine of this world;

643
[56:20]

and such fruits as they prefer,

[56:21]

and such flesh of fowls as they desire, for themselves to enjoy,

[56:22]

and houris, maidens with intensely black eyes [set] against the whiteness [of their irises], with wide eyes
(‘īn: the ‘ayn here is inflected with a kasra instead of a damma because it [the kasra] better harmonises with
the yā’; the singular is ‘aynā’, similar [in pattern] to hamrā’; a variant reading [for wa-hūrun ‘īn] has the
genitive case wa-hūrin ‘īn)

[56:23]

resembling hidden, guarded, pearls,

[56:24]

a reward (jazā’an is an object denoting reason or a verbal noun, with the operator being an implicit [verb],
in other words, ‘We have appointed for them the mentioned as a reward’ or ‘We have rewarded them [this]’)
for what they used to do.

[56:25]

They will not hear therein, in Paradise, any vain talk, any lewd words, or any sinful words,

[56:26]

but only the saying, ‘Peace!’ ‘Peace!’ (salāman salāman substitutes for qīlan, ‘the saying’) which they will
hear.

[56:27]

And those of the right [hand] — what of those of the right [hand]?

[56:28]

Amid thornless lote-trees, nabk trees,

[56:29]

and clustered plantains, banana trees, [weighed down] with its load [of fruit] from top to bottom,

[56:30]

and extended shade, [one that is] permanent,

[56:31]

and cascading water, running continuously,

[56:32]

644
and abundant fruit,

[56:33]

neither unavailable, during certain times, nor forbidden, because of [its] cost,

[56:34]

and mattresses [that are] raised, on top of couches.

[56:35]

Verily We have created them with an [unmediated] creation, namely, the wide-eyed houris, [We created
them] without the process of birth,

[56:36]

and made them virgins, immaculate — every time their spouses enter them they find them virgins, nor is
there any pain [of defloration] —

[56:37]

amorous (read ‘uruban or ‘urban, plural of ‘arūb, meaning ‘a woman passionately enamoured of her
spouse’), of equal age (atrāb is the plural of tirb),

[56:38]

for those of the right [hand] (li-ashābi’l-yamīni is the relative clause of [either] ansha’nāhunna, ‘We have
created them’, or ja‘alnāhunna, ‘[We] made them’), who are:

[56:39]

A multitude from the former [generations],

[56:40]

and a multitude of the later ones.

[56:41]

And those of the left [hand] — what of those of the left [hand]?

[56:42]

Amid a scorching wind, an infernal wind, permeating the pores of skins, and scalding water, water of
extreme temperatures,

[56:43]

and the shade of pitch-black smoke,

[56:44]

neither cool, like all other shade, nor pleasant, [nor] agreeable in its appearance.

645
[56:45]

Indeed before that, in the world, they used to live at ease, enjoying [life’s] comforts, never wearying
themselves with [an act of] obedience,

[56:46]

and they used to persist in the great sin, namely, idolatry.

[56:47]

And they used to say, ‘What! When we are dead and have become dust and bones, shall we indeed be
resurrected? (in both instances [a-idhā and a-innā] the two hamzas may be read either by pronouncing
them fully, or by not pronouncing the second, and in either case inserting an intervening alif).

[56:48]

What! And our forefathers too?’ (read a-wa-ābā’unā, [with the wa-] being for supplement, the hamza [a-]
for the interrogative; here and in the previous instance, it is used to express ‘remoteness [of probability]’; a
variant reading has aw-ābā’unā, as a supplement with aw, and that to which this is supplemented is the
[syntactical] locus of inna and its subject).

[56:49]

Say: ‘Truly the former and the later [generations]

[56:50]

will be gathered for the tryst, the time, of a known day, that is, the Day of Resurrection.

[56:51]

Then indeed you, the erring, the deniers,

[56:52]

will assuredly eat from a Zaqqūm tree (min zaqqūm, the explication of shajar, ‘tree’),

[56:53]

and fill therewith, with the tree, your bellies,

[56:54]

and drink on top of that, the consumed Zaqqūm, boiling water,

[56:55]

drinking like the drinking (read sharba or shurba: verbal noun) of thirsty camels’ (hīm is the plural of
masculine haymān and feminine haymā, similar [in pattern] to ‘atshān, ‘atshā, ‘thirsty’).

[56:56]

This will be the hospitality for them, what has been prepared for them, on the Day of Judgement, the Day of
Resurrection.

646
[56:57]

We created you, We brought you into existence from nothing. Will you not then affirm [this] truth?, in
resurrection? For the One able to create [from nothing] is also able to repeat [this creation].

[56:58]

Have you considered the sperm that you emit?, the sperm you spill in the wombs of women?

[56:59]

Is it you (a-antum: read by pronouncing both hamzas fully, or by replacing the second one with an alif or
not pronouncing it, but inserting an alif between the one not pronounced and the other one, or without this
[insertion] in the four instances [here and below]) who create it, that is, the sperm [making it] into a human
being, or are We the Creators?

[56:60]

We have ordained (read qaddarnā or qadarnā) death among you, and We are not to be outmanoeuvred
from, We are not incapable [of],

[56:61]

replacing [you with], [We are not incapable of] appointing, your likes, in your place, and making you,
creating you, in what you do not know, in the way of forms, such as apes or swine.

[56:62]

For verily you have known the first creation (al-nashā’ata: a variant reading has al-nash’ata), why then will
you not remember? (tadhakkarūna: the original second tā’ [of tatadhakkarūna] has been assimilated with
the dhāl).

[56:63]

Have you considered what you sow?, [what] you stir of the earth to place seeds therein?

[56:64]

Is it you who make it grow, or are We the Grower?

[56:65]

If We will, We could surely turn it into chaff, dried vegetation producing no seed, and you would remain
(zaltum is actually zaliltum, the lām having a kasra inflection; but it has been omitted to soften it), that is to
say, you spend all day, bemused (tafakkahūna: one of the original tā’ [tatafakkahūna] letters has been
omitted), surprised by this, and you would say:

[56:66]

‘We have indeed suffered loss!, [losing] what we expended on the cultivation.

[56:67]

Nay, but we are deprived!’, prevented from [reaping] our provision.

[56:68]

647
Have you considered the water you drink?

[56:69]

Is it you who cause it to come down from the [rain] clouds (muzn is the plural of muzna) or are We the
Causer of its coming down?

[56:70]

If We willed, We could make it bitter, salty, undrinkable — why then will you not give thanks?

[56:71]

Have you considered the fire that you kindle?, [the fire] which you produce out of the [oil of] green trees?

[56:72]

Was it you who created the tree thereof, [trees] such as the markh, the ‘afār or the kalkh [‘fennel’], or were
We the Creator?

[56:73]

We made it a reminder, of the fire of Hell, and a boon, a provision, for the desert-travellers (al-muqwīn
derives from [the expression] aqwā al-qawmu, ‘they have reached al-qawā or al-qawā’, that is, al-qafr,
‘desolate land’, which is a wilderness (mafāza) that has neither vegetation nor water).

[56:74]

So glorify, exalt the transcendence [of], the Name (ism is extra) of your Lord, the Tremendous, God.

[56:75]

Nay, I swear (fa-lā uqsimu: lā is extra) by the setting-places of the stars!

[56:76]

And indeed it, the swearing by these [setting-places of stars], is a tremendous oath, if you only knew — if
you were people of [deep] knowledge, you would realise the magnitude of this oath.

[56:77]

This, namely, what is being recited to you, is indeed a noble Qur’ān,

[56:78]

in a Book, inscribed, guarded, preserved, and this is the Mushaf;

[56:79]

which none touch (lā yamassuhu is a predicate functioning as a prohibitive command) except the purified,
those who have purified themselves of ritual impurities, [56:80] a revelation, revealed, by the Lord of the
Worlds.

[56:80]

648
Do you then belittle, [do you] take lightly and deny, this discourse?, the Qur’ān.

[56:81]

And for your livelihood, in the way of rain, that is to say, the thanks for it, you offer your denial?, of God’s
granting it to you, by saying, ‘We have rain because of this [or that] storm’?

[56:82]

And for your livelihood, in the way of rain, that is to say, the thanks for it, you offer your denial?, of God’s
granting it to you, by saying, ‘We have rain because of this [or that] storm’?

[56:83]

Why then, when it, the spirit, during the throes [of death], reaches the [dying person’s] throat (hulqūm is
the passage for food)

[56:84]

and you are, O you attending the dying person, at that moment looking, at him —

[56:85]

and We are nearer to him than you are, to know [of his state], but you do not perceive (tubsirūna derives
from al-basīra, ‘perception’) that is to say, you do not realise this —

[56:86]

why then, if you are not going to face a reckoning, [if] you are [not] going to be requited by your being
resurrected, in other words, [why then, if] you are not going to be resurrected as you claim,

[56:87]

do you not bring it back, [why] do you not restore the spirit to the body after it has reached the throat, if
you are truthful?, in what you claim (the second law-lā, ‘why … if’, is [repeated] to emphasise the first one;
idhā, ‘when’, is an adverbial particle qualifying tarji‘ūna, ‘bring it back’, to which both conditions are
semantically connected). The meaning is: ‘Why do you not bring it back, when, in repudiating resurrection,
you are being truthful in this repudiation?’ That is to say, ‘Let death also be repudiated [as impossible] in its
case just as [you claim that] resurrection is [impossible]’.

[56:88]

Thus if he, the dead person, be of those brought near,

[56:89]

then repose, that is, there will be for him relief, and a goodly provision, and a garden of Bliss (does this
response belong to the ammā, ‘thus’, or to in, ‘if’, or to both? Different opinions [are given regarding this]).

[56:90]

And if he be of those of the right [hand],

[56:91]

then ‘Peace be to you’, that is, [then] for him there will be [peace by way of] security (salām) from

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chastisement, [a greeting] from those of the right [hand], [arising] from the fact that he is one of them.

[56:92]

But if he be of the deniers, the erring,

[56:93]

then a welcome of boiling water,

[56:94]

and a roasting in Hell-fire.

[56:95]

This indeed is the certain truth (haqqu’l-yaqīn: an example of an adjectivally qualified noun being annexed
to its adjective).

[56:96]

So glorify the Name of your Lord, the Tremendous (as [explained] above [in verse 74]).
Meccan or Medinese, consisting of 29 verses.

(Al-Hadîd)
[57:1]

All that is in the heavens and the earth glorifies God, that is to say, all things exalt Him as being
transcendent (thus, the lām [of li’Llāhi] is extra; mā, ‘[all] that’, is used instead of min, ‘[all] who’, in order to
indicate what is the predominant [sc. non-rational beings]); and He is the Mighty, in His kingdom, the Wise,
in His actions.

[57:2]

To Him belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth; He gives life, through [His act of] creation, and
He brings death, thereafter, and He has power over all things.

[57:3]

He is the First, preceding everything [but] without [His] having any beginning, and the Last, succeeding
everything [but] without [His] having any end, and the Manifest, through the proofs for Him, and the
Hidden, from the perception of the senses, and He has knowledge of all things.

[57:4]

It is He Who created the heavens and the earth in six days, of the days of this world, the first of which being
Sunday, and the last of which, Friday, then presided upon the Throne (‘arsh: [denotes] the kursī), a
presiding [that was] befitting of Him. He knows what enters the earth, of rain and dead creatures, and what
issues from it, of vegetation and minerals, and what comes down from the heaven, in the way of mercy and
chastisement, and what ascends in it, of righteous deeds and evil ones. And He is with you, by [virtue of]
His knowledge, wherever you may be; and God is Seer of what you do.

[57:5]

To Him belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, and to Him [all] matters, all existents, are

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returned.

[57:6]

He makes the night pass into, He makes it enter, the day, so that it increases while the night diminishes,
and makes the day pass into the night, so that it increases while the day diminishes. And He is Knower of
what is in the breasts, of what it contains of secrets and convictions.

[57:7]

Believe, adhere to belief, in God and His Messenger, and expend, in the way of God, out of that over which
He has made you successors, out of the wealth of those mentioned [whom you have succeeded], for you
will be succeeded in this [wealth] by those who will come after you: this was revealed at the time of the
‘hardship’ campaign, the campaign of Tabūk. For those of you who believe and expend — an allusion to
‘Uthmān [b. ‘Affān], may God be pleased with him — will have a great reward.

[57:8]

And why should you not believe — an address to the disbelievers — in other words, there is nothing to
prevent you from believing, in God when the Messenger is calling you to believe in your Lord, and a pledge
has been taken from you (reading [it as] ukhidha mīthāqukum; otherwise akhadha mīthāqakum, ‘He has
taken a pledge from you’) concerning it — that is to say, God took this [pledge from you] in the world of
atoms when He made them bear witness against themselves: ‘Am I not your Lord?’ They said, ‘Yea, indeed’
[Q. 7:172] — if you are believers?, that is to say, if your intention is to believe in Him, then apply yourselves
to this [duty of faith].

[57:9]

It is He Who sends down upon His servant clear signs, the signs of the Qur’ān, that He may bring you forth
from the darkness, [from] disbelief, to the light, [to] faith. For truly God is Kind, Merciful to you, in bringing
you forth from disbelief to faith.

[57:10]

And why should you, after having embraced faith, not (allā: the nūn of an [an-lā] has been assimilated here
with the lām of lā) expend in the way of God when to God belongs the heritage of the heavens and the
earth, with all that they comprise, so that He will [eventually] receive all your wealth but without the reward
for having expended [of it for His cause], as opposed to if you had expended and had hence been rewarded.
Not equal [to the rest of you] are those of you who expended and fought before the victory, at Mecca. Such
are greater in rank than those who expended and fought afterwards. Yet to each, of the two groups (a
variant reading [for wa-kullan, ‘yet to each’] has nominative wa-kullun as a subject) God has promised the
best reward, Paradise. And God is Aware of what you do, and will requite you for it [accordingly].

[57:11]

Who is it that will lend God, by expending his wealth in the way of God, a goodly loan, [goodly] by virtue of
his expending it for God’s sake, so that He may multiply it (fa-yudā‘ifahu, may also be read fa-yuda‘‘ifahu)
for him, from tenfold up to more than seven hundredfold —as stated in sūrat al-Baqara [Q. 2:261], and [so
that] there may be for him, in addition to the multiplied [reward], a generous reward, coupled with
satisfaction and prosperity.

[57:12]

Mention, the day when you will see the believing men and believing women with their light shining forth
before them, in front of them, and, it will [also] be, on their right, and it will be said to them: ‘Good tidings
for you on this day: Gardens, that is to say, enter them, underneath which rivers flow, wherein you will

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abide. That is the great success’.

[57:13]

The day when the hypocrites, men and women, will say to those who believe, ‘Look at us (unzurūnā: a
variant reading has anzirūnā, meaning ‘Give us a chance’) that we may glean something of your light!’ It will
be said, to them in mockery of them: ‘Step back and seek light!’ So they step back, then there will be set up
between them, and the believers, a wall — this is said to be the wall of ‘the Heights’ [cf. Q. 7:46] — with a
gate, the inner side of which contains mercy, the side of the believers, and the outer side of which, the side
of the hypocrites, faces toward the chastisement.

[57:14]

They will call out to them, ‘Did we not use to be with you?’, upon [the path of] obedience. They will say,
‘Yes, indeed! But you caused your souls to fall into temptation, by [engaging in] hypocrisy, and you awaited,
reversals of fortune for the believers, and you doubted, you were uncertain about the religion of Islam, and
[false] hopes, greedy desires, deceived you until God’s ordinance, death, came; and the Deceiver, Satan,
deceived you concerning God.

[57:15]

So on this day no ransom will be taken from you (read tu’khadhu or yu’khadhu) nor from those who
disbelieved. Your abode will be the Fire: it will be your guardian, it is [the place truly] deserving of you, and
an evil destination!’, it is.

[57:16]

Is it not time for those who believe — this was revealed concerning the matter of the Companions [of the
Prophet] who had been overindulging in jest, that their hearts should be humbled to the remembrance of
God and [to] what has been revealed (read as nuzzila; or read nazala, ‘[what] has come down’) of the truth,
the Qur’ān, and that they should not be (lā yakūnū is a supplement to takhsha‘a, ‘be humbled’) like those
who were given the Scripture before?, namely, the Jews and the Christians. For the stretch of time, the
interval [extending] from them [back] to [the time of the sending of the last of] their prophets, was too long
for them and so their hearts became hardened, unyielding to the remembrance of God, and many of them
are immoral.

[57:17]

Know — an address to the believers [just] mentioned — that God revives the earth after its death, by
[bringing forth] vegetation, and likewise He is able to do with your hearts, restoring them to humbleness.
We have certainly made clear for you the signs, that testify to Our power with this [mentioned example] and
others, that perhaps you may understand.

[57:18]

Indeed men who give voluntary alms (al-mussaddiqīna, derives from the [infinitive] al-tasadduq, ‘to give
voluntary alms’; the tā’ [of the original mutasaddiqīna] has been assimilated with the sād) and women who
give voluntary alms (a variant reading for both has the softened form [with a single sād, musaddiqīna and
musaddiqāti], which derives from al-tasdīq, ‘to affirm the truth of’, ‘to believe in’) and [those of them] who
have lent God a goodly loan (this refers back to both the men and women with [the masculine plural of]
predominance; the supplementing of a verb [aqradū, ‘who lent’] to a noun [of action, al-mussaddiqāt] at
[the point of] the relative clause of the al-, is because in that position it [the noun] functions as a verb; the
mention of the ‘loan’ together with its qualification [‘goodly’] after [the mention of] ‘the giving of voluntary
alms’ is intended to define it), it will be multiplied (yudā‘afu, is also read as yuda‘‘afu), namely, their loan
[will multiplied], for them and they will have a generous reward.

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[57:19]

And those who believe in God and His messengers — they are the truthful, (al-siddīqūna) those who go to
the greatest lengths to be truthful, and the witnesses with their Lord, against the deniers of [all]
communities; they will have their reward and their light. But those who disbelieve and deny Our signs, those
[signs] that testify to [the truth of] Our Oneness — they will be the inhabitants of Hell-fire.

[57:20]

Know that the life of this world is merely play and diversion and glitter, the frequent adornment [of oneself],
and mutual vainglory in respect of wealth and children, that is, preoccupation with such things — but as for
acts of obedience and incentives thereto, these are the concerns of the Hereafter; as the likeness of, that is
to say, it, in the manner in which you admire it and in the manner in which it will disappear, is as the
likeness of, rain whose vegetation, which results from this [rain], the disbelievers, the sowers, admire; [but]
then it withers, it becomes dried-up, and you see it turn yellow, then it becomes chaff, scatters vanishing
with the winds. And in the Hereafter there is a severe chastisement, for those who prefer this world to it,
and forgiveness from God and beatitude, for those who have not preferred this world to it; and the life of
this world, that is to say, the comfort [enjoyed] in it, is but the comfort of delusion.

[57:21]

Vie with one another for forgiveness from your Lord and a garden the breadth of which is as the breadth of
the heaven and the earth, if one were placed at the end of the other, prepared for those who believe in God
and His messengers. That is the bounty of God, which He gives to whomever He will, and God is [dispenser]
of tremendous bounty.

[57:22]

No affliction befalls in the earth, by way of drought [for example], or in yourselves, such as illness, or the
loss of a child, but it is in a Book, meaning, the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfūz), before We bring it
about, [before] We create it — the same is said [to be true] of [God’s] graces — that is indeed easy for God,

[57:23]

so that you may not (kay-lā: kay makes a verb subjunctive, with the same sense as an [as in an-lā, ‘so that
… not’]), that is to say, God informs [you] of this so that you may not, grieve for what escapes you, nor
exult, with a wanton exultation, rather an exultation that is [followed by] a thanksgiving for the grace, at
what He has given you (read [thus] as ātākum; or read as atākum, meaning, ‘[at] what has come to you
from Him’). For God does not like any swaggering braggart, [swaggering] in arrogance because of what he
has been given, [boastful] of it to people;

[57:24]

such as are niggardly, in their duties, and bid people to be niggardly, in these [too]: against such there is a
severe threat of chastisement. And whoever turns away, from what is his duty, still God, He is indeed
(huwa, ‘He’, is a separating pronoun; a variant reading drops it) the Independent, [without need] of anyone
other than Him, the Praiser, of His friends.

[57:25]

We have verily sent Our messengers, the angels, to prophets, with clear signs, with the definitive proofs,
and We revealed with them the Scripture and the Balance, justice, so that mankind may uphold justice. And
We sent down iron, We caused it to be extracted from mineral ores, wherein is great might, with which one
may wage battle, and [many] uses for mankind, and so that God may know, a knowledge of direct vision (li-
ya‘lama’Llāhu is a supplement to li-yaqūma’l-nāsu, ‘so that mankind may uphold’) those who help Him, by
helping [to uphold] His religion through [the use of] instruments of war made of metal and otherwise, and

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His messengers through the Unseen (bi’l-ghaybi: a circumstantial qualifier referring to the [suffixed pronoun]
hā’, ‘Him’, of yansuruhu, ‘[who] aid Him’), that is to say, while He [God] is not seen by them in this world.
Ibn ‘Abbās said: ‘They help Him even though they do not see Him’ (yansurūnahu wa-lā yubsirūnahu).
Assuredly God is Strong, Mighty, without any need of being helped, but such [help] benefits those who
proffer it.

[57:26]

And verily We sent Noah and Abraham and We ordained among their seed prophethood and the Scripture,
meaning the four Books: the Torah, the Gospel, the Psalms and the Furqān, all of which have been
[revealed] among the seed of Abraham; and some of them are [rightly] guided, and many of them are
immoral.

[57:27]

Then We sent to follow in their footsteps Our messengers, and We sent to follow, Jesus son of Mary, and
We gave him the Gospel, and We placed in the hearts of those who followed him kindness and mercy. But
[as for] monasticism, namely, abstention from women and seclusion in monasteries, they invented it, [an
innovation] on their part — We had not prescribed it for them, We did not enjoin them to it; but they took it
on — only seeking God’s beatitude. Yet they did not observe it with due observance, for many of them
abandoned it and rejected the religion of Jesus and embraced the religion of their [then] king. However,
many of them did remain upon the religion of Jesus and they believed in our Prophet [when he came]. So
We gave those of them who believed, in him, their reward; but many of them are immoral.

[57:28]

O you who believe, in Jesus, fear God and believe in His Messenger, Muhammad (s), and Jesus, and He will
give you a twofold portion, share, of His mercy, for your belief in both prophets; and He will assign for you a
light by which you will walk, across the Path [over Hell and into Paradise], and forgive you; for God is
Forgiving, Merciful;

[57:29]

So that the People of the Scripture, the Torah — those who did not believe in Muhammad (s) — may know,
in other words, I inform you of this so that they [the People of the Scripture] may know, that (a [of a-llā] is
softened in place of the hardened form [an-lā], its subject being the pronoun of the matter, that is to say,
[understand it as being] annahum) they have no power over anything of God’s bounty, contrary to their
claims that they are God’s beloved and those who deserve His beatitude, and that [all] bounty is in God’s
hand; He gives it to whomever He will, and hence He has given the believers [in the Prophet] among them
their reward twofold, as stated above; and God is [dispenser] of tremendous bounty.
Medinese, consisting of 22 verses.

(Al-Mujâdilah)
[58:1]

God has certainly heard the words of her who disputes with you, [her who] consults you, O Prophet,
concerning her husband, who has repudiated her by zihār — he had said to her, ‘You are to me [as
untouchable] as the back of my mother’. She asked the Prophet (s) about this and he told her that she was
[thenceforth] forbidden to him, as was customary among them [at the time of Jāhiliyya], namely, that
repudiation by zihār results in permanent separation. She was Khawla bt. Tha‘laba and he was Aws b. al-
Sāmit — and complains to God, of her being alone and of her impoverishment while having young children,
whom if she were to leave with him, they would go astray, but whom, if they remained with her, would go
hungry. And God hears your conversation, your consulting. Assuredly God is Hearer, Seer, [He is] Knower.

[58:2]

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Those of you who repudiate their wives by zihār (yazzahharūna is actually yatazahharūna, in which the tā’
has been assimilated with the zā’; a variant reading has yazzāharūna, and still another has yuzāhirūna,
similar [in form] to yuqātilūna; the same applies for the second instance [of this verb below]), they are not
their mothers; their mothers are only those who (read allā’ī, or without the [final long] yā’, allā’i) gave birth
to them, and indeed they, [in repudiating them] by zihār, utter indecent words and a calumny, a lie. Yet
assuredly God is Pardoning, Forgiving, to the one who repudiates by zihār through an atonement [which he
must offer].

[58:3]

And those who repudiate their wives by zihār and then go back on what they have said, instead doing the
opposite of this and retaining the woman divorced by zihār, that which is contrary to the purpose of zihār in
which a woman is characterised as being forbidden — then [the penalty for them is] the setting free of a
slave, an obligation upon him, before they touch one another, in sexual intercourse. By this you are being
admonished; and God is Aware of what you do.

[58:4]

And he who cannot find [the wherewithal], [to set free] a slave, then [his redemption shall be] the fasting of
two successive months before they touch one another. And if he is unable, to fast, then [the redemption
shall be] the feeding of sixty needy persons, as an obligation upon him, that is, before they touch one
another: understanding the unrestricted [prescription] as [having the same restriction as] the restricted one.
For every needy person [he should give] one mudd measure of the principal food of the town. This, namely,
lightening of the atonement is, so that you may believe in God and His Messenger. And these, namely, the
rulings mentioned, are God’s bounds; and for the rejecters, of them, there is a painful chastisement.

[58:5]

Indeed those who oppose God and His Messenger will be abased, humiliated, just as those before them
were abased, for opposing their messengers. And verily We have revealed clear signs, indicating the
truthfulness of the Messenger, and for those who disbelieve, in the signs, there is a humiliating
chastisement.

[58:6]

The day when God will raise them all together, He will then inform them of what they did. God has kept
count of it, while they forgot it. And God is Witness to all things.

[58:7]

Have you not seen, [have you not] realised, that God knows all that is in the heavens and all that is in the
earth? Not secret conversation of three takes place but He is their fourth [companion], by [virtue of] His
omniscience, nor of five but He is their sixth, nor of fewer than that or more but He is with them wherever
they may be. Then He will inform them of what they did, on the Day of Resurrection. Assuredly God has
knowledge of all things.

[58:8]

Have you not seen, [have you not] observed, those who were forbidden from conversing in secret [but] then
returned to that they had been forbidden, and [all the while] hold secret conversations [tainted] with sin and
[plans for] enmity and disobedience to the Messenger? These were the Jews, whom the Prophet (s) had
forbidden them what they used to do in their secret talks, that is, their [habit of] conversing secretly with
one another and giving the believers looks in order to cast doubt into their hearts [about the faith]. And
[who] when they come to you, they greet you, O Prophet, with that with which God never greeted you —
namely, their saying [to the Prophet]: al-sāmu ‘alayka, meaning, ‘Death [be upon you]’, and they say within

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themselves, ‘Why does God not chastise us for what we say?’, in the way of such a greeting and [our
saying] that he is not a prophet, if he [truly] were a prophet. Hell will suffice them! In it they will be made to
burn — and [what] an evil journey’s end!, it is.

[58:9]

O you who believe, if you do talk in secret, then do not talk in secret sinfully and in enmity and disobedience
to the Messenger, but talk secretly in piety and fear of God. And fear God to Whom you will be gathered.

[58:10]

Secret conversations, [tainted] with sin and the like, are of [the work of] Satan, [a result] of his deception,
that those who believe may end up grieving; but he cannot harm them in any way, except God’s leave, that
is, [except by] His will. And in God let the believers put [all] their trust.

[58:11]

O you who believe, when it is said to you, ‘Make room’ during the assembly, during the assembly
[convened] with the Prophet (s) or for remembrance, so that those arriving to [join] you may [find room to]
sit (al-majlis, ‘assembly’, may also be read [in the plural] al-majālis) then make room; God will make room
for you, in Paradise. And when it is said, ‘Rise up’, stand up for prayer or for other good deeds, do rise up (a
variant reading [for unshuzū fa’nshuzū] has anshizū in both instances [sc. anshizū fa’nshizū]); God will raise
those of you who have faith, [thereby] obeying this [command], and, He will raise, those who have been
given knowledge by degrees, in Paradise. And God is Aware of what you do.

[58:12]

O you who believe, when you converse in secret with the Messenger, when you wish to converse with him
privately, offer some voluntary alms before your secret talk. That is better for you and purer, for your sins.
But if you find nothing, to offer as alms, then God is indeed Forgiving, of your secret conversation, Merciful,
to you. In other words: nothing will be held against you for holding a secret conversation without having
offered some voluntary alms [beforehand]. However, He [God] abrogated this later by saying:

[58:13]

Do you fear (read a-ashfaqtum, either pronouncing both hamzas fully, or by replacing the second one with
an alif, or not pronouncing it, but inserting an alif between the one not unpronounced and the other one, or
without [this insertion]), poverty [when you fear], to offer [voluntary] alms before your secret talks. So, as
you did not do this, giving of voluntary alms, and God relented to you, waiving this [requirement] for you,
maintain prayer and pay the alms and obey God and His Messenger, that is to say, observe these [duties]
regularly. For God is Aware of what you do.

[58:14]

Have you not regarded, [have you not] seen, those who — these being the hypocrites — fraternise with a
folk — these being the Jews — at whom God is wrathful? They, the hypocrites, neither belong with you, the
believers, nor with them, the Jews, but are suspended in between, and they swear falsely, in other words,
saying that they are believers, while they know, that they are lying in this.

[58:15]

God has prepared for them a severe chastisement. Evil indeed is that which they [are wont to] do, in the
way of acts of disobedience.

[58:16]

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They have taken their oaths as a shield, a [means of] protection for themselves and their possessions, and
so they bar, thereby the believers, from the way of God, that is, from engaging in a struggle against them,
thereby slaying them and seizing their possessions. So for them there will be a humiliating chastisement.

[58:17]

Neither their possessions nor their children will avail them in any way against God, against His chastisement.
Those — they are the inhabitants of the Fire, wherein they will abide.

[58:18]

Mention, the day when God will raise them all together, whereupon they will swear to Him, that they are
believers, just as they swear to you [now], and suppose that they are [standing] on something, beneficial by
swearing in Hereafter just as [they supposed it to have been beneficial for them] in this world. Yet assuredly
it is they who are the liars!

[58:19]

Satan has prevailed upon them, by their obedience of him, and so he has caused them to forget the
remembrance of God. Those are Satan’s confederates, his followers. Yet it is indeed Satan’s confederates
who are the losers!

[58:20]

Indeed those who oppose God and His Messenger — they will be among the most abased, the vanquished.

[58:21]

God has inscribed, in the Preserved Tablet, or [it means] He has decreed: ‘I shall assuredly prevail, I and My
messengers’, by means of definitive proof or the sword. Truly God is Strong, Mighty.

[58:22]

You will not find a people who believe in God and the Last Day loving, befriending, those who oppose God
and His Messenger, even though they, the opposers, were their fathers, that is to say, the believers’
[fathers], or their sons or their brothers or their clan, rather [you will find that] they intend to do them harm
and they fight them over [the question of] faith, as occurred on one occasion with some Companions, may
God be pleased with them. [For] those, the ones who are not loving of them, He has inscribed, He has
established, faith upon their hearts and reinforced them with a spirit, a light, from Him, exalted be He, and
He will admit them into gardens underneath which rivers flow, wherein they will abide, God being pleased
with them, for their obedience of Him, and they being pleased with Him, because of His reward. Those
[they] are God’s confederates, following His command and refraining from what He has forbidden. Assuredly
it is God’s confederates who are the successful, the winners.
Medinese, consisting of 24 verses.

(Al-Hashr)
[59:1]

All that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth glorifies God, that is to say, [all that is in them] exalts
Him as being transcendent (the lām [of li’Llāhi, ‘God’] is extra; the use of mā [instead of the personal min] is
meant to indicate a predominance [of non-rational beings in the heavens and the earth]). And He is the
Mighty, the Wise, in His kingdom and [in] His actions [respectively].

[59:2]

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It is He Who expelled those who disbelieved of the People of the Scripture, namely, the Jews of the Banū al-
Nadīr, from their homelands, [from] their dwellings at Medina, at the first exile, that is, their exile to Syria,
the last [exile] being their banishment to Khaybar by ‘Umar during his caliphate. You did not think, O
believers, that they would go forth, and they thought that they would be protected (māni‘atuhum is the
predicate of an, ‘that’) by their fortresses (husūnuhum, the agent of the verb [māni‘atuhum], with which the
predication is completed) from God, from His chastisement. But God, His command and His chastisement,
came at them from whence they had not reckoned, [from whence] had never occurred to them, from the
part of the believers, and He cast terror (ru‘b or ru‘ub) into their hearts, by having their chief Ka‘b b. al-
Ashraf slain, destroying [as they did] (read yukharribūna; or yukhribūna, [derived] from [4th form] akhraba)
their houses, in order to take away with them what they valued of wood and so on, with their own hands
and the hands of the believers. So take heed, O you who have eyes!

[59:3]

And had God not prescribed, [had He not] decreed, banishment for them, departure from their homeland,
He would have chastised them in this world, by having them killed or taken captive, as He did with the Jews
of [Banū] Qurayza, and in the Hereafter there is for them the chastisement of the Fire.

[59:4]

That is because they defied, they opposed, God and His Messenger; and whoever defies God, indeed God is
severe in retribution, against him.

[59:5]

Whatever palm-trees you cut down, O Muslims, or left standing on their roots, it was by God’s leave: He
gave you the choice in this matter, and in order that, by giving [you] leave to cut them down, He might
disgrace those who are immoral, the Jews, in return for their objection that the cutting down of productive
trees was [deliberate] spoiling [of the land].

[59:6]

And whatever spoils God has given to His Messenger from these, you did not, O Muslims, spur for it any
(min is extra) horses or camels, that is to say, you did not suffer any hardship in [securing] it, but God gives
His messengers sway over whomever He will, and God has power over all things: hence you have no right to
any of this [booty], rather it is exclusively for the Prophet (s) and those of the four categories mentioned
with him in the next verse, [to be dispensed] in accordance with the way in which he used to divide it up,
such that each would receive a fifth of the fifth and the rest being the Prophet’s (s), for him to do with as he
pleases — thus he gave of it to the Emigrants and three from among the Helpers, on account of their
poverty.

[59:7]

Whatever spoils God has given to His Messenger from the people of the towns, such as al-Safrā’, Wādī al-
Qurā and Yanbu‘, belong to God, dispensing with it as He will, and to the Messenger and to the near of kin,
the Prophet’s kin, from among the Banū Hāshim and the Banū al-Muttālib, and the orphans, the [orphaned]
children of Muslims, those whose parents have died and who are impoverished, and the needy, those
Muslims in need, and the traveller, the Muslim who may be cut off [from all resources] on a remote journey:
in other words, they [these spoils] are the due of the Prophet (s) and [those of] the four categories, divided
up in the way that he used to, where each category received a fifth of the fifth, with the rest being his [the
Prophet’s], so that these, the spoils — this being the justification for the division of these [spoils] in this way,
do not (kay-lā: kay functions like lā with a following implied an [sc. an-lā]) become a thing circulating,
handed round, between the rich among you. And whatever the Messenger gives you, of spoils or otherwise,
take it; and whatever he forbids you, abstain [from it]. And fear God. Surely God is severe in retribution.

[59:8]

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[At] the poor Emigrants (li’l-fuqarā’i is semantically connected to an omitted [verb], that is to say, a-‘ajibū,
‘What! Do they marvel [at the poor Emigrants]’) who have been driven away from their homes and their
possessions that they should seek bounty from God and beatitude and help God and His Messenger? Those
— they are the sincere, in their faith.

[59:9]

And those who had settled in the hometown, that is, Medina, and [had abided] in faith, that is to say, [those
who] had embraced it with enthusiasm — these being the Helpers, before them, love those who have
emigrated to them, and do not find in their breasts any need, any envy, of that which those [others] have
been given, that is to say, of what the Prophet (s) had given the Emigrants from the [seized] possessions of
the Banū al-Nadīr, [a share which was] exclusively theirs; but prefer [others] to themselves, though they be
in poverty, in need of that which they prefer for [those] others [to have]. And whoever is saved from the
avarice of his own soul, its covetousness for [acquiring] possessions, those — they are the successful.

[59:10]

And those who will come after them, after the Emigrants and the Helpers, up to the Day of Resurrection,
say, ‘Our Lord, forgive us and our brethren who preceded us in [embracing] the faith, and do not place any
rancour, any spite, in our hearts toward those who believe. Our Lord, You are indeed Kind, Merciful!’.

[59:11]

Have you not considered, [have you not] seen, the hypocrites who say to their brethren who disbelieve from
among the People of the Scripture, namely, the Banū al-Nadīr, their brethren in disbelief, ‘If (la-in: the lām is
for oaths in all four instances) you are expelled, from Medina, we will assuredly go forth with you, and we
will never obey anyone against you, to forsake you. And if you are fought against (wa-in qūtiltum: the
prefatory lām [of la-in] has been omitted), we will certainly help you’. And God bears witness that they are
truly liars.

[59:12]

[For] indeed if they are expelled, they would not go forth with them, and if they are fought against, they
would not help them. And even if they were to help them, that is to say, even if they came to help them,
they would surely turn their backs [to flee] (the implied response to the oath suffices in place of the
response to the conditional, in all five instances) — then they, the Jews, would not be helped.

[59:13]

You indeed arouse greater awe, fear, in their hearts, that is, [the hearts of] the hypocrites, than God — [but
only] because He has deferred His chastisement [to the Hereafter]. That is because they are a people who
do not comprehend.

[59:14]

They, that is, the Jews, will not fight against you together, [all] in a [single] body, except in fortified towns
or from behind some wall (jidār: a variant reading has [plural] judur, ‘walls’), some [kind of protective]
fence. Their might, their belligerence, is great among themselves. You [would] suppose them to be all
together, united as a [single] body, but their hearts are disunited, scattered, contrary to supposition. That is
because they are a people who have no sense;

[59:15]

their likeness in relinquishing faith is, as the likeness of those who, recently before them, a short time before
— these being the idolaters from among those [who fought] at Badr — tasted the evil consequences of their

659
conduct, the punishment for it in this world, by being killed or otherwise. And for them there will be a painful
chastisement, in the Hereafter.

[59:16]

In addition, their likeness in heeding the [words of the] hypocrites and their forsaking of them is, like Satan
when he says to man, ‘Disbelieve!’; so that when he [man] disbelieves, he says, ‘Lo! I am absolved of you.
Indeed I fear God, the Lord of the Worlds’, out of mendacity and dissimulation on his part.

[59:17]

So the sequel for both will be, that is, [the sequel for both] the one who leads astray and the one led astray
(a variant reading for [‘āqibatahumā] has the nominative ‘āqibatuhumā, as the subject of kāna, ‘will be’),
that they are in the Fire, therein abiding. And that is the requital of the evildoers, that is, the disbelievers.

[59:18]

O you who believe, fear God and let every soul consider what it has sent ahead for tomorrow, for the Day of
Resurrection. And fear God. God is indeed Aware of what you do.

[59:19]

And do not be like those who forget God, [those who] neglect obedience to Him, so that He makes them
forget their own souls, [to forget] to send ahead good deeds for its sake. Those — they are the immoral.

[59:20]

Not equal are the inhabitants of the Fire and the inhabitants of Paradise. It is the inhabitants of Paradise
who are the winners.

[59:21]

Had We sent down this Qur’ān upon a mountain, and had it [the mountain] been endowed with a faculty of
discernment like man, you would have surely seen it humbled, rent asunder by the fear of God. And such
similitudes, as those mentioned — do We strike for mankind, that perhaps they may reflect, and so become
believers.

[59:22]

He is God, than Whom there is no other god, Knower of the unseen and the visible, what is secret and what
is proclaimed — He is the Compassionate, the Merciful.

[59:23]

He is God, than Whom there is no other god, the King, the Holy, the One sanctified from what does not befit
Him, the Peace, unblemished by any defects, the Securer, the One Who confirms the sincerity of His
messengers by creating miracles for them, the Guardian (al-muhaymin: [derives] from haymana,
yuhayminu, meaning that one is watcher over something), in other words, the One Who is Witness to the
deeds of His servants, the Mighty, the Strong, the Compeller, compelling His creatures to what He will, the
Exalted, above what does not befit Him. Glorified be God — He is declaring His transcendence — above
what partners they ascribe!, to Him.

[59:24]

He is God, the Creator, the Maker, the Originator from nothing, the Shaper. To Him belong the, ninety nine,
Most Beautiful Names, cited in hadīth (al-husnā is the feminine of al-ahsan). All that is in the heavens and

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the earth glorify Him, and He is the Mighty, the Wise — already explained at the beginning of this [sūra].
Medinese, consisting of 13 verses.

(Al-Mumtahanah)
[60:1]

O you who believe, do not take My enemy and your enemy, namely, the disbelievers of Mecca, for friends.
You offer, you communicate to, them, the Prophet’s plan (s) to attack them, which he had confided to you,
and had kept secret, at Hunayn, [communicating this to them out of], affection, between you and them.
Hātib b. Abī Balta‘a sent them a letter to that effect, on account of his having children and close relatives,
idolaters, among them. The Prophet (s) intercepted it from the person to whom he [Hātib] had given it to
deliver, after God apprised him of this. Hātib’s excuse for this [conduct of his] was accepted [by the
Prophet]; when verily they have disbelieved in the truth that has come to you, that is, [in] the religion of
Islam and the Qur’ān, expelling the Messenger and you, from Mecca, by oppressing you, because you
believe in God, your Lord. If you have gone forth to struggle in My way and to seek My pleasure … (the
response to the conditional is indicated by what preceded, that is to say, [understand it as being] ‘then do
not take them as friends’). You secretly harbour affection for them, when I know well what you hide and
what you proclaim. And whoever among you does that, that is, to secretly communicate the Prophet’s news
to them, has verily strayed from the right way, he has missed the path of guidance (originally, al-sawā’
means ‘the middle [way]’).

[60:2]

If they were to prevail over you, they would be your enemies, and would stretch out against you their
hands, to kill and assault you, and their tongues with evil [intent], with insults and reviling; and they long for
you to disbelieve.

[60:3]

Your relatives and your children, the idolatrous [ones], for whose sake you secretly communicated the news,
will not avail you, against the chastisement in the Hereafter. On the Day of Resurrection you will be
separated (passive yufsalu; or read active yafsilu, ‘He will separate you’) from them, so that you will be in
Paradise, while they will be alongside the disbelievers in the Fire. And God is Seer of what you do.

[60:4]

Verily there is for you a good example (read iswa or uswa in both instances, meaning qudwa) in [the person
of] Abraham, in terms of [his] sayings and deeds, and those who were with him, of believers, when they
said to their people, ‘We are indeed innocent of you (bura’ā’ is the plural of barī’, similar [in form] to zarīf,
‘charming’) and of what you worship besides God. We repudiate you, we disavow you, and between us and
you there has arisen enmity and hate forever (wa’l-baghdā’u abadan: pronounce both hamzas fully, or
replace the second one with a wāw) until you [come to] believe in God alone’, except for Abraham’s saying
to his father, ‘I shall ask forgiveness for you — [this statement is] excepted from ‘a [good] example’, so it is
not [right] for you to follow his example in this [respect] by asking forgiveness for disbelievers. As for his
saying: but I cannot avail you anything against God’ — that is, either against His chastisement or [to secure
for you of] His reward — he [Abraham] is using it to intimate [to his father] that he can do nothing for him
other than to ask forgiveness [for him], which [saying] is itself based on that [former statement] albeit
excepted [from it] in terms of what is meant by it, even if on the face of it, it would seem to be
[semantically] part of the [good] example to be followed: Say, ‘Who can avail you anything against God’ [Q.
48:11]; his [Abraham’s] plea of forgiveness for him was before it became evident to him that he [his father]
was an enemy of God, as mentioned in sūrat Barā’a [Q. 9:114]. ‘Our Lord, in You we put our trust, and to
You we turn [penitently], and to You is the journeying: these are the words of the Friend [of God, Abraham]
and those who were with him, in other words, they were saying:

[60:5]

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Our Lord, do not make us a cause of beguilement for those who disbelieve, that is to say, do not make them
prevail over us, lest they think that they are following the truth and are beguiled as a result, in other words,
[lest] they lose their reason because of us; and forgive us. Our Lord, You are indeed the Mighty, the Wise’,
in Your kingdom and Your actions.

[60:6]

Verily there is for you, O community of Muhammad (s) (laqad kāna lakum is the response to an implied
oath) in them a good example, for those [of you] who (li-man kāna is an inclusive substitution for –kum [of
lakum, ‘for you’] with the same preposition [li-] repeated) anticipate God and the Last Day, that is, [for
those] who fear these two, or who expect reward or punishment. And whoever turns away, by befriending
the disbelievers, [should know that] God is the Independent, [without need] of His creatures, the Worthy of
Praise, to those who obey Him.

[60:7]

It may be that God will bring about between you and those of them with whom you are at enmity, from
among the disbelievers of Mecca out of [your] obedience to God, exalted be He, affection, by His guiding
them to faith, so that they then become your friends. For God is Powerful, [able] to do that — and He did do
this after the conquest of Mecca — and God is Forgiving, to them of their past [deeds], Merciful, to them
[also].

[60:8]

God does not forbid you in regard to those who did not wage war against you, from among the disbelievers,
on account of religion and did not expel you from your homes, that you should treat them kindly (an
tabarrūhum is an inclusive substitution for alladhīna, ‘those who’) and deal with them justly: this was
[revealed] before the command to struggle against them. Assuredly God loves the just.

[60:9]

God only forbids you in regard to those who waged war against you on account of religion and expelled you
from your homes and supported [others] in your expulsion, that you should make friends with them (an
tawallawhum is an inclusive substitution for alladhīna, ‘those who’). And whoever makes friends with them,
those — they are the wrongdoers.

[60:10]

O you who believe, when believing women come to you, [saying] with their tongues [that they are],
emigrating, from the [company of] disbelievers — [this was] following the truce concluded with them [the
disbelievers] at al-Hudaybiyya to the effect that if any of their number should go to [join] the believers, that
person should be sent back — test them, by making them swear that they had only gone forth [from Mecca]
because of their [sincere] wish to embrace Islam, and not out of some hatred for their disbelieving
husbands, nor because they might be enamoured by some Muslim man: that was how the Prophet (s) used
to take from them their oaths. God knows best [the state of] their faith. Then, if you know them, if you
suppose them, on the basis of their oaths, to be believers, do not send them back to the disbelievers. They
[the women] are not lawful for them, nor are they [the disbelievers] lawful for them. And give them, that is
to say, their disbelieving husbands, what they have expended, on them [on such women], in the way of
dowries. And you would not be at fault if you marry them, on that [previous] condition, when you have
given them their dowries. And do not hold on (read tumassikū or tumsikū) to the [conjugal] ties of
disbelieving women, your wives, for your Islam automatically prohibits you from this, or [to the ties of] those
apostatising women who return to the idolaters, for [likewise] their apostatising automatically prohibits you
from marrying them, and ask for, demand, [the return of] what you have expended, on these women, of
dowries, in the event of apostasy, from those disbelievers to whom they are married. And let them ask for
what they have expended, on those women who have emigrated, as explained above, that it may be repaid

662
to them. That is God’s judgement. He judges between you, therewith, and God is Knower, Wise.

[60:11]

And if you lose any of your wives, that is to say, [if you lose] one or more of them — or [it means if you
lose] anything of their dowries — by [their] going, to the disbelievers, as apostates, and so you retaliate,
you embark upon a raid and capture spoils [from them], then give those whose wives have gone, from the
spoils, the like of what they have expended, for their having lost it to the disbelievers. And fear God in
Whom you believe. And indeed the believers did what they had been commanded to do in the way of paying
[back] the disbelievers [the dowries of their former wives] and the believers [the dowries of the women who
had apostatised]. Afterwards, however, this stipulation was annulled.

[60:12]

O Prophet, if believing women come to you, pledging allegiance to you that they will not ascribe anything as
partner to God, and that they will not steal, nor commit adultery, nor slay their children, as used to be done
during the time of pagandom (jāhiliyya), when they would bury new-born girls alive, fearing ignominy and
impoverishment, nor bring any lie that they have invented [originating] between their hands and their legs,
that is, [by bringing] a foundling which they then [falsely] ascribe to the husband — it [the lie] is described
in terms of a real child, because when a woman gives birth to a child, it falls between her hands and legs;
nor disobey you in, doing, what is decent, which is that which concords with obedience to God, such as
refraining from wailing, ripping apart [their] clothes [in grief], pulling out [their] hair, tearing open the front
of [their] garments or scratching [their] faces, then accept their allegiance — the Prophet (s) did this [but]
in words, and he did not shake hands with any of them — and ask God to forgive them; surely God is
Forgiving, Merciful.

[60:13]

O you who believe, do not befriend a people against whom God is wrathful, namely, the Jews. They have
truly despaired of the Hereafter, of [attaining] its reward — despite their being certain of its truth, out of
obstinacy towards the Prophet, even though they know him to be sincere — just as the disbelievers have
despaired — they [themselves] being — of those who are in the tombs, that is to say, those who are
entombed [and barred] from the good of the Hereafter, for they are shown [both] their [would-have-been]
places in Paradise, had they believed, and the Fire for which they are destined.
Meccan or Medinese, consisting of 14 verses.

(As-Saff)
[61:1]

All that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth glorifies God, that is to say, [everything] proclaims His
transcendence (the lām [of li’Llāhi] is extra, and mā has been used instead of min in order to indicate the
predominance [of non-rational creatures]) and He is the Mighty, in His kingdom, the Wise, in His actions.

[61:2]

O you who believe, why do you say, in demanding [to participate in] the struggle, what you do not do?, for
you retreated at Uhud.

[61:3]

It is greatly loathsome (maqtan is for specification) to God that you say (an taqūlū constitutes the agent of
[the verb] kabura, ‘it is great[ly]’) what you do not do.

[61:4]

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Indeed God loves, He assists and honours, those who fight for His cause in ranks (saffan is a circumstantial
qualifier, in other words [understand it as] sāffīna), as if they were a solid structure, with all of its parts
compacted together, firm.

[61:5]

And, mention, when Moses said to his people, ‘O my people, why do you harm me — [for] they had said
that he had a hernia in his testicles, which he did not have, and they denied him — when certainly (qad is
for confirmation) you know that I am the messenger of God to you?’ (annī rasūlu’Llāhi ilaykum: this
sentence is a circumstantial qualifier) and [when you know that] messengers ought to be respected. So
when they deviated, when they swerved away from the truth by harming him, God caused their hearts to
deviate: He turned them away from guidance, in accordance to what He had preordained since pre-eternity,
and God does not guide the immoral folk, those who, in His knowledge, are disbelievers.

[61:6]

And, mention, when Jesus son of Mary said, ‘O Children of Israel — he did not say ‘O my people’ [as did
Moses] because he was not related to them in any way — I am indeed God’s messenger to you, confirming
what is before me of the Torah and bringing good tidings of a messenger who will come after me, whose
name is Ahmad.’ God, exalted be He, says: Yet when he brought them, [when] Ahmad brought the
disbelievers, the clear signs, the revelations and the indications, they said, ‘This, namely, what has been
brought, is manifest sorcery!’ (sihrun: a variant reading has sāhirun, ‘a sorcerer’, meaning the one who has
brought them [is a manifest sorcerer]).

[61:7]

And who does — that is to say, none does — greater wrong than he who invents lies against God, by
ascribing a partner and a child to Him and describing His signs as being sorcery, when he is [actually] being
summoned to submission [to God]? And God does not guide the wrongdoing folk, the disbelieving [folk].

[61:8]

They desire to extinguish (li-yutfi’ū is in the subjunctive form because of an implicit an [sc. an yutfi’ū], the
lām being extra) the light of God, His Law and His proofs, with their mouths, with their sayings, that this is
sorcery, or poetry or soothsaying; but God will perfect, He will manifest, His light (mutimmun nūrahu: some
have read this in the form of a genitive annextation, mutimmu nūrihi) though the disbelievers be averse, to
this.

[61:9]

It is He Who has sent His Messenger with the guidance and the religion of truth, that He may make it
prevail, that He may raise it, over all [other] religions, [over] all the religions which oppose it, though the
disbelievers be averse, to this.

[61:10]

O you who believe, shall I show you a commerce that will deliver you (read tunjīkum or tunajjīkum) from a
painful chastisement? It is as if they had replied, ‘Yes’, so that He then says:

[61:11]

You should believe, you should maintain faith, in God and His Messenger and struggle for the cause of God
with your possessions and your lives. That is better for you, should you know, that it is better for you, then
do it.

[61:12]

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He will [then] forgive you (yaghfir is the response to an implied conditional, that is to say, ‘if you do this, He
will then forgive you’) your sins and admit you into gardens underneath which rivers flow and pleasant
dwellings in the Gardens of Eden, as a residence. That is the supreme triumph.

[61:13]

And, He will give you, another, grace, which you love: help from God and a victory near at hand. And give
good tidings to the believers, of assistance and victory.

[61:14]

O you who believe, be helpers of God, of His religion (a variant reading [of ansāran li’Llāhi] has the genitive
annexation ansāra’Llāhi) just as said (kamā qāla to the end [of the statement] means ‘just as the disciples
were so’, as is indicated by [what follows]) Jesus son of Mary to the disciples, ‘Who will be my helpers unto
God?’, that is to say, who [of you] will be helpers alongside me turning to help God? The disciples said, ‘We
will be God’s helpers!’ [These] al-hawāriyyūn [were] the intimates of Jesus, for they were the first to believe
in him. They were twelve men of pure white complexion (hawar); but it is also said that [their epithet
derives from the fact that] they were bleachers (qassārūn) who bleached (yuhawwirūna) clothes. So a group
of the Children of Israel believed, in Jesus, saying: ‘He is [indeed] the servant of God, [who has been] raised
to heaven’, while a group disbelieved, because they said that he was the son of God, whom He had raised
unto Himself. Thus the two groups waged war against one another. Then We strengthened those who
believed, of the two groups, against their enemy, the disbelieving groups, and so they became the
triumphant, the victors.
Medinese, consisting of 11 verses.

(Al-Jumu‘ah)
[62:1]

All that is the heavens and all that is in the earth glorifies God, [all] proclaims His transcendence (the lām [of
li’Llāhi] is extra; mā is used instead of min in order to indicate the predominance [of non-rational beings]),
the King, the Holy, the One Who transcends what does not befit Him, the Mighty, the Wise, in His kingdom
and in His actions.

[62:2]

It is He Who sent to the unlettered [folk], [among] the Arabs (ummī means ‘one who cannot write or read a
book’), a messenger from among them, namely, Muhammad (s), to recite to them His signs, the Qur’ān, and
to purify them, to cleanse them from idolatry, and to teach them the Book, the Qur’ān, and wisdom, [in] the
rulings that it contains, though indeed (wa-in: in has been softened from the hardened form, with its subject
having been omitted, that is to say, [understand it as] wa-innahum) before that, [before] his coming, they
had been in manifest error.

[62:3]

And [to] others (wa-ākharīna is a supplement to al-ummiyyīna, ‘the unlettered’), that is to say, those who
are alive, from among them, and [to] those of them who will come after them, who have not yet joined
them, with regard to precedence and merit; and He is the Mighty, the Wise, in His kingdom and in His
actions: those [mentioned as coming afterwards] are the Successors (al-tābi‘ūna); and it suffices to mention
these [Successors] in order to illustrate the [greater] merit of the Companions, among whom the Prophet (s)
was sent, over all those others, of humans and jinn, to whom he was [also] sent and who [believed and] will
believe in him up until the Day of Resurrection, for every generation is better than the succeeding one.

[62:4]

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That is the bounty of God, which He gives to whom He will — [such as] the Prophet and those mentioned
with him — and God is [dispenser] of tremendous bounty.

[62:5]

The likeness of those who were entrusted with the Torah, those who were charged with implementing it,
then failed to uphold it, [then] failed to act in accordance with it, in what pertains to the descriptions of the
Prophet (s), and so did not believe in him, is as the likeness of an ass carrying books, in that it does not
benefit from them. Evil is the likeness of the people who deny God’s signs, those confirming the truth of the
Prophet (s) — (the object of rebuke is omitted but is implied to be hādhā’l-mathalu, ‘this likeness’). And God
does not guide the evildoing folk, the disbelievers.

[62:6]

Say: ‘O you of Jewry, if you claim that you are the [favoured] friends of God, to the exclusion of other
people, then long for death, if you are truthful’ (in kuntum sādiqīna is semantically connected to tamannū,
‘long for’; as for the two conditions, the first is dependent on the second, that is to say, if you are truthful in
your claim that you are the [favoured] friends of God, and given that [such] a friend would prefer the
Hereafter [to this world] and that it [the Hereafter] begins at death, then long for it).

[62:7]

But they will never long for it, because of what their hands have sent ahead, in the way of their disbelief of
the Prophet, [which itself is] a necessary consequence of their denial; and God is Knower of the evildoers,
the disbelievers.

[62:8]

Say: ‘Assuredly the death from which you flee (fa-innahu: the fā’ is extra) will indeed encounter you; then
you will be returned to the Knower of the Unseen and the visible, [the Knower of] what is [kept] secret and
what is in the open, and He will inform you of what you used to do’, whereat He will requite you for it.

[62:9]

O you who believe, when the call for prayer is made on Friday, hasten, set off, to the remembrance of God,
to the prayer, and leave aside [all] commerce, suspend [all] such contracts. That is better for you, should
you know, that it is better for you, then do it.

[62:10]

And when the prayer is finished, disperse in the land (this is an imperative denoting permissibility) and seek,
provision through, God’s bounty, and remember God, with remembrance, frequently, that perhaps you may
be successful, [that perhaps] you may be the winners.

[62:11]

On one occasion the Prophet (s) was delivering the Friday sermon when a caravan arrived and so, as was
the custom, drums were beaten to announce its arrival, whereat the people began to leave the mosque [to
go to it], all except for twelve men. The following [verse] was then revealed: But when they sight some
[opportunity for] business or a diversion, they scatter off towards it, that is, towards the business, since it is
what they seek more than diversion, and leave you, during the sermon, standing. Say: ‘That which is with
God, in the way of reward, is better, for those who believe, than diversion and commerce. And God is the
best of providers’. They say that every person ‘provides for’ (yarzuqu) his dependants, [by which they mean
that such a person does so] by means of the provision given by God (min rizqi’Llāhi), exalted be He.
Medinese, consisting of 11 verses.

666
 (Al-Munâfiqûn)
[63:1]

When the hypocrites come to you they say, with their tongues, in contradiction of what is in their hearts:
‘We bear witness that you are indeed the Messenger of God.’ And God knows that you are indeed His
Messenger, and God bears witness, He knows, that the hypocrites truly are liars, in what they conceal, that
which is contrary to what they say.

[63:2]

They have taken their oaths as a shield, as a [means of] protection for their possessions and their lives, and
so they have barred, thereby, from the way of God, that is, from using them for the struggle. Evil indeed is
that which they are wont to do.

[63:3]

That, namely, their evil deed, is because they believed, by [affirming faith only with] the tongue, then
disbelieved, in [their] hearts, that is to say, they persist in harbouring disbelief in it; therefore their hearts
have been stamped, sealed, with disbelief. Hence they do not understand, faith.

[63:4]

And when you see them, their figures please you, on account of their fairness; and if they speak, you listen
to their speech, because of its eloquence. [Yet] they are, by virtue of the enormous size of their figures,
[yet] in their lack of comprehension, like blocks of timber (read khushbun or khushubun) [that have been]
propped-up, set reclining against a wall. They assume that every cry, made, like a battle-cry or one made to
[retrieve] a lost camel, is [directed] against them, because of the [extent of] terror in their hearts, lest
something should be revealed deeming their blood licit. They are the enemy, so beware of them, for they
communicate your secrets to the disbelievers. May God assail them!, destroy them! How can they deviate?,
how can they be turned away from faith after the proofs [for it] have been established?

[63:5]

And when it is said to them, ‘Come, offer apologies, and God’s Messenger will ask forgiveness for you’, they
twist (read lawwaw or lawū), they turn, their heads, and you see them turning away, rejecting this [offer],
disdainful.

[63:6]

It will be the same for them, whether you ask forgiveness for them (a’staghfarta: the interrogative hamza
here has taken the place of the conjunctive hamza) or do not ask forgiveness for them: God will never
forgive them. Indeed God does not guide the immoral folk.

[63:7]

They are the ones who say, to their companions from among the Helpers: ‘Do not expend on those who are
with the Messenger of God, from among the Emigrants, until they scatter off’, until they part with him. Yet
to God belong the treasuries of the heavens and the earth, with [what they contain of] provision, and so He
is the provider for the Emigrants and others, but the hypocrites do not understand.

[63:8]

They say, ‘Surely if we return, from the raid against the Banū al-Mustaliq, to Medina, the powerful, by which
they meant themselves, will [soon] expel from it the weaker’, by which they meant the believers. Yet [the
real] might, victory, belongs to God and to His Messenger, and to the believers, but the hypocrites do not

667
know, that.

[63:9]

O you who believe, do not let your possessions and your children divert you, distract you, from the
remembrance of God, [from] the five prayers; for whoever does that — it is they who are the losers.

[63:10]

And expend, in alms, of that with which We have provided you before death comes to any of you, whereat
he will say, ‘My Lord, if only (law-lā means hal-lā, ‘why [do You] not’; or the lā is extra and the law is
optative) You would reprieve me for a short time so that I might give charity (assaddaq: the original tā’ [of
atasaddaqa] has been assimilated with the sād), that I might offer alms, and become one of the righteous!’,
by making the Pilgrimage. Ibn ‘Abbās, may God be pleased with both [him and his father], said, ‘Every
person who has fallen short of [his duty regarding] alms and the Pilgrimage will ask to be returned [to this
world] at the moment of death’.

[63:11]

But God will never reprieve a soul when its term has come. And God is Aware of what you do (ta‘malūna;
also read [as the third person plural] ya‘malūna, ‘they do’).
Meccan or Medinese, consisting of 18 verses.

(At-Taghâbun)
[64:1]

All that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth glorifies God, [everything] proclaims His transcendence
(the lām [of li’Llāhi] is extra; mā is used instead of min in order to indicate the predominance [of non-
rational beings]). To Him belongs the Kingdom and to Him belongs [all] praise, and He has power over all
things.

[64:2]

It is He Who created you. Then some of you are disbelievers and some of you are believers, in [terms of]
your original disposition; then He makes you die and brings you back to life in that same [disposition]; and
God is Seer of what you do.

[64:3]

He created the heavens and the earth with the truth, and He shaped you and made your shapes excellent,
for He made the human form to be the best of forms; and to Him is the journey’s end.

[64:4]

He knows all that is in the heavens and the earth, and He knows what you hide and what you disclose, and
God is Knower of what is in the breasts, in terms of the secrets and convictions they contain.

[64:5]

Has there not come to you, O disbelievers of Mecca, the tidings, the story, of those who disbelieved before
and thus tasted the evil consequences of their conduct?, [they tasted] the punishment for disbelief in this
world. And there will be for them, in the Hereafter, a painful chastisement?

[64:6]

668
That, chastisement in this world, is because (bi-annahu contains the pronoun of the matter) their
messengers used to bring them clear signs, manifest proofs for [the validity of] faith, but they said, ‘Shall
[mere] humans (basharan is meant as generic) be our guides?’ So they disbelieved and turned away, from
faith, and God was independent, [without need] of their faith. And God is Independent, [without need] of
His creatures, Praised, praiseworthy in His actions.

[64:7]

Those who disbelieve claim that (an is softened, its subject having been omitted, that is to say, annahum)
they will never be resurrected. Say: ‘Yes indeed, by my Lord! You will be resurrected; then you will be
informed of what you did. And that is easy for God’.

[64:8]

So believe in God and His Messenger and the Light, the Qur’ān, which We have revealed. And God is Aware
of what you do.

[64:9]

Mention, the day when He will gather you for the Day of Gathering, the Day of Resurrection, that will be the
Day of Dispossession, [on which] the believers will dupe the disbelievers by occupying [what would have
been] their places in Paradise, had they believed, as well as [appropriating] their [believing] spouses. And
[as for] those who believe in God and act righteously, He will absolve them of their misdeeds and admit
them into gardens underneath which rivers flow (a variant reading for both verbs has the first person plural)
wherein they will abide. That is the supreme triumph.

[64:10]

And [as for] those who disbelieved and denied Our signs — the Qur’ān — those, they will be the inhabitants
of the Fire, wherein they will abide. And [what] an evil journey’s end!, it is.

[64:11]

No affliction strikes except by the leave of God, by His decree. And whoever believes in God, in His saying
that every affliction is by His decreeing [it], He will guide his heart, to endure it [patiently]. And God is
Knower of all things.

[64:12]

And obey God and obey the Messenger; but if you turn away, then the Messenger’s duty is only to
communicate [the Message] clearly.

[64:13]

God — there is no god except Him. And in God let [all] believers put their trust.

[64:14]

O you who believe! Indeed among your wives and children there are enemies for you, so beware of them, of
obeying them in neglecting [the performance of] good [deeds], such as struggling or emigrating — because
the reason why this verse was revealed was [precisely their] obedience [of them] in such [matters]. And if
you pardon, them, for their impeding you from such good [deeds], justifying it on account of the distress
that parting with you causes them, and overlook [such enmity] and forgive, then assuredly God is Forgiving,
Merciful.

[64:15]

669
Your possessions and your children are only a trial, for you, distracting [you] from the concerns of the
Hereafter, and God — with Him is a great reward, so do not forfeit it by preoccupying yourselves with
possessions and children.

[64:16]

So fear God as far as you can — this abrogates His saying: Fear God as He should be feared [Q. 3:102] —
and listen, to what you have been enjoined to, listening disposed to accept, and obey and expend, in
obedience [to Him]; that is better for your souls (khayran li-anfusikum is the predicate of an implied yakun,
‘[that] is’, and the response to the imperative). And whoever is shielded from the avarice of his own soul,
such are the successful, the winners.

[64:17]

If you lend God a good loan, by giving voluntary alms out of the goodness of [your] hearts, He will multiply
it for you (yudā‘ifhu: a variant reading has yuda‘‘ifhu), from tenfold up to seven hundredfold or more for
each one — this [loan] being the giving of voluntary alms out of the goodness of the heart — and He will
forgive you, whatever He will, and God is Appreciative, rewarding of obedience, Forbearing, in refraining
from [always] punishing disobedience;

[64:18]

Knower of the Unseen, the hidden, and the visible, the disclosed, the Mighty, in His kingdom, the Wise, in
His actions.
Medinese, consisting of 12 verses.

(At-Talâq)
[65:1]

O Prophet, meaning [to address] his community, on account of what follows; or, [it means] say to them:
when you [men] divorce women, when you intend to [effect a] divorce, divorce them by their prescribed
period, at the beginning of it, such that the divorce is effected while she is pure and has not been touched
[sexually], based on the Prophet’s (s) explaining it in this way, [as] reported by the two Shaykhs [al-Bukhārī
and Muslim]. And count the prescribed period, keep record of it, so that you may repeal [your decision]
before it is concluded; and fear God your Lord, obey Him in His commands and prohibitions. Do not expel
them from their houses, nor let them go forth, from them until their prescribed period is concluded, unless
they commit a blatant [act of] indecency, [such as] adultery (read mubayyana or mubayyina, corresponding
[respectively] to buyyinat, ‘one that has been proven’, and bayyina, ‘blatant’), in which case they are
brought out in order to carry out the [prescribed] legal punishment against them. And those, mentioned
[stipulations], are God’s bounds; and whoever transgresses the bounds of God has verily wronged his soul.
You never know: it may be that God will bring something new to pass afterwards, [after] the divorce, [such
as] a retraction, in the event that it was the first or second [declaration of divorce].

[65:2]

Then, when they have reached their term, [when] they are near the end of their prescribed period, retain
them, by taking them back, honourably, without coercion, or separate from them honourably, leave them to
conclude their waiting period and do not compel them to go back [to you]. And call to witness two just men
from among yourselves, [to witness] the retraction or the separation, and bear witness for the sake of God,
and not [merely] for the sake of what is being witnessed or for the sake of the man. By this is exhorted
whoever believes in God and the Last Day. And whoever fears God, He will make a way out for him, from
the distress of this world and the Hereafter;

[65:3]

670
and He will provide for him from whence he never expected, [from whence] it never occurred to him. And
whoever puts his trust in God, regarding his affairs, He will suffice him. Indeed God fulfils His command, His
will (a variant reading [for bālighun amrahu] has the genitive construction [bālighu amrihi]). Verily God has
ordained for everything, [even things] such as comfort and hardship, a measure, a fixed time.

[65:4]

And [as for] those of your women who (read allā’ī or allā’i in both instances) no longer expect to
menstruate, if you have any doubts, about their waiting period, their prescribed [waiting] period shall be
three months, and [also for] those who have not yet menstruated, because of their young age, their period
shall [also] be three months — both cases apply to other than those whose spouses have died; for these
[latter] their period is prescribed in the verse: they shall wait by themselves for four months and ten [days]
[Q. 2:234]. And those who are pregnant, their term, the conclusion of their prescribed [waiting] period if
divorced or if their spouses be dead, shall be when they deliver. And whoever fears God, He will make
matters ease for him, in this world and in the Hereafter.

[65:5]

That, which is mentioned regarding the prescribed [waiting] period, is God’s command, His ruling, which He
has revealed to you. And whoever fears God, He will absolve him of his misdeeds and magnify the reward
for him.

[65:6]

Lodge them, that is, the divorced women, where you dwell, that is to say, in some part of your dwellings, in
accordance with your means (min wujdikum is an explicative supplement, or a substitution of what precedes
it with the repetition of the same preposition [min] and with an implied genitive annexation, in other words,
[something like] amkinat sa‘atikum, ‘[house them in] the places of your means and not otherwise’) and do
not harass them so as to put them in straits, with regard to accommodation, such that they would then need
to go elsewhere or [be in need of] maintenance [to provide for themselves] so that they [are forced to]
ransom themselves from you. And if they are pregnant, then maintain them until they deliver. Then, if they
suckle for you, your children [whom you have] from them, give them their wages, for the suckling, and
consult together, with them, honourably, with kindness, for the sake of the children, by mutual agreement
on a fixed wage for the suckling. But if you both make difficulties, regarding the suckling, with either the
father withholding [payment of] the wage or the mother refraining from performing it, then another woman
will suckle [the child] for him, for the father, and the mother should not be compelled to suckle it.

[65:7]

Let the affluent man expend, on the divorced or the suckling woman, out of his affluence. And let he whose
provision has been straitened, restricted, for him, expend of what God has given him, in accordance with his
means. God does not charge any soul save except with what He has given it. God will assuredly bring about
ease after hardship — which He indeed did by way of the [Muslim] conquests.

[65:8]

And how many (ka’ayyin: the kāf is the genitive prepositional particle which has been added to ayy, ‘which’,
to give the meaning of kam, ‘how many’) a town — that is to say, many a town, meaning its inhabitants,
disobeyed the command of its Lord and His messengers, then We called it, in the Hereafter — even if it has
not yet arrived, [God says so] because of the fact that it will surely come to pass — to a severe reckoning
and chastised it with a dire chastisement (read nukran or nukuran), namely, the chastisement of the Fire.

[65:9]

So it tasted the evil consequences of its conduct, the punishment for it, and the consequence of its conduct

671
was [utter] loss, failure and destruction.

[65:10]

God has prepared for them a severe chastisement (the reiteration of the threat is for emphasis). So fear
God, O people of pith, O possessors of intellect, [you] who believe! (this is a description of the vocative, or
an explication of it) God has certainly revealed to you a [source of] remembrance, that is, the Qur’ān;

[65:11]

a messenger, that is, Muhammad (s) (rasūlan is in the accusative because of an implied verb, that is to say,
wa-arsala, ‘and He sent you [a messenger]’) reciting to you the clear signs of God (read mubayyanāt or
mubayyināt, as [explained] above) that He may bring forth those who believe and perform righteous deeds,
after the arrival of the remembrance and the Messenger, from darkness, the disbelief to which they adhered,
to light, the faith that was established in them after [a life of] disbelief. And those who believe in God and
act righteously, He will admit them (a variant reading has the first person plural [nudkhilhu, ‘We will admit
them’]) into gardens underneath which rivers flow, wherein they will abide forever. God has verily made a
good provision for him, namely, the provision of Paradise, the bliss of which never ends.

[65:12]

God it is Who created seven heavens, and of earth the like thereof, that is to say, seven earths. The
command, the revelation, descends between them, between the heavens and the earth: Gabriel descends
with it from the seventh heaven to the seventh earth, that you may know (li-ta‘lamū is semantically
connected to an omitted clause, that is to say, ‘He apprises you of this creation and this sending down [that
you may know]’), that God has power over all things and that God encompasses all things in knowledge.
Medinese, consists of 12 verses.

(At-Tahrîm)
[66:1]

O Prophet! Why do you prohibit what God has made lawful for you, in terms of your Coptic handmaiden
Māriya — when he lay with her in the house of Hafsa, who had been away, but who upon returning [and
finding out] became upset by the fact that this had taken place in her own house and on her own bed — by
saying, ‘She is unlawful for me!’, seeking, by making her unlawful [for you], to please your wives? And God
is Forgiving, Merciful, having forgiven you this prohibition.

[66:2]

Verily God has prescribed, He has made lawful, for you [when necessary] the absolution of your oaths, to
absolve them by expiation, as mentioned in the sūrat al-Mā’ida [Q. 5:89] and the forbidding of [sexual
relations with] a handmaiden counts as an oath, so did the Prophet (s) expiate? Muqātil [b. Sulaymān] said,
‘He set free a slave [in expiation] for his prohibition of Māriya’; whereas al-Hasan [al-Basrī] said, ‘He never
expiated, because the Prophet (s) has been forgiven [all errors]’. And God is your Protector, your Helper,
and He is the Knower, the Wise.

[66:3]

And, mention, when the Prophet confided to one of his wives, namely, Hafsa, a certain matter, which was
his prohibition of Māriya, telling her: ‘Do not reveal it!’; but when she divulged it, to ‘Ā’isha, reckoning there
to be no blame in [doing] such a thing, and God apprised him, He informed him, of it, of what had been
divulged, he announced part of it, to Hafsa, and passed over part, out of graciousness on his part. So when
he told her about it, she said, ‘Who told you this?’ He said, ‘I was told by the Knower, the Aware’, namely,
God.

672
[66:4]

If the two of you, namely, Hafsa and ‘Ā’isha, repent to God … for your hearts were certainly inclined,
towards the prohibition of Māriya, that is to say, your keeping this secret despite [knowing] the Prophet’s (s)
dislike of it, which is itself a sin (the response to the conditional [‘if the two of you repent to God’] has been
omitted, to be understood as, ‘it will be accepted of both of you’; the use of [the plural] qulūb, ‘hearts’,
instead of [the dual] qalbayn, ‘both [your] hearts’, is on account of the cumbersomeness of putting two
duals together in what is effectively the same word); and if you support one another (tazzāharā: the original
second tā’ [of tatazāharā] has been assimilated with the zā’; a variant reading has it without [this
assimilation, tazāharā]) against him, that is, the Prophet, in what he is averse to, then [know that] God, He
(huwa, [a pronoun] for separation) is indeed his Protector, His supporter, and Gabriel, and the righteous
among the believers, Abū Bakr and ‘Umar, may God be pleased with both of them (wa-Jibrīlu wa-sālihu’l-
mu’minīna is a supplement to the [syntactical] locus of the subject of inna [sc. ‘God’]), who will [also] be his
supporters, and the angels furthermore, further to the support of God and those mentioned, are his
supporters, assistants of his, in supporting him [to prevail] over both of you.

[66:5]

It may be that, if he divorces you, that is, [if] the Prophet divorces his wives, his Lord will give him in [your]
stead (read yubaddilahu or yubdilahu) wives better than you (azwājan khayran minkunna is the predicate of
‘asā, ‘it may be’, the sentence being the response to the conditional) — the replacement [of his wives by
God] never took place because the condition [of his divorcing them] never arose — women submissive [to
God], affirming Islam, believing, faithful, obedient, penitent, devout, given to fasting — or given to
emigrating [in God’s way] — previously married and virgins.

[66:6]

O you who believe! Guard yourselves and your families, by enjoining obedience to God, against a Fire whose
fuel is, disbelieving, people and stones, such as those idols of theirs made of that [stone] — the meaning is
that it is extremely hot, fuelled by the above-mentioned, unlike the fire of this world which is fuelled by
wood and the like — over which stand angels, its keepers — numbering nineteen as will be stated in [sūrat]
al-Muddaththir [Q. 74:30] — stern, a sternness of the heart, mighty, in [their power of] assault, who do not
disobey God in what He commands them (mā amarahum is a substitution for His Majesty [‘God’]), in other
words, they do not disobey the command of God, but do what they are commanded — this is [reiterated] for
emphasis; the verse is meant as a threat to deter believers from apostatising and for hypocrites who believe
only with their tongues and not with their hearts.

[66:7]

‘O you who disbelieve! Do not make any excuses today — this is said to them upon their entering the Fire —
in other words, because this [excusing] will be of no use to you. You are only being requited for what you
used to do’, that is, [only] the [due] requital thereof.

[66:8]

O you who believe! Repent to God with sincere repentance (read nasūhan or nusūhan), a truthful
[repentance], so that one does not return to [committing] that sin again, nor have the desire to return to it.
It may be that your Lord (‘asā: [an expression denoting] ‘a hope’ that will be realised) will absolve you of
your misdeeds and admit you into gardens, orchards, underneath which rivers flow, on the day when God
will not let down, by admitting into the Fire, the Prophet and those who believe with him. Their light will be
running before them, in front of them, and, it will be, on their right. They will say (yaqūlūna: this denotes
the beginning of a new [syntactically independent] sentence), ‘Our Lord! Perfect our light for us, towards
Paradise — whereas the hypocrites, their light will be extinguished — and forgive us, Our Lord. Assuredly
You have power over all things’.

[66:9]

673
O Prophet! Struggle against the disbelievers, with the sword, and the hypocrites, by the tongue and with
argument, and be stern with them, in rebuke and hatred. For their abode will be Hell — and [what] an evil
journey’s end!, it is.

[66:10]

God has struck a similitude for those who disbelieve: the wife of Noah and the wife of Lot. They were under
two of Our righteous servants, yet they betrayed them, in [their] religion, for they both disbelieved — Noah’s
wife, called Wāhila, used to say to his people that he was a madman, while Lot’s wife, called Wā‘ila, used to
tell his people the whereabouts of his guests when they stayed with him, at night by lighting a fire, and
during the day by making smoke. So they, that is, Noah and Lot, did not avail the two women in any way
against God, against His chastisement, and it was said, to the two women: ‘Enter, both of you, the Fire
along with the incomers’, from among the disbelievers of the peoples of Noah and Lot.

[66:11]

And God has struck a similitude for those who believe: the wife of Pharaoh — she believed in Moses, her
name was Āsiya; Pharaoh chastised her by tying her hands and feet to pegs and placing a huge millstone on
her chest, and having her laid out in the sun; but when those in charge of her would leave her, the angels
would [come to] shade her — when she said, during her torture, ‘My Lord, build for me a home near You in
Paradise, — so He disclosed for her [a veil of the Unseen] and she saw it, which in turn alleviated for her the
torture — and deliver me from Pharaoh and his work, his torture, and deliver me from the evildoing folk’, the
followers of his [Pharaoh’s] religion, whereat God took [unto Himself] her spirit [in death]. Ibn Kaysān said,
‘She was raised to Paradise alive, where she eats and drinks’.

[66:12]

And Mary (wa-Maryama is a supplement to imra’ata Fir‘awna) daughter of ‘Imrān, who preserved [the
chastity of] her womb, so We breathed into it of Our Spirit, namely, Gabriel — when he breathed into the
opening of her shirt, by God’s creation of this action of his which reached her womb, thus conceiving Jesus
— and she confirmed the words of her Lord, His prescriptions, and His, revealed, Scriptures and she was of
the obedient, [one] of the obedient folk.
Meccan, consisting of 30 verses.

(Al-Mulk)
[67:1]

Blessed, exalted above the attributes of created beings, is He in Whose hand, at Whose disposal, is [all]
sovereignty, [all] authority and power, and He has power over all things.

[67:2]

[He] Who created death, in this world, and life, in the Hereafter — or both of them in this world, since the
sperm-drop is imbued with life, [life being] that [power] by which sensation becomes possible, death being
the opposite of this or the non-existence of it — these being two [alternative] opinions; in the case of the
latter [life in the Hereafter], ‘creation’ implies ‘ordainment’ — that He may try you, that He may test you in
[this] life, [to see] which of you is best in conduct, [which of you] is most obedient to God, and He is the
Mighty, in His vengeance against those who disobey Him, the Forgiving, to those who repent to Him;

[67:3]

Who created seven heavens in layers, one above the other without any contact [between them]. You do not
see in the Compassionate One’s creation, of these or of other things, any irregularity, any disparity or
discordance. Then cast your eyes again, turn them toward the heaven: Do you see, in it, any fissure?, any

674
cracks or ruptures?

[67:4]

Then cast your eyes yet again, once and then twice, and your sight will return to you humbled, abject on
account of it not perceiving any fissure, and wearied, unable to see any fissure.

[67:5]

And verily We have adorned the lowest heaven, the one closest to the earth, with lamps, with stars, and
made them missiles against the devils, should they [attempt to] listen by stealth, in which case a meteor of
fire detaches itself from the star, just like a brand is taken from a fire, and either kills that jinn or deprives
him of his senses: it is not that the star itself is displaced from its position; and We have prepared for them
the chastisement of the Blaze, the ignited Fire.

[67:6]

And for those who disbelieve in their Lord there is the chastisement of Hell, and [what] an evil journey’s
end!, it is.

[67:7]

When they are flung into it they hear it blaring, [producing] a horrid sound like that of an ass, as it seethes,

[67:8]

almost exploding (tamayyazu: a variant reading has the original [form] tatamayyazu) ripped apart, with
rage, in wrath against the disbelievers. Whenever a host, a group of them, is flung into it, its keepers ask
them, an interrogation of rebuke: ‘Did there not come to you a warner?’, a messenger to warn you of God’s
chastisement.

[67:9]

They will say, ‘Yes, a warner did indeed come to us, but we denied and said, “God has not revealed
anything; you are assuredly in great error”’: this [last words] may be the words of the angels [spoken] to
the disbelievers when they are told of the denial, or they may belong to the words of the disbelievers
[spoken] to the warners.

[67:10]

And they will say, ‘Had we listened, that is, listening so as to understand, or comprehended, that is,
comprehension entailing reflection [upon the truth], we would not have been among the inhabitants of the
Blaze’.

[67:11]

Thus they will confess, when confession is of no avail, their sin, which was their denial of the warners. So
away (suhqan or suhuqan) with the inhabitants of the Blaze!, so far away may they be from God’s mercy.

[67:12]

Assuredly those who fear their Lord in secret, while they are absent from people’s eyes, being obedient to
Him in secret, such that openly [before people] it is all the more likely [that they fear their Lord] — there will
be for them forgiveness and a great reward, namely, Paradise.

[67:13]

675
And [whether you] keep secret, O people, your speech or proclaim it, He indeed, exalted be He, is Knower
of what is in the breasts, of what they contain: so how much more so [is He Knower] in the case of what
you utter [openly] — the reason for the revelation of this [verse] was that the idolaters said to one another:
‘Speak secretly, and Muhammad’s god will not hear you’.

[67:14]

Will He Who has created not know?, what you keep secret, in other words: will His knowledge of [things] be
precluded by such [secret speech]? And He is the Subtle, in His knowledge, the Aware, therein.

[67:15]

It is He Who made the earth tractable for you, easy for you to walk on; so walk in its flanks and eat of His
provision, that has been created for you; and to Him is the resurrection, from the graves for the Requital.

[67:16]

Are you secure (read a-amintum pronouncing both hamzas fully, or by not pronouncing the second one,
inserting an alif between it and the other one, or without [the insertion] but replacing it with an alif instead)
[in thinking] that He Who is in the heaven, [that He] Whose authority and power [is in the heaven], will not
cause the earth to swallow you (an yakhsifa substitutes for man, ‘He Who’) while it quakes?, [while] it
moves underneath you and rises above you?

[67:17]

Are you secure [in thinking] that He Who is in the heaven will not unleash (an yursila substitutes for man,
‘He Who’) upon you a squall of pebbles?, a wind hurling pebbles at you. But you will [soon] come to know,
upon seeing the chastisement with your own eyes, the nature of My warning, My warning of chastisement,
in other words, [you will soon see] that it was true.

[67:18]

And verily those, communities, who were before them denied, then [see] how was My rebuttal!, [how was]
My rebuttal of them in destroying them when they denied: in other words, [how] it was true.

[67:19]

Or have they not seen the birds above them, in the air, spreading their wings and closing?, their wings after
spreading them? (in other words [read wa-yaqbidna] as wa-qābidātin [similar to sāffātin, ‘spreading’]).
Nothing sustains them, from falling, either when they are spreading them or closing them, except the
Compassionate One, by His power. Indeed He is Seer of all things. The meaning is: have they not inferred
from the fact that the birds [are able to] remain in the air that We have the power to do with them what has
been mentioned above as well as [inflicting upon them] other kinds of chastisement?

[67:20]

Or who (am-man: the subject) is it (hādhā: its predicate) that (alladhī: a substitution for hādhā, ‘is it’) will be
an army, supporters, for you (lakum belongs to the relative clause of alladhī, ‘that’) to help you (yansurukum
is an adjectival qualification of jundun, ‘an army’) besides the Compassionate One?, that is to say, other than
Him, who [is there that] will [be able to] avert His chastisement from you, in other words, you have no
helper. The disbelievers are in nothing but delusion: Satan has deluded them [into believing] that the
chastisement will not befall them.

[67:21]

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Or who is it that will provide for you if He, the Compassionate One, withholds His provision?, that is to say,
[if He withholds] the rain from you (the response to the conditional has been omitted, but is indicated by
what preceded it, namely [the statement to the effect] ‘who will provide for you?’, and so [the response
would be]: you have no provider other than Him. Nay, but they persist in disdain and aversion, moving away
[further] from the truth.

[67:22]

Is he who walks cast down, fallen, on his face more rightly guided, or he who walks upright on a straight
path? (the predicate of the second man, ‘who’, has been omitted, but is indicated by the predicate of the
first, namely, ahdā, ‘more rightly guided’; the similitude refers to the believer and the disbeliever and to
which of the two is more rightly guided).

[67:23]

Say: ‘It is He Who created you and endowed you with hearing and sight and hearts. Little do you thank!’
(mā tashkurūna: mā is extra; the sentence itself is a new [independent] one, informing of how extremely
little they give thanks for these graces).

[67:24]

Say: ‘It is He Who multiplied you, created you, on earth, and to Him you will be gathered’, for the
Reckoning.

[67:25]

And they say, to the believers: ‘When will this promise be [fulfilled], the promise of the gathering, if you are
truthful?’, about it.

[67:26]

Say: ‘The knowledge, of its coming, is only with God, and I am but a plain warner’, one whose warning is
plain.

[67:27]

But when they see it, that is, the chastisement, after the gathering, near at hand, the faces of those who
disbelieved will be awry, blackened, and it will be said, that is, the keepers [of Hell] will say to them: ‘This is
that, chastisement, which, the warning of which, you used to make claims about’, [claims to the effect] that
you would not be resurrected — this is the narration of a situation that will take place [in the future], and
which has been expressed using the past tense in order to confirm that it will actually take place.

[67:28]

Say: ‘Have you considered: If God destroys me and those with me, of believers, by His chastisement, as you
would have it, or has mercy on us, and does not chastise us, who then will protect the disbelievers from a
painful chastisement?’: in other words, they will have no protector from it.

[67:29]

Say: ‘He is the Compassionate One; we believe in Him, and in Him we put our trust. And assuredly you will
[soon] know (sa-ta‘lamūna is also read sa-ya‘lamūna, ‘they will know’) upon seeing the chastisement with
your own eyes, who is in manifest error’: is it us, or yourselves or them?

[67:30]

677
Say: ‘Have you considered: If your water were to sink deep into the earth, who then will bring you running
water?’, which hands and buckets would be able to reach, like [they do] your water: in other words, none
but God, exalted be He, would be able to bring it, so how can you reject that He will resurrect you? It is
commendable for one to say Allāhu rabbu’l-‘ālamīna, ‘God, Lord of the Worlds!’, after ma‘īn, ‘running water’,
as is stated in a hadīth. This verse was recited before a certain tyrant who then replied, ‘Hatchets and
pickaxes will bring it!’, whereupon the water of his eyes dried up and he became blind. We seek refuge with
God against that we should be insolent towards Him or His verses.
Meccan, consisting of 52 verses.

(Al-Qalam)
[68:1]

Nūn, one of the letters of the alphabet: God knows best what He means by it. By the Pen, with which He
has inscribed [the records of] all creatures in the Preserved Tablet, and what they inscribe, that is, the
angels, of good and righteousness.

[68:2]

You are not, O Muhammad (s), by the grace of your Lord, a madman, that is to say, madness is precluded in
your case, on account of your Lord’s grace to you by way of [His assigning to you] prophethood and in other
ways — this was a refutation of their saying that he was a madman.

[68:3]

And assuredly you will have an unfailing reward.

[68:4]

And assuredly you possess a magnificent nature, [a magnificent] religion.

[68:5]

Then you will see and they will see,

[68:6]

which of you is demented (al-maftūn is a verbal noun, similar [in expressional form] to al-ma‘qūl,
‘intelligible’; al-futūn meaning al-junūn, ‘insanity’) in other words, is it [this insanity] in you or in them?

[68:7]

Assuredly your Lord knows best those who stray from His way, and He knows best those who are guided, to
Him.

[68:8]

So do not obey the deniers.

[68:9]

They desire, they yearn, that (law relates to the verbal action) you should be pliable, [that] you should yield
to them, so that they may be pliable [towards you], [so that] they may yield to you (fa-yudhinūna is a
supplement to tudhinu, ‘you should be pliable’, but if it is understood to be the response to the optative
clause of waddū, ‘they yearn’, then [a free standing pronoun] hum should be read as implied before it after
the fā’ [sc. fa-hum yudhinūna]).

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[68:10]

And do not obey any mean, despicable, oath-monger, given to frequent swearing by falsehood,

[68:11]

backbiting, faultfinder, that is to say, calumniator, scandal-monger, spreading [evil] talk among people in
order to sow dissension between them,

[68:12]

hinderer of good, niggardly with his wealth against deserving causes, sinful transgressor, wrongdoer,

[68:13]

coarse-grained, crude, moreover ignoble, an adopted son of Quraysh — namely, al-Walīd b. al-Mughīra,
whose father claimed him after eighteen years; Ibn ‘Abbās said, ‘We know of no one whom God has
described in the derogatory way in which He describes him, blighting him with ignominy that will never leave
him (the adverbial qualifier [ba‘da dhālika, ‘moreover’] is semantically connected to zanīm, ‘ignoble’) —

[68:14]

[only] because (an should be understood as li-an, ‘because’, and it is semantically connected to that
[meaning] which it is indicating) he has wealth and sons.

[68:15]

When Our signs — the Qur’ān — are recited to him, he says, that they are [merely], ‘Fables of the
ancients!’, in other words, he denies them [in arrogance] on account of the mentioned things which We
have bestowed on him out of Our grace (a variant reading [for an of the previous verse] has [the
interrogative] a-an).

[68:16]

We shall brand him on the snout: We shall leave a distinguishing mark upon his nose, one by which he will
be reviled for as long as he lives; and so his nose was chopped off by a sword at Badr.

[68:17]

Indeed We have tried them, We have tested the people of Mecca with drought and famine, just as We tried
the owners of the garden, the orchard, when they vowed that they would pluck, [that] they would pick its
fruits, in the morning, so that the poor folk would not notice them and so that they would not then have to
give them of it that [portion] which their father used to give them of it by way of charity.

[68:18]

And they did not make any exception, to their vow, for God’s will (the sentence is a new [syntactically
independent] one, in other words: and that was their condition).

[68:19]

Then a visitation from your Lord visited it, [that is] a fire consumed it during the night, while they slept.

[68:20]

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So by the morning it was like the darkness of night, in other words, black.

[68:21]

They then called out to one another in the morning,

[68:22]

[saying], ‘Go forth early to your tillage, your produce (ani’ghdū ‘alā harthikum constitutes an explication of
[the import of] tanādaw, ‘they called out to one another’; otherwise, an relates to the verbal action, [to be
understood as] being bi-an) if you are going to pluck’, if your intention is to pick [the fruits] (the response to
the conditional is indicated by what preceded it).

[68:23]

So off they went, whispering to one another, talking secretly:

[68:24]

‘No needy person shall today come to you in it’ (this constitutes the explication of the preceding [verse]; or
else, an relates to the verbal action, [to be understood] to mean bi-an).

[68:25]

And they went forth early, supposing themselves, able to prohibit, to prevent the poor folk [from enjoying
the fruit].

[68:26]

But when they saw it, blackened and charred, they said, ‘Assuredly we have strayed!’, from it, that is to say:
this is not the one. Then when they recognised it, they said:

[68:27]

‘Nay, but we have been deprived!’, of its fruits, by our denying it to the poor folk.

[68:28]

The most moderate, the best one, among them said, ‘Did I not say to you, “Why do you not glorify?” ’, God,
repenting [to Him].

[68:29]

They said, ‘Glory be to God, our Lord. Verily we have been wrongdoers’, by denying the poor folk [what is]
their due.

[68:30]

They then turned to one another, blaming each other.

[68:31]

They said, ‘O ([yā is] for calling attention to something) woe to us!, [O] destruction of ours. We have indeed
been unjust.

[68:32]

680
It may be that our Lord will give us in its place (read yubaddilanā or yubdilanā) one that is better than it.
Truly we turn humbly to our Lord’, that He might accept our repentance and give us back [a garden that is]
better than our garden — it is reported that they were indeed given a better one in its place.

[68:33]

Such, that is to say, like the chastisement for these [people], will be the chastisement, for those disbelievers
of Mecca and others who contravene Our command; and the chastisement of the Hereafter is assuredly
greater, did they but know, its chastisement, they would not have contavened Our command. When they
said ‘If we are resurrected, we shall be given better than [what] you [have been given], the following was
revealed:

[68:34]

Verily for the God-fearing there will be the Gardens of Bliss near their Lord.

[68:35]

Are We then to treat those who submit [to Us] as [We treat] the sinners?, that is to say, as belonging with
them in terms of reward?

[68:36]

What is wrong with you? How do you judge?, with such corrupt judgement?

[68:37]

Or (am lakum means a-lakum) do you have a Scripture, revealed, wherein you learn, [wherein] you read,

[68:38]

that you will indeed have in it whatever you choose?

[68:39]

Or do you have oaths, pledges, binding, secured, on Us until the Day of Resurrection (ilā yawmi’l-qiyāmati is
semantically connected to ‘alaynā, ‘on Us’; these words [‘alaynā bālighatun, ‘binding on Us’] contain the
sense of an oath [given], in other words, ‘Did We swear to you?’, the response to which is [what follows])
that you will indeed have whatever you decide?, to have for yourselves.

[68:40]

Ask them, which of them will aver, will guarantee for them, that?, [that] decision which they have made for
themselves, namely, that they will be given better [reward] than the believers in the Hereafter?

[68:41]

Or do they have partners?, who agree with them in this claim of theirs and able to guarantee it for them; if
that is the case: Then let them produce their partners, those who will guarantee this for them, if they are
truthful.

[68:42]

Mention, the day when the shank is bared (an expression denoting the severity of the predicament during
the reckoning and the requital on the Day of Resurrection: one says kashafati’l-harbu ‘an sāqin, ‘the war has

681
bared its shank’, to mean that it has intensified) and they are summoned to prostrate themselves, as a test
of their faith, but they will not be able [to do so] — their backs will become as [stiff as] a brick wall.

[68:43]

With humbled (khāshi‘atan is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the person [of the verb] yud‘awna, ‘they
are summoned’) that is to say, with abject, gazes, which they do not raise, they will be overcast, enveloped,
by abasement; for they had indeed been summoned, in this world, to prostrate themselves while they were
yet sound, but they never used to do it, by the fact that they never performed prayer.

[68:44]

So leave Me [to deal] with those who deny this discourse — the Qur’ān. We will draw them on by degrees,
We will seize them little by little, whence they do not know.

[68:45]

And I will grant them respite; [for] assuredly My devising is firm, [My devising is] severe and cannot be
withstood.

[68:46]

Or are you asking them a fee, in return for delivering the Message, so that they are weighed down with
debt?, [so that they are weighed down] with what they will [have to] give you, and that is why they do not
believe.

[68:47]

Or do they possess [access to] the Unseen, that is, [access to] the Preserved Tablet which contains
[knowledge of] the Unseen, so that they are writing down?, from it what they say.

[68:48]

So await patiently the judgement of your Lord, regarding them in the way that He wills, and do not be like
the one of the whale, in terms of impatience and haste — this is Jonah, peace be upon him — who called
out, [who] supplicated his Lord, choking with grief, filled with anguish inside the belly of the whale.

[68:49]

Had it not been for a grace, a mercy, from his Lord that reached him, he would have surely been cast, out of
the belly of the whale, onto a wilderness, a desolate land, while he was blameworthy — but he was shown
mercy and was therefore cast out blameless.

[68:50]

But his Lord chose him, for prophethood, and made him one of the righteous, the prophets.

[68:51]

Indeed those who disbelieve would almost throw you down [to the ground] (read la-yuzliqūnaka or la-
yazliqūnaka) with their looks, looking at you in a severe way, almost hurling you to the ground or making
you fall from your place, when they hear the Reminder, the Qur’ān, and they say, out of envy: ‘He is truly a
madman!’, on account of the Qur’ān that he has brought.

[68:52]

682
Yet it, namely, the Qur’ān, is just a Reminder, an admonition, for all the worlds, of [both] humans and jinn,
and cannot be the cause of any dementia.
Meccan, consisting of 51 or 52 verses.

(Al-Hâqqah)
[69:1]

The Reality, the Resurrection in which is realised [the truth of] all that was rejected in the way of the raising
[from the graves], the reckoning and the requital, or [it means the Resurrection] which will manifest all of
that.

[69:2]

What is the Reality? (ma’l-hāqqa: [an interrogative] to emphasise its enormity; this is the subject as well as
the predicate of [the previous] al-hāqqa, ‘the Reality’).

[69:3]

And how would you know what the Reality is? ([repeated as] an extra emphasis of its enormity; the first mā
[of the previous verse] is the subject, the second one, its predicate; the second mā and its predicate also
function as the second direct object of [the verb] ‘knowing’).

[69:4]

Thamūd and ‘Ād denied the Clatterer, the Resurrection, because its terrors cause the hearts to clatter.

[69:5]

As for Thamūd, they were destroyed by the [overwhelming] Roar, an excessively severe cry.

[69:6]

And as for ‘Ād, they were destroyed by a deafening, intensely clamorous, violent wind, [that was] powerful
and severe [in its assault] upon ‘Ād, despite their power and might.

[69:7]

He forced it upon them for seven nights and eight days, the first of which was the morning of Wednesday,
eight days before the end of [the month of] Shawwāl, and this was at the height of winter, successively, one
after the next (husūman: it [the action of the wind] is likened to the repeated actions of a hāsim, ‘one
cauterizing a wound’, time and again until it [the blood] has been cut off, inhsama) so that you might have
seen the people therein lying prostrate, lying dead on the ground, as if they were the hollow, collapsed,
trunks of palm-trees.

[69:8]

So do you see any remnant of them? (min bāqiyatin: this is either the adjectival qualification of an implicit
nafs, ‘soul’, or the [final suffixed] tā’ is for hyperbole, in other words [understand it as fa-hal tarā lahum]
min bāqin, ‘any one remaining?’ No!).

[69:9]

And Pharaoh and those of his followers (man qibalahu: a variant reading has man qablahu, that is to say,
those disbelieving communities who came before him) and the Deviant [cities], that is, their inhabitants —
these being the cities of the people of Lot — brought iniquity, [they committed] deeds that were iniquitous.

683
[69:10]

Then they disobeyed the messenger of their Lord, namely, Lot and others, so He seized them with a
devastating blow, one surpassing others in its severity.

[69:11]

Truly when the waters rose high, [when] they rose above all things including mountains and otherwise at
the time of the Flood, We carried you, meaning, your forefathers, you being in their loins, in the sailing
vessel, the ark which Noah built and by which he and those with him were saved while all the others
drowned,

[69:12]

so that We might make it, namely, this act, the saving of the believers and the destruction of the
disbelievers, a reminder, a lesson, for you and that receptive ears, [ears] which remember what they hear,
might remember it.

[69:13]

Thus when the Trumpet is blown with a single blast, to [announce] the passing of judgement upon all
creatures — this being the second [blast] —

[69:14]

and the earth and the mountains are lifted and levelled with a single levelling,

[69:15]

then, on that day, the [imminent] Event will come to pass, the Resurrection will take place,

[69:16]

and the heaven will be rent asunder — for it will be very frail on that day —

[69:17]

and the angels will be [all] over its borders, the edges of the heavens, and above them — the angels that
have been mentioned — on that day eight, angels or [eight] files of them, will carry the Throne of your Lord.

[69:18]

On that day you will be exposed, before the Reckoning. No hidden thing of yours, in the way of secrets, will
remain hidden (read [feminine person] takhfā or [masculine person] yakhfā).

[69:19]

As for him who is given his book in his right hand, he will say, addressing those around him, on account of
the joy that has come to him: ‘Here, take [and], read my book! (kitābiyah: both hā’ūmu, ‘here [is]’, and
iqra’ū, ‘read’, compete for [government of] this [direct object]).

[69:20]

I was truly certain that I would encounter my account’.

684
[69:21]

So he will enjoy a pleasant living,

[69:22]

in a lofty Garden,

[69:23]

whose clusters, whose fruits, are in easy reach, nearby, reached [easily] by one who may be standing, or
sitting or reclining.

[69:24]

And so it will be said to them: ‘Eat and drink in enjoyment (hanī’an is a circumstantial qualifier, that is to
say, mutahanni’īna, ‘while you are enjoying [them]’) for what you did in advance in former days’, [in days]
that have passed during the [life of the] world.

[69:25]

But as for him who is given his book in his left hand, he will say, ‘O (yā is for calling attention [to
something]) would that I had not been given my book,

[69:26]

and not known what my account were!

[69:27]

O would that it, namely, death in [the life of] this world, had been the [final] end, that had terminated my
life, so that I am not resurrected.

[69:28]

My wealth has not availed me.

[69:29]

My authority, my strength, my argument, has gone from me’ (the [final] hā’ in kitābiyah, ‘my book’,
hisābiyah, ‘my account’, and sultāniyah, ‘my authority’, is for [consonantal] quiescence; and it is retained
[when reciting] with a pause as well as without a pause, in accordance with the authoritative [version of
the] Qur’ānic text and the transmitted reports; some elide it when reciting without a pause).

[69:30]

‘Seize him — addressing the keepers of Hell — then fetter him, bind his hands to his necks in fetters,

[69:31]

then admit him into Hell-fire, into the scorching Fire,

[69:32]

then in a chain whose length is seventy cubits — [each cubit being] that of an angel’s forearm — insert him,
after admitting him into the Fire (the fā’ [of fa’slukūhu] does not prevent the verb from being semantically

685
connected to the preceding adverbial clause).

[69:33]

Lo! he never believed in God the Tremendous,

[69:34]

and never urged the feeding of the needy;

[69:35]

therefore here today he has no [loyal] friend, [no] relative to avail him,

[69:36]

nor any food except pus, the vile excretions of the inhabitants of the Fire — or it [ghislīn] may denote
certain trees therein —

[69:37]

which none shall eat but the sinners’, the disbelievers.

[69:38]

So indeed (fa-lā: lā is extra) I swear by all that you see, of creatures,

[69:39]

and all that you do not see: of them, in other words, [I swear] by all creatures:

[69:40]

it, that is to say, the Qur’ān, is indeed the speech of a noble messenger, in other words, he has spoken it as
a message from God, exalted be He.

[69:41]

And it is not the speech of a poet. Little do you believe!

[69:42]

Nor [is it] the speech of a soothsayer. Little do you remember! (read both verbs either in the second person
plural or in the third person plural; the mā [preceding both verbs] is extra, intended for emphasis). The
meaning is: they believed and remembered only very few things of what the Prophet (s) did, [things] such
as [his] good acts, [his] kindness to kin and abstinence; yet this will be of no avail to them.

[69:43]

Rather, it is, a revelation from the Lord of the Worlds.

[69:44]

And had he, namely, the Prophet (s), fabricated any lies against Us, by communicating from Us that which
We have not said,

686
[69:45]

We would have assuredly seized him, We would have exacted vengeance [against him], as punishment, by
the Right Hand, by [Our] strength and power;

[69:46]

then We would have assuredly severed his life-artery, the aorta of the heart, a vein that connects with it,
and which if severed results in that person’s death,

[69:47]

and not one of you (ahadin is the subject of mā, min being extra, used to emphasise the negation; minkum
is a circumstantial qualifier referring to ahadin) could have defended him (hājizīna is the predicate of [the
preceding] mā, and it is used in the plural because ahad, when employed in a negatory context, denotes a
plural sense; the [suffixed] pronoun in ‘anhu refers to the Prophet), in other words, there is none to prevent
Us from punishing him.

[69:48]

And assuredly it, that is, the Qur’ān, is a reminder for the God-fearing.

[69:49]

And assuredly We know that some of you, O people, are deniers, of the Qur’ān, and [some of you are]
believers [in it].

[69:50]

And assuredly it, that is, the Qur’ān, is a [cause of] anguish for the disbelievers, when they see the reward
of those who affirmed its truth and the punishment of those who denied it.

[69:51]

And assuredly it, that is, the Qur’ān, is the certain truth.

[69:52]

So glorify, exalt as transcendent, the Name (bi’smi: the bā’ [bi-] is extra) of your Lord, the Tremendous:
glory be to Him.
Meccan, consisting of 44 verses

(Al-Ma‘ârij)
[70:1]

A petitioner petitioned, a supplicator supplicated [for], an impending chastisement

[70:2]

— which in the case of the disbelievers none can avert: this was al-Nadr b. al-Hārith who said, ‘O God, if this
be indeed the truth from You … [then rain down upon us stones from the heaven’ [Q. 8:32],

[70:3]

from God (mina’Llāhi is semantically connected to wāqi‘in, ‘impending’), Lord of the Ascensions, the

687
ascension routes of the angels, which are the heavens.

[70:4]

To Him, to the place in the heaven to which His command descends, ascend (read [feminine person] ta‘ruju
or [masculine person] ya‘ruju) the angels and the Spirit, Gabriel, in a day (fī yawmin is semantically
connected to an omitted clause, that is to say, ‘[in a day] in which the chastisement befalls them’, on the
Day of Resurrection) whose span is fifty thousand years, from the perspective of the disbeliever, on account
of the calamities he will encounter in it — but as for the believer, it [the mentioned day] will be easier for
him than an obligatory prayer which he performs in this world, as stated in hadīth.

[70:5]

So be patient — this was [revealed] before he [the Prophet] was commanded to fight — with a graceful
patience, that is, one in which there is no anguish.

[70:6]

Lo! they see it, that is, the chastisement, as [being] far off, as never taking place;

[70:7]

while We see it [to be] near, taking place without a doubt.

[70:8]

The day when the heaven will be (yawma takūnu’l-samā’u is semantically connected to an omitted clause,
implicitly taken to be yaqa‘u, ‘it will take place’) as molten silver,

[70:9]

and the mountains will be as flakes of wool, in terms of [their] lightness and [their] floating about in the
wind.

[70:10]

And no friend will inquire about his friend, [no] relative [will inquire] about his relative, each being
preoccupied with his own predicament.

[70:11]

They will [however] be made to see them, that is, friends will catch sight of one another, recognising one
another but refraining from speaking [to one another] (the sentence [yubassarūnahum] is a new
[independent] one). The guilty one will desire, the disbeliever will yearn, to ransom himself from the
chastisement of that day (read [min ‘adhābi] yawmi’dhin or [min ‘adhābin] yawma’idhin) at the price of his
children,

[70:12]

and his companion, his wife, and his brother,

[70:13]

and his kin, his clan ([expressed as fasīla] because he is a [detached] part [fasl] of it) that had sheltered
him, embraced him,

688
[70:14]

and all who are on earth, if it, that ransom, might then deliver him (thumma yunjīhi is a supplement to
yaftadī, ‘to ransom himself’).

[70:15]

Nay! — a refutation of his wish. Lo! [for him] it, namely, the Fire, will be the Churning Fire (lazā) — a name
for Hell, [so called] because it churns its flames [tatalazzā] against the disbelievers,

[70:16]

ripping out the scalp (shawā is the plural of shawāt, the skin of the head);

[70:17]

it will call him who turned his back and ignored, faith, saying [to him]: ‘To me ! to me [come hither]!’,

[70:18]

and amassed, wealth, then hoarded, keeping it in containers and refraining from paying from it what is
God’s due.

[70:19]

Indeed man was created restless: (halū‘an is an implied circumstantial qualifier, the explanation of which
[follows]):

[70:20]

when evil befalls him, [he is] anxious, at the point of that evil befalling [him],

[70:21]

and when good befalls him, [he is] grudging, at the point of that good befalling [him], that is to say, [when]
wealth [befalls him], [he is grudging to give] of it what is due to God;

[70:22]

except those who perform prayers, that is, the believers,

[70:23]

those who maintain, [those who] regularly observe, their prayers,

[70:24]

and in whose wealth there is an acknowledged due, namely, alms,

[70:25]

for the beggar and the deprived, the [latter being the] one who refrains from begging and thus becomes
deprived,

[70:26]

689
and who affirm the truth of the Day of Judgement, [of] Requital,

[70:27]

and who are apprehensive of the chastisement of their Lord —

[70:28]

lo! there is no security from the chastisement of their Lord, [from] its being sent down —

[70:29]

and those who guard their private parts,

[70:30]

except from their wives and those whom their right hands own, in the way of slavegirls, for in that case they
are not blameworthy;

[70:31]

but whoever seeks beyond that, those are the infringers, who transgress [the bounds of] what is lawful
[stepping] into what is unlawful;

[70:32]

and those who are keepers, [faithful] guardians, of their trusts (amānātihim: a variant reading has the
singular [amānatihim]), that to which they are entrusted of religion and the affairs of this world, and their
covenant, the one taken from them regarding such things,

[70:33]

and who are forthwith with their testimony (bi-shahādatihim: a variant reading has the plural [bi-
shahādātihim, ‘their testimonies’]), [those who] offer them and do not withhold them,

[70:34]

and who preserve their prayers, by observing them in their appointed times.

[70:35]

Those will be in Gardens, honoured.

[70:36]

So what is wrong with those who disbelieve that they keep staring towards you (muhti‘īna is a circumstantial
qualifier),

[70:37]

to the right and to the left, of you, in droves? (‘izīna is also a circumstantial qualifier), in other words, in
groups standing in circles, one next to the other, saying, in mockery of the believers, ‘Verily if [the likes of]
these are to enter Paradise, we shall enter it before them’. God, exalted be He, says:

[70:38]

690
Does each one of them hope to be admitted into a Garden of Bliss?

[70:39]

Nay! — meant to thwart their hopes of [entering] Paradise. Indeed We created them, as others, from what
they know, from drops of sperm, and so one cannot hope for Paradise [merely] on account of this: one
hopes for it by being God-fearing.

[70:40]

For verily (fa-lā: lā is extra) I swear by the Lord of the rising-places and the setting-places, of the sun, the
moon and all the stars, that We are able

[70:41]

to replace [them], to bring in their place, with [others] better than them, and We are not to be
outmanoeuvred, [We will not be] frustrated in this.

[70:42]

So leave them to indulge, in their falsehoods, and to play, in this world of theirs, until they encounter that
day of theirs, in, which they are promised, chastisement;

[70:43]

the day when they will come forth from the graves hastening, to the site of the Gathering, as if racing to a
[standing] target (nasbin: a variant reading has nusubin, meaning something that has been erected
[mansūb], such as a flag or a banner),

[70:44]

with their eyes humbled, abject, overcast by abasement, shrouded in it. Such is the day which they are
promised (dhālika is the subject and what follows it is the predicate), meaning: the Day of Resurrection.
Meccan, consisting of 28 or 29 verses.

(Nûh)
[71:1]

Verily We sent Noah to his people [saying]: ‘Warn your people before there come on them — should they
not believe — a painful chastisement’, in this world and in the Hereafter.

[71:2]

He said, ‘O my people, I am indeed a plain warner to you, one whose warning is plain,

[71:3]

[to tell you] that [you should] worship God and fear Him and obey me,

[71:4]

that He may forgive you some of your sins (min dhunūbikum, ‘some of your sins’: min may be taken as
extra, because submission to God (islām) expunges everything [of sin that was committed] previous to it; or
it [min] may be understood as partitive, to point out that which is due to [those who were already God’s]
servants) and defer you, without chastising [you], until an appointed term, the term for death. Indeed when

691
God’s term, for your chastisement — should you not believe — comes, it cannot be deferred, if only you
knew’, this, you would believe.

[71:5]

He said, ‘My Lord, I have summoned my people night and day, that is to say, continuously without
interruption,

[71:6]

but my summon has only increased their evasion, of faith.

[71:7]

And indeed whenever I summoned them, so that You might forgive them, they put their fingers in their
ears, in order not to hear what I say, and draw their cloaks over themselves, they cover their heads with
them in order not to catch sight of me, and they persist, in their disbelief, and act in great arrogance,
disdaining faith.

[71:8]

Then indeed I summoned them aloud, that is to say, at the top of my voice;

[71:9]

then assuredly I proclaimed to them, with my voice, and I confided, my words, to them secretly,

[71:10]

saying, “Ask your Lord for forgiveness, from idolatry. Assuredly He is ever Forgiving.

[71:11]

He will release the heaven, the rain — for they had been deprived of it — for you in torrents, in plenteous
showers,

[71:12]

and furnish you with wealth and sons, and assign to you gardens, orchards, and assign to you, running,
rivers.

[71:13]

What is wrong with you that you do not hope for dignity from God, that is to say, [that] you [do not] hope
that God will dignify you by becoming believers,

[71:14]

when verily He created you in stages? (atwār is the plural of tūr, which means a state). Thus the sperm-drop
is one state, the blood clot is another state, and so on, until the creation of the human being is complete:
reflecting on [the manner of] his creation necessarily leads to belief in his Creator.

[71:15]

Have you not seen how God created seven heavens in layers, one on top of the other,

692
[71:16]

and made the moon therein — that is to say, within their totality, [but] which is [effectively] true in the case
of the heaven of this world — as a light and made the sun as a lamp?, as an illuminating lantern, more
powerful than the light of the moon.

[71:17]

And God has caused you to grow, He has created you, from the earth, for He created your father Adam from
it.

[71:18]

Then He will make you return into it, entombed [in your graves], and bring you forth, for the resurrection,
[with a veritable bringing forth].

[71:19]

And God has made the earth a flat [open] expanse for you,

[71:20]

so that you may follow throughout it spacious routes.” ’

[71:21]

Noah said, ‘My Lord, they have disobeyed me and followed, that is, the riffraff and the paupers [among
them have followed], those whose wealth and children, namely, their leaders who have been blessed with
such things (read wulduhu or waladuhu, ‘whose children’, the first of which is said to be the plural of walad,
similar [in pattern] to khasab, khushb, or in fact [it is said to be] of the same meaning [as walad, but an
alternative form] as in the case of bukhl or bakhal, ‘niggardliness’), only add to their loss, [to] their insolence
and disbelief.

[71:22]

And they have devised, namely, the leaders, a mighty plot, extremely outrageous, by denying Noah and
harming him as well as his followers,

[71:23]

and have said, to the riffraff: “Do not abandon your gods, and do not abandon Wadd (read Wadd or Wudd)
nor Suwā‘, nor Yaghūth and Ya‘ūq and Nasr” — these being the names of their idols.

[71:24]

And they have certainly led astray, by these [gods], many, people, by commanding them to worship them.
And do not [O God] increase the evildoers except in error!’ (wa-lā tazidi’l-zālimīna illā dalālan is a
supplement to qad adallū, ‘they have certainly led astray’): He [Noah] invoked God against them when it
was revealed to him that, ‘None of your people will believe except he who has already believed’ [Q. 11:36].

[71:25]

Because of (mimmā: mā indicates a relative clause) their iniquities (khatāyāhum: a variant reading has
khatī’ātihim) they were drowned, by the Flood, then made to enter the Fire, with which they were punished
underwater after drowning. And they did not find for themselves besides, that is to say, other than, God any
helpers, to protect them against the chastisement.

693
[71:26]

And Noah said, ‘My Lord, do not leave from among the disbelievers a single dweller upon the earth (dayyār
means ‘one who inhabits a dwelling [dār]’), in other words, not one.

[71:27]

Assuredly if You leave them, they will lead Your servants astray, and will beget only disbelieving profligates
(fājir and kaffār derive [respectively] from yafjuru and yakfuru): he said this on account of the mentioned
revelation that had been given to him.

[71:28]

My Lord, forgive me and my parents — both of whom were believers — and whoever enters my house, my
dwelling or my place of worship, as a believer, and believing men and believing women, to the Day of
Resurrection, and do not increase the evildoers except in ruin’, in destruction — and thus they were
destroyed.
Meccan, consisting of 28 verses.

(Al-Jinn)
[72:1]

Say, O Muhammad (s), to people: ‘It has been revealed to me, that is to say, I have been informed by way
of revelation from God, exalted be He, that (annahu: the [suffixed] pronoun is that of the matter) a
company of the jinn, the jinn of Nasībīn. This was at the time of the morning prayer at Batn Nakhla, a
location between Mecca and Tā’if — these [jinn] being those mentioned in God’s saying, And when We sent
a company of jinn your way…’ [Q. 46:29] — listened, to my recitation, then said, to their people upon
returning to them: “We have indeed heard a marvellous Qur’ān, whose clarity, the richness of its meanings
and other aspects one marvels at,

[72:2]

which guides to rectitude, to faith and propriety. Therefore we believe in it and we will never, after this day,
associate anyone with our Lord.

[72:3]

And [we believe] that (annahu: the pronoun in this and in the next two instances is that of the matter) —
exalted be the majesty of our Lord, transcendent is His majesty and magnificence above what is ascribed to
Him — He has taken neither spouse nor son.

[72:4]

And that the fool among us, the ignorant one among us, used to utter atrocious lies against God, extreme
calumny by attributing to Him a spouse and a son.

[72:5]

And we thought that (an: softened, that is to say, annahu) humans and jinn would never utter a lie against
God, by attributing such things to Him, until we discovered their mendacity thereby. God, exalted be He,
says:

[72:6]

694
And that certain individuals of mankind used to seek the protection of certain individuals of the jinn, when
they stopped over in dangerous places during their journeys — whereat every man would say, ‘I seek the
protection of the lord of this place against the evil of the insolent ones in it’ — so that they increased them,
by their seeking their protection, in oppressiveness, such that they would say, ‘We are now lords of jinn and
humans!’.

[72:7]

And they, namely, the jinn, thought just as you, O humans, thought, that (an: softened in place of the
hardened form, that is to say, annahu) God would never raise anyone, after his death.

[72:8]

The jinn say: And we made for the heaven, we desired to listen by stealth, but we found it filled with mighty
guards, from among the angels, and meteors, scorching stars: this was at the time of the sending of the
Prophet (s).

[72:9]

And we used to, that is to say, before his Mission, sit in [certain] places therein to listen in; but anyone
listening now will find a meteor lying in wait for him, aimed at him, ready to strike him.

[72:10]

And we do not know, by not being able to eavesdrop by stealth, whether ill is intended for those who are in
the earth, or whether their Lord intends for them good.

[72:11]

And that among us some have become righteous, after having listened to the Qur’ān, and some of us are
otherwise, that is to say, a folk who are unrighteous; we are [made up of] different sects, opposing groups,
[some] submitters to God and [others] disbelievers.

[72:12]

And we assume that (an: softened in place of the hardened form, that is to say, annahu) we will never be
able to elude God in the earth, nor will we be able to elude Him by fleeing — we will not be able to escape
Him, whether we are on earth or, fleeing from it, in the heavens.

[72:13]

And that when we heard the guidance, the Qur’ān, we believed in it. For whoever believes in his Lord (read
an implied huwa, ‘he’, [before fa-lā yakhāfu]) shall fear neither loss, a diminishing of his good deeds, nor
oppression, [nor] injustice, by having his evil deeds increased.

[72:14]

And that among us some have submitted [to God], while some of us are unjust, tyrants — on account of
their disbelief. So whoever has submitted [to God], those are the ones who seek right guidance.

[72:15]

And as for those are unjust, they will be firewood, fuel, for Hell!” ’ (annā, annahum, and annahu totalling all
twelve instances [above], including innahu ta‘ālā and annā minnā’l-muslimūna and what comes in between
them may be read with a kasra [sc. innā, innahum etc.] indicating a new sentence [every time], or with a
fatha [sc. annā, annahum etc.] indicating the statement that will follow [as a relative clause]).

695
[72:16]

God, exalted be He, says [the following] about the Meccan disbelievers: And [it has been revealed to me]
that if they (allaw: softened in place of the hardened form, its subject having been omitted, that is to say,
annahum [law], which is a supplement to annahu istama‘a, ‘that [a company of jinn] listened’) adopt the
[right] path, the path of submission [to God], We will give them abundant water to drink, plenteous [water],
from the heaven — this was after rain had been withheld from them for seven years —

[72:17]

so that We may try them, test them, therein, and so know, through knowledge outwardly manifested, the
nature of their gratitude. And whoever turns away from the remembrance of his Lord, [from] the Qur’ān, We
will admit him (naslukhu, or read [first person] yaslukhu, ‘He will admit him’) into a tortuous chastisement.

[72:18]

And [it has been revealed to me] that the places of prayer belong to God, so do not invoke, in them, anyone
along with God, by associating others with Him, like the Jews and Christians do, who, when they enter their
churches and temples, they ascribe partners to God.

[72:19]

And that (annahu; or innahu as a new sentence, the pronoun being that of the matter) when the servant of
God, the Prophet Muhammad (s), rose to invoke Him, to worship Him, at Batn Nakhla, they, that is, the jinn
listening to his recitation, were almost upon him in heaps (libadan or lubadan, the plural of libda [or lubda],
like felt in the way they were heaped on top of one another, crowding in their eagerness to listen to the
Qur’ān).

[72:20]

He said, in response to the disbelievers saying, ‘Abandon this affair of yours!’ (a variant reading [for qāla, ‘he
said’], has qul, ‘Say:’) ‘I invoke only my Lord, as God, and I do not associate anyone with Him’.

[72:21]

Say: ‘I truly have no power to bring you any harm, to lead [you] astray, or any guidance’, any good.

[72:22]

Say: ‘Indeed none shall protect me from God, from His chastisement, were I to disobey Him, and I shall
never find besides Him, that is, other than Him, any refuge.

[72:23]

[I have power to bring you] only a communication (illā balāghan is excepted from the direct object clause of
amliku, ‘I have power [to bring]’, that is to say, I have power only to communicate [the Message] to you,
from God, that is, on His behalf, and His Messages (wa-risālātihi is a supplement to balāghan, ‘a
communication’; what comes between the excepted clause and the clause from which it is excepted is a
parenthetical statement intended to emphasise the preclusion of [the Prophet’s] ‘ability [to bring them
anything else]’). And whoever disobeys God and His Messenger, concerning the affirmation of [His]
Oneness, and hence does not believe — indeed there will be for him the fire of Hell, abiding (khālidīna is a
circumstantial qualifier referring to the person indicated by man, ‘whoever’, in lahu, ‘for him’, taking into
account its [plural] import; it [khālidīna] is also an implied circumstantial qualifier, in other words, they shall
enter it with their abiding having been preordained) therein forever’.

696
[72:24]

Such that when they see (hattā is for inceptiveness, [but] also entailing a purposive sense to an implied
preceding clause, that is to say, they persist in their disbelief until they come to see …) what they are
promised, of chastisement, they will then know, at the moment that it befalls them, [either] on the day of
Badr or on the Day of Resurrection, who is weaker in supporters and fewer in numbers, in assistants: is it
them or the believers — according to the former [reading]? Or, is it Me or them, according to the latter.
Some of them said, ‘When will this promise be [fulfilled]?’, whereupon the following was revealed:

[72:25]

Say: ‘I do not know if what you are promised, of chastisement, is near, or if my Lord has set a [distant]
length for it, an extent and a term which only He knows.

[72:26]

Knower [He is] of the Unseen, what is hidden from servants, and He does not disclose, He [does not] reveal,
His Unseen to anyone, from mankind,

[72:27]

except to a messenger of whom He approves. Then, in addition to disclosing to him what He will [to
disclose] of it, by way of [making it] a miracle for him, He despatches, He appoints and sends forth, before
him, namely, the Messenger, and behind him watchers, angels to preserve him until He has conveyed [it] to
him as part of the [entire] revelation,

[72:28]

so that He, God, may know, by knowledge outwardly manifested, that (an: softened in place of the
hardened form, that is to say, annahu) they, that is, the messengers, have conveyed the Messages of their
Lord (the plural person [of the verb ablaghū, ‘they have conveyed’] takes into account [the plural]
implication of man, ‘whom’), and He encompasses all that is with them (wa-ahāta bimā ladayhim is a
supplement to an implied clause, that is to say: so He has knowledge of that) and keeps count of all things’
(‘adadan, ‘count’, is for specification; it is transformed from a direct object [sc. ‘adada], originally: ahsā
‘adada kulli shay’in, ‘He keeps count of all things’).
Meccan, except for verse 20, which is Medinese; it consists of 20 verses.

(Al-Muzzammil)
[73:1]

O you enwrapped in your garment!, the Prophet (al-muzzammil is actually al-mutazammil, but the tā’ has
been assimilated with the zāy), that is to say, the one who wraps himself up in his clothes when the
Revelation [Gabriel] comes to him, in fear of him because of his awe-inspiring presence.

[73:2]

Stand vigil, perform prayer, through the night, except a little,

[73:3]

a half of it (nisfahu substitutes for qalīlan, with ‘little’ [being little by] taking into account the whole [night]),
or reduce of it, of the half, a little, up to a third,

[73:4]

697
or add to it, up to two thirds (aw implies [free] choice), and recite the Qur’ān, recite it carefully, in a
measured tone.

[73:5]

Verily [soon] We shall cast on you a weighty, an awe-inspiring or stern, word, [a weighty] Qur’ān, because
of the prescriptions [imposed] in it.

[73:6]

Assuredly rising in the night, to wake up after [having been in] sleep, is firmer in tread, [more] conducive to
[establishing] harmony between the hearing and the heart for the purpose of comprehending the Qur’ān,
and more upright in respect to speech, clearer for utterance [of devotions].

[73:7]

[For] assuredly during the day you have extended engagements, administering your affairs, and you do not
have the time to recite Qur’ān.

[73:8]

And mention the Name of your Lord, that is, say, bi’smi’Llāhi’l-rahmāni’l-rahīm, ‘In the Name of God, the
Compassionate, the Merciful’, to begin your recitation, and devote yourself [exclusively] to Him with
complete devotion (tabtīlan is the verbal noun from batala, used here [instead of tabattulan] in order to
concord with the end-rhyme of the verses) for he [the Prophet] is obliged to devote himself to God.

[73:9]

He is, Lord of the east and the west; there is no god except Him, so take Him for a Guardian, entrusting
your affairs to Him,

[73:10]

and bear patiently what they say, that is, the disbelievers of Mecca, in the way of their maltreatment [of
you], and part with them in a gracious manner, without any anguish — this was [revealed] before the
command to fight them.

[73:11]

And leave Me [to deal] with the deniers (wa’l-mukadhdhibīna is a supplement to the direct object, or [it is]
an object of accompaniment; the meaning is: ‘I will avail you of them’, they being the doughty [leaders] of
Quraysh), those enjoying affluence, and respite them a little, while — they were killed soon afterwards at
Badr.

[73:12]

[For] indeed with Us are heavy fetters (ankāl is the plural of nikl), heavy shackles, and a hell-fire, a
scorching Fire,

[73:13]

and a food that chokes, one that causes the throat to choke, and this is [either] zaqqūm [cf. Q. 44:43], darī‘
[cf. Q. 88:6], ghislīn [cf. Q. 69:36] or thorns of fire, which can neither be vomited nor ingested, and a
painful chastisement, in addition to the [punishment] mentioned, for those who deny the Prophet (s),

[73:14]

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on the day when the earth and the mountains will quake and the mountains will be like heaps of shifting
sand (mahīl derives from hāla, yahīlu; it is actually mahyūl, but the damma sound is considered too heavy
for the yā’ and is therefore transposed onto the hā’, while the wāw, the second of two unvocalised
consonants, is omitted on account of it being extra, and the damma is replaced by a kasra because of its
[phonetic] affinity the [letter] yā’).

[73:15]

We have indeed sent to you, O people of Mecca, a Messenger, namely, Muhammad (s), to be a witness
against you, on the Day of Resurrection to any disobedience that you engage in, just as We sent to Pharaoh
a messenger, namely, Moses, peace be upon him.

[73:16]

But Pharaoh disobeyed the messenger, so We seized him with a severe seizing.

[73:17]

So, if you disbelieve, in this world, how will you guard against a day (yawman is the direct object of
tattaqūna, ‘you guard against’) that is, against the chastisement thereof, by what defence will you defend
yourselves against the chastisement of a day, that will make the children grey-haired (shīb is the plural of
ashyab) by the severity of its terrors, this being the Day of Resurrection (the shīn of shīb should actually
have a damma, but it is given a kasra because of its [phonetic] affinity with the yā’) — a distressing day is
described as being ‘a day that makes the forelocks of children turn grey’, which is [usually] understood
figuratively; but it may be that in the case of this verse it is meant literally —

[73:18]

with the heaven being rent asunder thereon, on that Day, because of its severity. His promise, exalted be
He, of the coming of that [Day], shall be fulfilled, that is to say, it will come to pass without doubt.

[73:19]

Indeed these, threatening verses, are a reminder, an admonition for all creatures. Let him who will, then,
choose a way to his Lord, a path [to Him], through faith and obedience.

[73:20]

Assuredly your Lord knows that you stand vigil less than two thirds of the night, or [at times] a half of it or a
third of it (if read wa-nisfihi wa-thuluthihi, then these constitute a supplement to thuluthay, ‘two thirds’; if
read wa-nisfahu wa-thuluthahu, then a supplement to adnā, ‘less than’) — his keeping vigil in the way
mentioned is in accordance with what was enjoined on him at the beginning of this sūra — along with a
group of those with you (wa-tā’ifatun mina’lladhīna ma‘aka constitutes a supplement to the subject [of the
verb] taqūmu, ‘you stand vigil’, but it may also constitute, although it is not certain, a separating clause).
The keeping vigil by some of his companions in this way indicates their emulation of him. Some of them
could not tell how much of the night they had spent in prayer and how much of it had remained, and would
therefore keep vigil all night as a precaution; and so they used to keep vigil [in this way] for a whole year or
more with their feet swollen, until God alleviated matters for them. He, exalted be He, says: and God keeps
measures, He keeps count of, the night and the day. He knows that (an: softened in place of the hardened
form, its subject having been omitted, that is to say, annahu) you will not be able to keep count of it, that is,
the [length of the] night, so that you may perform the vigil at the time in which it is required unless you stay
up all night, which is hard on you, and so He has relented to you, making you revert to what is easier. So
recite as much as is feasible of the Qur’ān, during prayer, by performing as much prayer as is feasible. He
knows that (an: softened in place of the hardened form, that is to say, annahu) some of you will be sick,
while others will be travelling in the land, seeking the bounty of God, seeking of His provision through

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commerce and otherwise, and others will be fighting in the way of God: for each of the three groups
mentioned the keeping of nightly vigil is hard, and so God has alleviated things for them by [enjoining on
them] what is feasible. Later this was abrogated by the five [daily] prayers. So recite as much as is feasible
of it (as [explained] above) and perform, obligatory, prayer and pay alms and lend God, by expending in the
way of good in addition to what is due from your wealth [as alms], a goodly loan, out of the goodness of
[your] hearts. For whatever good you send ahead for [the sake of] your souls, you will find that, with God, it
will be better, than what you left behind (huwa khayran: huwa is for separation; what follows it [khayran,
‘better’] is comparable to a definite, even if it is not [actually] so, on account of the impossibility of it being
given [the al- of] definition) and greater in terms of reward. And seek forgiveness from God; assuredly God
is Forgiving, Merciful, to believers.
Mecca, consisting of 56 verses.

(Al-Muddaththir)
[74:1]

O you enveloped in your mantle, the Prophet (s) (al-muddaththir is actually al-mutadaththir, but the tā’ has
been assimilated with the dāl) that is to say, the one who is enwrapped in his clothes when the Revelation
[Gabriel] comes down on him,

[74:2]

arise and warn: threaten the people of Mecca with [punishment in] the Fire should they refuse to believe;

[74:3]

and magnify your Lord, exalt [Him] above what is ascribed [to Him] by the idolaters;

[74:4]

and purify your clothes, from impurity, or [it means] shorten them, instead of [imitating] the way in which
the Arabs [are wont to] let their robes drag [behind them], out of vanity, for perhaps they will be sullied by
some impurity;

[74:5]

and shun [all] defilement, [this rijz] was explained by the Prophet (s) to be the graven images; in other
words, persist in shunning them.

[74:6]

And do not grant a favour seeking greater gain (read tastakthiru as a circumstantial qualifier) in other
words, do not give something in order to demand more in return: this [stipulation] is specific to the Prophet
(s), since he is enjoined to [adopt] the fairest traits and the noblest of manners;

[74:7]

and endure patiently for the sake of your Lord, [all His] commands and prohibitions.

[74:8]

For when the trumpet is sounded, when the trumpet is blown, that is, the Horn (qarn), at the second blast,

[74:9]

that day, that is to say, the time of the sounding (yawma’idhin is a substitution for the preceding subject,

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and is not declined because it is annexed to something that cannot be declined; the predicate of the subject
[is the following]) will be a harsh day (idhā is operated by what is indicated by the statement: ishtadda’l-
amru, ‘[for when the trumpet is sounded] the situation will be terrible’),

[74:10]

for the disbelievers, not at all easy: herein is an indication that it will be easy for believers despite its
harshness.

[74:11]

Leave Me [to deal] with him whom I created (wa-man khalaqtu is a supplement to the direct object, or [it is]
an object of accompaniment) lonely (wahīdan is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the man, ‘whom’, or to
the pronoun referring to it but omitted from khalaqtu [sc. khalaqtuhu]), alone, without family or wealth —
this was al-Walīd b. al-Mughīra al-Makhzūmī —

[74:12]

and [then] assigned him ample means, abundant and continuous, [generated] from [his] crops, livestock
and commerce,

[74:13]

and sons, ten or more, present [by his side], present at social gatherings and whose testimonies are listened
to,

[74:14]

and facilitated, extended, for him greatly, [his] livelihood, duration of life and children.

[74:15]

Still he is eager that I should give [him] more.

[74:16]

Nay!, I shall not give him more than that. He is indeed stubborn to Our signs, [to] the Qur’ān.

[74:17]

[Soon] I shall burden him with a trying chastisement; alternatively [sa‘ūdan means] a mountain of fire which
he will be made to ascend and then fall down from, forever.

[74:18]

Indeed he pondered, what to say about the Qur’ān which he heard from the Prophet (s), and decided, this,
in his mind.

[74:19]

Perish he, may he be cursed and chastised, how he decided!, [perish he] whatever the nature of his decision
may have been.

[74:20]

Again, perish he, how he decided!

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[74:21]

Then he contemplated, the faces of his people; or [he contemplated] with what [words] he might cast
aspersions upon it.

[74:22]

Then he frowned, he contracted his face and glowered, anguished by what he wanted to say, and scowled,
increasing the contracting and the glowering [in his face].

[74:23]

Then he turned his back, to faith, in disdain, scornful of following the Prophet (s),

[74:24]

and said, of what he [the Prophet] had brought: ‘This is nothing but handed-down sorcery, learnt from
sorcerers;

[74:25]

this is nothing but the speech of humans’, similar to what they [the idolaters] had said: ‘It is only a human
that is teaching him’ [Q. 16:103].

[74:26]

I shall [soon] admit him into Saqar! — Hell.

[74:27]

And how would you know what is Saqar? — this [interrogative] is intended to emphasise its enormity.

[74:28]

It neither spares nor leaves behind, anything of flesh or nerve, but destroys it [all], after which he is
restored to his former state.

[74:29]

It burns away the flesh, scorching the surface of skin.

[74:30]

There are nineteen [keepers] standing over it, angels, its keepers; a certain disbeliever, who was a mighty
stalwart, said, ‘I will avail you seventeen of them, if you avail me [just] two’. God, exalted be He, says:

[74:31]

And We have appointed only angels as wardens of the Fire, in other words, and so they cannot be withstood
as these [disbelievers are wont to] imagine; and We have made their number, so, only as a stumbling-block,
a cause for error, for those who disbelieve, when they then say, ‘Why are there nineteen of them?’, so that
those who were given the Scripture, namely, the Jews, may be certain, of the sincerity of the Prophet (s) in
[saying that] they are nineteen, for this concords with what is in their Scripture; and that those who believe,
from among the People of the Scripture, may increase in faith, in affirmation of the truth, given that what
the Prophet (s) has said concords with what is in their Scripture, and that those given the Scripture and the

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