Худ

Alif lām rā’: God knows best what He means by these [letters]; this is, a Book whose verses have been set clear, through marvellous arrangement and wonderful meanings, and then detailed, expounded, through rulings, stories and admonitions, from One Wise, Informed, that is, [from] God.

[Saying:] ‘Worship none but God. Truly I am to you a warner from Him, of chastisement, if you disbelieve, and a bearer of good tidings’, of reward, if you believe.

And [bidding you]: ‘Ask forgiveness of your Lord, for [your] idolatry, then repent, return, to Him, through [acts of] obedience, and He will give you, in this world, fair enjoyment, in the way of pleasant living and abundant provision, until a time appointed, namely, death, and He will give, in the Hereafter, every person of merit, in deed, [the due for] his merit, his reward. But if you turn away (tawallaw: one of the two tā’ letters [of tatawallaw] has been omitted), in other words, if you object, I fear for you the chastisement of an awful day, namely, the Day of Resurrection.

Unto God is your return, and He has power over all things’, including reward and chastisement.

As reported by al-Bukhārī [by way of an isnād] from Ibn ‘Abbās, the following was revealed regarding those who were embarrassed to withdraw [to relieve nature] or to have sexual intercourse [without their clothes] and become exposed to the heaven. It is also said: [that it was revealed] regarding the hypocrites: Lo!, they fold up their breasts that they may hide from Him, that is, [from] God; lo! the moment they cover themselves with their garments, wrapping themselves up therewith, He, God, exalted be He, knows what they keep hidden and what they proclaim, and so their hiding is to no avail. Truly He knows what is in the breasts [of men], that is, what is in the hearts.

And there is not (wa-mā min: min is extra) a creature (dābba is that [creature] which treads [dabba]) in the earth but the sustenance thereof rests on God, [sustenance] which He has undertaken [to provide], out of His bounty, exalted be He. And He knows its habitation, its dwelling-place in this world — or in the loins — and its repository, after death, or in the womb. All, that which is mentioned, is in a manifest, a clear, Book, which is the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfūz).

And He it is Who created the heavens and the earth in six days, the first of which was Sunday and the last, Friday — and His Throne, before creating them, was upon the water, borne by the winds — that He might try you (li-yabluwakum is semantically connected to khalaqa, ‘He [Who] created’), in other words, He created them and all that is beneficial and good for you in them, in order to test you: which of you is best in conduct, that is, [which of you] is most obedient to God. And if you were to say, O Muhammad (s), to them: ‘Truly you shall be raised again after death’, those who disbelieve will say, ‘This, Qur’ān that speaks of resurrection — or, [this] that you are saying — is nothing but manifest, clear, sorcery’ (sihrun: a variant reading has sāhirun, ‘sorcerer’, in which case the reference is to the Prophet (s).

And if we postpone the chastisement for them until, the arrival of, a reckoned time, [reckoned] moments, they will surely say, in mockery: ‘What is detaining it?’, what is preventing it from being sent down? God, exalted be He, says: Verily on the day when it comes to them, it cannot be averted, warded off, from them, and that, chastisement, which they derided shall surround them, [it] shall come down upon them.

And if We cause, the disbelieving, man to taste some mercy from Us, [such as] wealth and [good] health, and then wrest it from him, lo! he is despairing, having lost hope of God’s mercy, ungrateful, intensely ungrateful to Him.

But if We cause him to taste prosperity after some misery, [such as] impoverishment and hardship, that had befallen him, assuredly he will say, ‘The ills, the afflictions, have gone from me’, when he had not anticipated that they would go away; yet still he does not give thanks for this; lo!, he is exultant, wanton, boastful, to people of what he has been given;

save, but, those who endure, misery, [patiently] and perform righteous deeds, during times of comfort; theirs will be forgiveness and a great reward, which is Paradise.

Perhaps, O Muhammad (s), you might [think to] leave out some of what is revealed to you, such that you do not convey it to them, for they do not take it seriously, and that your breast should be straitened by it, by reciting it to them, because they say, ‘Why has a treasure not been sent down for him, or an angel not come with him?’, to confirm his sincerity, as we had requested? You are but a warner, and yours is only to convey [the Message], not to produce what they have requested; and God is Guardian over all things, He is Preserver [of all things], so He will requite them [accordingly].

Or do they say, ‘He has invented it’?, that is, the Qur’ān. Say: ‘Then bring ten sūras the like thereof, in terms of clarity and rhetorical excellence, invented, for you are Arabs who speak [Arabic] eloquently, like myself — he challenged them to these [ten sūras] first, and then to one sūra — and call, in order [for them] to assist you, upon whom you can beside God, that is, [on] other than Him, if you are truthful’, about it [the Qur’ān] being an invention of lies.

Then, if they, that is, those on whom you call for assistance, do not answer you, know, this address is to the idolaters, that it has been revealed, enwrapped, only in God’s knowledge, not as an invention of lies against Him, and that (an is softened, in other words [understand it as] annahu) there is no god save Him. Will you then submit?, after this definitive argument; in other words: ‘Submit!’

He who desires the life of this world and its adornment, by persisting in idolatry — it is said that this was [revealed] regarding the dissimulators — We shall repay them their deeds, that is, the requital of any good that they did, such as charity or kindness to kin, in it, by giving them abundant provision, and therein, that is, in this world, they shall not be defrauded, they shall [not] be made to suffer diminution in anything.

Those are they for whom there is nothing in the Hereafter but the Fire; what they contrive will have failed, [will] be invalid, therein, that is, in the Hereafter, and will not be rewarded, and useless is that which they used to do.

Is he who relies on a clear proof, a clear statement, from his Lord, meaning the Prophet (s), or the believers; it [the proof] being the Qur’ān, [a clear proof] which is followed by a witness, to it of its veracity [as being], from Him, that is, from God; he [the witness] being Gabriel, and before it, [before] the Qur’ān, was the Book of Moses, the Torah, also a witness to it, as an example and a mercy? (imāman wa-rahmatan is a circumstantial qualifier) [is such a person] like one who is not so? No! Those, that is, the ones who rely on a clear proof, they believe in it, that is, in the Qur’ān, and so for them will be Paradise; but he who disbelieves in it of the partisans, [namely] all the disbelievers, the Fire shall be his appointed place. So do not be in doubt, in uncertainty, concerning it, concerning the Qur’ān. Truly it is the Truth from your Lord, but most of mankind, that is, the people of Mecca, do not believe.

And who, that is, none, does greater wrong than he who invents a lie concerning God?, by ascribing to Him partner and child. Those, they shall be brought before their Lord, on the Day of Resurrection, amid [the rest of] creation, and the witnesses (ashhād is the plural of shāhid) namely, the angels, who will bear witness that the messengers conveyed [the Message] and that the disbelievers denied [them], will say, ‘These are they who lied concerning their Lord’. Surely the curse of God is upon the wrong-doers, the idolaters;

they who bar [people] from God’s way, [from] the religion of Islam, desiring [to have] it, seeking that the way be, crooked; and in the Hereafter they (hum, ‘they’, is [reiterated] for emphasis) are disbelievers.

Such will not escape, God, in the earth and, beside God, other than Him, they [can] have no allies, [no] helpers to protect them against His chastisement. For them the chastisement will be double, for their having led others astray. They could not hear, the truth, nor did they use to see, it; that is to say, because of their extreme aversion to it, it is as though they did not have the [physical] capacity for it.

Such are they who have lost their souls, for their journey’s end shall be to the Fire, made everlasting for them; and that which they used to invent, [of lies] concerning God, in the way of claiming [that He has] a partner, has failed them, is absent [before them].

Without doubt, verily, they will be the greatest losers in the Hereafter.

Truly those who believe and perform righteous deeds and humble themselves, [who] are at peace and feel reassured, or [who] repent, before their Lord: such will be the inhabitants of Paradise, abiding therein.

The likeness, the description, of the two parties, the disbelievers and the believers, is as the blind and the deaf, this being the likeness of the disbeliever, and the one who sees and the one who hears, this being the likeness of the believer, are they equal in likeness? No! Will you not then remember? (tadhakkarūn: the original tā’ [of tatadhakkarūn] has been assimilated with the dhāl) [will you not then] be admonished?

And verily We sent Noah to his people [and he said]: ‘I am (annī: a variant reading has innī, in which case ‘he said’ has been omitted) for you a clear warner, one whose warning is plain.

That, you worship none but God. Lo! I fear for you, should you worship other than Him, the chastisement of a painful day’, painful in this world and in the Hereafter.

The council, the respected elders, of his people who disbelieved, said: ‘We see you but a mortal like us, and you have no merit over us, and we see not that any follow you save the vilest among us, the riffraff among us, such as the weavers and the shoemakers, [through] rash opinion (bādiya’l-ra’ya: read with hamza or without [in both cases]), in other words, impulsively, without thinking you over (it [bādiya’l-ra’ya] is in the accusative because it is an adverbial clause, that is to say: at the time that their opinion first came into being). We do not see that you have any merit over us, for which you would deserve our following you; nay, we deem you liars’, with regard to your claim to [be bringing] a Message: they [the disbelievers] included his folk with him in their address [to him].

He said, ‘O my people, have you considered: — inform me — if I am [acting] upon a clear proof, a clear statement, from my Lord and He has given me mercy — prophethood — from Him, and it has been obscured, concealed, from you (‘amiyat, ‘obscured’, a variant reading has the passive ‘ummiyat), can we compel you to it, are we [able] to force you to accept it, while you are averse to it? We are not able to do that.

And O my people, I do not ask of you any wealth, which you should give me, for this, for conveying the Message. My wage, my reward, falls only upon God and I will not drive away those who believe, as you have commanded me; they shall surely meet their Lord, at the Resurrection, and He will requite them and exact vengeance for them from those who wronged them and drove them away. But I see you are a people who are ignorant, of the consequence of your affair.

And O my people, who would help, [who would] defend, me against God, that is, [against] His chastisement, if I drive them away?, in other words, there is none to help me. Will you not then remember? (tadhakkarūn: the original second tā’ [in tatadhakkarūn] has been assimilated with the dhāl), [will you not then] be admonished?

And I do not say to you, “I possess the treasure houses of God” nor, “I have knowledge of the Unseen”; nor do I say, “I am an angel”, nay, I am human like you. Nor do I say to those whom your eyes scorn that God will not give them any good — God knows best what is in their souls, [in] their hearts. Lo! if I were to say this, then indeed I would be of the evildoers’.

They said, ‘O Noah, you have disputed with us and disputed with us at length, so bring upon us that wherewith you are threatening us, in the way of chastisement, if you are of the truthful’.

He said, ‘Only God will bring it upon you, if He wills, to hasten it on for you, for the decision is His, not mine; and you cannot escape Him, elude God.

And my counsel will not benefit you if I desire to counsel you when God desires to keep you astray (the response to the conditional is indicated by wa-lā yanfa‘ukum nushī, ‘and my counsel will not benefit you’). He is your Lord and to Him you will be brought back’.

God, exalted be He, says: Or do they, the disbelievers of Mecca, say, ‘He has invented it’?, Muhammad (s) has invented the Qur’ān? Say: ‘If I have invented it, then my crime will be upon me, my sin [will be upon me], that is, the punishment for it; and I am innocent of what you commit’, of crime, when you attribute invention to me.

And it was revealed to Noah that: ‘None of your people will believe except he who has already believed. Do not be distressed, grieved, because of what they do, in the way of idolatry. So, he [Noah] invoked God against them with the words: My Lord, leave not [one of the disbelievers] upon the earth [Q. 71:26]. God responded to this invocation of his and said:

Build the Ark, the ship, under Our eyes, under Our watch and protection, and by Our inspiration, [by] Our command, and do not address Me concerning those who have done evil, [those who] have disbelieved, [by asking] that I should refrain from destroying them; lo! they shall be drowned’.

And he was building the Ark (yasna‘ is narrating a past state [in the present tense]) and whenever a council, a group, of his people passed him, they scoffed at him, mocked him. He said, ‘Though you scoff at us, yet we scoff at you, even as you scoff, when we are saved, while you drown;

and you shall know to whom (man introduces the relative clause which constitutes the direct object of the [action of] ‘knowing’) will come a chastisement degrading him, and upon whom an enduring, an everlasting, chastisement will fall’.

Such that when (hattā represents the objective for [the action of] ‘building’) Our command came, for their destruction, and the, baker’s, oven gushed forth, with water — this was the sign for Noah — We said, ‘Load therein, in the ship, of every kind, [of every] male and female, that is, of every species of these two, two, a male and a female (ithnayn constitutes the direct object). According to the story, God gathered for Noah all the beasts of prey and birds and other [animals]; he [Noah] would go through every species [to select them] with his hands, and his right hand would fall upon a male and the left upon a female, whereupon he would take them aboard the ship; and your family — that is, his wife and children — save those against whom the Word has already gone forth, from among them, that they be destroyed: this was his wife and his son Canaan, in contrast with Shem, Ham and Japheth, whom he took aboard together with their three wives, and those who believe’. And none but a few believed with him: it is said that these were six men and their wives; it is also said that the number of all those aboard the ship was eighty, half of whom were men and the other half, women.

And he, Noah, said, ‘Embark therein! In the Name of God be its course and its mooring (read majrāhā and marsāhā, or mujrāhā and mursāhā, both being verbal nouns, meaning, the length of its course and where it docks, in other words, the entire journey). Truly my Lord is Forgiving, Merciful’, for He did not destroy us.

And it sailed with them amid waves like mountains, in terms of their height and size, and Noah called out to his son, Canaan, who was standing away, from the ship, ‘O my son, embark with us and do not be with the disbelievers!’

He said, ‘I shall take refuge in a mountain that will protect me, preserve me, from the water’. Said he, ‘This day there is none that can protect from God’s command, [from] His chastisement, except — but — him on whom He, God, has mercy’, he will be protected. God, exalted be He, says: And the waves came between them, so he was among the drowned.

And it was said, ‘O earth, swallow your waters, that have sprung forth from you — and it reabsorbed it [all] except for what came down from the sky and formed rivers and seas — and O heaven, abate!’, withhold the rain, and it did. And the waters subsided, decreased. And the affair was accomplished, the matter of the destruction of Noah’s people was complete, and it settled, [and] the ship came to rest, upon al-Jūdī, a mountain in Mespotamia (al-jazīra), near Mosul; and it was said: ‘Away with — perish — the evildoing, the disbelieving, folk!’

And Noah called out to his Lord and said, ‘My Lord, lo! my son, Canaan, is of my family, and You promised me that they would be saved, and truly Your promise is the Truth, which never fails, and You are the Most Just of Judges’, the most knowledgeable and the fairest of them.

He, [God] exalted be He, said: ‘O Noah, lo! he is not of your family, of those [who will be] saved, or of the followers of your religion; lo! it, that is, your asking me to save him, is not a righteous deed, for he is a disbeliever and there is no deliverance for disbelievers (‘āmalun ghayru sālihin, ‘it is not a righteous deed’: a variant reading has ‘āmila, the verb, with ghayra in the accusative, in which case the person governing [the verb ‘amila] is his son). So do not ask of Me (read either fa-lā tas’alanni, or fa-lā tas’alni) that whereof you have no knowledge, in respect to saving your son. I admonish you lest you be among the ignorant’, when you ask about what you do not know.

He said, ‘My Lord, I seek refuge in You, from [the sin], that I should ask of You that whereof I have no knowledge. Unless You forgive me, my excess, and have mercy on me I shall be among the losers’.

It was said, ‘O Noah, go down, disembark from the ship, in peace, in safety, or with a greeting, from Us and blessings, good things, upon you and upon some communities [that will spring] from those with you, in the ship, that is, from their children and their seed, those who are [and those who will be] the believers. And [there will be other] communities (read umamun), [to spring] from those with you, to whom We shall give enjoyment, in this world, and then a painful chastisement will befall them’, in the Hereafter, and these will be the disbelievers.

Those, that is, these verses, containing [stories such as] the story of Noah, are of the tidings of the Unseen, [of] the tales of that which was hidden from you, which We inspire in you, O Muhammad (s). You yourself did not know it, nor did your people [know it] before this, Qur’ān. So be patient, in conveying [the Message] and in [enduring] your people’s hurt, as Noah endured. Truly the, praiseworthy, sequel is for those who are God-fearing.

And, We sent, to ‘Ād their brother, from the tribe, Hūd. He said, ‘O my people, worship God!, affirm His Oneness. You have no god (min ilāhin: min is extra) other than He. You, in your worship of graven images, do but invent, [you do but] invent lies against God.

O my people, I do not ask of you any wage for it, for the affirmation of His Oneness. Lo! my wage falls only upon Him Who originated me, created me. Will you not understand?

And, O my people, ask forgiveness of your Lord, for [your] idolatry, then turn, return, to Him repentant, through obedience; He will release the sky, [He will release] the rain — for they had been denied it — upon you in abundance, with abundant rainfall, and He will add to you strength to your strength, through wealth and children. Do not turn away as sinners’, idolaters.

They said, ‘O Hūd, you have not brought us any clear proof, [any] evidence for what you say, and we are not going to forsake our gods on [the basis of] your saying, that is, because of what you say, and we are not believers in you.

We say nothing, concerning you, save that one of our gods has possessed you in some evil way’, rendering you insane, for your having cursed them, and so you are raving. He said, ‘Lo! I call God to bear witness, for me, and you, bear witness also, that I am innocent of what you associate, with Him,

beside Him; so plot against me, devise ways to destroy me, all together, you and your graven images, then give me no respite, grant me [no] reprieve.

Truly I have put my trust in God, my Lord and your Lord; there is no (mā min: min is extra) creature, no living thing that treads upon this earth, but He takes it by the forelock, that is, [but] He is its possessor and subjugator, so that no benefit or harm occurs except by His permission — the forelock is specifically used here because he who is taken by his forelock suffers the ultimate humiliation. Surely my Lord is on a straight path, that is, [on] the way of truth and justice.

And if you turn away (tawallaw: one of the two tā’ letters [of tatawallaw] has been omitted), that is, if you object, still I have conveyed to you that wherewith I was sent to you, and my Lord will set in place of you a folk other than you. You cannot injure Him in any way, by your idolatry. Truly My Lord is Preserver, Watcher, over all things’.

And when Our command, Our chastisement, came to pass We delivered Hūd and those who believed with him by a mercy, by guidance, from Us, and We delivered them from a harsh, a severe, chastisement.

And that was ‘Ād — [this is] an allusion to their remains; in other words, go forth in the land and look at these [remains]. God then describes their case, saying: they knowingly denied the signs of their Lord and disobeyed His messengers (rusulahu is in the plural, because when a person disobeys a messenger he has [effectively] disobeyed all of them, since they share a common principle in that [Message] with which they come, namely, [the principle of] God’s Oneness); and they, that is, the riffraff, followed the command of every rebellious tyrant, [every] leader of theirs who is obstinate with regard to the truth.

And a curse was made to follow them in this world, from people, and on the Day of Resurrection, a curse [will follow them] for all creatures to see. ‘Lo! ‘Ād disbelieved in, they knowingly denied, their Lord. Lo! away, [far] from God’s mercy, with ‘Ād, the folk of Hūd!’

And, We sent, to Thamūd their brother, from the tribe, Sālih. He said, ‘O my people, worship God!, affirm His Oneness. You have no god other than He. He it is Who produced you, [Who] began your creation, from the earth, by creating your father Adam from it, and has given you to live therein, He has made you inhabitants, living therein; so ask forgiveness of Him, from idolatry, then turn, return, to Him repentant, through [acts of] obedience. Truly my Lord is Near, to His creation by [virtue of] His knowledge, Responsive’, to those who ask of Him.

They said, ‘O Sālih, you had been one of promise among us, that is to say, we had hoped that you would become [our] chief, before this, that has issued from you. Do you forbid us to worship what our fathers worshipped?, in the way of graven images? Truly we are in grave doubt, [doubt] creating [great] uncertainty, concerning that to which you are calling us’, in the way of [affirming] God’s Oneness.

He said, ‘O my people, have you considered: if I am [acting] upon a clear proof, a [clear] statement, from my Lord, and He has given me from Him mercy, prophethood, who will help me, [who will] defend me, against God, [against] His chastisement, if I disobey Him? You would only be adding, by commanding me to do that, to my loss, [my] misguidance.

And, O my people, this is the she-camel of God, a sign for you (āyatan is a circumstantial qualifier operated by the demonstrative noun [hādhihi, ‘this’]). Leave her to eat in God’s earth and do not cause her any harm, [by] hamstringing [her], lest you be seized by a near chastisement’, if you do hamstring her.

But they hamstrung her, Qudār hamstrung her at their command, and he, Sālih, said, ‘Enjoy [yourselves], live, in your dwellings for three days, whereafter you will be destroyed. That is a promise that will not be belied’.

So, when Our command came, for their destruction, We delivered Sālih and those who believed with him, they numbered 4000, by a mercy from Us, and, We delivered them, from the ignominy of that day (read yawmi’idhin [if understood] as declinable, or read yawma’idhin on the basis of it [yawm, ‘day’] being annexed to an invariable [idhin, ‘that’], which is the majority view). Truly your Lord is the Strong, the Mighty, the Victor.

And those who did evil were seized by the Cry, so that they ended up lying lifeless prostrate in their habitations, keeled over their knees, dead,

as if (ka-an had been softened and its subject omitted, in other words [understand it as] ka’annahum) they had not dwelt there, in their dwelling-place: ‘Lo! Thamūd disbelieved in their Lord, lo! away with Thamūd!’ (this may be read, declined, li-Thamūdan, or left, as indeclinable, li-Thamūda, referring to the district or the tribe).

And verily Our messengers came to Abraham with good tidings, of [the birth of] Isaac and, after him, Jacob. They said, ‘Peace!’ (salāman is a verbal noun). He said, ‘Peace!’, be upon you, and did not delay to bring a roasted calf.

And when he saw their hands not reaching to it, he was suspicious of them and conceived, he kept secret in himself, a fear of them. They said, ‘Fear not. Lo! we have been sent to the people of Lot’, to destroy them.

And his wife, that is, Abraham’s wife, Sarah, standing by, serving them, laughed, at the good tiding of their destruction; and so We gave her the good tiding of Isaac, and, after Isaac, of Jacob, his son, whom she would live to see.