Аль-Муминун 23:86–118

Say: ‘Who is the Lord of the seven heavens and the Lord of the Great Throne?’, that is, the throne (kursī).

They will say, ‘God’. Say: ‘Will you not then be God-fearing?’, will you then [not] be wary of worshipping [things] other than Him?

Say: ‘In whose hand is the dominion, the possession, of all things (the [final] tā’ [in malakūt] is hyperbolic), and who protects, while from Him there is no protection, if you know?’

They will say, ‘God.’ (a variant reading [for Allāh, ‘God’] in both instances [verses 87 and 89] has li’Llāh, ‘to God’, which is in keeping with the sense of ‘to whom belongs what has been mentioned?’). Say: ‘How then are you bewitched?’, [how then] are you duped and turned away from the truth, the worship of God alone, in other words, ‘How do you envisage [all] this to be invalid?’.

Nay, but We have brought them the truth, veracity, and they are indeed liars, in rejecting it, namely [the truth of the following]:

God has not taken any son, nor is there any god along with Him; for then, that is, if there were a god along with Him, each god would have taken away what he created, he would have made it exclusively his and prevented the other [god] from having any mastery over it; and some of them would surely rise up against others, in challenge, just as the kings of this world are wont to do. Glorified be God — an exaltation of Him — above what they ascribe, to Him, of what has been mentioned.

Knower of the Unseen and the visible, what is hidden and what is observed ([if] read in the genitive [‘ālimi’l-ghaybi, ‘Knower of the Unseen’], this is an adjectival qualification; [if] in the nominative [‘ālimu’l-ghaybi, ‘the Knower of the Unseen], this would be the predicate of an implied [preceding] huwa, ‘He is’) and exalted, magnified, be He above what they associate!, with Him [of partners].

Say: ‘My Lord! If (immā, this contains an assimilation of the conditional particle in with the extra mā) You should show me what they are promised, in the way of chastisement, that it is true, by their being slain at Badr,

my Lord, then do no put me among the evildoing folk’, lest I be destroyed when they are destroyed.

And truly We are able to show you what We promise them.

Ward off with that which is better, that is to say, with the [better] trait of pardoning and shunning them, the evil [act], the hurt they cause you — this was [revealed] before the command to fight [them]. We know best what they allege, [what] they invent of lies and [what they] say and so We will requite them for it.

And say: ‘My Lord, I seek protection in You from the promptings of devils, [from] their [evil] suggestions, which they whisper.

And I seek protection in You, my Lord, lest they visit me’, in any of my affairs, for they only visit to bring ill.

Until (hattā is for inceptiveness) when death comes to one of them, and he sees his place in the Fire and his [would-be] place in Paradise, had he been a believer, he says, ‘My Lord! Send me back (arji‘ūn, the plural [person] is [used] to indicate the gravity [of the plea]),

that I might act righteously, by witnessing that ‘there is no god but God’, that this might be, in that which I have left behind’, [in what] I have wasted of my life, in other words [that this affirmation might be] in its place. God, exalted be He, says: By no means!, that is, there shall be no return. It, namely, [the statement] ‘My Lord! Send me back’, is merely a word that he speaks, but [a word] in which there is no benefit for him; and behind them, ahead of them, there is a barrier, which prevents them from going back [to this world], until the day when they are raised, after which [day] there will be no more return.

And when the Trumpet is blown, the Horn, at the first or second blast, there will be no more ties [of kinship] between them on that day, for them to boast of among themselves, nor will they question one another, about such [ties], in contrast to their state in the life of this world, because of the gravity of the situation that will distract them from such [questioning] at certain points during the [Day of] Resurrection. At other [points] they are awake and [as is stated] in one verse: Some of them will turn to others, questioning each other [Q. 37:50].

Then those whose scales are heavy, with good deeds, they are the successful, the winners;

and those whose scales are light, because of evil deeds, they are the ones who have lost their souls, and so they will be, abiding in Hell.

The Fire will scorch their faces, it will burn them, while they glower therein, their upper and lower lips having receded from their teeth, and it will be said to them:

‘Were not My signs, in the Qur’ān, recited to you, were you [not] threatened therewith, and you used to deny them?’

They will say, ‘Our Lord, our wretchedness (shiqwatunā: a variant reading has shaqāwatunā, both of which are verbal nouns with the same meaning) overcame us, and we were an erring folk, [astray] from guidance.

Our Lord, bring us out of it! Then, if we revert, to disobedience, we will indeed be evildoers’.

He will say, to them by the tongue of a Keeper [of Hell], whose proportion is twice the size of this world: ‘Begone in it, away with you in the Fire, despicable [as you are], and do not speak to Me, about relieving you from the chastisement — so that [all] their hope is extinguished.

Indeed there was a party of My servants — namely, the Emigrants — who would say, “Our Lord, we believe; therefore forgive us, and have mercy on us, for You are the best of the merciful”.

But then you took them as an object of ridicule (read sukhriyyan or sikhriyyan, a verbal noun meaning ‘mockery’). Among those [ridiculed] were Bilāl [al-Habashī], Suhayb [al-Rūmī], ‘Ammār [b. Yāsir] and Salmān [al-Fārisī]; until they made you forget My remembrance, which you disregarded, as you were engaged in deriding them. Thus these [men] were the cause of the forgetting, which is why this [act] has been attributed to them, and you used to laugh at them.

Indeed I have rewarded them this day, abiding bliss, for the endurance they showed, while you mocked them and caused them hurt. They are indeed the winners’, of what they sought (read innahum as [indicating] a new sentence, or annahum as [indicating] a second direct object of the [verb] jazaytuhum, ‘I have rewarded them’).

He, exalted be He, will say, to them by the tongue of a Keeper [of Hell] (a variant reading [for qāla, ‘He will say’] has qul, ‘say’): ‘How long did you tarry in the earth, in this world and in your graves, in years?’ (‘adada sinīna is a specification).

They will say, ‘We tarried a day, or part of a day — they are uncertain thereof, deeming it shorter [than what it was] because of the gravity of the chastisement they are suffering. Yet ask those who keep count!’, namely, [ask] the angels who number the deeds of [all] creatures.

He, exalted, will say, to them, also by the tongue of Keeper [of Hell] (a variant reading [for qāla, ‘He will say’] has qul, ‘say’): ‘You tarried but a little, if only you knew, the length of time you tarried, [you would have realised that it is] trivial relative to how long you will tarry in the Fire.

Did you suppose that We created you aimlessly, and not for an underlying reason, and that you would not be returned to Us?’ (read active tarji‘ūna, ‘you [would not] return’, or passive turja‘ūna, ‘you [would not] be returned’) Nay! But [it was] so that We might enthral you with commands and prohibitions, where after you would be returned to Us for Us to requite [you] accordingly: And I did not create the jinn and mankind except that they may worship Me [Q. 51:56].

So exalted be God, above aimless action and other such things that do not befit Him, the King, the Truth! There is no god except Him, the Lord of the Noble Throne (‘arsh), the throne (kursī), which is a seat [similar to a king’s] that is exquisite.

And he who calls on another god along with God has no proof thereof (lā burhāna lahu bihi, an [extra] explicative adjectival qualification that has no [other syntactical] signification), his reckoning, his requital, will indeed be with his Lord. Truly the disbelievers will not be successful, they will not be felicitous.

And say: ‘My Lord, forgive and have mercy, on believers — [this] ‘mercy’ adds to the ‘forgiveness’ [in terms of God’s grace] — and You are the best of the merciful’, the most excellent of those who have mercy.