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Alif Lām Mīm Sād: God knows best what He means by these [letters].

This is, a Book that is revealed to you — addressing the Prophet (s) — so let there be no inhibition, [no] constraint, in your breast because of it, to convey it — for fear that you might be called a liar — that you may warn thereby (li-tundhira, ‘that you may warn’, is semantically connected to unzila, ‘is revealed’, that is to say, ‘[it is revealed] for [the purposes of] warning’) and as a reminder for those who believe, in it.

Say to them: Follow what has been revealed to you from your Lord, namely, the Qur’ān, and do not follow, [do not] take, beside Him, namely, God, in other words, other than Him, any patrons, obeying them in disobedience of Him, exalted be He. Little do you remember (read tadhakkarūn or yadhakkarūn, ‘[little] are you or they admonished’; the original tā’ [of tatadhakkarūn] has been assimilated with the dhāl; a variant reading has tadhkurūn; the mā [of qalīlan mā, ‘little’] is extra, merely emphasising the ‘littleness’).

How many (kam is predicative and is the direct object [of the main verb, ahlaknāhā, ‘We have destroyed’]) a city, meaning its inhabitants, have We destroyed, have We willed its destruction! So Our might, Our chastisement, came upon it at night or while they slept at noon (qā’ilūn: al-qaylūla is a rest taken halfway during the day, even if it does not involve sleep), in other words, sometimes it came upon it at night, and sometimes it came during the day.

And their only plea, their [only] words, when Our might came upon them, was to say, ‘We were evildoers indeed’.

Then verily We shall question those to whom the Message was sent, that is, [We shall question those] communities, about their response to the messengers, and to what extent they implemented that which was conveyed to them; and We shall question the messengers, about the conveying [of that Message].

And We shall narrate to them with knowledge, We shall inform them, with [previous] knowledge, of what they did; for verily We were not absent, when the messengers were conveying [the Message], nor [were We absent] during the time of bygone communities and what they did.

The weighing, of deeds or of the scrolls of these [deeds] shall be — in a balance that has a tongue and two palms [as scales], as reported in a hadīth — on that day, that is, on the day of the questioning mentioned, namely, the Day of Resurrection, the true [weighing], the fair [weighing] (al-haqq, ‘the true’, is an adjectival qualification of al-wazn, ‘the weighing’). As for those whose scales are heavy, with good deeds, they are the successful, the triumphant.

And as for those whose scales are light, because of evil deeds, those are the ones who have lost their souls, by causing them to travel towards the Fire, because they mistreated, they [knowingly] denied, Our signs.

And We have given you power, O Children of Adam, in the earth, and have appointed for you therein livelihoods (ma‘āyish is the plural of ma‘īsha), that is, the means by which you [are able to] subsist; little (qalīlan mā: mā is to emphasise the ‘littleness’) thanks you show, for this.

And We created you, that is, your father Adam, then shaped you, that is, We shaped him with you [deposited] in his back, then said to the angels: ‘Prostrate yourselves before Adam!’, a prostration that is a bow of salutation. So they fell prostrate, all save Iblīs, the father of the jinn, who was among the angels — he was not of those who make prostration.

He, exalted be He, said, ‘What prevented you from falling prostrate (allā is [made up of] an-lā, the lā being extra) when I commanded you?’ He [Iblīs] said, ‘I am better than him. You created me from fire, while him You created from clay’.

Said He, ‘Then go down from it, that is, from the Garden — it is also said, [go down] from the heavens — it is not, right, for you to show pride here, so go forth, out of it! Surely you are among the abased!’, the contemptible!

Said he, ‘Reprieve me, postpone my affair, until the day when they, people, are resurrected’.

Said He, ‘Lo! You are of those reprieved’ — in another verse, it is said, until the day of an appointed time [Q. 38:81], that is, [until] the time of the first blast [of the Trumpet].

Said he, ‘Now, because You have sent me astray (fa-bi-mā aghwaytanī means bi-ighwā’ik, ‘for Your sending me astray’: the bā’ is for oaths, and the response of the oath is [the following]) verily I shall sit in ambush for them, that is, for the Children of Adam, on Your straight path, that is, on the path that leads to You.

Then I shall come upon them from before them and from behind them and from their right and from their left, that is to say, from every side, and prevent them from following it [that path]. Ibn ‘Abbās said, ‘However, he cannot come upon them from above, lest he come between the servant and the mercy of God, exalted be He’. And You will not find most of them thankful’, believing.

Said He, ‘Go forth from it, degraded (read madh’ūman) disgraced or despised, and banished, removed from mercy. As for those of them, of people, who follow you (la-man, ‘as for those who’: the lām is for inceptiveness; or it is for introducing the oath, which is [the following]) I shall assuredly fill Hell with all of you’, that is, with you, through your seed, and with people — herein [in this address] those present have predominance over those absent (this [last] sentence [of the verse] expresses the sense of ‘the requital’ [suggested] in the conditional man, ‘who’: in other words, ‘whoever follows you, then I shall punish him’).

And, He said, ‘O Adam, dwell, you (anta: this is reiterated in order to emphasise the subject of the verb uskun, ‘dwell’, and to supplement to it [what follows]) and your wife, Eve (read Hawwā’), in the Garden, and eat from whence you will, but do not come near this tree, to eat of it — and this was wheat — lest you become evildoers’.

Then Satan, Iblīs, whispered to them that he might manifest, reveal, to them that which was hidden (wūriya: based on [the verbal form] fū‘ila and [derives] from [the infinitive] al-muwārā) to them of their shameful parts. And he said, ‘Your Lord prohibited you from this tree only, in aversion, lest you become angels (malakayn may also be read malikayn) or become immortals’, in other words, that is the necessary consequence of eating from it, as [is stated] in another verse: Shall I guide you to the Tree of Immortality and a kingdom that does not waste away? [Q. 20:120].

And he swore to both of them, that is, he swore to both of them by God, ‘Truly, I am a sincere adviser to you’, in this matter.

Thus did he lead them on, [thus] did he debase them in their status, by delusion, on his part; and when they tasted of the tree, that is, [when] they ate of it, their shameful parts were manifested to them, that is, the front [private part] of each was revealed to the other, as well as their behinds — each of these parts is called saw’a, ‘shameful’, because its exposure ‘shames’ (yasū’u) that person — and they began to piece together, they began to stick, onto themselves some of the leaves of the Garden, to cover themselves up therewith. And their Lord called them: ‘Did I not prohibit you from this tree, and say to you, “Verily Satan is a manifest enemy to you”?’, one whose enmity is evident? (the interrogative is meant as an affirmative).

They said, ‘Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves, by our act of disobedience, and if You do not forgive us and have mercy on us, we shall surely be among the lost’.

Said He, ‘Go down, that is, Adam and Eve, with all those you comprise of your seed, each of you, each seed, an enemy to the other, on account of the wrong each does to the another. There will be for you on earth an abode, a place of settlement, and enjoyment for a while’, [until] your terms [of life] are fulfilled.

Said He, ‘There, that is, [on] earth, you shall live, and there you shall die, and from there you shall be brought forth’, through the Resurrection (read active takhrujūn, ‘you shall come forth’, or passive tukhrajūn, ‘you shall be brought forth’).

O Children of Adam! We have sent down on you a garment, that is, We have created it for you, to conceal, to cover up, your shameful parts, and feathers, meaning all that one adorns oneself with of garments, and the garment of God-fearing, righteous deeds and virtuous traits (read as libāsa’l-taqwā, ‘the garment of God-fearing’, as a supplement to the preceding libāsan, ‘a garment’; or read as libāsu’l-tawqā as the subject, the predicate of which is the [following] sentence) that is best; that is one of God’s signs, the proofs of His power; perhaps they will remember, and believe (the address shifts from the second [to the third] person).

O Children of Adam! Let not Satan tempt you, lead you astray, that is, do not follow him, lest you fall into temptation, as he caused your parents to go forth from the Garden, by tempting them, stripping (yanzi‘u is a circumstantial qualifier) them of their garments to manifest to them their shameful parts. Surely he, Satan, sees you, he and his tribe, his army, from where you do not see them — because of their ethereal bodies or their being colourless. We have made the devils friends, helpers and companions, of those who do not believe.

And when they commit any indecency, such as idolatry, or circumambulating the [Sacred] House naked, saying, ‘We cannot perform the circumambulations wearing clothes in which we were disobedient to God’ — and so they forbade this [wearing of clothes] — they say, ‘We found our fathers practising it, and so we followed their example, and God has, also, enjoined it on us’. Say, to them: ‘God does not enjoin indecency. Do you say concerning God that which you do not know?’, that He has said? (the interrogative is meant as a repudiation).

Say: ‘My Lord enjoins justice, fairness. And set (wa-aqīmū is a supplement to the [syntactical] significance of bi’l-qist, ‘justice’, that is to say, [it is as if] He said, ‘Be just and set [your faces]’, or read [wa-aqīmū] with an implied fa-aqbilū, ‘so turn’ towards it) your faces, towards God, in every place of worship, performing your prostrations purely for Him, and call upon Him, worship Him, devoting your religion to Him, [free] of any idolatry. As He brought you into being, [as] He created you, when you were nothing, so you will return, that is, [so] He will bring you back to life on the Day of Resurrection.

A party, of you, He has guided, while another party has deserved to go astray — they have taken devils as patrons instead of God, that is, other than Him, and think that they are guided’.

O Children of Adam! Don your adornment, that which covers your nakedness, at every place of worship, at prayer and at the circumambulation, and eat and drink, what you want, but do not be excessive; He truly does not love those who are excessive.

Say, in disavowal of them, ‘Who has forbidden the adornment of God which He has brought forth for His servants, in the way of garments, and the good things, the delicious foods, of [God’s] sustenance?’ Say: ‘These, on the Day of Resurrection, shall be exclusively (read khālisatun meaning ‘exclusively theirs’, or khālisatan as a circumstantial qualifier) for those who believed during the life of this world, deservedly, even if others should share it with them. Thus We detail the signs, We explain them in such detail, for a people who know’, [who] reflect, for they are the ones to profit from these [signs].

Say: ‘My Lord forbids only indecencies, grave sins, such as fornication, such of them as are apparent and such as are hidden, that is, the overt ones and the secret ones, and sin, the act of disobedience, and wrongful insolence, against people, namely, oppression, and that you associate with God that for which He never revealed any warrant, any definitive proof for such association, and that you say concerning God that which you do not know’, in the way of forbidding what He has not forbidden and other things.

Every community has a term, a [finite] period of time. When their term comes they shall not delay it a single hour nor bring it forward.

O Children of Adam! If (immā: the nūn of the conditional particle in has been assimilated with the extra mā) there should come to you messengers from among you, narrating to you My signs, then whoever fears, associating others with God, and makes amends, in his actions — no fear shall befall them, neither shall they grieve, in the Hereafter.

And those who deny Our signs and scorn them, not believing in them — those shall be the inhabitants of the Fire, abiding therein.

And who — that is, none — does greater evil than he who invents a lie against God, by ascribing to Him a partner or a child, or denies His signs?, the Qur’ān. Those — their portion, their lot, of the Scripture, of what has been inscribed as theirs in the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfūz), in the way of provision, term [of life] and other matters, shall reach them until, when Our messengers, the angels, come to them, to take their souls, they say, to them, in reprimand: ‘Where is that which you were calling upon, worshipping, beside God?’ They will say, ‘They have gone astray from us’, they are not present [before us], and so we cannot see them; and they will bear witness against themselves, upon death, that they were disbelievers.

He, exalted be He, will say, to them, on the Day of Resurrection: ‘Enter into the Fire among, the number of, communities of jinn and mankind who passed away before you’ (fī’l-nār, ‘into the Fire’, is semantically connected to udkhulū, ‘enter’). Every time a community enters, the Fire, it curses its sister-community, [the one] that came before it, because of its having gone astray on account of it, until, when they have all followed, caught up with, one another there, the last of them, those who were the followers, shall say to the first of them, those whom they revered and followed: ‘Our Lord, these led us astray; so give them a double chastisement of the Fire.’ He, exalted be He, will say, ‘For each, of you and them, will be a double, chastisement, but you do not know’ (read ta‘lamūn, or ya‘lamūn, ‘they [do not] know’), what will be for each party.

And the first of them shall say to the last of them, ‘You have no advantage over us, since you did not disbelieve because of us: you and we are equal [in this predicament]. God, exalted be He, says to them: So taste the chastisement for what you used to earn’.

Those who deny Our signs and scorn them, not believing in them, indeed the gates of heaven shall not be opened for them, when their spirits are carried up to it after death, for instead they are taken down into Sijjīn [cf. Q. 83:7f.] — in contrast to the believer, for whom the gates are opened, and his spirit is carried up into the seventh heaven, as is stated in one hadīth — nor shall they enter Paradise until the camel passes through the eye of the needle, which is impossible, and so is their entry [into Paradise]. So, with this requital, We requite those who are sinful, through disbelief.

Hell shall be their bed, and over them coverings, of fire (ghawāshin is the plural of ghāshiya and its nunation compensates for the omitted yā’). Thus do We requite the evildoers.

And those who believe and perform righteous deeds (wa’lladhīna āmanū wa-‘amilū’l-sālihāti is the subject) We do not charge any soul beyond its scope, its capacity for action (lā nukallifu nafsan illā wus‘ahā, ‘We do not charge any soul beyond its scope’, constitutes a parenthetical statement, intervening between it [the above subject] and its predicate, which is [the following]) those are the inhabitants of Paradise, abiding therein.

We shall strip away all rancour, [all] spite that existed between them in the world, that is in their breasts; and beneath them, beneath their palaces, flow rivers; and they will say, once they have settled in their dwellings: ‘Praise be to God, Who guided us to this, action, the reward of which is this [Paradise]; for we would surely never have been guided if God had not guided us (the response to the [conditional] law lā, ‘if … not’ is omitted, because it is indicated by the preceding [clause]). Verily the messengers of our Lord did bring the truth.’ And it is cried to them: (an is read softened, that is, [understand it as] annahu; alternatively, it is an explicative particle in all five places [here and the four to follow]) ‘This is your Paradise; you have inherited it for what you used to do’.

And the inhabitants of Paradise will call to the inhabitants of the Fire, either in affirmation or in reprimand: ‘We have found that which our Lord promised us, in the way of reward, to be true; have you found that, chastisement, which your Lord promised, you, to be true?’ They will say: ‘Yes!’ And then a crier, a caller, shall proclaim between them, between both parties, making them hear that: ‘God’s curse is on the evildoers,

who bar, people, from God’s way, [from] His religion, desiring it, that is, they seek the way that is, crooked, disbelieving in the Hereafter’.

And between them, that is, [between] the inhabitants of Paradise and those of the Fire, is a veil, a barrier, said to be the wall of the Heights, and on the Heights, which is, the wall of Paradise, are men, whose good deeds and evil deeds are equal, as [is stated] in the hadīth, who know each, of the inhabitants of Paradise and those of the Fire, by their mark — glowing faces in the case of the believers and blackened [ones] in the case of the disbelievers, for they are able to see them, their position being high — and they call to the inhabitants of Paradise: ‘Peace be upon you!’ God, exalted be He, says: They, that is, those men of the Heights, have not entered it, Paradise, although they aspire, to enter it. Al-Hasan [al-Basrī] said, ‘God causes them to have this aspiration only because He desires to be generous to them’. Al-Hākim reported that Hudhayfa [b. al-Yamān] said, ‘While they are in this situation, God appears to them and says “Get up and enter Paradise, for I have forgiven you”.’

And when their eyes, those of the men of the Heights, are turned towards, in the direction of, the inhabitants of the Fire, they shall say, ‘Our Lord, do not assign us, to the Fire, with the evildoing folk’.

And those of the Heights call to men, from among the inhabitants of the Fire, whom they know by their mark, [saying]: ‘Your masses, of property, or your multitude, and your haughtiness, that is, your disdaining of belief, have not availed you, [as protection against] the Fire. And they also say to them, pointing to those [formerly] oppressed Muslims:

Are these the ones of whom you swore that God would never grant them mercy?’: it has already been said to them, ‘Enter Paradise; no fear shall come upon you, nor shall you grieve’ (a variant reading [for udkhulū, ‘enter’ (imperative, second person plural)] has the passive udkhilū, ‘they have been admitted’, or dakhalū, ‘they entered’; the negation clause [‘no fear shall come upon you, nor shall you grieve’] is a circumstantial qualifier, in other words, [they enter Paradise] while this is being said to them).

And the inhabitants of the Fire call out to the inhabitants of Paradise [saying]: ‘Pour on us some water, or some of that, food, which God has provided you!’ They say: ‘God has forbidden, He has prohibited, both to the disbelievers,

those who took their religion for a diversion and a game, and whom the life of this world has deluded.’ Therefore today We have forgotten them, We have left them in the Fire, just as they forgot the encounter of this day of theirs, when they neglected to perform [good] deeds for it, and because they used to deny Our signs.

And indeed We have brought them, that is, the people of Mecca, a Book, the Qur’ān, which We have detailed, [which] We have made clear through tidings and the Promise [of reward] and the Threat [of punishment], with knowledge (‘alā ‘ilmin is a circumstantial qualifier, in other words, ‘knowing what has been detailed in it’), a guidance (hudan is [also] a circumstantial qualifier referring to the hā’ [the suffixed pronoun of fassālnā-hu, ‘which We have detailed’]) and a mercy for a people who believe, in it.

Are they waiting — they are not waiting — for anything but its fulfilment, the consequences of what is in it? On the day when its fulfilment comes, which will be [on] the Day of Resurrection, those who were forgetful of it before, [those who] neglected to believe in it, shall say, ‘Indeed, our Lord’s messengers came with the truth. Have we then any intercessors, that they may intercede for us, or shall we be returned, to the world, that we may act otherwise than we used to act?’, [and instead] affirm God’s Oneness and refrain from associating others with Him. It will then be said to them, ‘No!’ God, exalted be He, says: Verily they have lost their souls, for they have ended up in perdition, and that which they used to invent, in alleging [that God has] a partner, has failed, has abandoned, them.

Surely your Lord is God, Who created the heavens and the earth in six days, of the days of this world, that is to say, in the equivalent thereof, since there was no sun then. Had He willed He could have created them in an instant; but the reason for His not having done so is that He wanted to teach His creatures to be circumspect; then presided upon the Throne, a presiding befitting of Him (al-‘arsh, ‘throne’, in the [classical] language is the elevated seat on which a king sits). He cloaks (read yughshī or yughashshī) the night with the day, that is, He covers each one with the other: each following the other in swift pursuit — and the sun and the moon and the stars (if all of these are read in the accusative, then they constitute a supplement to al-samāwāt, ‘the heavens’, and if in the nominative, then they constitute the subject of the sentence, the predicate of which follows) have been made subservient, [have been] subdued, by His command, by His power. Verily, His is, all, creation and the command, in its entirety. Blessed, Magnified, be God, the Lord, the Master, of the Worlds!

Call upon your Lord humbly (tadarru‘an is a circumstantial qualifier), in subservience, and quietly, in secret. Truly, He loves not the aggressors, who are braggarts and loud-mouthed in [their] supplications.

And work not corruption in the land, through idolatry and acts of disobedience, after it has been set right, as a result of the sending forth of messengers [to it], and call upon Him in fear, of His punishment, and in hope, of His mercy — surely the mercy of God is near to the virtuous, the obedient (qarīb, ‘near’, as the predicate of [the feminine noun] rahma, ‘mercy’, is in the masculine because it [rahma] is annexed to Allāh, ‘God’).

He it is Who sends the winds, unfolding with His mercy, that is, dispersing before the rains (a variant reading [for nushuran, ‘unfolding’] has nushran; another reading has nashran as the verbal noun; and a third variant has bushran, meaning mubashshiran, ‘[with which] He is bearing good tidings [of His mercy]’; the singular of the first reading is nashūr, similar [in pattern] to rasūl, ‘messenger’; the singular of the last is bashīr) until, when they, the winds, bear heavy clouds, [clouds heavy] with rain, We lead it, that is, [We lead] the clouds (herein is a shift from the third [to the first] person), to a dead land, one devoid of any vegetation, in other words, [We lead it there] in order to revive it, and then We send down thereon, on that land, and bring forth thereby, by this water, fruits of every kind. Like that, bringing forth, We shall bring forth the dead, from their graves, through revivification, so that you might remember, and believe.

As for the good land, the one of rich soil, its vegetation comes forth, wholesomely, by permission of its Lord — this is a similitude of the believer who, when he hears an admonition, he [heeds it and] benefits from it. While as for the, one whose soil is, bad — the vegetation in, it comes forth only miserably, laboriously and with difficulty — this is the similitude of the disbeliever. Even, as We have made clear what has been mentioned, so We dispense, We make clear, the signs for a people who are thankful, to God and so believe.

Verily (laqad is the response to an oath that has been omitted) We sent Noah to his people, and he said, ‘O my people, worship God! You have no god other than Him (read ghayrihi as an adjective of ilāh, ‘god’, or ghayruhu as a substitution in its place [sc. instead of min ilāhin, ‘any god’). Truly, I fear for you, if you worship other than Him, the chastisement of an Awful Day’, that is, the Day of Resurrection.

The council, of the respected elders, of his people, said: ‘Truly We see you in manifest error’.

He said, ‘My people, there is no error in me (dalāla is more general than al-dalāl, ‘misguidance’, and so to deny it is more effective than to deny the latter), but I am a messenger from the Lord of the Worlds.

I convey to you (read ublighkum or uballighukum) the Messages of my Lord, and I am advising you, I desire good [for you], for I know from God what you know not.

Do you then, deny, marvel that a reminder, an admonition, from your Lord should come to you through, the tongue of, a man from among you, that he may warn you, of chastisement if you do not believe, and that you may fear, God, and that you might be shown mercy’, by it?

But they denied him, and so We delivered him and those with him, from drowning, in the Ark, [in] the ship, and We drowned those who denied Our signs, by means of the Flood. Truly they were a people blind, to the truth.

And, We sent, to, the earlier, ‘Ād their brother Hūd. He said, ‘O my people, worship God, affirm His Oneness! You have no god other than Him. Will you not fear?’, will you [not] fear Him, and so believe?

The council, those of his people who disbelieved, said: ‘We truly see you in folly, ignorance, and we truly deem you of the liars’, in your Message.

He said, ‘O my people, there is no folly in me, but I am a messenger from the Lord of the Worlds.

I convey to you the Messages of my Lord, and I am your truthful adviser, trustworthy in the Message [I convey].