Аль-Араф 7:69–144

Or do you marvel that a reminder from your Lord should come to you through, the tongue of, a man from among you, that he may warn you? And remember when He made you vicegerents, on earth, after the people of Noah, and increased your stature in extension, in strength and in height — (the tallest of them measured 100 feet, the shortest, 60). Remember then God’s bounties, His graces, so that you might prosper’, triumph.

They said, ‘Have you come to us that we should worship God alone, and forsake, abandon, what our fathers worshipped? Then bring upon us what you promised us, of chastisement, if you are of the truthful’, in what you say.

He said, ‘Already, terror, chastisement, and wrath from your Lord have fallen, [they] must be [sent down], on you. Do you dispute with me concerning names which you have named, that is, with which you, you and your fathers, have named idols that you worship, for which, that is, for the worship of which, God has not revealed any warrant?, any definitive argument or proof? Then await, the chastisement. Truly I shall be with you waiting’, for that, on account of your denial of me: thus a blighting wind was unleashed against them [cf. Q. 51:4].

So We delivered him, namely, Hūd, and those with him, from among the believers, by a mercy from Us, and We cut the root of those, people, who denied Our signs, that is, We extirpated them, and were not believers (wa-mā kānū mu’minīna is a supplement to kadhdhabū, ‘[those who] denied’).

And, We sent, to Thamūd (Thamūda, read without declining [the noun], as denoting the tribe [of Thamūd] itself) their brother Sālih. He said, ‘O my people, worship God! You have no god other than Him. Truly there has come to you a clear proof, an illustration, from your Lord, of my truthfulness, this is the she-camel of God, a sign for you (lakum āyatan is a circumstantial qualifier operated by the import of the demonstrative noun [hādhihi, ‘this’]), they had asked him to make it come out of a [specific] rock which they had designated. So leave her to feed throughout God’s earth, and do not touch her with harm, either by hamstringing or beating her, lest you be seized by a painful chastisement.

And remember how He made you vicegerents, on earth, after ‘Ād, and gave you habitations in the land, making castles in its plains, in which you lodge during summer, and hewing its mountains into houses, in which you lodge during winter (buyūtan, ‘houses’, is in the accusative because of the implied circumstantial qualifier). So remember God’s bounties and do not be degenerate in the earth, seeking corruption’.

Said the council of those of his people who waxed proud, [who] disdained belief in him, to those who were oppressed, to such of them as believed, that is, from among his people (li-man āmana minhum, ‘to such of them as believed’, is a substitution for the preceding clause [li’lladhīna istud‘ifū, ‘to those who were oppressed’], repeating the preposition [li-, ‘to’]): ‘Are you aware that Sālih has been sent, to you, from his Lord?’ They said, ‘Yes! Truly we believe in the Message with which he has been sent.’

Said the ones who were proud, ‘Truly we are disbelievers of that which you believe!’

The she-camel was given the water one day and then, another; but they soon tired of this: So they hamstrung the she-camel — Qudār hamstrung her by their command, killing her with a sword — and flouted the commandment of their Lord, and said, ‘O Sālih, bring upon us that which you promised us, in the way of chastisement for [our] killing it, if you are indeed a messenger’.

So the Trembling, a violent earthquake and a cry from the heaven, seized them, and they lay lifeless prostrate in their habitations, keeled over their knees, dead.

So he turned his back on them, Sālih left [them], and said, ‘O my people, I have conveyed to you the Message of my Lord and gave you sincere advice, but you do not love sincere advisers’.

And, mention, Lot (Lūtan is substituted by [the following, idh qāla]) when he said to his people, ‘Do you commit abomination, that is, [penetrating] the rears of men, such as no one in all the worlds ever committed before you, humans or jinn?

Do you (read a-innakum, pronouncing both hamzas, or by not pronouncing the second one, but in both cases inserting an alif between the two; a variant reading has innakum, ‘indeed you … ’) come lustfully to men instead of women? Nay, you are a wanton folk’, transgressing [the bounds], [going] from what is lawful to what is unlawful.

And the response of his people was only that they said, ‘Expel them, that is, Lūt and his followers, from your city. Surely they are folk who would be pure!’, from [the abomination of penetrating] the rears of men.

So We delivered him and his family, except his wife: she was of those who stayed behind, who remained in the chastisement.

And We rained upon them a rain, the stones of baked clay (hijārat al-sijjīl), and it destroyed them. So behold what was the end of the sinners!

And, We sent, to Midian their brother Shu‘ayb. He said, ‘O my people, worship God! You have no god other than Him. Verily there has come to you a clear proof, a miracle, from your Lord, to [prove] my truthfulness. So give full measure and weight and do not defraud, diminish [the value of], people’s goods, and do not work corruption in the earth, by way of unbelief and acts of disobedience, after it has been set right, through the sending of messengers [thereto]. That, mentioned, is better for you, if you are believers, [if you are] seekers of faith, so hasten to it.

And do not sit in every path, [every] route, threatening, terrifying people by seizing their garments, or by charging them excise [tax], and barring, driving away, from God’s way, [from] His religion, those who believe in Him — when you threaten to kill them — and desiring that it, seeking that the path, be crooked. And remember when you were but few, and then He multiplied you. And behold what was the end of the agents of corruption, before you, for denying their messengers, that is, [behold] how destruction was the conclusion of their affair.

And if there is a party of you who believe in that with which I have been sent, and a party who do not believe, in it, then be patient, wait, until God judges between us, and you, by delivering the affirmer [of this truth] and destroying the denier [of it]. He is the best of judges’, the fairest of them.

Said the council of those of his people who were disdainful, of believing: ‘Surely we will expel you, O Shu‘ayb, and those who believe with you, from our city, unless you return to our creed’, our religion (the plural person predominates over the singular in their address [to Shu‘ayb] because Shu‘ayb was never part of their religious community; and so in the same [plural] way he responded:) He said, ‘What, should we return to it, even though we are averse, to it? (the interrogative is meant as a disavowal).

We would be forging a lie against God if we were to return to your creed, after God has delivered us from it. It is not, right, for us to return to it, unless God our Lord wills, that [it be so] and forsakes us. Our Lord embraces all things through His knowledge, that is to say, His knowledge embraces all things, including my situation and yours. In God we have put our trust. Our Lord, decide, adjudicate, between us and our people, for You are the best of deciders’, adjudicators.

Said the council of those of his people who disbelieved, that is, some said to others: ‘Verily if (la-in: the lām is for oaths) you follow Shu‘ayb, you shall indeed be losers’.

So the Trembling, the violent earthquake, seized them, and they lay lifeless prostrate in their habitations, keeled over their knees, dead.

Those who denied Shu‘ayb (alladhīna kadhdhabū Shu‘ayban, this constitutes the subject [of the sentence], the predicate of which is [introduced by the following ka-an, ‘as if’]), it is as if (ka-an, has been softened, its subject omitted, in other words [understand it as] ka-annahum) they had never dwelt, [never] had residence, there, in those dwelling-places of theirs; those who denied Shu‘ayb, they were the losers (the emphasis effected by the repetition of the relative clause [alladhīna kadhdhabū Shu‘ayban, ‘those who denied Shu‘ayb’] and what follows it is intended as a refutation of what they had said previously [sc. ‘if you follow Shu‘ayb, you shall indeed be losers’]).

So he turned back on them, and said, ‘O my people, I have conveyed to you the Messages of my Lord and advised you sincerely, but you believe not: so why should I grieve for a disbelieving people?’ (the interrogative is meant [rhetorically] as a negation).

And We did not send a prophet to any city but that, when they denied him, We seized, We punished, its people with misery, abject poverty, and hardship, illness, so that they might be humble, [so that they might be] self-effaced, and so believe.

Then We gave them in place of evil, the chastisement, good, wealth and health, until they multiplied, and said, out of ingratitude towards this grace: ‘Hardship and happiness befell our fathers before’, just as it has befallen us, and this is nothing but the habit of time, and not the consequence of God, so remain firm in what you follow. God, exalted be He, says: So We seized them, with the chastisement, suddenly, while they perceived not, beforehand the time of its coming.

Yet had the people of the towns, the deniers, believed, in God and the messengers [sent] to them, and been fearful, of unbelief and acts of disobedience, We would have indeed opened upon them (read la-fatahnā or la-fattahnā) blessings from the heaven, by way of rain, and earth, by way of vegetation; but they denied, the messengers, and so We seized them, We punished them, on account of what they used to earn.

Do the people of the towns, the deniers, feel secure from the coming of Our might, Our chastisement, upon them at night while they are sleeping?, unaware of it?

Or, do the people of the towns feel secure from the coming of Our might upon them in the daytime while they are playing?

And so do they feel secure from God’s plotting?, that is, His drawing them on by degrees, through graces, and then seizing them suddenly. None feels secure from God’s plotting but the people who are losers.

Has it not been shown, [has it not] become clear, to those who inherit the earth, as a [place of] habitation, after, the destruction of, those who inhabited it that, (an is the softened form and constitutes the subject [of the verb], its noun having been omitted, in other words [understand it as] annahu), if We will, We could smite them, with chastisement, for their sins?, as We smote those before them? (the hamza in the four instances are meant to indicate rebuke, and the [particles] fa, ‘so’, and wa, ‘and’, which have been inserted in two instances [each], are meant to indicate a supplement; a variant reading [for a-wa-amina] has aw amina, ‘or do [they] feel secure’, in the [second] instance, as a supplement). And, We, seal up their hearts so that they do not hear, the admonition, in a way so as to reflect.

Those towns, which have been mentioned, We relate to you, O Muhammad (s), some of their tidings, [some of] the stories of their peoples. Verily their messengers brought them clear proofs, manifest miracles, but they would not believe, when these [signs]came to them, in what they had denied, disbelieved in, before, before these [signs] came to them; nay, they persisted in disbelief. Thus does God seal up the hearts of the disbelievers.

And We did not find in most of them, that is, people, any covenant, that is, any loyalty to a covenant from the day the pledge was made. Nay (wa-in: in is softened) We found that most of them were indeed wicked.

Then We sent, after them, that is, [after] the messengers mentioned, Moses with Our, nine, signs to Pharaoh and his council, his folk, but they mistreated, they disbelieved in, them. So behold what was the end of those who work corruption, by way of disbelief, when they were destroyed.

And Moses said, ‘O Pharaoh, I am a messenger from the Lord of the Worlds, to you, but he denied him. So he [Moses] said:

I am, one for whom it is right, [for whom] it is appropriate, to say nothing but the truth about God (a variant reading [for ‘alā] has ‘alayya, ‘for me’, in which case, haqīqun, ‘it is right’, is the subject [of the sentence], its predicate being an, ‘that’, and what follows it [sc. ‘I say nothing but the truth about God’]). Truly I have come to you with a clear proof from your Lord. So send forth with me, to Syria, the Children of Israel’: he [Pharaoh] had enslaved them.

Said he, Pharaoh, to him: ‘If you have come with a sign, as you claim, then produce it, if you are of those who speak the truth’, in this.

Then he cast down his staff and lo! it was a serpent, manifest [for all to see], an enormous snake.

And he drew forth his hand, he took it out from his bosom, and lo! it was white, radiant, for the beholders, and not its usual skin colour.

The council of Pharaoh’s folk said, ‘Surely this man is a cunning sorcerer, outstanding in the art of magic, in [sūrat] al-Shu‘arā’ [Q. 26:34], these are actually Pharaoh’s words, and so it is as if they said it in consultation with him,

who would expel you from your land. So what do you command?’

They said, ‘Put him and his brother off a while, postpone [any decision regarding] their affair, and send into the towns summoners, gatherers,

to bring you every cunning sorcerer’ (sāhir: a variant reading has sahhār) to outdo Moses in the art of magic. And so they summoned [them].

And the sorcerers came to Pharaoh, saying, ‘Surely (a-inna: read pronouncing both hamzas, or by not pronouncing the second one, but inserting an alif between the two in both cases) there will be a wage for us if we are the victors?’

He said, ‘Yes, and indeed you shall be of those brought near’.

They said, ‘O Moses, either you cast, your staff, or we shall be the casters!’, of what we have.

He said, ‘Cast!’, this is a command permitting them to cast first, as a means to manifesting the truth. And when they cast, their ropes and staffs, they put a spell upon the people’s eyes, misleading them from perceiving the real state of these [ropes and staffs], and overawed them, scared them, by making them appear to be slithering snakes, and produced a mighty sorcery.

And We revealed to Moses [saying]: ‘Cast your staff.’ And lo! it swallowed up (read talaqqafu, with one of the original tā’ letters [of tatalaqqafu] omitted) the illusion they were creating, that which they were transforming by delusion.

Thus did the truth come to pass, [thus was it] confirmed and made manifest; and that which they were doing, in the way of sorcery, was proved false.

Thus were they, that is, Pharaoh and his folk, there defeated, becoming humiliated — they ended up abased.

And the sorcerers fell down in prostration.

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

the Lord of Moses and Aaron’, for they realised that what they had witnessed of the staff could not be done through sorcery.

Pharaoh said, ‘Have you believed (a-āmantum, read pronouncing both hamzas, and replacing the second one with an alif) in him, in Moses, before I gave you leave? Surely this, that you have done, is a plot you have plotted in the city that you may expel its people from it. But you shall come to know, what I will do to you!

I shall assuredly have your hands and feet cut off on opposite sides, that is, the right hand and the left foot of every one, then I shall have every one of you crucified’.

They said, ‘Surely to our Lord, after our death, however it come about, we shall be restored, we shall return, in the Hereafter.

You are vindictive, spiteful, towards us only because we have believed in the signs of our Lord when they came to us. Our Lord, pour out onto us patience (and constancy), when that with which he has threatened us comes to pass, lest we revert to unbelief; and take us to You as men who have submitted’.

Then the council of Pharaoh’s folk said, to him [to Pharaoh]: ‘Will you leave Moses and his people to work corruption in the land, by calling to disobedience against you, and flout you and your gods?’ — he had fashioned small idols for them to worship, and had said to them, ‘I am your lord and their lord’, which is why he says, I am your lord the highest [Q. 79:24]. He said, ‘We shall slaughter (read nuqattilu or naqtulu) their, new-born, sons and spare their women, keeping them alive [for us], as we did with them before. For surely we have [irresistible] power over them!’, and they did this to them, and so the Children of Israel grieved.

Moses said to his people, ‘Seek help in God and be patient, their persecution. Surely the earth is God’s and He bequeaths it, He gives it, to whom He will from among His servants. The, praiseworthy, sequel belongs to those who are wary, of God’.

They said, ‘We suffered harm before you came to us, and since you have come to us.’ He said, ‘Perhaps your Lord will destroy your enemy and make you successors in the land, that He may observe how you shall act’, in it.

And verily We seized Pharaoh’s folk with the years, of drought, and dearth of fruits, so that they might remember, [that they might] heed the admonition, and become believers.

But whenever a good thing, [such as] fertility and abundance, befell them, they said, ‘This belongs to us’, that is, we deserve it, and they did not give thanks for it; and whenever an evil thing, [such as] drought or hardship, smote them, they would augur ill of Moses and those, believers, with him. Surely their ill augury is with God, Who brings it upon them, but most of them do not know, that whatever befalls them is from Him.

And they said, to Moses, ‘Whatever sign you bring us, to cast a spell upon us therewith, we will not believe in you’, and so he [Moses] invoked God against them.

So We unleashed upon them the flood, of water, which penetrated their houses and which for seven days would come up to people’s necks as they sat; and the locusts, which consumed their crops and fruits, likewise [engulfing them for seven days]; and the lice (al-qummal is like al-sūs, ‘woodworm’, or al-qurād, ‘ticks’), which would follow [and consume] what the locusts left behind; and the frogs, such that they infested their houses and food supplies; and the blood, [flowing] in their water, distinct, clear, signs: but they were too scornful, to believe in them, and were a sinful folk.

And when the terror, the chastisement, fell upon them, they said, ‘O Moses, pray to your Lord for our sake by the covenant which He has made with you, to remove the chastisement from us if we believe. Indeed if (la-in: the lām is for oaths) you remove from us the terror, verily we will believe in you and let the Children of Israel go with you’.

But when We removed, through the supplication of Moses, the terror from them to a term which they should reach, lo! they were already reneging, breaking their covenant and persisting in their disbelief.

So We exacted retribution from them and therefore We drowned them in the sea (al-yamm denotes salty waters) for, the reason, that they denied Our signs and were heedless of them, not reflecting upon them.

And We bequeathed upon the people who were oppressed, through bondage, namely, the Children of Israel, the eastern parts of the land and the western parts thereof which We had blessed, with water and trees (allatī bāraknā fīhā, ‘which We had blessed’, is an adjectival qualification of al-ard, ‘the land’), and this was Syria, and the fair word of your Lord was fulfilled, which was His saying, exalted be He: Yet We desired to be gracious to those who were oppressed in the land ... to the end [of the verse, Q. 28:5], for the Children of Israel because they endured patiently, persecution at the hands of their enemy; and We destroyed utterly what Pharaoh and his folk had been creating, by way of architecture, and what they had been erecting (read ya‘rishūn or ya‘rushūn), [what they had been] raising of edifices.

And We brought the Children of Israel across the sea, and they came upon, they passed by, a people cleaving in devotion (read ya‘kufūn or ya‘kifūn) to idols they had, constantly worshipping them. They said, ‘O Moses, make for us a god, an idol for us to worship, just as they have gods.’ He said, ‘Truly you are an ignorant folk, for repaying God’s grace to you with what you have said.

Truly as for these, their way will be destroyed and what they have been doing is in vain’.

He said, ‘Shall I seek other than God as a god for you, to worship (abghīkum, ‘[shall] I seek for you’, is originally abghī lakum), when He has favoured you above all the worlds?’, of your time, in the ways He has mentioned in His sayings?

And, remember, when We delivered you (anjaynākum: a variant reading has anjākum, ‘He delivered you’) from Pharaoh’s folk who were inflicting upon you, [who were] burdening you and making you taste, terrible chastisement, the worst kind [of chastisement], namely, slaying your sons and sparing, retaining, your women; and therein, [in that] deliverance or chastisement, was a tremendous trial, [either] a grace or a tribulation, from your Lord, so will you not heed the admonition and desist from what you are saying?

And We appointed (read wa-wā‘adnā or wa-wa‘adnā) for Moses thirty nights, at the end of which We would speak to him, after he has fasted [during that period]; that was the month of Dhū’l-Qa‘da. He completed the fast. But when it came to an end, he disliked the [bad] odour of his mouth and so cleaned his teeth. God then commanded him [to fast for] another ten nights so that He may speak to him despite the odour in his mouth: as God says, and completed them with ten, nights of Dhū’l-Hijja. Thus was the time appointed by his Lord concluded, the time at which God had promised him to speak to him, as forty (arba‘īna is a circumstantial qualifier) nights (laylatan is for specification); and Moses said to his brother Aaron, when he was departing to the Mount for the communion [with his Lord]: ‘Succeed me, be my deputy, over my people, and be righteous, [among them] with regard to their affair, and do not follow the way of the agents of corruption’, by consenting with them to acts of disobedience.

And when Moses came at Our appointed time, that is, the time at which We had promised to speak to him, and his Lord spoke with him, without any intermediary, with speech which he heard from all directions, he said, ‘My Lord! Show me, Yourself, that I may behold You!’ Said He, ‘You shall not see Me, that is to say, you do not have the power to see me, the use of this expression [lan tarānī, ‘you shall not see Me’] instead of lan urā, ‘I shall not be seen’, implies that it is possible to see God, exalted be He; but behold the mountain, which is stronger than you are, and if it remains, stays fixed, in its place, then you shall see Me’, that is, [then] you shall remain fixed [able] to see Me, otherwise, you will not have the capacity [for it]. And when his Lord revealed Himself, that is, [when] He manifested of His Light the equivalent of half a nail of a little finger, as stated in one hadīth verified by al-Hākim, to the mountain He levelled it to the ground (read dakkan or dakkā’a, meaning madkūkan) and Moses fell down senseless, having lost consciousness at the awesomeness of what he had seen. And when he recovered his senses he said, ‘Glory be to You!, in Your transcendence. I repent to You, for having asked You what I was not commanded [to ask], and I am the first of the believers’, of my time.

He, God, said, to him: ‘O Moses, I have elected you, chosen you, from among mankind, the people of your time, for My Messages (read plural, bi-risālātī, or singular, bi-risālatī, ‘for My Message’) and My Speech, that is, [for] My having spoken to you. So take what I have given you, of bounty, and be of the thankful’, of My favours.