Yunus

Alif lām rā’: God knows best what He means by these [letters]. Those, namely, these signs, are the signs of the wise Book, that is, the Qur’ān (the genitive annexation [āyāt al-kitāb] has the meaning of min [sc. min āyāti’l-kitāb, ‘from among the verses of the Book’]), which has been made clear.

Is it for the people, the people of Mecca (this interrogative is meant as a disavowal; the preposition [li-, ‘for’] and its dependent genitive noun [al-nās, ‘the people’] constitute a circumstantial qualifier of His saying): a wonder (‘ajaban: read in the accusative as a predicate of kāna; or if read in the nominative [‘ajabun] as its subject: its predicate, which is also its subject if read according to the former [accusative] reading, is [the following, an awhaynā]) that We have inspired a man from among them, Muhammad (s), [saying] (an, ‘that’, is explicative): ‘Warn, threaten, the people, the disbelievers, with chastisement, and give good tidings to those who believe that they have a prior, a preceding, [promise of] truth with their Lord’?, that is a [preceding] fair reward, in return for the deeds they have sent forward. The disbelievers say, ‘Truly this, Qur’ān that comprises all of that [mentioned], is manifest sorcery’: a variant reading [for la-sihrun] has la-sāhirun, ‘a sorcerer’, where it is the Prophet (s) to whom they are referring [as being ‘a manifest sorcerer’].

Truly your Lord is God Who created the heavens and the earth in six days, of the days of this world, that is, in the same measure [of time], since there was no sun or moon 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 He presided upon the Throne, a presiding befitting of Him, directing affairs, among creatures. There is no (mā min indicates a relative clause) intercessor, to intercede for anyone, save after His permission: a refutation of their saying, ‘The idols intercede for us!’; that, Creator and Director, is God, your Lord, so worship Him, affirm His Oneness. Will you not remember? (tadhakkarūna: the original tā’ [of tatadhakkarūna] has been assimilated with the dhāl).

To Him, exalted be He, is the return of all of you: God’s promise, in truth (both [wa‘da and haqqan] are verbal nouns, and in the accusative because of the verbs implicit in them). Truly He (read innahu as a new sentence, or annahu with an implied lām [sc. li-annahu, ‘Because He’] originates creation, that is, He began it by originating [it], then recreates it, through resurrection, that He may requite, reward, those who believe and perform righteous deeds, justly. And those who disbelieve, for them will be a draught of boiling water and a painful chastisement because they disbelieved.

He it is Who made the sun a radiance, that is, emitting light, and the moon a light, and determined it, with respect to its movement, in stations: 28 stations in 28 nights every month, becoming concealed for two nights when a particular month has 30 days, or [concealed] for one night, when it has 29 days, so that you might know, thereby, the number of the years and the reckoning. God did not create that, which is mentioned, save in truth, not in vain, exalted be He above such things. He details (read yufassilu or nufassilu, ‘We detail’) the signs for a people who know, who reflect.

Truly in the alternation of night and day, in [their] coming and going, increasing and diminishing, and [in] what God has created in the heavens, of angels, sun, moon, stars and other things, and, in, the earth, of animals, mountains, seas, rivers, trees, and other things, there are signs, indications of His power, exalted be He, for a people who fear, Him, and so believe: He singles these out for mention because they are the ones to benefit from them [such signs].

Truly those who do not expect to encounter Us, through resurrection, and are content with the life of this world, instead of [the life] the Hereafter, since they reject [the truth of] it, and feel reassured, feel secure, in it, and those who are heedless of Our signs, [of] the proofs of Our Oneness, neglecting to ponder them,

those, their abode will be the Fire because of what they used to earn, in the way of [practising] idolatry and [performing] acts of disobedience.

Truly those who believe and perform righteous deeds, their Lord will guide them, He will lead them, through their faith, in Him, by appointing for them a light with which they will be able to find their way on the Day of Resurrection. Rivers will flow beneath them in the Gardens of Bliss,

their prayer therein, their request for what they desire in Paradise will be to say: ‘Glory be to You, O God!’, so that, lo!, what they request they find before them; and their greeting, between them, therein will be: ‘Peace.’ And their final prayer will be: ‘Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds’.

When the idolaters sought to hasten [their] chastisement, the following was revealed: And if God should hasten for mankind evil as they would hasten good, their term [of life] would already have been concluded for them (read as the passive, with nominative ajaluhum [sc. la-qudiya ajaluhum]; or read as the active with accusative ajalahum [sc. la-qadā ajalahum, ‘He would have already concluded their term’]), by His destroying them, but He gives them respite. But We leave those, who do not expect to encounter Us, to wander blindly in their insolence, hesistant and perplexed.

If misfortune, illness or poverty, should befall a, disbelieving, man, he calls upon Us on his side, that is, lying down, or sitting or standing, in other words, in every state; but when We have relieved him of his misfortune, he passes on, in his unbelief, as if (ka-an is softened, its subject omitted, in other words [read as] ka-annahu) he had never called upon Us because of a misfortune that befell him. So, in the same way that supplication during misfortune and abstention [from supplication] in times of comfort were adorned for him, is adorned for the prodigal, the idolaters, that which they do.

And indeed We have destroyed generations, communities, before you, O people of Mecca, when they did evil, by way of idolatry, and, indeed, their messengers brought them clear proofs, indicating their truthfulness; but they would not believe (wa-mā kānū li-yu’minū: this is a supplement to zalamū, ‘they did evil’). So, just as We destroyed those, We shall requite the sinning, the unbelieving, folk.

Then We made you, O people of Mecca, successors (khalā’if is the plural of khalīfa) in the earth after them, that We might behold how you would behave, in it, and whether you would take heed from their example and believe in Our messengers.

And when Our clear, manifest (bayyināt is a circumstantial qualifier), verses, [from] the Qur’ān, are recited to them, those who do not expect to encounter Us, those who do not fear the Resurrection, say, ‘Bring a Qur’ān other than this, one in which our gods are not denigrated, or change it’, of your own accord. Say, to them: ‘It is not for me to change it of my own accord. I only follow that which is revealed to me. Truly I fear, if I should disobey my Lord, by changing it, the chastisement of a dreadful day’, that is, the Day of Resurrection.

Say: ‘If God had willed I would not have recited it to you, nor would He have made it known to you, [nor] would He have made you aware of it (the lā [of wa-lā adrākum] is for negation, and is a supplement to what preceded; a variant reading has the lām [sc. la-adrākum, ‘He would have made it known to you’] as the response to the [conditional] law, ‘if’, in other words, He would have made it known to you by the tongue of someone other than myself). For I have already dwelt among you a [whole] lifetime, of forty years, before this [Qur’ān], not relating to you anything [of the sort], so will you not understand?’, that this [Qur’ān] is not from myself?

And who, that is, no one, does greater evil than he who invents a lie against God, by ascribing a partner to Him, or denies His signs?, [denies] the Qur’ān. Surely, it is that, the sinners, the idolaters, shall not prosper, they shall [never] find happiness.

And they worship, besides God, that is, other than Him, that which can neither hurt them, should they not worship it, nor profit them, if they do worship it — and these are the idols; and they say, of them: ‘These are our intercessors with God’. Say, to them: ‘Would you tell, would you inform, God of what He does not know in the heavens or in the earth?’ (the interrogative is meant as a disavowal), for if He had a partner, He [Himself] would know it, since nothing can be hidden from Him. Glory be to Him!, in [affirmation of] His transcendence, and High be He exalted above what they associate! with Him.

Mankind was but one community, following one religion, that is submission [to the One God], from the time of Adam to the time of Noah; but it is also said [that this was the case] from the time of Abraham to that of ‘Amr b. Luhayy; then they differed, some of them remaining firmly [upon belief in One God], while others disbelieved. And had it not been for a word that had already preceded from your Lord, [to the effect] that requital would be deferred until the Day of Resurrection, it would have been decided between them, that is, [between] mankind, in this life, regarding that over which they differed, in religion, by the disbelievers being punished.

And they, the people of Mecca, say, ‘Why has a sign not been sent down on him, on Muhammad (s), from his Lord?’, as was the case with [previous] prophets, in the way of a she-camel, a staff or a [glowing] hand. Then say, to them: ‘The Unseen, that which is concealed from servants, in other words, its affair, belongs only to God, and it is from this [Unseen] that signs come forth; therefore He alone can bring them forth: mine is only to covey the Message. So wait, for the chastisement, if you do not believe. I am waiting with you’.

And when We made people, that is, the disbelievers of Mecca, taste of mercy, [of] rain and fertility, after adversity, misery and drought, that had afflicted them, behold! they have some plot concerning Our signs, in the way of mockery and denial. Say, to them: ‘God is swifter at plotting, at requiting; surely Our, guardian, messengers are writing down that which you are plotting’ (tamkurūn, is also read yamkurūn, ‘they are plotting’).

He it is Who conveys you (yusayyirukum: a variant reading has yanshurukum) across the land and the sea, until when you are in ships and they sail with them (there is a shift of address from second [to third] person) with a fair, gentle, breeze and they rejoice therein, there comes upon them a stormy wind, blowing violently, destroying everything, and waves come on them from every side, and they think that they are overwhelmed, that is, [that] they shall perish, they call upon God, secure in their faith, their supplication, only to Him: ‘If (la-in: the lām is for oaths) You deliver us from these, terrors, we shall verily be of the thankful’, [of those] who affirm [Your] Oneness.

Yet when He has delivered them, behold! they are insolent in the earth wrongfully, by associating others with God. O mankind, your insolence, wrongdoing, is only against yourselves, since the sin thereof shall fall against them; it is [but], the enjoyment of the life of this world, which you will enjoy for a short while, then to Us is your return, after death, and We shall inform you of what you used to do, and then requite you for it (a variant reading [for nominative matā‘u] has accusative matā‘a, ‘an enjoyment’, in other words [read as with an omitted verb such as] tatamatta‘ūna, ‘[one which] you shall enjoy’).

The likeness, the description, of the life of this world is only as water, rain, which We send down from the heaven, then the plants of the earth mingle with it, [they mingle] because of it, attaching themselves one to another, whereof mankind eat, [plants] such as wheat and barley and so on, and cattle [eat], of pasture, until, when the earth has taken on its ornaments, its splendour of plants, and has adorned itself, with flowers (izzayyanat, ‘adorned itself’, is originally tazayyanat, but the tā’ has been substituted with the zāy and assimilated with it) and its inhabitants think that they are masters of it, fully capable of harvesting its fruits, Our command, Our decree or Our chastisement, comes upon it by night or day, and We make it, that is, its crops, as reaped corn, like that which has been reaped with sickles, as though (ka-an is softened, in other words [read it as] ka-annahā) the previous day it had not flourished, [as though] it never were. Thus do We detail, [do] We make clear, the signs for a people who reflect.

And God summons to the Abode of Peace, that is, [the Abode] of security, which is Paradise, by summoning [people] to faith, and He guides whomever He wills, that he be guided, to a straight path, the religion of Islam.

For those who do good, by having faith, is the fairest reward, Paradise, and more, which is to contemplate God, exalted be He, as [reported] in a hadīth by Muslim [in his Sahīh]; neither dust, soot, nor ignominy, grief, shall overcome, envelop, their faces. Those, they are the inhabitants of Paradise: therein they will abide.

And for those (wa’lladhīna is a supplement to li’lladhīna ahsanū, ‘for those who do good’, so [understand it as] wa-li’lladhīna, ‘and for those’) who earn evil deeds, by practising idolatry, [there shall be] the requital of an evil deed by the like thereof; ignominy shall overcome them — they have no protector, no defender, against God — as if their faces had been covered with, cloaked [in], strips of darkest night (read qita‘an, as the plural of qit‘a; or qit‘an, meaning juz’an, ‘a part’). Those, they are the inhabitants of the Fire: therein they will abide.

And, mention, the day on which We shall gather them, that is, creation, all together, then We shall say to those who associated others [with God]: ‘In your place! (makānakum is in the accusative because ilzamū, ‘adhere to’, is implied [sc. ilzamū makānakum]). You (antum: this emphasises the [second person plural] subject concealed in the implied verb [ilzamū], and allows for the supplement [that follows]:) and your associates!’, that is, the idols. Then We shall make a separation, We shall distinguish, between them, and the believers, as [is stated] in the verse, wa’mtāzū’l-yawma ayyuhā’l-mujrimūn, ‘Now be separate, you sinners, upon this day!’ [Q. 36:59]; and their associates will say, to them: ‘It was not us that you were worshipping (mā [of mā-kuntum, ‘you were not …’] is for negation; the direct object [iyyānā, ‘us’] precedes the verb in order [to accord] with the end-rhyme [of the Qur’ānic verse];

God suffices as a witness between us and you, that indeed (in is softened, so [read as] innā) we were unaware of your worship’.

There, that is, on that day, every soul shall experience (tablū derives from balwā, ‘a trial’; a variant reading has tatlū, ‘it shall recite’, derived from tilāwa, ‘recitation’) what it did before, [what] it offered in the way of deeds, and they shall be returned to God, their rightful, [their] established, everlasting, Lord, and that which they were inventing, [of lies] against Him, in the way of associates, shall fail them, shall be absent [before them].

Say, to them: ‘Who provides for you, rain, out of the heaven, and, plants [out of], the earth, or Who owns hearing, meaning the ability to make hear, that is, the creation of this [faculty], and sight, and Who brings forth the living from the dead and brings forth the dead from the living, and Who directs affairs?’, between creatures? They will surely say, ‘It is He, God.’ Then say, to them: ‘Will you not then fear?’, Him, and believe?

That, Doer of all these things, then is God, your true, established, Lord: so what is there, after truth, except error? (the interrogative is meant as an affirmative, in other words, there is nothing after it [truth] other than that [error]; thus he who mistakes the truth, which is the worship of God, has fallen into error). How then are you turned away, from faith, despite the proofs having been established?

Thus, just as those are turned away from faith so, the Word of your Lord is justified concerning those who are wicked, [those who] disbelieve, and this [Word] is [either] the verse, [Q. 32:13]‘Verily I shall fill Hell [with jinn and mankind, together]’, or it is [the following:] that they do not believe.

Say: ‘Is there of those whom you associate [with God] one that originates creation, then recreated it?’ Say: ‘God originates creation, then recreates it. How then are you deviated?’, turned away from worshipping Him, despite proof having been established.

Say: ‘Is there of those whom you associate [with God] one that guides to the truth?’, by [means of] setting up [definitive] arguments and creating guidance. Say: ‘God guides to the truth; is One Who guides to the truth — and this is God — more deserving of being followed, or one who does not guide, [one who] is not [himself] guided, unless he is guided?, more deserving of being followed? (the interrogative is meant as an affirmation and a rebuke, in other words, the former is more deserving). So what is wrong with you, how do you judge?’, [how do you make] this corrupt judgement, one where what does not deserve to be followed is followed?

And most of them, in worshipping idols, follow nothing but conjecture, since they imitate their fathers therein; truly conjecture avails nothing against truth, when what is sought is knowledge. Surely God is Knower of what they do, and will requite them for it.

And this Qur’ān is not such as could ever be produced, that is, [it could not be] a fabrication, [by anyone] besides God; but it is, revealed [as], a confirmation of what is before it, of Scriptures, and a detailing of the Book, a exposition of the rulings and other matters which God has prescribed — wherein is no doubt, no uncertainty — from the Lord of the Worlds (min rabbi’l-‘ālamīn is semantically connected to tasdīqa, ‘a confirmation’, or to an omitted unzila, ‘revealed’; a variant reading [for accusative tasdīqa] has the nominative tasdīqu and nominative tafsīlu, ‘a detailing’, [for the accusative tafsīla] by [reading] an implied huwa, ‘it is’).

Or do they say, ‘He has invented it’?, Muhammad (s) has invented it. Say: ‘Then bring a sūra like it, in terms of the clarity and the rhetorical excellence of its language, by way of invention, for you are eloquent speakers of Arabic like me; and call upon whom you can, for help in this [matter], besides God, that is, other than Him, if you are truthful’, in [saying] that this is an invention. But they were not able to do this.

God, exalted be He, says: Nay, but they denied that, the knowledge whereof they did not comprehend, that is, [they denied] the Qur’ān and did not reflected upon it; and whereof the interpretation, the consequence of the threats [made] therein, has not yet come to them. So, in the same [manner of] denial, those who were before them denied, their messengers. Behold then what was the consequence for the evildoers!, for denying the messengers, in other words, [behold] how their affair was concluded, by their being destroyed. In a similar manner, We shall destroy these [people].

And of them, that is, [of] the people of Mecca, are some who believe in it, God being aware of this in their case, and some who would never believe therein. And your Lord knows very well the corrupters: this is a threat for them.

If they deny you, then say, to them: ‘Unto me is my work, and to you your work, that is, for each there will be a [due] requital of his deeds; you are innocent of what I do, and I am innocent of what you do’: this was abrogated by the ‘sword’ verse [Q. 9:5].

And of them are some who listen to you, when you recite the Qur’ān. But will you make the deaf to hear — He likens them [the Meccan disbelievers] to these [the deaf] because they are not able to benefit from what is recited to them — even though, with their deafness, they do not understand?, [even though they do not] reflect?

And of them are some who look toward you. But will you guide the blind, even though they do not see? — He likens them [the Meccan disbelievers] to these [the blind] because they fail to be guided, nay, [they are] much worse [since God says]: It is not the eyes that are blind, but blind are the hearts within the breasts [Q. 22:46].

Verily God does not wrong mankind in any way, but mankind wrong themselves.

And on the day when He shall gather them, it is, as if they had not tarried, in this world, or in the grave, but an hour of the day, because of the terror of what they see (the comparative sentence is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the [third person] pronoun); recognising one another, knowing one another, upon their being resurrected, but thereafter the recognition ceases on account of the severity of the terrors (the [last] sentence is either an implied circumstantial qualifier or one connected to the adverbial qualifier [yawma, ‘on the day’]); those will verily have lost who denied the encounter with God, through resurrection, for they were not guided.

And whether (wa-immā: the nūn of the conditional particle in has been assimiliated with the extra mā) We show you something of that which We promise them, of chastisement, during your lifetime (the response to the conditional statement has been omitted, in other words [understand it as being] fa-dhāka, ‘then so shall it be’), or We take you [to Us], before punishing them, to Us they shall return, and God, moreover, is Witness, Aware, of what they do, in the way of their denials and disbelief, and so will chastise them with the severest punishment.

And for every community, of the communities [of this world], there is a messenger. And when their messenger comes, to them, and they deny him, judgement is passed between them justly, fairly, such that they are punished and the messenger, and all those who accepted his truthfulness, are delivered; and they are not wronged, by being punished for no crime: similarly, We shall deal with these [disbelievers of your community].

And they say: ‘When will this promise, of chastisement, come to pass, if you are truthful, about it?’

Say: ‘I have no power to, avert, hurt, from, myself, or to, bring, benefit, except as God might will, to give me power over: so how could I possess the power to bring about the chastisement? For every community there is an appointed time, a fixed period until they perish. When their time comes, they cannot put it off, they will not miss it, by a single hour, nor bring it forward, [nor] overtake it’.

Say: ‘Have you considered?, [Say] inform me: If His, God’s, chastisement comes upon you by night or day, what, part, is there of it, that is, [of] the chastisement, that the sinners, the idolaters, seek to hasten? (an overt noun [al-mujrimūn, ‘the sinners’] has replaced the [second person, ‘you’] pronominalisation. The interrogative sentence is the response to the conditional, as [in the case where] you might say, ‘If I come to you, what would you give me?’; the intention here is to provoke terror [in them], in other words: how awful is that which they seek to hasten!)

Is it [only] then, when it has come to pass, [when] it has befallen you, that you will believe therein?, that is, in God, or [it means] in the chastisement, when it has come down (the [use of] hamza [in a-thumma, ‘is it then’] is to deny [the possibility of] deferrment [of chastisement], in other words, it [your belief] will not be accepted from you [in that instance] and it will be said to you: Now, do you believe, when [until now] you have been hastening it on?’, in mockery [of it].

Then will it be said to those who were evildoers: ‘Taste the everlasting chastisement!, that is, the one in which you shall abide. Are you, you are not, requited for anything but, the requital of, what you used to earn?’

And they ask you to tell, to inform, them, ‘Is it true?’, that which you promise us in the way of chastisement and resurrection? Say: ‘Aye, indeed, by my Lord! Verily it is true and you cannot escape’, [you cannot] elude the chastisement.

And if each soul that has done wrong, [that] has disbelieved, had all that is in the earth, of riches, it would offer it as ransom, against chastisement on the Day of Resurrection; and they will feel remorse within them, for having neglected faith, when they see the chastisement, their leaders keep it [their remorse] secret from the weak ones whom they had led astray, fearing reproach, but it has been decided justly between them, [between] all creatures, and they are not wronged, in anything.

Why, surely to God belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth. Why, surely God’s promise, of resurrection and requital, is true, [is] fixed, but most of them, people, do not know, this.

He gives life and makes to die, and to Him you shall be returned, in the Hereafter, and He shall requite you for your deeds.

O people, that is, inhabitants of Mecca, there has come to you an admonition from your Lord, a Book which contains [mention] of that which is [permissible] for you and that which is enjoined on you, and this [Book] is the Qur’ān; and a healing, a cure, for what is in the breasts, of corrupt beliefs and uncertainties, and a guidance, from error, and a mercy for those who believe, in it.

Say: ‘In the bounty of God, [that is] Islam, and in His mercy, the Qur’ān, in that, bounty and mercy, let them rejoice: it is better than what they hoard’, in this world (read yajma‘ūn, ‘they hoard’, and tajma‘ūn, ‘you hoard’).

Say: ‘Have you considered, inform me, what provision God has revealed, has created, for you, how you have made some of it unlawful and some lawful?’, as in the case of [the camels called] al-Bahīra or al-Sā’iba, and carrion. Say: ‘Has God given you permission, to make that lawful or unlawful? No! Or do you, nay [you], invent lies concerning God?’, by attributing that to Him.

And what do they suppose, those who invent lies concerning God, [will happen to them] on the Day of Resurrection?: do they reckon that He will not chastise them? No! Truly God is Bountiful to mankind, by granting them respite and bestowing graces upon them, but most of them do not give thanks.

And you, O Muhammad (s), are not occupied with any business, any matter, nor do you recite anything regarding it, that is, regarding such a matter — [or it means: nor do you recite anything] from God, by way of the Qur’ān, which He has revealed to you, nor do you perform any action, God is addressing him and his community, but We are witnesses, watchers, over you when you are engaged therein, that is, [in] the action. And not so much as the weight of an atom, [the weight of] the smallest ant, in the earth or in the heaven escapes, is hidden from, your Lord, nor what is less than that or greater, but it is in a clear, a manifest, Book, namely, the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfūz).

Assuredly God’s friends, no fear shall befall them, neither shall they grieve, in the Hereafter.

They are, those who believe and fear, God, by observing His commandments and prohibitions.

Theirs are good tidings in the life of this world: in a hadīth verified by al-Hākim this has been explained as [referring to] a propitious vision which an individual might have or [a vision] which another might have of that person; and in the Hereafter: Paradise and reward. There is no changing the Words of God, no failing of His promises; that, mentioned, is the supreme triumph.