Maryam

Kāf hā yā ‘ayn sād: God knows best what He means by these [letters].

This is, a mention of your Lord’s mercy to His servant (‘abdahu, a direct object of rahma, ‘mercy’) Zachariah (an explication of it [the direct object]),

when (idh is semantically connected to rahma, ‘mercy’) he called out to his Lord a call, entailing a supplication, in secret, in the middle of the night, because this [time of the night] invites a faster response [to one’s supplication].

He said, ‘My Lord, truly the bones, all [the bones], within me have become feeble, weak, and my head is alight with grey hair (shayban, a specification derived from the subject of the verb in other words, hoariness has spread throughout his hairs just as a spark of fire spreads through firewood) and I wish to supplicate to you, and I have never been in my supplications to You, my Lord, unsuccessful, that is, [I have never been] disappointed, in the past, so do not disappoint me in what follows.

And truly I fear my kinsfolk, namely, those who will succeed me [as closest after me] in kinship, such as [my] paternal cousins, after me, that is, after my death, [I fear] for the religion, lest they forsake it, as You have witnessed in the case of the Children of Israel, in the way that they changed [their] religion, and my wife is barren, she does not conceive. So grant me from Yourself a successor, a son,

who may inherit from me (read yarithnī in apocopated form as a response to the imperative statement [fa-hab lī, ‘grant me’], or read yarithunī as an adjectival qualification of waliyyan, ‘a successor’) and inherit (also read in both ways [mentioned]), from the House of Jacob, my forefather, [inherit] knowledge and prophethood, and make him, my Lord, acceptable’, that is, pleasing to you.

God, exalted be He, in responding to his request for a son that will be the incarnation of His mercy, says: ‘O Zachariah! Indeed We give you good tidings of a boy, who will inherit in the way that you have requested — whose name is John. Never before have We made anyone his namesake’, that is, [never has there been] anyone with the name ‘John’.

He said, ‘My Lord, how shall I have a son when my wife is barren and I have reached infirm old age?’ (‘itiyyan, [derives] from [the verb] ‘atā, ‘it became withered’) in other words, [he had reached] extreme old age, 120 years; and his wife had reached the age of 98 (‘atiya in terms of its root derives from ‘utuwwun, but the tā’ is vowelled as -ti-, to soften it, the first wāw [vowel] is changed into a yā’ to be in harmony with the –ti- vowelling, while the second [wāw letter] is changed into a yā’ so that the [previous] yā’ can be assimilated with it).

He said, ‘It, the matter [in question], of creating a boy from both of you, shall be so! Your Lord says, “It is easy for Me, namely, to restore your sexual potency and tear open your wife’s womb [in preparation] for conception, for I certainly created you before when you were nothing”’, [you were nothing] before your created form became manifest. As God wished to manifest this great power, He inspired him [the form of] the question, in order for him to receive the response that will indicate it [this power]. And when his soul yearned for the prompt arrival of that whereof he had been given good tidings:

He said, ‘Lord, appoint for me some sign’, namely, some indication of my wife’s becoming pregnant. Said He, ‘Your sign, for this, is that you shall not speak to people, that is, that you [should] refrain from speaking to them, but not [from speaking] the remembrance of God, exalted be He, for three nights, that is, together with the days thereof, as [stated] in [sūrat] Āl ‘Imrān, ‘for three days’ [Q. 3:41], while [you are] in sound health’ (sawiyyan, a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of the verb tukallima, ‘you shall [not] speak’) in other words, despite there being no defect [in you].

So he emerged before his people from the sanctuary, that is, from the temple — they had been waiting for him to open it in order to perform [their] prayers therein after his command, as was the custom — and signalled, indicated, to them, ‘Make glorifications, perform prayers, at morning and evening’, at the beginning of the day and [at] its end, as per usual. He then realised, upon his being prevented from speaking to them, that she was pregnant with John.

And two years after his birth, God, exalted be He, said to him: ‘O John! Hold on to the Scripture, namely, the Torah, firmly’, earnestly. And We gave him judgement, prophethood, while still a child, a three-year old;

and compassion, a mercy for mankind, from Us, from Our presence, and purity, a charity for them, and he was God-fearing — it is related that he never committed a sin, nor contemplated [committing] one;

and dutiful to his parents, that is, virtuous towards them. And he was not arrogant or rebellious, disobedient to his Lord.

‘And peace, from Us, be upon him, the day he was born, and the day he dies, and the day he shall be raised alive!’, that is, [on] those fearful days in which he sees what he will never have seen before — in these he will be given security [from fear].

And mention in the Book, [in] the Qur’ān, Mary, that is, [mention] her tale, when she withdrew from her family to an easterly place, that is, [when] she secluded herself in a place on the east side of [her] home.

Thus she veiled herself from them, she draped herself in a veil to conceal herself while she washed her hair [from lice], or [washed] her clothes, or cleansed herself from her menses; whereupon We sent to her Our Spirit, Gabriel, and he assumed before her, after she donned her clothes, the likeness of a well-proportioned human, perfect in physical form.

She said, ‘Lo! I seek refuge in the Compassionate One from you! If you fear God’, and leave me alone on account of my invocation of refuge in God.

He said, ‘I am only a messenger of your Lord, that I may give you a boy [who shall be] pure’, in [his] prophethood.

She said, ‘How shall I have a boy when no human being has [ever] touched me, by way of conjugality, neither have I been unchaste?’, [neither have I been] a fornicator.

He said, ‘It, the matter in question, of creating a boy from you without a father, shall be so! Your Lord has said: “It is easy for Me, in other words, by Gabriel’s breathing into you, by My command, so that you become pregnant with him — since what has been mentioned is meant as a reason, the following [statement] is added as a supplement thereto: and so that We may make him a sign for mankind, of Our power, and a mercy from Us, to whoever believes in him. And it, the creation of him, is a thing [already] decreed”’, according to My knowledge. So Gabriel breathed into the opening of her shirt, whereupon she sensed the formed foetus in her womb.

Thus she conceived him and then withdrew, retreated, with him to a distant place, far from her family.

And the birth pangs, the pains of childbirth, brought her to the trunk of the palm-tree, that she may support herself against it, and then she gave birth: the conception, formation [of the foetus] and delivery [all] took place within one hour. She said, ‘O (yā is [used] to call attention [to something]) would that I had died before this, affair, and become a forgotten thing, beyond recall!’, a thing abandoned which no one knows or mentions.

Then he called her from below her, namely, Gabriel — for he was lower than her, ‘Do not grieve. Your Lord has made below you a rivulet, a river of water, which had dried up.

And shake the trunk of the palm-tree towards you, [a palm-tree] which had withered (the bi- [in bi-jidh‘i’l-nakhlati, ‘the trunk of the palm-tree] is extra) — there will drop (tusāqit, originally this is tatasāqat, but the second tā’ is changed into a sīn and is assimilated with the [second] sīn; a variant reading omits it [the second tā’] altogether) on you dates (rutaban, a specification) fresh and ripe (janiyyan, an adjectival qualification of it [of rutaban, ‘dates’]).

So eat, of the dates, and drink, from the rivulet, and [let] your eye be comforted, by the child (‘aynan, ‘[your] eye’, a specification derived from the subject of the verb, in other words [what is meant is] li-taqarra ‘aynuki bihi, ‘that your eye may be comforted by him’) that is, let it [your eye] be at peace and not covet any other than him; and if (immā: the nūn of the conditional particle in is here assimilated with the extra mā) you [happen to] see (tarayinna: the third consonantal root [the yā’] and the second [the hamza] have been omitted, with the [fatha] vowel therein transferred to the [first consonant] the letter rā’, and a kasra vowel applied to the yā’ of the [feminine] person, because of two unvowelled consonants coming together) any human being, and should he ask you about your child, then say, “I have vowed to the Compassionate One a fast, that is to say, an abstention from speaking of his affair and from [speaking to] any other humans — which is indicated by [the following statement]), so I will not speak to any human today”’, that is, after [saying] this.

Then, carrying him, she brought him to her folk (tahmiluhu, ‘carrying him’, a circumstantial qualifier), and they saw him, and they said, ‘O Mary, truly you have done a curious thing!, an astounding [thing], for you have begotten a son without [his having] a father.

O sister of Aaron — he was a righteous man, in other words [what is meant is], O you who are like him in [terms of] chastity — your father was not a wicked man, that is, a fornicator, nor was your mother unchaste’, that is, a fornicatress: so how is it that you have this child?

Thereat she pointed, them, to him, intimating [to them that they], ‘talk to him’. They said, ‘How can we talk to one who is, who happens to be, in the cradle, [still] a little child?’

He said, ‘Lo! I am God’s servant. He has given me the Scripture, namely, the Gospel, and made me a prophet.

And He has made me blessed wherever I may be, that is, [He has made me] of great benefit to mankind — [this is] a foretelling of what had been preordained for him — and He has enjoined upon me prayer and alms-giving, He has commanded me to [do] both of these, as long as I remain alive;

and [He has made me] dutiful towards my mother (barran, in the accusative because of the implicit [verb] ja‘alanī, ‘He has made me’). And He has not made me arrogant, haughty, wretched, disobedient to his Lord.

And peace, from God, be upon me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I shall be raised alive!’ — the same is being said about him as [was said above] regarding the lord John. God, exalted be He, says:

That is Jesus, son of Mary, a statement of truth (read qawlu’l-haqqi, as the predicate of an implied subject, in other words, ‘the statement of the son of Mary [is a statement of truth]’; or read qawla’l-haqqi, because of [it being the object of] an implied [verb] qultu, ‘I say’, meaning, ‘[I say] a statement of truth’) concerning which they are in doubt (yamtarūna, derives from [the infinitive] al-mirya) — they are the Christians, who say, ‘Indeed Jesus is the son of God’; [but] they lie.

It is not [befitting] for God to take to Himself a son. Glory be to Him — in affirmation of His being transcendent above [doing] such a thing. When He decrees a thing, that is, [when] He will for it to happen, He only says to it, ‘Be!’, and it is (read fa-yakūnu because of an implied [pronoun] huwa [sc. fa-huwa yakūnu]; or read fa-yakūna because of an implied an [sc. an yakūna]). An example of this is His creating Jesus without [his having had] a father.

And indeed God is my Lord and your Lord. So worship Him (read [the introductory particle] as anna, with an implicit [preceding] udhkur, ‘mention’; or read [it] as inna, with an implicit [preceding] qul, ‘say’, [a reading] indicated by [the fact that God says elsewhere] ‘I only said to them that which You commanded me: “Worship God, my Lord and your Lord” ’ [Q. 5:117]). This, that has been mentioned, is a straight path, a route leading to Paradise.

But the factions differed among themselves, that is to say, the Christians, [they differed] regarding Jesus: was he the son of God? A god alongside Him? Or [was he] the third of three [gods]? So woe — [meaning] severe punishment [will be meted out] — to those who disbelieve, [those who disbelieve] in the way mentioned and in other ways, at the scene of an awful Day, that is to say, [woe to them] when they are present at the Day of Resurrection and [witnessing] its terrors.

How hearing they are and seeing, they are (these two constructions [are used to] express ‘amazement’, meaning, ‘how well they [will] hear and how well they [will] see’) on the Day when they come to Us, in the Hereafter. Yet the evildoers (an example of a proper noun [‘evildoers’] replacing a third person pronominalisation) today, that is, in this world, are in manifest error, that is, [error] that is evident therein, having been deaf [unable] to listen to the truth and blind [unable] to see it. In other words, [the meaning is]: O you, the one being addressed, marvel at how [well] they will [be able to] hear and see in the Hereafter after they had been deaf and blind in this world.

And warn them, threaten, O Muhammad (s), the disbelievers of Mecca, of the Day of Regret, namely, the Day of Resurrection, on which the sinner will regret not having been virtuous in [the life of] this world, when the matter will be decided, for them thereupon, that they be chastised, while they, in this world, are [yet] heedless, of it, and do not believe, in it [the Day of Resurrection].

Indeed We (innā nahnu, [a repetition of the first person] for emphasis), shall inherit the earth and all who are on it, of rational beings and others, by destroying them, and to Us they shall be returned, thereon [on the Day of Resurrection] for requital.

And mention, to them, in the Book Abraham, that is, [mention] his tale. Indeed he was a truthful one ([the intensive form siddīq] means ‘extremely truthful’), a prophet (the following [statement] substitutes for the [preceding] predicate).

When he said to his father, Āzar, ‘O my father! (the [final] tā’ here [of abati] has replaced the [possessive] yā’ of [genitive] annexation [sc. of yā abī]; the two, however, are never used together) — he [Abraham’s father] used to worship idols. Why do you worship that which neither hears nor sees, and is of no avail to you, suffices you [not], in any way? whether in [terms of] benefit or harm.

O my father! Indeed there has come to me of knowledge that which has not come to you. So follow me that I may guide you to a path, a route, that is right, [that is] straight.

O my father! Do not worship Satan, by obeying him through [your] worship of idols. Truly Satan is disobedient ([the intensive form‘asiyyan] means ‘one given to disobedience’) to the Compassionate One.

O my father! I do fear lest a chastisement from the Compassionate One should befall you, if you do not repent, and then you become an ally of Satan, an assistant and a comrade [of his] in the Fire.

He said, ‘Are you renouncing my gods, O Abraham?, so that you are denouncing them [in this way]? If you do not desist, from criticising them, I shall surely assail you, with stones, or with evil words, so beware of me; and stay away from me for a long time’.

He said, ‘Peace be to you, from me — in other words, I shall not cause you any harm. I shall ask forgiveness of my Lord for you. Truly He is ever gracious to me (hafiyyan, from hafiyyun, meaning bārrun, ‘kind’) answering my prayers. And indeed he [Abraham] fulfilled his above-mentioned promise [as described] in [sūrat] al-Shu‘arā’, And forgive my father [Q. 26:86]; but this was before it became clear to him that he [Abraham’s father] was an enemy of God, as mentioned in [sūrat] Barā’a [Q. 9:114].

And I shall shun you and that which you call upon, [that which] you worship, besides God. I will supplicate, I will worship, my Lord — hopefully in calling upon, in worshipping, my Lord I shall not be wretched’, as you have become wretched by your worship of idols.

And so after he had shunned them and that which they worshipped besides God, by having set off to the Holy Land, We gave him, two sons for him to find solace in, Isaac and Jacob, and each, of the two, We made a prophet.

And We gave them, all three [of them], out of Our mercy, wealth and offspring, and We assigned for them a worthy repute [one] that is lofty, sublime, namely, [We assigned] fair praise [of them] among all the members of the [Abrahamic] religions.

And mention in the Book Moses. Indeed he was devoted [to God] (read either as mukhlisan, to mean ‘one sincerely devoted to worship [of God]’; or read mukhlasan, [to mean ‘he was delivered’] as in God had delivered him from defilement) and he was a messenger, a prophet.

And We called him — with the words, ‘O Moses! Verily I am God’ [Q. 27:9] — from the right side of the Mount (al-Tūr, is [actually] the name of a mountain) that is, [from the side] to the right of Moses as he was approaching [the Mount] from Midian; and We brought him near in communion, as God, exalted be He, made him hear His speech.

And We gave him out of Our mercy, Our grace, his brother Aaron (Hārūn, either a substitution [for akhāhu, ‘his brother’], or an explicative supplement [thereof]), [likewise] a prophet (nabiyyan, a circumstantial qualifier, constituting the import of the ‘gift’ [to Moses], which was in response to his [Moses’s] request that He [God] send forth his brother with him; he [Aaron] was older in years than him).

And mention in the Book Ishmael. Indeed he was true to his promise — he never promised anything which he did not fulfil; he [once] waited for three days for someone whom he had promised [to meet]; or [it is said that he waited] an entire year until that person [finally] returned to the place in which he [Ishamel] was [supposed to have met the former]; and he was a messenger, to [the tribe of] Jurhum, a prophet [likewise].

He used to enjoin upon his kinsfolk, that is, his people, prayer and the [payment of] alms, and he was pleasing to his Lord (mardiyyan, ‘pleasing’, is actually marduwwun, but both wāw letters have been changed to two yā’ letters, while the kasra vowel [has also been changed to] a damma vowel).

And mention in the Book Idrīs, who was Noah’s great-grandfather. Indeed he was a truthful one, a prophet.

And We raised him to a high station — he is alive in the fourth, or sixth, or seventh heaven, or [he is] in Paradise into which he was admitted after he was made to experience death and brought back to life, and he has not exited therefrom.

Those (ūlā’ika is the subject) to whom God has been gracious (alladhīna an‘ama’Llāhu ‘alayhim is an adjectival qualification of it [of the subject]) from among the prophets (mina’l-nabīyyīna, an explication of it [of the subject] functioning like an adjectival qualification in terms of import. That which follows it [mina’l-nabīyyīna, ‘from among the prophets’] up to [where] the conditional sentence begins, constitutes an adjectival qualification of al-nabīyyīna, ‘the prophets’; and so His saying … ) of the seed of Adam, namely, Idrīs, and of those whom We carried with Noah, in the Ark, namely, Abraham — [who is the] son of his [Noah’s] son Shem (Sām) — and of the seed of Abraham, namely, Ishmael, Isaac and Jacob, and, of the seed of, Israel — who is Jacob — namely, Moses, Aaron, Zachariah, John and Jesus, and from among those whom We guided and chose, that is to say, from among their number (the predicate of ūlā’ika, ‘those’, is [the following, idhā tutlā …]) when the signs of the Compassionate One were recited to them, they would fall down prostrating and weeping (these [sujjadan and bukīyyan] constitute the plural [forms] of sājid, ‘prostrate’, and bākin, ‘weeping’ [respectively]) in other words [what is meant is]: be [you] like them (bukiyyun is originally [formed from] bakūyyin, but the wāw is changed into a yā’ and the damma vowel into a kasra).

But there succeeded after them a posterity who neglected the prayer, by abandoning [performance of] it, [a posterity] such as the Jews and the Christians, and followed [their] lusts, in the way of acts of disobedience. So they shall [soon] encounter Ghayy — a valley in Hell — that is, they shall fall into it;

whereas those who repent and believe and act righteously — such shall enter Paradise and shall not be wronged, they shall [not] be diminished, in any way, in their reward;

[they shall enter] Gardens of Eden, as [a place of] residence (jannāti ‘Adnin, substitutes for al-janna, ‘Paradise’) which the Compassionate One has promised to His servants [a promise] in the Unseen (bi’l-ghaybi, a circumstantial qualifier, in other words [a promise made while] they do not see it). Indeed His promise, that is to say, that which He promises, is ever fulfilled, meaning that it always arrives (the original [form of ma’tiyyan] is ma’tūyun); or [what is meant by] His promise here is Paradise, to which those deserving of it shall arrive.

Therein they shall not hear anything that is trifling, of talk, but, they shall hear, only [a greeting of] ‘Peace!’, from the angels to them, or from some among them to others. And therein they will have their provision morning and evening, in other words, according to the [equivalent] measure of these two in the [life of this] world, since there is no day or night in Paradise, only everlasting light and illumination.

That is the Paradise which We shall give as inheritance, [which] We shall grant and [in which] We shall lodge, those of Our servants who are God-fearing, through [their] obedience of Him.

When the Revelation did not come for a number of days, the Prophet (s) said to Gabriel, ‘What prevents you from visiting us more often than you do?’ and so the following was revealed: And We do not descend except by the commandment of your Lord. To Him belongs all that is before us, namely, ahead of us, of the affairs of the Hereafter, and all that is behind us, of the affairs of this world, and all that is between those [two], namely, all that takes place from this [point in] time until the coming of the Hour, in other words, to Him belongs knowledge of all of those things. And your Lord is never forgetful, meaning that He is never neglectful of you [even] when the Revelation is postponed from [being sent to] you.

He is, the Lord, the Owner, of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them. So worship Him and be steadfast in His worship, in other words, [continue to] perform it patiently. Do you know [of] anyone who could be His namesake? , [anyone] named with that [same title]? No!

And man, the denier of the Resurrection — namely, Ubayy b. Khalaf or al-Walīd b. al-Mughīra, concerning whom the verse was revealed — says, ‘When (read a-idha, either pronouncing the second hamza, or not, but inserting an alif between the two [hamzas] in both [readings]) I am dead, shall I then be brought forth alive?’, from the grave, as Muhammad (s) says? (the interrogative [here] statement is meant as a denial, in other words [he means to say] I shall not be brought forth alive after death; mā [of mā mittu, ‘I am dead’] is extra, for emphasis, likewise [extra is] the lām [of la-sawfa, ‘shall I then’]). He [God] then responds to him with the following saying [of His], exalted be He:

Does not man then remember (yadhdhakaru, is actually yatadhakkaru, but the tā’ has been changed to a dhāl and assimilated with the [other] dhāl; a variant reading leaves it as yadhkuru) that We created him before, when he was nothing?, and thus infer from the first act [of creation] the [possibility of] resurrection.

For by your Lord, We will surely gather them, namely, the deniers of the Resurrection, and the devils, that is to say, We shall gather every one of them with his devil [bound together] in a chain; then We shall bring them around Hell, [around] the outside of it, crouching, on their knees ([jithiyyan is] the plural of jāthin, and is originally [formed as] jathawuwwin or jathawiyyun [deriving] from [the verb] jathā, [imperfect tense] yajthu or yajthī, two [variant] forms).

Then We shall pluck out from every party, every sect, whichever of them was most hardened in disdain, in insolence, of the Compassionate One.

Then indeed We shall know best those most deserving of it, most worthy of [being in] Hell, the most hardened of them and others [like them], for the burning, for the admission [into it] and the scorching [therein], and We shall start with them ([siliyyan is] originally [formed as] salawiyyun, from [the verb] saliya or salaya).

There is not one of you but shall come to it, that is, [but] shall enter Hell. That is an inevitability [already] decreed by your Lord, [something which] He made inevitable and [which] He decreed; He will not waive it.

Then We will deliver (read nunajjī or nunjī) those who were wary, of [committing] idolatry or disbelief, [We will deliver them] from it, and leave those who did wrong, by way of idolatry and disbelief, crouching therein, on their knees.