Al-Hajj

O mankind, that is, the inhabitants of Mecca and others: fear your Lord, that is, of His punishment, by being obedient to Him. Surely the earthquake of the Hour [of Doom], that is, the violent quaking of the earth after which the sun will rise from the west, [something] which will be near [the time of] the Hour, is a tremendous thing, in the way it will distress people — this itself being a sort of punishment.

On the day when you behold it, every, actually, nursing female, on account of this [tremendous day], will neglect her suckling, that is, she will forget it; and every pregnant female will deliver her burden, and you will see mankind [as though] drunk, because of the severity of [their] fear, yet they will not be drunk, because of any drink; but God’s chastisement is severe, and so they will be terrified of it.

The following was revealed regarding al-Nadr b. al-Hārith and his companions: And among mankind are those who dispute about God without any knowledge — they would say, ‘The angels are God’s daughters, and the Qur’ān [a collection of] the fables of the ancients’. In addition, they would deny resurrection and the bringing back to life of those who had become dust — and [those who] follow, in their manner of disputing, every rebellious devil,

about whom it has been decreed, in other words, it has been decreed with regards to a devil, that whoever takes him for a friend, that is, [whoever] follows him, he will make him go astray and will lead him, summon him, to the chastisement of the Blaze, namely, to the Fire.

O mankind, in other words, [O] people of Mecca, if you are in doubt about the Resurrection, then lo! [consider that] We have created you, that is, [We have created] your origin — Adam — from dust then, We created his progeny, from a drop, a sperm-drop, then from a clot, congealed blood, then from a [little] lump of flesh (mudgha), a piece of flesh, the size of what one would [be able to] chew (mā yumdagh), partly formed, shaped, complete in form, and partly unformed, that is, uncomplete in form, that We may make clear to you, the perfect nature of Our power, that you might [then] infer from this initial act of creation, the [reality of its future] restoration. And We establish (nuqirru, marks a new [grammatically independent] sentence) in the wombs whatever We will for a specified time, that is, until the time for it to come out, then We bring you forth, from the bellies of your mothers, as infants, and then, We extend your life, that you may come of age (ashuddakum), that is to say, [your] prime and strength, which is [that age] between thirty and forty years. And there are some of you who are taken away, by death, before coming of age, and there are some of you who are relegated to the most abject time of life, its most despicable [state] of decrepitude and senility, so that after [having had] some knowledge, he no longer knows anything — ‘Ikrima said, ‘Whoever recites the Qur’ān, such a state will not befall him’. And you see the earth torpid, barren, yet when We send down water upon it, it stirs, it moves, and swells, it rises and grows, and grows [plants of] (anbatat min, min is extra) every delightful, fair, kind, species.

That, which is mentioned, from the commencement of man’s creation to the end of [the description of] the earth being revived, is because God, He is the Truth, the Constant, the Permanent, and because He revives the dead and has power over all things;

and because the Hour will come, whereof there is no doubt, uncertainty; and because God will resurrect those who are in the graves.

The following was revealed regarding Abū Jahl: And among mankind there are some who dispute about God without [any] knowledge or guidance, [being] with him, or an enlightening Scripture, one containing light, [being] with him,

turning aside (thāniya ‘itfihi, a circumstantial qualifier, meaning ‘turning his neck aside in disdain of belief; al-ītf means ‘a side’, and can be either the left or the right) to go astray (read li-yadilla; or li-yudilla, ‘to lead [others] astray’) from the way of God, that is, [from] His religion. For him there will be ignominy, chastisement, in this world — thus he [Abū Jahl] was slain on the day of Badr — and on the Day of Resurrection We shall make him taste the chastisement of the burning, that is, [the chastisement of] being burnt in the Fire, and it shall be said to him:

‘That is [the chastisement] for what your hands have sent ahead, in other words, what you have offered [in the way of deeds] — He refers to him with reference to the two [hands] as opposed to other [parts], because most actions are effected through them — and because God is not unjust to His servants’, chastising them without [their having committed] any sin.

And among mankind there are those who worship God on a knife-edge: that is, with uncertainty in his worship — such [a person] has been likened the [knife-] edge of a mountain in his precariousness — if good [fortune] befalls him, [so that he enjoys] health and security with respect to his own self and his property, he is reassured by it; but if an ordeal befalls him, a trial or ill-health with regard to himself or his property, he makes a turnabout, that is, he reverts to disbelief, losing both this world, when what he had hoped for in it has eluded him, and the Hereafter, by [his] disbelief. That is the manifest loss.

He calls on, he worships, besides God, in the way of idols, that which could not hurt him, should he refrain from worshipping it, and that which could not profit him, if were to worship it. Such, a call, is extreme error, from the truth.

He calls on him (the lām [of la-man] is extra) whose harm, when worshipped, is likelier than his benefit, even if he were to have any benefit, as he imagines [him to have]. Truly an evil patron, is he, that is, [an evil] helper, and an evil friend, [an evil] companion is he. After the mention of ‘the doubter’ and [his being in manifest] ‘loss’ [above, verse 11] there follows [the mention of] the believers and [their] reward, as follows:

Truly God shall admit those who believe and perform righteous deeds, in the way of obligatory and supererogatory acts [of worship], into gardens underneath which rivers flow. Indeed God does whatever He desires, in the way of showing beneficence to those who obey Him and degrading those who disobey Him.

Whoever supposes that God will not help him, namely, Muhammad (s) His Prophet, in this world and the Hereafter, let him extend a rope to the ceiling, [to] the roof of his house, fixing it there and [tying it] to his neck, and let him hang himself, that is, let him choke to death because of it, by severing his soul from [any existence on] the earth, as [reported] in the [various] Sahīh compilations. Then let him see whether his strategy, against the Prophet being helped, dispels that which enrages him, about it. In other words, let him choke to death with rage because of it, for it is inevitable.

So, just as We revealed the previous verse, We revealed it, that is, the remainder of the Qur’ān, as clear signs, manifest [signs] (bayyināt, ‘clear signs’, is a circumstantial qualifier) and indeed God guides whomever He desires, that he be guided (wa-anna’Llāha yahdī man yurīdu, a supplement to the [suffixed pronoun] hā’, ‘it’, of anzalnāhu, ‘We revealed it’).

Truly those who believe, and those of Jewry, namely, the Jews, and the Sabaeans, a sect from among them, and the Christians, and the Magians and the polytheists — God will indeed judge between them on the Day of Resurrection, by admitting the believers into Paradise, and all others into the Fire. Assuredly God, over all things, [the things] which they do, is Witness, Knowing them a knowledge of direct vision (‘ilm mushāhada).

Have you not seen, [have you not] realised, that to God prostrate whoever is in the heavens and whoever is in the earth, together with the sun and the moon, and the stars and the mountains, and the trees and the animals, that is, how they are submissive to Him in what He wills of them, as well as many of mankind?, namely, the believers, [who prostrate to Him] in addition to their submissiveness [to Him] when prostrating in prayer. And for many the chastisement has become due, and these are the disbelievers, for they refuse to prostrate, [an action] which is contingent on belief. And he whom God abases, [he whom] He makes unprosperous, there is none to give him honour, [none] to make him fortunate. Indeed God does whatever He will, in the way of abasing or giving honour.

These twain are two contenders, that is, the believers constitute one contending party, and the five [categories of] disbelievers constitute the other contending party (the term [khasm, ‘contender’] may be used to refer to one or many) who contend concerning their Lord, that is to say, concerning His religion. As for those who disbelieve, garments of fire will be cut out for them, [garments] which they will wear — meaning that the Fire will encompass them — and boiling water will be poured over their heads, [hamīm is] water that has reached an extreme temperature,

whereby will be melted that which is in their bellies, of fats and otherwise, and, whereby will be grilled, their skins.

And there will be hooked rods of iron for them, for their heads to be beaten with.

Whenever they desire to exit from it, that is, [from] the Fire, on account of [their] anguish, they are made to return into it, they are driven back into it with the hooked rods, and, it shall be said to them: ‘Taste the chastisement of the burning!’, namely, the one that has reached ultimate [degree of] combustion.

And He [God] says of the believers: Indeed God shall admit those who believe and perform righteous deeds into gardens underneath which rivers flow; adorned therein with bracelets of gold and pearl (read wa-lu’lu’in, genitive, to mean [bracelets] made of both [elements], so that the pearls are set in gold; or read wa-lu’lu’an, accusative, as a supplement to the [syntactical] locus of min asāwira, ‘bracelets’); and their raiment therein will be silk, namely, the one forbidden for men to wear in this world.

And they shall be guided, in this world, to wholesome words, namely, ‘There is no god except God’, and they shall be guided to the path of the Praised, that is, to the praiseworthy way of God and His religion.

Truly those who disbelieve, and who bar from the way of God, [from] obedience to Him, and, from, the Sacred Mosque, which We have assigned, as a [holy] rite and a place of devotion, for mankind, equally for the dweller, the one who resides, therein and the visitor, the passer-by; and whoever seeks [to commit] sacrilege therein (the bā’ [of bi-ilhādin, ‘sacrilege’] is extra) by doing wrong, in other words, for such a reason, committing what is forbidden, even if he should curse the [Mosque’s] attendant, We shall make him taste a painful chastisement, that is, some such [chastisement] (from this [last clause] one may derive the predicate of [the introductory particle] inna, ‘truly’, and it is this: ‘We shall make them taste a painful chastisement’.

And, mention, when We settled, [when] We pointed out, for Abraham the site of the House, that he may build it — for it [the House] had been raised [to heaven] at the time of the Flood — and We commanded him, [saying]: ‘Do not ascribe any partner to Me and purify My House, of graven images, for those who circumambulate it and those who are resident, staying therein, and those who bow and prostrate ([al-rukka‘ and al-sujūd] are the plural forms of rāki‘ and sājid [respectively]), those praying.

And announce, call out, among the people the [season for] Pilgrimage. Thus he cried out from [the top of] the mountain of Abū Qubays, ‘O people, your Lord has built a House and has made pilgrimage to it an obligation upon you, so respond to [the call of] your Lord’, turning his face to the right and to the left, to the east and to the west; and every one of those for whom the performance of the pilgrimage had been preordained [by God] from among the loins of men and the wombs of women, responded to him [thus]: ‘At Your service, our Lord, [we are] at Your service’ (labbayka’Llāhumma labbayk). The response to the command [clause] is [the following]: and they shall come to you on foot, walking (rijāl, plural of rājil, similar [in pattern] to qā’im, ‘standing’, and [its plural] qiyām) and, riding, on every lean camel, that is, [on] every emaciated camel (dāmir, [this term] may be used to refer to both male and female [camels]). They shall come, that is, the lean camels (by grammatical agreement with the [feminine verb] form) from every deep ravine, [from every] distant route,

that they may witness, that they may be present before, things that are of benefit to them, in this world, such as commerce, or [of benefit] in the Hereafter, or in both — all [of which are [valid alternative] opinions — and mention God’s Name on appointed days, namely, the ten days of Dhū’l-Hijja, or the Day of ‘Arafa, or from the Day of Immolation up to the last days of tashrīq — all of which are [valid alternative] opinions — over the livestock which He has provided them, such as the camels, cows and sheep immolated on the Day of the ‘Īd, and any subsequent offerings or sacrifices. “So eat thereof, if it be recommended, and feed the wretched poor”, that is, the one in dire poverty.

Then let them do away with their self-neglect, that is to say, [let them] remove any dirt or unkemptness, such as [any] long fingernails, and let them fulfil (read wa’l-yūfū or wa’l-yuwaffū) their vows, in the way of offerings and sacrifices, and perform the circumambulation, the circumambulation following the egress [from ‘Arafa], of the Ancient House’, that is, the Old one, because it was the first House founded for mankind.

[That is] that (dhālika, the predicate of an implied subject, in other words: ‘the matter’ or ‘the affair’ is ‘that which has been mentioned’). And whoever venerates the sacraments of God, namely, those things whose violation is forbidden, that, veneration of them, shall be better for him with his Lord, in the Hereafter. And cattle are lawful for you, to consume, after [their] slaughter, except for that which has been recited to you, as being unlawful, in [the verse]: Forbidden to you is carrion … [Q. 5:3]. The exceptive clause [above] is a discontinuous one; but it could also be [taken as] continuous, so that the prohibition is of that which has died and so on. So avoid the abomination of idols (mina’l-awthān: min here is explicative [as opposed to partitive], in other words, ‘[avoid abomination], namely, idols’), and avoid false speech, that is to say, ascribing partners to God in your [uttering of the] talbiya, or [avoid] bearing false witness;

being hanīfs to God, [being] of those who have submitted [to God], inclining away from every religion except His religion, not ascribing partners to Him (this [clause] emphasises the preceding one, both [clauses] being circumstantial qualifiers referring to the [third person plural indicator] wāw [of ijtanibū, ‘avoid’]). For whoever ascribes partners to God, it is as though he had fallen from the heaven and been snatched away by [vulture] birds, that is, [as though] they had seized him swiftly, or [as though] the wind had blown him, dropped him, into a far-off place, so that there is no hope of his being saved.

That (dhālika, an implied subject, al-amru, ‘the matter [is]’, is taken to precede this [predicate]). And whoever venerates the sacraments of God, then that, in other words, then that veneration of them — namely, [of] the beasts of sacrifice offered in the Sanctuary, after the best of them have been selected and fattened — derives from the piety of the hearts, of those individuals. These [sacraments] are called sha‘ā’ir because they are marked out [ish‘ār] with something to indicate that they are offerings, such as having a hump pierced with a piece of metal.

You may benefit from them, such as riding on them and carrying your loads on them in a way that does not harm them, until a specified time, the time for its immolation. Thereafter its lawful sacrifice, that is, the site where its immolation becomes due, is by the Ancient House, meaning, the entire [Meccan] Sanctuary.

And for every community, that is, [for every] believing group that came before you, We have appointed a [holy] rite (read mansakan as the verbal noun [‘ritual’], or mansikan as a noun denoting the site [for a rite]) in other words, [for every community We have appointed] a sacrificial slaughter or the site for such [a ritual], that they might mention God’s Name over the livestock that He has provided them, at the point of slaughtering them. For your God is One God, so submit, yield, to Him. And give good tidings to the humbly obedient,

who, when God is mentioned, their hearts tremble, fear, and who endure [patiently] whatever may befall them, of ordeals, and who observe prayer, at its appointed times, and who, from that which We have provided them, expend, [from it] give voluntary alms.

And [as for] the sacrificial camels (al-budn, plural of badana, which are ‘camels’) — We have appointed them for you as one of God’s sacraments, the [ritual] ceremonies of His religion. There is good for you in them, benefit for you in this world, as already mentioned, and a reward in the Hereafter. So mention God’s Name over them, at the point of immolating them, when they are lined up, standing on three legs, with the left foreleg hobbled. Then, when their flanks have collapsed, fallen to the ground after immolation — which is the time when one may eat of them — eat of them, if you wish, and feed the [self-contained] beggar (al-qāni‘, [a beggar] who is content with what he is given, neither asking nor approaching [people]) and the suppliant (al-mu‘tarr, [a beggar] who asks [for charity] or approaches [people for that purpose]). So, that is, similar to such a disposal, We have disposed them for you, that it may be immolated or ridden — for otherwise it would not have been possible — that perhaps you might be thankful, for My graces to you.

Neither their flesh nor their blood shall reach God, that is, neither of these shall be raised up to Him; rather it is your piety that shall reach Him, that is, it is your righteous action, performed purely for Him, together with [your] faith, that shall be raised up to Him. Thus has He disposed them for you, that you may magnify God for His guiding you, for His pointing out to you the [ritual] ceremonies of His religion and the rites of His pilgrimage. And give good tidings to the virtuous, namely, those who affirm the Oneness [of God].

Indeed God protects those who believe, against the [ruinous] misguidance of idolaters. Indeed God does not love the treacherous, with regard to what is entrusted to him, the ungrateful, for His grace — these are the idolaters —in other words, He will punish them.

Permission is granted to those who fight, namely, to the believers, to fight back — this was the first verse to be revealed regarding the struggle [in the way of God] (jihād), because they have been wronged, as a result of the wrong done to them by the disbelievers. And God is truly able to help them;

they are, those who were expelled from their homes without right, for their expulsion; they were expelled, only because they said, that is, because of their saying: ‘Our Lord is God’, alone: such a saying is ‘right’, and so then to be expelled for [saying] it is to be expelled without right. Were it not for God’s causing some people (ba‘dahum, ‘some’, substitutes for al-nāsa, ‘people’) to drive back others, destruction would have befallen (read la-huddimat to emphasise a great number [of destructions]; or read la-hudimat) the monasteries, (sawāmi‘) is for monks, and churches, (kanā’is) are for Christians, and synagogues, (salawāt) is the Hebrew term for Jewish houses of worship (kanā’is), and mosques, (masājid) are for Muslims, in which, that is, in which mentioned places, God’s Name is mentioned greatly, and with such destruction acts of worship cease. Assuredly God will help those who help Him, that is, [who] help His religion. God is truly Strong, overpowering His creation, Mighty, Invincible in terms of His dominion and power;

those who, if We empower them in the land, by granting them victory over their enemies, maintain the prayer, and pay the alms, and enjoin decency and forbid indecency (this [last] is the response to the conditional clause, which together with the response constitute a relative clause of the relative noun [‘those who’]; hum, ‘they [are]’, may be taken as the implied subject before this). And with God rests the outcome of all matters, in other words, to Him these [matters] return in the Hereafter.

And if they deny you — these [words] to the end [of the statement] are meant to comfort the Prophet (s) — the people of Noah denied before them (kadhdhabat, in the feminine person on the basis of the [overall] import), and ‘Ād, the people of Hūd, and Thamūd, the people of Sālih,

as well as the people of Abraham, and the people of Lot,

and the inhabitants of Midian, the people of Shu‘ayb, and Moses was also denied: he was denied by the [native] Egyptians (al-qibt), and not by his people, the Children of Israel. In other words, [all of] those [people] denied their messengers, so take them [these messengers] as a good example [of constancy]. And I granted the disbelievers respite, I postponed [dealing with] them by deferring their requital, then I seized them, with chastisement, and how [terrible] was My abhorrence! (nakīr), that is to say, My rebuke (inkār) of them for their denial, by My destroying them (the interrogative is meant as an affirmative, in other words,: it [My chastisement] was well-placed).

How many a town I have destroyed (ahlaktuhā, a variant reading has ahlaknāhā, ‘We have destroyed’), while it was doing wrong, that is, while its inhabitants were [doing wrong] by being disbelievers, but now it lies fallen down, collapsed, on its roofs and, how many, a neglected well, abandoned because of the death of its owners, and a lofty palace, stands empty because of the death of its residents.

Have they, namely, the disbelievers of Mecca, not travelled in the land so that they may have hearts with which to comprehend, what befell deniers before them, or ears with which to hear?, the stories of how they were destroyed and their dwelling-places were ruined, and so take heed? Indeed it is not the eyes that turn blind, but it is the hearts that turn blind within the breasts (allatī fī’l-sudūr, for emphasis).

And they ask you to hasten the chastisement, even though God would never break His promise, of sending down the chastisement [upon them] — and so He sent it down on the day of Badr. And truly a day with your Lord, of the days of the Hereafter, on account of the [severity of the] chastisement, is like a thousand years of your counting (read ta‘uddūna, or ya‘uddūna, ‘their counting’), in this world.

To how many a town did I give respite while it was doing wrong; [but] then I seized it, meaning, [I seized] its inhabitants, and with Me lies the journey’s end, the [final] return.

Say: ‘O mankind, that is, [O] people of Mecca, I am only a manifest warner to you’, one whose warning is plain; but also I am a giver of good tidings to the believers.

And so those who believe and perform righteous deeds — for them there shall be forgiveness, of their sins, and a glorious provision, namely, Paradise.

But those who strive against Our signs, namely, the Qur’ān, in order to invalidate them, seeking to incapacitate (mu‘ajjizīna) those who follow the Prophet ([this meaning of mu‘ajjizīna] being derived from their assumption that these [followers] are incapable individuals) and impeding them from [practising their] faith; or [mu‘ajjizīna means] supposing Us to be incapable against them (a variant reading [of mu‘ajjizīna] has mu‘ājizīna, meaning, ‘contending with Us’) that is to say, they suppose that they will [be able to] elude Us by denying resurrection and requital — those, they shall be the inhabitants of hell-fire.

And We did not send before you any messenger (rasūl) — this is a prophet who has been commanded to deliver a Message — or prophet (nabī) — one who has not been commanded to deliver anything — but that when he recited [the scripture] Satan cast into his recitation, what is not from the Qur’ān, but which those to whom he [the prophet] had been sent would find pleasing. The Prophet (s) had, during an assembly of the [men of] Quraysh, after reciting the [following verses from] sūrat al-Najm, Have you considered Lāt and ‘Uzzā? And Manāt, the third one? [53:19-20] added, as a result of Satan casting them onto his tongue without his [the Prophet’s] being aware of it, [the following words]: ‘those are the high-flying cranes (al-gharānīq al-‘ulā) and indeed their intercession is to be hoped for’, and so they [the men of Quraysh] were thereby delighted. Gabriel, however, later informed him [the Prophet] of this that Satan had cast onto his tongue and he was grieved by it; but was [subsequently] comforted with this following verse that he might be reassured [of God’s pleasure]: thereat God abrogates, nullifies, whatever Satan had cast, then God confirms His revelations. And God is Knower, of Satan’s casting of that which has been mentioned, Wise, in His enabling him [Satan] to do such things, for He does whatever He will.

That He may make what Satan has cast a trial, a test, for those in whose hearts is a sickness, dissension and hypocrisy, and those whose hearts are hardened, namely, the idolaters, [hardened] against acceptance of the truth. For truly the evildoers, the disbelievers, are [steeped] in extreme defiance, [in] a protracted feud with the Prophet (s) and the believers, for his tongue uttered mention of their gods in a way that pleased them, and yet this was later nullified.

And that those who have been given knowledge, [of] God’s Oneness and the Qur’ān, may know that it, the Qur’ān, is the truth from your Lord, so that they may believe therein, and their hearts may find reassurance in it. And assuredly God guides those who believe to a straight path, [a straight] route, namely, the religion of Islam.

And those who disbelieve will not cease to be in doubt of it, that is, the Qur’ān — because of what Satan had cast onto the tongue of the Prophet (s) and what had thereafter been nullified — until the Hour comes upon them unawares, that is, the Hour of their death or [of] resurrection, [comes upon them] suddenly, or there come upon them the chastisement of a day of desolation (‘aqīm), namely, the day of Badr, which held nothing of good for disbelievers, much like a sterile wind (rīh ‘aqīm) that bears no good; or it means, the Day of Resurrection, [referred to as ‘desolate’] because thereafter there will be no more night.

Sovereignty on that day, namely, on the Day of Resurrection, will be God’s, alone (the [sense of God’s] ‘consolidation’ [of sovereignty on that Day] suggested by the clause renders the adverbial qualifier [yawma’idhin, ‘on that day’] into [accusative] dependent status). He will judge between them, between believers and disbelievers in the way that He explains next: Then those who believed and performed righteous deeds will be in Gardens of Bliss, as a bounty from God,

while those who disbelieved and denied Our signs, for them will be a humiliating chastisement, a severe [one], because of their disbelief.

And those who emigrated in the way of God, that is, in obedience to Him, from [emigrating from] Mecca to Medina, and then were slain, or died, God shall provide them with a good provision, namely, the provision of Paradise. Truly God is the best of providers, the most excellent of givers.

Assuredly He will admit them into a place (read mudkhalan or madkhalan, [respectively] signifying the means of entry, or the place [entered]) that is pleasing to them, and that is Paradise. And truly God is Knowing, of their intentions, Forbearing, in refraining from punishing them.

That, which We have related to you, [is so]. And whoever retaliates, [whoever] from among the believers requites, with the like of what he was made to suffer, at the hands of the idolaters wrongfully: that is whoever fights against them if they fight against him during the sacred month, and then is [again] made to suffer aggression, by them, that is to say, he is [again] wronged, by being expelled from his house, God will surely help him. Indeed God is Pardoning, to believers, Forgiving, them their engaging in combat during the sacred month.

That, help, is because God makes the night pass into the day and makes the day pass into the night, that is to say, He makes each enter into the other by increasing the one [and decreasing the other], which is a sign of His power, exalted be He, [the same power] that produces [His] help, and because God is Hearer, of the supplications of believers, Seer, of them, giving them faith and responding to their supplications.