Al-Mu'minun

Indeed (qad is for confirmation) prosperous, victorious, are the believers,

those who in their prayers are humble,

and who shun vain talk, and other [nonsense],

and who fulfil payment of alms,

and who guard their private parts, against what is unlawful,

except from their spouses, that is, to their spouses, and what [slaves] their right hands possess, that is, concubines, for then they are not blameworthy, in having sexual intercourse with them.

But whoever seeks [anything] beyond that, [intercourse with] wives and concubines, such as masturbation: those, they are transgressors, who have overstepped [the bounds] into what is not lawful for them.

And who are keepers of their trusts (may be read as plural, amānātihim, ‘their trusts’, or singular, amānatihim, ‘their trust’) and covenants, [made] between them, or between them and God, such as [the observance of] prayer and so on.

And who are watchful of their prayers (may be read as plural, salawātihim, ‘their prayers’, or singular, salātihim, ‘their prayer’) observing them at their appointed times.

Those, they are the inheritors, and none other than them,

who shall inherit Paradise (al-firdaws), the name of a garden, the highest of the gardens of Heaven — wherein they will abide; herein is an allusion to the Return [in the Hereafter] and so it is fitting that the Beginning [of creation] should be mentioned next:

And, by God, We certainly created man, Adam, from an extraction (min sulālatin, derives from [the verbal expression] salaltu’l-shay’a mina’l-shay’, ‘I drew one thing out of another’, meaning, ‘I extracted it therefrom’) his [Adam’s] substance being, of clay (min tīnin is semantically connected to sulālatin, ‘an extraction’).

Then We made him, namely, man, the progeny of Adam, a drop, a sperm-drop, in a secure lodging, which is the womb.

Then We transformed the drop [of semen] into a clot, congealed blood. Then We transformed the clot into a [little] lump of flesh (mudgha), a piece of flesh, about the size of what one would be able to chew (mā yumdagh). Then We transformed the lump of flesh into bones. Then We clothed the bones with flesh (a variant reading in both instances [instead of the plurals ‘izāman and al-‘izāma, ‘the bones’] is [singular] ‘azman [and ‘al-‘azma], ‘the bone’; and in all three instances above khalaqnā, means ‘We made it become’ [as opposed to ‘We created’]). Then We produced him as [yet] another creature, by breathing into him [Our] Spirit. So blessed be God, the best of creators!, that is, [the best of] determiners (the specificier noun for ahsana, ‘the best’, has been omitted because it is obvious: khalqan, ‘in terms of creation’).

Then indeed after that you die.

Then on the Day of Resurrection you shall surely be raised, for reckoning and requital.

And verily We created above you seven paths, that is, [seven] heavens (tarā’iq is the plural of tarīqa [so called] because they are the paths used by the angels) and of creation, that lies beneath these [paths], We are never unmindful, lest these should fall upon them and destroy them. Nay, but We hold them back, as [stated] in the verse: And He holds back the heaven lest it should fall upon the earth [Q. 22:65].

And We sent down water out of the heaven in measure, that suffices them, and We lodged it within the earth; and We are indeed able to take it away, so that they die of thirst together with their livestock.

Then We produced for you therewith gardens of date palms and vines — these being the most common fruits of the Arabs — wherein is abundant fruit for you, and whereof you eat, in summer and winter.

And, We produced, a tree that grows on Mount of Sinai (read Sīnā’ or Saynā’, indeclinable as it is a proper noun with the feminine ending denoting a location) that produces (read either as tunbitu from the fourth form [anbata], or as tanbutu from the trilateral form [nabata]) oil (bi’l-duhni: in the case of the former [reading of tunbitu] the bā’ [bi-] here would be extra, whereas in the case of the second [reading of tanbutu], it would be [a preposition needed] for the transitive) — and this [tree] is the olive tree, and seasoning for those who eat (wa-sibghin li’l-ākilīna, a supplement to bi’l-duhni, ‘oil’, [that is to say] it is [like] a dye that colours a morsel dipped in it) — and this [seasoning] is the [olive] oil.

And surely in the cattle, that is, [in] camels, cows and sheep, there is for you a lesson, an admonition for you to heed. We give you to drink (read nasqīkum or nusqīkum) of what is in their bellies, [of] milk, and you have many uses in them, such as [the extraction of] wool, fur and hairs and other [uses], and you eat of them.

And on them, the camels, and on ships you are carried.

And verily We sent Noah to his people, and he said, ‘O my people, worship God, obey God and affirm His Oneness. You have no [other] god besides Him (ghayruhu is the subject of mā, ‘no’; the preceding [min ilāhin, ‘god’] is the predicate, the min being extra). Will you not then fear?’ His punishment in worshipping [gods] other than Him?

But the council of his people, who disbelieved, said, to their followers, ‘This is just a human being like you who desires to gain superiority, to have the honour, over you, by acquiring followers, you being [his] followers. And had God willed, that none other than Him be worshipped, He would have sent down angels, with that [Message], and not [assigned] a human being [for it]. We never heard of such, an affirmation of God’s Oneness as that which Noah summons [us], among our forefathers, [among] past communities.

He, Noah, is just a man possessed by madness, a case of dementia. So bear with him for a while’, until he dies.

He, Noah, said, ‘My Lord, help me, against them, because they deny me’, because of their denial of me, by destroying them. God, exalted be He, says, responding to his supplication:

So We revealed to him [saying], ‘Build the Ark, the ship, under Our watch, under Our observation and protection, and [by] Our revelation, Our command. Then, when Our command comes, that they be destroyed, and the oven, of the baker, gushes, with water — and this was Noah’s sign — bring into it, admit into the ship, of every kind [of animal] two mates, a male and a female, that is, [two] of every species thereof (ithnayn is an object; min, ‘of’, is semantically connected to usluk, ‘bring into [it]’). According to the story God, exalted be He, gathered all the beasts of prey and the birds and other [animals] for Noah. As he [Noah] pushed forth his hands into each species, his right hand would fall upon a male and the left upon a female, whereafter he would take them on board the ship (a variant reading [for min kuli, ‘of every’] is min kullin, ‘of every [kind]’, in which case zawjayni, ‘[two] mates’, becomes a direct object, with ithnayn, ‘two’, [being repeated] for emphasis thereof); together with your family — his wife [?] and children — except for those against whom the Word has already gone forth, that they be destroyed, namely, his wife and his son Canaan (Kan‘ān), unlike Shem (Sām), Ham (Hām) and Japheth (Yāfith) whom, together with their three wives, he carried on board. In sūrat Hūd [the following is mentioned where Noah is told who he should carry in the ship]: ‘… and those who believe.’ And none believed with him except a few [Q. 11:40]. It is said that these were six men and their wives. Moreover it is said that all those who were on the ship numbered seventy eight, half of them were men and half were women. And do not plead with Me concerning those who have done wrong, those who have disbelieved, that I should refrain from destroying them. They shall indeed be drowned.

And when you have settled, [when] you are balanced, in the Ark together with those with you, say, “Praise be to God Who has delivered us from the wrongdoing folk”, [from] the disbelievers and the destruction that came upon them.

And say, upon disembarking from the ship: “My Lord, cause me to land with a landing (read munzalan as the verbal noun as well as the noun of place [for ‘landing’]; or manzilan as [meaning] the site of the landing) blessed, being that landing or place, for You are the best of all who bring to land” ’, that which has been mentioned.

Surely in that, mentioned matter of Noah, the ship and the destruction of the disbelievers, there are signs, indicators of God’s power, exalted be He, and indeed (wa-in, in has been softened in place of the hardened form, its subject being the pronoun of the matter) We were putting to the test, [indeed We were] trying the people of Noah by sending him [as God’s messenger] to them and [by] his admonitions [to them].

Then, after them, We brought forth another generation, [another] people, namely, and these were [the people of] ‘Ād.

And We sent among them a messenger of their own, namely, Hūd, saying, ‘Worship God! You have no other god besides Him. Will you not then be wary?’, of His punishment and become believers?

The council of his people, who disbelieved and denied the encounter of the Hereafter, [they denied] that they will end up thereat, and whom We had given affluence, whom We had provided with comforts, in the life of this world, said: ‘This is only a human being like you: he eats what you eat and drinks what you drink.

And, by God, if you obey a human being like yourselves (this [clause] contains both an oath and a conditional; the response belongs to the former [the oath], which [at the same time] suffices in place of a response for the latter [the conditional]) you will surely then, that is, should you obey them, be losers, you will have been duped.

Does he promise you that when you have died and become dust and bones, you shall be brought forth? (mukhrajūna, this is the predicate of the first annakum, ‘that … you’; the second annakum [simply] reiterates it because of the long separation [between the subject and its predicate]).

Far-fetched, far-fetched (hayhāt is a noun of action in the past tense, functioning as a verbal noun, meaning ba‘uda ba‘uda, ‘far from it, far from it!’) is what you are promised!, in the way of being brought forth from the graves (li-mā: the lām is extra, for explication).

There is nothing, that is, there is no life, but our life in this world: we die, and we live, [again only] through the lives of our offspring, and we shall not be raised [again].

He is, the Messenger is, just a man who has invented a lie against God, and we will not believe in him’, we will [not] accept the truth of resurrection after death.

He said, ‘My Lord, help me because they have denied me’.

He said, ‘In a little while, of time (‘ammā: the mā is extra), they will become remorseful’, about their disbelief and their denial.

So the Cry, the Cry of chastisement and destruction, seized them rightfully, and they died, and We made them as husks (ghuthā’ is desiccated vegetation, in other words, We transformed them into similarly desiccated [worthless] things). So a far removal, from mercy, for the evildoing folk, the denying [folk].

Then, after them, We brought forth other generations, [other] peoples.

No community can precede its term, by dying before it, nor be deferred, beyond it (the person [in the second verb yasta’khirūna, ‘be deferred’] is masculine, having been feminine [in the first verb tasbiqu, ‘precede’] because this [masculine plural] takes into account the [plural masculine] content [of the term ‘community’]).

Then sent We Our messengers successively (read tatran or tatrā: one following the other, with a long interval between every two). Whenever there came to a community (jā’a ummatan: read pronouncing both hamzas, or without pronouncing the second one between it and the wāw [vowel]) its messenger they denied him; so We made them follow one another, to destruction, and We turned them into folktales. So away with a people who do not believe!

Then We sent Moses and his brother Aaron with Our signs and a manifest warrant, a clear proof, namely, the hand, the staff and other signs,

to Pharaoh and his council; but they disdained, to believing in them and in God, and they were a tyrannical folk, subjugating the Children of Israel through oppression.

And they said, ‘Shall we believe two humans like ourselves, while their people are servile to us?’, obedient and submissive.

So they denied them [both] and became of those who were destroyed.

And verily We gave Moses the Scripture, the Torah, that perhaps they, his people, the Children of Israel, might be guided, thereby from error — he [Moses] was given it [the Scripture] after the destruction of Pharaoh and his folk all at once.

And We made the son of Mary, Jesus, and his mother a sign — He did not say ‘two signs’ because the same sign is in both of them: his being born without [his mother’s having] a male spouse. And We gave them refuge on a height (rabwa), a highland — in this case [either] the Holy House [of Jerusalem], Damascus or Palestine, all of which are [alternative] opinions — level (dhāt qarār), an flat [high-] land on which its inhabitants are able to settle (yastaqirru), and watered by springs, running water, over ground, which the eyes can see.

‘O messengers, eat of the good things, the lawful things, and perform righteous acts, such as obligatory and supererogatory [rituals]. Surely I know what you do, and will requite you for it.

And know, that this, creed of Islam, is your community, your religion, O you being addressed, that is, you must adhere to it as, one community — a necessary state [of affairs] (a variant reading [for anna, ‘that’] has the softened form [in]; a variant has inna, ‘truly’, indicating the beginning of [an independent] new sentence) and I am your Lord, so fear Me’, so be fearful of Me.

But they, the followers, split into sects regarding their affair, their religion (zuburan, ‘sects’, is a circumstantial qualifier of the subject of the verb taqatta‘ū, ‘they split’), in other words, [they became] opposing parties, the likes of the Jews and the Christians and others, each party rejoicing in, exultant with, what they had, that is, with the religion they had.

So leave them, the disbelievers of Mecca, in their error, their misguidance, for a while, until they die.

Do they suppose that in the wealth and children with which We provide them, in the life of this world,

We are hastening to [provide] them with good things? No. Rather, they are not aware, that this is a way of gradually drawing them [into their punishment].

Surely those who, for fear of their Lord, are apprehensive, are fearful of His chastisement,

and who believe in, [who] accept the truth of, the signs of their Lord — the Qur’ān;

and who do not associate others with their Lord,

and who give what they give, of voluntary alms and righteous deeds, while their hearts tremble [with awe], fearful lest it not be accepted from them, because (the particle lām, ‘for’, is taken as implied before annahum, ‘that they’) they are going to return to their Lord —

those [are the ones who] hasten to [perform] good works, and they [are the ones who] shall come out ahead in them, according to God’s knowledge.

And We do not task any soul beyond its capacity, what it can bear — thus he who is not able to pray standing, let him pray sitting down and he who is not able to fast, let him eat; and with Us is a Record that speaks the truth, regarding what it [a soul] has done — and this [Record] is the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfūz), wherein deeds are written down; and they, namely, the souls in their acts, will not be wronged, in a single thing thereof, and so nothing is diminished of the reward for good deeds, nor is anything [extra] added to the evil deeds.

Nay, but their hearts, that is, [the hearts of] the disbelievers, are in ignorance of this, Qur’ān, and they have other deeds which they will perpetrate besides, the ones mentioned, against the believers, and they will therefore be chastised for them.

Indeed (hattā is for inceptiveness) when We seize their affluent ones, their wealthy and their leaders, with chastisement, [with] the sword, on the day of Badr, behold! they are supplicating loudly, clamouring [in supplication]. It is [then] said to them:

‘Do not supplicate [out loud] on this day! Truly you will not receive help, you will not be protected, against Us.

Verily My signs, in the Qur’ān, used to be recited to you, but you used to take to your heels, falling back in retreat,

disdainful, of [embracing] faith, because of it, that is, because of the [Sacred] House or the [Meccan] Sanctuary and their being inhabitants thereof, secure, in contrast to [the situation with] all [other] peoples in their hometowns, while in [your] night sessions (sāmiran is a circumstantial qualifier,) in other words, they come together to converse at night around the [Sacred] House, you talked nonsense’ ([if read as] tahjurūna, the third form [from hajara] means [while] ‘you disregarded’ the Qur’ān; [but if read] as the fourth form [tuhjirūna, from ahjara] it means [while] ‘you speak falsehood’ about the Prophet and the Qur’ān).

God, exalted be He, says: Have they not contemplated (yaddabbarū should actually be yatadabbarū, but the tā’ has been assimilated with the dāl) the discourse, namely, the Qur’ān that is proof of the Prophet’s sincerity, or has there come upon them that which has not come upon their forefathers?

Or is it that they do not recognise their [own] Messenger and so they reject him?

Or do they say, ‘There is a madness in him’? — this interrogative is meant as an affirmation of the truth of the Prophet’s sincerity, and [of the fact] that messengers did come to past communities, and [of the fact] that they [do indeed] recognise their Messenger to be truthful and trustworthy, and [of the fact] that there is no madness in him. Nay (bal is for transition), he has brought them the truth, namely, the Qur’ān that comprises [affirmations of] the Oneness [of God] and the Laws of Islam; but most of them are averse to the truth.

And if the truth, namely, the Qur’ān, had followed their desires, and come to them with [mention of] what they fancied in the way of God having a partner and a child, may God be exalted above such [associations], indeed the heavens and the earth and whoever is in them would have been corrupted, they [the heavens and the earth] would have deviated from their observed order, because contradictions would ensue, as is usually the case, when there is more than one ruler. Nay, We have brought them their Remembrance, namely, the Qur’ān, in which they are remembered and honoured, but they are disregardful of their [own] Remembrance.

Or do you ask them for any recompense?, any remuneration, in return for the faith that you have brought them? Yet the recompense of your Lord is, His remuneration, His reward and His provision [are], better (one reading has kharjan, ‘recompense’, in both instances [sc. kharjan fa-kharju]; another has kharājan in both [sc. kharājan fa-kharāju]) and He is the best of providers, the best of givers and remunerators.

And truly you summon them to a straight path, a [straight] route, that is, the religion of Islam.

And truly those who do not believe in the Hereafter, in resurrection, reward and punishment, deviate, swerve away, from the path, that is, the route [to salvation].

And had We shown them mercy and relieved them of the harm afflicting them — the famine that befell them in Mecca for seven years — they would surely persist in their insolence, [in] their error, bewildered, hesitating.

And We have already seized them with chastisement, [with] hunger, yet they did not humble themselves to their Lord, nor did they devote themselves to prayer, [nor] did they seek [the pleasure of] God through supplication.

Until (hattā is for inceptiveness), when We opened on them the gate of a severe chastisement, namely, the day of Badr, slaying [them], behold! they are aghast thereat, despairing of anything good.

And He it is Who made, created, for you hearing, meaning, ears, and eyes and hearts. Little thanks do you show (qalīlan mā: mā emphasises the paucity [of the thanks]).

And He it is Who dispersed, created, you on earth, and to Him you shall be gathered, resurrected.

And He it is Who gives life, by breathing the Spirit into the embryo (mudgha), and brings death, and due to Him is the alternation of night and day, in darkness and brightness, [and through] increase and diminution. Will you not then comprehend?, His handiwork, exalted be He, and so reflect?

Nay, but they say the like of what the ancients said.

They, the ancients, said, ‘What, when we are dead and have become dust and bones, shall we then be raised? No! (the two hamzas in each of the two instances are either pronounced fully, or with the second one not pronounced, but with an alif inserted between the two [hamzas] in both [readings]).

Already We and our fathers have been promised this, resurrection after death, before: these are nothing but the fables, the lies, of the ancients’, [mere] jokes and strange tales (asātīr, the plural of ustūra).

Say, to them: ‘To whom does the earth and whoever is in it, of creatures, belong, if you [truly] knew?’, their Creator and Owner.

They will say, ‘To God’. Say, to them: ‘Will you not then remember?’ (tadhakkarūna, the second tā’ [of tatadhakkarūna] has been assimilated with the dhāl) will you [not then] be admonished and so realise that the One Who has the power to originate creation also has the power to resurrect after death?