Al-Furqan

Blessed, exalted, is He Who revealed the Criterion (al-furqān), the Qur’ān — called thus [al-furqān] because it has discriminated (faraqa) between truth and falsehood — to His servant, Muhammad (s), that he may be to all the worlds, [to] mankind and the jinn, but not the angels, a warner, a threatening of God’s chastisement.

He to Whom belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, and Who has not taken a son, nor has He any partner in sovereignty; and He created everything, which was meant to be created, and then determined it in a precise measure, He fashioned it in a balanced form.

Yet they, the disbelievers, have taken besides Him, that is, [besides] God, in other words, other than Him, gods, from among the idols, who create nothing but have themselves been created, and who possess no harm for themselves, that is, [the power] to repel it, nor any benefit, that is, [the power] to attract it, nor do they possess [any power over] death or life, that is, [nor do they have the power] to make a person die or to give him life, or resurrection, that is, [nor do they have power] to raise the dead.

And those who disbelieve say, ‘This, Qur’ān, is nothing but a calumny, a lie, that he, Muhammad (s), has invented, and other folk have helped him with it’, who [according to the disbelievers] were from among the People of the Scripture. God, exalted be He, says: Verily thus they have committed wrong and [spoken] falsehood, [they have come with] disbelief and mendacity.

And they say, that it [the Qur’ān] is also, ‘Fables, their lies (asātir is the plural of ustūra) of the ancients which he has had written down, that he has had someone from among those people copy it down for him, so that they are read to him, for him to memorise, morning and evening’. God, exalted be He, responds to them saying:

Say: ‘It has been revealed by Him Who knows the secret, the Unseen, of the heavens and the earth. Truly He is ever Forgiving, of believers, Merciful’, to them.

And they also say, ‘What is it with this Messenger that he eats food and walks about in the marketplaces? Why has an angel not been sent down to him so as to be a warner along with him?, and confirm his truthfulness.

Or a treasure thrown down to him, from the heaven, for him to spend from so as not to be in need of walking through the marketplaces in order to earn his livelihood. Or he has a garden, an orchard, for him to eat from?’, that is, [to eat] from its fruits and satisfy himself therewith (a variant reading [for ya’kulu, ‘for him to eat’] has na’kulu, ‘for us to eat’) and thus possess because of that [garden] an advantage over us. The wrongdoers, namely, the disbelievers, say, to the believers: ‘You are just following a man bewitched!’, one duped, his mind overcome. God, exalted be He, says:

See how they strike similitudes for you, of [the fact that the Prophet is] a person bewitched and one in need of something to expend [from] and of an angel to help him carry out the task [of delivering the Message], so that they go astray, thereby from guidance, and are unable to find a way, a means thereto [to guidance].

Blessed is He, abundant is the good of God, Who, if He will, will give you better than that, treasure or orchard which they mentioned — gardens underneath which rivers flow, in this world, for He has already willed to give him such things in the Hereafter, and will give (read apocopated form wa-yaj‘al) you palaces, as well (a variant reading [of the apocopated yaj‘al] is yaj‘alu, ‘He will give’, beginning a new sentence).

Nay, but they deny the [coming of the] Hour, the Resurrection, and We have prepared for those who deny the Hour a blaze (sa‘īr), a fire that has been set ablaze (musa‘‘ara), in other words, an intense [fire].

When it sees them from a distant place, they will hear it raging, boiling like an enraged person when his heart boils with anger, and roaring, [producing] a powerful noise. Alternatively, what is meant by their ‘hearing it raging’ is their vision of it and awareness of it.

And when they are flung into a narrow place thereof (read dayyiqan or dayqan, ‘narrow’, such that it constricts them; minhā, ‘thereof’, is a circumstantial qualifier referring to makānan, ‘place’, because it is actually an adjectival qualification of it) bound together, shackled, with their hands bound to their necks in chains (the use of the intensive form muqarranīna [as opposed to muqranīna] is meant to indicate a large number), they will at that point pray for [their own] annihilation, and it will be said to them:

‘Do not pray for a single annihilation on this day, but pray for many annihilations!’, which will be [the nature of] your chastisement.

Say: ‘Is that, which is mentioned of the threat of chastisement and the description of the Fire, better, or the Garden of Immortality which has been promised to the God-fearing, which will be, in God’s knowledge, exalted be He, their requital, [their] reward, and journey’s end?’, [their] place of return.

In it they shall have what they wish, abiding [therein] — an irrevocable state — it, the promise to them of what is mentioned, is a promise binding on your Lord, [a promise] much besought, requested by those who have been promised it [as is clear from the following]: Our Lord, grant us what You have promised us through Your messengers [Q. 3:194], or requested on their behalf by the angels [who say]: Our Lord, and admit them into the Gardens of Eden which You have promised them [Q. 40:8].

And on the day when He will assemble them (yahshuruhum; a variant reading has nahshuruhum, ‘We assemble them’) and that which they worship besides God, that is, other than Him, such as the angels, Jesus, Ezra and the jinn, and will say, exalted be He, (fa-yaqūlu; a variant has fa-naqūlu, and We shall say’) to those who were worshipped, as a way of establishing the argument against the worshippers [of the former]: ‘Was it you (read a-antum pronouncing both hamzas, or by substituting the second one with an alif, or not pronouncing this [last] and inserting an alif between the one not pronounced and the former, or without [such an insertion]) who misled these servants of Mine, causing them to fall into error by commanding them to worship you, or did they go astray from the way?, the path of truth, by themselves?

They will say, ‘Glory be to You — exalted be You above what does not befit You! It was not, it would [not] have been right, for us to take any guardians besides You, that is, other than You (min awliyā’a, the first direct object, the min being extra, [added] to emphasise the negation; the preceding [min dūnika, ‘besides You’] is the second [direct object]). So how can we command that we be worshipped? But You gave them and their fathers, before them, ease [of living], by granting [them] long life and abundant provision, until they forgot the Remembrance, [until] they became remiss about admonitions and belief in the Qur’ān, and became a lost folk’, [a folk] destroyed. God, exalted be He, says:

Thus they will deny you, that is, the ones who were worshipped denied those who worshipped [them], in what you allege, namely, that they are gods, and they will neither be able to (read yastatī‘ūna, or [second person plural] tastatī‘ūna) in other words, neither they nor you will be able to, circumvent, ward off the chastisement from you, nor help, nor protect you from it. And whoever of you does evil, [whoever] ascribes partners to God, We shall make him taste an awful, a severe, chastisement, in the Hereafter.

And We did not send before you any messengers but that they ate food and walked in the marketplaces, and so you are like them in this respect, and truly what was said to them is being said to you. And We have made some of you a trial for others:, a test, trying the rich with the poor, the healthy with the sick, the honourable with the vulgar, in each case the latter would say, ‘Why can I not be like the other person?’ Will you be steadfast?, [and endure] what you hear from those with whom you are tried? (the interrogative is meant as an imperative, in other words, ‘Be steadfast!’. And your Lord is ever Watchful, of those who remain steadfast and those who become miserable.

And those who do not expect to encounter Us, [those] who have no fear of the Resurrection, say, ‘Why have the angels not been sent down to us, to act as messengers to us, or why do we not see our Lord?’, so that we might be informed [by Him] that Muhammad (s) is [truly] His Messenger? God, exalted be He, says: Assuredly they are full of arrogance within their souls and have become terribly insolent, in demanding to see God, exalted be He, in this world (read ‘utuwwan, ‘insolence’ with the wāw, according to the original root form, as opposed to ‘itiyyan with the [yā’] substitution as in [sūrat] Maryam [Q. 19:8]).

The day when they see the angels, [while they stand] together with the rest of creation, namely, on the Day of Resurrection (yawma is in the accusative because of an implied [preceding] udhkur, ‘mention’), there will be no good tidings on that day for the guilty, that is, the disbelievers, in contrast to the believers for whom there shall be the good tidings of Paradise, and they will say, ‘A forbidding ban!’, as was their [the pagan] custom in this world whenever a misfortune befell them; in other words [they mean] ‘awdhan ma‘ādhan, seeking refuge from the angels [who will chastise them]. God, exalted be He, says:

And We shall attend to, We shall turn to, the works they did, that were good, such as voluntary alms or kindness to kin, a hospitable reception of a guest or the succour of a troubled person in this world, and turn them into scattered dust (habā’an manthūran), namely, [as] those individual particles of dust which one might observe near a window when the sun is shining through. In other words, [We shall make their good works] like those [particles of dust] in their uselessness, there being no reward for such [works], for lack of any [binding] obligation [to reward them therefor]; but they are rewarded for it in the life of this world.

Those who will be the inhabitants of Paradise on that day, the Day of Resurrection, will be in a [far] better abode, than are the disbelievers in this world, and a [far] better resting place, than theirs [the latter’s]; in other words, a [better] place for qā’ila, which is a rest taken during midday during hot days. From this [last interpretation of maqīlan] it has been inferred that the Reckoning will be concluded in half a day, as is stated in one hadīth.

And on the day when the heaven, each of the [seven] heavens, will be split asunder with the clouds, in other words, [split asunder] together with them [the clouds] (al-ghamām is white cloud) and the angels will be sent down, from every heaven, in a [majestic] descent, and this is the Day of Resurrection (it [yawma, ‘on the day’] is in the accusative because of an implied [preceding] udhkur, ‘mention’; a variant reading [for tashaqqaqu] is tashshaqqaqu, ‘will be split asunder’, where the second tā’ [of the original form tatashaqqaqu] has been assimilated with it the [the shīn]; another variant reading [instead of nuzzila al-malā’ikatu, ‘the angels will be sent down’] has nunzilu al-malā’ikata, ‘We will send down the angels’);

true Sovereignty on that day will belong to the Compassionate One, with no one else sharing it with Him, and it, that day, will be a hard day for the disbelievers, in contrast to the believers.

And [it will be] a day when the wrongdoer, the idolater, ‘Uqba b. Abī Mu‘ayt — who had uttered the two-part profession [‘there is no god but God, Muhammad (s) is His Messenger’] but retracted it in order to please Ubayy b. Khalaf — will bite his hands, in regret and anguish on the Day of Resurrection, saying, ‘O (yā is for drawing attention) would that I had followed a way with the Messenger!, Muhammad (s), a route to guidance.

O woe to me! (yā waylatā: the [final] alif stands in place of the [first person singular] possessive yā’, yā waylatī, meaning ‘[alas] for my destruction!’) Would that I had not taken so and so, in other words, [that] Ubayy, as friend!

Verily he has led me astray from the Remembrance, namely, the Qur’ān, after it had come to me, by causing me to recant my belief in it. God, exalted be He, says: And Satan is ever a deserter of, the disbelieving, man’, abandoning him and dissociating from him in [times of] tribulation.

And the Messenger, Muhammad (s), says, ‘O my Lord, lo! my people, the [tribe of] Quraysh, consider this Qur’ān as something to be shunned’, to be disregarded.

God, exalted be He, says: So, just as We have appointed for you enemies from among the idolaters of your people, We have appointed to every prophet, before you, an enemy from among the guilty, the idolaters — so be steadfast as they were; but your Lord suffices as a Guide, for you, and a Helper, to bring you victory over your enemies.

And those who disbelieve say, ‘Why has the Qur’ān not been revealed to him all at once?’, as the Torah, the Gospel and the Book of Psalms [were]. God, exalted be He, says: We have revealed it, thus, in parts, [it is], that We may strengthen your inner-heart with it, and We have arranged it in a specific order, that is to say, We produce it in stages one part after another, gradually and deliberately, in order to facilitate its comprehension and its memorisation.

And they do not bring you any similitude, to invalidate your mission, but that We bring you the truth, that refutes it, and [what is] better [as] exposition, explanation.

They are, those who will be gathered on their faces, that is, [those who] will be driven [as cattle], toward Hell: they will be in the worst place, namely, Hell, and furthest astray from the way, [they will be] on a path of error worse than that of others; and this [path] is their disbelief.

And verily We gave Moses the Scripture, the Torah, and made Aaron, his brother, [go] with him as a minister, an assistant.

Then We said, ‘Go both of you to the people who have denied Our signs’, that is, to the Egyptians — Pharaoh and his folk. So they went to them with the Message but they [the Egyptians] denied both of them. Then We destroyed them utterly.

And, mention, the people of Noah, when they denied the messengers, in denying Noah — it is as though he were many messengers given the length of time he remained among them; or [it is thus expressed in the plural] because to deny him is [equivalent] to denying all the other messengers, for they all came with the same [Message concerning] affirmation of God’s Oneness — We drowned them (this is the response to lammā, ‘when’) and made them a sign, a lesson, for mankind, thereafter, and We have prepared, in the Hereafter, for the evildoers, the disbelievers, a painful chastisement, in addition to what [chastisement] may befall them in this world.

And, mention, ‘Ād, the people of Hūd, and Thamūd, the people of Sālih, and the dwellers at al-Rass (al-rass) — the name of a ‘well’; their prophet is said to have been Shu‘ayb; although some say it was someone else. [The story is that] they had been sitting around it [on one occasion] when it collapsed beneath them [burying them] together with their dwellings. And many generations, peoples, in between, that is, between [the people of] ‘Ād and the dwellers at al-Rass.

For each [of them] We struck similitudes, when establishing arguments against them, and We destroyed them only after warning [them], and each [of them] We ruined utterly, We destroyed utterly, because of their denial of the prophets sent to them.

And verily they, namely, the disbelievers of Mecca, will have passed by the town on which an evil shower was rained (al-saw’, ‘evil’, is the verbal noun from sā’a, ‘was evil’), that is, [it was showered] with stones. This was the principal town of the towns inhabited by the people of Lot; God destroyed its inhabitants for their committing acts of lewdness. Can it be that they have not seen it?, on their journeys to Syria, and so take heed thereof? (the interrogative is affirmative). Nay, but it is that they do not expect, they have [no] fear of [any], resurrection, and so they do not believe.

And when they see you, they take you in mockery only, as an object of derision, saying, ‘Is this the one whom God has sent as a messenger?, as he is wont to claim? — contemptuously of him as one not worthy of being a messenger.

Indeed (in, softened in place of the hardened form, with its subject omitted, namely, innahu) he was about to lead us astray, turn us away, from our gods, had we not stood by them’, he would have turned us away from them. God, exalted be He, says: And soon they will know, when they behold the chastisement, with their own eyes in the Hereafter, who is further astray from the way, who is further upon the path of error: they or the believers?

Have you seen — inform Me [about] — him who has taken as his god his own desire?, that is, as something that will be bring about his ruin (the indirect object [ilāhahu, ‘as his god’] precedes the direct object because it is more important; the clause [beginning] man ittakhadha, ‘him who has taken’, constitutes the first direct object of a-ra’ayta, ‘have you seen’, the second being [the following, a-fa-anta …]) Will you be a guardian over him?, a protector to preserve him from following his desires? No.

Or do you suppose that most of them listen, listening so as to understand, or comprehend?, what you say to them? They are but as the cattle — nay, but they are further astray from the way, further from these [cattle] upon the path of misguidance, for at least they [cattle] yield to the person who looks after them, whereas these [disbelievers] do not obey their Master, Who is gracious to them.

Have you not seen, contemplated, the work of, your Lord, how He extends the [twilight] shadow?, from the point of daybreak to the point of sunrise. For had He, your Lord, willed, He would have made it still, ever-present so that it does not disappear with the rising of the sun. Then We made the sun an indicator of it, [of] the shadow; were it not for the sun the shadow would not have been known.

Then We retract it, the extended shadow, to Us by gentle retraction, subtle [retraction], through the rising of the sun.

And He it is Who made for you the night as a garment, veiling [you] like a garment, and sleep for repose, rest for bodies through the [temporary] cessation of labour, and He made the day for rising, [a time] in which all rise to seek their livelihood and so on.

And He it is Who sends forth the winds (al-riyāha; a variant has al-rīha, ‘the wind’) dispersing before His mercy (nushuran, ‘dispersing’), scattered before the [coming of the] rain (a variant reading has nushran, the singular of which is nashūr, similar [in pattern] to rasūl, ‘messenger’ [plural rusul]; another reading has nashran, as a verbal noun; and a third variant has bushran, in other words, [the winds function as] mubashshirāt, ‘bearers of good tidings’, the singular of which is bashīr); and We send down from the heaven purifying water,

with which We revive a dead land (read maytan, in the softened form, equally valid for the masculine and the feminine, but in the masculine [here] because of the [masculine] noun indicating ‘place’ [implicit therein]) and We give it, the water, as drink to the many cattle, camels, cows and sheep, and humans We have created (anāsiyy is the plural of insān: properly it [the plural] should be anāsīn but the [final] nūn has been replaced with a yā’, with which the [other] yā’ has been assimilated; or it [anāsiyy] is [simply] the plural of insiyy).

And verily We have distributed it, the water, among them, so that they may remember (li-yadhdhakkarū should actually be li-yatadhakkarū, but the tā’ has been assimilated with the dhāl; a variant reading has li-yadhkurū), that is to say, [so that they may remember] therewith the grace of God. But most people are only intent on ingratitude, on denial of the grace, saying, ‘We have received [this] rain because of such-and-such a storm’.

And had We willed, We could have sent forth in every town a warner, to threaten its inhabitants [with God’s chastisement]; instead We have sent you to the inhabitants of all towns as a warner for your reward to be a great one.

So do not obey the disbelievers, in their desires, but struggle against them therewith, that is, through [adherence to] the Qur’ān, with a great endeavour.

And He it is Who merged the two seas: letting them [flow] one adjacent to the other: this one palatable, sweet, and the other saltish, bitter; and He set between the two an isthmus, so that the one does not mix with the other, and a forbidding ban, a shield that prevents the two from becoming mixed.

And He it is Who created man from water, [He created] from a sperm-drop a human being, and made for him ties of blood and ties of marriage, whether it be a male or a female, they marry for the purposes of procreation. For your Lord is ever Powerful, with the power to do whatever He will.

And they, the disbelievers, worship besides God that which neither benefits them, when they worship it, nor harms them, should they refrain therefrom — and these are idols; and the disbeliever is ever a partisan against his Lord, an assistant to Satan through his obedience to him.

And We have not sent you except as a bearer of good tidings, of Paradise, and as a warner, a threatener [of people] with the [chastisement of the] Fire.

Say: ‘I do not ask of you in return for this, that is, for delivering that [Message] with which I have been sent, any reward, except that whoever wishes to follow a way to his Lord [should do so]’, by expending his wealth for the sake of [attaining] God’s pleasure, exalted be He; then [whoever wishes to do so] I will not prevent him from doing so.

And put your trust in the Living One Who does not die, and make glorifications, ensconced, in His praise, in other words, say: subhāna’Llāhi wa’l-hamdu li’Llāh, ‘Glory be to God and praise be to God’. And He suffices as One Aware, as Knower, of the sins of His servants (khabīran, ‘One Aware’, is semantically connected to bi-dhunūbi, ‘of the sins’).

He it is, Who created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them in six days, of the [length of the] days of this world, since there was no sun at that point — had He willed He could have created them in an instant, but His not having done so is because He will to teach His creatures to be circumspect — then presided upon the Throne (al-‘arsh in the [classical] language is the seat on which a king sits) the Compassionate One (al-rahmānu substitutes for the subject of [the verb] istawā, ‘presided’) a presiding befitting of Him; so ask, O man, about Him, about the Compassionate One, anyone who is well aware, to inform you about His attributes!

And when it is said to them, to the disbelievers of Mecca, ‘Prostrate yourselves before the Compassionate One’, they say, ‘And what is the Compassionate One? Should we prostrate ourselves to whatever you bid us’ (ta’murunā; or read ya’murunā, ‘[whatever] he bids us’) — [in both cases] the one bidding is Muhammad (s) — when we do not know who He is? No! And it, this that is said to them, increases their aversion, to faith.

God, exalted be He, says: Blessed, magnified, is He Who has placed in the heaven constellations, twelve [of them]: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo (al-sunbula), Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. They are the mansions for the seven orbiting planets: Mars rules Aries and Scorpio, Venus: Taurus and Libra, Mercury: Gemini and Virgo, the Moon: Cancer, the Sun: Leo, Jupiter: Sagittarius and Pisces, and Saturn: Capricorn and Aquarius; and has, also, placed in it a lamp, namely, the sun, and a shining moon (a variant reading [for sirājan, ‘sun’] has the plural surujan, which would mean ‘luminous stars’). The moon is singled out for mention because of its particular merit.

And He it is Who made the night and day [to appear] in succession, that is, one succeeding the other, for him who desires to remember (read yadhdhakkara or yadhkura, as before [Q. 25:50]) — so that if he misses [the opportunity to do] some good during the one, he can do it during the other; or desires to be thankful, for the graces of his Lord to him during both [of these periods].

And the [true] servants of the Compassionate One (‘ibādu’l-rahmāni is the subject, and what comes after it, all the way up to ūlā’ika yujzawna, ‘they will be rewarded’ [of verse 75 below] are adjectival qualifiers of this [subject], with the exception of the parenthetical statements) are those who walk upon the earth modestly, that is, peacefully and humbly, and who, when the ignorant address them, with what they are averse to, say [words of] peace (salām), in other words, words by which they are safe (yaslamūna) from [committing] any sin;

and who spend the night before their Lord, prostrating (sujjad is the plural of sājid) and standing [in worship], in other words, they spend the night performing prayers;

and who say, ‘Our Lord, avert from us from the chastisement of Hell. Truly its chastisement is abiding, that is, irrevocable.

It is truly a wretched abode and residence!’, in other words, [it is truly wretched] as a place in which to abide and reside.

And who, when they expend, upon their dependants, are neither prodigal nor parsimonious (read yaqturū or yuqtirū); but between such, prodigality and parsimony, lies — [between the two] their expenditure [is in] — moderation;

and [those] who do not call on another god along with God, nor slay the soul which God has forbidden, that it be slain, except with due cause, and who do not commit fornication — for whoever does that, namely, [whoever does] one of these three things, shall meet with retribution;

doubled (yudā‘af: a variant reading has yuda‘‘af) will be the chastisement for him on the Day of Resurrection and he will abide therein (both verbs may be read in [the imperfect] apocopated form [yudā‘af, ‘it will be doubled’, and yakhlud, ‘he will abide’] as substitutions, or with the [indicative] damma inflection [yudā‘afu and yakhludu] to indicate the beginning of a new sentence) abased (muhānan is a circumstantial qualifier);