Fatir

Praise be to God, God praises Himself with in these [terms], as explained at the beginning of [the preceding] sūrat Saba’, Originator of the heavens and the earth, the One Who created them without any precedent, Appointer of the angels as messengers, to [His] prophets, having wings in [sets of] two or three or four. He multiplies in creation, in angels and other [creatures], what He will. Surely God has power over all things.

Whatever mercy God unfolds for mankind, in the way of provision or rain, none can withhold it; and whatever He withholds, thereof, none can release it after Him, that is, after His withholding it. And He is the Mighty, Whose way prevails, the Wise, in what He does.

O people, that is, the people of Mecca, remember God’s grace to you, in His making you dwell within the [Meccan] Sanctuary and preventing raids against you. Is there any creator (min khāliqin: min is extra; khāliq is the subject) other than God (read ghayru’Llāhi or gharyri’Llāhi, as an adjectival qualification of khāliq, ‘creator’, either concording with the [oblique] form [of min khāliqin] or concording with the syntactical status [thereof]; the predicate of the subject [is the following]) who provides for you from the heaven, rain, and, from the, earth?, vegetation (the interrogative is [actually] an affirmative, that is to say, ‘there is no creator or provider other than Him). There is no god except Him. So how then do you deviate?, how are you turned away from affirming His Oneness when you already affirm that He is the Creator and the Provider?

And if they deny you, O Muhammad (s), with regard to your coming with [the message of] God’s Oneness, resurrection, reckoning and punishment, verily [other] messengers before you were denied, in this respect, so be steadfast as they were steadfast; and to God all matters are returned, in the Hereafter, when He will requite the deniers and grant victory to the messengers.

O mankind! Indeed God’s promise, of resurrection and of other issues, is true. So do not let the life of this world deceive you, from believing in [all of] that, and do not let the Deceiver, Satan, deceive you concerning God, on account of His forbearance and respiting [of sinners in this life].

Truly Satan is an enemy to you. So treat him as an enemy, by being obedient to God and do not obey him; he only summons his faction, his followers in disbelief, so that they may be among the inhabitants of the Blaze, the fierce Fire.

Those who disbelieve, theirs will be a severe chastisement; but those who believe and perform righteous deeds, theirs will be forgiveness and a great reward — this is a declaration of what [fate] will be for the adherents of Satan and what will be for his opponents [respectively].

The following was revealed regarding Abū Jahl and others: Is he, the evil of whose deeds is made [to seem] fair to him, by distortion, so that he deems it good […]? (a-fa-man, ‘is he [whose]’ constitutes the subject, the predicate of which is [an omitted] ‘like one whom God has guided?’ No! And this [predicate] is indicated by [what follows]). Indeed God leads astray whomever He will and guides whomever He will. So do not let your soul expire for their sake, for those to whom it has made [to seem] fair, out of sighings, by becoming anguished lest they do not believe. Indeed God is Knower of what they do, and He will requite them for it.

And it is God Who unleashes the winds (al-riyāha: a variant reading has al-rīha) and they raise clouds (fa-tuthīru’l-sahāba: the imperfect tense here is used to narrate the past), that is, they stir them up, then We drive them (there is a shift here from the third person [to the first person] address) to a dead land (read mayyitin or maytin), wherein is no plant life, and therewith revive the earth, of that land, after it has been dead, [after] its having been dried-out. In other words, We made seeds and grass grow in it: Such will be the Raising, that is, the Resurrection and the bringing [of the dead] back to life.

Whoever desires glory [should know that] all glory belongs to God, in this world and in the Hereafter, and it cannot be obtained from Him except through obedience to Him, so let such [a one] be obedient to Him. To Him ascends good words, that is to say, He is aware of such [good words], and these are [statements such as] ‘there is no god except God’ and the like; and as for righteous action, He exalts it, He accepts it; but those who plot evil, schemes against the Prophet — [as was the case] at the council assembly, in the way of imprisoning him, killing him or expelling him, as mentioned in [sūrat] al-Anfāl [Q. 8:30] — theirs shall be a severe chastisement and their plotting shall come to nothing: it shall be ruined.

And God created you from dust, by having created your father Adam from it, then from a drop of [seminal] fluid, in other words, from sperm, by creating his seed from it; then He made you pairs, males and females. And no female bears or brings forth except with His knowledge (illā bi-‘ilmihi is a circumstantial qualifier, in other words, ‘[except] that it is known by Him’) and no long-living person is given long life, in other words, the life of none is increased for one who has a long life, nor is anything diminished of his life, in other words, [of the life of] that same long-living person or some other long-living person, but it is [recorded] in a Book, namely, the Preserved Tablet. Surely that is easy for God.

Nor are the two [kinds of] seas alike: this one is extremely sweet, pleasant to drink and that one is salty, extremely bitter. Yet from each, of the two, you eat fresh meat, namely, fish, and obtain, from the salt — and it is also said, from both of them — ornaments which you wear, namely, pearls and coral. And you see, you sight, the ships therein, in each of the two [seas], ploughing through (mawākhira, in other words, tamkhuru’l-mā’a, meaning, ‘it cleaves it as it makes its way through it, coming and going by the same wind) that you may seek of His bounty, exalted be He, through commerce, and that perhaps you may give thanks, to God for this [bounty].

He, God, makes the night pass, enter, into the day, so that it becomes longer, and He makes the day pass into the night, so that it becomes longer, and He has disposed the sun and the moon, each, of them, moving, in its course, to an appointed term — [to] the Day of Resurrection. That is God, your Lord; to Him belongs [all] sovereignty. As for those on whom you call, [whom] you worship, besides Him, in other words, other than Him — and they are the idols — they do not possess [even] so much as the husk of a date-stone.

If you call on them, they will not hear your call, and [even] if they heard —hypothetically [speaking] — they would not [be able to] respond to you; and on the Day of Resurrection they will disown your [idolatrous] associations, in other words, your associating them with God [in power], that is to say, they will declare themselves innocent of you and of your worship of them. And none can inform you, about the state in the two abodes, like One Who is Aware, Knower, and this is God, exalted be He.

O mankind! You are the ones who are in need of God, in every state. And God, He is the Independent, [without any need] of His creatures, the Praised, the One Who is praised in whatever He does with them.

If He will, He can take you away and bring about a new creation, instead of you.

And that is not an arduous thing for God.

And no burdened soul shall bear the burden of another [sinful soul]. And should one, soul, burdened heavily, with sin, call for, some of, its burden to be borne, by another, nothing of it will be borne, even if, the one called, be a relative, kin, such as a father or a son — the impossibility of ‘having something borne [by another]’ in both instances is something ordained by God. You can only warn those who fear their Lord in secret, in other words, those who fear Him despite not having seen Him, for they are the ones to benefit from the warning, and observe the prayer, maintain [performance of] it. For whoever purifies himself, cleansing himself of idolatry and other [similar abominations], is purifying himself only for [the sake of] his own soul, because the reforming of his self pertains to him. And to God is the [end of the] journeying, the return in the Hereafter when He will requite according to deeds.

Nor are the blind and the seer equal, that is, the disbeliever and the believer [are not equal],

nor darkness — disbelief — and light — faith;

nor shade and torrid heat, namely, Paradise and the Fire;

nor are the living equal to the dead, the believers and the disbelievers [respectively] (the addition of the particle lā, ‘nor’, in all three instances is for emphasis). Indeed God makes to hear whomever He will, to be guided, so that such [a person] then responds to Him by embracing faith. But you cannot make those who are in the graves to hear, namely, the disbelievers — whom He has likened to the dead — [to hear] and so respond.

You are but a warner, to them.

Truly We have sent you with the truth, with [right] guidance, as a bearer of good tidings, to him who responds to it, and a warner, to him who does not respond to it. And there is not a community but there has passed, there has been, in it a warner, a prophet to warn it.

And if they, that is, the people of Meccans, deny you, those before them also denied: their messengers brought them manifest signs, miracles, and with scriptures, such as the scrolls of Abraham, and with the illuminating Book, namely, the Torah and the Gospel, so endure [patiently] as they endured.

Then I seized those who disbelieved, for their denial, and how was My abhorrence!, [how was] My rebuttal against them by way of punishment and destruction, in other words, it was appropriate.

Have you not seen, [have you not] realised, that God sends down water from the heaven, wherewith We bring forth (there is here a shift from the third person [to the first person] address) fruits of diverse hues, such as green, red, and yellow [fruits] and so on? And in the mountains are streaks (judad is the plural of judda, which is a mountain trail or the like) white and red, and yellow, of diverse hues, some intense and some pale, and [others] pitch-black? (gharābību sūd is a supplement to judadun, ‘streaks’, meaning, dark-black rocks: one commonly says aswad ghirbīb, but rarely ghirbīb aswad).

And of humans and beasts and cattle, there are diverse hues likewise, like the diversity of the [hues of] fruits and mountains. Indeed only those of God’s servants who have knowledge fear Him, in contrast to the ignorant, such as the disbelievers of Mecca. Truly God is Mighty, in His kingdom, Forgiving, of the sins of His faithful servants.

Indeed those who recite the Book of God and observe prayer, they maintain [performance of] it, and expend of what We have provided them secretly and openly, [to give] as alms and otherwise, anticipate a commerce that will never be ruined,

that He may pay them in full their rewards, the reward for their mentioned deeds, and enrich them out of His bounty. Truly He is Forgiving, of their sins, Appreciative, of their obedience.

And that which We have revealed to you of the Book, the Qur’ān, is the truth, confirming what was [revealed] before it, in other words, [confirming] the Books that came before it. Indeed, with regard to His servants, God is truly Aware and Seeing, knowing [both their] inward and outward aspects.

Then We gave the Book, the Qur’ān, to those of Our servants whom We chose, namely, your community. Yet some of them are those who wrong themselves, by failing to act fully in accordance with it, and some of them are moderate, acting in accordance with it most of the time, and some are those who take the lead in [performing] good works, so that in addition to his [acquiring] knowledge he disseminates it and shows [others] the way [to proper conduct] as well as acting in accordance [with the Qur’ān], by the leave of God, by His will. That, bequest to them of the Book, is the greatest favour!

Gardens of Eden, as a [permanent] residence, into which they will be admitted, the three [types of servants mentioned] (read active yadkhulūnahā, ‘they will enter it’, or passive yudkhalūnahā, ‘into which they will be admitted’, as the predicate of the subject jannāt, ‘gardens’) — therein they will be adorned (yuhallawna is a second predicate) with, some, bracelets of gold and pearls, studded with gold, and their garments therein will be of silk.

And they will say, ‘Praise be to God Who has removed, all, grief from us. Truly our Lord is Forgiving, of sins, Appreciative, of obedience,

Who out of His favour has made us to dwell in the Abode of [everlasting] Stay, wherein no toil shall touch us, nor shall we be touched by any fatigue’, lack of strength caused by exhaustion, [and this is] because [religious] obligations no longer apply therein (the second of these [‘fatigue’], which is consequent upon the first [‘toil’], is mentioned in order to make explicit the non-existence [of any toil in Paradise]).

And as for those who disbelieve, there will be for them the fire of Hell: they will neither be done away with, through death, so that they may die, and find rest, nor will any [aspect] of its chastisement be lightened for them, [not even for] a single moment. In this way, in the way that We requite these, We requite every ingrate, [every] disbeliever (read yujzā kullu kafūrin, ‘every ingrate is [so] requited’; or najzī kulla kafūrin, ‘[so] We requite every ingrate’).

While therein they will be crying out, calling for help in distress, howling and saying: ‘Our Lord! Bring us forth, from it, and we will act righteously, other than how we used to act’. But it will be said to them: ‘Did We not give you long life, enough, time, in which to take heed, for him who would take heed? And [moreover] the warner, the Messenger, came to you, but you did not respond to his call, so taste now [this chastisement]! For the evildoers, the disbelievers, have no helper’, to ward off from them the chastisement.

Truly God is Knower of the Unseen of the heavens and the earth; truly He knows well what is in the breasts, what is in the hearts — thus there is all the more reason that He should [also] have knowledge of other things, given the way people are.

It is He Who made you successors in the earth (khalā’if, ‘successors’, is the plural of khalīfa) in other words, one succeeding the other. So whoever disbelieves, of you, his disbelief will be to his own detriment, that is, the evil consequences of his disbelief [will be so]. And their disbelief does not increase the disbelievers with their Lord [in anything] except disfavour, wrath. And their disbelief does not increase the disbelievers [in anything] except loss, of [the reward of] the Hereafter.

Say: ‘Have you considered your associates on whom you call, [those whom] you worship, besides God?, in other words, other than God — and they are the idols whom you asserted to be partners of God, exalted be He. Show me, apprise me of, what [part] of the earth they have created. Or do they have some partnership, some share alongside God, in, the creation of, the heavens?’ Or have We given them a scripture, so that they are [acting] upon a clear proof, a definitive argument, therefrom?, to the effect that they have some partnership with Me? Nothing of the sort! Nay, but the evildoers, the disbelievers, promise one another nothing but delusion, falsehood, when they say that the idols will intercede for them.

Truly God sustains the heavens and the earth lest they disappear, in other words, He prevents them from disappearing. And if (wa-la-in: the lām is for oaths) they were to disappear there is none that can sustain them after Him, in other words, other than Him. Truly He is ever Forbearing, Forgiving, in deferring the punishment of the disbelievers.

And they, that is, the disbelievers of Mecca, swore by God their most solemn oaths, [they swore] with utmost effort [to be sincere] in them, that if a warner, a messenger, were to come to them, they would be more readily guided than any one of the communities, [than] the Jews, the Christians or others, in other words, [more readily guided] than any one of these — having [themselves] seen the extent to which these [groups] called each other liars, given that: The Jews say, ‘The Christians stand on nothing’, and the Christians say, ‘The Jews stand on nothing’, [Q. 2:113]. But when a warner, namely, Muhammad (s), did come to them, this, coming of his, only increased them in aversion, further away from [right] guidance,

acting with disdain in the land, against faith (istikbāran fī’l-ardi, an object denoting reason) and devising, acts of, evil, in the way of idolatry and otherwise; and evil schemes will beset, surround, only their authors, namely, the one who devises [such evil] (the qualifying of makr, ‘scheme’, with the noun al-sayyi’, ‘evil’, is intrinsic [to the fact that it is a scheme], and so the annexation of the former to the latter is said to be alternative usage in which the annexed term is implied, as a precaution against annexing a noun to an adjective). So do they expect, do they await, anything but the precedent of the ancients?, God’s way [of dealing] with them, such as chastising them for their denial of the messengers? Yet you will never find any change in God’s precedent, and you will never find any revision in God’s precedent, that is to say, chastisement is never replaced by anything else, nor is it ever meted out other than to the one who deserves it.

Have they not travelled in the land and seen the nature of the consequence for those who were before them — and they were mightier than these in power?, but [still] God destroyed them for their denial of the messengers. And God is not such that anything in the heavens or in the earth can escape Him, pre-empt Him or elude Him. Truly He is ever Knower, of all things, Omnipotent.

Were God to take mankind to task for what they have acquired, of acts of disobedience, He would not leave on its surface, that is, the earth’s, a single creature, a single living thing moving thereon. But He reprieves them to an appointed term, namely, [to] the Day of Resurrection. And when their term comes — then truly [they will know that] God is ever Seer of His servants, and so He will requite them according to [the nature of] their deeds, rewarding the believers and punishing the disbelievers.