Ghafir

Hā mīm: God knows best what He means by these [letters].

The revelation of the Book, the Qur’ān (tanzīlu’l-kitābi is the subject), is from God (mina’Llāhi is its predicate), the Mighty, in His kingdom, the Knower, of His creatures.

Forgiver of sins, for believers, and Accepter of repentance, from them (al-tawb is the verbal noun), Severe in punishment, of disbelievers — in other words, One Who makes it severe for them — One of [abundant] bounty, bestower of abundant grace — God is eternally possessed of all of these attributes, and so the annexation construction using the derivatives [of these attributes] is for the purposes of characterisation, as in the case of the last. There is no god except Him; to Him is the journeying, the [ultimate] return.

None dispute the signs of God — the Qur’ān — except those who disbelieve, from among the people of Mecca, so do not be deceived by their bustle in the towns, [going about] seeking their livelihood in security, for the sequel for them will be the Fire.

The people of Noah denied before them and [also] the factions, such as ‘Ād, Thamūd and others, [who came] after them. And every community sought to seize their messenger, to slay him, and they argued falsely [thinking] to rebut, to eliminate, thereby the truth. Then I seized them, with punishment; so how [fitting] was My punishment!, of them — in other words, it was appropriate.

And thus was the word of your Lord — namely, the verse: Assuredly I will fill Hell … [Q. 11:119] — fulfilled against those who disbelieve: that they shall be the inhabitants of the Fire (annahum ashābu’l-nāri substitutes for kalimatu, ‘the word’).

Those who bear the Throne (alladhīna yahmilūna’l-‘arsha is the subject) and those around it (wa-man hawlahu is a supplement to that [subject]) glorify (yusabbihūna, is the predicate thereof) with praise of their Lord, continuously proclaiming praise, in other words, [continuously] saying: subhāna’Llāhi wa-bi-hamdihi, ‘Glory, and praise, be to God’; and they believe in Him, exalted be He, through their power of discernment, in other words, they affirm the truth of His Oneness, and they ask forgiveness for those who believe, saying: ‘Our Lord, You embrace all things in [Your] mercy and knowledge, that is to say, Your mercy embraces all things and Your knowledge [also embraces] all things. So forgive those who repent, of idolatry, and follow Your way — the religion of Islam — and shield them from the chastisement of Hell-fire, that is, the Fire.

Our Lord, and admit them into the Gardens of Eden, as [a place of] residence [for them], that which You have promised them, along with whoever were righteous (wa-man salaha is a supplement [either] to [the pronominal third person plural suffix] hum, ‘them’ in wa-adkhilhum, ‘and admit them’, or in wa‘adttahum, ‘You have promised them’) among their fathers and their wives and their descendants. Surely You are the One Who is the Mighty, the Wise, in what He does.

And shield them from evil deeds, that is, [from] the chastisement thereof; for whomever You shield from evil deeds that day, the Day of Resurrection, verily him You will have had been merciful to; and that is indeed the supreme triumph’.

Indeed to those who disbelieve it will be proclaimed [to them], from the part of the angels, as they [disbelievers] enter the Fire in utter loathing of themselves: ‘Surely God’s loathing, of you, is greater than your loathing of yourselves, as you were called, [during life] in this world, to faith but you used to disbelieve’.

They will say, ‘Our Lord, You have caused us to die twice, two deaths, and You have given us life twice — for they were lifeless drops of semen, then they were given life, then made to die, then brought back to life for the Resurrection. We [now] confess our sins, in having disbelieved in the Resurrection. Is there then any way to go out?’, out of the Fire and return to the world to be obedient to our Lord? The answer given to them will be: No!

That, namely, the chastisement which you find yourselves in, is because, during [the life of] this world, when God was invoked alone, you would disbelieve, in His Oneness; but if partners were ascribed to Him, you would believe, you would accept such idolatry. So the judgement, to chastise you, belongs to God, the Exalted, above His creation, the Great, the Tremendous.

He it is Who shows you His signs, the proofs of His Oneness, and sends down from the heaven for you provision, by way of rain. Yet no one remembers, [no one] is admonished, except him who returns penitently, [who] recants idolatry.

So supplicate God, worship Him, devoting [your] religion purely to Him, [free] from any idolatry, however much the disbelievers be averse, to its being free of such [idolatry].

Exalter of ranks, [either means] that God is One Whose attributes are majestic — or [it means] the raiser of the ranks of believers in Paradise — Lord of the Throne, in other words, the Creator thereof, He casts the Spirit, the Revelation, of His command, that is, [of] His words, upon whomever He will of His servants, that he, the one upon whom it is cast, may warn them of, [that he may] make people fear, the Day of Encounter (read yawma’l-talāqi, omitting the [final long] yā’, or yawma’l-talāqī), that is to say, the Day of Resurrection, [so called] because thereat the inhabitants of the heavens will encounter those of the earth, and the worshipper [will encounter] the one whom he worshipped, and the wrongdoer [will encounter] the person whom he wronged;

the day when they will emerge, [the day] they will exit from their graves; nothing about them will be hidden from God. ‘To whom does Sovereignty belong today?’ — God, exalted be He, asks this and Himself responds — ‘To God, the One, the All-compelling!’, over His creatures.

Today every soul shall be requited for what it has earned; there will be no injustice today. Indeed God is swift at reckoning’, reckoning with all of creation in the space of half a day of the days of this world — a hadīth states this.

And warn them of the Impending Day, namely, the Day of Resurrection (al-azifa, as in azifa al-rahīlu, ‘departure is very near’) when the hearts will, rising up in fear, reach the throats, choking with anguish, filled with [suppressed] anxiety (kāzimīna is a circumstantial qualifier referring to al-qulūbu, ‘the hearts’, which is qualified by the [active animate participle] plural [kāzimīna] and referred to as though they were the very individuals themselves). The evildoers will not have any intimate [friend], [any] sympathiser, nor any intercessor who might be heeded — the adjectival qualification [‘who might be heeded’] has no [literal] significance, for they do not have intercessors in the first place: So [now] we have no intercessors … [Q. 26:100]. The first part, however, may [be said to] have significance if [understand] on the basis of their claim to have intercessors, and so, in other words, even if — hypothetically speaking — they [their intercessors] did intercede for them, they would not be heeded.

He, namely, God, knows the treachery of the eyes, when it steals a glance at what is prohibited [for it to look at], and what the breasts hide — [what] the hearts [hide].

And God decrees with truth, while those on whom they call, whom they worship, that is, the disbelievers of Mecca (read yad‘ūna, ‘they call’, or tad‘ūna, ‘you call’) besides Him — and these are the idols — do not decree by any means [at all]: so how can they be God’s associates? Truly God is the Hearer, of their sayings, the Seer, of their actions.

Have they not travelled in the land and beheld the nature of the consequence for those who were before them? They were more powerful than them (a variant reading has minkum, ‘than yourselves’) in strength and in [their] vestiges on earth, in the way of large structures and palaces. Yet God seized them, He destroyed them, for their sins and they had none to shield them from God, from His chastisement.

That was because their messengers used to bring them clear signs, manifest miracles, but they disbelieved. So God seized them. Indeed He is Strong, Severe in punishment.

And verily We sent Moses with Our signs and a clear warrant, an evident and manifest proof,

to Pharaoh and Hāmān and Korah, but they said — that he was — ‘A sorcerer, a [mere] liar!’

So when he brought them the truth from Us, they said, ‘Slay the sons of those who believe with him, and spare, keep alive, their women’. But the guile of the disbelievers is ever in error, in perdition.

And Pharaoh said, ‘Let me slay Moses — for they used to restrain him from slaying him — and let him call to his Lord, to defend him against me. Indeed I fear that he may change your religion, [involving] your worship of me, so that you will then follow him [in his religion], or that he may cause corruption to appear in the land’, by [initiating] killing and otherwise (a variant reading [for wa-an, ‘and that’] is aw-an, ‘or that’; a variant reading [for an yuzhira fī’l-ardi’l-fasāda] is [the impersonal construction] an yazhara fī’l-ardi’l-fasādu, ‘that corruption may appear in the land’).

And Moses said, to his people, after he had heard that [saying of Pharaoh]: ‘Indeed I seek refuge in my Lord and your Lord from every arrogant one who does not believe in the Day of Reckoning’.

Then said a believing man from among Pharaoh’s folk — this is said to have been his paternal cousin — who had concealed his faith, ‘Will you slay a man for saying, “My Lord is God”, even though he has [also] brought you clear signs, manifest miracles, from your Lord? If he is lying, then his mendacity will be to his own detriment, that is, the harm resulting from his mendacity [will be to his own detriment]; but if he is truthful, then there will befall you some of that with which he is threatening you, in the way of chastisement, soon. Truly God does not guide one who is a prodigal, an idolater, a liar.

O my people! Today the kingdom is yours: [you are] dominant, prevailing (zāhirīna, a circumstantial qualifier) in the land, the land of Egypt. But who will help us against the might of God, [against] His chastisement, if you [resolve to] slay His friends, should it reach us?’ In other words, we would have no helper. Pharaoh said, ‘I only point out to you what I see [to be best], that is to say, I only suggest to you what I suggest to myself, and that is, to kill Moses [would be best]; and I am only guiding you to the path of rectitude’, [to] the correct way.

Then said he who believed, ‘O my people! Truly I fear for you [a day] like the day of the factions, in other words, the day of one faction [being destroyed] after another;

like the case of the people of Noah, and ‘Ād, and Thamūd, and those [who came] after them (mithla, ‘like’, substitutes for the previous mithla, ‘like’) in other words, the same requital as was customarily dealt to those who disbelieved before you, of their being chastised in this world, and God does not desire to wrong [any of] His servants.

And O my people! Truly I fear for you a day of [mutual] calling (read yawma’l-tanādi, omitting the [final long] yā’, or retaining it thus: yawma’l-tanādī) that is to say, the Day of Resurrection, in which repeated calls are made by those meriting Paradise to those meriting the Fire and vice versa, as well as calls [proclaiming] good fortune for those who merit the former and misery for those who merit the latter and [many] other such [calls],

a day when you will turn back to flee, from the site of the Reckoning [leading] to the Fire, not having anyone to defend you, to protect you, from God, in other words, from His chastisement, and whomever God leads astray, for him there is no guide.

And verily Joseph brought you, before, in other words, before Moses — according to one opinion, this Joseph is the son of Jacob, having been given life until the time of Moses; according to another opinion this is Joseph son of Abraham son of Joseph son of Jacob — clear signs, manifest miracles, but you continued to be in doubt concerning what he had brought you until, when he died, you said, without any evidence [to support such a claim]: “God will never send any messenger after him” — in other words, you will never cease to disbelieve in Joseph and others [that may come after him]. So, that is, just as you have been led astray, God leads astray one who is a prodigal, an idolater, a skeptic’, a doubter of that which the clear signs have certified.

Those who dispute the signs of God, His miracles (alladhīna yujādilūna fī āyāti’Llāhi, the subject) without any warrant, any evidence, that has come to them — greatly hateful [is that], disputing of theirs (kabura, the predicate of the subject) in the sight of God and in the sight of those who believe. So, just as they have been led astray, God sets a seal, of misguidance, on the heart of every arrogant tyrant (read qalbin, ‘the heart of’, with nunation, or without, qalbi). As the heart grows arrogant, so does the individual and vice versa (kulli, in both readings, is meant to indicate the totality of the misguidance of such hearts, not the totality of the hearts).

And Pharaoh said, ‘O Hāmān! Build for me a tower, a lofty edifice, that perhaps I may reach the routes —

the routes of the heavens — the paths that lead to it, and look upon (read [indicative] fa-attali‘u as a supplement to ablughu, ‘I may reach’; or read [subjunctive] fa-attali‘a, as the response to ibni lī, ‘build for me’) the God of Moses; for I truly think that he, that is, Moses, is lying’, about his having a god other than me — Pharaoh said this in order to disguise [the truth]. And that is how the evil [nature] of his conduct was made to seem fair to Pharaoh, and [that is how] he was barred from the [right] way, the path to guidance (read sadda, ‘[that is how] he barred [others]’, or sudda, ‘[that is how] he was barred’). And Pharaoh’s guile ended only in ruin, loss.

And he who believed, ‘O my people! Follow me (read ittabi‘ūnī, with the [final long] yā’, or ittabi‘ūni, without); I will guide you to the way of rectitude ([a similar statement] has already been mentioned [verse 29, above]).

O my people! Truly this life of the world is only an [ephemeral] enjoyment, [containing] comforts which will [eventually] disappear, whereas the Hereafter truly is the enduring abode.

Whoever commits an evil deed shall not be requited except with the like of it; but whoever acts righteously, whether male or female, and is a believer — such shall be admitted into Paradise (read [passive] yudkhalūna, or the opposite [active yadkhulūna, ‘they shall enter’) wherein they will be provided without any reckoning, an abundant provision, [given to them] unconditionally.

And O my people! [Think] what makes me call you to deliverance when you call me to the Fire?

You call me to disbelieve in God and to associate with Him that whereof I have no knowledge, whereas I call you to the Mighty, Whose way [always] prevails, the Forgiver, to those who repent.

No doubt, verily, that to which you call me, to worship, has no call [that is heard], in other words, [has no] call answered, in this world or in the Hereafter, and indeed our return will be to God, and indeed the prodigal, the disbelievers, it is they who will be the inhabitants of the Fire.

For you will [soon] remember what I have said to you, when you see the chastisement with your own eyes. And I entrust my affair to God. Truly God is Seer of [His] servants’ — he said this after they threatened him [with retribution] for opposing their religion.

So God shielded him from the evils of what they had plotted, against him, in the way of killing [him], and there besieged, befell, the folk of Pharaoh, his people as well as him, a dreadful chastisement, drowning,

then: the Fire, to which they are exposed, in which they are burnt, morning and evening. And on the day when the Hour comes, it will be said: ‘Enter, O, folk of Pharaoh (a variant reading [for udkhulū, ‘enter’] has adkhilū, ‘admit’, being a command to the angels) the most awful chastisement!’, the chastisement of Hell.

And, mention, when they will be arguing, [when] they, the disbelievers, will be disputing, [with one another] in the Fire, and the weak will say to those who were arrogant, ‘Indeed we were your followers (taba‘an is the plural of tābi‘); so will you [now] avail, [will you] defend, us against any portion of the Fire?’

Those who were arrogant will say, ‘Indeed we are all [together] in it. God has indeed judged [fairly] between His servants’, admitting believers into Paradise and disbelievers into the Fire.

And those who are in the Fire will say to the keepers of Hell, ‘Call on your Lord that He relieve us of [at least] a day, in other words, the equivalent of one day, of the chastisement!’

They, that is, the keepers, will say, mockingly: ‘Did not your messengers bring you clear signs?’, manifest miracles? They will say, ‘Yes indeed’ — in other words, they disbelieved them. They will say, ‘Then supplicate [God]!’, yourselves, for we do not intercede for disbelievers. God, exalted be He, says: but the supplications of the disbelievers can only be misguided, void.

Truly We shall help Our messengers and those who believe, in the life of this world and on the day when the witnesses rise up (ashhād is the plural of shāhid) — these are the angels, who will testify in support of the messengers, that they indeed delivered [their Messages], and against the disbelievers, that they denied [them];

the day when their excuses will not benefit (read lā yanfa‘u, or lā tanfa‘u) the evildoers, [even] if they were to offer them, and theirs will be the curse, in other words, the banishment from [God’s] Mercy, and theirs will be the ills of the [ultimate] abode, in the Hereafter, meaning, the most severe of its chastisements.

And verily We gave Moses the guidance, the Torah and miracles, and We made the Children of Israel, after Moses, heirs to the scripture, the Torah,

as a guidance, to guide, and as a remembrance for people of pith, a reminder for possessors of intellect.

So be patient, O Muhammad (s). Surely God’s promise, to grant victory to His friends, is true — for you and whoever follows you are among such [friends]. And ask forgiveness for your sin, so that you will be emulated in this [by your community], and glorify, perform prayer, continuously, with praise of your Lord at night — which means after sunset — and in the early hours: the five prayers.

Truly those who dispute the signs of God, the Qur’ān, without any warrant, any evidence, that has come to them — there is only vanity in their breasts, [only] arrogance and an [evil] desire to get the better of you, which they will never attain [and satisfy]. So seek refuge with God, from their evil. Surely He is the Hearer, of their sayings, the Seer, of their state.

The following was revealed regarding the deniers of resurrection: Assuredly the creation of the heavens and the earth, as an [unprecedented] first act, is greater than the creation of mankind, a second time — which is the restoration [of them after death]; but most people, namely, the disbelievers of Mecca, do not know, this, and so they are like the blind, whereas those who know it are like those who have sight.

And the blind one and the seer are not equal; nor are [they equal] those who believe and perform righteous deeds — such a person being the virtuous one — and the evildoer (wa-lā’l-musī’u: lā here is extra). Little do they reflect, [little] are they admonished (read yatadhakkarūna, or [second person plural] tatadhakkarūna, ‘do you reflect’), in other words, their reflections are very few.

Truly the Hour is coming; there is no doubt in it. But most people do not believe, in it.

And your Lord has said, ‘Call on Me and I will respond to you, in other words, worship Me and I will reward you — judging [this to be the meaning] by what follows. Surely those who disdain to worship Me shall enter (sa-yadkhulūna, or [passive] sa-yudkhalūna, ‘they shall be admitted into’) Hell [utterly] humiliated’, abased.

God it is Who made for you night that you may rest in it, and day for seeing — the attribution of sight (ibsār) to ‘day’ is figurative, and it is [so attributed] because one is able to see in it. Surely God is a Lord of bounty to mankind, but most people are not thankful, to God, and so they do not believe.

That then is God, your Lord, the Creator of all things; there is no god except Him. How then are you made to deviate?, how then are you turned away from faith, despite the evidence having been established [for it]?

So deviate, that is, in the same way that these [Meccans] deviate, deviate, those who used to deny the signs of God, His miracles.

God it is Who made for you the earth as a [stable] abode and the heaven as a canopy, a ceiling. And He formed you and perfected your forms, and provided you with [all] the wholesome things. That then is God, your Lord, so blessed be God, the Lord of the Worlds.

He is the Living; there is no god except Him. So supplicate Him, worship Him, devoting [your] religion purely to Him, [free] from any idolatry. Praise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds.

Say: ‘I have been forbidden to worship those on whom you call, [those whom] you worship, besides God, since there have come to me clear signs, proofs of His Oneness, from my Lord; and I have been commanded to submit to the Lord of the Worlds’.

He it is Who created you from dust, by having created your father Adam from it, then from a drop [of sperm], then from a blood-clot, congealed blood, then He brings you forth as infants, then, He sustains you, that you may come of age, [until you have attained] your full strength — [this being] from the age of thirty to forty — then that you may become aged (read shuyūkhan or shiyūkhan)— though there are some of you who die earlier, that is, before coming of age or becoming aged. He does this to you so that you may live [on], and that you may complete an appointed term, a defined length of time, that perhaps you might understand, the proofs of [His] Oneness and thus become believers.

He it is Who gives life and brings death. So when He decides upon a matter, [when] He wants to bring something into existence, He only says to it ‘Be!’ and it is (read fa-yakūnu, or fa-yakūna [in the subjunctive] on account of an implied [preceding] an). In other words, it comes into existence after He has willed it, that which is signified by the said words.

Have you not regarded those who dispute the signs of God, the Qur’ān, how they are turned away?, from faith —

those who deny the Book, the Qur’ān, and that wherewith We have sent Our messengers, in the way of the affirmation of [God’s] Oneness and [belief in] the Resurrection — and these [deniers] are the Meccan disbelievers. But they will come to know, the punishment for their denials;

when (idh has the meaning of idhā) [with] fetters around their necks and chains (wa’l-salāsilu, a supplement to al-aghlālu, ‘fetters’, so that the meaning is that these [chains] are also around their necks; or it [al-salāsilu, ‘chains’] is the subject, the predicate of which has been omitted, in other words [the meaning being]: around their feet [will be these chains] — or [alternatively] its predicate is [the following, yushabūna]), they are dragged, in other words, they are dragged away by these [chains].

into the boiling water, that is, [into] Hell, then in the Fire they are set aflame.

Then it will be said to them, in reproach: ‘Where are those whom you used to make partners,

besides God?’, alongside Him, and these are the idols. They will say, ‘They have forsaken, abandoned, us, and so we cannot see them. Nay, but [actually] we were not invoking anything before’. They deny that they used to worship these [idols]; but then these [idols] are brought [before them] — [which is where] God, exalted be He, says: ‘Truly you and what you worship besides God shall be fuel for Hell’ [Q. 21:98]). So, in the same way that these disbelievers have been led astray, God leads astray the disbelievers.

And it will also be said to them: ‘That, chastisement, is because you used to exult in the earth without right, by [your] idolatry and denial of resurrection, and because you were insolent, committing acts of disobedience in abundance.