Al-Qamar

The Hour has drawn near, the Resurrection is close at hand, and the moon has split, it broke in two at [Mount] Abū Qubays and Qu‘ayqa‘ān, as a sign for the Prophet (s), for it had been demanded of him, and [when it took place] he said, ‘Bear witness [now]!’ — as reported by the two Shaykhs [al-Bukhārī and Muslim].

And if they, the disbelievers among Quraysh, see a sign, a miracle of the Prophet (s), they turn away and say, this is: ‘A powerful sorcery!’ (mustamirr, ‘powerful’, derives from al-mirra, meaning ‘strength’; or it [mustamirr] means ‘incessant’).

And they denied, the Prophet (s), and followed their own desires, as regards [their] falsehood; and every matter, that is good or evil, will be settled, with that person [who is responsible for it], either [by his ending up] in Paradise or in the Fire.

And verily there has come to them such tidings, stories about the destruction of communities which denied their messengers, as contain a deterrent, to them (muzdajar is a verbal noun, or a noun of place; the dāl [of muzdajar] replaces the tā’ of [the 8th form] ifta‘ala; one may say, izdajartuhu or zajartuhu, to mean ‘I forbade him sternly’; mā, ‘such as’, either indicates a relative clause, or it is qualified by an adjective);

wisdom (hikmatun is the predicate of an omitted subject, or a substitution for mā, ‘such as’, or for muzdajar, ‘deterrent’) [that is] far-reaching, complete; but warnings (nudhur is the plural of nadhīr, functioning in the [agent] sense of mundhir, ‘a warner’, that is to say, ‘those matters which warn them’; mā is either for negation, or it is an interrogative of denial, in which case it stands as a preceding direct object) are of no avail, [warnings] are of no use with them.

So turn away from them! (this is the import of the preceding statement and it completes what is being said). On the day when the Summoner, namely, Isrāfīl (yawma, ‘the day’, is rendered accusative by yakhrujūna, ‘they will emerge’, next [verse]), summons to an awful thing (read nukur or nukr, in the sense of munkar, ‘disagreeable’), [a thing] which the souls will find awful, and this is the Reckoning;

with their downcast (khāshi‘an: a variant reading has khushsha‘an), humiliated, looks (absāruhum is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of the verb [yakhrujūna, ‘they will emerge’]) they, that is, mankind, will emerge from the graves as though they were scattered locusts, not knowing where to go, out of fear and perplexity (this sentence [ka’annahum jarādun muntashirun] is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of [the verb] yakhrujūna, ‘they will emerge’, and so is His saying [muhti‘īna]),

scrambling, hastening with their necks stretched out, toward the Summoner. The disbelievers, among them, will say: ‘This is a hard day!’, a difficult one for disbelievers — as is stated in [sūrat] al-Muddaththir, a day of hardship for the disbelievers [Q. 74:9-10].

The people of Noah denied (kadhdhabat has feminine inflection on account of the import [referring to a feminine noun], qawm, ‘tribe’) before them, before Quraysh. Thus they denied Our servant, Noah, and said, ‘A madman!’, and he was reviled: they repulsed him with insults and in other ways.

And so he invoked his Lord, [saying,] ‘I have been (annī, to be understood as bi-annī) overcome, so help [me]!’

Then We opened (read fa-fatahnā or fa-fattahnā) the gates of the heaven with torrential waters, [waters] pouring down intensely,

and We made the earth burst forth with springs, that flowed forth, and the waters, the waters of the heaven and the earth, met for a purpose, a circumstance, that was preordained, [a matter] which had been decreed since pre-eternity, namely, their destruction by drowning.

And We bore him, that is, Noah, on one, a ship, [made] of planks and nails (dusur is what boards are fastened down with of nails and the like; the singular is disār, similar [in pattern] to [kutub] kitāb, ‘book’),

sailing before Our eyes, that is, in Our sights, in other words, [it was being] protected, as retaliation (jazā’an is in the accusative because of the implied verbal clause, that is to say, ‘they were drowned by way of revenge’) for [the sake of] him who was rejected, namely, Noah, peace be upon him (a variant reading [for passive kufira] has kafara, ‘him who disbelieved’, in other words, they were drowned as a punishment for them).

And verily We left it, We preserved this [deed], as a sign, for whomever might be admonished by it, in other words, the news of this [deed] became widely-known and endured. So is there anyone who will remember?, [anyone who] will take heed from, or be admonished by, it? (muddakir is actually mudhtakir, but the tā’ has been replaced with a dāl, likewise the dhāl, and it [the dāl] has been assimilated with it [the other dāl]).

How [dreadful] then were My chastisement and My warnings? (this is an interrogative meant as an affirmative; kayfa, ‘how’, is the predicate of kāna, ‘was’, and it is here being used to inquire about a ‘state’; the intention is to prompt those who are being addressed to affirm the fact that God’s chastisement of those who denied Noah was fully deserved).

And verily We have made the Qur’ān easy to remember, We have facilitated its memorisation and disposed it to serve as a [source of] remembrance. So is there anyone who remember?, [anyone who] will be admonished by it and memorise it? (the interrogative here is intended as an imperative: in other words, memorise it and be admonished by it; none of God’s scriptures is memorised by heart other than it [the Qur’ān]).

‘Ād denied, their prophet Hūd and so they were chastised. How then were My chastisement and My warnings?, [how then was] My warning them of the chastisement before it was sent down? In other words, it was justified, and He explains this [chastisement] by saying:

Indeed We unleashed upon them a clamorous wind, intensely noisy, on a day of prolonged ill fortune, (nahsin mustamirr means) either one of continuous ill fortune, or one of severe ill fortune — and this was the last Wednesday of the month —

tearing people away, wrenching them from the holes in the ground in which they had been embedded and flinging them down [to the ground] head first, thereby crushing their necks and severing [their] heads from [their] bodies, as if they were, [while lying] in this mentioned state, trunks of uprooted palm-trees, severed and thrown on the ground — they are likened to palm-trees because of their tallness (nakhlun, ‘palm-trees’, is masculine here but feminine in [sūrat] al-Hāqqa, nakhlun khāwiya, ‘fallen down [or hollow] palm-trees’, [Q. 69:7], in order to harmonise with the end-rhyme of the verses in both instances).

How then were My chastisement and My warnings?

And verily We have made the Qur’ān easy to remember. So is there anyone who will remember?

Thamūd denied the warnings (nudhur is the plural of nadhīr, with the sense of mundhir), that is to say, [they denied] those matters which their prophet Sālih warned them of if they refused to believe in him and to follow him,

and they said, ‘Is it a mortal (basharan is in the accusative because it is governed [by a succeeding verb]) alone among us (minnā wāhidan are both adjectives of basharan) that we are to follow? (nattabi‘uhu, this explains the verb which renders it [basharan, ‘mortal’] accusative; the interrogative is meant as a negative, in other words: why should we follow him when there are many of us and he is only one among us and not a king? That is to say, we will not follow him). Then indeed, if we were to follow him, we would be in error, a parting with reason, and insanity!

Has the Reminder, the revelation, been cast (read a-ulqiya pronouncing both hamzas, or by not pronouncing the second one but in both cases inserting an intervening alif, or leaving this [insertion] out) upon him [alone] from among us?, in other words, nothing has been revealed to him. Nay, but he is a conceited, an arrogant and insolent, liar, in his saying that the mentioned has been revealed to him. God, exalted be He, says:

‘They will know tomorrow, in the Hereafter, who is the conceited liar, and it is them, for they will be chastised for having denied their prophet Sālih.

Lo! We are sending the She-camel, We will bring it forth out of the mountain, the rock, as they demanded, as a trial, a test, for them, that We may try them. So watch them, O Sālih, await [to see] what they will do and what will be done with them, and remain patient (istabir: the tā’ here has replaced the tā’ of [the 8th form] ifta‘ala), in other words, endure their harm.

And inform them that the water is to be divided between them, and the She-camel: one day for them and the next for it, every drinking, [every] portion of water, will be attended’, by the people [drawing water] on their [designated] day, and by the She-camel on its day. They adhered to this [regime] but eventually became impatient with it and decided to slaughter the She-camel.

But they called their companion, Qudār, to slay it, so he took, he drew his sword, and he hamstrung, with it the She-camel, in other words, he slew her in compliance with their wish.

How then were My chastisement and My warnings?, My warning them of chastisement before it was sent down? In other words, it was justified. He explains it [their chastisement] by saying:

Indeed We unleashed upon them a single Cry, and they became like the chaff of a corral builder (al-muhtazir is one who makes a pen from dried tree-branches and thorns for his sheep, to protect them from wolves and beasts of prey; the fallen parts which they tread are called hashīm).

And verily We have made the Qur’ān easy to remember. So is there anyone who will remember?

The people of Lot denied the warnings, [they denied] those issues of which they were warned by his [Lot’s] tongue.

Indeed We unleashed upon them a squall of pebbles, a wind hurling at them pebbles, namely, small stones, a single one [of these] being no larger than the palm of the hand, and they were destroyed; [all] except the family of Lot, namely, his two daughters, together with him, whom We delivered at dawn, from among the dawns, the morning time of an unspecified day (had a specific day been meant [for that mentioned dawn], it [sahar] would have been treated as a diptote [instead of the declined form saharin], being a definite noun derived from al-sahar, for with definite nouns one ought to use [the preceding definite article] al). So was the squall unleashed at first with the family of Lot [still there]? There are two opinions regarding this: in the case of the former [that it was unleashed upon them including the family of Lot] the exception is understood as a continuous one, while in the case of the latter [opinion that they were delivered before the squall] the exception is understood as a discontinuous one, even if it [‘the family of Lot’] is actually subsumed by the collective noun [‘the people of Lot’, and so they were delivered] as a kindness [from God];

as a grace (ni‘matan is a verbal noun, that is to say in‘āman, ‘an act of grace’) from Us. So, like that requital, do We requite him who gives thanks, for Our graces and is a believer, or [it means] him who is a believer in God and His messenger and is obedient to both.

And verily he had warned them, Lot had threatened them, of Our strike, Our seizing them with chastisement, but they disputed, they contested and denied, the warnings, his warning.

And they had even solicited of him his guests, that he should let them have their own way with those who had come to him as guests, that they may do wicked things with them — and these [guests] were angels. So We blotted out their eyes, We blinded them and made them without slits [so that they were continuous folds of skin] like the rest of the face, by having Gabriel smack them with his wing. ‘So taste [now], so We said to them: taste, My chastisement and My warnings’, that is to say, [taste] the effects and the substance of My warning and My threat.

And verily there greeted them in the early morning, the morning time of an unspecified day, an abiding chastisement, a permanent [chastisement], continuous with the chastisement of the Hereafter.

‘So taste [now] My chastisement and My warnings!’

And verily We have made the Qur’ān easy to remember. So is there anyone who will remember?

And verily there came to Pharaoh’s folk, his people, together with him, the warnings, the warning by the tongue of Moses and Aaron, but they did not believe.

Rather: They denied Our signs, all, nine, of them, which were given to Moses. So We seized them, by way of chastisement, with the seizing of One [Who is] Mighty, Strong, Omnipotent, Powerful, Whom nothing can thwart.

Are your disbelievers, O Quraysh, better than those?, mentioned [beginning] from the people of Noah to those of Pharaoh, which is why they have not been chastised? Or have you, O disbelievers of Quraysh, [been granted] some immunity, from chastisement, in the Scriptures?, the Books? (the interrogative in both instances is meant as a denial, in other words: it is not so).

Or do they, the disbelievers of Quraysh, say: ‘We are a host that will be helped to victory’?, against Muhammad (s)? When Abū Jahl, on the day of Badr, said: ‘We are a host that will be helped to victory’, the following was revealed:

The host will [truly] be routed and turn its back [to flee], and so they were defeated at Badr and God’s Messenger (s) was granted victory over them.

Nay, but the Hour is their tryst, for chastisement, and the Hour, that is, the chastisement thereat, will be more calamitous, greater in affliction, and more bitter, than the chastisement of this world.

Indeed the guilty are in error, in the destruction of being killed in this world, and in a blazing fire, a fire that has been set ablaze (musa‘‘ara), that is, fiercely ignited in the Hereafter.

The day when they are dragged into the Fire on their faces, in the Hereafter and it is said to them: ‘Taste [now] the touch of Saqar’, Hell’s affliction of you.

Truly everything (read inna kulla shay’in is [in the accusative as a] dependent clause because of a verb governing it) have We created in a measure, by ordainment (bi-qadarin, ‘in a measure’, is a circumstantial qualifier referring to kulla, ‘every’, in other words, ‘[already] predetermined’; a variant reading [for kulla] has [nominative] kullu as the subject, the predicate of which is khalaqnāhu, ‘We have created’).

And Our command, for a thing which We want to bring into existence, is but a single word, like the twinkling of an eye, in terms of speed, and this is the saying of kun, ‘Be’, whereat it comes into existence. His command, when He wills a thing, is just to say to it ‘Be’, and it is [Q. 36:82].

And verily We have destroyed the likes of you, the likes of you in terms of disbelief, from among past communities. So is there anyone who will remember? (this is an interrogative meant as an imperative, that is to say, ‘Remember and be admonished!’).

And everything they, that is, servants, have done is, recorded, in the scrolls, the books of the Guardian Angels (al-hafaza),

and every small and great, sin, or deed, is inscribed, is recorded in the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfūz).

Assuredly the God-fearing will be amid gardens, orchards, and rivers (the collective noun is meant here; a variant reading [for nahar] has the plural nuhur, similar [in form] to asad, ‘lion’, [plural] usud), the meaning being that they will drink from its rivers water milk, honey and wine;

in an abode of truth, a place of truth, wherein there is no idle talk or cause for sin — (the collective noun [maq‘ad] is meant here; a variant reading has maqā‘id, ‘abodes’), in other words, they are in congregations in Paradise that are free from idle talk and cause for sin, in contrast to the congregations of this world, which are rarely free from such things (syntactically, this statement is considered a second predicate and also a substitution; it [the ‘abode’] may be understood as being ‘one of truth’ regardless of whether one reads the substitution as being of the part [for the whole] or otherwise); before a King (malīk: this form is hyperbolic, that is to say, One of a mighty and vast kingdom) [Who is] Omnipotent, Powerful, Whom nothing can thwart, namely, God, exalted be He (‘inda indicates [glorious] rank and closeness to His bounty, exalted be He).