Al-Hadid

All that is in the heavens and the earth glorifies God, that is to say, all things exalt Him as being transcendent (thus, the lām [of li’Llāhi] is extra; mā, ‘[all] that’, is used instead of min, ‘[all] who’, in order to indicate what is the predominant [sc. non-rational beings]); and He is the Mighty, in His kingdom, the Wise, in His actions.

To Him belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth; He gives life, through [His act of] creation, and He brings death, thereafter, and He has power over all things.

He is the First, preceding everything [but] without [His] having any beginning, and the Last, succeeding everything [but] without [His] having any end, and the Manifest, through the proofs for Him, and the Hidden, from the perception of the senses, and He has knowledge of all things.

It is He Who created the heavens and the earth in six days, of the days of this world, the first of which being Sunday, and the last of which, Friday, then presided upon the Throne (‘arsh: [denotes] the kursī), a presiding [that was] befitting of Him. He knows what enters the earth, of rain and dead creatures, and what issues from it, of vegetation and minerals, and what comes down from the heaven, in the way of mercy and chastisement, and what ascends in it, of righteous deeds and evil ones. And He is with you, by [virtue of] His knowledge, wherever you may be; and God is Seer of what you do.

To Him belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, and to Him [all] matters, all existents, are returned.

He makes the night pass into, He makes it enter, the day, so that it increases while the night diminishes, and makes the day pass into the night, so that it increases while the day diminishes. And He is Knower of what is in the breasts, of what it contains of secrets and convictions.

Believe, adhere to belief, in God and His Messenger, and expend, in the way of God, out of that over which He has made you successors, out of the wealth of those mentioned [whom you have succeeded], for you will be succeeded in this [wealth] by those who will come after you: this was revealed at the time of the ‘hardship’ campaign, the campaign of Tabūk. For those of you who believe and expend — an allusion to ‘Uthmān [b. ‘Affān], may God be pleased with him — will have a great reward.

And why should you not believe — an address to the disbelievers — in other words, there is nothing to prevent you from believing, in God when the Messenger is calling you to believe in your Lord, and a pledge has been taken from you (reading [it as] ukhidha mīthāqukum; otherwise akhadha mīthāqakum, ‘He has taken a pledge from you’) concerning it — that is to say, God took this [pledge from you] in the world of atoms when He made them bear witness against themselves: ‘Am I not your Lord?’ They said, ‘Yea, indeed’ [Q. 7:172] — if you are believers?, that is to say, if your intention is to believe in Him, then apply yourselves to this [duty of faith].

It is He Who sends down upon His servant clear signs, the signs of the Qur’ān, that He may bring you forth from the darkness, [from] disbelief, to the light, [to] faith. For truly God is Kind, Merciful to you, in bringing you forth from disbelief to faith.

And why should you, after having embraced faith, not (allā: the nūn of an [an-lā] has been assimilated here with the lām of lā) expend in the way of God when to God belongs the heritage of the heavens and the earth, with all that they comprise, so that He will [eventually] receive all your wealth but without the reward for having expended [of it for His cause], as opposed to if you had expended and had hence been rewarded. Not equal [to the rest of you] are those of you who expended and fought before the victory, at Mecca. Such are greater in rank than those who expended and fought afterwards. Yet to each, of the two groups (a variant reading [for wa-kullan, ‘yet to each’] has nominative wa-kullun as a subject) God has promised the best reward, Paradise. And God is Aware of what you do, and will requite you for it [accordingly].

Who is it that will lend God, by expending his wealth in the way of God, a goodly loan, [goodly] by virtue of his expending it for God’s sake, so that He may multiply it (fa-yudā‘ifahu, may also be read fa-yuda‘‘ifahu) for him, from tenfold up to more than seven hundredfold —as stated in sūrat al-Baqara [Q. 2:261], and [so that] there may be for him, in addition to the multiplied [reward], a generous reward, coupled with satisfaction and prosperity.

Mention, the day when you will see the believing men and believing women with their light shining forth before them, in front of them, and, it will [also] be, on their right, and it will be said to them: ‘Good tidings for you on this day: Gardens, that is to say, enter them, underneath which rivers flow, wherein you will abide. That is the great success’.

The day when the hypocrites, men and women, will say to those who believe, ‘Look at us (unzurūnā: a variant reading has anzirūnā, meaning ‘Give us a chance’) that we may glean something of your light!’ It will be said, to them in mockery of them: ‘Step back and seek light!’ So they step back, then there will be set up between them, and the believers, a wall — this is said to be the wall of ‘the Heights’ [cf. Q. 7:46] — with a gate, the inner side of which contains mercy, the side of the believers, and the outer side of which, the side of the hypocrites, faces toward the chastisement.

They will call out to them, ‘Did we not use to be with you?’, upon [the path of] obedience. They will say, ‘Yes, indeed! But you caused your souls to fall into temptation, by [engaging in] hypocrisy, and you awaited, reversals of fortune for the believers, and you doubted, you were uncertain about the religion of Islam, and [false] hopes, greedy desires, deceived you until God’s ordinance, death, came; and the Deceiver, Satan, deceived you concerning God.

So on this day no ransom will be taken from you (read tu’khadhu or yu’khadhu) nor from those who disbelieved. Your abode will be the Fire: it will be your guardian, it is [the place truly] deserving of you, and an evil destination!’, it is.

Is it not time for those who believe — this was revealed concerning the matter of the Companions [of the Prophet] who had been overindulging in jest, that their hearts should be humbled to the remembrance of God and [to] what has been revealed (read as nuzzila; or read nazala, ‘[what] has come down’) of the truth, the Qur’ān, and that they should not be (lā yakūnū is a supplement to takhsha‘a, ‘be humbled’) like those who were given the Scripture before?, namely, the Jews and the Christians. For the stretch of time, the interval [extending] from them [back] to [the time of the sending of the last of] their prophets, was too long for them and so their hearts became hardened, unyielding to the remembrance of God, and many of them are immoral.

Know — an address to the believers [just] mentioned — that God revives the earth after its death, by [bringing forth] vegetation, and likewise He is able to do with your hearts, restoring them to humbleness. We have certainly made clear for you the signs, that testify to Our power with this [mentioned example] and others, that perhaps you may understand.

Indeed men who give voluntary alms (al-mussaddiqīna, derives from the [infinitive] al-tasadduq, ‘to give voluntary alms’; the tā’ [of the original mutasaddiqīna] has been assimilated with the sād) and women who give voluntary alms (a variant reading for both has the softened form [with a single sād, musaddiqīna and musaddiqāti], which derives from al-tasdīq, ‘to affirm the truth of’, ‘to believe in’) and [those of them] who have lent God a goodly loan (this refers back to both the men and women with [the masculine plural of] predominance; the supplementing of a verb [aqradū, ‘who lent’] to a noun [of action, al-mussaddiqāt] at [the point of] the relative clause of the al-, is because in that position it [the noun] functions as a verb; the mention of the ‘loan’ together with its qualification [‘goodly’] after [the mention of] ‘the giving of voluntary alms’ is intended to define it), it will be multiplied (yudā‘afu, is also read as yuda‘‘afu), namely, their loan [will multiplied], for them and they will have a generous reward.

And those who believe in God and His messengers — they are the truthful, (al-siddīqūna) those who go to the greatest lengths to be truthful, and the witnesses with their Lord, against the deniers of [all] communities; they will have their reward and their light. But those who disbelieve and deny Our signs, those [signs] that testify to [the truth of] Our Oneness — they will be the inhabitants of Hell-fire.

Know that the life of this world is merely play and diversion and glitter, the frequent adornment [of oneself], and mutual vainglory in respect of wealth and children, that is, preoccupation with such things — but as for acts of obedience and incentives thereto, these are the concerns of the Hereafter; as the likeness of, that is to say, it, in the manner in which you admire it and in the manner in which it will disappear, is as the likeness of, rain whose vegetation, which results from this [rain], the disbelievers, the sowers, admire; [but] then it withers, it becomes dried-up, and you see it turn yellow, then it becomes chaff, scatters vanishing with the winds. And in the Hereafter there is a severe chastisement, for those who prefer this world to it, and forgiveness from God and beatitude, for those who have not preferred this world to it; and the life of this world, that is to say, the comfort [enjoyed] in it, is but the comfort of delusion.

Vie with one another for forgiveness from your Lord and a garden the breadth of which is as the breadth of the heaven and the earth, if one were placed at the end of the other, prepared for those who believe in God and His messengers. That is the bounty of God, which He gives to whomever He will, and God is [dispenser] of tremendous bounty.

No affliction befalls in the earth, by way of drought [for example], or in yourselves, such as illness, or the loss of a child, but it is in a Book, meaning, the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfūz), before We bring it about, [before] We create it — the same is said [to be true] of [God’s] graces — that is indeed easy for God,

so that you may not (kay-lā: kay makes a verb subjunctive, with the same sense as an [as in an-lā, ‘so that … not’]), that is to say, God informs [you] of this so that you may not, grieve for what escapes you, nor exult, with a wanton exultation, rather an exultation that is [followed by] a thanksgiving for the grace, at what He has given you (read [thus] as ātākum; or read as atākum, meaning, ‘[at] what has come to you from Him’). For God does not like any swaggering braggart, [swaggering] in arrogance because of what he has been given, [boastful] of it to people;

such as are niggardly, in their duties, and bid people to be niggardly, in these [too]: against such there is a severe threat of chastisement. And whoever turns away, from what is his duty, still God, He is indeed (huwa, ‘He’, is a separating pronoun; a variant reading drops it) the Independent, [without need] of anyone other than Him, the Praiser, of His friends.

We have verily sent Our messengers, the angels, to prophets, with clear signs, with the definitive proofs, and We revealed with them the Scripture and the Balance, justice, so that mankind may uphold justice. And We sent down iron, We caused it to be extracted from mineral ores, wherein is great might, with which one may wage battle, and [many] uses for mankind, and so that God may know, a knowledge of direct vision (li-ya‘lama’Llāhu is a supplement to li-yaqūma’l-nāsu, ‘so that mankind may uphold’) those who help Him, by helping [to uphold] His religion through [the use of] instruments of war made of metal and otherwise, and His messengers through the Unseen (bi’l-ghaybi: a circumstantial qualifier referring to the [suffixed pronoun] hā’, ‘Him’, of yansuruhu, ‘[who] aid Him’), that is to say, while He [God] is not seen by them in this world. Ibn ‘Abbās said: ‘They help Him even though they do not see Him’ (yansurūnahu wa-lā yubsirūnahu). Assuredly God is Strong, Mighty, without any need of being helped, but such [help] benefits those who proffer it.

And verily We sent Noah and Abraham and We ordained among their seed prophethood and the Scripture, meaning the four Books: the Torah, the Gospel, the Psalms and the Furqān, all of which have been [revealed] among the seed of Abraham; and some of them are [rightly] guided, and many of them are immoral.

Then We sent to follow in their footsteps Our messengers, and We sent to follow, Jesus son of Mary, and We gave him the Gospel, and We placed in the hearts of those who followed him kindness and mercy. But [as for] monasticism, namely, abstention from women and seclusion in monasteries, they invented it, [an innovation] on their part — We had not prescribed it for them, We did not enjoin them to it; but they took it on — only seeking God’s beatitude. Yet they did not observe it with due observance, for many of them abandoned it and rejected the religion of Jesus and embraced the religion of their [then] king. However, many of them did remain upon the religion of Jesus and they believed in our Prophet [when he came]. So We gave those of them who believed, in him, their reward; but many of them are immoral.

O you who believe, in Jesus, fear God and believe in His Messenger, Muhammad (s), and Jesus, and He will give you a twofold portion, share, of His mercy, for your belief in both prophets; and He will assign for you a light by which you will walk, across the Path [over Hell and into Paradise], and forgive you; for God is Forgiving, Merciful;

So that the People of the Scripture, the Torah — those who did not believe in Muhammad (s) — may know, in other words, I inform you of this so that they [the People of the Scripture] may know, that (a [of a-llā] is softened in place of the hardened form [an-lā], its subject being the pronoun of the matter, that is to say, [understand it as being] annahum) they have no power over anything of God’s bounty, contrary to their claims that they are God’s beloved and those who deserve His beatitude, and that [all] bounty is in God’s hand; He gives it to whomever He will, and hence He has given the believers [in the Prophet] among them their reward twofold, as stated above; and God is [dispenser] of tremendous bounty.