Al-An'am

Praise, which means to describe in beautiful terms, be, [ever] established, to God: is this meant to be informative, so that one believes in it? Or, is it meant as a eulogy, or both? These are three possibilities, the most likely of which is the last, as the Shaykh [Jalāl al-Dīn al-Mahallī] states in [his commentary on] sūrat al-Kahf [Q. 18:1]; Who created the heavens and the earth — He singles out these two for mention because for the observer they constitute the most awesome [visible] creation; and He appointed, He created, darknesses and light, that is, every darkness (zulma) and every light: the use of the plural only in the case of the former is because it [darkness] has many causes; and this is one of the proofs of His Oneness; then those who disbelieve, despite the existence of this proof, ascribe equals to their Lord, they worship others equally.

It is He Who created you from clay, by creating your father Adam from it; then He decreed a term, for [each of] you, at the conclusion of which you die. A term is stated, fixed, with Him, for your resurrection; yet thereafter you, O disbelievers, doubt, you are uncertain about the Resurrection, when you know that it was He Who initiated your creation, and One Who has the power to initiate [creation], is even more capable of bringing you back [to life after death].

He is God, the One worthy of being worshipped, in the heavens and in the earth. He knows your secrets and your utterance, what you keep secret and what you utter openly among yourselves, and He knows what you earn, what you do of good and evil.

Not a verse (min āya: min introduces a relative clause) of the verses of their Lord, in the Qur’ān, comes to them, that is, [to] the Meccans, but they turn away from it.

They denied the truth, the Qur’ān, when it came to them, but there shall come to them the news, the consequences, of what they were mocking.

Have they not seen, in their travels to Syria and to other places, how many, (kam is predicative [and not interrogative], meaning ‘many’) a generation, [how many] a community of past communities, We destroyed before them; We established them, We assigned them an [established] place, in the earth, through strength and abundance, as We have not established, [as] We have [not] assigned, you (there is a shift in the address here from third person [to second]); and how We unleashed the heaven, the rain, upon them in torrents, one torrent after another, and made the rivers to flow beneath them?, beneath their dwellings. Then We destroyed them because of their sins, because of their denial of the prophets; and We raised up after them another generation.

And had We revealed to you a Scripture, inscribed, on parchment, as they requested, and had they then touched it with their hands — this is more powerful than saying, ‘had they seen it with their eyes’, since it [touch] is more effective in eliminating doubt; the disbelievers would have said, in disobedience and obduracy: ‘This is nothing but manifest sorcery’.

And they say, ‘Why has an angel not been sent down to him?’, to Muhammad (s), to confirm his truthfulness; yet had We sent down an angel, as they have requested and if they then did not believe, the matter, that they be destroyed, would have been decreed, and then they would not be given any respite, they would [not] be given any extra time for repentance or an excuse, as is God’s custom [in dealing] with those before them, destroying them when they disbelieve after their request is granted.

And had We appointed him, the one who is sent down to them, an angel, We would assuredly have made him, the angel, a man, that is, [We would have sent him] in the form of a man, so that they would be able to see him, since no human being is capable of seeing an angel; and, had We sent him down and made him a man, We would have assuredly confused, obscured, for them what they are confusing, for themselves, when they say, ‘This is but a mere mortal like the rest of you’.

And messengers were indeed mocked before you — this is meant as a consolation for the Prophet, (s) — but those who scoffed at them were encompassed by that which they mocked, namely, [by the] punishment [sent down on them]: those who mock you will be encompassed likewise.

Say, to them: ‘Travel in the land, and see the nature of the consequence for the deniers’, of the messengers, how they were destroyed through chastisement; perhaps they will take heed.

Say: ‘To whom belongs what is in the heavens and in the earth?’ Say: ‘To God, for even if they do not say this, there is no other response. He has prescribed, He has decreed, for Himself mercy, as a bounty from Him — this is a gentle summoning of them to the faith. He will surely gather you together on the Day of Resurrection of which there is no doubt, no uncertainty, in order to requite you for your deeds. Those who have forfeited their own souls (this is the subject) — by exposing them to the chastisement — they do not believe (this is the predicate).

And to Him, exalted be He, belongs all that inhabits, resides [in], the night and the day, that is to say, everything — He is its Lord, its Creator and its Possessor; and He is the Hearer, of what is said, the Knower’, of what is done.

Say, to them: ‘Shall I take as a protector, to worship, other than God, the Originator of the heavens and the earth, the One Who has created them without any precedent, He Who feeds, Who gives sustenance, and is not fed?’, and is not given sustenance. Say: ‘I have been commanded to be the first to submit, to God, from among this community, and, it was said to me: “Do not be among those who associate others” ’, with Him.

Say: ‘Indeed I fear, if I should rebel against my Lord, by worshipping other than Him, the chastisement of a dreadful day’, namely, the Day of Resurrection.

He from whom it is averted (read passive yusraf, ‘it is averted’, namely, ‘the chastisement’; or read active yasrif, ‘He averts’, namely, ‘God’ [as the subject]; the referential noun has been omitted) on that day, He, the Exalted One, will have had mercy on him, He will have desired good for him; that is the manifest triumph, evident salvation.

And if God touches you with an affliction, a trial, such as an illness or impoverishment, then none can remove it, [none can] lift it, except Him; and if He touches you with good, such as health and affluence, then He has power over all things, including His touching you with this, and none other than Him has the power to remove it from you.

He is the Vanquisher, the Omnipotent, for Whom nothing is impossible, Superior [is He], over His servants, and He is the Wise, in His creation, the Aware, of their innermost [thoughts] as well as their outward [actions].

When they said to the Prophet (s), ‘Bring us someone to testify to the truth of your prophethood, for the People of the Scripture have denied you’, the following was revealed: Say, to them: ‘What thing is greatest in testimony?’ (shahādatan: this is for specification, and is derived from the [implied] subject of the sentence). Say: ‘God — even if they do not say this, there is no other response — He, is Witness between me and you, to my truthfulness; and this Qur’ān has been revealed to me that I may warn you, [that I may] make you fear, O people of Mecca, thereby, and whomever it may reach (wa-man balagha: this is a supplement to the [suffixed] pronoun [‘you’] of undhira-kum, ‘I may warn you’), that is to say, whomever among men and jinn the Qur’ān may reach. Do you indeed bear witness that there are other gods with God?’ (this interrogative is meant as a disavowal). Say, to them: ‘I do not bear witness’, to this. Say: ‘He is only One God, and I am innocent of what you associate’, with Him of idols.

Those to whom We have given the Scripture recognise him, that is, Muhammad (s), by the descriptions of him in their Scripture, as they recognise their sons; those, of them, who have forfeited their own souls do not believe, in him.

And who, that is, none, does greater evil than he who invents a lie against God, by ascribing to Him an associate, or denies His signs?, the Qur’ān; it is verily the case that, they the evildoers shall not prosper, on account of this.

And, mention, on the day We shall gather them all together, then We shall say, in rebuke, to those who associated other gods with God, ‘Where are those associates of yours whom you were claiming?’, to be associates of God?

Then their dissension (read accusative fitnatahum or nominative fitnatuhum) their apology, was (read lam takun or lam yakun) only to say, in other words, [was only] their saying, ‘By God, our Lord (read rabbinā as an adjective of [wa’Llāhi, ‘by God’], or rabbanā as a vocative) we were never idolaters’.

God, exalted be He, says: See, O Muhammad (s), how they lie against themselves, by denying that their idolatry, and how that which they were forging, against God, in the way of associates, has failed, is absent [before], them!

And there are some of them who listen to you, when you recite, and We have placed veils, covers, upon their hearts so that they do not understand it, [so that] they [do not] comprehend the Qur’ān; and in their ears a heaviness, a deafness, so that they do not hear it with a willingness to accept it. And if they were to see every sign, they would not believe in it, so that when they come to you to argue with you, the disbelievers say, ‘This, Qur’ān, is nothing but the fables, the lies, of the ancients’, similar to [their] jokes and strange tales (asātīr, ‘fables’, is the plural of ustūra).

And, to people, they forbid it, the following of the Prophet (s), and keep away from it, and so they do not believe in him: it is said that this was revealed regarding Abū Tālib, who used to forbid [people from] hurting him, but did not [himself] believe in him; and it is only themselves they destroy, when they keep away from him, because the harm thereof will befall them, but they do not perceive, this.

If you, O Muhammad (s), could see when they are made to stand, [when] they are exposed, before the Fire, and they say, ‘Oh (yā is for exclamation) would that we might be returned, to the world; then we would not deny the signs of our Lord, but we would be among the believers!’ (read nukadhdhibu and nakūnu as a new [independent] sentence; or read nukadhdhiba and nakūna as the [subjunctive] response to the optative [clause]; or read nukadhdhibu and nakūna). The response to the clause ‘if [you could see]’ would be ‘you would be seeing a terrible thing indeed’.

God, exalted be He, says: Nay — [here used] in order to reject the desire to believe implied by the optative [exclamation] — that which they used to conceal, to hide, before, by their saying, By God, our Lord, we were never idolaters! [Q. 6:23]) has now become evident to them, as their limbs have borne witness [against them], and so they [now] wish for that [mentioned in the previous verse]; and even if, hypothetically, they were returned, to the world, they would return to that which they are forbidden, of idolatry; they are truly liars, when they promise that they would believe [if they were to be returned].

And they, those who deny the Resurrection, say, ‘There is no other, life, than our present life; we shall not be resurrected’.

If you could see when they are made to stand, [when they are] presented, before their Lord, you would certainly see an awesome thing! He will say, to them, by the tongue of the angels, in rebuke: ‘Is this, resurrection and reckoning, not the truth?’ They will say, ‘Yes indeed, by our Lord’, it is the truth! He will say, ‘Then taste the chastisement because you disbelieved’, during life on earth.

They indeed are losers who deny the encounter with God, through resurrection, until (hattā is purposive to expose the [extent of their] mendacity) when the Hour, the Resurrection, comes upon them suddenly, they shall say, ‘Alas for us (yā hasratanā, ‘O grief of ours’, expresses extreme suffering, the [vocative] call to which is figurative, meaning ‘Now is the time for you [O grief], so come forth!’) that we neglected it!’, the worldly life. On their backs they shall be bearing their burdens, so that these come to them at the Resurrection in the vilest of forms and with the most putrid of smells, and they ride them. Ah, evil is that, burden of theirs, which they bear!

The life of this world, that is, preoccupation with it, is nothing but a game and a diversion, while obedience and what is conducive to it are of the things of the Hereafter; surely the abode of the Hereafter (wa-la’l-dāru is also read wa-la-dāru’l-ākhirati), namely, Paradise, is better for those who fear idolatry. What, do they not understand? this, and so believe? (read a-fa-lā ya‘qilūna, ‘do they not understand’, or a-fa-lā ta‘qilūna, ‘do you not understand?’).

We know indeed (qad is a confirmative particle) that it grieves you that, matter, which they say, to you, in denial; yet it is not that they deny you, in secret, for they know that you are truthful (a variant reading [for lā yukadhdhibūnaka, ‘not [that] they deny you’] has lā yukdhibūnak, that is to say, ‘they do not associate you with mendacity’) but evildoers (al-zālimīn replaces the previous pronominalisation [‘they’]) knowingly reject, deny, the signs of God, the Qur’ān.

Messengers indeed have been denied before you — herein is a consolation for the Prophet (s) — yet they endured patiently the denial and the persecution until Our victorious help came to them, through the destruction of their peoples, so be patient until the victorious help comes to you through the destruction of your people. There is none to change the words of God, His promises, and there has already come to you tidings of the messengers, [tidings] through which your heart can be at peace.

And if their aversion, to Islam, is grievous, [too] great, for you, on account of your concern for them, then, if you can, seek out a hole, an underground passage, in the earth, or a ladder, a stairway, to heaven, that you may bring them a sign, from among those they have requested, then go ahead: the meaning is that you will not be able to do this, so be patient until God delivers His judgement — but had God willed, to guide them, He would have gathered them together in guidance, but He did not will this, and so they do not believe; so do not be among the ignorant, of this matter.

Only those who hear, in such a way so as to understand and take heed, will answer, your call to faith; as for the dead, that is, the disbelievers — they are likened to them on account of their inability to hear — God will resurrect them, in the Hereafter, and then to Him they will be returned, and He will requite them for their deeds.

And they, the disbelievers of Mecca, say, ‘Why has a sign not been sent down to him from his Lord?’, [a sign] such as the she-camel [of the prophet Sālih] or the staff [of Moses] or the Table [of Jesus]. Say, to them: ‘Surely God has the power to send down (read yunazzil or yunzil) a sign, from among those they have requested, but most of them do not know’, that its sending down would be a trial for them, for if they then [still] denied it, they would necessarily be destroyed.

There is no (mā min: min is extra) animal, that crawls, on the earth and no bird that flies, through the air, with its wings, but they are communities like to you, in the way that its creation has been ordained, together with its sustenance and affairs. We have neglected nothing (min shay’: min is extra) in the Book, in the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfūz), [nothing] that We have not written; then to their Lord they shall be gathered, and judgement shall be passed upon them, and the hornless sheep shall retaliate against the horned ram, and then it will be said to them [the animals], ‘Be dust’.

And those who deny Our signs, the Qur’ān, are deaf, to hearing them in such a way so as to accept [them], and dumb, [unable] to utter truth, in darkness, in unbelief. He whom God wills, to send astray, He sends astray, and whom He wills, to guide, He sets him on a straight path, [a straight] road, the religion of Islam.

Say, O Muhammad (s), to the Meccans: ‘Do you see yourselves, [that is] inform me, if God’s chastisement comes upon you, in this world, or the Hour, the Resurrection, which includes this [chastisement], comes upon you, suddenly, will ye call upon any other than God? No! If you speak truly!’, that the idols can benefit you, then call upon them.

Nay; upon Him, and upon none other, you will call, in [times of] tribulation, and He will remove that which you call upon Him, to remove from you, such things as suffering, if He wills, to remove it, and you will forget, you will neglect, what you associate with Him, of idols and will not call them.

Indeed We sent to communities before you (min qablika: min is extra), messengers, but they denied them, and We seized them with misery, abject poverty, and hardship, illness, so that they might be humble, abased, that they might believe.

If only, when Our might, Our punishment, came upon them, they had been humble, in other words, they were not so, even though the necessitating factor was there. But their hearts were hard, and would not yield to faith, and Satan adorned for them what they were doing, in the way of disobedient acts, and so they persisted in them.

So, when they forgot, [when] they neglected, that whereof they were reminded, that with which they were admonished and threatened, in the way of misery and hardship; and they did not heed the admonition, We opened (read fatahnā or fattahnā) to them the gates of all things, in the way of graces, in order to draw them on by degrees, until, when they rejoiced in what they were given, a wanton rejoicing, We seized them suddenly, with chastisement, and lo! they were confounded, despairing of anything good.

So the last remnant of the people who did evil was cut off, by having them annihilated. Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds, for giving victory to the messengers and destroying the disbelievers.

Say, to the people of Mecca: ‘Have you considered, inform me, if God were to seize your hearing, [if] He were to make you deaf, and your sight, [if] He were to make you blind, and set, stamp, a seal upon your hearts, so that you no longer knew anything, who is the god other than God to give it back to you?’, that which He took away from you, as you [are wont to] claim? See how We dispense, [how] We make clear, the signs, the proofs of Our Oneness! Yet thereafter they are turning away, they reject them and do not believe.

Say, to them: ‘Have you considered for yourselves, if God’s chastisement were to come upon you, suddenly or openly?, at night or during the day; Would any be destroyed, except the evildoing, the unbelieving, folk?’ That is to say, none but these will be destroyed.

We do not send messengers, except as bearers of good tidings, to those who believe, [good tidings] of Paradise, and as warners, to those who disbelieve, [warning] of the Fire. Whoever believes, in them, and makes amends, in his deeds, no fear shall befall them, neither shall they grieve, in the Hereafter.

But those who deny Our signs, the chastisement shall afflict them because they were wicked, rebelling against obedience.

Say, to them: ‘I do not say to you, “I possess the treasure houses of God”, from which He provides sustenance; and I do not have knowledge of the Unseen, that which is hidden from me and has not been revealed to me. And I do not say to you, “I am an angel”, from among the angels; I only follow what is revealed to me.’ Say: ‘Is the blind man, the disbeliever, equal to the seeing man, the believer? No! Will you not then reflect’ upon this and believe?

And warn, threaten, therewith, that is, [with] the Qur’ān, those who fear they shall be gathered to their Lord: apart from Him, other than Him, they have no protector, to help them, and no intercessor, to intercede for them (the negative sentence stands as a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of [the verb] yuhsharū, ‘they shall be gathered’, and constitutes the object of [what they] fear) — the sinning believers are meant here; so that they might be wary, of God, by desisting from what they engage in and performing deeds of obedience.

And do not drive away those who call upon their Lord at morning and evening desiring, through their worship, His countenance, exalted be He, and not [desiring] any of the transient things of this world — and these are the poor. The idolaters had reviled them and demanded that he [the Prophet] expel them, so that they could sit with him. The Prophet (s) wanted [to do] this, because of his desire that they become Muslims. You are not accountable for them in anything (min shay’in: min is extra), if what they hide in themselves be displeasing; nor are they accountable for you in anything, that you should drive them away (this is the response to the negative sentence) and be of the evildoers, if you do this.

And even so We have tried, We have tested, some of them by others, that is, the noble one by the commoner, the rich man by the poor man, preferring the [latter] one by giving [him] precedence in [attaining] faith, so that they, the noble ones and the rich, may say, in disavowal, ‘Are these, the poor, the ones whom God has favoured from among us?’, with guidance? In other words [so that they may say]: if what they follow is [true] guidance, they would not have preceded us [in attaining it]. God, exalted be He, says: Is God not best aware of those who are thankful?, to Him, to guide them? Indeed [He is].

And when those who believe in Our signs come to you, say, to them: ‘Peace be upon you. Your Lord has prescribed, He has decreed, for Himself mercy, to the effect that, truly (innahu, ‘truly’, may also be read as annahu, ‘that’, as a substitution for al-rahma, ‘mercy’) whoever of you does evil in ignorance, of it when he did it, and repents thereafter, after his [evil] deed, [repents] of it, and makes amends, in his actions — truly He, God, is Forgiving, Merciful’, towards him (a variant reading [for innahu, ‘truly He’] has annahu, ‘then He’), in other words, forgiveness shall be for him.

And thus, in the same way that We have explained what has been mentioned, We distinguish, We expound, the signs, the Qur’ān, so that truth becomes manifest and is implemented in [people’s] deeds, and that the way, the path, of the sinners may be become clear, evident, and hence avoided (wa-li-yastabīna may also be read wa-li-tastabīna, ‘that you may discern’, with sabīla, ‘the way’, read in the accusative [as opposed to the nominative, sabīlu], implying a direct address to the Prophet [s]).

Say: ‘Truly I have been forbidden to worship those whom you call upon, [those whom] you worship, besides God.’ Say: ‘I shall not follow your whims, by worshipping them, for then, if I did follow them, verily I would have gone astray and I would not be of the rightly guided’.

Say: ‘I am upon a clear proof, a [clear] statement, from my Lord, and you have, already, denied Him, my Lord, when you associated others with Him. I do not have that which you seek to hasten, of the chastisement; the judgement, in this matter and in [all] others, is God’s alone. He decrees the, judgement of, truth, and He is the Best of Deciders’, [the Best of] Judges (a variant reading [for yaqdī, ‘He decrees’] has yaqussu, that is, ‘He relates [the truth]’).

Say, to them: ‘If I did have what you seek to hasten, the matter between you and me would have been decided, by my hastening it for you, so that I might find rest; but God has it; and God knows best the evildoers’, and when to punish them.

And with Him, exalted be He, are the keys of the Unseen, its treasure houses, or the paths that lead to knowledge of it; none but He knows them, and these are the five things mentioned in His saying: Surely God, He has knowledge of the Hour [and He sends down the rain and He knows what is in the wombs. And no soul knows what it has earned for the morrow; nor does any soul know in what land it will die. Truly God is Knowing, Aware, Q. 31:34], as reported by al-Bukhārī. He knows what is, happening, on land, [in] the deserts, and in the waters, [in] the towns along the rivers; and not a leaf (min waraqatin: min is extra) falls, but He knows it. Not a grain in the shadows of the earth, nothing of wet or dry ([this entire clause] wa-lā habbatin fī zulumāti l-ardi wa-lā ratbin wa-lā yābisin is a supplement to waraqatin, ‘a leaf’) but it is in a clear book, namely, the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfūz). The exceptive clause [illā fī kitābin mubīn, ‘but it is in a clear book’] constitutes an inclusive substitution for the previous exceptive clause [illā ya‘lamuhā, ‘but He knows it’].

It is He Who takes you at night, seizing your spirits during sleep, and He knows what you commit, [what] you earn, by day. Then He raises you up therein, that is, in the daytime, by restoring your spirits, so that an appointed term, namely, the term of life, may be accomplished; and afterward to Him is your return, through resurrection. Then He will inform you of what you used to do, and so requite you for it.

He is the Vanquisher, Superior, over His servants. And He sends guardians over you, angels, to record your deeds, until, when death approaches one of you, Our messengers, the angels charged with the seizing of the spirits, take him (tawaffathu; a variant reading has tawaffāhu) and they neglect not, they do not fall short of what they have been commanded.

Then they, creatures, are restored to God their Protector, their Possessor, the True, the Eternal, the Just, so that He might requite them. Surely His is the judgement, the decree that will be carried out in their case. He is the swiftest of reckoners, reckoning with the whole of creation in half a day of the days of this world, on the basis of a hadīth to this effect.

Say, O Muhammad (s), to the people of Mecca: ‘Who delivers you from the darkness of the land and the sea, [from] their terrors, during your journeys? When, you call upon Him openly and secretly, saying: “Verily, if (la-in, the lām is for oaths) You, God, deliver us (anjaytanā, is also read anjānā, ‘[if] He delivers us’), from this, darkness and hardship, we shall truly be among the thankful”’, the believers.

Say, to them: ‘God delivers you (read yunjīkum or yunajjīkum) from that and from every distress, [from every] other anxiety. Yet you associate others with Him’.

Say: ‘He has the power to send forth upon you a chastisement from above you, from the heaven, such as stones [cf. Q. 8:32] or a Cry [cf. Q. 11:67], or from beneath your feet, such as the causing of the earth to cave in [cf. Q. 29:40], or to confound you, to confuse you, in parties, sects with differing whims, and to make you taste the violence of one another’, through fighting. When this [verse] was revealed, the Prophet (s) said, ‘This [chastisement etc.] is easier and lighter’; but when the last statement was revealed, he said, ‘I seek refuge with Your Countenance!’, as reported by al-Bukhārī. Muslim reports the [following] hadīth: ‘I requested from my Lord not to make my community violent towards each other, but He denied me this [request]’. In another hadīth, when it was revealed, he [is reported to have] said, ‘As for this, it will surely come to pass, even though its proper meaning has not yet come’. See how We dispense, [how] We clarify for them, the signs, the proofs of Our power, that perhaps they might understand, that they might realise that what they follow is falsehood.