'Abasa

He, the Prophet, frowned, glowered with his face, and turned away,

because the blind man came to him: ‘Abd Allāh son of Umm Maktūm, who interrupted him while he was busy with those notables of Quryash whose submission [to God] he was very eager for. The blind man was not aware that he was busy with these and so he called out to him, ‘Teach me of what God has taught you’. However, the Prophet (s) went off to his house. He was then reproached for this with what was revealed in this sūra. Afterwards, whenever he came to him, the Prophet would say to him, ‘Greetings to him on whose account God reproached me!’, and would lay down his cloak for him.

And how would you know? Perhaps he would cleanse himself (yazzakkā: the original tā’ [of yatazakkā] has been assimilated with the zāy), that is, [perhaps] he would purge himself of sins by what he hears from you,

or be admonished (yadhdhakkar: the original tā’ [of yatadhakkar] has been assimilated with the dhāl) and so the reminder, the admonition heard from you, might benefit him (a variant reading [for tanfa‘uhu] has tanfa‘ahu as the response to the optative statement).

But as for the one [who thinks himself] self-sufficient, through wealth,

to him you [do] attend (tasaddā: a variant reading has tassaddā, where the original second tā’ [of tatasaddā] has been assimilated with the sād), [him] you accept and turn your attention to;

yet it is not your concern if he does not cleanse himself, [if he does not] believe.

But as for him who comes to you hurrying (yas‘ā is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of [the verb] jā’a, ‘comes’)

fearful, of God (wa-huwa yakhshā is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of [the verb] yas‘ā, ‘hurrying’) — this being the blind man —

to him you pay no heed (talahhā: the original second tā’ [of tatalahhā] has been omitted), that is to say, from him you are distracted [by other things].

No indeed!, do not behave like this. Truly it, the sūra, is, or the verses [are], a reminder, an admonition for [all] creatures —

so let whoever will, remember it, preserve it [in his memory] and thus be admonished by it —

on leaves (fī suhufin is the second predicate of innahā, ‘truly it’, and what precedes it is a parenthetical statement) [that are] honoured, by God,

elevated, in the heavens, purified, exalted above the touch of devils,

in the hands of scribes, who write it down from the Preserved Tablet,

noble, pious, obedient to God, exalted be He: these being the angels.

Perish man!, accursed be the disbeliever! What has made him ungrateful? (an interrogative statement meant as a rebuke) — what has driven him to disbelief?

From what thing has He created him? (an interrogative meant as an affirmative, which He then explains by saying):

From a drop of sperm did He create him then proportion him, [in stages] as a blood-clot, then an embryo up to the last [stage] of his creation.

Then He made the way, his exit from his mother’s belly, easy for him;

then He makes him die and buries him, He places him in a grave that hides him;

then, when He wills, He will raise him, for the Resurrection.

No indeed! Verily, he has not accomplished, he has not done, what He, his Lord, commanded him, to [do].

So let man consider, in reflection, his [source of] food, how it is determined and procured for him:

that We pour down water, from the clouds, plenteously;

then We split the earth into fissures, with vegetation,

and cause the grains, such as wheat and barley, to grow therein,

and vines and herbs (qadb is moist qatt),

and olives and date-palms,

and gardens of dense foliage, orchards teeming with trees,

and fruits and pastures (abb is what cattle graze; it is also said to be ‘straw’),

as sustenance (understand matā‘an as mut‘atan or tamtī‘an, as explained above in the previous sūra) for you and your flocks (also as [explained] above).

So when the [deafening] Cry, the second blast, comes —

the day when a man will flee from his [own] brother,

and his mother and his father,

and his wife and his sons (yawma, ‘the day [when]’, is a substitution for idhā, ‘when’, the response to which is indicated by [what follows]) —

every person that day will have a matter to preoccupy him, a predicament to distract him from the affairs of others, in other words, every person will be preoccupied with his own self.

On that day some faces will be shining, radiant,

laughing, joyous, happy — these are the believers.

And some faces on that day will be covered with dust,

overcast, covered, with gloom, darkness and blackness.

Those, the people of this predicament, are the disbelievers, the profligates, those who have combined disbelief with profligacy.