Al-Fajr

By the dawn, that is to say, [by] the dawn of each day,

and [by] the ten nights, the [first] ten nights of Dhū’l-Hijja,

and [by] the even, the pair, and the odd (read watr or witr, two [alternative] forms), the single,

and [by] the night in motion, falling or receding:

Is there in that, oath, an oath for one of sense?, [one of] intellect (the response to the oath has been omitted, that is to say, [it is to be understood as something like], la-tu‘adhdhabunna yā kuffāra Makka, ‘you will assuredly be chastised O disbelievers of Mecca!’).

Have you not seen, [do you not] know O Muhammad (s), how your Lord dealt with ‘Ād,

Iram — these were the former [people of] ‘Ād (Irama is an explicative supplement or a substitution, and it is treated as a diptote because it is a proper noun and feminine) — of the towering ones, that is to say, the tall ones — the tallest one among them would reach four hundred cubits —

the like of which was not created in the land, in terms of their power of assault and strength,

and Thamūd, who hollowed, hewed, the rocks (sakhr is the plural of sakhra) in the valley, the Wādī al-Qurā, [rocks] which they used as dwellings,

and Pharaoh, the one of the tent-pegs: he used to fasten four pegs and tie to these the hands and feet of those whom he tortured —

those who were rebellious, became tyrannical, in the land,

and caused much corruption therein?, [by way of] slaying and otherwise.

So your Lord poured on them a scourge of chastisement.

Assuredly your Lord is ever on the watch, watching over the deeds of servants, nothing of which escapes Him, that He may then requite them for these [deeds].

And as for man, the disbeliever, whenever his Lord tests him and honours him, with wealth and other things, and is gracious to him, he says, ‘My Lord has honoured me’.

But when he tests him and restricts his provision for him, he says, ‘My Lord has humiliated me’.

No indeed! — a disavowal [of this notion], in other words, honour is not about wealth, nor is there any humiliation in poverty, rather it has to do with obedience and disobedience [respectively]; but the disbelievers of Mecca unmindful of this. Rather they do not honour the orphan, they do not treat him with kindness, despite their wealth, or [it means that] they do not give him what is his due from an inheritance,

and they do not urge, neither themselves nor others, the feeding of the needy;

and they devour inheritance (turāth means mīrāth) greedily (lamman), that is to say, voraciously, when they appropriate (lammuhum) the women’s and the young ones’ share of the inheritance together with their own share of it, or to their own wealth;

and they love wealth with abounding love, that is to say, greatly, and so they do not expend [any] of it (a variant reading in the case of all four verbs has the second person plural).

No indeed! — a deterrent for them from such [conduct]. When the earth is pulverised repeatedly, when it is shaken until every edifice has collapsed and is destroyed,

and your Lord, that is to say, His command, and the angels arrive rank on rank (saffan saffan is a circumstantial qualifier, meaning ‘standing in rows’ or ‘made up of many ranks’),

and Hell on that day is brought [near], pulled by seventy thousand sets of reins, each set of reins [pulled] by the hands of seventy thousand angels, as it groans and seethes in fury; on that day (yawma’idhin is a substitution for idhā, ‘when’, the response to which is [the following]) man, that is to say, the disbeliever, will remember, his prodigal conduct in it, but how will remembering avail him [now]? (the interrogative is meant as a denial, in other words, his remembering that will not be of any use to him).

He will say, as he remembers: ‘O (yā is for calling attention to something) would that I had sent ahead, good deeds and faith, for my life!’, [for] a good [life] in the Hereafter, or [it means] ‘during my life’ in the world.

Then on that day none shall mete out (read yu‘adhdhibu) His, God’s, chastisement, that is to say, He shall not delegate it to any other;

and, likewise, none shall bind (read yūthiqu) His bind (a variant reading has yu‘adhdhabu, ‘[none] shall be chastised’, and yūthaqu, ‘[none] shall be bound’, so that the [suffixed] pronoun of ‘adhābahu and wathāqahu refers to the [chastisement and the binds of the] disbeliever, the meaning then being, ‘none shall be chastised as he shall, and none shall be bound as he shall [be bound]’).

‘O soul at peace!, [the one] secure, namely, the believing one.

Return — this is said to it upon death — to your Lord, that is to say, return to His command and to His will, pleased, with the reward, pleasing, in God’s sight with your deeds; in other words [return O soul] combining both descriptions (both of which are circumstantial qualifiers). And it will be said to it at the Resurrection:

Then enter among My, righteous, servants!

And enter My Paradise!’, with them.