Al-An'am

Only Allah, Who created the heavens and the earth from nothing, is described with perfection and praised with the noblest of qualities, and love is only due to Him. He created the night and the day, which follow one another. He created the night for darkness and the day for light. Despite all this, some of His servants disbelieve Him and associate partners with Him. Allah is far above what they say.

He, may He be glorified, is the One Who created you, O people, from clay when He created your father, Adam (peace be upon him) from it. Then He, may He be glorified, fixed a period for your stay in the life of the world. He also fixed another term, which only He knows, when He will raise you back to life on the Day of Rising. Despite this, you still doubt about His ability to raise you back to life.

He, may He be glorified, is the One worthy of worship in the heavens and the earth. He knows the intentions, statements and actions you keep hidden and those you make public; and He will judge you about them.

No proof or miracle from their Lord comes to the idolaters except that they ignore it without paying any attention. Clear evidences and proof of the Oneness of Allah, as well as miracles proving the truthfulness of the messengers, have now come to them; yet despite this, they turned away and paid no attention to these signs and miracles.

While they have turned away from these clear evidences and proofs, they had previously turned away from something even clearer: they denied the Qur’ān that Muhammad (peace be upon him) brought. They will soon realise, when they see the punishment on the Day of Rising, that what they used to mock and what he brought to them was in fact the truth.

Do these disbelievers not know Allah’s custom of destroying communities who do wrong? Allah had destroyed, prior to them, many communities whom He had established in the earth with more stability than them. Allah sent down successive rains upon them and made rivers flow beneath their homes; yet they then went against Him, so He destroyed them because of the sins they committed. Then, after them, He established other communities.

If we had sent down to you, O Messenger, a book written on paper and they had seen it with their eyes, they would not have accepted it out of stubbornness and denial; and they would have said, ‘What you have brought is nothing more than clear magic; and we will never believe in it’.

These disbelievers said, ‘We will believe if Allah sends down an angel with Muhammad (peace be upon him) who speaks to us and bears witness that he is a messenger’. If we send down an angel of the kind they wish, we will destroy them if they do not believe; and they will not be given time to repent.

If I had sent an angel to them, I would have made him in the form of a man, so that they could listen and learn from him, as they would not be able to learn from an angel in the original form that I created him. If I had made him in the form of a man, they would have been confused about him.

If these people poke fun at you by asking for an angel to be sent down with you, then communities in the past also poked fun at their messengers. Then the punishment, which they used to deny and mock when they were warned about it, surrounded them.

Say, O Messenger, to these people who deny and mock you: Travel on earth and then think about what happened to those who disbelieved in Allah’s messengers. Allah’s punishment fell upon them after they were in a position of strength and power.

Say to them, O Messenger, ‘To whom does dominion of the heavens and the earth, and whatever is between them, belong?’ Say: Their total control belongs to Allah. He has established mercy upon Himself out of grace for His servants, and will therefore not rush to punish them. If they do not repent, He will gather them together on the Day of Rising, a day about which there is no doubt. Those who have lost their souls by bringing them to the point of destruction, due to their disbelief in Allah, will not believe and rescue their souls from loss.

To Allah alone belongs dominion of everything. Whatever rests hidden in the night and whatever moves about openly in the day are all His servants and His creation: they are all under His domination and control. He hears their statements and knows their actions, and will judge by them.

Say, O Messenger, to the idolaters who worship idols and other things together with Allah: Does it make sense that I take any one other than Allah as a guardian and a protector from whom I seek help? Allah is the One Who created the heavens and the earth without any precedent. There was no Creator before Him. He is the One Who gives provision to whichever of His servants He wishes, and none of His servants provide for Him. He is not in any need of His servants, but His servants are in need of Him. Say, O Messenger: My Lord has instructed me to be the first one from this nation to submit and be humble. He has prohibited me from being of those who associate others as partners with Him.

Say, O Messenger: If I go against Allah by committing that which He has prohibited (such as associating partners with Him) or by leaving out what He has instructed me to do (such as having faith and doing good actions), then I fear that He will punish me with a severe punishment on the Day of Rising.

The person from whom Allah keeps away and removes the punishment on the Day of Rising has attained success through the mercy of Allah. Such salvation and safety from the punishment is a clear victory which no other victory can equal.

If any calamity from Allah afflicts you, O son of Adam, there is no one who can remove it from you besides Allah. If any good from Him comes to you, there is no one who can stop Him from that. There is no one who can hold back Allah’s grace. He has power over everything and nothing can overpower Him.

He is the One Who is powerful and dominant and nothing can overpower or defeat Him: everything is subservient to Him. He is above His servants as His appropriate for Him, may He be glorified. His is the Wise in His creating, handling of matters and institution of laws. He is the Aware and nothing is hidden from Him.

Say, O Messenger, to the idolaters who deny you: Which thing is greatest and most honoured as a witness to my truthfulness? Say: Allah is the greatest and most honoured witness to my truthfulness. He is a witness between you and me. He knows what I have brought to you and how you respond. Allah has revealed this Qur’ān to me to warn you by it and to warn any human or jinn it reaches. You, O idolaters, believe that there are others worthy of worship together with Allah. Say, O Messenger: I do not bear witness to what you have acknowledged as it is false. Allah is only one God: He has no partner. I am free from all that you associate as partners with Him.

The Jews who were given the Torah and the Christians who were given the Gospel recognise the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) completely, just as they recognise their own children from other children. They are the ones who have lost their own souls by making them enter the fire of Hell, and they will not believe.

The greatest wrongdoer is the person who attributes a partner to Allah and worships him together with Allah, or the person who denies Allah’s words that He revealed to His Messenger. Those who do wrong by ascribing partners to Allah and denying His verses will never succeed if they do not repent.

Remember the Day of Rising when I will gather them all together, not leaving any one of them out, and criticise those who worshipped others besides Allah: ‘Where are your partners that you used to claim were partners to Allah?’

After this test, they will have no excuse and they will declare themselves free of what they worshipped, by dishonestly saying: By Allah, our Lord, we did not associate partners with You in the world; but we had faith in You and we accepted Your Oneness.

Look, O Muhammad, how these people lied about themselves by denying that they associated partners with Allah. The partners that they set-up with Allah in this worldly life have disappeared and deserted them.

Some of the idolaters listen to you, O Messenger, when you recite the Qur’ān, but they do not benefit from what they hear because I have placed covers on their hearts so that they cannot understand the Qur’ān. I did this due to their stubbornness and their turning away. I have made their ears deaf to beneficial listening. Despite the clear indications and glaring evidences that they see, they still do not believe, such that when they come to you they present false arguments against the truth and say: What you have brought has simply been taken from the books of the earlier people.

These idolaters forbid people from accepting the Messenger as they themselves stay away from doing so: they do not let others benefit in the same way that they themselves do not benefit. By acting like this, they only destroy themselves; but they fail to realise that they are bringing about destruction.

If you, O Messenger, could only see them when they will be exposed to the fire of Hell on the Day of Rising, and they will regretfully say, ‘If only we could be sent back to the world, not deny Allah’s words and be from those who had faith in Allah’, then you would see a remarkable sight of their trouble.

Their saying that they would believe if sent back is a lie. Instead the statement that they used to keep hidden, which was ‘By Allah, we were not idolaters,’ has appeared to them when their limbs gave testimony against them. If they were supposedly sent back to the world, they would return to the disbelief and associating partners with Allah that they had been prohibited from. So they are lying in their promise that they will believe if they are sent back.

These idolaters say, ‘There is no life but the life we presently have and we will not be raised to give account’.

If you, O Messenger, could only see when those who denied the resurrection will be made to stand before their Lord, you would see a remarkable sight of their trouble when Allah will say to them: Is this resurrection that you used to deny not the truth about which there is no doubt? They will say: I swear by our Lord Who created us, it is certainly true and there is no doubt about it. Allah will then say to them: Taste the punishment that is a result of your denial of this day, which you used to reject in the life of the world.

Those who deny the resurrection on the Day of Rising, and regard standing before Allah to be farfetched, are in utter loss. Until, when the Hour comes upon them suddenly without any prior knowledge, they will say, because of extreme regret: Alas for us and what disappointment, due to our having been neglectful of Allah by disbelieving Him and not preparing for the Day of Rising. They will carry their evil actions on their backs. How terrible are those evil actions that they carry!

The life of the world that you incline towards is nothing but a play and deception for a person who does not perform actions to please Allah. The home of the Afterlife is better for those who are mindful of Allah: doing what He has instructed them to do (such as having faith and following Him) and avoiding what He has prohibited (such as associating partners with Him and committing sin). Do you, idolaters, not understand this, so that you can believe and do good actions?

I know that their outer denial of you, O Messenger, upsets you. Know that inside they do not deny you, because they know your truthfulness and honesty. Instead, they are people who do wrong because of their rejection of Allah’s words and they therefore dislike what you have brought and deny it on the outside.

Do not think that such a denial is only in relation to what you have brought. Messengers before you were also denied and harmed by their communities, but they faced this with patience in their calling towards Allah and striving in His path until help came to them from Allah. No one can hold back the help that Allah has written and promised to His messengers. Information about the messengers before you and the difficulties they faced in their communities, and information about the help that Allah gave them by destroying their enemies, has come to you, O Messenger.

If their denial and turning away from the truth you have brought is difficult for you, O Messenger, then see if you can find a tunnel into the ground or a ladder into the sky so that you may bring them more proof in addition to what I have already given you. If Allah willed to guide them to the guidance that you brought, He would have done so. However, He has not willed this because of His wisdom. So do not be among those who are ignorant of this and lose yourself in regret over their denial.

Only those who listen to the speech and understand it will respond to what you have brought. The disbelievers are dead and worthless because their hearts have died. Allah will raise the dead on the Day of Rising and then they will be returned to Him for Him to repay their actions.

The idolaters make stubborn demands and delay acceptance of faith, and say: Why has no extraordinary sign been sent down to Muhammad as a proof from His Lord about the truth of what he has brought? Say, O Messenger: Allah is able to send down a sign as you wish, but most of these idolaters, who demand that a sign be sent down, do not know that signs are only sent down in accordance with Allah’s wisdom and not according to their demands. If He was to send it down and they still did not believe, then He would destroy them.

There is no animal on earth or any bird flying in the sky except that they are species like you, O children of Adam, with respect to their creation and provision. I have not left out anything in the Preserved Tablet. The knowledge of all of them is with Allah. Then they will all be gathered to their Lord on the Day of Rising for the final decision and each will be recompensed according to what they deserve.

Those who deny our verses are like those who are deaf and cannot hear, and like those who are dumb and cannot speak. Together with this they are in total darkness, in which they cannot see. So how can such a person be guided? Allah misguides whomever He wills from among people and guides whomever He wills by placing such a person on a straight path that has no crookedness.

Say, O Messenger, to these idolaters: Tell me, if a punishment from Allah comes to you or if the Hour that you have been promised comes to you, will you call on anyone besides Allah at that time to remove the calamity and difficulty that has come upon you? This is if you are truthful that those whom you worship can bring benefit and remove harm.

The truth is that when the Hour comes you not call anyone besides Allah Who created you, and He removes the calamity and takes away harm as He is worthy of that and able to do so, if He so wills. As for what you worshipped as gods, you will leave them because you know that they cannot bring benefit nor cause harm.

I sent messengers to many communities before you, O Messenger, but those communities denied their messengers and turned away from what they brought. I then tried them with poverty and sickness in order for them to submit and humble themselves before their Lord.

If only they had humbled themselves before Allah, when His calamity came to them, and begged Allah to remove the calamity, then He would have shown them mercy. But they did not do that. Instead, their hearts became hard and they did not take notice and learn a lesson. Satan made the disbelief and sins that they were committing seem good to them, so they continued with those actions.

When they ignored the warning of extreme poverty and sickness, and did not follow Allah’s instructions, He enticed them further away from the truth by opening the doors of provision to them, and giving them wealth after they were poor. He also blessed them with good health after they had suffered sickness. This continued until they were steeped in their pride and enjoyment of life; then His punishment came upon them suddenly, and they were overtaken by despair and lost all hope.

The last of the disbelievers was cut off by being wiped out altogether when the help came to Allah’s messengers. Thanks and praise is only for Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, for destroying His enemies and helping His friends.

Say, O Messenger, to these idolaters: Tell me, if Allah has to make you deaf by taking away your hearing, make you blind by taking away your sight, and seal your hearts so that you do not understand anything, what other being deserving worship is there that will bring all of these back to you? Think, O Messenger, about how we explain the evidence to them in various ways, yet they still turn away from it.

Tell me, if Allah’s punishment comes to you suddenly without your realizing it, or if it comes to you openly before your eyes, then is it not so that only those who do wrong by disbelieving Allah and His messengers will be destroyed, and only those who have faith in Allah and follow His messengers will be saved.

I send our messengers only to inform the people of faith and obedience of the glad tidings of everlasting delight that will never end, and to warn the people of disbelief and sin of My severe punishment. Whoever accepts the messengers and sets right his actions, they will have no fear for what awaits them in the Afterlife, nor will they grieve over the pleasures of the world that they missed.

Those who deny our signs will be afflicted by the punishment because they opposed Allah. If they had not gone against Him, but fulfilled His instructions and stayed away from His prohibitions, then the punishment would not have afflicted them.

Say, O Messenger, to these idolaters: I do not say to you that I have with me Allah’s treasures of provision and that I can do with them as I please. I also do not say to you that I know the Ghaib, besides the revelation that Allah has shown me. I also do not say to you that I am an angel. I am the Messenger of Allah and I only follow what is revealed to me. I do not claim that which is not right for me. Is the disbeliever whose sight is blind to the truth equal to the believer who sees the truth and has faith in it? Do you, idolaters, then not think about the signs around you?

Warn, O Messenger, with this Qur’ān those who fear that they will be gathered to their Lord on the Day of Rising, when they will have no friend besides Allah to bring them any benefit, nor any intercessor to remove harm from them, so that they may be mindful of Allah by fulfilling His instructions and avoiding His prohibitions. These are the people who will benefit from the Qur’ān.

O Messenger, do not remove from your gathering those poor Muslims who sincerely worship Allah in the beginning and at the end of the day. Do not chase them away in order to win favour with the leaders of the idolaters. You are in no way accountable for these poor people. It is only Allah Who will take them to account. They, too, are in no way accountable for you. If you drive them away from your gathering, you will be of those who overstep Allah’s limits.

So I tested them by means of one another. I made some of them rich and others poor. I made them different with respect to their worldly fortunes. I tested them in this way so that the rich disbelievers say about the poor believers: Are these poor people the ones whom Allah has favoured with guidance from amongst us? If this faith was any good, then they would not have beaten us to it, because we are the people who come first. Does Allah not know those who are thankful for His favours, so He guides them to faith, from those who deny these favours, so He abandons them to disbelief? Certainly, Allah knows about them.

When those who accept My signs that indicate the truth of what you have brought come to you, O Messenger, then reply to their greeting of peace in honour of them and tell them the good news of My mercy. I have gracefully made mercy obligatory on Myself. If anyone among you commits sin, out of ignorance and foolishness, and then repents from that sin and sets their actions right, then I will forgive them, for I am Forgiving and Compassionate to the servant who repents to Me.

So just as I have explained what was previously mentioned, I explain to you the Qur’ān to make the truth clear for the sake of practicing it; and to make clear the path of the guilty ones, so that it can be avoided.

Say, O Messenger, ‘Allah has prohibited me from worshipping those whom you worship besides Him’. Say, O Messenger: I do not follow your desires in worshipping other than Allah. If I had followed your desires, I would go astray from the path of truth and I would not be guided to it. This is the condition of any person who follows his desires without any proof from Allah.

Say, O Messenger, to these idolaters: I stand on clear evidence from my Lord, not on vain desires, yet you have denied this evidence. I do not have the punishment and the extraordinary signs that you demand and that you are in such haste to bring about. That is only in Allah’s control. The decision for anything, including what you demand, is only Allah’s. He speaks the truth and decides accordingly. Allah, may He be glorified, is the best of those who decide between truth and falsehood.

O Messenger, say to them: If I had in my possession the punishment that you are in such haste to bring about, I would have brought it down on you. If that happens, the matter between us will be settled. Allah knows best about the duration of respite for those who do wrong and He knows best when to punish them.

The treasures of the Ghaib are with Allah alone: no one besides Him knows them. He knows all the created things in the land, such as animals, plants and inanimate objects. He knows whatever animals or plants there are in the sea. No leaf falls in any place, nor is there any seed of grain hidden in the earth, nor any thing moist or dry, except that it is recorded in a clear book which is the Preserved Tablet.

Allah is the One Who temporarily takes away your souls at night as you sleep, and He is the One Who knows the actions you do during the day when you are awake. He then raises you in the day, after taking away your souls through sleep, so that you may carry out your tasks. This will continue until the fixed period of your lives, as known to Allah, is over. Then you will return to Him alone when He will raise you on the Day of Rising. He will then tell you about what you used to do in the life of the world and will repay your actions.

And Allah is the Dominant and Irresistible to Whom everything is subjugated. He is above His servants in a manner that befits His majesty, may He be glorified. He sends over you, O people, honourable angels who record your actions. This will continue until a person’s life is brought to an end by the angel of death and his aides take away their souls. The angel of death and his aides never fail to carry out what they are instructed to do.

Then all those whose souls were taken away will be returned to Allah, their real master, for Him to repay their actions. To Him belongs the effectual decision and fair judgement between them. He is the swiftest of those who take account as He will take all of them to account in one day.

Say, O Messenger, to these idolaters: Who rescues you and saves you from the calamity? You call on Him alone, humbling yourselves in secret and in public saying: If our Lord delivers us from this destruction we will certainly be of those who show thanks for His favours on us and we will not worship anyone besides Him.

Say to them, O Messenger, ‘Allah is the One Who rescues you from it and delivers you from every distress. Then you still associate others as partners with Him when you are in good times. What can be more wrong than this?

Say to them, O Messenger: Allah is the One able to send upon you a punishment that will come to you from above, such as stones, thunder-bolts and floods, or that will come to you from below, such as earthquakes and sinking into the ground. He can also cause disunity between your hearts, making each person follow their desire and making you fight one another. Think, O Messenger, about how I explain to them the evidence in various ways, so that they realise that what you have brought to them is the truth and what they have is false.

Your people have denied this Qur’ān, yet it is the truth about which there is no doubt that it is from Allah. Say to them, O Messenger: I am not responsible for your actions. I am only to warn you before a severe punishment.

Everything has a time in which it occurs and an end point which it reaches. This includes your end results. You will soon come to know them when you are raised on the Day of Rising.

When you, O Messenger, see the idolaters speaking about My verses mockingly, then do not sit with them until they enter into a discussion free of such mockery. If Satan makes you forget, and you do sit with them and afterwards remember, then leave that gathering and do not sit with those who overstep the limits.

Those who are mindful of Allah by fulfilling His instructions and avoiding things He has not prohibited are in no way responsible for anything in the account of these wrongdoers. Their duty is only to prohibit them from the evil they are doing, so that they also may become mindful of Allah by fulfilling His instructions and avoiding things He has not allowed.

Leave, O Messenger, these idolaters who have made their religion a thing of play and distraction and who mock and poke fun at it. The life of the world with its temporary pleasures has deceived them. Advise people, O Prophet, using this Qur’ān, so that no soul is delivered to destruction because of the evil actions it has done. If it so acts, it will have no one to help it nor any intercessor to protect it against Allah’s punishment on the Day of Rising. If it has to offer any ransom to be saved from Allah’s punishment, such will not be accepted from it. Those are the ones who have been delivered to their destruction because of the sins they committed. On the Day of Rising, they will have a drink that will be extremely hot and a painful punishment because of their disbelief.