Verse 1
About what, about what thing, are they, the people of Quraysh, questioning one another?
Verse 2
About the awesome tiding ([this is] the explication of that ‘thing’; the interrogative is meant to emphasise its magnitude) — this [awesome tiding] is the Qur’ān, comprising [news of] the Resurrection and so on, which the Prophet (s) brought —
Verse 3
concerning which they are at variance, for the believers affirm it, while the disbelievers repudiate it.
Verse 4
No indeed! — a disavowal — they will come to know, what will befall them for their rejection of it.
Verse 5
Again, no indeed! They will come to know! ([reiterated] for emphasis; thumma is added here to declare that the second threat of chastisement is more severe than the first). God, exalted be He, then alludes to His power to resurrect, saying:
Verse 6
Have We not made the earth a cradle, a bed, like a cradle,
Verse 7
and the mountains pegs?, with which the earth is tied down like tents are tied down with pegs (the interrogative is meant as an affirmative).
Verse 8
And created you in pairs?, males and females,
Verse 9
and made your sleep for rest?, repose for your bodies,
Verse 10
and made the night a cloak?, to cover you with its darkness,
Verse 11
and made the day for livelihood?, a time for seeking livelihood,
Verse 12
and built above you seven mighty ones?, seven heavens (shidād is the plural of shadīda) that is to say, strong and sturdy unaffected by the passage of time,
Verse 13
and set a radiant lamp?, namely, the sun,
Verse 14
and sent down from the rain-clouds (mu‘sirāt), the clouds due to give rain (similar to [the term] mu‘sir, which denotes a girl nearing menstruation) cascading water?, pouring forth,
Verse 15
that with it We may bring forth grains, such as wheat, and plants, such as figs,
Verse 16
and gardens, orchards, of intertwining foliage? (alfāf is the plural of lafīf, similar [in pattern] to sharīf, ‘noble’, [plural] ashrāf).
Verse 17
Verily the Day of Decision, for creatures, is the tryst, a time [fixed] for reward and punishment,
Verse 18
the day the Trumpet, the Horn, is blown (yawma yunfakhu fī’l-sūri is either a substitution for, or an explication of, yawma’l-fasli, ‘the Day of Decision’, the blower being Isrāfīl) and you come, forth from your graves to the site [of the Resurrection], in droves, in diverse groups,
Verse 19
and the heaven is opened (read futtihat or futihat), sundered for the descent of the angels, and becomes as gates, it becomes [a heaven] with gates,
Verse 20
and the mountains are set in motion, dislocated from their positions, and become as a mirage, as fine dust, that is to say, like it in terms of its levity when in motion.
Verse 21
Verily Hell lurks in ambush (mirsādan, in the sense of rāsidatan or mursidatan, ‘lying in wait’)
Verse 22
for the rebellious, the disbelievers, who will not be able to avoid it, [it is] a resort, a retreat for them, and so they will enter it,
Verse 23
to remain (lābithīna is an implied circumstantial qualifier, in other words, their remaining therein will be decreed [to be]) therein for ages, for endless epochs (ahqāb is the plural of huqb),
Verse 24
tasting in it neither coolness, [neither] sleep, [something] which they will not taste [therein], nor drink, [nor] anything that is imbibed for the sake of its delightful taste,
Verse 25
except boiling water, of extreme temperatures, and pus (read ghasāqan or ghassāqan, which is the vile matter that is emitted by the [bodies of the] inhabitants of the Fire), which is what they will [indeed] taste. They are given this pair [of tortures],
Verse 26
as a fitting requital, one that accords with [the nature of] their deeds, for there is no sin greater than disbelief, and no chastisement greater than the Fire.
Verse 27
Indeed they never feared any reckoning, given their rejection of the Resurrection,
Verse 28
and they denied Our signs, the Qur’ān, mendaciously,
Verse 29
and everything, in the way of deeds, have We kept count of, have We recorded precisely, in a Book, as [individual] written records in the Preserved Tablet, in order to requite [creatures] in accordance with them, including [the record of] their denial of the Qur’ān.
Verse 30
‘So [now] taste! — in other words, it will be said to them in the Hereafter, when the chastisement has befallen them: taste [now] your requital! For We will increase you in nothing but chastisement’, in addition to your [due] chastisement.
Verse 31
Truly for the God-fearing there will be a triumph, a place of triumph, in Paradise:
Verse 32
gardens, orchards (hadā’iqa is either a substitution for, or an explication of, mafāzan, ‘a triumph’) and vineyards (wa-a‘nāban is a supplement to mafāzan, ‘a triumph’),
Verse 33
and buxom maidens (kawā‘ib is the plural of kā‘ib) of equal age (atrāb is the plural of tirb),
Verse 34
and a brimming cup, wine filling the vessels in which it is in; in sūrat al-Qitāl [it is said], and rivers of wine [Q. 47:15].
Verse 35
They will not hear in it, that is, [in] Paradise, when they drink wine and in other situations, any vain talk, any words of falsehood, or lies, between one another (read kidhāban, to mean kadhiban, ‘lies’, or kidhdhāban to mean takdhīban, ‘lying’), in contrast to what happens in this world when wine is drunk,
Verse 36
[this will be] a reward from your Lord, in other words, God has rewarded them with this reward as, a gift (‘atā’an substitutes for jazā’an, ‘reward’) that is sufficing, [that is] abundant (hisāban, [as meaning ‘abundant’] derives from their saying a‘tānī fa-ahsabanī, ‘he gave me so abundantly that I said, “that is enough for me”’ [hasbī]),
Verse 37
[from] the Lord of the heavens and the earth (read rabbi, ‘[from] the Lord of’, or rabbu, ‘[He is] the Lord of’) and all that is between them, the Compassionate One (likewise [read rahmāni or rahmānu], or read rahmānu with rabbi [for the preceding]), Whom, exalted be He, they, that is, creatures, will not be able to address, that is to say, not one of them will be able to address Him for fear of Him,
Verse 38
on the day (yawma is the adverbial qualifier for lā yamlikūna, ‘they will not be able to’) when the Spirit, Gabriel, or God’s hosts, and the angels stand arrayed (saffan is a circumstantial qualifier, in other words, mustaffīna). They, creatures, will not speak, except him whom the Compassionate One permits, to speak, and who says what is right, from among the believers and the angels: as if [meaning] that they will intercede for he whom He approves of.
Verse 39
That is the True Day, whose coming to pass is definite, namely, the Day of Resurrection. So whoever wishes [to], let him seek resort with his Lord, a return [to Him], that is to say, [let him] return to God by being obedient to Him, so that he may be secure from chastisement in it.
Verse 40
Lo! We have warned you, O disbelievers of Mecca, of a chastisement that is near, the chastisement of the impending Day of Resurrection — for anything that is impending is [also] near — the day (yawma adverbially qualifies ‘adhāban, ‘a chastisement’, by describing it) when a person, [when] every person, will behold what his hands have sent ahead, of good and evil, and the disbeliever will say, ‘O (yā is a particle used to call attention to something) would that I were dust!’, in other words, and not be chastised. He says this when God, exalted be He, says to the beasts, after each of them has retaliated against the other, ‘Be dust!’.
Verse 1
By those that wrest, [by] the angels who wrest the souls of disbelievers, violently;
Verse 2
by those that draw out, [by] the angels who draw out the souls of believers, gently;
Verse 3
by those that glide serenely, [by] the angels who descend from the heavens with His command, exalted be He;
Verse 4
by those that race forward, [by] the angels who race forward to Paradise with the souls of believers;
Verse 5
and by those that direct the affair, [by] the angels who direct the affairs of this world, that is to say, they descend with the directions for it [from God] (the response to all of these oath clauses has been omitted, understood to be [something like], la-tub‘athunna yā kuffāra Makka, ‘you shall certainly be resurrected, O disbelievers of Mecca!’, which is also the operator of [the following clause]):
Verse 6
the day when the Tremor quakes, that is to say, the first blast, as a result of which everything will be shaken violently (thus it [the subject] has been described in terms of the effect it produces),
Verse 7
and is followed by the Aftershock, the second blast; between the two [blasts] is a span of forty years (the sentence [tatba‘uhā’l-rādifatu] is a circumstantial qualifier referring to al-rājifa, ‘the Tremor’, in other words, the ‘day’ can [adverbially] accommodate both blasts and other events, and so for this reason it can also properly function as the adverbial qualifier for the Resurrection that will take place after the second [blast]);
Verse 8
on that day hearts will be trembling, frightened and anxious,
Verse 9
their eyes humbled, abject, because of the terror that they see.
Verse 10
They, those of the [mentioned] hearts and eyes, will say, mockingly and in rejection of the Resurrection: ‘Are we indeed (read a-innā pronouncing both hamzas, or by not pronouncing the second, and inserting an alif between them in both cases, and in both instances) being restored as before? Shall we be restored to life after death (al-hāfira is a noun signifying the ‘first part’ of anything, from which is derived the expression raja‘a fī hāfiratihi to mean that so and so ‘returned whence he had come’).
Verse 11
What! When we have been decayed bones?’ (nakhira: a variant reading has nākhira, ‘decayed and withered’), will we have life again?
Verse 12
They will say, ‘That, return of ours to life, then, if it were true, would be a ruinous return!’.
Verse 13
God, exalted be He, says: But it, the Aftershock, which will be followed by the Resurrection, will be only a single blast, and so when it is blasted:
Verse 14
behold, then, they, all creatures, will be upon the surface of the earth, alive, after having been dead inside it.
Verse 15
Have you, O Muhammad (s), received the story of Moses (hadīthu Mūsā operates [the clause that follows]),
Verse 16
when his Lord called out to him in the holy valley of Tuwā? — this is the name of the valley (it may be read with nunation, Tuwan, or without) — and He said:
Verse 17
‘Go to Pharaoh; he has indeed become rebellious, he has exceeded [all] bounds with his disbelief,
Verse 18
and say, “Would you — I call you [to] — purify yourself (tazakkā: a variant reading has tazzakkā, where the original second tā’ [of tatazakkā] has been assimilated with the zāy), to purge yourself of idolatry, by bearing witness that there is no god but God,
Verse 19
and allow me to guide you to your Lord, to show you how to know Him (ma‘rifa) by way of proofs, so that you may have fear [of Him]?” ’
Verse 20
So he showed him the greatest sign, from among His nine signs, namely, the [glowing] hand or the [slithering] staff.
Verse 21
But he, Pharaoh, denied, Moses, and disobeyed, God, exalted be He.
Verse 22
Then he turned his back, to faith, going about in haste, throughout the land causing corruption.
Verse 23
Then he gathered, he assembled the sorcerers and his armies, and proclaimed,
Verse 24
and said, ‘I am your most high lord!’, above whom is no other lord.
Verse 25
So God seized him, He destroyed him by drowning him, as punishment for the latter, that is to say, these [last] words [of his], and for the former, that is to say, his saying previously, ‘I do not know of any god for you other than me’ [Q. 28:38] — and between the two [claims made by Pharaoh] was an interval of forty years.
Verse 26
Assuredly in that, which is mentioned, there is a moral for him who fears, God, exalted be He.
Verse 27
Are you (read a-antum pronouncing both hamzas, or by substituting an alif for the second one, not pronouncing it and inserting an alif between the one not pronounced and the former, or without [this insertion]), namely, [you] the deniers of the Resurrection, harder to create or the heaven which He has built?, harder to create (banāhā: an explication of the manner of [its] creation).
Verse 28
He made it rise high — an explication of the manner of [its] construction; in other words, He made its vertical extension high; it is also said that samkahā means ‘its ceiling’ — and levelled it: He made it even, flawless,
Verse 29
and darkened its night, and brought forth its day: He exposed the light of its sun (‘night’ has been annexed to it [the heaven] because it represents its shade, and likewise the ‘sun’, because it represents its light);
Verse 30
and after that He spread out the earth: He made it flat, for it had been created before the heaven, but without having been spread out;
Verse 31
from it He has brought forth (akhraja: a circumstantial qualifier with a suppressed [preceding] qad, that is to say, mukhrijan, ‘bringing forth [from it]’) its waters, by making its springs gush forth, and its pastures, what cattle graze, of trees and herbage, and what humans consume of foods and fruits (the use of mar‘ā to express this [of the earth] is figurative),
Verse 32
and has set firm the mountains, on the face of the earth so that it stays still,
Verse 33
as a [source of] sustenance (an object denoting reason for an implied [verbal clause], in other words, fa‘ala dhālika mut‘atan or tamtī‘an, ‘He did this to provide [a source of] sustenance’) for you and your flocks (an‘ām is the plural of na‘am, which are camels, cows and sheep).
Verse 34
So when the Greatest Catastrophe befalls — the second blast —
Verse 35
the day when man will remember (yawma yatadhakkaru’l-insānu substitutes for idhā, ‘when’) his efforts, in the [life of the] world, in the way of good or evil,
Verse 36
and the Hell-fire, the consuming Fire, is revealed for all to see, for every on-looker (the response to idhā, ‘when’, is [what follows]):
Verse 37
as for him who was rebellious, [who] disbelieved,
Verse 38
and preferred the life of this world, by pursuing [carnal] desires,
Verse 39
Hell-fire will indeed be the abode, his abode.
Verse 40
But as for him who feared the stance before his Lord, his standing before Him, and forbade the, evil-bidding, soul from [pursuing] desire, that leads to perdition as a result of [that person’s] lusting after [carnal] desires,
Verse 41
Paradise will indeed be the abode: in sum the response [to idhā, ‘when’, verse 34] is that the disobedient one will be in the Fire and the obedient one in Paradise.
Verse 42
They, that is, the disbelievers of Mecca, will ask you about the Hour: when will it set in?, when will it come to pass and when will it begin?
Verse 43
What have you to do with the mention of it?, in other words, you have no knowledge of it in order to mention it.
Verse 44
With your Lord it belongs ultimately, ultimate knowledge of it [lies with Him]; none other than Him has any knowledge of it.
Verse 45
You are only a warner for, your warning will only benefit, the one who fears it.
Verse 46
The day they see it, it will be as if they had only tarried, in their graves, for an evening or the morning thereof, that is to say, [as if only] one evening of a day or its morning (the annexation of duhā, ‘morning’, to ‘ashiyya, ‘evening’, is valid, on the basis of their contiguity, since both constitute either side of the day; the annexation has also allowed for the word to fall in harmony with the end-rhyme of the verses).
Verse 1
He, the Prophet, frowned, glowered with his face, and turned away,
Verse 2
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.
Verse 3
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,
Verse 4
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).
Verse 5
But as for the one [who thinks himself] self-sufficient, through wealth,
Verse 6
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;
Verse 7
yet it is not your concern if he does not cleanse himself, [if he does not] believe.
Verse 8
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’)
Verse 9
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 —
Verse 10
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].
Verse 11
No indeed!, do not behave like this. Truly it, the sūra, is, or the verses [are], a reminder, an admonition for [all] creatures —
Verse 12
so let whoever will, remember it, preserve it [in his memory] and thus be admonished by it —
Verse 13
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,
Verse 14
elevated, in the heavens, purified, exalted above the touch of devils,
Verse 15
in the hands of scribes, who write it down from the Preserved Tablet,
Verse 16
noble, pious, obedient to God, exalted be He: these being the angels.
Verse 17
Perish man!, accursed be the disbeliever! What has made him ungrateful? (an interrogative statement meant as a rebuke) — what has driven him to disbelief?
Verse 18
From what thing has He created him? (an interrogative meant as an affirmative, which He then explains by saying):
Verse 19
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.
Verse 20
Then He made the way, his exit from his mother’s belly, easy for him;
Verse 21
then He makes him die and buries him, He places him in a grave that hides him;
Verse 22
then, when He wills, He will raise him, for the Resurrection.
Verse 23
No indeed! Verily, he has not accomplished, he has not done, what He, his Lord, commanded him, to [do].
Verse 24
So let man consider, in reflection, his [source of] food, how it is determined and procured for him:
Verse 25
that We pour down water, from the clouds, plenteously;
Verse 26
then We split the earth into fissures, with vegetation,
Verse 27
and cause the grains, such as wheat and barley, to grow therein,
Verse 28
and vines and herbs (qadb is moist qatt),
Verse 29
and olives and date-palms,
Verse 30
and gardens of dense foliage, orchards teeming with trees,
Verse 31
and fruits and pastures (abb is what cattle graze; it is also said to be ‘straw’),
Verse 32
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).
Verse 33
So when the [deafening] Cry, the second blast, comes —
Verse 34
the day when a man will flee from his [own] brother,
Verse 35
and his mother and his father,
Verse 36
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]) —
Verse 37
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.
Verse 38
On that day some faces will be shining, radiant,
Verse 39
laughing, joyous, happy — these are the believers.
Verse 40
And some faces on that day will be covered with dust,
Verse 41
overcast, covered, with gloom, darkness and blackness.
Verse 42
Those, the people of this predicament, are the disbelievers, the profligates, those who have combined disbelief with profligacy.
Verse 1
When the sun is folded away, enfolded and stripped of its light,
Verse 2
and when the stars scatter, [when] they are extinguished and hurtle down towards the earth,
Verse 3
and when the mountains are set in motion, [when] they are blown away from the face of the earth, becoming as scattered dust,
Verse 4
and when the pregnant camels are neglected, abandoned without a herdsman or anyone to milk them, on account of the matter that has come over them — even though [previously] no wealth was dearer to them than these [pregnant camels];
Verse 5
and when the wild beasts are mustered, [when they are] brought together after being resurrected so that each of them may retaliate against the other, before becoming dust;
Verse 6
and when the seas are set afire (read sujirat or sujjirat), [when] they are set alight and become [a mass of] fire;
Verse 7
and when the souls are coupled, [when they are] paired up with their bodies;
Verse 8
and when the girl buried-alive, the young girl buried alive for fear of shame and impoverishment, asks — in rebuke of its slayer —
Verse 9
for what sin she was slain (sa’alat, ‘asks’: a variant reading has su’ilat, ‘[she] is asked’, narrating the address directed to her, to which she then responds by saying, ‘I was slain without [having committed] any sin’);
Verse 10
and when the scrolls, the scrolls containing the deeds, are unrolled (read nushirat or nushshirat), [when they are] unfolded and spread out;
Verse 11
and when the heaven is stripped off, torn away from its place, just as the skin of a sheep is stripped off;
Verse 12
and when the Hell-fire is set ablaze (read su‘irat or su‘‘irat), [when it is] set alight;
Verse 13
and when Paradise is brought near, [when it is] brought close to those who have merited it, that they may enter it (the response to idhā, ‘when’, at the beginning of the sūra and all that has been supplemented thereto is [the following]):
Verse 14
[then] a soul, every soul, at the time of the [occurrence of the] things mentioned, which is the Day of Resurrection, will know what it has presented, of good or evil.
Verse 15
So I swear (fa-lā: lā is extra) by the receding [planets],
Verse 16
the movers, the setters, that is, the five planets: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury (takhnusu means ‘they sink away’ during their orbit, whereas we see stars at the end of their zodiacal course return to the start; taknisu means that they enter their kinās, ‘hideaway’, in other words, they retreat into their setting-places);
Verse 17
and [by] the night as it approaches, as it falls with its darkness, or [it means] as it recedes;
Verse 18
and [by] the dawn as it breathes, [as] it extends until it becomes broad daylight,
Verse 19
truly this, Qur’ān, is the word of a messenger [who is] noble, in the sight of God, exalted be He — this being [the messenger] Gabriel (it [qawl, ‘word’] has been annexed to him, because he descends with it),
Verse 20
powerful, one of mighty powers, eminent, one of eminent status (makīnin is semantically connected ‘inda, ‘in the presence of’) in the presence of the Lord of the Throne, that is, God, exalted be He;
Verse 21
obeyed there, the angels obey him in the heavens, trustworthy, with the Revelation.
Verse 22
And your companion, Muhammad (s) (wa-mā sāhibukum: a supplement to [the clause from] innahu, ‘truly this is’, up to the last of the oath clauses) is not a madman, as you claim.
Verse 23
For verily he, Muhammad (s), saw him, Gabriel, in the form in which he was created, on the clear horizon, the highest one, towards the east;
Verse 24
and he, Muhammad (s), is not to be accused of [knowing] the Unseen, what is hidden of the revelation and the tidings of the heaven (a variant reading [for bi-zanīnin] has bi-danīnin, meaning that he is not ‘niggardly’ [with the Unseen] so as to reduce something of it [and not disclose it]).
Verse 25
And it, that is, the Qur’ān, is not the word of an accursed satan, eavesdropping stealthily.
Verse 26
So where are you going? So what path are you going to follow in repudiating the Qur’ān and turning away from it?
Verse 27
It is only a reminder, an admonition, for all worlds, [those of] mankind and jinn,
Verse 28
for those of you who (li-man shā’a minkum is a substitution for li’l-‘ālamīna, ‘for all worlds’, using the same preposition) wish to go straight, by following the truth;
Verse 29
but you will not [wish], to go straight along the [path of] truth, unless God, the Lord of the Worlds, [of all] creatures, wills, that you should go straight along it.
Verse 1
When the heaven is split open, [when it is] rent asunder,
Verse 2
and when the stars are dispersed, [when] they expire and begin to fall,
Verse 3
and when the seas are burst forth, released one upon the other, forming one mass of water, so that the sweet [water] mixes with the salty;
Verse 4
and when the tombs are overturned, [when] their earth [above them] is dug up and its dead are raised (the response to idhā, ‘when’, and all that is supplemented thereto is [the following]):
Verse 5
a soul, every soul, will know, at the time of the [occurrence of the] things mentioned, which is the Day of Resurrection, what it has sent ahead, in the way of deeds, and, what [it has], left behind, of these and did not do.
Verse 6
O, disbelieving, man! What has deceived you with regard to your generous Lord?, so that you have disobeyed Him,
Verse 7
Who created you, when you were not, then made you upright, in your created form, with sound limbs, then proportioned you (read fa-‘adalak or fa-‘addalak), making you symmetrical in shape, with well-proportioned parts, so that no hand or leg is longer than the other,
Verse 8
assembling you in whatever (mā is a relative) form He will?
Verse 9
No indeed! — a deterrent against letting oneself be misled by the generosity of God, exalted be He. Rather you, that is, disbelievers of Mecca, deny Judgement, requital for deeds;
Verse 10
Yet lo! there are above you watchers, from among the angels, over your deeds,
Verse 11
noble, in God’s sight, writers, of these [deeds],
Verse 12
who know whatever you do, all of it.
Verse 13
Indeed the pious, the believers who are sincere in their faith, shall be amid bliss, [in] Paradise,
Verse 14
and indeed the profligates, the disbelievers, shall be in Hell-fire, a scorching fire,
Verse 15
entering it, to suffer its heat, on the Day of Judgement, [the Day of] Requital,
Verse 16
and they shall not be absent from it, [they shall not] be taken out of it.
Verse 17
And what would show you, [what would] inform you, what the Day of Judgement is?
Verse 18
Again, what would show you what the Day of Judgement is? — [repeated] to emphasise its enormity.
Verse 19
[It is] a day (read yawmu) when no soul will be of any avail, any use, to another soul, and the [absolute] command on that day will be God’s: there will be no [power of] command for anyone other than Him thereat, in other words, none has been given the power to mediate thereupon, in contrast to [situations] in this world.
Verse 1
Woe (waylun: a term entailing chastisement; or [it is the name of] a valley in Hell) to the defrauders:
Verse 2
those who, when they take measure from people, demand [it] in full, the measure;
Verse 3
but [who] when they measure for them or weigh for them, they cause [them] loss, they diminish [for them] the measure or the weight.
Verse 4
Do such [individuals] not know for certain (alā indicates an interrogative of rebuke) that they will be resurrected
Verse 5
for an awful day, that is to say, on it, and this is the Day of Resurrection,
Verse 6
a day when (yawma is a substitution for the [syntactical] locus of li-yawmin, ‘to an [awful] day’, and as such is in the accusative because of [the verb] mab‘ūthūna, ‘will be resurrected’) mankind will rise, from their graves, before the Lord of the Worlds?, [the Lord of] all creatures, for His affair, His reckoning and His requital.
Verse 7
Nay!, verily, the record of the profligates, that is to say, the record of the deeds of the disbelievers, is in Sijjīn — this is said to be a book containing [the record of] all the deeds of the devils and the disbelievers; but it is also said to be a location in the lowermost part of the seventh earth, the place of Satan and his hosts.
Verse 8
And what would tell you what Sijjīn is?, what the book of Sijjīn is.
Verse 9
[It is] a sealed book.
Verse 10
Woe to the deniers on that day,
Verse 11
who deny the Day of Judgement, [the Day of] Requital (alladhīna yukadhdhibūna bi-yawmi’l-dīn: either a substitution for or an explication of al-mukadhdhibīna, ‘the deniers’);
Verse 12
and none deny it but every sinful (the form [athīm] is hyperbolic) transgressor, overstepping the bounds.
Verse 13
When Our signs, [of] the Qur’ān, are recited to him, he says, ‘[Mere] fables (asātīr) of the ancients!’, [mere] tales that were written down (sutirat) in ancient times (asātīr is the plural of ustūra or istāra).
Verse 14
No indeed! — a deterrent and a warning against saying such [things]. Rather there has slayed, engulfed, their hearts, covering them like rust that which they earned, of acts of disobedience.
Verse 15
Nay!, verily, they, on that day, the Day of Resurrection, will be screened off from their Lord, and so they will not see Him.
Verse 16
Then they will be exposed to Hell-fire, [then] they will enter the scorching Fire;
Verse 17
then it will be said, to them: ‘This, that is, the chastisement, is that which you used to deny!’
Verse 18
Nay!, verily, the record of the pious, that is, the record of the deeds of the believers who were sincere in their faith, is in ‘Illiyyūn — this is said to be the book [containing] all the good deeds of the angels and the believers from among the two heavy ones [sc. mankind and jinn]; but it is also said to be a place below the Throne in the seventh heaven;
Verse 19
and what will tell you, [what will] inform you, what ‘Illiyyūn is?, what the book of ‘Illiyyūn is.
Verse 20
[It is] a sealed book,
Verse 21
witnessed by those brought near, from among the angels.
Verse 22
Assuredly the pious will be amid bliss, [in] Paradise,
Verse 23
upon couches, [upon] beds beneath canopies, gazing, at the bliss which they have been given.
Verse 24
You will perceive in their faces the radiancy of bliss, the splendour and beauty of blissfulness,
Verse 25
as they are given to drink a nectar, a wine free of any impurities, [that is] sealed, in its vessel, none other than them breaking its seal,
Verse 26
whose seal is musk, that is, whose final sip is followed by an emanating scent of musk — so for such [bliss] let the viers vie, let them desire to apply themselves to obedience of God —
Verse 27
and whose mixture, that is to say, that with which it is mixed, is of Tasnīm, which is explained by His [following] words:
Verse 28
a spring (‘aynan is in the accusative because of an implicit [prefatory] amdahu, ‘I extol [this spring]’) from which those brought near will drink (yashrabu bihā: [should be yashrabu] minhā, or [it may be that bihā is used because] yashrabu is meant to imply the sense of yaltadhdhu [bihā, ‘in which they delight’]).
Verse 29
Verily the guilty, like Abū Jahl and his ilk, used to laugh at the believers, such as ‘Ammār [b. Yāsir] and Bilāl [the Ethiopian] and those like them, in mockery of them;
Verse 30
and when they, the believers, passed them by, they would wink at one another, the guilty beckoned with their eyebrows and eyelids towards the believers in mockery;
Verse 31
and when they returned to their folks they would return blithely (fākihīna: a variant reading has fakihīna), rejoicing in their [disparaging] mention of the believers;
Verse 32
and when they see them, that is, the believers, they say, ‘Lo! these [men] are astray!’, on account of their belief in Muhammad (s).
Verse 33
God, exalted be He, says: Yet they, that is, the disbelievers, were not sent as watchers over them, [over] the believers, to preserve them or [to keep a record of] their deeds and thus guide them back to what is best for them.
Verse 34
So today, that is, the Day of Resurrection, the believers will be laughing at the disbelievers,
Verse 35
upon couches, in Paradise, gazing, out from their dwellings at the disbelievers while they are being tortured; and they will laugh at them just as they, the disbelievers, had laughed at them in the world.
Verse 36
Have the disbelievers been requited for what they used to do? Yes, indeed!
Verse 1
When the heaven is rent asunder,
Verse 2
and heeds, gives ear to and, in rending itself asunder, obeys, its Lord as it should, that is, as its duty is to heed and obey,
Verse 3
and when the earth is stretched out, [when] its width is increased, just as a piece of leather is stretched, so that no edifice or mountain remains upon it,
Verse 4
and casts out all that is in it, of the dead, onto its surface, and empties itself, thereof,
Verse 5
and heeds, [and] in this respect, gives ear to and obeys, its Lord, as it should: all of this will be on the Day of Resurrection (the response to idhā, ‘when’, and [to] all that is supplemented thereto, has been omitted; but it is indicated by what follows it, and is implied to be [something like] laqiya’l-insānu ‘amalahu, ‘man will encounter his deeds’).
Verse 6
O man! Verily you are labouring, exerting your efforts, toward, the encounter with, your Lord, that is, death, laboriously, and you will encounter it, that is, you will encounter your mentioned good or evil deeds on the Day of Resurrection.
Verse 7
Then as for him who is given his book, the record of his deeds, in his right hand — and this is the believer —
Verse 8
he will receive an easy reckoning, which [simply] entails the presentation of his deeds to him, as in the hadīth of the two Sahīhs [of Bukhārī and Muslim] — in which there is also [a hadīth saying], ‘He who is reckoned with at length, will be destined for perdition’ — and after this presentation [of his deeds to the believer] he will be excused,
Verse 9
and return to his family, in Paradise, joyful, because of it.
Verse 10
But as for him who is given his book from behind his back — and this is the disbeliever, whose right hand is chained to his neck and whose left hand, by which he is given the book, is placed behind his back,
Verse 11
he will pray, upon seeing what is in it, for annihilation, he will invoke destruction against himself by saying: yā thabūrāh, ‘O annihilation [of mine]!’,
Verse 12
and he will enter the Blaze, an intense fire (a variant reading [for yaslā, ‘he will enter’] has yusallā, ‘he will be admitted’).
Verse 13
Indeed among his folk, his clan, in the world, he used to be joyful, wanton, lusting after his desires;
Verse 14
indeed he thought that (an: softened in place of the hardened form, with its subject omitted, that is to say, annahu) he would never return, to his Lord.
Verse 15
Nay!, he will return to Him; indeed his Lord is ever Seer of him, knowing that he would return to Him.
Verse 16
So I swear (fa-lā: lā is extra) by the twilight (al-shafaq), the reddishness visible in the horizon after the sunset,
Verse 17
and [by] the night and what it envelops, [what] it brings together of creatures and otherwise that have entered into it,
Verse 18
and [by] the moon when it is at the full, and its light is complete, and this happens during the nights of the full moon:
Verse 19
you will surely journey (tarkabunna is actually tarkabūnanna, but the nūn of the indicative has been omitted because of two identical letters following one another, and the wāw [is omitted] because of two unvocalised consonants coming together), from stage to stage, state after state, namely, death, then life, then what comes afterwards of the states at the Resurrection.
Verse 20
So what is wrong with them, that is, the disbelievers, that they do not have faith, that is to say, what is there to prevent them from [embracing] faith; or what argument do they have for neglecting it despite the existence of proofs for it,
Verse 21
and, what is wrong with them, that when the Qur’ān is recited to them they do not prostrate?, they [do not] submit by believing in it, given its inimitability?
Verse 22
Nay, but the disbelievers deny, resurrection and other matters,
Verse 23
and God knows best what they are amassing, accumulating in their scrolls, in the way of disbelief, denial and evil deeds.
Verse 24
So give them good tidings, inform them, of a painful chastisement,
Verse 25
except those who believe and perform righteous deeds: theirs will be an unfailing reward, one that is unending, undiminished and not given to them in expectance of anything in return.
Verse 1
By the heaven of the constellations, the twelve constellations of the planets — as explained in [sūrat] al-Furqān [Q. 25:61];
Verse 2
and [by] the promised day, the Day of Resurrection;
Verse 3
and [by] the witness, Friday, and the witnessed, the day of ‘Arafa — that is how these three [elements] have been explained in hadīth: for the first one is ‘promised’, the second one is ‘a witness’ [that testifies] to deeds performed in it, while the third is ‘witnessed’ by mankind and angels (the introductory [particle] of the response to the oath has been omitted, but is implied to be laqad, ‘verily’, [sc. laqad qutila ashābu’l-ukhdūd]):
Verse 4
perish, accursed be, the men of the ditch!, the pit in the ground,
Verse 5
of the fire (al-nāri is an inclusive substitution of it [al-ukhdūdi, ‘of the ditch’]), abounding in fuel, by which it was fuelled,
Verse 6
when they sat by it, around the edge of the ditch on chairs,
Verse 7
and they themselves, to what they did to those who believed, in God, in the way of torturing them by hurling [them] into the fire when they did not recant their faith, were witnesses, [they were themselves] present [thereat]. It is reported [in a hadīth] that God saved the believers who had been thrown into the fire by taking their souls before they fell into it, and that the fire then rose up and burnt all those [sitting] around it.
Verse 8
And all that they were vindicative towards them of was that they believed in God, the Mighty, in His kingdom, the Praised,
Verse 9
to Whom belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, and God is Witness to all things, in other words, all that the disbelievers disavowed of the believers was their faith.
Verse 10
Indeed those who persecute believing men and believing women, by having them burnt, then do not repent, there will be for them the chastisement of Hell, [in return] for their disbelief, and there will [also] be for them the chastisement of burning, that is to say, the chastisement for their having had the believers burnt, in the Hereafter; but it is also said [that there is this chastisement for them] in this world, as when the fire rose up and burnt them, as [mentioned] above.
Verse 11
Indeed those who believe and perform righteous deeds, for them there will be gardens underneath which rivers flow: that is the supreme triumph.
Verse 12
Assuredly your Lord’s assault, against the disbelievers, is severe, [as severe] as He will [it to be].
Verse 13
Assuredly it is He Who originates, creation, and restores, and is never thwarted in what He wills,
Verse 14
and He is the Forgiving, to sinning believers, the Loving, the One Who shows love to His friends through [His acts of] generosity,
Verse 15
Lord of the Throne, its Creator and Possessor, the Glorious (read nominative al-majīdu), the One deserving of the perfect attributes of sublimity,
Verse 16
Doer of what He desires, nothing able to thwart Him.
Verse 17
Have you, O Muhammad (s), received the story of the hosts,
Verse 18
Pharaoh and Thamūd? (Fir‘awna wa-Thamūda substitutes for al-junūdi) — the mention of ‘Pharaoh’ suffices to also include his followers; their ‘story’ is that they were destroyed for their disbelief, and this is meant as a warning for those who deny the Prophet (s) and the Qur’ān, that they may be admonished [thereby].
Verse 19
Nay, but the disbelievers are [engrossed] in denial, of the mentioned;
Verse 20
and God is behind them, All-Encompassing — they have no protector against Him.
Verse 21
Nay, but it is a glorious, a magnificent, Qur’ān,
Verse 22
in a tablet, suspended above the seventh heaven, preserved (read mahfūzin), from all devils and from having any of its contents altered; it is a high as the distance between the earth and the heaven, and as wide as the distance between the east and the west, made of white pearls — as stated by Ibn ‘Abbās, may God be pleased with both [him and his father, ‘Abbās
Verse 1
By the heaven and the night-visitor! (al-tāriq actually denotes any thing that comes by night, including stars, because they come out at night).
Verse 2
And what will tell you what the night-visitor is? (mā’l-tāriq is a subject and predicate, standing as the second object of [the verb] adrā, ‘tell’; and what comes after the first mā, ‘what’, is the predicate thereof [of this first mā]) — this [statement] emphasises the magnificence of the ‘night-visitor’, which is explained in what follows. It is:
Verse 3
The piercing, the brilliant, because of its piercing the darkness with its light, star!, meaning [the constellation] Pleiades; or [it refers to] all stars (the response to the oath [follows]):
Verse 4
Over every soul there is a keeper (if read la-mā, then mā is extra, and in, is softened in place of the hardened form with its subject omitted, that is to say, innahu; the lām is [a particle] for separation; if read lammā, then in is for negation and lammā means illā, ‘except that’) — the watcher is an angel that keeps a record of its deeds, both the good and the evil.
Verse 5
So let man consider, by way of reflection, from what he was created, from what thing:
Verse 6
the response is: He was created from a gushing fluid, gushing forth from the man and the woman into the womb,
Verse 7
issuing from between the loins, of the man, and the breast-bones, of the woman.
Verse 8
Assuredly He, exalted be He, is able to bring him back, to resurrect man after his death; and so when he reflects on his origins, he will realise that the One who was able to do this is also able to resurrect him,
Verse 9
on the day when [all] secrets, the hidden convictions and intentions of the hearts, are inspected, [when] they are examined and revealed,
Verse 10
whereat he, the one who denies resurrection, will have neither strength, to defend himself against chastisement, nor any helper, to avert it from him.
Verse 11
By the heaven of returns, [of] the rain that returns time and again,
Verse 12
and [by] the earth of fissures, splitting with [the growth of] vegetation,
Verse 13
assuredly it, the Qur’ān, is a decisive word, distinguishing between truth and falsehood,
Verse 14
and it is not a jest, frivolity or falsehood.
Verse 15
Indeed they, that is, the disbelievers, are devising a plot, they are preparing plots against the Prophet (s),
Verse 16
and I [too] am devising a plot, drawing them by degrees [towards destruction] from whence they know not.
Verse 17
So respite, O Muhammad (s), the disbelievers; grant them respite ([reiterated as] an emphasis, one enhanced by the use of a different form [mahhil, amhil]), that is to say, put them off, for a little (ruwaydā is a verbal noun emphasising the import of the operator, and is the diminutive form of rūd or irwad, with shortening of final consonant [ruwaydan, ruwaydā]). Surely enough God, exalted be He, seized them at Badr and abrogated [the dispensation of] ‘granting respite’ by the ‘sword’ verse, in other words, by the command to fight and struggle.