Surah As-shuaraa in english

Verse 1

Tā sīn mīm: God knows best what He means by these [letters].

Verse 2

Those, namely, these signs, are the signs of the Manifest Book, the Qur’ān (the genitive annexation [āyātu’l-kitābi] conveys the [partitive] meaning of min), [the Manifest meaning] the one that manifests what is truth from what is falsehood.

Verse 3

Perhaps, O Muhammad (s), you might kill yourself, out of distress for the reason, that they, namely, the people of Mecca, will not become believers (la‘alla here expresses sympathy, in other words [what is meant is] ‘have pity on it [your self] by alleviating [the burden of] this distress’).

Verse 4

If We will We will send down to them a sign from the heaven before which their necks will remain (fa-zallat, [although grammatically in the past tense] is being used in the sense of the imperfect tense) bowed in humility, and they will believe (since ‘necks’ are described as ‘bowed in humility’, [a status] which in fact refers to those who possess them, the adjectival form [khādi‘ūn, ‘bowed in humility’] used therein is the one [normally] used for rational beings).

Verse 5

And there would never come to them from the Compassionate One any remembrance, any [revelation from the] Qur’ān, that is new (muhdathin, is an explicative adjective) but that they used to disregard it.

Verse 6

Verily then they have denied, it; but soon there will come to them the news, the consequences, of that which they used to deride.

Verse 7

Have they not contemplated, observed, the earth, how many We have caused to grow therein, in other words, [We have caused to grow therein] many, of every splendid kind [of vegetation], [of every] fair species.

Verse 8

Surely in that there is a sign, an indication of the perfection of His power, exalted be He; but most of them, in God’s knowledge, are not believers (kāna here according to Sībawayhi is extra).

Verse 9

And surely your Lord, He is the Mighty One, Who will exact vengeance from the disbelievers, the Merciful, Who shows mercy to believers.

Verse 10

And, mention, O Muhammad (s), to your people, when your Lord called to Moses, on the night he saw the fire and the bush, [saying]: ‘Go to the wrongdoing folk, as a messenger,

Verse 11

Pharaoh’s folk, to them as well as him — they wronged their souls by disbelieving in God and [wronged] the Children of Israel by enslaving them — Will they not (a-lā: the hamza indicates a negation meant as a rebuke) show fear?’, of God by being obedient to Him and affirm His Oneness?

Verse 12

He, Moses, said, ‘My Lord, I fear they will deny me,

Verse 13

and that anguish will constrain my breast, because of their denial of me, and that my tongue will not utter clearly, to deliver the Message, because of the knot in it. So give the Mission to, my brother, Aaron, alongside me.

Verse 14

And I have sinned against them, by my slaying of the Egyptian man, and I fear they will slay me’, for this.

Verse 15

Said He, exalted be He: ‘Certainly not!, they shall not slay you. Go both of you, you and your brother — this address [although in the dual form] is predominantly for the person present as opposed to the absent one — with Our signs. We will indeed be with you, hearing, what you say and what is said to you (ma‘akum: the two [Moses and Aaron] are referred to here with the plural pronoun).

Verse 16

So the two of you approach Pharaoh and say, “Indeed We are — [indeed] each of the two of us is, the Messenger of the Lord of the Worlds, to you,

Verse 17

that you should let go forth with us, to Syria, the Children of Israel” ’. So they approached him and said to him that which has been mentioned.

Verse 18

He, Pharaoh, said, to Moses, ‘Did we not rear you among us, in our homes, as a child?, as an infant, only recently born but weaned, and did you not stay with us for years of your life?, for thirty years — he would dress from Pharaoh’s clothes and ride chariots of his, and was referred to as Pharaoh’s son.

Verse 19

And you committed that deed of yours — namely, his slaying of the Egyptian — being an ingrate’, a denier of my favours to you in having reared you [among us] and not enslaved you.

Verse 20

He, Moses, said, ‘I did that then, when I was astray, from the knowledge and the Message which God would later give me.

Verse 21

So I fled from you, as I was afraid of you. Then my Lord gave me judgement, knowledge, and made me one of the messengers.

Verse 22

That is a favour with which you now reproach me that you have enslaved the Children of Israel’ (an ‘abbadta banī Isrā’īl, is explicative of tilka, ‘that’) in other words, you have enslaved them but not me: there is no favour in that, for your enslavement of them is wrong (some [scholars] have reckoned there to be an interrogative hamza of denial at the beginning of this verse [a-tilka ni‘matun, ‘is that a favour?’]).

Verse 23

Pharaoh said, to Moses, ‘And what is “the Lord of the Worlds” ’, the One Whose Messenger you say you indeed are? In other words: what exactly is He? And since there is no way for creation to know the true nature of God, but only to know Him through [an articulation of] His attributes, Moses, blessings and peace be upon him, responds to him with [mention of] some of these [attributes]:

Verse 24

He said, ‘The Lord of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them, in other words, the Creator of [all] that — should you have conviction’, that He, exalted be He, is their Creator, then believe in Him alone.

Verse 25

He, Pharaoh, said to those, noblemen among his folk, who were around him, ‘Did you not hear?!’, his response, how it does not correspond to the question [I asked]?

Verse 26

He, Moses, said, ‘Your Lord and the Lord of your forefathers’. Now, even though this [fact] is comprised by what was [said] before it enrages Pharaoh, and therefore:

Verse 27

He said, ‘Verily this messenger of yours sent to you is a madman!’

Verse 28

He, Moses, said, ‘The Lord of the east and the west and all that is between them — should you comprehend,’, that He is such [a Lord] then believe in Him alone.

Verse 29

He, Pharaoh, said, to Moses: ‘If you choose any god other than me, I will surely make you a prisoner!’. His [Pharaoh’s] prison was very harsh, for a person would be shut up [in a dungeon] underground alone, where he could neither see nor hear anyone else.

Verse 30

He, Moses, said, to him: ‘What, would you do this even, if I bring you something manifest?’, patent proof of my Mission?

Verse 31

He, Pharaoh, said, to him: ‘Then bring it, if you are truthful’, in this.

Verse 32

So he threw down his staff, and lo! it was a manifest serpent, a great snake.

Verse 33

Then he drew out his hand, he brought it out of his pocket, and lo! it was white, glowing, before the onlookers, and not its usual skin colour.

Verse 34

He, Pharaoh, said to the council around him, ‘Surely this man is a cunning sorcerer, an expert in the art of magic,

Verse 35

who seeks to expel you from your land by his sorcery. So what do you advise?’

Verse 36

They said, ‘Put him and his brother off for a while, postpone [judgement of] their affair, and send musterers into the cities

Verse 37

to bring you every cunning sorcerer’, to surpass Moses in the art of magic.

Verse 38

So the sorcerers were assembled at a fixed time of a known day, which was the morning of the Festival Day.

Verse 39

And it was said to the people, ‘Will you assemble!’

Verse 40

Maybe we will follow the sorcerers, should they be the victors’ (the interrogative [of the previous verse] is an incitement to assemble and the optative sense [implicit in la‘alla] is due to their anticipation of victory, and hence their continued adherence to their religion and rejection of Moses).

Verse 41

So when the sorcerers came, they said to Pharaoh, ‘Shall we indeed (read a-inna either by pronouncing both hamzas, or by not pronouncing the second, but in both cases inserting an alif) have a reward if we were to be the victors?’

Verse 42

He said, ‘Yes [of course]! And you shall then be among those closest [to me]’.

Verse 43

Moses said to them, after they had said to him, Either you cast, or we shall be the casters [Q. 7:115]: ‘Cast what you have to cast’ — the command to do this signifies an authorisation for them to cast and a means whereby the truth will be made to prevail.

Verse 44

So they cast their ropes and their staffs, and said, ‘By the power of Pharaoh we shall surely be the victors!’

Verse 45

Thereat Moses cast his staff and lo! it was swallowing (talqafu: one of the original two tā’ letters [of taltaqifu] has been assimilated) what they had faked, [what they had] transformed through illusion, making their ropes and staffs appear to be moving serpents.

Verse 46

So the sorcerers fell down prostrating.

Verse 47

They said, ‘We believe in the Lord of the Worlds,

Verse 48

the Lord of Moses and Aaron’, for they realised that what they had witnessed in the case of the staff could not have been the result of [mere] sorcery.

Verse 49

Pharaoh said, ‘Do you believe (a-āmantum, read pronouncing both hamzas or replacing the second one with an alif) him, Moses, though I have not given you leave? He is indeed your chief, the one who has taught you sorcery — so that he only taught you some [tricks] and then surpassed you with others. Soon you will know, what I will do with you! I will assuredly cut off your hands and legs on opposite sides — in other words, the right hand of each one together with his left leg — then I shall surely crucify you all.’

Verse 50

They said, ‘There is no harm [in that], no damage will be done to us thereby. Surely to our Lord, after we die, whichever way that may be, we shall return, in the Hereafter.

Verse 51

Indeed We hope our Lord will forgive us our iniquities, for being the first to believe’, in our time.

Verse 52

And We revealed to Moses, after many years which he spent among them calling them to the truth with God’s signs but all of which only increased them in insolence, [saying], ‘Journey with My servants, the Children of Israel, by night (a variant reading [for an asri] is an isr, from the verb sarā, one form of asrā) go with them by night in the direction of the sea, for indeed you will be pursued’. Pharaoh and his armies will pursue you, but when they enter the sea in pursuit of you, I will deliver you and drown them.

Verse 53

Then Pharaoh, having been informed of their night departure, sent to the cities — it is said that he ruled a thousand cities and twelve thousand villages — musterers, to assemble the army, saying:

Verse 54

‘Lo! these are but a small gang. It is said that they [the Children of Israel] numbered 670,000, while his [Pharaoh’s] vanguard alone numbered 700,000 and so he deemed their number insignificant in comparison to his huge army.

Verse 55

And indeed they have enraged us, their actions infuriate us,

Verse 56

and indeed we are all on our guard’, ready (a variant reading [for hadhirūna] has hādhirūn, meaning ‘alert’).

Verse 57

God, exalted be He, says: So We made them, Pharaoh and his folk, go forth, out of Egypt, in order to pursue Moses and his people, from gardens, orchards on either side of the Nile, and springs, streams running from the Nile through their dwellings,

Verse 58

and treasures, visible riches of gold and silver — these [riches] are called kunūz [as opposed to amwāl, ‘riches’] because that [portion] which is [always] due to God, exalted be He, from them had not been paid — and splendid places, exquisite residences for princes and ministers surrounded by their retinues.

Verse 59

So [it was], that is, Our expulsion [of them] was as We have described, and We made the Children of Israel to inherit these, after drowning Pharaoh and his folk.

Verse 60

Then they pursued them, they caught them up, at sunrise.

Verse 61

And when the two hosts sighted each other, the companions of Moses said, ‘We have been caught!’, Pharaoh’s hosts have caught us up and we have no power against them.

Verse 62

He, Moses, said, ‘Certainly not!, they shall not catch us up; indeed I have my Lord with me, to provide assistance. He will guide me’, to the route of deliverance.

Verse 63

God, exalted be He, says: Thereupon We revealed to Moses: ‘Strike the sea with your staff’, and he struck it, whereupon it parted, it split into twelve parts, and each part was as a mighty mountain, between each of these parts were paths which they followed, such that not even the saddles or the felts of the riders were touched by water.

Verse 64

And there We brought near the others, Pharaoh and his folk, until they followed them across the same paths.

Verse 65

And We delivered Moses and all those who were with him, by bringing them out of the sea while it was in the state mentioned [above].

Verse 66

Then We drowned the others, Pharaoh and his folk by closing the sea on them after they had entered the sea and the Children of Israel had exited therefrom.

Verse 67

Surely in that, drowning of Pharaoh and his folk, there is a sign, a lesson for those [generations] who would come after them; but most of them are not believers, in God. The only ones to believe were Āsiya — Pharaoh’s wife — Hizqīl, the believing man of Pharaoh’s family, and Maryam daughter of Nāmūsī, she who pointed out the bone remains of [the prophet] Joseph, peace be upon him.

Verse 68

And surely your Lord, He is the Mighty, for He wrought vengeance upon the disbelievers by drowning them, the Merciful, to believers, delivering them from drowning.

Verse 69

And recite to them, the disbelievers of Mecca, the tiding, the tale, of Abraham (Ibrāhīma is substituted by [the following, idh qāla, ‘when he said’])

Verse 70

when he said to his father and his people, ‘What do you worship?’

Verse 71

They said, ‘We worship idols — they reiterate the verb [in the response] in order to supplement it with [the following remark] — and remain cleaving to them’, we remain worshipping them all day; they give a longer response to indicate their [misplaced] pride in such [an act].

Verse 72

He said, ‘Do they hear you when you supplicate?

Verse 73

Or do they bring you benefit, when you worship them, or harm?, to you, if you do not?

Verse 74

They said, ‘Rather, we found our fathers so doing’, that is, doing the same as we do.

Verse 75

He said, ‘Have you considered what you have been worshipping,

Verse 76

you and your ancestors?

Verse 77

They are indeed hateful to me, I do not worship them; but the Lord of the Worlds, I do worship Him,

Verse 78

[He] Who created me, it is He Who guides me, to [the proper] religion,

Verse 79

and provides me with food and drink,

Verse 80

and when I am sick, it is He Who cures me;

Verse 81

and Who will make me die, then give me life,

Verse 82

and Who, I hope, will forgive me my iniquity on the Day of Judgement, [the Day] of Requital.

Verse 83

My Lord! Grant me [unerring] judgement, knowledge, and unite me with the righteous, the prophets.

Verse 84

And confer on me a worthy repute, excellent praise, among posterity, those who will come after me up to the Day of Resurrection.

Verse 85

And make me among the inheritors of the Garden of Bliss, among those who will be given it.

Verse 86

And forgive my father, for indeed he is one of those who are astray, by Your relenting to him and forgiving him: this was before it became clear to him [Abraham] that he [his father] was an enemy of God, as mentioned in sūrat Barā’a [Q. 9:114].

Verse 87

And do not disgrace me, do not expose me, on the day when they, mankind, are resurrected;

Verse 88

of which [day] God, exalted be He, says [the following]: the day when neither wealth nor children will avail, anyone,

Verse 89

except him who comes to God with a heart that is sound, [free] from idolatry and hypocrisy — and this is the heart of the believer, whom such [things] will avail.

Verse 90

And Paradise will be brought near for the God-fearing, and they will [be able to] see it,

Verse 91

and Hell will be revealed [plainly] for the perverse, the disbelievers.

Verse 92

And it will be said to them, ‘Where is that which you used to worship

Verse 93

besides God?, that is, other than Him, in the way of idols. Do they help you, by averting from you the chastisement, or do they help one another?’, by averting it from themselves? No [neither]!

Verse 94

Then they will be hurled, cast, into it, they and the perverse,

Verse 95

and the hosts of Iblīs, his followers and those jinn and humans who were obedient to him, all together.

Verse 96

They, the perverse, shall say, as they wrangle therein, with those whom they used to worship:

Verse 97

‘By God, we had indeed (in, softened in place of the hardened form, with its subject omitted, in other words [it would usually be] innahu) been in manifest error,

Verse 98

when we equated you, in worship, with the Lord of the Worlds.

Verse 99

And it was none other than the sinners, the devils or our predecessors, whose example we were following, that led us astray, from guidance.

Verse 100

So [now] we have no intercessors, as the believers have, in the way of angels, prophets and [other] believers,

Verse 101

nor any sympathetic friend, who might be concerned for us.

Verse 102

If only we had another turn, [another] return to this world, we would have been among those who believe!’ (law, ‘if only’, here is for [the conditional] optative, to which nakūna, ‘we would have been’, constitutes the response).

Verse 103

Surely in that, which is mentioned of the tale of Abraham and his people, there is a sign; but most of them are not believers.

Verse 104

And truly your Lord, He is the Mighty, the Merciful.

Verse 105

The people of Noah denied the messengers, by denying him, for they all brought the same message affirming God’s Oneness; or [it is] because he stayed among them for so long that it was as though he was many messengers (the feminine [person of the verb kadhdhabat, ‘denied’, governed by] qawm, ‘the people’, is on account of the import, but it is masculine on account of its [morphological] form);

Verse 106

when Noah, their brother — [their brother only] in terms of lineage — said to them, ‘Will you not fear?, God?

Verse 107

Truly I am a trusted messenger [sent] to you, to deliver the Message with which I have been sent.

Verse 108

So fear God and obey me, in what I enjoin you to of God’s Oneness and obedience to Him.

Verse 109

I do not ask of you any reward for it, for delivering it; for my reward lies only with the Lord of the Worlds.

Verse 110

So fear God and obey me’ — he repeats this [statement] for emphasis.

Verse 111

They said, ‘Shall we believe in you, in your words, when it is the lowliest people who follow you?’ (wa’ttaba‘aka: a variant reading has wa-atbā‘uka, ‘[when] your followers’, plural of tābi‘, ‘follower’, as a subject) the riffraff, such as the weavers and the shoemakers.

Verse 112

He said, ‘And what do I know of what they may have been doing?

Verse 113

Their reckoning is only my Lord’s concern, and He will requite them, if only you were aware — had you known this, you would not have reviled them.

Verse 114

And I am not about to drive away the believers.

Verse 115

I am just a plain warner’.

Verse 116

They said, ‘Lo! if you do not desist, O Noah, from what you say to us, you will assuredly be among those assailed’, with stones or curses.

Verse 117

He, Noah, said, ‘My Lord, my people have denied me,

Verse 118

so judge conclusively between me and them, and deliver me and the believers who are with me’.

Verse 119

He, exalted be He, says: So We delivered him and those who were with him in the laden ark, [the ship] filled with humans, animals and birds.

Verse 120

Then afterwards, after We delivered them, We drowned the rest, of his people.

Verse 121

Surely in that there is a sign; but most of them are not believers.

Verse 122

Truly your Lord, He is the Mighty, the Merciful.

Verse 123

‘Ād denied the messengers,

Verse 124

when Hūd, their brother, said to them, ‘Will you not fear God?

Verse 125

Truly I am a trusted messenger [sent] to you.

Verse 126

So fear God and obey me.

Verse 127

I do not ask of you any reward for this; for my reward lies only with the Lord of the Worlds.

Verse 128

Do you build on every prominence, every high place, a monument, an edifice as a signpost for passers-by, so that you may hurl abuse?, at those who pass by you and deride them (ta‘bathūna, is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of [the verb] tabnūna, ‘you build’).

Verse 129

And you set up structures, for [extracting] water underground, that perhaps you might, as though you will, last forever, therein and not die.

Verse 130

And when you assault, to smite or slay, you assault like tyrants, mercilessly!

Verse 131

So fear God, in this, and obey me, in what I have commanded you.

Verse 132

And fear Him Who has provided you, Who has been gracious to you, in a way that you know,

Verse 133

provided you with cattle and sons,

Verse 134

and gardens, orchards, and springs, rivers.

Verse 135

Indeed I fear for you the chastisement of a tremendous day’, in this world and in the Hereafter should you disobey me.

Verse 136

They said, ‘It is the same to us whether you admonish [us] or are not one of those who admonish, anyway. In other words, we will not heed your admonition.

Verse 137

This, that you threaten us with, is merely the fabrication of the ancients, that is, their inventions and lies (a variant reading [for khalq, ‘fabrication’] is khuluq, ‘ethos’, in other words, this denial of resurrection to which we adhere is merely ‘the ethos of the ancients’, in other words, their nature and wont);

Verse 138

and we will not be chastised’.

Verse 139

So they denied him, concerning the chastisement, whereupon We destroyed them, in this world with the [barren] wind [cf. Q. 51:41]. Surely in that there is a sign; but most of them are not believers.

Verse 140

Truly your Lord, He is the Mighty, the Merciful.

Verse 141

Thamūd denied the messengers,

Verse 142

when Sālih, their brother, said to them, ‘Will you fear God?

Verse 143

Truly I am a trusted messenger [sent] to you.

Verse 144

So fear God and obey me.

Verse 145

I do not ask of you any reward for this; for my reward lies only with the Lord of the Worlds.

Verse 146

Will you be left secure in that which is here, of good things —

Verse 147

amid gardens and springs,

Verse 148

and farms and date palms with slender, delicate and tender, spathes?

Verse 149

And you hew dwellings out of the mountains arrogantly (a variant reading [of farihīna, ‘arrogant’] has fārihīn, ‘skilfully’).

Verse 150

So fear God and obey me, in what I have commanded you,

Verse 151

and do not obey the command of the prodigal,

Verse 152

who cause corruption in the earth, through acts of disobedience, and act righteously’, by being obedient to God.

Verse 153

They said, ‘You are indeed one of the bewitched, those who have succumbed so many times to sorcery that their minds have been overcome.

Verse 154

And, moreover, you are just a human being like us. So bring [us] a sign, if you are sincere’, in your Mission.

Verse 155

He said, ‘This is a she-camel; she shall drink, a share of the water, and you shall drink [each] on a known day.

Verse 156

And do not cause her any harm, for then you shall be seized by the chastisement of an awful day’, [awful] because of the awfulness of the chastisement.

Verse 157

But they hamstrung her — a group of them hamstrung her with the approval of others; and then became remorseful, for having hamstrung it.

Verse 158

So they were seized by the chastisement, which had been promised and were destroyed. Surely in that there is a sign; but most of them are not believers.

Verse 159

Truly your Lord, He is the Mighty, the Merciful.

Verse 160

The people of Lot denied the messengers,

Verse 161

when Lot, their brother, said to them, ‘Will you not fear God?

Verse 162

Truly I am a trusted messenger [sent] to you.

Verse 163

So fear God and obey me.

Verse 164

I do not ask of you any reward for this; my reward lies only with the Lord of the Worlds.

Verse 165

What! Of all people you come unto males [to fornicate],

Verse 166

and forsake the wives your Lord has created for you?, in other words, [you forsake intimacy with] their front parts? Nay, but you are a transgressing folk’, overstepping [the bounds of] what is lawful into what is unlawful.

Verse 167

They said, ‘If you do not desist, O Lot, from reproaching us, you will assuredly be of those expelled’, from our land.

Verse 168

He, Lot, said, ‘Truly I abhor, I detest, what you do.

Verse 169

My Lord, deliver me and my family from what they do’, that is, from the punishment for it.

Verse 170

So We delivered him and all his family,

Verse 171

except an old woman — his wife — among those who stayed behind, whom We destroyed.

Verse 172

Then We destroyed [all] the others,

Verse 173

and We rained on them a rain, [We rained on them] stones — this [detail] pertains to [the previous] statement concerning their destruction — and evil was, their rain, the rain of those who were warned!

Verse 174

Surely in that there is a sign; but most of them are not believers.

Verse 175

Surely your Lord, He is the Mighty, the Merciful.

Verse 176

The dwellers in the wood (a variant reading [for ashābu’l-aykati] has ashābu laykata), a thicket of trees near Midian, denied the messengers,

Verse 177

when Shu‘ayb — He [God] does not say ‘their brother’ [in this instance] because he [Shu‘ayb] was not [in terms of lineage] one of them — said to them, ‘Will you not fear God?

Verse 178

Truly I am a trusted messenger [sent] to you.

Verse 179

So fear God and obey me.

Verse 180

I do not ask of you any reward for this; indeed my reward lies only with the Lord of the Worlds.

Verse 181

Give full measure and do not be of those who give short measure,

Verse 182

and weigh with an even balance,

Verse 183

and do not defraud people in their goods, do not diminish anything of what is due to them, and do not be degenerate in the earth, seeking corruption, by killing or otherwise ([ta‘thaw, ‘degenerate’] derives from ‘athiya, meaning afsada, ‘to corrupt’; mufsidīna, ‘seeking corruption’, is a circumstantial qualifier emphasising the import of its operator [ta‘thaw]).

Verse 184

And fear Him Who created you and the former generations’, [all] creation [before you].

Verse 185

They said, ‘You are indeed one of the bewitched.

Verse 186

You are just a human being like us. And we indeed (in, softened in place of the hardened form, its subject omitted, in other words [it would be] innahu) think that you are one of the liars.

Verse 187

Then make fragments (read kisfan or kisafan) of the heaven fall upon us, if you are of the truthful’, in your Mission.

Verse 188

He said, ‘My Lord knows best what you are doing’, and will requite you for it.

Verse 189

But they denied him, so they were seized by the chastisement of the day of the shade (al-zulla) — a cloud which gave them shade when they suffered a bout of extreme heat but which then rained down fire on them and they were incinerated. Assuredly it was the chastisement of a tremendous day.

Verse 190

Surely in that there is a sign; but most of them are not believers.

Verse 191

Surely your Lord, He is the Mighty, the Merciful.

Verse 192

Truly it, the Qur’ān, is the revelation of the Lord of the Worlds,

Verse 193

brought down by the Trustworthy Spirit, Gabriel,

Verse 194

upon your heart, that you may be [one] of the warners,

Verse 195

in a clear Arabic tongue (a variant reading [for nazala, ‘he brought down’, verse 193] has nuzzila, ‘was sent down’, and al-rūha, ‘the Spirit’, in the accusative, the subject of the verb being God).

Verse 196

And truly it, the allusion to the Qur’ān [that would be] revealed to Muhammad (s), is in the Scriptures, the Books, of the ancients, such as the Torah and the Gospel.

Verse 197

Is it not a sign, of this fact, for them, for the disbelievers of Mecca, that the learned of the Children of Israel recognise it?, [those] such as ‘Abd Allāh b. Salām and his companions, from among those who became [Muslim] believers: they are able inform [you] of this (read yakun with āyatan in the accusative, or takun with āyatun in the nominative).

Verse 198

For had We revealed it to some non-Arabs (a‘jamūn is the plural of a‘jam),

Verse 199

and had he recited it to them, that is, [to] the disbelievers of Mecca, they would not have believed in it, disdaining to follow it.

Verse 200

So, in the same way in which We would have caused denial of it to penetrate [the hearts of disbelievers] had it been recited by a non-Arab, We have caused, denial of, it to penetrate the hearts of the criminals, the Meccan disbelievers, when Muhammad (s) recites it.

Verse 201

They will not believe in it until they behold the painful chastisement,

Verse 202

so that it will come upon them suddenly while they are not aware.

Verse 203

Thereupon they will say, ‘Shall we be granted any respite?’, that we might become believers?; and it shall be said to them, ‘No!’, and they will say, ‘When will this chastisement be?’ God, exalted be He, says:

Verse 204

So do they [seek to] hasten Our chastisement?

Verse 205

Consider [this] then — inform Me: If We were to let them enjoy [life] for [many] years,

Verse 206

then there were to come on them that which they have been promised, of chastisement,

Verse 207

in what way (mā here is interrogative) would that enjoyment which they were given avail them?, in averting the chastisement or mitigating it? It would be of no avail!

Verse 208

And We have not destroyed any town but it had warners, messengers to warn its inhabitants;

Verse 209

as a reminder, an admonition for them; for We were never unjust, for We destroy them [only] after they have been warned. The following was revealed to refute what the idolaters were saying:

Verse 210

It, the Qur’ān, has not been brought down by the devils.

Verse 211

Neither would it behove, befit, them, to bring it down, nor are they capable, [of doing] that.

Verse 212

Truly they are barred, restrained with blazing stars, from the hearing, of the sayings of the angels.

Verse 213

So do not invoke any other god with God, lest you be among the chastised — if you were to do what they call you to.

Verse 214

And warn the nearest of your kinsfolk, namely, the Banū Hāshim and the Banū al-Muttalib: ‘He [the Prophet] warned them publicly …’, as reported by al-Bukhārī and Muslim.

Verse 215

And lower your wing, show your gentle side, to the believers, the affirmers of God’s Oneness, who follow you.

Verse 216

But if they, your kinsfolk, disobey you, say, to them: ‘I am absolved of what you do’, in worshipping [gods] other than God.

Verse 217

And put your trust (wa-tawakkal, or read fa-tawakkal, ‘then put your trust’) in the Mighty, the Merciful, God, in other words, entrust Him with all your affairs,

Verse 218

Who sees you when you stand, for prayer,

Verse 219

and your movements — in [performing] the [various] parts of prayer: standing, sitting, bowing and prostrating — among those who prostrate, those who perform the prayers.

Verse 220

Truly He is the Hearing, the Knowing.

Verse 221

Shall I inform you, O disbelievers of Mecca, upon whom the devils descend? (tanazzalu: one of the tā’ letters in the original [tatanazzalu] has been omitted).

Verse 222

They descend upon every sinful, profligate, liar, such as Musaylama and other soothsayers.

Verse 223

They, the devils, report the heard [sayings], what they hear from the angels [they report] to the soothsayers, but most of them are liars, adding much that is false to what they hear — this was [revealed] before the devils were barred from the heaven.

Verse 224

As for the poets, [only] the perverse follow them, in their poetry, propounding it and reciting it on their behalf to others; they are thus reprehensible.

Verse 225

Have you not noticed that — are you not aware that — in every valley, of the valleys of rhetoric and the art thereof, they rove, overstepping the bounds [of decency] in [their] eulogies and diatribes,

Verse 226

and that they say, we do, what they do not do?, in other words, that they lie.

Verse 227

Save those, poets, who believe and perform righteous deeds and remember God frequently, in other words, [those whom] poetry does not distract from the remembrance [of God], and vindicate themselves, by lampooning the disbelievers, after they have been wronged, by the disbelievers’ reviling of them [as belonging] together with all believers — such [individuals] are not reprehensible. God, exalted be He, says: God does not like the utterance of evil words out loud, unless a person has been wronged [Q. 4:148]; He, exalted be He, also says: so whoever commits aggression against you, commit aggression against him in the manner that he committed against you [Q. 2:194]; and those, poets and others, who are wrongdoers will soon know the reversal, the return, with which they will meet, [by which] they will return, after death.

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Surah AS-SHUARAA / The Poets in English | Surah 26

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