Verse 1
A petitioner petitioned, a supplicator supplicated [for], an impending chastisement
Verse 2
— which in the case of the disbelievers none can avert: this was al-Nadr b. al-Hārith who said, ‘O God, if this be indeed the truth from You … [then rain down upon us stones from the heaven’ [Q. 8:32],
Verse 3
from God (mina’Llāhi is semantically connected to wāqi‘in, ‘impending’), Lord of the Ascensions, the ascension routes of the angels, which are the heavens.
Verse 4
To Him, to the place in the heaven to which His command descends, ascend (read [feminine person] ta‘ruju or [masculine person] ya‘ruju) the angels and the Spirit, Gabriel, in a day (fī yawmin is semantically connected to an omitted clause, that is to say, ‘[in a day] in which the chastisement befalls them’, on the Day of Resurrection) whose span is fifty thousand years, from the perspective of the disbeliever, on account of the calamities he will encounter in it — but as for the believer, it [the mentioned day] will be easier for him than an obligatory prayer which he performs in this world, as stated in hadīth.
Verse 5
So be patient — this was [revealed] before he [the Prophet] was commanded to fight — with a graceful patience, that is, one in which there is no anguish.
Verse 6
Lo! they see it, that is, the chastisement, as [being] far off, as never taking place;
Verse 7
while We see it [to be] near, taking place without a doubt.
Verse 8
The day when the heaven will be (yawma takūnu’l-samā’u is semantically connected to an omitted clause, implicitly taken to be yaqa‘u, ‘it will take place’) as molten silver,
Verse 9
and the mountains will be as flakes of wool, in terms of [their] lightness and [their] floating about in the wind.
Verse 10
And no friend will inquire about his friend, [no] relative [will inquire] about his relative, each being preoccupied with his own predicament.
Verse 11
They will [however] be made to see them, that is, friends will catch sight of one another, recognising one another but refraining from speaking [to one another] (the sentence [yubassarūnahum] is a new [independent] one). The guilty one will desire, the disbeliever will yearn, to ransom himself from the chastisement of that day (read [min ‘adhābi] yawmi’dhin or [min ‘adhābin] yawma’idhin) at the price of his children,
Verse 12
and his companion, his wife, and his brother,
Verse 13
and his kin, his clan ([expressed as fasīla] because he is a [detached] part [fasl] of it) that had sheltered him, embraced him,
Verse 14
and all who are on earth, if it, that ransom, might then deliver him (thumma yunjīhi is a supplement to yaftadī, ‘to ransom himself’).
Verse 15
Nay! — a refutation of his wish. Lo! [for him] it, namely, the Fire, will be the Churning Fire (lazā) — a name for Hell, [so called] because it churns its flames [tatalazzā] against the disbelievers,
Verse 16
ripping out the scalp (shawā is the plural of shawāt, the skin of the head);
Verse 17
it will call him who turned his back and ignored, faith, saying [to him]: ‘To me ! to me [come hither]!’,
Verse 18
and amassed, wealth, then hoarded, keeping it in containers and refraining from paying from it what is God’s due.
Verse 19
Indeed man was created restless: (halū‘an is an implied circumstantial qualifier, the explanation of which [follows]):
Verse 20
when evil befalls him, [he is] anxious, at the point of that evil befalling [him],
Verse 21
and when good befalls him, [he is] grudging, at the point of that good befalling [him], that is to say, [when] wealth [befalls him], [he is grudging to give] of it what is due to God;
Verse 22
except those who perform prayers, that is, the believers,
Verse 23
those who maintain, [those who] regularly observe, their prayers,
Verse 24
and in whose wealth there is an acknowledged due, namely, alms,
Verse 25
for the beggar and the deprived, the [latter being the] one who refrains from begging and thus becomes deprived,
Verse 26
and who affirm the truth of the Day of Judgement, [of] Requital,
Verse 27
and who are apprehensive of the chastisement of their Lord —
Verse 28
lo! there is no security from the chastisement of their Lord, [from] its being sent down —
Verse 29
and those who guard their private parts,
Verse 30
except from their wives and those whom their right hands own, in the way of slavegirls, for in that case they are not blameworthy;
Verse 31
but whoever seeks beyond that, those are the infringers, who transgress [the bounds of] what is lawful [stepping] into what is unlawful;
Verse 32
and those who are keepers, [faithful] guardians, of their trusts (amānātihim: a variant reading has the singular [amānatihim]), that to which they are entrusted of religion and the affairs of this world, and their covenant, the one taken from them regarding such things,
Verse 33
and who are forthwith with their testimony (bi-shahādatihim: a variant reading has the plural [bi-shahādātihim, ‘their testimonies’]), [those who] offer them and do not withhold them,
Verse 34
and who preserve their prayers, by observing them in their appointed times.
Verse 35
Those will be in Gardens, honoured.
Verse 36
So what is wrong with those who disbelieve that they keep staring towards you (muhti‘īna is a circumstantial qualifier),
Verse 37
to the right and to the left, of you, in droves? (‘izīna is also a circumstantial qualifier), in other words, in groups standing in circles, one next to the other, saying, in mockery of the believers, ‘Verily if [the likes of] these are to enter Paradise, we shall enter it before them’. God, exalted be He, says:
Verse 38
Does each one of them hope to be admitted into a Garden of Bliss?
Verse 39
Nay! — meant to thwart their hopes of [entering] Paradise. Indeed We created them, as others, from what they know, from drops of sperm, and so one cannot hope for Paradise [merely] on account of this: one hopes for it by being God-fearing.
Verse 40
For verily (fa-lā: lā is extra) I swear by the Lord of the rising-places and the setting-places, of the sun, the moon and all the stars, that We are able
Verse 41
to replace [them], to bring in their place, with [others] better than them, and We are not to be outmanoeuvred, [We will not be] frustrated in this.
Verse 42
So leave them to indulge, in their falsehoods, and to play, in this world of theirs, until they encounter that day of theirs, in, which they are promised, chastisement;
Verse 43
the day when they will come forth from the graves hastening, to the site of the Gathering, as if racing to a [standing] target (nasbin: a variant reading has nusubin, meaning something that has been erected [mansūb], such as a flag or a banner),
Verse 44
with their eyes humbled, abject, overcast by abasement, shrouded in it. Such is the day which they are promised (dhālika is the subject and what follows it is the predicate), meaning: the Day of Resurrection.