Introduction
Meccan or Medinese, consisting of 6 verses.
Ayah 1
Say: ‘I seek refuge in the Lord of mankind, their Creator and their Possessor: they [mankind] have been singled out for mention here in order to honour them, and a preface to seeking refuge from the evil of the one who whispers in their hearts;
Ayah 2
the King of mankind,
Ayah 3
the God of mankind (both [maliki’l-nās and ilāhi’l-nās] are either substitutions or adjectival qualifications or explicative supplements; the repetition of the annexed word [al-nās] is meant as an additional explication),
Ayah 4
from the evil of the slinking whisperer, Satan — he is referred to by the name of the action [waswasa] on account of his repeated engaging in it — who slinks [away] and recoils from the heart whenever God is mentioned,
Ayah 5
who whispers in the breasts of mankind, in their hearts — whenever they neglect to remember God,
Ayah 6
of the jinn and mankind’ (mina’l-jinnati wa’l-nāsi: an explication for the whispering Satan being of the jinn and [also] of the humans, similar to God’s saying, the devils of humans and jinn [Q. 6:112]; or, mina’ljinnati, ‘of the jinn’, is an explication for him [Satan], wa’l-nāsi, ‘and [of] mankind’ being a supplement to alwaswās, ‘the whisperer’). Both [explanations] apply to the evil of the mentioned Labīd and his daughters; the objection to the first opinion is that humans do not ‘whisper’ in the hearts of [other] humans, but that it is the jinn who whisper in their hearts: I would respond by saying that human beings also ‘whisper’ in a manner appropriate to them, [beginning] externally, whereafter their whispers reach the heart and establish themselves in it in the way in which this [customarily] happens. But God knows best what is correct, and to Him shall be the return and the final destination, and may God bless our master Muhammad and his family and Companions, and grant [them all] much peace, forever and always. God suffices for us and [what] an excellent guardian [is He]! And there is no power or might except in God, the Sublime, the Tremendous.