Meccan, except for verses 52, 53 and 54, which are Medinese; it consists of 75 verses, revealed after [sūrat] Saba’.

The revelation of the Book, the Qur’ān (tanzīlu’l-kitābi, the subject) is from God (mina’Llāhi, its predicate) the Mighty, in His kingdom, the Wise, in His handiwork.

Indeed We have revealed to you, O Muhammad (s), the Book with the truth (bi’l-haqqi is semantically connected to anzalnā, ‘We have revealed’); so worship God, devoting your religion purely to Him, [pure] of any idolatry, in other words, affirming His Oneness.

Surely to God belongs pure religion, none other than Him being deserving of it. And those who take besides Him, the idols [as], patrons: and they are the disbelievers of Mecca — they say: ‘We only worship them so that they may bring us near to God’ (zulfā, a verbal noun, with the sense of taqrīban, ‘for the sake of nearness’). God will indeed judge between them, and the Muslims, concerning that about which they differ, of religion, and so admit the believers into Paradise, and the disbelievers into the Fire. Truly God does not guide one who is a liar, attributing a child to Him, a disbeliever, worshipping other than God.

Had God wanted to take a son — as they allege [that He has], ‘The Compassionate One has taken [to Himself] a son’ [Q. 19:88], He could have chosen from what He has created whatever He willed, and taken it as a child, instead of the angels whom they claim to be God’s daughters, or [their claim] that ‘Ezra is the son of God’, or that ‘Jesus is the son of God’ [cf. Q. 9:30]. Glory be to Him, in exaltation of Him as being above that He should take a child. He is God, the One, the All-Compelling, over all His creatures.

He created the heavens and the earth with the truth (bi’l-haqqi is semantically connected to khalaqa, ‘He created’). He turns the night into day, so that it grows, and turns the day into night, so that it grows, and He has disposed the sun and the moon, each running, in its course, for an appointed term, until the Day of Resurrection. Verily it is He Who is the Mighty, Whose way [always] prevails, Requiter of His enemies, the [ever] Forgiving, of His friends.

He created you from a single soul, namely, Adam, then made from it its mate, Eve; and He sent down for you of the cattle, [of] camels, cows, small cattle, sheep and goats, eight kinds, of each kind a male and a female — as He makes clear in sūrat al-An‘ām [Q. 6:143f.]. He creates you in your mothers’ wombs, creation after creation, that is to say, as a sperm-drop, then a blood clot, then a foetus, in a threefold darkness, that is, the darkness of the belly, that of the womb and that of the placenta. That is God, your Lord. To Him belongs [all] sovereignty. There is no god except Him. Why then are you being turned away?, from worshipping Him to worshipping [things] other than Him?

If you are ungrateful, indeed God is Independent of you, though He does not approve of ingratitude for His servants, even if He should will it [to manifest itself] in some of them. And if you give thanks, to God and thus become believers, He will approve of it (read yardah, or yardahu, either lengthening the vowel or not), that is, [of such] thankfulness, for you. And no burdened soul shall bear the burden of another [soul], in other words, it will not bear [the responsibility for] it. Then to your Lord will be your return, whereat He will inform you of what you used to do. Indeed He is Knower of what is in the breasts, of what is in the hearts [of men].

And when distress befalls a person, that is, the disbeliever, he supplicates his Lord, he implores, turning, returning, to Him penitently. Then, when He bestows on him a grace from Himself, he forgets, he neglects, Him Whom he had supplicated, implored, before, namely, God (in other words mā functions as min, ‘whom’) and sets up equals, associates, with God, that he may lead [others] astray (read li-yadilla or li-yudilla) from His way — [from] the religion of Islam. Say: ‘Revel in your ingratitude for a while — for the remainder of your term [of life]. You shall indeed be among the inhabitants of the Fire’.

Or is he who (read, softened, a-man) devotes himself [in worship], observing duties of obedience, in the watches of the night, [during] its hours, prostrating and standing, in prayer, apprehensive of the [eventuality of the] Hereafter, in other words, fearing its chastisement, and hoping for the mercy, the Paradise, of his Lord … ?, like one who is disobedient through disbelief or otherwise? (a variant reading has am-man, pronouncing the hamza, so that am has the sense of bal, ‘rather’). Say: ‘Are those who know equal with those who do not know?’, in other words, they are not equal, just as the person of knowledge is not equal to the ignorant one. Only people of pith, possessors of intellect, remember, [only they] are admonished.

Say: ‘O servants of Mine who believe! Fear your Lord, that is to say, [fear] His chastisement, by being obedient to Him. For those who are virtuous in this world, through obedience, there will be good, and that is Paradise, and God’s earth is vast, so emigrate throughout it, away from the [company of] disbelievers and the sight of indecencies. Truly the steadfast, in [their] obedience [of God] and in [enduring] whatever [hardship] they may be tested with, will be paid their reward in full without any reckoning’, without any measure or any scales [to work it out].

Say: ‘Indeed I have been commanded to worship God devoting [my] religion purely to Him, [pure] of any idolatry,

and I have been commanded to be the first of those who submit’, from this community.

Say: ‘Indeed, should I disobey my Lord, I fear the chastisement of a tremendous day’.

Say: ‘God [alone] I worship, devoting [my] religion purely to Him, [pure] of any idolatry.

So worship whatever you wish besides Him’, other than Him — herein is a threat for them as well as a declaration [of the fact] that they do not worship God, exalted be He. Say: ‘Indeed the losers are those who [will] have lost their souls and their families on the Day of Resurrection, by condemning their souls to abide [forever] in the Fire, and their failure to attaining [the bliss promised among] the black-eyed virgins who would have been prepared for them in Paradise had they been believers. Truly that is the manifest loss!’

Above them they will have canopies, layers, of fire, and beneath them [they will have [similar] canopies, of fire. That is what God frightens His servants with, that is, the believing ones, that they may have fear of Him — this [sense of the verse] is suggested by [what follows]), “So, O servants of Mine, fear Me!”’

As for those who steer clear of the worship of false deities, graven images, and turn penitently, apply themselves, to God, there are good tidings for them, of Paradise. So give [such] good tidings to My servants,

who listen to the words [of God] and follow the best [sense] of it, which is that which contains [the means to] righteousness for them. Those, they are the ones whom God has guided; and those, they are the people of pith, the possessors of intellect.

Can he against whom the word of chastisement has been fulfilled …?, namely [the words], I will surely fill Hell [with jinn and mankind together] [Q. 11:119]; Will you deliver, bring out, one who is in the Fire? (this is the response to the conditional clause, in which the overt qualification [man fī’l-nār, ‘one who is in the Fire’] replaces the pronominalisation [a-fa-man, ‘he … whom’]; the hamza [in a-fa-anta, ‘will you’] is for rejection, in other words [the sense is that] you will not be able to guide him and therefore deliver him from the Fire).

But as for those who fear their Lord, and therefore obey Him — for them there will be lofty abodes with [other] lofty abodes built above them, with rivers flowing beneath them, that is, beneath [both] the upper and the lower abodes — a promise of God (wa‘da’Llāhi, in the accusative because of an implied verb governing it). God does not fail the tryst, [He does not break] His promise.

Have you not seen, realised, that God sends down water from the heaven, then conducts it as springs, making it enter points of springs, in the ground? Then with it He brings forth crops of diverse hues. Then they wither, they become dried-out, and you see them, for example, after having been green, turning yellow. Then He turns them into chaff. Truly in that there is a reminder for people of pith, possessors of intellect, by which they may be reminded, for it is an indication of God’s Oneness and His power.

Is he whose breast God has opened to Islam, and becomes guided, so that he follows a light from his Lord …?, like he whose heart He has sealed [with disbelief]? — this [understanding of the ellipsis] is indicated by [what follows]. So woe — an expression indicating ‘chastisement’ — to those whose hearts have been hardened against the remembrance of God, that is, [hardened] against the acceptance of the Qur’ān. Such are in manifest error.

God has revealed the best of discourses, a Book (kitāban, substitutes for ahsana, ‘the best’) namely, a Qur’ān, consimilar, in other words, some of its parts are similar to others in terms of [their] arrangement and otherwise, in coupled phrases — [a Book] in which the Promise [of reward] is coupled with the Threat [of punishment], together with other such [couplings] — whereat quiver, at the mention of whose Threat shiver, the skins of those who fear their Lord; then their skins and their hearts soften to, they are reassured by, the remembrance of God, that is, at the mention of His Promise. That, Book, is God’s guidance, by which He guides whomever He will, of His servants; and whomever God leads astray, for him there is no guide.

Is he who will be fending off, [is he] who will encounter, with his face the awful chastisement on the Day of Resurrection …?, that is, the most severe [chastisement], when he is flung into the Fire with his hands bound to his neck in fetters, [is he] like one who will be secure from it by entering Paradise? And it will be said to the wrongdoers, namely, the disbelievers of Mecca: ‘Taste [now] what you used to earn’, that is, [taste] the requital for it.

Those who were before them denied, their messengers with regard to the coming of the chastisement; and so the chastisement came on them whence they were not aware, in a way that would never have occurred to them.

So God made them taste disgrace, abasement and humiliation, in the way of being transformed [into swine] and being killed and otherwise, in the life of this world. And the chastisement of the Hereafter will surely be greater, had they, that is, the deniers, known, [the nature of] the chastisement thereof, they would not have denied.

And verily We have struck, coined, for mankind in this Qur’ān every [kind of] similitude, that perhaps they may remember, [that perhaps] they may be admonished —

an Arabic Qur’ān (qur’ānan ‘arabiyyan, a circumstantial qualifier for emphasis) without any deviation, that is, [without] any contradiction or variance, that perhaps they may guard themselves, against disbelief.

God strikes, for the idolater and the believer in God’s Oneness, a similitude: a man (rajulan, substitutes for mathalan, ‘a similitude’) shared by several [masters], quarrelling, disputing, ill-mannered, and a man belonging exclusively to one man. Are the two equal in comparison? (mathalan, for specification), in other words, the slave of many [masters] is not the same as the slave of a single person. For in the case of the former, if all of his masters were to demand his service simultaneously, he would be confused as to whom of them he should serve — which is the similitude of the idolater; the latter [the slave of one] is the similitude of the one who believes in the One God. Praise be to God!, alone. Nay, but most of them, that is, the people of Mecca, do not know, the chastisement in which they will end up and so they associate others with God.

You — an address to the Prophet (s) — will indeed die, and they [too] will indeed die, and so there is no satisfaction to be gained from [another’s] death: this was revealed because they kept waiting for the Prophet (s) to die.

Then you will indeed, O mankind, concerning the injustices you committed towards one another, be contending before your Lord on the Day of Resurrection.

So who is — in other words, none is — a greater wrongdoer than he who imputes falsehood to God, by ascribing partners and child to Him, and [who] denies the truth, namely, the Qur’ān, when it reaches him? Is there not a [fitting] abode in Hell for the disbelievers? Indeed, there is.

And he who brings the truth — and that is the Prophet (s) — and [those] who confirm it, namely, the believers (here alladhī, ‘he who’, has the significance of alladhīna, ‘those who’), those, they are the ones who guard themselves, against idolatry.

They shall have whatever they wish with their Lord. That is the reward of those who are virtuous, to their own souls through their [acceptance of] faith;

so that God may absolve them of the worst of what they did, and pay them their reward by the best of what they used to do (aswa’a and ahsana mean [simply] al-sayyi’, ‘bad’, and al-hasan, ‘good’).

Does God not suffice [as defender of] His servant?, the Prophet? Indeed, He does. Yet they would frighten you — the address is for him (s) — of those besides Him, namely, the idols, [by telling him] that these [idols] might kill him or render him insane. And whomever God leads astray, for him there is no guide.

But whomever God guides, there is no one [able] to lead him astray. Is not God Mighty, One Whose way [always] prevails, a Lord of Retribution?, against His enemies? Indeed, He is.

And if (wa-la-in: the lām is for oaths) you ask them, ‘Who created the heavens and the earth?’ they will surely say, ‘God.’ Say: ‘Have you considered then those on whom you call, [those whom] you worship, besides God, namely, the idols, if God should desire some harm to befall me, would they [be able to] remove the harm imposed by Him? No! Or if He should desire some mercy for me, would they [be able to] withhold His mercy?’ No! (a variant reading for the two clauses [kāshifātun durrahu and mumsikātun rahmatahu] has the genitive construction [kāshifātu durrihi and mumsikātu rahmatihi). Say: ‘God is sufficient for me. In Him do [all] the trusting put their trust’.

Say: ‘O my people! Act according to your situation, [according to] your circumstances, I [too] am acting, according to my circumstances. For you will [come to] know

to whom (man, introduces the relative clause that is the direct object of [the action of] ‘knowing’) will come a chastisement that will disgrace him and on whom there will descend a lasting chastisement’, an everlasting one, namely, the chastisement of the Fire. Indeed God [then] disgraced them at Badr.

Truly We have revealed the Book to you for [the sake of] mankind with the truth (bi’l-haqqi is semantically connected to anzalnā, ‘We have revealed’). So whoever is guided, then it, his being guided, is for [the sake of] his own soul, and whoever goes astray, goes astray only to the detriment thereof. And you are not [meant to be] a guardian over them, and so compel them to [embrace] guidance.

God takes the souls at the time of their death, and, He takes, those that have not died in their sleep, in other words, He takes them during sleep. Then He retains those for whom He has ordained death and releases the others until an appointed term, that is, until the time of their death. The one that is released is the soul [that possesses the faculty] of discernment, without which the soul [containing the force] of life is able to remain [temporarily] — but this cannot be the other way round. Truly in that, mentioned, there are signs, indications, for a people who reflect, and then realise that the One with the power to do this also has the power to resurrect — Quraysh, however, never reflected on this [fact].

Or have they — nay, but [they have] — taken besides God, idols, as gods [to act as], intercessors?, with God, as they [are wont to] allege. Say, to them: ‘What!, will they intercede, even though they have no power whatever, of intercession or otherwise, and are unable to comprehend?’, that you worship them or [to comprehend] anything else [for that matter]? Nay.

Say: ‘All intercession belongs [solely] to God, that is to say, He has exclusive control over it, and so none can intercede except with His permission. To Him belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth; then to Him you will be brought back’.

And when God is mentioned alone, that is, without [the mention of] their gods, thereat shrink, they are repelled and they become constricted, the hearts of those who do not believe in the Hereafter; but when those [others] besides Him, namely, the idols, are mentioned, behold, they rejoice!

Say: ‘O God! (Allāhumma means yā Allāh) Originator of the heavens and the earth!, the Creator of them without precedent, Knower of the Unseen and the visible, [Knower of] what is hidden and what is witnessed, You will judge between Your servants concerning that wherein they used to differ’, in the matter of religion: guide me to the truth over which they are at variance.

And [even] if the evildoers possessed all that is in the earth, and as much of it besides, they would surely offer it to ransom themselves from the terrible chastisement on the Day of Resurrection. And there will appear, [there will become] manifest, to them from God that which they had never reckoned, [what they never] supposed [they would see].

And there will appear to them the evils of what they had earned, and they will be besieged by, there will descend [on them], that which they used to deride, in other words, the chastisement.

So when some distress befalls man (al-insān, here a generic), he supplicates Us. Then, when We bestow on him a grace from Us, he says, ‘I was given it merely by force of knowledge’, from God that I was deserving of it. Nay, but it, this saying, is a trial, a test by which servants are tested. But most of them do not know, that such bestowal [of grace] is a way of drawing [them] on and a test [of their faith].

Already the same was said by those who were before them, of communities, such as Korah and those of his people who were content with such [a saying]. But what they used to earn did not avail them.

So the evils of what they earned smote them, that is, the requital thereof [smote them]. And the evildoers among these, namely, [among] Quraysh, shall also be smitten by the evils of what they earned, and they will not be able to thwart it: [they will not] elude Our chastisement — thus they were made to suffer seven years of drought and [only] afterwards were they enriched [with provision from God].

Do they not know that God extends His provision, [that He] makes it abundant, for whomever He will, as a test, and restricts [it]?, for whomever He will, as a trial? Truly in that there are signs for a people who believe, in Him.

Say [that God declares]: ‘O My servants who have been prodigal against their own souls, do not despair (read taqnitū, taqnatū, or taqnutū), do not give up hope, of God’s mercy. Truly God forgives all sins, for those who repent from idolatry. Truly He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.

And turn, return, [penitently] to your Lord and submit, perform deeds sincerely, to Him, before the chastisement comes on you, whereupon you will not be helped, to ward it off, if you have not repented.

And follow the best of what has been revealed to you from your Lord — namely, the Qur’ān — before the chastisement comes on you suddenly while you are unaware’, of the time [of its arrival] until it has [actually] come;

so apply yourselves to this, before any soul should say, ‘Alas for me (yā hasratā is actually yā hasratī, meaning ‘O regret of mine’) for what I have neglected of my duty to God, in other words, [of] obedience to Him. Indeed (wa-in: in is softened in place of the hardened form, in other words [understand it as] wa-innī) I was among those who ridiculed’, His religion and His Book;

or [before] that it should say, ‘If only God had guided me, to obedience and I had become guided, I would have been among those who have feared’, His chastisement;

or [before] that it should say, when it sees the chastisement, ‘If only there had been a second chance, a return to this world, I would be among the virtuous’, the believers. It is then said to him by God:

‘Yes indeed! My signs came to you, the Qur’ān — which is the means to guidance — but you denied them and were arrogant, you disdained to believe in them, and you were among the disbelievers’.

And on the Day of Resurrection you will see those who imputed lies to God, by ascribing partner and child to Him, with their faces blackened. Is there not in Hell a [fitting] abode for those who are [too] arrogant?, to believe? Indeed [there is].

And God will deliver, from Hell, those who fear, idolatry, because of their triumph, that is, on account of the place they have won in Paradise, by placing them in it. No evil will touch them, nor will they grieve.

God is the Creator of all things and He is Guardian over all things, disposing of them as He will.

To Him belong the keys of the heavens and the earth, in other words, the keys to their storehouses of rain and vegetation and other things. And those who disbelieve in the signs of God, [such as] the Qur’ān — those, they are the losers (ūlā’ika humu’l-khāsirūna is semantically connected to His words wa-yunajjī’Llāhu’lladhīna ittaqaw, ‘and God will deliver those who guarded themselves …’ to the end [of that statement]; the intervening statements are parentheticals).

Say: ‘Is it [something] other than God that you bid me to worship, O you who are ignorant?’ (ghayra is in the accusative because of [the verb] a‘budu, ‘I worship’, which itself is operated by ta’murūnī, ‘you bid me’, read with one nūn on the basis of an implicit an; it [ta’murūnī] may also be read with two nūns assimilated [ta’murūnnī] or separated [ta’murūnanī]).

And certainly it has been revealed to you and to those before you [that], by God!, if you associate others [with God], O Muhammad (s) — hypothetically — your work shall surely fail and you shall surely be among the losers’.

Rather, worship God, alone, and be among the thankful, of His bestowal of graces on you.

And they do not esteem God as He should be esteemed, they do not understand His true nature, or [it means] that they do not exalt Him with the exaltation truly worthy of Him, when they associate others with Him. And the entire earth (jamī‘an is a circumstantial qualifier) in other words, the seven [earths], will be in His grasp, in other words, it shall be grasped by Him, meaning [that it will be] in His possession and at His disposal, on the Day of Resurrection, and the heavens will be rolled up, brought together, in His Right Hand, by His power. Glory be to Him! And exalted be He above what they associate!, with Him [of partners].

And the Trumpet will be blown, for the First Blast, and whoever is in the heavens and whoever is in the earth will swoon, will die, except whomever God wills, such as the houris, the beautiful youths [of Paradise] and others. Then it will be blown again, and behold, they, that is, all creatures who are dead, will rise up, looking on, waiting to see what will be done with them.

And the earth will shine with the light of its Lord, when God reveals Himself for the passing of judgement, and the Book, of deeds, shall be set in place, for the Reckoning, and the prophets and witnesses, namely, Muhammad (s) and his community, will be brought, to bear witness that the messengers delivered [the Message to their respective communities]. And judgement will be made between them with truth, in other words, justly, and they will not be wronged, in a single thing.

And every soul will be paid in full for what it did, that is, [it will be paid] the requital thereof, and He is best aware of what they do, and has no need for any witnesses.

And those who disbelieve will be driven, violently, to Hell in troops, in separate groups, until, when they reach it, its gates are opened (futihat abwābuhā is the response to idhā, ‘when’) and its keepers will say to them, ‘Did there not come to you [any] messengers from among yourselves, reciting to you the signs of your Lord, the Qur’ān and otherwise, and warning you of the encounter of this day of yours?’ They will say, ‘Yes, indeed; but the word of chastisement — namely, the verse: Assuredly I will fill Hell … [Q. 11:119] — against the disbelievers has been fulfilled’.

It will be said, ‘Enter the gates of Hell to abide therein’ — decreed for you to abide [therein]. For evil [indeed] is the abode of the arrogant!’

And those who feared their Lord will be driven, gently, to Paradise in troops, until, when they reach it, and its gates are opened (wa-futihat: the wāw here indicates a circumstantial qualifier, implying qad, ‘already’) and its keepers will say to them, ‘Peace be to you! You are good! (tibtum, a circumstantial qualifier) So enter it to abide [therein]’ — [enter it] with the decree that you are to abide in it [forever] (the response to idhā, ‘when’, is implicit and is, in other words, dakhalūhā, ‘they enter it’). [The manner of] their being driven as well as the opening of the gates before their arrival is a way of honouring them; the driving of the disbelievers, however, and the opening of the gates only upon their arrival so that [all of] its heat is retained for them, is a means of humiliating them.

And they will say: (this is a supplement to the implicit [response] dakhalūhā, ‘they enter it’) ‘Praise be to God, Who has fulfilled His promise to us, of Paradise, and has made us inherit the land, the land of Paradise, that we may settle in Paradise wherever we wish’, for it is all [Paradise], and there is no spot that can be preferred to another. So how excellent is, Paradise [as], the reward of those who worked [hard]!

And you will see the angels encircling (hāffīna, a circumstantial qualifier) all round the Throne, from its every side, glorifying (yusabbihūn is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the person [of the participle] hāffīn) with praise of their Lord, continuously proclaiming [His] praise — in other words, saying subhāna’Llāhi wa-bi-hamdih, ‘Glory, and praise, be to God!’ — and judgement will be made between them, that is, between all creatures, with truth, in other words, [with] justice, so that believers enter Paradise while the disbelievers enter the Fire, and it will be said, ‘Praise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds!’ — the [final] establishing of both groups [in their respective abodes] is concluded with [this] angelic praise.