Meccan, consisting of 60 verses.

By the scatterers, the winds that scatter dust and other things, that scatter (dharwan is a verbal noun; one may also say, tadhrīhi dharyan, ‘it blows it [sweeping it] away’);

and those that bear, the clouds that bear moisture [as], a burden (wiqran is the direct object of al-hāmilat, ‘those that bear’);

and those that run, the ships that run upon the surface of the water, with ease (yusran is a verbal noun functioning as a circumstantial qualifier, that is to say, muyassaratan);

and those that apportion by command: the angels who distribute provisions and the rains and other things across the lands and to [all] servants,

assuredly what you are promised (mā, ‘what’, relates to the verbal action), in other words, the promise given to them of resurrection and other matters, is true, is indeed a true promise,

and assuredly judgement, requital after the reckoning, will take place!, without doubt.

And by the heaven with all its tracks (hubuk is the plural of habīka, similar [in pattern and meaning] to turuq, tarīqa, ‘paths’), that is to say, [by the heaven] that is created with tracks similar to tracks made in the sand,

indeed you, O people of Mecca, with regard to the matter of the Prophet (s) and the Qur’ān, are of differing opinions: some say [of the Prophet that he is] ‘a poet’, ‘a sorcerer’, or ‘a soothsayer’, and [of the Qur’ān, that it is] ‘poetry’, ‘sorcery’, or ‘soothsaying’.

He is turned away therefrom, from the Prophet (s) and the Qur’ān, that is, [turned away] from believing therein, who has deviated, [who has been] turned away from guidance in God’s, exalted be He.

Perish the conjecturers, accursed be the liars, those of differing opinions,

who are in a stupor, in ignorance that has stupefied them, heedless, oblivious of the matter of the Hereafter.

They ask, the Prophet, asking [him] derisively: ‘When is the Day of Judgement?’, in other words, ‘when will it come?’, and the response [given] to them is that it will come:

on the day when they will be tormented in the Fire, that is to say, chastised in it, and it will be said to them during the chastisement:

‘Taste this torment of yours, this chastisement of yours. This, chastisement, is what you sought to hasten on!’, in the world in derision.

Truly the God-fearing will be amid gardens, orchards, and springs, flowing therein,

receiving (ākhidhīna is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the person of the predicate of inna, ‘truly’) what their Lord has given them, of reward, for indeed formerly, [before] their entering Paradise, they had been virtuous, in the world.

Little of the night did they use to sleep (mā is extra; yahja‘ūna is the predicate of kānū; qalīlan, ‘little’, is an adverb), in other words, they used to sleep for a small portion of the night and perform prayers during most of it,

and at dawns they used to seek forgiveness: they used say, ‘Our Lord! Forgive us’,

and there was a share in their wealth [assigned] for the beggar and the deprived, [the latter being] the one who does not beg, because of his self-restraint.

And in the earth, in the way of mountains, seas, trees, fruits, plants and other things, there are signs, indications of God’s power, glory be to Him, exalted be He, and of His Oneness, for those who know with certainty,

and in your souls, there are also signs, from the beginning of your creation to its end, and in the marvelous aspects of your creation. Will you not then perceive?, [all] that and thus infer therefrom the Creator of it and His power.

And in the heaven is your provision, that is, the rain from which results the vegetation that is [your] provision, and [there is also] what you are promised, in the way of [the ultimate] return, reward and punishment, in other words, all of this is foreordained in the heaven.

So by the Lord of the heaven and the earth, it, that which you are promised, is as assuredly true as [the fact] that you have [power of] speech (read mithlu, in the nominative, as an adjective, with the mā being extra; or read mithla, in the accusative, as being a compound with mā), that is to say: [it is as true] as your speech is in reality, that is, in your knowing it to be [true] necessarily by its issuing from you.

Has the story reached you — addressing the Prophet (s) — of Abraham’s honoured guests? — these were [said to be either] twelve, ten or three angels, one of whom was Gabriel.

When (idh is an adverbial qualifier of hadīthu dayfi, ‘the story of the guests’) they entered upon him and said, ‘Peace!’ — in other words [they said] these very words. He said, ‘Peace!’ — [also] these very words — [These are] an unfamiliar folk, whom we do not know — he said this to himself (qawmun munkarūna is the predicate of an implicit subject such as hā’ūlā’i, ‘these are’).

Then he went aside to his family, secretly, and brought a fat calf — in sūrat Hūd [it is said], a roasted calf [Q. 11:69] —

and he placed it near them saying, ‘Will you not eat?’: he invited them to eat, but they did not respond.

Then he conceived, he kept secret in himself, a fear of them. They said, ‘Do not be afraid!’, we are messengers from your Lord. And they gave him good tidings of [the birth of] a knowledgeable boy, one endowed with much knowledge, and this was Isaac, as mentioned in sūrat Hūd [Q. 11:71].

Then his wife, Sarah, came forward clamouring, shouting (fī sarratin is a circumstantial qualifier, that is to say, she came shouting) and smote, slapped, her face, and said, ‘A barren old woman!’, who has never given birth to a child, aged ninety-nine, with Abraham being one hundred years old; or [alternatively] he was a hundred and twenty years old and she was ninety years old.

They said, ‘So, just like what we have said with regard to the good tiding, has your Lord said. Indeed He is the Wise, in His actions, the Knower’, of His creatures.

He said, ‘So what is your business, O you who have been sent [by God]?’

They said, ‘Lo! we have been sent to a guilty folk, disbelievers — these were the people of Lot —

that we may unleash upon them stones of clay, baked in fire,

marked, bearing the name of the person at whom it will be hurled, by your Lord (‘inda rabbika is an adverbial qualifier of musawwamatan, ‘marked’) for [the destruction of] the prodigal’, for coming unto males in addition to their disbelief.

So We brought forth those in them, that is, [in] the towns of the people of Lot, who were believers, in order to destroy the disbelievers;

but We did not find therein other than one house of those who had submitted [to God]: these were Lot and his two daughters. They have been described [here] with [the terms] ‘belief’ and ‘submission’ because they had affirmed [faith] in their hearts and used their limbs to perform acts of obedience.

And We left therein, after destroying the disbelievers, a sign, an indication of their destruction, for those who fear the painful chastisement, so that they may not do what these [sinners] did.

And [a sign too] in Moses (wa-fī Mūsā is a supplement to fīhā, ‘therein’), that is to say, We also left a sign in the story of Moses, when We sent him to Pharaoh, vested, with a clear warrant, with a manifest proof;

but he turned away, he rejected belief, to his supports (bi-ruknihi), his hosts, [so called] because to him they are like a support [rukn], saying, to Moses that he [Moses] was: ‘A sorcerer, or a madman!’

So We seized him and his hosts and cast, flung, them into the waters, the sea, and so they drowned, for he, that is, Pharaoh, was blameworthy, guilty of what is blameworthy, such as denying the messengers and claiming divinity.

And [also] in, the destruction of, ‘Ād, was a sign, when We unleashed against them a barren wind, [a wind] which brings nothing of good, for it does not bear any rain and does not pollinate any trees; this [wind] was the west wind (al-dabūr).

It did not leave anything, any soul or property, that it came upon without making it like decayed bones, like something that is withered and in scattered pieces.

And [also] in, the destruction of, Thamūd, was a sign, when it was said to them, after the hamstringing of the she-camel, ‘Enjoy [yourselves] for a while!’, until the end of your terms [of life] — as stated in the [other] verse, ‘Enjoy [yourselves] in your dwellings for three days’ [Q.11:65].

Then they defied, they scorned, the command of their Lord, [refraining] from implementing it; so the thunderbolt, that is, the destructive cry, seized them, after the three days had passed, as they were looking around, in other words, [it seized them] in the daytime.

So they were unable to rise up, they could not get up upon the sending down of the chastisement, nor were they victors, over the One Who destroyed them.

And the people of Noah (read wa qawmi Nūhin, as a supplement to Thamūda, in other words: ‘in the destruction of these [two peoples] by what [destructive power] exists in the heavens and the earth there is [also] a sign’; or read wa qawma Nūhin, in other words, ‘We also destroyed the people of Noah’) aforetime, that is, before the destruction of those mentioned. Indeed they were an immoral lot.

And the heaven, We built it with might, and indeed We are powerful (one says āda’l-rajulu or ya’īdu, to mean, ‘he is strong’; and awsa‘a’l-rajulu, to mean, ‘he has become capable [dhū sa‘a] and strong’).

And the earth, We spread it out: We made it level: what excellent Spreaders then!, We are.

And of all things (wa-min kulli shay’in is semantically connected to His [following] words khalaqnā) We created pairs, two kinds, such as male and female, heaven and earth, sun and moon, plain and mountain, summer and winter, sweet and bitter, light and darkness, that perhaps you might remember (tadhakkarūna: one of the two original tā’ letters [of tatadhakkarūna] has been omitted), and hence realise that the Creator of pairs is [Himself] Singular, that you might then worship him.

So flee unto God, that is to say, away from His punishment toward His reward by being obedient to Him and not disobeying Him. Truly I am a clear warner to you from Him.

And do not set up another god alongside God. Truly I am a clear warner to you from Him (before fa-firrū, ‘so flee’, one may read an implicit [preceding] qul lahum, ‘Say to them’).

Thus there did not come to those who were before them any messenger but they said, that he was: ‘A sorcerer, or a madman!’, in other words, their denial of you, by saying that you are a sorcerer or a madman, was like the denial of communities before them of their messengers by saying that [same thing].

Have they, all, enjoined this upon one another? (an interrogative intended as a denial). Nay, but they are an insolent folk, [a folk] whose own [proclivity to] insolence has made them all say the same thing.

So shun them, for you will not be reproached, because you have conveyed the Message to them.

And remind, admonish by the Qur’ān, for reminding truly benefits believers, [these being] those whom God knows that they will believe.

And I did not create the jinn and mankind except that they may worship Me: the fact that disbelievers do not worship [God] does not contradict this [statement], since a purpose does not have to be realised [in an act, for it to be valid], as when you may say: ‘I sharpened this pencil in order to write with it’, even though you might not actually write with it.

I do not desire from them any provision, [either] for Myself, for themselves, or for others, nor do I desire that they should feed Me, or [feed] themselves or others.

Indeed it is God Who is the Provider, the Lord of Strength, the Firm, the Stern.

And for those who have wronged, their souls through disbelief, from among the people of Mecca and others, there will assuredly be a lot, a share of chastisement, like the lot, the share, of their counterparts, who perished before them. So let them not ask Me to hasten on, the chastisement, should I give them respite until the Day of Resurrection.

For woe, a terrible chastisement [will come], to those who disbelieve, from, upon, that day of theirs which they are promised, that is, the Day of Resurrection.