This Surah (Revealed) Medinese:
consisting of] 200 or 199 verses, and revealed after [sūrat] al-Anfāl. (Al
‘Imrân)
|
|
Tafseer
Alif Lām Mīm: God knows best what He means by
these [letters].
|
|
Tafseer
God! There is no god except Him, the Living, the
Eternal.
|
|
Tafseer
He has revealed to you, O Muhammad (s), the Book,
the Qur’ān, enveloped, by the truth, with veracity, in what it
announces, confirming what was before it, of Books; and He revealed the
Torah and the Gospel
|
|
Tafseer
before, that is to say, before revealing it [the
Qur’ān], as guidance (hudan, a circumstantial qualifier meaning,
hādiyīn, ‘guides from error’) to people, to those who followed these two
[Books] (He uses the word anzala for the revelation of these two, and
nazzala for that of the Qur’ān, for the latter entails repetition,
whereas the two Books were revealed in one instance); and He revealed
the Criterion (al-furqān), meaning the Scriptures that discriminate
between truth and falsehood. He mentions this [Criterion] after He has
mentioned the three Scriptures so that it encompasses all [revealed
Scriptures] besides these. As for those who disbelieve in God’s signs,
the Qur’ān or any other [revelation], for them awaits a terrible
chastisement; God is Mighty, victorious in His affair, so that nothing
can prevent Him from effecting His promise and His threat; Lord of
Retribution, with a severe punishment for those that disobeyed Him, the
like of which none can do.
|
|
Tafseer
Nothing, no existent thing, whatever is hidden in
heaven and earth from God, on account of His knowledge of universals and
particulars. God specifies them [heaven and earth] because sensory
perception does not go beyond these.
|
|
Tafseer
He it is Who forms you in the wombs as He will,
as males or females, white, black or otherwise. There is no god except
Him, the Mighty, in His Kingdom, the Wise, in His actions.
|
|
Tafseer
He it is Who revealed to you the Book, wherein
are verses [that are] clear, lucid in proof, forming the Mother Book,
the original basis for rulings, and others allegorical, whose meanings
are not known, such as the opening verses of some sūras. He [God] refers
to the whole [Qur’ān] as: 1) ‘clear’ [muhkam] where He says [A Book]
whose verses have been made clear [Q. 11:1], meaning that it contains no
imperfections; and as 2) ‘allegorical’ [mutashābih], where He says A
Book consimilar [Q. 39:23], meaning that its parts resemble each other
in terms of beauty and veracity. As for those in whose hearts is
deviation, inclination away from truth, they follow the allegorical
part, desiring sedition, among the ignorant of them, throwing them into
specious arguments and confusion, and desiring its interpretation, its
explanation, and none knows its interpretation, its explanation, save
God, Him alone. And those firmly rooted, established and capable, in
knowledge (al-rāsikhūna fī’l-‘ilm is the subject, the predicate of which
is [what follows]) say, ‘We believe in it, the allegorical part, that it
is from God, and we do not know its meaning; all, of the clear and the
allegorical, is from our Lord’; yet none remembers (yadhdhakkar, the
initial tā’ [of yatadhakkar] has been assimilated with the dhāl), that
is, none is admonished, but people of pith, possessors of intellect,
who, when they see those following that [allegorical part only], also
say: 55
|
|
Tafseer
Our Lord, do not cause our hearts to deviate, do
not cause them to incline away from the truth, in [their] desire to
interpret it, such as is inappropriate for us — as You caused the hearts
of those [others] to deviate — after You have guided us, [after] You
have shown us the way to it; and give us mercy from You, as a
strengthening; You are the Bestower.
|
|
Tafseer
Our Lord, You shall gather mankind for a day,
that is, on a day, of which there is no doubt, no uncertainty, that is,
the Day of Resurrection, when You will requite them for their deeds as
You had promised; verily God will not fail the tryst, His promise of the
Upraising: there is a shift of address here from the second [to the
third] person and these [last words] could constitute God’s speech. The
purpose of their supplication in this way is to show that their concern
is with the matter of the Hereafter, and for this reason they ask [God]
for adherence to the path of guidance, in order to attain its reward.
The two Shaykhs [Bukhārī and Muslim] reported that ‘Ā’isha, may God be
pleased with her, said, ‘The Messenger of God (s) recited this verse: It
is He Who revealed to you the Book, wherein are verses clear [to the end
of] the verse, and said, “When you see those pursuing the allegorical
parts, [know that] these are the ones God refers to [in this verse], so
beware of them” ’. Al-Tabarānī reported in his al-Kabīr that Abū Mūsā
al-Ash‘arī heard the Prophet (s) say, ‘I fear nothing for my community
except three faults’, and he mentioned that one of these would be when
the Book is opened in front of them, and the believer will desire to
interpret it, and yet none knows its interpretation, save God; and those
firmly rooted in knowledge say, ‘We believe in it, all is from our Lord;
yet none remembers but people of pith’ [Q. 3:7] [end of the] hadīth.
|
|
Tafseer
As for the disbelievers, neither their riches nor
their children will avail, will protect, them against God, that is,
[against] His chastisement; those — they shall be fuel for the Fire,
[they shall constitute] what the Fire will be fuelled by (read waqūd [as
opposed to wuqūd], ‘fuel’).
|
|
Tafseer
Their way is, as the way, as the habit, of
Pharaoh’s folk, and the, communities of people before them, such as ‘Ād
and Thamūd, who denied Our signs; God seized them, He destroyed them,
for their sins (this statement explains the previous one); God is severe
in retribution.
|
|
Tafseer
When the Prophet (s) enjoined the Jews to enter
into Islam, after his return from Badr, they said, ‘Do not fool yourself
just because you killed a few men of Quraysh, inexperienced and knowing
nothing about fighting’, whereupon the following was revealed: Say, O
Muhammad (s), to the disbelievers, from among the Jews, ‘You shall be
vanquished (sa-tughlabūn, or [read] sa-yughlabūn, ‘they shall be
vanquished’), in this world, through being killed or taken captive and
made to pay the jizya (which actually took place), and mustered, ([read]
in both ways [wa-tuhsharūna, ‘you will be mustered’, or wa-yuhsharūna,
‘they will be mustered’]), in the Hereafter, to Hell, which you shall
enter — an evil cradling!’, [an evil] resting place.
|
|
Tafseer
There has already been a sign, an example (the
verb qad kāna, ‘there has been’, is used to separate [the statement to
follow from the previous one]), for you in two hosts, two parties, that
met, one another in battle, on the day of Badr; one company fighting in
the way of God, in obedience to Him, namely, the Prophet and his
Companions, who numbered three hundred and thirteen men, most of them on
foot, with two horses, six plates of armour and eight swords; and
another unbelieving; they, the disbelievers, numbering almost a
thousand, saw them, the Muslims, twice the like of them, that is, more
numerous than themselves, as the eye sees, in manifest vision,
witnessing; and God granted them victory despite their fewer number; for
God confirms, He strengthens, with His help whom He will, granting him
victory. Surely in 56 that, which is mentioned, is a lesson for people
of vision, those who are discerning: so will you not be warned by this
and become believers?
|
|
Tafseer
Beautified for mankind is love of lusts, that
which the self lusts after and calls for, beautified by Satan, or by God
as a test — of women, children, stored-up heaps of gold and silver,
horses of mark, fine [horses], cattle, namely, camels, cows and sheep,
and tillage, the cultivation of land. That, which is mentioned, is the
comfort of the life of this world, enjoyed while it lasts, but then
perishes; but God — with Him is the more excellent abode, place of
return, which is Paradise, and for this reason one should desire none
other than this [abode].
|
|
Tafseer
Say, O Muhammad (s) to your people, ‘Shall I tell
you, shall I inform you, of something better than that?, [that] which
has been mentioned of lusts (this interrogative is meant as an
affirmative). For those that are fearful, of idolatry, with their Lord
(‘inda rabbihim is the predicate, the subject being [the following
jannātun…]’) are Gardens underneath which rivers flow, abiding therein,
decreed for them [therein] is eternal life, when they enter it, and
spouses purified, of menstruation and other impurities, and beatitude
(read ridwān or rudwān, meaning ‘much pleasure’) from God; and God is
Seer, knower, of His servants, requiting each of them according to his
deeds.
|
|
Tafseer
Those (alladhīna is either an adjectival
qualification of, or a substitution for, the previous alladhīna) who
say: “O, Our Lord, we believe, in You and in Your Prophet; so forgive us
our sins, and guard us from the chastisement of the Fire”.
|
|
Tafseer
The patient, in obedience and against
disobedience (al-sābirīna, ‘the patient’, is an adjectival qualification
[of alladhīna, ‘those’]), truthful, in their faith, obedient, compliant
before God, expenders, of charity, imploring God’s pardon, by saying,
‘Lord, forgive us’ at daybreak’, in the last part of the night, singled
out here for mention because it is the time of unawareness and of the
joy of sleep.
|
|
Tafseer
God bears witness, [that is to say] He has made
it clear to His creation through proofs and signs, that there is no god,
none that is truly worshipped in existence, except Him, He has borne
witness to this, and the angels, [have also borne witness to this] by
affirming it, and those of knowledge, from among the prophets and the
believers, through [their] conviction and in words; upholding,
constantly and uniquely maintaining His creations with justice,
(qā’iman, ‘upholding’, is in the accusative because it is a
circumstantial qualifier and is governed by the import of the statement
[implied to be something like] tafarrada, ‘He alone is [upholding]…’);
there is no god except Him (He has repeated it for emphasis); the
Mighty, in His Kingdom, the Wise, in His actions.
|
|
Tafseer
Lo!, the religion with God, pleasing [to Him], is
submission [to the One God], (al-islām), that is to say, the Divine Law
with which the messengers were sent, founded upon the affirmation of
God’s Oneness (a variant reading [for inna, ‘lo!’] has anna, ‘that’, as
an inclusive substitution for annahu to the end [of that verse, sc.
shahida Llāhu … anna l-dīna ‘inda Llāhi l-islām, ‘God bears witness that
religion with God is Islām]). Those who were given the Scripture, the
Jews and the Christians, differed, in religion, some affirming God’s
Oneness, others rejecting it, only after the knowledge, of Oneness, came
to them through transgression, on the part of the disbelievers, among
themselves. And whoever disbelieves in God’s signs, God is swift at
reckoning, that is, at requiting him. 57
|
|
Tafseer
So if they, the disbelievers, dispute with you, O
Muhammad (s), concerning religion, say, to them: ‘I have surrendered my
countenance to God, [that is to say] I have submitted to Him, I, and
whoever follows me’ (wajh, ‘countenance’, is chosen here because of its
noble character, for the other [parts of the body] will just as soon
[surrender once the countenance has]); and say to those who have been
given the Scripture, the Jews and the Christians, and to the
uninstructed, the Arab idolaters: ‘Have you submitted?’, that is to say,
‘Submit!’ And so if they have submitted, they have been guided, from
error, but if they turn their backs, to Islam, your duty is only to
deliver, the Message; and God sees His servants, and so requites them
for their deeds — this [statement] was [revealed] before the command to
fight [them] had been revealed.
|
|
Tafseer
Those who disbelieve in the signs of God and slay
(yaqtulūna, is also read as yuqātilūna, ‘they fight against’) the
prophets without right, and slay those who enjoin to equity, to justice,
and these are the Jews, who are reported to have killed forty–three
prophets and to have been forbidden this by a hundred and seventy devout
worshippers among them, each of whom was killed immediately. So give
them good tidings, let them know, of a painful chastisement. The use of
‘good tidings’ here is meant as a sarcastic ridicule of them (the fā’
[of fa-bashshirhum, so give them good tidings] is considered part of the
predicate of inna because its noun, that is, its relative clause,
resembles a conditional [sc. in yakfurūna, ‘if they disbelieve…’,
fabashshirhum, ‘then, give them good tidings…’]).
|
|
Tafseer
Those are the ones whose works, what good they
did in the way of charity and kindness to kin, have failed, [whose
works] are invalid, in this world and the Hereafter, and so they have
nothing to reckon with, since these [works] are of no consequence; they
have no helpers, [no] protectors from the chastisement.
|
|
Tafseer
Have you not seen those who were given a portion,
a share, of the Book, the Torah, being called to the Book of God
(yud‘awna, ‘being called’, is a circumstantial qualifier), that it might
decide between them, and then a party of them turned away, opposed? to
the acceptance of its rulings. This was revealed concerning the Jews:
two of them fornicated and they [the Jews] asked the Prophet (s) to
adjudicate the case. He ruled that they be stoned, but they [the Jews]
refused to do so. When the Torah was brought and consulted, the same
verdict was found, and so the two were stoned, but they [the Jews]
became wrathful.
|
|
Tafseer
That, turning away and rejection was, because
they said, ‘the Fire shall not touch us, except for a number of days’,
that is, for forty days [only], the length of time their forefathers
worshipped the calf, after which it would end; and the lies they used to
invent, in their saying this, have deluded them in their religion
(wagharrahum fī dīnihim, ‘it has deluded them in their religion’, is
semantically connected to mā kānū yaftarūna, ‘the lies which they used
to invent’).
|
|
Tafseer
But how will it be, their predicament, when We
gather them for a day, that is to say, on a day, of which there is no
doubt, no uncertainty, that is, the Day of Resurrection; and every soul,
from among the People of the Scripture and others, shall be paid in
full, the requital of, what is has earned, [what] it has done of good or
evil, and they, that is, people, shall not be wronged?, in that no good
deed shall be diminished, and no evil deed shall be increased.
|
|
Tafseer
58 When the Prophet (s) promised his community
sovereignty over the lands of Persia and Byzantium, the hypocrites said,
‘How preposterous!’, and so the following was revealed, Say: ‘O God,
Master of the Kingdom, you give the Kingdom to whom You will, from among
your creatures, and seize the Kingdom from whom You will; You exalt whom
You will, by giving it [the kingdom] to him, and You abase whom You
will, by seizing it from him; in Your hand, in Your power, is good, that
is, as well as evil. You are Able to do all things.
|
|
Tafseer
You make the night to pass, to enter, into the
day and You make the day to pass, to enter, into the night, each of them
increasing by the amount by which the other decreases; You bring forth
the living from the dead, such as humans and birds, from sperm-drops and
eggs [respectively]; and You bring forth the dead, the sperm-drop and
the egg, from the living, and You provide, with abundant provision, whom
You will without reckoning’.
|
|
Tafseer
Let not the believers take the disbelievers as
patrons, rather than, that is, instead of, the believers — for whoever
does that, that is, [whoever] takes them as patrons, does not belong to,
the religion of, God in anyway — unless you protect yourselves against
them, as a safeguard (tuqātan, ‘as a safeguard’, is the verbal noun from
taqiyyatan), that is to say, [unless] you fear something, in which case
you may show patronage to them through words, but not in your hearts:
this was before the hegemony of Islam and [the dispensation] applies to
any individual residing in a land with no say in it. God warns you, He
instills fear in you, of His Self, [warning] that He may be wrathful
with you if you take them as patrons; and to God is the journey’s end,
the return, and He will requite you.
|
|
Tafseer
Say, to them: ‘Whether you hide what is in your
breasts, in your hearts, of patronage to them, or disclose it, manifest
it, God knows it and, He, knows what is in the heavens and what is in
the earth; and God is Able to do all things, and this includes punishing
those who patronise them.0 الأية |
|
|
|
Tafseer
And remember, the day every soul shall find what
it has done of good present before it, and what it has done of evil (the
[last statement constitutes the] subject, the predicate of which is
[what follows]), it will wish that between it and that there were a
great distance, an extremely lengthy distance so that it [the evil]
could never reach it. God warns you of His Self (this is repeated for
emphasis), and God is Kind to His servants.1 الأية |
|
|
|
Tafseer
When they said, ‘We only worship idols out of our
love for God, that they might bring us close to Him’, the following was
revealed: Say, O Muhammad (s), ‘If you love God, follow me, and God will
love you, meaning that He will reward you, and forgive you your sins;
God is Forgiving, as regards the sins, committed previously, by one who
[now] follows me; Merciful, to him.2 الأية |
|
|
|
Tafseer
Say, to them: ‘Obey God, and the Messenger’, as
regards the [belief in the] Oneness of God which he enjoins upon you.
But if they turn their backs, [if they] object to obedience, God loves
not the disbelievers, meaning that He will chastise them (the [third
person] pronominalisation [‘they’] is replaced by the overt noun [‘the
disbelievers’]).3 الأية |
|
|
|
Tafseer
59 Lo! God preferred, He has chosen, Adam and
Noah and the House of Abraham and the House of ‘Imrān, meaning [He
preferred] their selves [sc. Abraham and ‘Imrān], above the worlds, by
making prophethood reside in [them and] their progeny:4 الأية |
|
|
|
Tafseer
the seed of one, offspring from, another, of
them; God is Hearer, Knower.5 الأية |
|
|
|
Tafseer
Mention, when the wife of ‘Imrān, Hanna, said,
after she had reached old age and longed for a child, and supplicated to
God and sensed that she was carrying child, ‘O, Lord, I have vowed to,
offer, You what is within my womb as a consecration, [one] liberated and
delivered from the distractions of this world for the service of Your
Holy House [in Jerusalem]. Accept this from me. Lo! It is You Who are
the Hearer, of petition, the Knower, of intentions. ‘Imrān died while
she was still pregnant.6 الأية |
|
|
|
Tafseer
And when she gave birth to her, a girl, and she
had been hoping for a boy, since only males were consecrated to the
service of God, she said, apologetically, ‘O, Lord, I have given birth
to a female’ — and God knew very well what she had given birth to: a
parenthetical statement constituting God’s speech (a variant reading
[for wada‘at, ‘she gave birth’, has wada‘tu, ‘I gave birth’ [making
these Hanna’s words, sc. ‘and God knows very well what I have given
birth to’]); the male, that she had asked for, is not as the female,
that was bestowed upon her, because he is designed for the service [of
God], while she would not be suitable on account of her lesser physical
ability, her private parts, the effects of menstruation on her, and so
on. ‘And I have named her Mary, and commend her to You with her seed,
her children, to protect them from the accursed, the outcast, Satan’. In
a hadīth [it is stated]: ‘Every new-born is touched by Satan and begins
[life] by crying, except for Mary and her son’, as reported by the two
Shaykhs [Bukhārī and Muslim].7 الأية |
|
|
|
Tafseer
Her Lord accepted the child, that is, He received
Mary from her mother, with gracious acceptance, and made her grow
excellently, He made her grow up with excellent character. She would
grow in a day by as much as a new-born grew during a year. Her mother
took her to the priests, the keepers of the Holy House [of Jerusalem]
and said: ‘This here before you is the dedication [I offered]’. They
competed for [guardianship of] her, because she was the daughter of
their religious leader, at which point Zachariah said, ‘I am most worthy
of her, for, her maternal aunt lives with me’. The others said, ‘No,
[not until] we have cast lots’. Thus, all twenty nine of them departed
to the River Jordan, where they cast their quills, agreeing that the one
whose quill remained fast and floated to the surface of the water would
be most worthy of [being guardian over] her. Zachariah’s quill remained
fast [and surfaced]. He took [charge of] her and built for her a
gallery-room with a ladder in the temple, and none apart from him went
up to her. He used to bring her food, drink and oil, and would find her
with summer fruits in winter, and winter fruits in summer, just as God
says, and Zachariah took charge of her, he took her to him (a variant
reading [of kafalahā, ‘he took charge of her’] is kaffalahā, ‘He [God]
gave Zachariah charge of her’, with Zakariyyā’, or Zakariyyā, in the
accusative and ‘God’ as the subject of the verb). Whenever Zachariah
went into the sanctuary, that is, the room, the most noble seat [in the
temple], where she was, he found her with provisions. ‘O Mary,’ he said,
‘Whence comes this to you?’ She, still very young, said, ‘From God, He
sends it to me from Paradise,’ ‘Truly God provides, abundant provision,
for whomever He will without reckoning’, without consequence.8 الأية |
|
|
|
Tafseer
Then, when Zachariah had seen this and realised
that the One with power to bring something about in other than its
[natural] time, is able to bring about a child in old age, and with
those of his family line all deceased, Zachariah prayed to his Lord,
when he entered the sanctuary to pray in the middle of the night,
saying, ‘Lord, bestow upon me from You a goodly offspring, a righteous
son, verily, You are the Hearer of, 60 [You are] the One Who answers,
supplication’.9 الأية |
|
|
|
Tafseer
And the angels, namely, Gabriel, called to him,
standing in the sanctuary, in the temple, at worship that (anna, means
bi-anna; a variant reading has inna, implying a direct speech statement)
‘God gives you good tidings (read yubashshiruka, or yubshiruka) of John,
who shall confirm a Word, being, from God, namely, Jesus, that he is
God’s Spirit; he is referred to as [God’s] ‘Word’, because he was
created through the word kun, ‘Be’; a lord, with a following, and one
chaste, forbidden from women, and a prophet of the righteous’: it is
said that he never sinned and never so intended.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|