| This Surah (Revealed) Meccan: it consists of 45 or 46 verses, revealed after [sūrat] al-Furqān.(Fâtir)
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| بِسْم ِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ | |
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Tafseer
Praise be to God, God praises Himself with in these [terms], as explained at the
beginning of [the preceding] sūrat Sabaâ, Originator of the heavens and the earth, the One Who created them
without any precedent, Appointer of the angels as messengers, to [His] prophets, having wings in [sets
of] two or three or four. He multiplies in creation, in angels and other [creatures], what He will. Surely
God has power over all things.
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Tafseer
495 Whatever mercy God unfolds for mankind, in the way of provision or rain, none
can withhold it; and whatever He withholds, thereof, none can release it after Him, that is, after
His withholding it. And He is the Mighty, Whose way prevails, the Wise, in what He does.
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Tafseer
O people, that is, the people of Mecca, remember Godâs grace to you, in His
making you dwell within the [Meccan] Sanctuary and preventing raids against you. Is there any creator (min
khāliqin: min is extra; khāliq is the subject) other than God (read ghayruâLlāhi or gharyriâLlāhi, as an
adjectival qualification of khāliq, âcreatorâ, either concording with the [oblique] form [of min khāliqin] or
concording with the syntactical status [thereof]; the predicate of the subject [is the following]) who provides for you
from the heaven, rain, and, from the, earth?, vegetation (the interrogative is [actually] an affirmative,
that is to say, âthere is no creator or provider other than Him). There is no god except Him. So how then do you
deviate?, how are you turned away from affirming His Oneness when you already affirm that He is the Creator
and the Provider?
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Tafseer
And if they deny you, O Muhammad (s), with regard to your coming with [the
message of] Godâs Oneness, resurrection, reckoning and punishment, verily [other] messengers before you
were denied, in this respect, so be steadfast as they were steadfast; and to God all matters are returned, in
the Hereafter, when He will requite the deniers and grant victory to the messengers.
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Tafseer
O mankind! Indeed Godâs promise, of resurrection and of other issues, is true.
So do not let the life of this world deceive you, from believing in [all of] that, and do not let the Deceiver,
Satan, deceive you concerning God, on account of His forbearance and respiting [of sinners in this life].
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Tafseer
Truly Satan is an enemy to you. So treat him as an enemy, by being obedient to
God and do not obey him; he only summons his faction, his followers in disbelief, so that they may be
among the inhabitants of the Blaze, the fierce Fire.
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Tafseer
Those who disbelieve, theirs will be a severe chastisement; but those who
believe and perform righteous deeds, theirs will be forgiveness and a great reward â this is a declaration of
what [fate] will be for the adherents of Satan and what will be for his opponents [respectively].
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Tafseer
The following was revealed regarding Abū Jahl and others: Is he, the evil of
whose deeds is made [to seem] fair to him, by distortion, so that he deems it good [â]? (a-fa-man, âis he
[whose]â constitutes the subject, the predicate of which is [an omitted] âlike one whom God has guided?â No! And
this [predicate] is indicated by [what follows]). Indeed God leads astray whomever He will and guides whomever
He will. So do not let your soul expire for their sake, for those to whom it has made [to seem] fair,
out of sighings, by becoming anguished lest they do not believe. Indeed God is Knower of what they do, and He
will requite them for it.
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Tafseer
And it is God Who unleashes the winds (al-riyāha: a variant reading has al-rīha)
and they raise clouds (fatuthīruâl-sahāba: the imperfect tense here is used to narrate the past), that is, they stir them
up, then We drive them (there is a shift here from the third person [to the first person]
address) to a dead land (read mayyitin or maytin), wherein is no plant life, and therewith revive the earth,
of that land, after it has been dead, [after] its having been dried-out. In other words, We made seeds and grass
grow in it: Such will be 496 the Raising, that is, the Resurrection and the bringing [of the dead] back to
life.
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Tafseer
Whoever desires glory [should know that] all glory belongs to God, in this world
and in the Hereafter, and it cannot be obtained from Him except through obedience to Him, so let such [a one]
be obedient to Him. To Him ascends good words, that is to say, He is aware of such [good words], and
these are [statements such as] âthere is no god except Godâ and the like; and as for righteous action, He
exalts it, He accepts it; but those who plot evil, schemes against the Prophet â [as was the case] at the
council assembly, in the way of imprisoning him, killing him or expelling him, as mentioned in [sūrat] al-Anfāl
[Q. 8:30] â theirs shall be a severe chastisement and their plotting shall come to nothing: it shall be
ruined.
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Tafseer
And God created you from dust, by having created your father Adam from it, then
from a drop of [seminal] fluid, in other words, from sperm, by creating his seed from it; then He made
you pairs, males and females. And no female bears or brings forth except with His knowledge (illā bi-âilmihi
is a circumstantial qualifier, in other words, â[except] that it is known by Himâ) and no long-living person is
given long life, in other words, the life of none is increased for one who has a long life, nor is anything
diminished of his life, in other words, [of the life of] that same long-living person or some other long-living person,
but it is [recorded] in a Book, namely, the Preserved Tablet. Surely that is easy for God.
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Tafseer
Nor are the two [kinds of] seas alike: this one is extremely sweet, pleasant to
drink and that one is salty, extremely bitter. Yet from each, of the two, you eat fresh meat, namely, fish,
and obtain, from the salt â and it is also said, from both of them â ornaments which you wear, namely,
pearls and coral. And you see, you sight, the ships therein, in each of the two [seas], ploughing through
(mawākhira, in other words, tamkhuruâl-māâa, meaning, âit cleaves it as it makes its way through it, coming
and going by the same wind) that you may seek of His bounty, exalted be He, through commerce, and that
perhaps you may give thanks, to God for this [bounty].
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Tafseer
He, God, makes the night pass, enter, into the day, so that it becomes longer,
and He makes the day pass into the night, so that it becomes longer, and He has disposed the sun and the
moon, each, of them, moving, in its course, to an appointed term â [to] the Day of Resurrection. That
is God, your Lord; to Him belongs [all] sovereignty. As for those on whom you call, [whom] you worship,
besides Him, in other words, other than Him â and they are the idols â they do not possess [even] so much as
the husk of a date-stone.
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Tafseer
If you call on them, they will not hear your call, and [even] if they heard
âhypothetically [speaking] â they would not [be able to] respond to you; and on the Day of Resurrection they will
disown your [idolatrous] associations, in other words, your associating them with God [in power], that is
to say, they will declare themselves innocent of you and of your worship of them. And none can inform you,
about the state in the two abodes, like One Who is Aware, Knower, and this is God, exalted be He.
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Tafseer
O mankind! You are the ones who are in need of God, in every state. And God, He
is the Independent, [without any need] of His creatures, the Praised, the One Who is praised in
whatever He does with them.
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Tafseer
If He will, He can take you away and bring about a new creation, instead of you.
497
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Tafseer
And that is not an arduous thing for God.
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Tafseer
And no burdened soul shall bear the burden of another [sinful soul]. And should
one, soul, burdened heavily, with sin, call for, some of, its burden to be borne, by another, nothing of it
will be borne, even if, the one called, be a relative, kin, such as a father or a son â the impossibility of
âhaving something borne [by another]â in both instances is something ordained by God. You can only warn
those who fear their Lord in secret, in other words, those who fear Him despite not having seen Him, for they
are the ones to benefit from the warning, and observe the prayer, maintain [performance of] it. For
whoever purifies himself, cleansing himself of idolatry and other [similar abominations], is purifying
himself only for [the sake of] his own soul, because the reforming of his self pertains to him. And to God is the
[end of the] journeying, the return in the Hereafter when He will requite according to deeds.
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Tafseer
Nor are the blind and the seer equal, that is, the disbeliever and the believer
[are not equal],
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Tafseer
nor darkness â disbelief â and light â faith;
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Tafseer
nor shade and torrid heat, namely, Paradise and the Fire;
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Tafseer
nor are the living equal to the dead, the believers and the disbelievers
[respectively] (the addition of the particle lā, ânorâ, in all three instances is for emphasis). Indeed God makes to
hear whomever He will, to be guided, so that such [a person] then responds to Him by embracing faith. But you
cannot make those who are in the graves to hear, namely, the disbelievers â whom He has likened to the
dead â [to hear] and so respond.
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Tafseer
You are but a warner, to them.
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Tafseer
Truly We have sent you with the truth, with [right] guidance, as a bearer of
good tidings, to him who responds to it, and a warner, to him who does not respond to it. And there is
not a community but there has passed, there has been, in it a warner, a prophet to warn it.
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Tafseer
And if they, that is, the people of Meccans, deny you, those before them also
denied: their messengers brought them manifest signs, miracles, and with scriptures, such as the scrolls
of Abraham, and with the illuminating Book, namely, the Torah and the Gospel, so endure [patiently] as
they endured.
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Tafseer
Then I seized those who disbelieved, for their denial, and how was My
abhorrence!, [how was] My rebuttal 498 against them by way of punishment and destruction, in other words, it was
appropriate.
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Tafseer
Have you not seen, [have you not] realised, that God sends down water from the
heaven, wherewith We bring forth (there is here a shift from the third person [to the first person]
address) fruits of diverse hues, such as green, red, and yellow [fruits] and so on? And in the mountains are
streaks (judad is the plural of judda, which is a mountain trail or the like) white and red, and yellow, of
diverse hues, some intense and some pale, and [others] pitch-black? (gharābību sūd is a supplement to judadun,
âstreaksâ, meaning, darkblack rocks: one commonly says aswad ghirbīb, but rarely ghirbīb aswad).
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Tafseer
And of humans and beasts and cattle, there are diverse hues likewise, like the
diversity of the [hues of] fruits and mountains. Indeed only those of Godâs servants who have knowledge
fear Him, in contrast to the ignorant, such as the disbelievers of Mecca. Truly God is Mighty, in His
kingdom, Forgiving, of the sins of His faithful servants.
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