This Surah (Revealed) Meccan, except for verse 45, which is Medinese; it consists of 55 verses.(Al-Qamar)
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| بِسْم ِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ | |
Tafseer
The Hour has drawn near, the Resurrection is close at hand, and the moon has
split, it broke in two at [Mount] Abū Qubays and Quâayqaâān, as a sign for the Prophet (s), for it had
been demanded of him, and [when it took place] he said, âBear witness [now]!â â as reported by the two
Shaykhs [al-Bukhārī and Muslim].
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Tafseer
And if they, the disbelievers among Quraysh, see a sign, a miracle of the
Prophet (s), they turn away and say, this is: âA powerful sorcery!â (mustamirr, âpowerfulâ, derives from
al-mirra, meaning âstrengthâ; or it [mustamirr] means âincessantâ).
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Tafseer
And they denied, the Prophet (s), and followed their own desires, as regards
[their] falsehood; and every matter, that is good or evil, will be settled, with that person [who is
responsible for it], either [by his ending up] in Paradise or in the Fire.
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Tafseer
And verily there has come to them such tidings, stories about the destruction of
communities which denied their messengers, as contain a deterrent, to them (muzdajar is a verbal noun, or
a noun of place; the dāl [of muzdajar] replaces the tāâ of [the 8th form] iftaâala; one may say, izdajartuhu
or zajartuhu, to mean âI forbade him sternlyâ; mā, âsuch asâ, either indicates a relative clause, or it
is qualified by an adjective); 630
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Tafseer
wisdom (hikmatun is the predicate of an omitted subject, or a substitution for
mā, âsuch asâ, or for muzdajar, âdeterrentâ) [that is] far-reaching, complete; but warnings (nudhur is the
plural of nadhīr, functioning in the [agent] sense of mundhir, âa warnerâ, that is to say, âthose matters which warn
themâ; mā is either for negation, or it is an interrogative of denial, in which case it stands as a
preceding direct object) are of no avail, [warnings] are of no use with them.
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Tafseer
So turn away from them! (this is the import of the preceding statement and it
completes what is being said). On the day when the Summoner, namely, Isrāfīl (yawma, âthe dayâ, is rendered
accusative by yakhrujūna, âthey will emergeâ, next [verse]), summons to an awful thing (read nukur or
nukr, in the sense of munkar, âdisagreeableâ), [a thing] which the souls will find awful, and this is the
Reckoning;
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Tafseer
with their downcast (khāshiâan: a variant reading has khushshaâan), humiliated,
looks (absāruhum is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of the verb [yakhrujūna, âthey
will emergeâ]) they, that is, mankind, will emerge from the graves as though they were scattered locusts, not
knowing where to go, out of fear and perplexity (this sentence [kaâannahum jarādun muntashirun] is a
circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of [the verb] yakhrujūna, âthey will emergeâ, and so is His
saying [muhtiâīna]),
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Tafseer
scrambling, hastening with their necks stretched out, toward the Summoner. The
disbelievers, among them, will say: âThis is a hard day!â, a difficult one for disbelievers â as is stated
in [sūrat] al-Muddaththir, a day of hardship for the disbelievers [Q. 74:9-10].
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Tafseer
The people of Noah denied (kadhdhabat has feminine inflection on account of the
import [referring to a feminine noun], qawm, âtribeâ) before them, before Quraysh. Thus they denied Our
servant, Noah, and said, âA madman!â, and he was reviled: they repulsed him with insults and in other
ways.
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Tafseer
And so he invoked his Lord, [saying,] âI have been (annī, to be understood as
bi-annī) overcome, so help [me]!â
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Tafseer
Then We opened (read fa-fatahnā or fa-fattahnā) the gates of the heaven with
torrential waters, [waters] pouring down intensely,
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Tafseer
and We made the earth burst forth with springs, that flowed forth, and the
waters, the waters of the heaven and the earth, met for a purpose, a circumstance, that was preordained, [a
matter] which had been decreed since pre-eternity, namely, their destruction by drowning.
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Tafseer
And We bore him, that is, Noah, on one, a ship, [made] of planks and nails
(dusur is what boards are fastened down with of nails and the like; the singular is disār, similar [in
pattern] to [kutub] kitāb, âbookâ), 631
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Tafseer
sailing before Our eyes, that is, in Our sights, in other words, [it was being]
protected, as retaliation (jazāâan is in the accusative because of the implied verbal clause, that is to say, âthey
were drowned by way of revengeâ) for [the sake of] him who was rejected, namely, Noah, peace be upon
him (a variant reading [for passive kufira] has kafara, âhim who disbelievedâ, in other words, they were
drowned as a punishment for them).
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Tafseer
And verily We left it, We preserved this [deed], as a sign, for whomever might
be admonished by it, in other words, the news of this [deed] became widely-known and endured. So is there
anyone who will remember?, [anyone who] will take heed from, or be admonished by, it? (muddakir is actually
mudhtakir, but the tāâ has been replaced with a dāl, likewise the dhāl, and it [the dāl] has been
assimilated with it [the other dāl]).
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Tafseer
How [dreadful] then were My chastisement and My warnings? (this is an
interrogative meant as an affirmative; kayfa, âhowâ, is the predicate of kāna, âwasâ, and it is here being
used to inquire about a âstateâ; the intention is to prompt those who are being addressed to affirm the fact that
Godâs chastisement of those who denied Noah was fully deserved).
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Tafseer
And verily We have made the Qurâān easy to remember, We have facilitated its
memorisation and disposed it to serve as a [source of] remembrance. So is there anyone who remember?,
[anyone who] will be admonished by it and memorise it? (the interrogative here is intended as an
imperative: in other words, memorise it and be admonished by it; none of Godâs scriptures is memorised by
heart other than it [the Qurâān]).
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Tafseer
âĀd denied, their prophet Hūd and so they were chastised. How then were My
chastisement and My warnings?, [how then was] My warning them of the chastisement before it was sent
down? In other words, it was justified, and He explains this [chastisement] by saying:
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Tafseer
Indeed We unleashed upon them a clamorous wind, intensely noisy, on a day of
prolonged ill fortune, (nahsin mustamirr means) either one of continuous ill fortune, or one of severe
ill fortune â and this was the last Wednesday of the month â
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Tafseer
tearing people away, wrenching them from the holes in the ground in which they
had been embedded and flinging them down [to the ground] head first, thereby crushing their necks and
severing [their] heads from [their] bodies, as if they were, [while lying] in this mentioned state, trunks
of uprooted palm-trees, severed and thrown on the ground â they are likened to palm-trees because of their
tallness (nakhlun, âpalm-treesâ, is masculine here but feminine in [sūrat] al-Hāqqa, nakhlun khāwiya, âfallen
down [or hollow] palm-treesâ, [Q. 69:7], in order to harmonise with the end-rhyme of the verses in both
instances).
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Tafseer
How then were My chastisement and My warnings? 632
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Tafseer
And verily We have made the Qurâān easy to remember. So is there anyone who will
remember?
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Tafseer
Thamūd denied the warnings (nudhur is the plural of nadhīr, with the sense of
mundhir), that is to say, [they denied] those matters which their prophet Sālih warned them of if they
refused to believe in him and to follow him,
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Tafseer
and they said, âIs it a mortal (basharan is in the accusative because it is
governed [by a succeeding verb]) alone among us (minnā wāhidan are both adjectives of basharan) that we are to
follow? (nattabiâuhu, this explains the verb which renders it [basharan, âmortalâ] accusative; the
interrogative is meant as a negative, in other words: why should we follow him when there are many of us and he is
only one among us and not a king? That is to say, we will not follow him). Then indeed, if we were to
follow him, we would be in error, a parting with reason, and insanity!
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Tafseer
Has the Reminder, the revelation, been cast (read a-ulqiya pronouncing both
hamzas, or by not pronouncing the second one but in both cases inserting an intervening alif, or leaving this
[insertion] out) upon him [alone] from among us?, in other words, nothing has been revealed to him. Nay,
but he is a conceited, an arrogant and insolent, liar, in his saying that the mentioned has been revealed
to him. God, exalted be He, says:
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Tafseer
âThey will know tomorrow, in the Hereafter, who is the conceited liar, and it is
them, for they will be chastised for having denied their prophet Sālih.
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Tafseer
Lo! We are sending the She-camel, We will bring it forth out of the mountain,
the rock, as they demanded, as a trial, a test, for them, that We may try them. So watch them, O Sālih,
await [to see] what they will do and what will be done with them, and remain patient (istabir: the tāâ here has
replaced the tāâ of [the 8th form] iftaâala), in other words, endure their harm.
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Tafseer
And inform them that the water is to be divided between them, and the She-camel:
one day for them and the next for it, every drinking, [every] portion of water, will be attendedâ, by
the people [drawing water] on their [designated] day, and by the She-camel on its day. They adhered to this
[regime] but eventually became impatient with it and decided to slaughter the She-camel.
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