053 - Sūrat an-Najm

In the name of Allah (who is) Rahmān (and) Rahīm.

[For explanation, see Sūrat al-Fātiha: 1]

1

By the Star - the constellation Pleiades (al-thurayya) - when it sets, [when] it disappears,

2

your companion, Muhammad "sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam", may Allahu ta’ālā bless him and grant him peace, has neither gone astray, from the path of guidance, nor has he erred, nor has he engaged in error (al-ghayy is ignorance that results from a false belief);

3

nor does he, in regard to what he brings you, speak out of [his own] desire, [out of] the whims of his soul.

It is but a revelation that is revealed, to him,

it is, taught to him by, an angel, one of awesome power,

possessed of vigour, of strength and might (or [alternatively it, dhū mirratin, means] possessed of a beautiful appearance), namely, Gabriel, peace be upon him; and he stood upright, he settled,

when he was on the highest horizon, the horizon of the sun, that is to say, at the place from which it rises, in the form in which he [Gabriel] was created, so that the Prophet "sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam" saw him; he [the Prophet] had been at [Mount] Hirā', where Gabriel had obscured the entire horizon to the west. The Prophet fell down swooning, after he had asked him [Gabriel] to show himself to him in the form in which he was created. Thus Gabriel had made a tryst with him at Hirā', where he came down to him in human form.

Then he drew near, he came close to him, and drew closer still,

until he was, from him [the Prophet], within the length of two bows away or [even] nearer, than that, until he [the Prophet] had regained consciousness and his fright had subsided,

whereat He, [Allahu ta’ālā] exalted be He, revealed to His servant, Gabriel, what he, Gabriel, revealed, to the Prophet "sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam"; the thing being revealed is not mentioned [explicitly] in exaltation of its [great] status.

The heart, the heart of the Prophet, did not deny (read khadhaba or kadhdhaba) what he saw, with his own eyes of the image of Gabriel.

Will you then dispute with him, will you [then] argue with him and [hope to] overwhelm him, concerning what he saw? - an address to the idolaters who denied the Prophet's "sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam" vision of Gabriel.

And verily he saw him, in his [true] image, another time,

by the Lote-tree of the Ultimate Boundary, when he was carried on the night journey [up] through the heavens - this [lote-tree] is a nabk thorn-tree [that lies] to the right of the Throne ('arsh), [the tree] beyond which no angel or any other being pass;

near which is the Garden of the Retreat, to which the angels, the spirits of martyrs and the pious retreat;

when there shrouded the Lote-tree that which shrouded [it], of flying creatures and other [beings] (idh, 'when', is operated by ra'āhu, 'he saw him'),

The eye did not swerve, on the part of the Prophet "sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam", nor did it go beyond [the bounds], that is to say, his gaze did not turn away from the object of vision designated for it, nor did it go beyond that [object] on that night.

Verily he saw, in it, some of the greatest signs of his Rabb, [some of] the most awesome [of these signs]. He thus saw from among the marvels of the Realm (malakūt)¹ a green drape (rafraf) that obscured the [entire] horizon of the heaven and Gabriel with his six hundred wings.

Have you considered al-Lāt and al-'Uzzā,

and Manāt, the third, of the preceding two, the other? (al-ukhrā, a derogatory qualification of the third one). These were stone idols which the idolaters worshipped and which they claimed interceded for them with Allahu ta’ālā (the first direct object of a-fa-ra'aytum, 'have you seen', is al-Lāt and what has been supplemented thereto; the second [direct object] has been omitted). The meaning then is, 'Inform Me: do these idols have the power over anything, such that you worship them besides Allahu ta’ālā Who has the power over all that has been mentioned?' And because of their assertion also that the angels were Allah’s daughters, despite their aversion to daughters, the following was revealed:

Are you to have males, and He females?

That, then, would indeed be an unfair division! (dīzān, 'unfair', derives from dāzahu, yadīzuhu, to mean: 'he wronged him', 'he was unjust to him').

These, that is, the mentioned [deities], are nothing but names which you have named, by which you have named, you and your fathers, idols that you worship. Allahu ta’ālā has not revealed any warrant, [any] proof or evidence, for them, that is to say, [for] the worship of them. They follow nothing but conjecture, in their worship of them, and that which [ignoble] souls desire, of that which Satan adorned for them, that they may intercede for them before Allahu ta’ālā, exalted be He, even though guidance has already come to them from their Rabb, by the tongue of the Prophet "sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam", with definitive proof; yet they do not desist from their ways.

Or shall man, that is, shall every human being among them, have whatever he wishes for?, such as [their wish] that the idols intercede for them. [No!] It is not so.

Yet to Allahu ta’ālā belong the Hereafter and the former [life], that is to say, [the life of] the world, and so nothing comes to pass in them except what He, exalted, wills.

And how many an angel - that is to say, many an angel - there is in the heavens - and how honoured they are in Allah’s sight [but] - whose intercession cannot avail in any way except after Allahu ta’ālā gives permission, to them for this [intercession], for whomever He wills, of His servants, and, with whom, He is satisfied, because of His saying: and they do not intercede except for him with whom He is satisfied [Q. 21:28]. It is also well-known that it [intercession] cannot be forthcoming from them except after permission for it has been granted: who is there that shall intercede with Him save with His leave [Q. 2:255].

Truly those who do not believe in the Hereafter give the angels the names of females, for they say: 'They are Allah’s daughters'.

But they do not have any knowledge thereof, of this claim. They follow, in this [respect], nothing but conjecture, which they have conjured up, and indeed conjecture can never substitute for the truth, that is to say, when it comes to acquiring knowledge of that which one is required to have knowledge of.

So shun him who turns away from Our Remembrance, that is, [from] the Qur'ān, and desires nothing but the life of this world - this was [revealed] before the command to struggle [against the disbelievers].

That, namely, the desire of this world, is the full extent of their knowledge, that is, the limit of their knowledge, namely, that they have preferred this life to [that of] the Hereafter. Truly your Rabb knows best those who have strayed from His way, and He knows best those who are [rightly] guided: He has knowledge of both and will requite both.

And to Allahu ta’ālā belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth, that is, He owns [all of] that, among which [also] are the misguided one and the [rightly] guided one, leading astray whomever He will and guiding whomever He will, that He may requite those who do evil for what they have done, by way of idolatry and otherwise, and reward those who are virtuous, by [their] affirmation of [Allah’s] Oneness and other acts of obedience, with the best [reward], namely, Paradise. He points out 'the virtuous' as being:

Those who avoid grave sins and abominations, excepting lesser offences, that is, minor sins, such as a look, a kiss or a touch (this constitutes a discontinuous exception, in other words the meaning is: but lesser offences are forgiven by the avoidance of grave sins). Truly your Rabb is of vast forgiveness, for such [lesser sins] and for accepting repentance. The following was revealed regarding those who used to say, '[What of] our prayers, our fasting, and our pilgrimage!'. He knows you best [from the time] when He produced you from the earth, that is to say, [when] He created your father Adam from dust, and when you were hidden [fetuses] (ajinna is the plural of janīn) in the bellies of your mothers. So do not claim purity for yourselves, do not praise yourselves, that is, in admiration; but [if it is done] in recognition of [Allah’s] grace, then that is fine. He knows best those who are Allahu ta’ālā-fearing.

Did you see him who turned away, from faith - that is, [the one who] recanted when he was derided for it. He said, 'But I fear the punishment of Allahu ta’ālā!'. But when the one deriding him guaranteed him that he would bear Allah’s chastisement for him, provided that he reverted to his [former] idolatry, and he then gave him a stated sum money, he reverted –

and gave a little, of the stated sum of money, and was then grudging?, refrained from [giving] the remainder (akdā derives from al-kudya, earth that is hard as rock and which prevents the well-digger from digging through when he hits it).

Does he possess knowledge of the Unseen so that he sees?, [and therefore] from among such [knowledge] he is able to know that another person may bear the chastisement of the Hereafter for him? No! This was al-Walīd b. al-Mughīra, or someone else (the sentence beginning with a-'indahu, 'does he possess', is the second object of the a-ra'ayta, 'have you seen', which has the significance of 'inform Me!').

Or (am means bal) has he not been informed of what is in the scrolls of Moses, the books of the Torah, or scrolls before it,

and, the scrolls of, Abraham who fulfilled [his summons], [he who] completed what he had been charged with, as in: And when his Rabb tested Abraham with certain words and he fulfilled them [Q. 2:124] (the explication of mā, 'what', is [the following]):

that no burdened soul shall bear the burden of another (an, 'that', has been softened in place of the hardened form), in other words, no soul shall bear [responsibility for] the sins of another;

and that (wa-an, to be understood as wa-annahu) man shall have only what he [himself] strives for, of good [deeds], and so he shall not have anything of [the reward for] good [deeds] striven for by another;

and that his endeavour will be seen, it will be inspected in the Hereafter,

then he will be rewarded for it with the fullest reward, the most perfect [reward] (one may say jazaytuhu sa'yahu or [jazaytuhu] bi-sa'yihi [to mean the same thing]),

and that (read wa-anna as a supplement; it is also read wa-inna as the beginning of a new sentence; and the same applies to what comes after it, in which case, according to this second [reading], these [inna statements] no longer form part of the content of all that is 'in the scrolls') the ultimate end, the return and the destination after death, is toward your Rabb, whereat He will requite them;

and that it is He Who makes to laugh, whomever He wishes He makes joyous, and makes to weep, whomever He wishes He makes him sorrowful,

and that it is He Who brings death, in this world, and gives life, for resurrection,

and that He [Himself] creates the two spouses, the two kinds, the male and the female,

from a drop [of semen] once it is emitted, [once] it is poured forth into the womb,

and that with Him rests the second genesis (read al-nashā'ata, or al-nash'ata), the other creation, for the Resurrection, after the first creation,

and that it is He Who enriches, people by [granting them] sufficient wealth, and grants possessions, [He Who] gives that wealth that is enjoyed as property,

and that it is He Who is the Rabb of Sirius - this is a star [lying] beyond [the constellation of] Gemini, which was worshipped in the time of pagandom (jāhiliyya);

and that He destroyed former 'ād ('ādan al-ūlā: a variant reading elides the nunation with the [following] lām [sc. 'āda'l-ūlā]; this [former one] refers to the people of 'ād, while the second ['ād] is that of the people of Sālih)

and Thamūd (wa-Thamūda: may be declined, as the name of their forefather, or left as a diptote, being the name of the tribe; it is a supplement to 'ādan) sparing not, a single one of them;

and the people of Noah before that, that is to say, before 'ād and Thamūd, We [also] destroyed them; indeed they were more unjust and more insolent, than 'ād and Thamūd, because of the long time that Noah remained among them: and he remained among them a thousand-less-fifty years [Q. 29:14], for they, despite their disbelief in him, would [still] harm him and assault him;

and the Deviant [cities], namely, the cities of the people of Lot, He overturned, He hurled them down to the earth after lifting them up to the heaven upside down, by commanding Gabriel to do this;

so that there covered them, of rocks afterwards, that which covered [them]: this is [purposely] left vague in order to inspire terror; in [sūrat] Hūd [it is stated]: We made their uppermost the nethermost, and We rained upon them stones of baked clay [Q. 11:82].

Then which of the bounties of your Rabb, [which of] His graces, [graces] which indicate His Oneness and power, do you dispute?, do you have doubt about, O man, or deny?

This, Muhammad "sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam", is a warner, [in the tradition] of the warners of old, of their kind, that is to say, he is a Messenger (rasūl) like messengers (rusul) before him, sent to you just as they were sent to their peoples.

The Impending [Hour] is imminent: the Resurrection is near at hand.

None, [no] soul, besides Allahu ta’ālā can disclose it, that is to say, only He can disclose it and manifest it, as where He says: He alone shall reveal it, at its proper time [Q. 7:187].

Do you then marvel, in denial, at this discourse, the Qur'ān,

and laugh, mockingly, and not weep, when you hear its Promise and Threat,

while you remain oblivious?, unmindful and heedless of what is required of you.

So prostrate to Allahu ta’ālā, Who created you, and worship Him!, and do not prostrate to idols, nor worship them.

﴾ 0 ﴿