068 - Sūrat al-Qalam

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

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

1

Nūn, one of the letters of the alphabet: Allahu ta’ālā knows best what He means by it. By the Pen, with which He has inscribed [the records of] all creatures in the Preserved Tablet, and what they inscribe, that is, the angels, of good and righteousness.

2

You are not, O Muhammad "sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam", by the grace of you Rabb, a madman, that is to say, madness is precluded in your case, on account of your Rabb's grace to you by way of [His assigning to you] prophethood and in other ways - this was a refutation of their saying that he was a madman.

3

And assuredly you will have an unfailing reward.

And assuredly you possess a magnificent nature, [a magnificent] religion.

Then you will see and they will see,

which of you is demented (al-maftūn is a verbal noun, similar [in expressional form] to al-ma'qūl, 'intelligible'; al-futūn meaning al-junūn, 'insanity') in other words, is it [this insanity] in you or in them?

Assuredly your Rabb knows best those who stray from His way, and He knows best those who are guided, to Him.

So do not obey the deniers.

They desire, they yearn, that (law relates to the verbal action) you should be pliable, [that] you should yield to them, so that they may be pliable [towards you], [so that] they may yield to you (fa-yudhinūna is a supplement to tudhinu, 'you should be pliable', but if it is understood to be the response to the optative clause of waddū, 'they yearn', then [a free standing pronoun] hum should be read as implied before it after the fā' [sc. fa-hum yudhinūna]).

And do not obey any mean, despicable, oath-monger, given to frequent swearing by falsehood,

backbiting, faultfinder, that is to say, calumniator, scandal-monger, spreading [evil] talk among people in order to sow dissension between them,

hinderer of good, niggardly with his wealth against deserving causes, sinful transgressor, wrongdoer,

coarse-grained, crude, moreover ignoble, an adopted son of Quraysh - namely, al-Walīd b. al-Mughīra, whose father claimed him after eighteen years; Ibn ‘Abbās said, 'We know of no one whom Allahu ta’ālā has described in the derogatory way in which He describes him, blighting him with ignominy that will never leave him (the adverbial qualifier [ba'da dhālika, 'moreover'] is semantically connected to zanīm, 'ignoble') –

[only] because (an should be understood as li-an, 'because', and it is semantically connected to that [meaning] which it is indicating) he has wealth and sons.

When Our veses - the Qur'ān - are recited to him, he says, that they are [merely], 'Fables of the ancients!', in other words, he denies them [in arrogance] on account of the mentioned things which We have bestowed on him out of Our grace (a variant reading [for an of the previous verse] has [the interrogative] a-an).¹

We shall brand him on the snout: We shall leave a distinguishing mark upon his nose, one by which he will be reviled for as long as he lives; and so his nose was chopped off by a sword at Badr.

Indeed We have tried them, We have tested the people of Mecca with drought and famine, just as We tried the owners of the garden, the orchard, when they vowed that they would pluck, [that] they would pick its fruits, in the morning, so that the poor folk would not notice them and so that they would not then have to give them of it that [portion] which their father used to give them of it by way of charity.

And they did not make any exception, to their vow, for Allah’s will (the sentence is a new [syntactically independent] one, in other words: and that was their condition).

Then a visitation from your Rabb visited it, [that is] a fire consumed it during the night, while they slept.

So by the morning it was like the darkness of night, in other words, black.

They then called out to one another in the morning,

[saying], 'Go forth early to your tillage, your produce (ani'ghdū 'alā harthikum constitutes an explication of [the import of] tanādaw, 'they called out to one another'; otherwise, an relates to the verbal action, [to be understood as] being bi-an) if you are going to pluck, if your intention is to pick [the fruits] (the response to the conditional is indicated by what preceded it).

So off they went, whispering to one another, talking secretly:

'No needy person shall today come to you in it' (this constitutes the explication of the preceding [verse]; or else, an relates to the verbal action, [to be understood] to mean bi-an).

And they went forth early, supposing themselves, able to prohibit, to prevent the poor folk [from enjoying the fruit].

But when they saw it, blackened and charred, they said, 'Assuredly we have strayed!', from it, that is to say: this is not the one. Then when they recognised it, they said:

'Nay, but we have been deprived!', of its fruits, by our denying it to the poor folk.

The most moderate, the best one, among them said, 'Did I not say to you, " Why do you not glorify? " ', Allahu ta’ālā, repenting [to Him].

They said, 'Glory be to Allahu ta’ālā, our Rabb. Verily we have been wrongdoers', by denying the poor folk [what is] their due.

They then turned to one another, blaming each other.

They said, 'O ([yā is] for calling attention to something) woe to us!, [O] destruction of ours. We have indeed been unjust.

It may be that our Rabb will give us in its place (read yubaddilanā or yubdilanā) one that is better than it. Truly we turn humbly to our Rabb', that He might accept our repentance and give us back [a garden that is] better than our garden - it is reported that they were indeed given a better one in its place.

Such, that is to say, like the chastisement for these [people], will be the chastisement, for those disbelievers of Mecca and others who contravene Our command; and the chastisement of the Hereafter is assuredly greater, did they but know, its chastisement, they would not have contavened Our command. When they said 'If we are resurrected, we shall be given better than [what] you [have been given], the following was revealed:

Verily for the Allahu ta’ālā-fearing there will be the Gardens of Bliss near their Rabb.

Are We then to treat those who submit [to Us] as [We treat] the sinners?, that is to say, as belonging with them in terms of reward?

What is wrong with you? How do you judge?, with such corrupt judgement?

Or (am lakum means a-lakum) do you have a Scripture, revealed, wherein you learn, [wherein] you read,

that you will indeed have in it whatever you choose?

Or do you have oaths, pledges, binding, secured, on Us until the Day of Resurrection (ilā yawmi'l-qiyāmati is semantically connected to 'alaynā, 'on Us'; these words ['alaynā bālighatun, 'binding on Us'] contain the sense of an oath [given], in other words, 'Did We swear to you?', the response to which is [what follows]) that you will indeed have whatever you decide?, to have for yourselves.

Ask them, which of them will aver, will guarantee for them, that?, [that] decision which they have made for themselves, namely, that they will be given better [reward] than the believers in the Hereafter?

Or do they have partners?, who agree with them in this claim of theirs and able to guarantee it for them; if that is the case: Then let them produce their partners, those who will guarantee this for them, if they are truthful.

Mention, the day when the shank is bared - an expression denoting the severity of the predicament during the reckoning and the requital on the Day of Resurrection: one says kashafati'l-harbu 'an sāqin, 'the war has bared its shank', to mean that it has intensified) and they are summoned to prostrate themselves, as a test of their faith, but they will not be able [to do so] - their backs will become as [stiff as] a brick wall.

With humbled (khāshi'atan is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the person [of the verb] yud'awna, 'they are summoned') that is to say, with abject, gazes, which they do not raise, they will be overcast, enveloped, by abasement; for they had indeed been summoned, in this world, to prostrate themselves while they were yet sound, but they never used to do it, by the fact that they never performed prayer.

So leave Me [to deal] with those who deny this discourse - the Qur'ān. We will draw them on by degrees, We will seize them little by little, whence they do not know.

And I will grant them respite; [for] assuredly My devising is firm, [My devising is] severe and cannot be withstood.

Or are you asking them a fee, in return for delivering the Message, so that they are weighed down with debt?, [so that they are weighed down] with what they will [have to] give you, and that is why they do not believe.

Or do they possess [access to] the Unseen, that is, [access to] the Preserved Tablet which contains [knowledge of] the Unseen, so that they are writing down?, from it what they say.

So await patiently the judgement of your Rabb, regarding them in the way that He wills, and do not be like the one of the whale, in terms of impatience and haste - this is Jonah, peace be upon him - who called out, [who] supplicated his Rabb, choking with grief, filled with anguish inside the belly of the whale.

Had it not been for a grace, a mercy, from his Rabb that reached him, he would have surely been cast, out of the belly of the whale, onto a wilderness, a desolate land, while he was blameworthy - but he was shown mercy and was therefore cast out blameless.

But his Rabb chose him, for prophethood, and made him one of the righteous, the prophets.

Indeed those who disbelieve would almost throw you down [to the ground] (read la-yuzliqūnaka or la-yazliqūnaka) with their looks, looking at you in a severe way, almost hurling you to the ground or making you fall from your place, when they hear the Reminder, the Qur'ān, and they say, out of envy: 'He is truly a madman!', on account of the Qur'ān that he has brought.

Yet it, namely, the Qur'ān, is just a Reminder, an admonition, for all the worlds, of [both] humans and jinn, and cannot be the cause of any dementia.

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