Tafsīr

T al-Jaalālay
yn
By:

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī

TRA
RANSLATED
D BY
Ferras Ham
mza

Edited andd with an Intrroduction by

Ghazi binn Muhammad d bin Talal

The C e Text
Complete

© 2007 Ro
oyal Aal al-B
Bayt Institute for Islam
mic Thoughtt

Am
mman, Jord
dan

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General Editor’s Introduction and Foreword

Introduction to Tafsīr al-Jalālayn

The fifteenth-century Qur’anic commentary or Tafsīr of ‘the two Jalāls’ (al-Jalālayn) — the Egyptian
Shafi‘i-madhhab scholar Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Maḥallī (d. 864 AH / 1459 CE), and his (also
Egyptian) student the famous ‘ālim and polymath, Jalāl al-Dīn 'Abd al-Raḥmān b. Abī Bakr al-Suyūṭī (d. 911
AH / 1505 CE) — is one of the most popular Tafsīrs in the Islamic world, perhaps even the most popular
Tafsīr. Copies of it are available in almost every bookshop and library in the Arab and Islamic world, in
dozens of different editions, and it sits, well-loved and respected, in countless homes, schools and mosques
all over the world. Moreover, of the great Sunni Orthodox Classical Tafsīrs — what might be called the
‘unofficial Sunni Canon’ of Tafsīr — namely, the Tafsīrs of Ṭabarī, Rāzī, Qurṭubī, Bayḍāwī, Ibn Kathīr and
Jalālayn, it is by far the shortest and easiest to read and understand. Consequently, it is invariably read as
an introduction to Classical Tafsīrs — or even to Tafsīr as such — such that for millions of students and
adults who never go further into the subject, it is the only Tafsīr they ever come to know extensively. Finally,
because it is so accessible and ubiquitous, and because in Arabic it is always printed in a single volume, in
the margins of the Qur’an itself (where it fits quite easily and legibly), it is habitually used as an instant
reference work for words in the Qur’an whose meaning is not immediately clear to the modern reader, and
this arguably is its real forte. It is thus an immensely successful and influential work not just as the classic
introduction to Tafsīr, but also as the standard reference work for the language of the Qur’an.

The Method and Strategy of Tafsīr al-Jalālayn

The Tafsīr al-Jalālayn is usually categorized as a Tafsīr bil-Ma'thūr — that is, a ‘commentary based
upon transmitted knowledge’ (from the Ḥadīth, the first Tafsīrs and the early Islamic history books, usually)
— this being the primary category of perhaps six or seven traditional categories of Tafsīr.[1] This, however, is
deceptive. In fact, in addition to the material handed down from the time of the Prophet Muhammad
(p.b.u.h.), the Tafsīr al-Jalālayn uses a number of different approaches to explaining the Qur’anic text, not
all of which can be attributed only to transmitted Tradition or tafsīr bil-ma'thūr. These include precisely
‘linguistic commentary’, ‘legal or Shari‘ah commentary’ and tafsīr bil-tafsīr as mentioned below (as different
categories of commentaries). They also include, however, a few other elements, perhaps no less important.
Thus, in addition to: (1) giving transmitted explanations and quoting ḥadīths about Qur’anic verses, (2)
providing Arabic synonyms for difficult Qur’anic words, (3) elaborating on legal explanations of verses
according (mostly) to the Shafi‘i school of jurisprudence, and (4) putting into context, perspective and
mutual definition verses from the Qur’an using other verses about related matters (i.e. practicing tafsīr bil-
tafsīr), the Tafsīr al-Jalālayn uses the following Commentary strategies:
(5) It gives the Asbāb al-Nuzūl (the ‘occasions for Revelation’, that is, what was happening to and
around the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) when a verse or verses were Revealed (ostensibly in answer to these
circumstances) for selected verses when they are known (this of course is a purely Ma'thūr element of
Commentary).
(6) It indicates which verses are abrogated (mansūkh) and which verses abrogate (nāsikh), (this
should be a purely ma'thūr element, but is arguably not always so).
(7) It notes the seven (or ten) different ‘readings’ (qirā’āt) of the Holy Qur’an and briefly discusses
their divergent emphases.
(8) It discusses the grammar of the Qur’an according to that of the Arabic language, and explains
the arcane grammatical forms occasionally to be found in the Qur’an.
(9) It clarifies many Arabic and Qur’anic linguistic tropes by filling in deliberate omissions and
ellipses strategically employed in the Qur’an, and by suggesting meanings for synecdoche, metonymy,
metaphor and allusion used in Arabic.
(10) Finally, it fills in, based largely on the Bible and its Rabbinical and Patristic Commentaries
gleaned mostly from early Christian and Jewish converts to Islam (and therefore containing some confused,
polemical and apocryphal material), the historical order, details and context of many of the stories in the

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Qur’an concerning the Biblical Prophets and Jesus (p.b.u.h.) and his family and disciples. This element is
known in Arabic as Isrā’īliyyāt (‘Tales of the Children of Israel’) and is generally thought of as not only the
most controversial part of Tafsīr al-Jalālayn, but of Tafsīr in general, because of the tenuousness of some of
the material involved. However, it is extremely useful for understanding the background — and therefore
also the meaning (symbolic or otherwise) — of many of the tales of the Qur’an, such that few if any Classical
Commentaries have ever able been able to ignore it.
Reading the Tafsīr al-Jalālayn, one immediately understands that, despite the number of elements
and strategies that its authors employ (as just listed), its primary and overriding goal — one might say its
‘categorical imperative’ — is only to clarify the immediate sense of the Qur’anic text, thereby facilitating the
reading of the Qur’an. There are no digressions, no distractions, no embellishments, nothing superfluous,
and nothing whose sole purpose is not to elucidate an ambiguity in the text of the Qur’an or to explain
something that is not self-evident.[2] Moreover, the commentary itself is made to fit in between the verses or
phrases or words of the Qur’an without interrupting its sense as read, thereby generally forming one
continuous, uninterrupted flow of holy text and commentary. It is thus as if the two Jalāls wanted to remove
any obstacles to understanding any word or sense in the holy text so that even the simplest reader might
recite the Qur’an and immediately understand at least its literal meaning. In this sense the Tafsīr al-Jalālayn
is what the word ‘Tafsīr’ literally means — an ‘explanation’ — and not what the word has come to mean by
extension (namely: ‘commentary’ or ‘interpretation’). This is doubtless what makes the Tafsīr al-Jalālayn
invaluable as an introductory classical tafsīr, and is the secret of its timeless popularity.

The Interpretation of the Holy Qur’an (Tafsīr) according to Personal Opinion (Ra'y)

Some of the partisans of Tafsīr bil-Ma'thūr (and today their ranks are swollen by the literalist
Fundamentalists) hold that any Tafsīr of the Qur’an based on personal opinion (ra'y), and not handed down
by tradition is forbidden. In this context, Ibn Kathir (who in this respect echoes the views of his teacher, Ibn
Taymiyyah), in the introduction to his Tafsīr al-Qur'ān al-'Aẓīm, quotes this the following ḥadīth:
Whoever speaks of the Qur’an according to his own opinion or according to that of which he [or
she] has no knowledge, then let him assume his place in the Fire.[3]
Other Islamic scholars, however, and amongst them Sunni scholars like Fakhr al-Din al-Rāzī and al-
Ghazālī, argue that this hadith must be understood in the wider context of the Qur’an’s own injunctions
about its own interpretation as well the injunctions of other ḥadīth. The Holy Qur’an says:
He it is Who hath revealed unto thee [Muhammad] the Scripture wherein are verses which are clear
prescripts — they are the substance of the Book — and others [which are] allegorical. But those in
whose hearts is deviation follow that which is allegorical seeking [to cause] dissension and seeking
its interpretation. And none know its interpretation except God and those firmly grounded in
knowledge [who][4] say: “We believe therein. It is all from our Lord”. And none remember except
those [people] of kernels. (Āl 'Imrān, 3:7)
And:
Will they not then meditate upon the Qur’an? If it had been from other than God they would have
found therein much discrepancy. / And if any tidings, whether of safety or fear, come unto them,
they proclaim it about, whereas had they referred it to the Messenger and such of them as are in
authority, those among them who can interpret it among them would have known it. And were it
not for the bounty of God upon you and His Mercy, you would have surely followed Satan, save a
few [of you]. (Al-Nisā', 4: 82-83)
Thus there are, according to scholars, two types of verses in the Qur’an: (1) clear, legislative verses
(called ‘al-aḥkām’ by some scholars; see Hūd 11:1) that are not ‘open’ to interpretation, and (2) allegorical
verses (called ‘al-akhbār’ by some scholars; see Al-Zumar 39:23) that are ‘open’ to interpretation.
Following the first verses quoted above, Ghazālī maintains that the allegorical verses can licitly be
interpreted by individual readers based on their own opinions and understanding, but only upon the
following specific, strict conditions: (A) that the interpreter be completely familiar with all interpretations of
the Holy Qur’an attributed to the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) and his Companions, and that the individual

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interpretation (ra’y) not contradict these; (B) that the individual interpretations (ra’y) not be used to
contradict any legislative verse (and presumably a fortiori anything that contradicts orthodox doctrine or
‘aqīdah); and (C) that the interpreter have mastered the Arabic language and not contradict the literal
meaning of any verse itself with his or her individual interpretation (ra'y). Ghazālī says:
It is false that hearing [from an authority] is a stipulation for Qur’anic interpretation. It is lawful for
everyone to elicit meaning from the Qur’an commensurate with his understanding and the limit of
the intelligence.[5]
One who, without being prudent at outward exegesis, hastens to elicit deep meanings by mere
understanding of the Arabic language makes many mistakes and is included in the group of those
who explain the Qur’an by personal opinion (ra'y). Then transmission [from an authority] and
hearing [from him] are necessary for outward exegesis first, so that the exegete may, by them, be
safe in places where mistakes are likely to be made. After this, understanding will be wide and the
eliciting of deep meanings will be possible.[6]
In this and similar [questions] only knowledge which has been transmitted and heard (al-naql wal-
samā‘) is of any use. The Qur’an, from its beginning to its end, is not lacking in [rhetorical figures
of] this kind, and, because it was revealed in the language of the Arabs, it includes such figures of
their speech such as conciseness (ījāz), prolixity (taṭwīl), ellipsis (iḍmār), omission (ḥadhf),
substitution (ibdāl), and preposition and postposition (taqdīm wa ta'khīr), all of which served to
dumbfound the Arabs and render them unable to imitate it. Anyone who is satisfied with an
understanding of the outward aspect alone of the Arabic language, and who then hastens to explain
the Qur’an without having recourse to that knowledge which has been transmitted and heard (al-
naql wal-samā‘) in these matters, is to be counted among those who explains the Qur’an by their
personal opinions (ra'y). For example, a person may understand the term umma in its most widely
known meaning, and in his nature and opinion he may incline towards that meaning. However, if he
then encounters the term in another place, he may still incline in his opinion towards that widely-
known meaning which he has previously heard, and he will neglect to pursue what has been
transmitted with respect to that term’s many other meanings. It is possible that this is what is
prohibited [in the hadith that: Whoever speaks of the Qur’an according to his own opinion or
according to that of which he [or she] has no knowledge, then let him assume his place in the Fire]
and not the understanding of the secret meanings [of the Qur’an].[7]
As evidence for the permissibility of individual interpretation, Al-Ghazālī points to the saying of the
Caliph ‘Alī explaining how he had an understanding of the Qur’an in addition to that which was related by
the Prophet (p.b.u.h.):
The Messenger of God (may God’s blessings and peace be upon him) did not hide from me anything
which he concealed from people, except that God (Great and Mighty is He) bestows upon a man
understanding of His Book.[8]

‘Understanding’ of the Qur’an is thus undeniable and perfectly legitimate, whereas ra'y (personal
opinion) is then reprehensible only when it is a deliberate wilful disobedience to the (aforementioned) rules
of Tafsīr.
Other scholars, Ibn ‘Arabi for instance, set ‘the bar’ even lower: they maintain that because God’s
knowledge in infinite and He foresaw all possible meanings of His text, all interpretations that are (A) literally
true according to the Arabic language and (B) do not contradict the Shari‘ah (in accordance with the
Qur’anic verse — 3:7 — as quoted earlier) are legitimate. Reprehensible ra’y is then only what contradicts
the literal Arabic text and the Shari‘ah:
Every sense (wajh) which is supported (iḥtimāl) by any verse in God’s Speech (kalām)—whether it is
the Qur’an, the Torah, the Psalms, the Gospel or the Scripture—in the view of anyone who knows
that language (lisān) is intended (maqṣūd) by God in the case of that interpreter (muta’awwil). For
His knowledge encompasses all senses….
We say concerning the senses of a verse that all are intended by God. No one forces anything upon
God. On the contrary, it is an affair verified by God…. Hence when someone understands a sense
from the verse, that sense is intended by God in this verse in the case of the person who finds it.

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 This situation is not found outside God’s Speech. Even though the words might support a sense, it
may be that it was not intended by the speaker; for we know that he is incapable of encompassing
all the senses of the words….
Hence, everyone who comments (tafsīr) on the Qur’an and does not go outside of what the words
support is a true commentator. However, “He who comments according to his opinion (ra’y)
becomes an unbeliever”—so it has been recorded in the hadith of Tirmidhī. But the commentary will
not be “according to his own opinion” until the speakers of that language do not recognize that
sense in that word.[9]

* * *

This possibility of this kind of interpretation perhaps explains why the Qur’an calls for people (and
not merely qualified classical scholars) to reflect upon it for wisdom’s sake (and not for any social or
legislative reason) in verses such as:
Do they not reflect upon the Word, or has there come unto them anything that did come to their
fathers of old. (Al-Mu’minūn, 23:68)
[Here is] a Book which We have sent down unto thee, full of blessing, that they may reflect upon its
verses, and that those of cores may remember. (Ṣād, 38: 29)
Do they not meditate upon the Qur’an or do hearts have their locks upon them? (Muḥammad,
47:24)
Equally, this also perhaps explains why the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said:
Every verse [in the Qur’an] has an outer aspect and inner aspect and each [of these two aspects]
has a limit and a place of ascent.[10]
For why would the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) provide us with these invaluable keys to interpretation if he
had meant for all interpretation apart from his own to be absolutely forbidden?
Finally, we note that God promised the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) the following in the Holy Qur’an:
Stir not thy tongue herewith to hasten it. / Lo! upon Us [resteth] the putting together thereof and
the reading thereof. / And when We read it, follow thou the reading; / Then lo! upon Us [resteth]
the explanation thereof. (Al-Qiyamah, 75:16-19)
Now Al-Ṭabarī quotes Ibn 'Abbās saying that ‘the putting together thereof’ of the Qur’an occurred in
the breast of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.). This meaning is affirmed in other Tafsirs including those of Fakhr al-Dīn
Al-Rāzī and Ibn Kathīr. However, whereas Al-Ṭabarī quotes a hadith relating the Divine Promise as regards
‘the explanation thereof’ of the Qur’an (after its ‘reading’) as being made to the Prophet himself, Fakhr Al-
Dīn Al-Rāzī for one, does not limit the Divine Promise exclusively to the Prophet’s (p.b.u.h.) (inspired)
explanation and ‘commentary’, especially since this commentary is not extant for the whole Qur’an and since
what is extant often requires correct understanding and elaboration. In other words, some authoritative and
orthodox commentators take the Divine Promise in the Qur’an to explain the Qur’an to be an ongoing
process (within of course certain parameters, such as the Prophet’s own commentary where it exists, the
limits of the Arabic language, the legislative verses, the ‘aqīdah and so on, as mentioned earlier). Wa Allāhu
A'lam: And God knows best.

* * *

There are, moreover, many interpretations of verses of the Qur’an going back to the Prophet himself
(p.b.u.h.) that indicate not only symbolical resonances[11] in the sacred verses of the Holy Qur’an, but also
distinct levels of both micro-macrocosmic[12] mirror-play and anagogical meanings in these verses (as
perhaps maybe indicated in the ḥadīth quoted above). For example, the Holy Qur’an says:

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 He sendeth down water from the sky, so that valleys are in flood with it, each according to its
capacity, and the flood beareth [on its surface] swelling foam—from that which they smelt into the
fire in order to make ornaments and tools riseth a foam like unto it—thus Allah coineth [the
similitude of] the Truth and falsehood. Then, as for the foam, it passeth away as scum upon the
banks, while as for that which profiteth mankind, it remaineth in the earth. Thus Allah coineth the
similitudes. (Al-Ra'd, 13:17)
Al-Ṭabarī reports[13] that according to Ibn 'Abbās (the Prophet’s—p.b.u.h.— cousin and student) the
valleys are a simile for people’s hearts (qulūb), the scum which passeth away is a simile for doubt (shakk),
and that which is of use to mankind and remaineth in the earth is a simile for certainty (yaqīn). This clearly
establishes a parallel between the earth or the world and human beings (and the worlds within them) and
between the sky and heaven. It also establishes (via the symbol of water) a parallel between the life of the
body and that of the heart and the soul. It thus implies micro-macrocosmic mirror-play and anagogical levels
of meaning in the Qur’an in general. In other words, it implies that the akhbar (or at least the similitudes or
amthāl within the akhbār) of the Holy Qur’an can be understood in a ‘inner’ sense in addition and parallel to
their literal outward meanings. Wa Allāhu A'lam: And God knows best.

* * *
One last point must be mentioned here on this subject: many mystics (such as Ibn 'Arabī and
Ruzbihān Baqlī) who wrote Commentaries on the Qur’an or on parts of it — and even a few ‘inspired
philosophers’, like Ibn Sīnā — claimed that their Commentaries, or parts of them, were not based on
‘individual opinion’ at all, but rather on ‘spiritual intuition’ or even ‘mystical inspiration’. Thus, they argued
that there was nothing individualistic or subjective about what they wrote because it did not come through
ordinary, rational thought. In other words, they claimed the censure against rational or subjective
speculation did not apply to them, since they wrote only what they ‘received’ passively from the uncreated
Intellect, ultimately through Divine inspiration. In this they claimed to be like the mysterious figure (known
as al-Khiḍr in the Commentaries) in the Sūrat al-Kahf, who was not a prophet as such and yet whom God
had given him mercy from [that which is] with Us and taught him knowledge from Our Presence (18:65)
such that he told Moses (p.b.u.h.), with reference to certain acts that he been inspired to commit: I will
announce to thee the interpretation of that which that couldst not bear with patience …. I did it not upon my
own command. Such is the interpretation of that wherewith thou couldst not bear (18:78-82). This they
claimed was precisely what was meant by the Caliph 'Alī’s (k.w.) saying that (as quoted earlier[14]): ‘God
(Great and Mighty is He) bestows upon a man understanding of His Book’. Now evidently, claiming this state
is a major claim for anyone to make, but the Commentators who made them (or some of them at least)
were precisely not just ‘anyone’, and what cannot be denied is that the Holy Qur’an itself seems to allow for
the possibility of exactly such a claim. Wa Allāhu A'lam: And God knows best.

* * *

Strategies and Methods not employed in the Tafsīr al-Jalālayn, but used in other Commentaries

In order to better understand and situate the Tafsīr al-Jalālayn — and, indeed, tafsīr in general —
mention must be now made of all the Commentary strategies and methods the Tafsīr al-Jalālayn does not
use. These are:
(1) There is no Tafsīr bil-Ra’y of the kind just mentioned: the two authors never give their personal
opinions, never speculate, never give their thoughts and reactions, never cite poetry, adages or popular
sayings to illustrate a point, and always stick to what they understand of transmitted tradition.
(2) There are no mystical inspirations or spiritual insights about passages in the Qur’an of the kind
also just mentioned (notwithstanding a vision by Maḥallī’s brother, related at the end of the Sūrat al-Isrā',
wherein the two authors discuss their work after Maḥallī’s death).

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 (3) There are no theological discussions of God’s Names, Qualities, Attributes, Words or Sunan (such
as those great discussions to be found in Rāzī’s Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb), and in fact there is no Theology as such
at all to be found in the Tafsīr al-Jalālayn.
(4) There are no philosophical discussions based on the laws of logic, on syllogisms, induction,
deduction, and dialectic; equally there are no didactic and rhetorical questions and answers sessions of the
kind even Ṭabarī uses.
(5) There are no discussions of symbolism in the Qur’an of the kind described above: neither
microcosmic, nor anagogical nor even allegorical or moral. In fact, the very issue of symbolism is not even
broached, despite the ḥadīth and the Qur’anic verses mentioned earlier.
(6) There are no semantic investigations of Arabic words, and no citations of Jāhiliyya poetry as
semantic references and guarantees of the connotations, implications and nuances of the words in the
Qur’an.
(7) There is no etymological study of the roots of Arabic words and letters and their basic meanings:
every Arabic word can be traced to a tri-letteral or quadri-letteral root, and these roots have a basic meaning
which is usually connected to some natural (and hence desert) phenomenon; from these ‘root words’ dozens
of forms and hundreds of derivatives are produced, such that once the root word is known the form and the
meaning of any derivative word can be deduced. Thus etymology in Arabic, more than in modern languages,
is extremely useful in understanding the exact meaning and behaviour of any indigenous word. The Tafsīr
al-Jalālayn, however, does not delve into this.
(8) Anterior to even the meaning of root words in Arabic is the archetypal meaning of the 28 Arabic
letters themselves which make up every word in the Arabic language (and ultimately their root meanings),
and each one of which has a form, a sound, a behaviour, and even a corresponding number that exactly
reflects its archetypal meaning. These archetypal meanings in turn translate into universal principles and
thus into lunar house (there are 28 or 29 traditional lunar houses), so that all existent things can ultimately
be associated with one of them. This idea — the idea that there is a perfect symbolism and exact meaning
to every aspect of the Arabic letters — is evidently a difficult and esoteric idea, but it is precisely the
foundation of a number of arcane but sacred sciences in Islam. Moreover, more importantly for Tafsīr, 29 of
the Qur’an’s 114 Sūras or Chapters start with Arabic letters enunciated on their own without forming words
(e.g. Alif, Lām, Mīm; Nūn; Qāf; Ṣād, and so on). The Tafsīr al-Jalālayn, however, completely ignores this
issue, and when it comes to these letters at the beginning of Sūras merely remarks: “God knows better what
is meant by this”.
(9) The Tafsīr al-Jalālayn does not explore the traditional Gharā'ib al-Qur’ān (‘the wondrous-strange
features of the Qur’an’), and does not address or explain the more complex linguistic tropes to be found in
it: it does not explain possible meanings clothed by rhetoric, hyperbole and tautology; it does not delve into
puzzling juxtapositions and zeugmas; and does not resolve apparent antinomies and dialectics. It passes
over these mines of secret wisdom with very little gloss.
(10) More unusually for a tafsīr bil-ma'thūr, the Tafsīr al-Jalālayn gives no isnāds (chains of
transmission) for any of the hadiths it quotes, and mentions earlier Tafsīrs to which it is heavily indebted
(primarily Ṭabarī) only rarely. This is evidently, as mentioned earlier, in order to keep the Tafsīr as simple as
possible, since in Suyūṭī’s al-Durr al-Manthūr, all isnāds are given.
(11) With the occasional exception (e.g. the last verses of Sūrat al-Isrā' and Sūrat al-Sajda) the
Tafsīr al-Jalālayn — and this too is unusual for a tafsīr bil-ma'thūr — does not relate the Faḍā'il al-Qur'ān: in
many of the traditional collections of hadith there are specific sections devoted to what Prophet (p.b.u.h.)
related about the merits of certain verses of the Qur’an and about effects of reciting them at certain times.
These are known as ‘Faḍā'il al-Qur'ān’ — literally, ‘the bounties or excellences of the Qur’an’ — and
constitute the basis of Islamic supererogatory prayer litanies. They are thus extremely important to
practising Muslims, and thus constitute perhaps the strangest omission in the Tafsīr al-Jalālayn, since they
are relatively brief and few, and would have been easy to relate.
(12) There is, in the Tafsīr al-Jalālayn, no calling attention to the ‘inner architecture’ of the Qur’an,
showing exactly why certain words and near-synonyms are used in given contexts and not others, in the
fashion made so famous by the late popular Azharī Sheikh and Commentator Muḥammad Mitwallī Al-
Sha'rāwī (but which has existed since the first centuries of Islam — witness for example al-Ḥākim al-
Tirmidhī’s third-century AH Bayān al-Farq bayn al-Ṣadr wal-Qalb wal-Fu'ād wal-Lubb[15]).

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 (13-14) There are obviously no modern political musings on Qur’anic verses, of the kind to be found
in Seyyed Quṭb’s Fī Ẓilāl al-Qur'ān. Nor are there any modern scientific interpretations of Qur’anic verses
about cosmological, biological or even historical principles or facts — in order to show that the Qur’an
miraculously anticipated/agrees with modern science and research despite being over 1,000 years older than
them — of the kind to be found for example in the writings of the late Maurice Bucaille, Dr Zaghlul Najjar, or
in the Tafsīr of Tanṭāwī Jawharī.
(15) Finally, the Tafsīr al-Jalālayn usually (that is, over 95% of the time) only gives one meaning for
the Qur’anic text (and at most, three alternate meanings) unlike, for example, Al-Ṭabarī who so often gives
many possible different meanings and then sometimes gives preponderance to one or two of these. This it
does despite the existence of different hadiths and reports from the Companions confirming more than one
meaning of many verses, and despite (as discussed earlier) verses of the Qur’an enjoining meditation upon
the Qur’an, and hadiths indicating many possible meanings of at least the Qur’an’s ‘allegorical’ verses. This is
the Tafsīr al-Jalālayn greatest weakness, but perhaps also its greatest strength for it is precisely what makes
the work so accessible.
In summary then, it can be said that despite the great erudition and wide range of Commentary
strategies employed in the Tafsīr al-Jalālayn, there are even more strategies which the Tafsīr has in general
deliberately not employed. Living as they did, more or less after the end of the Classical Tradition of
Commentary, its two authors had the advantage of having easy access to the great works of Classical Tafsīrs
and to their methods, but they deliberately summarized, streamlined or simplified these in order to stay
focused on their one overriding aim: to make the literal meaning of the Holy Qur’an completely intelligible in
the simplest possible way!

The Science and Art of Translation

Translation — and a fortiori translation of sacred texts which are all-important for man — should,
above all, convey ‘the meaning, the whole meaning and nothing but the meaning’ of the original text. This
means that in general the translation should be as literal as possible. It should try to keep the word order as
close to that of the Arabic as possible and, more important perhaps, try to consistently use the same
translation for the same word in different places in order to convey something of the system of inner
architecture and allusions of the Arabic text. However, when the literal meaning in the translated language
does not convey the exact sense of the original, it should depart from the literal words and give as precise a
translation of the meaning as possible. Indeed, this is perhaps the most common mistake of translation, as
most people do not realize that the meaning of words, when used in idiom, is often slightly different from
their literal meaning, and conversely that an idiom may be used to translate something whose literal
meaning does not suggest it. Obviously, however, literal translations should also beware of not quite making
sense in the language into which the text is translated, and of being grammatically incorrect. On the other
hand, even worse are translations which, in the attempt to use ‘good English’ (or whatever the translated
language is) or ‘poetic language’ take license with the literal text or its meaning. Thus translation must, as it
were, steer a ‘middle course’ between meaning and language — between, in a sense, ‘science’ and ‘art’—
but leaning always on the side of meaning when the two diverge.
This requires three major qualities in a translator: that (1) he or she knows the language of the
original text perfectly; that (2) he or she knows the language into which the text is being translated
perfectly, and (3) that he or she fully understands at least the literal meaning of the text they are
translating.
With the Holy Qur’an, which is the Word of God who is Omniscient, fully understanding the sacred
text — and consequently understanding all its meanings — is humanly impossible. Translation is thus with
the Holy Qur’an itself always only a question of interpretation of the Qur’an’s immediate, ‘surface’ meaning
with little if any of its linguistic beauty, mystery, holiness, miraculous nature, depth, symbolic resonances
and layers of meaning. Nevertheless this interpretation is a vital endeavour since the majority of Muslims in
the world do not know Arabic. Moreover, Tafsīr itself — having human authors who are not omniscient and
who therefore mean a finite amount of things with their words — is much easier to translate (when it is not
actually quoting the Holy Qur’an) than the sacred text itself and therefore can be accurately if not rendered
into another language.

viii
The Present Translation

The present text was translated by the Iraqi-English scholar Dr Feras Hamza and edited by Dr Reza
Shah-Kazemi, Dr Yousef Meri and myself. I believe it to be particularly commendable for its commitment to
the meaning of the original, and even, where possible, to its word order. It will easily stand-up to academic
scrutiny, and at the same time it is accessible to the simplest of readers, for whom in fact it was meant. It is
also bound in shā' Allāh to attract academic attention for the simple reason that it is the first classical Tafsīr
to appear in toto in English ever![16] Its publication should thus be an event of some significance not only for
Islamic studies in English, but for English-speaking Muslims interested in further study of the Holy Qur’an.

The Aal al-Bayt Institute’s Great Tafsīr Project

This translation and publication of Jalālayn’s Tafsīr was commissioned by the Aal al-Bayt Institute for
Islamic Thought, for its Great Tafsīr Project (see: www.altafsir.com). The Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic
Thought is an international Islamic charitable institute based in Jordan whose mission is to ‘preserve, protect
and propagate traditional Islamic thought, spirituality, culture, heritage and unity’. It is unique in the modern
world because its charter specifically the seven madhhabs (the four Sunni madhhabs — Shafi‘i, Hanafi,
Maliki, Hanbali — the Shi‘i Ja‘fari and Zaydi madhhabs, and the Ibadi madhhab), and Islamic Theology,
Philosophy and Mysticism. It consists of a centre in Amman, Jordan that undertakes charitable intellectual
projects for the Islamic Nation or Umma, and an international fellowship comprising up to one hundred
senior fellows and fifty fellows selected from the top scholars, sheikhs, imams, jurists, qadis, religious affairs
ministers, philanthropists and religious activists of the entire Islamic world from over forty countries, who
meet every other year in Jordan to explore and discuss a given theme, and publish the result of their
symposium.
One of the many projects undertaken by the Aal al-Bayt Institute’s centre in Jordan is the
aforementioned Great Tafsīr Project . This project consists mainly of a unique free website
(currently visited by an average of over a million visitors a year but built to handle 100x that
number) of over a hundred of Islam’s greatest Tafsīr s (from all madhhab s, and from every epoch
and country, some of which have never been properly edited or published in book form) and
essential resources for the study of the Holy Qur’an and Tafsīr (such as a word-for-word
concordance etc.), in addition to around twenty translations of the Qur’an into the world’s major
languages; to a number of specially commissioned translations of various Classical Tafsīr s into
English and to on-line tilāwa and tajwīd (oral recitation) of the Qur’an in all different readings
( qirā’āt ) and tones ( maqāmāt ). The whole project thus consists of around a million pages,
(hundreds of volumes, worth thousands of dollars in book-form) typed-in (and not scanned — this
is unique, but necessary in order to have search engines within the Tafsīr s themselves) to the
altafsir.com website. Essentially, it is an effort to make the Word of God and the sum total of what
men have understood and written about it throughout history available, for free, to the whole of
humanity, at the click of a button. [17]
This translation of Jalālayn is the first to be completed of the series of translations of Tafsīr
commissioned especially for the Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought’s Great Tafsīr Project (the
others, to date, include Ibn 'Abbās, Wāḥidī, Tusṭarī, Bayḍāwī, Kāshānī, Qushayrī, Ṭabarī, Nasafī,
Suyūṭī’s Itqān , and in sha Allah Fakhr Al-Din Al-Rāzī). In addition merely posting it on the internet,
it is a great honour and blessing for us to be able to publish in book form. We pray that God forgive
us any mistakes and inadequacies in it.

ix
HRH Prince Dr. Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal
Professor of Islamic Philosophy, Jordan University;
Founder and Director of the Great Tafsir Project ;
Chairman of the Board of Trustees,
Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought
Amman, Jordan
2007 CE/1428 AH

x
 Translator’s Introduction
The Tafsīr al-Jalālayn (‘The Commentary of the Two Jalāls’) is one of the most well-known and
popular commentaries that have come down to us from the medieval Islamic period. It is the work of a
teacher, Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Maḥallī (d. 864/1459), and his student, Jalāl al-Dīn 'Abd al-
Raḥmān al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505). Al-Suyūṭī himself informs us (see his comments at the end of Q. 17) that
his teacher, al-Maḥallī, had composed a commentary (on the Fātiḥa, and from sūrat al-Kahf, Q. 18, to sūrat
al-Nās, Q. 114), which he then completed with a commentary on the remainder (the more substantial
section from sūrat al-Baqara, Q. 2 to the end of sūrat al-Isrā', Q. 17). In its formal structure, this Sunni
commentary is of the type known as musalsal (‘chained’) commentary, a step-by-step explanation of key
aspects of the Qur'ānic narrative, allowing for quicker reference and digestion of the text.[18] The method of
exegesis used is known as tafsīr bi’l-ma'thūr (‘exegesis according to reports’), which means that it draws
principally upon the ḥadīth narrations that go back to the Prophet, the Companions (ṣaḥāba) and prominent
figures from among the Successor (tābi'ūn) generation.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī was an Egyptian Shāfi'ī scholar and jurist who wrote treatises on law and legal
theory. He wrote a number of ‘commentaries’ (sharḥ) on works of other authors, the most prominent of
which are a sharḥ on Jam' al-jawāmi' (‘The Collected collections’) of Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī (d. 771/1370),
entitled al-Badr al-ṭāli' fī ḥall jam' al-jawāhir (‘The Rising Full Moon Concerning the Resolution of the
Collection of Jewels’), another on the Minhāj al-ṭālibīn (‘The Path of the Knowledge-seekers’) by al-Nawawī
(d. 675/1277), which is actually mentioned by al-Suyūṭī in this commentary at the point where he takes over
from al-Maḥallī,[19] and one on al-Juwaynī’s (d. 478/1085) al-Waraqāt fī uṣūl al-dīn (‘Notes Concerning
Jurisprudence’).
Of the ‘two Jalāls’, however, by far the more prolific and better known is al-Suyūṭī, who also lived
most of his life in Cairo. At a very young age, he was already teaching Shāfi'ī law, even giving some fatwas,
and, as the famous Ibn Ḥajar al-'Asqalānī had once done, al-Suyūṭī dictated ḥadīth in the mosque of Ibn
Ṭulūn, where al-Suyūṭī’s father had been a preacher. Al-Suyūṭī had a prodigious memory (as he himself was
sometimes wont to note), and it is said that he knew by heart all the ḥadīths that had come to his
knowledge (some 200,000). His rapid development and rise to fame earned him the envy of fellow scholars,
something to which his numerous ‘response’ works (al-radd 'alā) attest; the most famous of his rivals was
Muḥammad al-Sakhāwī (d. 902/1497). Such rivalry was further fuelled by al-Suyūṭī’s claims, sometime
before the end of the 9th Muslim century, to have reached the rank of mujtahid in Shāfi'ī law and to be the
‘renewer’ of Islam (mujaddid) for that era. Al-Suyūṭī, however, gradually became disenchanted by public life,
particulary, by what he saw as the corrupt and ignorant scholarly milieu of his time.
As well as being a legal expert, al-Suyūṭī wrote on history: his best-known works in this field are the
Ta'rīkh al-khulafā' (‘History of the Caliphs’), and his Egyptian history, Ḥusn al-muḥāḍara (‘The Excellent
Lecture’). He was also interested in the sciences related to the Arabic language, as can be seen in the
Jalālayn commentary. Other well-known works are al-Durr al-manthūr fī'l-tafsīr bi'l-ma'thūr (‘The Scattered
Pearls Of Traditional Exegesis’), focusing exclusively on ḥadīth, and his Lubāb al-nuqūl fī asbāb al-nuzūl
(‘The Prime Entries Concerning the Occasions of Revelation’), dealing with the circumstances of Qur'ānic
verse revelation, which one frequently finds appended in the margins of modern editions of the Tafsīr al-
Jalālayn;[20] in addition to these one might also mention his al-Itqān fī 'ulūm al-Qur'ān (‘Mastery of the
Sciences of the Qur'ān’). On a personal level, al-Suyūṭī was a devoted Sufi and in a number of works he
sought to explain the harmony that must exist between commitment to the Sufi ṭarīqa and the individual’s
obligation to the Divine sharī'a.[21]

xi
Glossary of Grammatical Terms
There is no hard and fast way to translate the technical terms used in Arabic grammar. Of course,
there are some which may be rendered by obvious English equivalents; but for the most part it is difficult to
reflect, in translation, the malleability of the grammatical terminology when used in Arabic. Indeed, one
might ask whether it serves any purpose translating the grammatical discussions at all. But as these
discussions may be of value to those interested in grammar, and particularly, in the grammar employed in
the text of the Qur’ān, it has been decided to assist the non-Arabic reader by translating as much of these
discussions as is possible. The list below summarises the way, not ideal by any means, in which the
ubiquitous grammatical terminology, has been translated. The reader should note that the translations given
below relate to how they seem to be used by the authors of al-Jalālayn; certain terms may be translated
differently in the context of other authors or works.

'ā'id, referential pronoun.

'alamiyya, proper noun.
amr, imperative or command.
'āmil (fī), operator of.
aṣl, original form (of conjugated verb).
'aṭf, supplement (to); 'aṭf bayān, explicative supplement.
badal, substitution, substitutes for (yubaddal minhu etc.); badal ishtimāl, an inclusive substitution; badal
bayān, explication; li’l-bayān, explicative.
binā' li’l-fā'il, active (voice of the) verb.
binā' li’l-maf'ūl, passive (voice of the) verb.
ḍamīr, pronoun, person of the verb; ḍ. al-sha'n, pronoun of the matter; ḍ. munfaṣil, free pronoun; ḍ.
muttaṣil, suffixed pronoun; ḍ li’l-faṣl, separating pronoun.
du'ā', invocation (vocative).
fā'il, subject of the verb.
fāṣila, fawāṣil, end-rhyme of Qur'ānic verses (in a particular sequence).
bi’l-fawqāniyya, to read a verbal form in the 2nd person (with an initial tā').
ghāya, ghā'iyya, to denote a purpose or an end.
ḥadhf, omission (maḥdhūf, omitted).
ḥāl, a circumstantial qualifier.
hamzat al-waṣl, conjunctive hamza.
hamzat al-istifhām, interrogative hamza.
ḥaqīqī, literal.
ibtidā', equational (sentence); li’l-ibtidā', for inceptiveness.
iḍāfa, (genitive) annexation; muḍāf, the element annexed (kitābu, in kitābu’Llāhi, ‘the Book of God’); muḍāf
ilayhi, the object of the annexation (Allāh, in kitābu’Llāhi).
idghām, assimilation of a letter that appears in the original (conjugated) form of verb.
iḍrāb, (used mostly with words like bal, ‘nay’) to turn away from, in refutation (of a previous statement etc.).
iltifāt, shift in (grammatical) person ('an al-ghayba, from the third to the second person; 'an al-khiṭāb, from
the second to the third person).
inkār, for denial, rejection, rebuttal.
intiqāl, to effect a transition (to a new topic or clause; cf. iḍrāb), in effect, metastasis.

xii
i'rāb, syntax.
ishbā', lengthening the vowel, or writing it out in full.
ishāra, demonstrative noun.
ism fā'il, active participle.
ism fi'l, noun of action.
ism inna, the subject of inna.
ism maf'ūl, passive noun.
istifhām, interrogative; istifhām inkārī, or li’l-istinkār, [rhetorical] interrogative meant as disavowal; istifhām
li’l-tawbīkh, [rhetorical] interrogative meant as a rebuke.
isti'nāf, musta'nafa, new (independent) sentence.
istithnā', exception: munqaṭi', discontinuous (exception), muttaṣil, continuous (exception).
li’l-ittisā', (in iḍāfa constructions), to allow for a range [of alternatives] or scope.
jār, preposition or particle rendering following noun in genitive case; majrūr, noun in genitive case because
of preceding jār.
jawāb, response (to conditional, oath etc.).
jazm, apocopation; majzūm, apocopated; jāzim, apocopating (particle).
jins (ism al-jins), generic (collective) noun.
('alā) al-jiwār, (on account of) adjacency.
khabar, predicate.
khabariyya (of particles), relating to, or functioning as, the predicate.
khafḍ, placing noun in the genitive case (by preceding particle or preposition, al-khāfiḍ).
lafẓ, (morphological) form.
mabnī, invariable (indeclinable).
maf'ūl lahu, (direct) object denoting reason (for the verbal action).
maf'ūl ma'ahu, object of ‘accompaniment’.
maḥall, status, locus, functions as.
majāz, figurative or metaphorical (also kināya).
ma'nā, import or sense.
ma'rifa, definite noun.
maṣdar, a verbal noun.
maṣdariyya (of particles), relating to the verbal action.
ma'mūl, ma'mūla (li-), operated by.
manṣūb, or nuṣiba, 'alā al-madḥ, is in the accusative because it is a laudative.
mubtada', subject (of a nominal sentence).
muhmala, undotted ('ayn).
mu'jama, a dotted letter.
muta'alliq, (semantically) connected to (also, ta'allaq bi-).
muthallatha, three-dot letter (thā').
muwaḥḥada, single dot letter (nūn or bā').
nafī, negation.
nakira, indefinite noun.

xiii
na't, description.
naz', omission (usually of jār preposition or particle).
nidā', vocative.
nūn al-raf', the nūn of independence (marker of the indicative mood).
rad', prevention, rebuttal, thwarting.
sababiyya, causative (expressing cause).
ṣarf, declinable; muni'a li’l-ṣarf, indeclinable.
sharṭ, conditional clause; ṣharṭiyya, conditional (particle).
ṣifa, adjectival qualification (waṣf).
ṣīgha, form.
ṣila, relative clause; mawṣūl (-a), relative noun or pronoun.
li’l-tab'īḍ, partitive.
tabkīt, rebuke, reproof.
tafsīr, explanation; yufassiruhu, explained by (sc. governed by).
taghlīb, predominance (of one element over others, all subsumed by the same expression or noun).
bi’l-taḥtāniyya, to read a verb form in the 3rd person (with an initial yā').
taḥqīq, full pronounciation (of a hamza).
ta'jīb, to provoke amazement; ta'ajjub (istifhām), meant to indicate amazement.
takhfīf, softened form, without shadda (opposite of tashdīd).
ta'kīd, emphasis.
ta'līl, to justify or provide reason for.
ta'allaqa bi, (semantically) connected to (usually to a preceding verb).
tamannī, optative (‘wish’) particle or clause.
tanbīh, (of vocative particles, yā) for exclamation or calling attention to.
tankīr, to make noun indefinite.
taqdīr, understand a word or clause as implied or implicit (muqaddar, quddir, yuqaddar).
taqrīr, affirmation; istifhām li'l-taqrīr, interrogative meant as affirmative.
taṣghīr, diminutive (muṣaghghar).
tashdīd, doubling (usually of second consonant of root).
tashīl, non pronounciation (of hamza).
tathlīth, to read the second consonant of the verbal root with all three inflections (ḍamma, fatḥa and kasra).
tawbīkh, rebuke.
thaqīla, (usually of particles) doubled, with shadda.
waḍ' (or iqāmat) al-ẓāhir mawḍi' (or maqām) al-muḍmar, to replace a pronominalisation with an overt noun
(and vice versa).

Conventions
The honorific for the Prophet ṣallā Llāhu 'alayhi wa-sallam (‘may God bless him and grant him peace’) is
given as ṣ in parentheses (ṣ), for the sake of brevity. The term ḥanīf has not been translated, but it should
generally be understood to describe those who had, prior to the advent of Islam, a monotheistic tendency,
thought by Muslim tradition to be the remaining followers of the faith of Abraham. The term tawḥīd appears

xiv
in almost every other verse; it is difficult to translate succinctly in English, since it denotes the concept of
‘God being One’, the affirmation of God’s Oneness as well as belief in, or profession of, the statement, ‘there
is no god but God’. The term īmān is generally translated ‘belief’, occasionally, ‘faith’, depending on which of
the two nuances the Arabic favours in a given context. The term islām has been translated as ‘submission’.
The reader should also note that kufr (kuffār, kafarū, yakfurūn) has different nuances according to context,
and they are: to ‘deny’ or to ‘disbelieve in’, to ‘be an disbeliever’ (a kāfir) or to ‘be ungrateful’ (for God’s
blessings).
Biblical names that should be familiar are given in their standard form (Noah, Jonah, Zachariah,
John etc.); less well-known ones and non-Biblical names are transliterated. The biographical appendix at the
end of the commentary identifies and gives a brief biography of the principal traditionists and compilers that
are mentioned repeatedly in the commentary. As regards the sundry figures that appear in verses bearing
on the Prophet’s immediate experiences, the best reference would be the Sīra itself, to which the reader is
directed.
A distinctive aspect of the Jalālayn commentary, more so perhaps than any other popular
commentary, is the density of the grammatical material interfused with the narrative elements of the
commentary. While this is reasonably easy to digest in Arabic, the same concision cannot be reproduced in
English without losing the reader totally. Therefore, in order to distinguish between the grammatical
discussions and the paraphrased commentary to the verse, I use parentheses (…). The Qur'ānic text is
indicated in bold and italics; but only in italics when it is a reference to some other verse in the Qur'ān not
forming the basis of the commentary at that given point. Brackets […] constitute my own insertions or
repetitions, and these are used to maintain the flow of the original commentary and to clarify the nature of
the paraphrased comments of the authors.
The commentary is full of variant readings, most of which can be found in the well-known ‘seven
readings’ text of Ibn Mujāhid (see bibliography below). The authors of the commentary, naturally, guide the
reader to these variants by commenting on which single letter is changed or inflected differently. Where
such instances appear, together with variant inflections of a particular clause, I always write these out in
transliteration, sometimes giving the original in brackets, in order that the reader might see how the
changes relate to one another (for example I write out the active and the passive of variants, as opposed to
merely translating the terms mabnī li’l-fā'il wa’l-maf'ūl). Needless to say, reproducing the Arabic verbatim in
such instances would be impractical, if not impossible.
Given the idiosyncracies of every language, on occasion the reader not consulting the Arabic original
will be unaware of instances where the authors use the root of a particular word to explain its derivative,
thus creating a play on words of sorts, not for the purposes of humour, but because the Arabic allows for it
as an effective way of providing a quick explanation (see Q. 36:2 and Q. 52:27 for examples of this). I
indicate such instances of paronomasia by providing the original term as well as its explanation in
parentheses so that the reader will see the affinity between the two, where in the English there will be two
unrelated roots. Where the gloss makes a difference only in Arabic, the gloss is ignored, as it will be
reflected in the English translation of the Qur'ān itself (so for instance, alīm is frequently glossed as mu'lim;
a'dadnā for a'tadnā [Q. 17:10] is another example). Somewhat similarly, there are numerous cases where
the only way to translate the commentary is to incorporate its rendition into the Qur'ānic text (for example
ẓillin min yaḥmūm, of Q. 56:43 et passim).
For the English translation of the Qur'ān, I have drawn principally on, M. M. Pickthall’s The Meaning
of the Glorious Koran (New York: A. A. Knopf, 1930) and the recently published, commendable translation
by 'Alī Qulī Qarā'ī, The Qur'ān: with a phrase-by-phrase English translation (London: ICAS Press, 2004).
Occasionally I have consulted Y. 'Alī, The Holy Qur’an, and less frequently, A. J. Arberry’s, The Koran
Interpreted (Oxford: OUP, 1955). There are numerous editions of the Tafsīr al-Jalālayn. This work is based
on a recent and good edition by 'Abd al-Qādir al-Arnā'ūṭ and Aḥmad Khālid Shukrī (Damascus and Beirut:
Dār Ibn Kathīr, 1998), which I collate with the much older Cairo version (Būlāq, 1280/1863).

xv
 Acknowledgements
It was by a propitious twist of fate that I came to be associated with the Great Tafsīr Project
undertaken by the Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in Amman, Jordan. I am honoured to have been
invited to participate in such a ground-breaking undertaking, and for this I should like to thank HRH Prince
Ghazi bin Muhammad. I hope that his earnest enthusiasm for and deep appreciation of the subject of Muslim
tafsīr will have been, even if in some small measure, vindicated by the translation offered here.
Dr Reza Shah-Kazemi deserves special mention, not least for his unfailing support throughout the
duration of this work. His comments and suggestions on an earlier draft spotted certain infelicities and
greatly enhanced the overall form of the translation. I should also like to thank my colleague Dr Yousef Meri,
whose meticulous reading of the final draft and professionalism ensured that the final version was that much
better. It goes without saying, however, that the responsibility for any shortcomings in the work is entirely
mine.
Finally, I owe a debt of gratitude to my wife, Rula, for assisting me in very practical, but ultimately
crucial, ways from the start, and for her encouragement and devoted patience throughout this project, all of
which kindnesses were offered with characteristic generosity.

xvi
[1]
The other categories of Tafsīr can be thought of as follows: (b) tafsīr bil-ra'y — ‘Commentary based upon personal
opinion (e.g. Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s great Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb); (c) tafsīr lughawī — ‘Linguistic Commentary’ (e.g.
Zamakhsharī’s Kashshāf or Bayḍāwī’s Anwār al-Tanzīl wa Asrār al-Ta'wīl); (d) tafsīr fiqhī — ‘commentary focusing on
Shari‘ah law’ (e.g. Qurṭubī’s al-Jāmi' li-Aḥkām al-Qur'ān); (e) tafsīr bil-tafsīr — ‘Commentary wherein Qur’anic verses are
juxtaposed and used to explain each other’; (f) tafsīr ishārī or tafsīr ṣūfī or ta'wīl — ‘esoteric’ or ‘mystic commentary’;
and (g) (in modern times only) tafsīr 'ilmī— ‘scientific commentary’, i.e. wherein the author uses modern science to
explain verses in the Qur’an (especially the ones relating cosmological and biological themes) and vice versa (e.g. the
Tafsīr of Tanṭāwī Jawharī).
[2]
Jalāl al-Dīn Suyūṭī’s later Tafsīr, the voluminous al-Durr al-Manthūr fil-Tafsīr al-Ma'thūr, proves not only that he
intended precisely to write a short, ‘introductory’ Tafsīr, but also that he was quite capable of writing a longer, more
complex one.
[3]
This Ḥadīth is found in Sunan al-Tirmidhī (# 2950 and 2951), Musnad Ibn Ḥanbal (I; 233; 269; 327) and many other
collections of Ḥadīth (including the Sunan of Abū Dāwūd) and is traced to Abū Sufyān al-Thawrī. It is even found in
Ṭabarī’s seminal Jāmi' al-Bayān fī Tafsīr al-Qur'ān.
[4]
The meaning of this part of the verse is ambiguous in Arabic: depending on where the reading pauses, ‘those firmly
grounded in knowledge’ may or may not be included in the exception to ‘none knows its interpretation’. We have thus
added the word ‘who’ in brackets to convey this sense. However, the issue is resolved definitively (in favour of ‘those
firmly grounded in knowledge’ knowing interpretation) by the next verses quoted above, according to the universally
agreed upon cardinal principle attributed to Imām 'Alī (Nahj al-Balāgha, discourse #133) that ‘the parts of the Qur’an
explain each other’ (Inna al-Qur’ān yufassir ba'ḍuhu ba'ḍan) and quoted by Ibn Kathīr in his Tafsīr (of Sūrat al-Mu'minūn
23:50).
[5]
Muḥammad Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, Iḥyā' 'Ulūm al-Dīn, Volume 8, Kitāb Adab Tilāwat al-Qur'ān; Part IV (trans.
Muhammad Abul Quasem as The Recitation and Interpretation of the Qur’an: Al-Ghazālī’s Theory, London: Kegan Paul
International, 1984, p.92).
[6]
Ibid. p.94.
[7]
Ibid. p.101.
[8]
Muḥammad Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, Iḥyā' 'Ulūm al-Dīn, Volume 8, Kitāb Adab Tilāwat al-Qur'ān; Part III (trans.
Muhammad Abul Quasem as The Recitation and Interpretation of the Qur’an: Al-Ghazālī’s Theory, p.60). The ḥadīth
itself is to be found in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, al-Diyāt, 24,31; Musnad Ibn Ḥanbal, I, 79; and Sunan al-Nasā'ī, Qasama, 13.
[9]
From Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn al-'Arabī’s al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (quoted from William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of
Knowledge, Albany, State University of New York Press, 1989, p. 244).
[10]
Baghawī, Sharḥ al-Sunna, Kitāb al-‘Ilm, Bāb al-Khuṣūma fil-Qur’ān; also to be found in: Saḥiḥ Abū Ḥayyān, # 74;
Musnad Abū Ya'lā, # 5403; Ṭahāwī, Sharḥ Mushkil al-Athar, 172:4; Bazzār, Kashf al-Astār, 90:3; Ibn Ḥajar al-Haythamī,
Majma' al-Zawā'id, 152:7, et al. A different reading of this Hadith with a slightly different interpretation is given by the
Caliph 'Alī (k.w.): Every verse in the Qur’an has four senses: an outer, an inner, a limit, and a place of ascent. So the
outer is the recitation, the inner is understanding, the limit is the injunctions of what is permitted and proscribed, and
the place of ascent is what God desires from his servant by means of that verse.
[11]
Symbolism seems to us to be quite specially adapted to the needs of human nature, which is not exclusively
intellectual but which needs a sensory basis from which to rise to higher levels.… Fundamentally, every expression,
every formulation, whatever it may be, is a symbol of the thought which it expresses outwardly. In this sense, language
itself is nothing other than symbolism. (René Guénon, Fundamental Symbols: The Universal Language of Sacred Science,
trans. Alvin Moore, (Cambridge: Quinta Essentia, 1995), p. 13.
Thus the Holy Qur’an says:
Seest thou not how God coineth a similitude: A goodly word, [is] as a goodly tree, its roots set firm, its
branches reaching into heaven, / Giving its fruit at every season by permission of its Lord? God coineth the
similitudes for mankind in order that they may reflect. (The Holy Qur’an, Ibrāhīm, 14:24-25)
[12]
Man was created from God’s Spirit and in His image:
Then He fashioned him [man] and breathed into him of His spirit; and appointed for you hearing and sight and
hearts. Small thanks give ye! (The Holy Qur’an, al-Sajda, 32:9)
Verily God created Adam in His own image. (Musnad Ibn Ḥanbal, 2: 244, 251, 315. 323 etc.; Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī,
Kitab al-Isti'dhān, 1; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Kitāb al-Birr, 115, et al.)
Likewise, the world was also created in God’s image:
And of His portents is this: The heavens and the earth stand fast by His command…. / Unto Him belongeth
whosoever is in the heavens and the earth…. / He it is who produceth creation, then reproduceth it…. His is the
Sublime Exemplar in the heavens and in the earth. He is the Mighty, the Wise. (The Holy Qur’an, al-Rūm,
30:25-27)

xvii
Thus it necessarily follows that man and the world being both made in the image of God, are also images of each
other (a ‘microcosm’ and ‘macrocosm’, in the image of the ‘Metacosm’):
We shall show them Our Portents on the horizons and within themselves until it will be manifest unto them that
it is the Truth. (The Holy Qur’an, Fuṣṣilat, 41:53)
The Holy Qur’an too, being the Word of God, necessarily reflects not only the Truth, but the Whole Truth:
With truth We have revealed it and with truth it hath descended.… (The Holy Qur’an, al-Isrā', 17:105)
…. We have neglected nothing in the Book …. (The Holy Qur’an, al-An‘ām, 6:38)
And verily We have coined for mankind in this Qur’an of every kind of similitude, that perhaps they may reflect.
(The Holy Qur’an, al-Zumar, 39:27)
Thus stories in the Qur’an about events occurring in the world can be taken in an inward or ‘microcosmic’ sense,
because they inherently reflect humans in themselves:
[T]he content [of the Holy Qur’an] concerns ourselves in a concrete and direct way, since the disbelievers (the
kāfirūn), and the associaters of false divinities with God (the mushrikūn) and the hypocrites (the munāfiqūn)
are within ourselves; likewise that the Prophets represent our Intellect and our consciousness, that all the tales
in the Qur’an are enacted almost daily in our souls, that Mecca is the Heart and that the tithe, the fast, the
pilgrimage and the holy war are so many contemplative attitudes. (F. Schuon, Understanding Islam,
Bloomington: World Wisdom Books, 1994, p.51.)
[13]
Abū Ja'far Muḥammad b. Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, Jāmi' al-Bayān fī Tafsīr al-Qur'ān, (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyya, 1992)
Volume VII, Tafsīr on Sūrat al-Ra‘d, v.17, p. 370, # 20310.
[14]
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, al-Diyāt, 24,31; Musnad Ibn Ḥanbal, I, 79; and Sunan Al-Nasā'ī, Qasama, 13.
[15]
This treatise has in fact been translated into English under the title Three Early Sufi Texts (Louisville: Fons Vitae,
2003).
[16]
The modern Tafsīrs of the likes of Mawdūdī, Syed Quṭb and Muḥammad Ghazālī have appeared in English; Abu
Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī’s Classical Commentary of the (single) Verse of Light Mishkāt al-Anwār has appeared in several English
translations; the late Yahya Cooper started an excellent translation of Ṭabarī’s Jāmi' al-Bayān before his untimely death;
in 2003 the first volume (up to the end of Sūrat al-Baqara) of Qurṭubī’s al-Jāmi' li-Aḥkām al-Qur'ān, translated by Aisha
Bewley was published; two abridged translations of Ibn Kathīr’s Tafsīr (one by Saifur-Rahman Al-Mubarakpuri [2000],
the other by Muḥammad Naṣīb Ar-Rifā'ī [1996] (the first complete, and the second, only one-third complete to date)
have been published with the excellent feature of containing the Arabic text Holy Qur’an for comparison; and there have
been many excellent selections or amalgamations of Tafsīr with or without translations of the Qur’an itself — some
completed, some still incomplete — produced in English in various parts of the Islamic world (mainly in the Indian
Subcontinent and in the various parts of Arabia, e.g. As'ad Homid’s Aysar al-Tafāsīr) and in the West (e.g. Mahmoud
Ayoub’s The Qur’an and its Interpreters; The Nawawi Foundation’s The Majestic Qur’an; Muhammad Asad’s The Message
of the Qur’an; Yūsuf ‘Alī’s Translation and Commentary on The Holy Qur’an, and so on). However, to date (2007) no
complete translation of a Classical Tafsīr has ever been published in the English language.
[17]
This project obviously required a very large sum of money to realize; the money was all provided by a single non-
Jordanian, Muslim patron, who requested in return two things: that he remain anonymous, and that the text of the
Tafsīrs be presented as they are with no editing or interference on our behalf. We have kept the second condition with
pleasure and the first with regret, but ask readers to pray that God reward this generous benefactor.
[18]
Cf. The Commentary on the Qur'ān by Abū Ja'far Muḥammad b. Jarīr al-Ṭabarī: being an abridged translation of Jāmi'
al-Bayān 'an ta'wīl āy al-Qur'ān, with intro. and notes by J. Cooper, general editors W. F. Madelung and A. Jones
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987), xxv-xxvii.
[19]
See end of section Q. 17:111 below, where al-Suyūṭī concludes his section of the commentary; on Maḥallī in general,
see Charles Pellat, ‘al-Maḥallī’, EI2, V, 1223.
[20]
Hundreds of works are attributed by biographers to al-Suyūṭī; the principal ones may be gleaned from the following
list: Ḥusn al-Muḥāḍara, Cairo: Būlāq, 1299 AH, I, 252; Najm al-Dīn al-Ghazzī, al-Kawākib al-sā'ira fī a'yān al-mi'a al-
'āshira, Beirut: American University of Beirut Press, 1949, I, 226; Ibn Iyās, Badā'i' al-Zuhūr, Cairo: Būlāq, 1896, IV, 83.
Cf. Eric Geoffroy, ‘al-Suyūṭī’, EI2, IX, 913-16; E. M. Sartain, Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, Cambridge: CUP, 1975; M. 'A. Sharaf,
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī: manhajuhu wa-ārā'uhu al-kalāmiyya, Beirut: Dār al-Nahḍa al-'Arabiyya, 1981.
[21]
The standard reference work to al-Suyūṭī is E. M. Sartain, Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī: Biography and Background,
Cambridge: University of Cambridge Oriental Publications no. 23, 1975; see also M. J. Saleh, “Al-Suyūṭī and His works:
Their Place in Islamic Scholarship from Mamluk Times to the Present”, Mamlūk Studies Review V (2001), 73-89;
specifically on the Tafsīr al-Jalālayn, see Sulaiman Musa, “The Influence of Tafsīr al-Jalālayn on Some Notable Nigerian
Mufassirūn in Twentieth-Century Nigeria”, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs XX.ii (2000), 323-328; Hartmut Bobzin,
“Notes on the Importance of Variant Readings and Grammar in the Tafsīr al-Ğalālayn”, Zeitschrift für Arabische Linguistik
XV (1985), 33-44; “Ignaz Goldziher on al-Suyūṭī: a translation of his article of 1871, with additional notes”, trans. M.
Barry, The Muslim World LXVII.ii (1978), 79-99.

xviii
 (Al-Fâtihah)
[1:1]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful:

[1:2]

Praise be to God, is a predicate of a nominal clause, the content of which is intended to extol God [by
stating that]: He possesses the praise of all creatures, or that He [alone] deserves their praise. God is a
proper noun for the One truly worthy of worship; Lord of all Worlds, that is, [He is] the One Who owns
all of creation: humans, jinn, angels, animals and others as well, each of which may be referred to as a
‘world’; one says ‘the world of men’, or ‘world of the jinn’ etc. This plural form with the yā’ and the nūn
[sc. ‘ālamīn] is used to denote, predominantly, cognizant beings (ūlū ‘ilm). The expression [‘ālamīn]
relates to [the term] ‘sign’ (‘alāma), since it is an indication of the One that created it.

[1:3]

The Compassionate, the Merciful: that is to say, the One who possesses ‘mercy’, which means to want
what is good for those who deserve it.

[1:4]

Master of the Day of Judgement: that is, [the day of] requite, the Day of Resurrection. The reason for
the specific mention [of the Day of Judgement] is that the mastery of none shall appear on that Day
except that of God, may He be exalted, as is indicated by [God’s words] ‘Whose is the Kingdom today?’
‘God’s’ [Q. 40:16] (if one reads it mālik [as opposed to malik], then this signifies that He has possession
of the entire affair on the Day of Resurrection, or else that He is ever described by this [expression], in
the same way as [He is described as] ‘Forgiver of sin’ (ghāfir al-dhanb). Thus, one can validly take it as
an adjective of a definite noun).

[1:5]

You [alone] we worship, and You [alone] we ask for help: that is to say, we reserve worship for You
[alone] by way of acknowledging Your Oneness (tawhīd) and so on, and we ask for [Your] assistance in
worship and in other things.

[1:6]

Guide us to the straight path: that is, ‘show us the way to it’. This is substituted by:

[1:7]

the path of those whom You have favoured, with guidance (from alladhīna together with its relative
clause is substituted by [ghayri l-maghdūbi ‘alayhim]) not [the path] of those against whom there is
wrath, namely, the Jews, and nor of those who are astray, namely, the Christians. The subtle meaning
implied by this substitution is that the guided ones are neither the Jews nor the Christians. But God
knows best what is right, and to Him is the Return and the [final] Resort. May God bless our master

1
Muhammad (s), his Family and Companions and grant them everlasting peace. Sufficient is God for us;
an excellent Guardian is He. There is no power and no strength save in God, the High, the Tremendous.

Medinese: [consisting of] 286 or 287 verses..

2
 (Al-Baqarah)
[2:1]

Alif lām mīm: God knows best what He means by these [letters].

[2:2]

That, meaning, this, Book, which Muhammad (s) recites, in it there is no doubt, no uncertainty, that it is
from God (the negation [lĀ rayba fĪhi] is the predicate of dhĀlika; the use of the demonstrative here is
intended to glorify [the Book]). A guidance (hudĀ is a second predicate, meaning that it [the Book] ‘guides’),
for the God-fearing, namely, those that tend towards piety by adhering to commands and avoiding things
prohibited, thereby guarding themselves from the Fire;

[2:3]

who believe in, that is, who accept the truth of, the Unseen, what is hidden from them of the Resurrection,
Paradise and the Fire; and maintain the prayer, that is to say, who perform it giving it its proper due; and of
what We have provided them, that is, of what we have bestowed upon them, expend, in obedience to God;

[2:4]

and who believe in what has been revealed to you, namely, the Qur’ān; and what was revealed before you,
that is, the Torah, the Gospel and other [scriptures]; and of the Hereafter, they are certain, that is, they
know [it is real].

[2:5]

Those, as described in the way mentioned, are upon guidance from their Lord, those are the ones that will
prosper, that is, who will succeed in entering Paradise and be saved from the Fire.

[2:6]

As for the disbelievers, the likes of Abū Jahl, Abū Lahab and such; alike it is for them whether you have
warned them or have not warned them, they do not believe, as God knows very well, so do not hope that
they will believe (read a-andhartahum pronouncing both hamzas, or by not pronouncing the second, making
it an alif instead, and inserting an alif between the one not pronounced and the other one, or leaving [this
insertion]; al-indhār [‘warning’] is to give knowledge of something, and simultaneously instil an element of
fear).

[2:7]

God has set a seal on their hearts, impressing on them and making certain that no good enters them; and
on their hearing, [in which He has] deposited something so that they cannot profit from the truth they hear;
and on their eyes is a covering, that is, a veil so that they do not see the truth; and for them there will be a
mighty chastisement, that is, intense and everlasting.

[2:8]

The following was revealed concerning the hypocrites: and some people there are who say, ‘We believe in
God and the Last Day’, that is, in the Day of Resurrection because it is the very last day; but they are not
believers (the [plural] import of man [in man yaqūl, ‘who says’] is taken into account here, as expressed by
a pronoun [hum] that expresses this [plural] meaning).

3
[2:9]

They would deceive God and the believers, by manifesting the opposite of the unbelief they hide, so that
they can avoid His rulings in this world; and only themselves they deceive (yukhādi‘ūn), for the evil
consequences of their deception will rebound upon them, as they are disgraced in this world when God
makes known to His Prophet what they are hiding, and they will be punished in the Hereafter; and they are
not aware, and they do not know that they are actually deceiving themselves (mukhāda‘a [although a third
verbal form, from khāda‘a] actually denotes a one-way action, such as [when one says] ‘āqabtu al-lissa, ‘I
punished the thief’ [using the third verbal form ‘āqaba]; the mention of ‘God’ in [this statement] is for
[rhetorical] effect; a variant reading [for wa-mā yukhādi‘ūna] has wa-mā yakhda‘ūna).

[2:10]

In their hearts is a sickness: doubt and hypocrisy, which ails their hearts, debilitating them; and God has
increased their sickness with what He has revealed in the Qur’ān, since they disbelieve it; and there awaits
them a painful chastisement because they used to lie (read yukadhdhibūn to imply [that they used to call]
the Prophet of God [a liar], or yakdhibūn to imply their [mendacity when] saying ‘we believe’).

[2:11]

When it is said to them, that is, these latter, ‘Do not spread corruption in the land’, through unbelief and
hindering [people from] faith, They say, ‘We are only putting things right’, that is, ‘we are not engaging in
corruption’. God, exalted be He, refutes them, saying:

[2:12]

Truly (a-lā, ‘truly’, is for alerting), intended emphatically, they are the agents of corruption, but they
perceive, this, not.

[2:13]

When it is said to them, ‘Believe as the people believe’, that is, as the Companions of the Prophet (s), They
say, ‘Shall we believe as fools believe?’, that is, as the ignorant do? No we do not follow their way. The
exalted One refutes them, saying: Truly, they are the foolish ones, but they know, this, not.

[2:14]

When they meet (laqū is actually laquyū, but the damma has been omitted, being too cumbersome for
pronunciation; likewise the yā’ [is omitted], because it is unvocalised and is followed by a wāw); those who
believe, they say, ‘We believe’; but when they go apart, away from them and return, to their devils, their
leaders, they say, ‘We are with you, in religion; we were only mocking, them [the believers] by feigning
belief.

[2:15]

God [Himself] mocks them, requiting them for their mockery, leaving them, that is, giving them respite, in
their insolence, that is, in their transgressing the limits of unbelief; bewildered, wavering, in perplexity
(ya‘mahūn is a circumstantial qualifier).

[2:16]

Those are they who have bought error for guidance, that is, they have exchanged the latter for the former;
so their commerce has not profited them, that is to say, they have gained nothing from it, indeed, they have
lost, because their destination is the Fire, made everlasting for them; nor are they guided, in what they did.

[2:17]

4
Their likeness, the way they are in their hypocrisy, is as the likeness of one who kindled, that is, [one who]
lit a fire in darkness, and when it illumined all about him, so that he is able to see, and to feel warm and
secure from those he feared, God took away their light, extinguishing it (the plural pronoun [in nūrihim]
takes into account the [plural] import of alladhī); and left them in darkness, unable to see, what is around
them, confused as to the way, in fear; likewise are those who have found [temporary] security by professing
faith, but who will meet with terror and punishment upon death; these [last] are:

[2:18]

deaf, to the truth, so that they cannot hear it and accept it; dumb, mute as regards goodness, unable to
speak of it; and, blind, to the path of guidance, so that they cannot perceive it; they shall not return, from
error.

[2:19]

Or, the likeness of them is as a cloudburst, that is, [the likeness of them is] as people are during rain (ka-
sayyib: the term is originally sayyūb, from [the verb] sāba, yasūbu, meaning ‘it came down’); out of the
heaven, out of the clouds, in which clouds is darkness, layer upon layer, and thunder, the angel in charge of
them [sc. the clouds]; it is also said that this [thunder] is actually the sound of his voice; and lightning, the
flash caused by his voice which he uses to drive them — they, the people under the rain, put their fingers,
that is, their fingertips, in their ears against, because of, the thunderclaps, the violent sound of thunder, in
order not to hear it, cautious of, fearful of, death, if they were to hear it. Similar is the case with these:
when the Qur’ān is revealed, in which there is mention of the unbelief that is like darkness, the threat of
punishment that is like the sound of thunder, and the clear arguments that are like the clear lightning, they
shut their ears in order not to hear it and thereby incline towards [true] faith and abandon their religion,
which for them would be death; and God encompasses the disbelievers in both knowledge and power, so
they cannot escape Him.

[2:20]

The lightning well-nigh, almost, snatches away their sight, that is, takes it away swiftly; whensoever it gives
them light, they walk in it, in its light; and when the darkness is over them, they stop, that is, they stand
still: a simile of the perturbation that the Qur’ānic arguments cause in their hearts, and of their
acknowledging the truths of what they love to hear and recoiling from what they detest; had God willed, He
would have taken away their hearing and their sight, that is, the exterior faculty, in the same way that He
took away their inner one; Truly, God has power over all things, [that] He wills, as for example, His taking
away of the above-mentioned.

[2:21]

O people, of Mecca, worship, profess the oneness of, your Lord Who created you, made you when you were
nothing, and created those that were before you; so that you may be fearful, of His punishment by
worshipping Him (la‘alla, ‘so that’, is essentially an optative, but when spoken by God it denotes an
affirmative),

[2:22]

He Who assigned to you, created [for you], the earth for a couch, like a carpet that is laid out, neither
extremely hard, nor extremely soft so as to make it impossible to stand firm upon it; and heaven for an
edifice, like a roof; and sent down from the heaven water, wherewith He brought forth, all types of, fruits for
your provision; so set not up compeers to God, that is partners in worship, while you know that He is the
Creator, that you create not and that only One that creates can be God.

[2:23]

5
And if you are in doubt, in uncertainty, concerning what We have revealed to Our servant, Muhammad (s),
of the Qur’ān, that it is from God, then bring a sūra like it, that is also revealed (min mithlihi: min is
explicative, that is, a sūra like it in its eloquence, fine arrangement and its bestowal of knowledge of the
Unseen; a sūra is a passage with a beginning and end made up of a minimum of three verses); and call your
witnesses, those other gods that you worship, besides God, that is, other than Him, so that it can be seen, if
you are truthful, in [your claim] that Muhammad (s) speaks it from himself. So do this, for you are also
fluent speakers of Arabic like him. When they could not do this, God said:

[2:24]

And if you do not, do what was mentioned because you are incapable, and you will not (a parenthetical
statement), that is, never [will you be able to], because of its inimitability, then fear, through belief in God
and [belief] that this is not the words of a human, the Fire, whose fuel is men, disbelievers, and stones, like
their very idols, indicating that its heat is extreme, since it burns with the [stones] mentioned, unlike the
fires of this world that burn with wood and similar materials; prepared, and made ready, for disbelievers, so
that they are punished in it (this [phrase, u‘iddat li’l-kāfirīna, ‘prepared for disbelievers’] is either a new
sentence or a sustained circumstantial qualifier).

[2:25]

And give good tidings to, inform, those who believe, who have faith in God, and perform righteous deeds,
such as the obligatory and supererogatory [rituals], that theirs shall be Gardens, of trees, and habitations,
underneath which, that is, underneath these trees and palaces, rivers run (tajrī min tahtihā’l-anhāru), that is,
there are waters in it (al-nahr is the place in which water flows [and is so called] because the water carves
[yanhar] its way through it; the reference to it as ‘running’ is figurative); whensoever they are provided with
fruits therefrom, that is, whenever they are given to eat from these gardens, they shall say, ‘This is what,
that is, the like of what we were provided with before’, that is, before this, in Paradise, since its fruits are
similar (and this is evidenced by [the following statement]): they shall be given it, the provision, in perfect
semblance, that is, resembling one another in colour, but different in taste; and there for them shall be
spouses, of houris and others, purified, from menstruation and impurities; therein they shall abide: dwelling
therein forever, neither perishing nor departing therefrom. And when the Jews said, ‘Why does God strike a
similitude about flies, where He says, And if a fly should rob them of anything [Q. 22:73] and about a spider,
where He says, As the likeness of the spider [Q. 29:41]: what does God want with these vile creatures? God
then revealed the following:

[2:26]

God is not ashamed to strike, to make, a similitude (mathal: is the first direct object; mā either represents
an indefinite noun described by what comes after it and constitutes a second direct object, meaning
‘whatever that similitude may be’; or it [the mā] is extra to emphasise the vileness [involved], so that what
follows constitutes the second direct object); even of a gnat, (ba‘ūda is the singular of ba‘ūd), that is, small
flies; or anything above it, that is, larger than it, so that this explanation is not affected [by the size of the
creature] with regard to the judgement [God is making]; as for the believers, they know it, the similitude, is
the truth, established and given in this instance, from their Lord; but as for disbelievers, they say, ‘What did
God desire by this for a similitude?’ (mathalan is a specification, meaning, ‘by this similitude’; mā is an
interrogative of rejection and is the subject; dhā means alladhī, whose relative clause contains its predicate,
in other words, ‘what use is there in it?’). God then responds to them saying: Thereby, that is, by this
similitude, He leads many astray, from the truth on account of their disbelieving in it, and thereby He guides
many, believers on account of their belief in it; and thereby He leads none astray except the wicked, those
that reject obedience to Him.

[2:27]

Those such as, He has described, break the covenant of God, the contract He made with them in the
[revealed] Books to belief in Muhammad (s), after its solemn binding, after it has been confirmed with them,
and such as cut what God has commanded should be joined, of belief in the Prophet, of kinship and other

6
matters (an [in the phrase an yūsala, ‘that it be joined’] substitutes for the pronoun [suffixed] in bihi [of the
preceding words mā amara Llāhu bihi, ‘that which God has commanded’]); and such as do corruption in the
land, by way of their transgressing and impeding faith, they, the ones thus described, shall be the losers,
since, they shall end up in the Fire, made everlasting for them.

[2:28]

How do you, people of Mecca, disbelieve in God, when you were dead, semen inside loins, and He gave you
life, in the womb and in this world by breathing Spirit into you (the interrogative here is either intended to
provoke amazement at their [persistent] unbelief despite the evidence established, or intended as a rebuke);
then He shall make you dead, after your terms of life are completed, then He shall give you life, at the
Resurrection, then to Him you shall be returned!, after resurrection, whereupon He shall requite you
according to your deeds; and He states, as proof of the Resurrection, when they denied it:

[2:29]

He it is Who created for you all that is in the earth, that is, the earth and all that is in it, so that you may
benefit from and learn lessons from it; then, after creating the earth, He turned to, that is, He made His
object, heaven and levelled them (fa-sawwāhunna: the pronoun [-hunna] refers to ‘heaven’, since, it
[heaven] is implicit in the import of the sentence attributed to it [the pronoun]), that is to say, He made
them thus, as [He says] in another verse, [fa-qadāhunna] so He determined them [Q. 41:12]) seven
heavens and He has knowledge of all things, in their totality and in their individual detail, so do you not then
think that the One who has the power to create this to begin with, which is much greater than what you are,
also has the power to bring you back [after death]?

[2:30]

And, mention, O Muhammad (s), when your Lord said to the angels, ‘I am appointing on earth a vicegerent’,
who shall act as My deputy, by implementing My rulings therein — and this [vicegerent] was Adam; They
said, ‘What, will You appoint therein one who will do corruption therein, through disobedience, and shed
blood, spilling it through killing, just as the progeny of the jinn did, for they used to inhabit it, but when they
became corrupted God sent down the angels against them and they were driven away to islands and into
the mountains; while we glorify, continuously, You with praise, that is, “We say Glory and Praise be to You”,
and sanctify You?’, that is, ‘We exalt You as transcendent above what does not befit You?; the lām [of laka,
‘You’] is extra, and the sentence [wa-nuqaddisu laka, ‘We sanctify You’] is a circumstantial qualifier, the
import being, ‘thus, we are more entitled to be Your vicegerents’); He, exalted be He, said, ‘Assuredly, I
know what you know not’, of the benefits of making Adam a vicegerent and of the fact that among his
progeny will be the obedient and the transgressor, and justice will prevail between them. They said, ‘God
will never create anything more noble in His eyes than us nor more knowledgeable, since we have been
created before it and have seen what it has not seen. God then created Adam from the surface of the earth
(adīm al-ard [adīm literally means ‘skin’]), taking a handful of all its colours and mixing it with different
waters, then made him upright and breathed into him the Spirit and he thus became a living being with
senses, after having been inanimate.

[2:31]

And He taught Adam the names, that is, the names of things named, all of them, by placing knowledge of
them into his heart; then He presented them, these names, the majority of which concerned intellectual
beings, to the angels and said, to them in reproach, ‘Now tell Me, inform Me, the names of these, things
named, if you speak truly’, in your claim that I would not create anything more knowledgeable than you, or
that you are more deserving of this vicegerency; the response to the conditional sentence is intimated by
what precedes it.

[2:32]

They said, ‘Glory be to You!, exalting You above that any should object to You, We know not except what

7
You have taught us. Surely You are (innaka anta emphasises the [preceding suffixed pronoun] kāf) the
Knower, Wise’, from whose knowledge and wisdom nothing escapes.

[2:33]

He, exalted be He, said, ‘Adam, tell them, the angels, their names’, all of the things named; so, he named
each thing by its appellation and mentioned the wisdom behind its creation; And when he had told them
their names He, exalted, said, in rebuke, ‘Did I not tell you that I know the Unseen in the heavens and the
earth?, what is unseen in them, And I know what you reveal, what you manifested when you said, ‘What,
will You appoint therein …’, and what you were hiding, what you were keeping secret when you were saying
that God would not create anything more knowledgeable or more noble in His eyes than us.

[2:34]

And, mention, when We said to the angels, ‘Prostrate yourselves to Adam’, a prostration that is a bow of
salutation; so they prostrated themselves, except Iblīs, the father of the jinn, who was among the angels, he
refused, to prostrate, and disdained, became proud and said, I am better than he [Q. 7:12]; and so he
became one of the disbelievers, according to God’s knowledge.

[2:35]

And We said, ‘Adam, dwell (anta, ‘you’ [of ‘dwell you’] here reiterates the concealed pronoun [of the person
of the verb uskun], so that it [wa-zawjuk] may be made a supplement to it); and your wife, Eve (Hawwā’) —
who was created from his left rib — in the Garden, and eat thereof, of its food, easefully, of anything
without restrictions, where you desire; but do not come near this tree, to eat from it, and this was wheat or
a vine or something else, lest you be, become, evildoers’, that is, transgressors.

[2:36]

Then Satan, Iblīs, caused them to slip, he caused them to be removed (fa-azallahumā: a variant reading has
fa-azālahumā: he caused them to be away from it) therefrom, that is, from the Garden, when he said to
them, ‘Shall I point you to the tree of eternity’ [cf. Q. 20:120], and swore to them by God that he was only
giving good advice to them, and so they ate of it; and brought them out of what they were in, of bliss; and
We said, ‘Go down, to earth, both of you and all those comprised by your seed; some of you, of your
progeny, an enemy to the other, through your wronging one another; and in the earth a dwelling, a place of
settlement, shall be yours, and enjoyment, of whatever of its vegetation you may enjoy, for a while’, [until]
the time your terms [of life] are concluded.

[2:37]

Thereafter Adam received certain words from his Lord, with which He inspired him (a variant reading [of
Ādamu] has accusative Ādama and nominative kalimātu), meaning they [the words] came to him, and these
were [those of] the verse Lord, we have wronged ourselves [Q. 7:23], with which he supplicated, and He
relented to him, that is, He accepted his repentance; truly He is the Relenting, to His servants, the Merciful,
to them.

[2:38]

We said, ‘Go down from it, from the Garden, all together (He has repeated this [phrase qulnā ihbitū] in order
to supplement it with), yet (fa-immā: the nūn of the conditional particle in [‘if’] has been assimilated with
the extra mā) there shall come to you from Me guidance, a Book and a prophet, and whoever follows My
guidance, believing in me and performing deeds in obedience of Me, no fear shall befall them, neither shall
they grieve, in the Hereafter, since they will be admitted into Paradise.

[2:39]

8
As for the disbelievers who deny Our signs, Our Books, those shall be the inhabitants of the Fire, abiding
therein’, enduring perpetually, neither perishing nor exiting therefrom.

[2:40]

O Children of Israel, sons of Jacob, remember My favour wherewith I favoured you, that is, your forefathers,
saving them from Pharaoh, parting the sea, sending clouds as shelter and other instances, for which you
should show gratitude by being obedient to Me; and fulfil My covenant, that which I took from you, that you
believe in Muhammad (s), and I shall fulfil your covenant, that which I gave to you, that you shall be
rewarded for this with Paradise; and be in awe of Me, fear Me and not anyone else when you have
abandoned belief in him [the Prophet].

[2:41]

And believe in what I have revealed, of the Qur’ān, confirming that which is with you, of the Torah, by its
agreement with it, in respect to [affirmation of] God’s Oneness and prophethood; and be not the first to
disbelieve in it, from among the People of the Scripture, for those who will come after you will depend on
you and so you will bear their sins. And do not sell, exchange, My signs, those that relate to the description
of Muhammad (s) in your Book; for a small price, for a trivial and temporary affair of this world; that is to
say, do not suppress this for fear of losing what you hope to earn from lowly individuals among you; and
fear Me, and none other in this matter.

[2:42]

And do not obscure, confuse, the truth, that I have revealed to you, with falsehood, that you fabricate; and
do not conceal the truth, the description of Muhammad (s), wittingly, that is, knowing it to be the truth.

[2:43]

And establish prayer, and pay the alms, and bow with those that bow, that is, pray with those who pray,
Muhammad (s) and his Companions: this was revealed concerning their religious scholars, who used to say
to their kin from among the Muslims, ‘Stay firm upon the religion of Muhammad (s), for it is the truth’.

[2:44]

Will you bid others to piety, to belief in Muhammad (s), and forget yourselves, neglecting yourselves and not
bidding them to the same, while you recite the Book?, in which there is the threat of chastisement, if what
you do contradicts what you say. Do you not understand? the evil nature of your actions, that you might
then repent? (the sentence about ‘forgetting’ constitutes the [syntactical] locus of the interrogative of
disavowal).

[2:45]

Seek help, ask for assistance in your affairs, in patience, by restraining the soul in the face of that which it
dislikes; and prayer. The singling out of this for mention is a way of emphasising its great importance; in
one hadīth, [it is stated], ‘When something bothered the Prophet (s), he would immediately resort to
prayer’; it is said that the address here is to the Jews: when greed and desire for leadership became
impediments to their faith, they were enjoined to forbearance, which constituted fasting and prayer, since,
the former stems from lust and the latter yields humility and negates pride. For it, prayer, is grievous,
burdensome, except to the humble, those that are at peace in obedience,

[2:46]

who reckon, who are certain, that they shall meet their Lord, at the Resurrection, and that to Him they are
returning, in the Hereafter, where He will reward them.

9
[2:47]

O Children of Israel, remember My favour wherewith I favoured you, by giving thanks through obedience to
Me, and that I have preferred you, your forefathers, above all the worlds, of their time;

[2:48]

and fear, be scared of, the day when no soul for another shall give satisfaction, which is the Day of
Resurrection, and no intercession shall be accepted (read either tuqbal or yuqbal) from it, that is, it is not
the case that it has power to intercede, for it then to be accepted from it [or rejected, as God says], So now
we have no intercessors [Q. 26:100]; nor any compensation, ransom, be taken, neither shall they be helped,
to avoid God’s chastisement.

[2:49]

And, remember, when We delivered you, your forefathers: the address here and henceforth directed to
those living at the time of the our Prophet, is about how God blessed their forefathers, and is intended to
remind them of God’s grace so that they might believe; from the folk of Pharaoh who were visiting you with,
that is, making you taste, evil chastisement, of the worst kind (the sentence here is a circumstantial qualifier
referring to the person of the pronoun [suffixed] in najjaynākum, ‘We delivered you’); slaughtering your,
newly-born, sons: this is explaining what has just been said; and sparing, retaining, your women, [doing so]
because of the saying of some of their priests that a child born among the Israelites shall bring about the
end of your rule [Pharaoh]; and for you therein, chastisement or deliverance, was a tremendous trial, a test
or a grace, from your Lord.

[2:50]

And, remember, when We divided, split in two, for you, on account of you, the sea, such that you were able
to cross it and escape from your enemy; and We delivered you, from drowning, and drowned Pharaoh’s folk,
his people with him, while you were beholding the sea crashing down on top of them.

[2:51]

And when We appointed for (wā‘adnā or wa‘adnā) Moses forty nights, at the end of which We shall give him
the Torah for you to implement, then you took to yourselves the calf, the one which the Samaritan
fashioned for you as a god, after him, that is, after he departed for Our appointment, and you were
evildoers, for taking it [in worship], because you directed your worship to the wrong place.

[2:52]

Then We pardoned you, erasing your sins, after that, act of worship, so that you might be thankful, for Our
favour upon you.

[2:53]

And when We gave to Moses the Scripture, the Torah, and the Criterion (wa’l-furqān is an explicative
supplement [of Torah]), that is, the one that discriminates (faraqa) between truth and falsehood and
between what is licit and illicit, so that you might be guided, by it away from error.

[2:54]

And when Moses said to his people, those who worshipped the calf, ‘My people, you have done wrong
against yourselves by your taking the [golden] calf, for a god; now turn to your Creator, away from that
worship [of the calf] and slay one another, that is, let the innocent of you slay the guilty; That, slaughter,
will be better for you in your Creator’s sight’, who made it easier for you to accomplish this and sent down a
dark cloud over you, so that none of you was able to see the other and show him mercy, such that almost

10
seventy thousand of you were killed; and He will turn to you [relenting], before your [turning in]
repentance; truly He is the Relenting, the Merciful.

[2:55]

And when you said, having gone out with Moses to apologise before God for your worship of the calf, and
having heard what he had said [to you]; ‘O Moses, we will not believe you till we see God openly’, with our
own eyes; and the thunderbolt, the shout, took you, and you died, while you were beholding, what was
happening to you.

[2:56]

Then We raised you up, brought you back to life, after you were dead, so that you might be thankful, for
this favour of Ours.

[2:57]

And We made the cloud overshadow you, that is, We sheltered you with fine clouds from the heat of the sun
while you were in the wilderness; and We sent down, in them [the clouds], upon you manna and quails —
which are [respectively, a type of citrus known as] turunjabīn and the quail — and We said: ‘Eat of the good
things We have provided for you’, and do not store any of it away, but they were not grateful for this favour
and stored the food, and so they were deprived of it; And they did not wrong Us, in this, but themselves
they wronged, since the evil consequences [of this] befell them.

[2:58]

And when We said, to them, after they came out of the wilderness, ‘Enter this city, either the Holy House [of
Jerusalem] (Bayt al-Maqdis) or Jericho (Arīhā), and eat freely therein wherever you will, plentifully and
without any restrictions, and enter it at the gate, its gate, prostrating, bowing, and say, ‘our request is for
[an] exoneration’, that is, ‘That we be exonerated from our transgressions’, and We shall forgive (naghfir: a
variant reading has one of the two passive forms yughfar or tughfar, ‘[they] will be forgiven’) you your
transgressions and We shall give more to those who are virtuous’ — through obedience — in terms of
reward.

[2:59]

Then the evildoers, among them, substituted a saying other than that which had been said to them, and
said instead, ‘A grain inside a hair’ and entered [the town] dragging themselves on their rears; so We sent
down upon the evildoers (the replacement of the second person [of the previous verse] with the overt
identification in the third person alladhīna zalamū, ‘the evildoers’, is intended to emphasise the depravity of
their action) wrath, a punishment of plague, from the heaven for their wickedness, for deviating from
obedience, and within a very short period of time just under seventy thousand of them were dead.

[2:60]

And, mention, when Moses sought water for his people, for they suffered thirst in the wilderness, We said,
‘Strike with your staff the rock, (the one that ran off with his robe, a light cube-like [rock] about the size of a
man’s head, made of marble) and he struck it, and there exploded, there burst and gushed forth, from it
twelve fountains, equal to the number of tribes, each people, [each] tribe among them, came to know their
drinking-place, which they did not share with any of the others. And We said to them, ‘Eat and drink of that
which God has provided, and do not be degenerate in the earth, seeking corruption’ (mufsidīn is a
circumstantial qualifier emphasising its operator, the subject of the verb [lā ta‘thaw, ‘do not be degenerate’]
derived from ‘athiya, meaning afsada, ‘to corrupt’).

[2:61]

11
And when you said, ‘Moses, we will not endure one sort of food, that is to say, manna and quails; pray to
your Lord for us, that He may bring forth for us, something, of (min here is explicative) what the earth
produces — green herbs, cucumbers, garlic, lentils, onions’, he, Moses, said, to them, ‘Would you exchange
what is better, more noble, that is, do you substitute this, with what is lowlier?’ (the hamza of a-tastabdilūna
is for rebuke); they thus refused to change their mind and he [Moses] supplicated to God, and He, exalted
be He, said, ‘Go down to a city, whichever city it may be; you shall have, there, what you demanded’ of
vegetable produce; And abasement, submissiveness, and wretchedness, that is, the signs of poverty on
account of their submissiveness and debasement that always accompany them, even if they be rich, in the
same way that a coin never changes its mint; were cast upon them, and they incurred, ended up with God’s
wrath; that, that is, that affliction and wrath, was because they used to disbelieve the signs of God and slay
prophets, such as Zachariah and John, without right, that is, unjustly; that was because they disobeyed, and
they were transgressors, overstepping the bounds in disobedience (here the repetition [dhālik bi-mā ‘asaw
wa-kānū ya‘tadūn] is for emphasis).

[2:62]

Surely those who believe, [who believed] before, in the prophets, and those of Jewry, the Jews, and the
Christians, and the Sabaeans, a Christian or Jewish sect, whoever, from among them, believes in God and
the Last Day, in the time of our Prophet, and performs righteous deeds, according to the Law given to him
— their wage, that is, the reward for their deeds, is with their Lord, and no fear shall befall them, neither
shall they grieve (the [singular] person of the verbs āmana, ‘believes’, and ‘amila, ‘performs’, takes account
of the [singular] form of man, ‘whoever’, but in what comes afterwards [of the plural pronouns] its [plural]
meaning [is taken into account]).

[2:63]

And, mention, when We made a covenant with you, your pledge to act according to what is in the Torah,
and We, had, raised above you the Mount, which We uprooted from the earth [and placed] above you when
you refused to accept it [sc. the Torah], and We said, ‘Take forcefully, seriously and with effort, what We
have given you, and remember what is in it, acting in accordance with it, so that you might preserve
yourselves’, from the Fire or acts of disobedience.

[2:64]

Then you turned away thereafter, and but for God’s bounty and His mercy towards you, you would have
been among the losers [there is no commentary on this verse].

[2:65]

And verily (wa-la-qad: the lām is for oaths) you know that there were those among you who transgressed,
violated, the Sabbath, by fishing, when We had forbidden you to do so — these were the inhabitants of Eilat
— and We said to them, ‘Be apes, despised!’, rejected, and they became so: they died three days later.

[2:66]

And We made it, this punishment, an exemplary punishment, a lesson to dissuade others from doing what
they did; for all the former times and for the latter, that is, for the people of that time or those that came
later; and an admonition to such as who fear, God: these are singled out for mention here because they, in
contrast to others, are the ones who benefit thereby.

[2:67]

And, mention, when Moses said to his people, when one among them was killed and the killer was not
known, and so they asked Moses to pray to God to reveal the killer, which he did; ‘God commands you to
sacrifice a cow’. They said, ‘Do you take us in mockery?’, that is, making fun of us when you answer us like
this? He said, ‘I take refuge with, I seek defence with, God lest I should be one of the ignorant’, one of

12
those who indulge in mockery.

[2:68]

But when they realised that he was being serious, They said, ‘Pray to your Lord for us, that He may make
clear to us what she may be’, its true nature, He, Moses, said, ‘He, God, says she is a cow neither old, nor
virgin, that is, young, middling between the two, in terms of age; so do what you have been commanded’,
by way of sacrificing it.

[2:69]

They said, ‘Pray to your Lord for us, that He make clear to us what her colour may be’ He said, ‘He says she
shall be a golden cow, bright in colour, that is, of a very intense yellow, gladdening to beholders: its beauty
will please those that look at it.

[2:70]

They said, ‘Pray to your Lord for us, that He make clear to us what she may be: does it graze freely or is it
used in labour?; the cows (that is, the species described in the way mentioned), are all alike to us, because
there are many of them and we have not been able to find the one sought after; and if God wills, we shall
then be guided’ to it. In one hadīth [it is reported]: ‘Had they not uttered the proviso [inshā’a Llāh], it would
never have been made clear to them’.

[2:71]

He said, ‘He says she shall be a cow not broken, not subdued for labour, that is, to plough the earth,
churning its soil for sowing (tuthīr al-ard: the clause describes the word dhalūl, and constitutes part of the
negation); or to water the tillage, that is, the land prepared for sowing; one safe, from faults and the effects
of toil; with no blemish, of a colour other than her own, on her’. They said, ‘Now you have brought the
truth’, that is, [now] you have explained it clearly; they thus sought it out and found it with a boy very
dutiful towards his mother, and they eventually purchased it for the equivalent of its weight in gold; and so
they sacrificed her, even though they very nearly did not, on account of its excessive cost. In a hadīth [it is
stated that], ‘Had they sacrificed any cow, it would have sufficed them, but they made it difficult for
themselves and so God made it difficult for them’.

[2:72]

And when you killed a living soul, and disputed thereon (iddāra’tum: the tā’ [of the root-form itdāra’tum] has
been assimilated with the dāl) — and God disclosed what you were hiding (this is a parenthetical statement;
the story begins here [with wa-idh qataltum nafsan, ‘and when you killed a soul’… and continues in the
following]):

[2:73]

so We said, ‘Smite him, the slain man, with part of it’, and so when he was struck with its tongue or its tail,
he came back to life and said, ‘So-and-so killed me’, and after pointing out two of his cousins, he died; the
two [killers] were denied the inheritance and were later killed. God says: even so, is the revival, for, God
brings to life the dead, and He shows you His signs, the proofs of His power, so that you might understand,
[that you might] reflect and realise that the One capable of reviving a single soul is also capable of reviving
a multitude of souls, and then believe.

[2:74]

Then your hearts became hardened, O you Jews, they [your hearts] became stiffened against acceptance of
the truth, thereafter, that is, after what is mentioned of the bringing back to life of the slain man and the
other signs before this; and they are like stones, in their hardness, or even yet harder, than these; for there

13
are stones from which rivers come gushing, and others split (yashshaqqaq: the initial tā’ [of the root-form
yatashaqqaq] has been assimilated with the shīn), so that water issues from them; and others come down,
from on high, in fear of God, while your hearts are unmoved, unstirred and not humbled; And God is not
heedless of what you do, but instead, He gives you respite until your time comes (ta‘malūna, ‘you do’: a
variant reading has ya‘malūna, ‘they do’, indicating a shift to the third person address).

[2:75]

Are you then so eager, O believers, that they, the Jews, should believe you, seeing there is a party of them,
a group of their rabbis, that heard God’s word, in the Torah, and then tampered with it, changing it, and
that, after they had comprehended it, [after] they had understood it, knowingly?, [knowing full well] that
they were indulging in mendacity (the hamza [at the beginning of the verb a-fa-tatma‘ūn] is [an
interrogative] for rejection, in other words, ‘Do not be so eager, for they have disbelieved before’).

[2:76]

And when they, the hypocrites from among the Jews, meet those who believe, they say, ‘We believe’, that
Muhammad (s) is a prophet and that he is the one of whom we have been given good tidings in our Book;
but when they go in private one to another, they, their leaders the ones not involved in the hypocrisy, say,
to those hypocrites: ‘Do you speak to them, the believers, of what God has disclosed to you, that is, what
He has made known to you of Muhammad’s (s) description in the Torah, so that they may thereby dispute
(the lām of li-yuhājjūkum, ‘that they may dispute with you’, is the lām of ‘becoming’) with you before your
Lord?, in the Hereafter and hold the proof against you for not following him [Muhammad (s)], despite your
knowledge of his sincerity? Have you no understanding?’ of the fact that they will contend with you if you
speak to them in this way? So beware.

[2:77]

God says: Know they not (the interrogative is affirmative, the inserted wāw [of a-wa-lā] is to indicate the
supplement) that God knows what they keep secret and what they proclaim?, that is, what they hide and
what they reveal in this matter and all other matters, so that they may desist from these things.

[2:78]

And there are some of them, the Jews, that are illiterate, unlettered, not knowing the Scripture, the Torah,
but only desires, lies which were handed down to them by their leaders and which they relied upon; and, in
their rejection of the prophethood of the Prophet and fabrications of other matters, they have, mere
conjectures, and no firm knowledge.

[2:79]

So woe, a severe chastisement, to those who write the Scripture with their hands, that is, fabricating it
themselves, then say, ‘This is from God’ that they may sell it for a small price, of this world: these are the
Jews, the ones that altered the description of the Prophet in the Torah, as well as the ‘stoning’ verse, and
other details, and rewrote them in a way different from that in which they were revealed. So woe to them
for what their hands have written, of fabrications, and woe to them for their earnings, by way of bribery
(rishan, plural of rishwa).

[2:80]

And they say, when the Prophet promised them the Fire, ‘the Fire shall not touch us, that is, afflict us, save
a number of days’, only a short time of forty days: the same length of time their forefathers worshipped the
calf, after which time it [the Fire] will cease. Say, to them Muhammad (s): ‘Have you taken with God a
covenant?, a pledge from Him to this? God will not fail in His covenant, in this matter, or — nay — say you
against God what you do not know? (a’ttakhadhtum: the conjunctive hamza has been omitted on account of
the interrogative hamza sufficing).

14
[2:81]

Not so, it will touch you and you will abide therein; whoever earns evil, through associating another with
God, and is encompassed by his transgression, in the singular and the plural, that is to say, it overcomes
him and encircles him totally, for, he has died an idolater — those are the inhabitants of the Fire, therein
abiding (khālidūn: this [plural noun] takes account of the [plural] import of man, ‘whoever’).

[2:82]

And those who believe and perform righteous deeds — those are the inhabitants of Paradise, therein
abiding.

[2:83]

And, mention, when We made a covenant with the Children of Israel, in the Torah, where We said: ‘You
shall not worship (a variant reading [for lā ta‘budūna] has [third person plural] lā ya‘budūn [‘they shall not
worship’]) any other than God (lā ta‘budūna illā Llāha is a predicate denoting a prohibition; one may also
read lā ta‘budū [Worship you not]); and to be good, and righteous, to parents, and the near of kin: here
kinship is adjoined to parents; and to orphans, and to the needy; and speak well, [good] words, to men,
commanding good and forbidding evil, being truthful with regard to the status of Muhammad (s), and being
kind to them [sc. orphans and the needy] (a variant reading [for hasanan] has husnan, the verbal noun,
used as a hyperbolic description); and observe prayer and pay the alms’, which you actually accepted, but,
then you turned away, refusing to fulfil these [obligations] (here the second person address is used, but
their forefathers are [still] meant); all but a few of you, rejecting it, like your forefathers.

[2:84]

And when We made a covenant with you, and We said: ‘You shall not shed your own blood, spilling it by
slaying one another; neither expel your own from your habitations’: let no one of you expel the other from
his house; then you confirmed it, that is, you accepted this covenant, and you bore witness, upon your own
souls.

[2:85]

Then there you are killing one another, and expelling a party of you from their habitations, conspiring
(tazzāharūna: the original ta’ has been assimilated with the zā’; a variant reading has it without [the
assimilation, that is, tazāharūna]), assisting one another, against them in sin, in disobedience, and enmity,
injustice, and if they come to you as captives (a variant reading [for usārā] has asrā), you ransom them (a
variant reading [for tafdūhum] has tufādūhum), that is to say, you deliver them from captivity with money
etc., and this [ransoming] was one of the things to which they were pledged; yet their expulsion was
forbidden you (muharramun ‘alaykum ikhrājuhum is semantically connected to wa-tukhrijūna, ‘and
expelling’, and the statement that comes in between is parenthetical, that is, [expulsion was forbidden you]
in the same way that non-ransoming was forbidden you). Qurayza had allied themselves with the Aws, and
the Nadīr with the Khazraj, but every member of an alliance would fight against a fellow ally, thus destroying
each other’s homes and expelling one another, taking prisoners and then ransoming them. When they were
asked: ‘Why do you fight them and then pay their ransom?’, they would reply, ‘Because we have been
commanded to ransom’; and they would be asked, ‘So, why do you fight them then?’, to which they would
say, ‘For fear that our allies be humiliated’; God, exalted, says: What, do you believe in part of the Book,
that is, the part about ransom, and disbelieve in part?, namely, the part about renouncing fighting, expulsion
and assistance [against one another]; What shall be the requital of those of you who do that, but
degradation, disgrace and ignominy, in the life of this world: they were disgraced when Qurayza were slewn
and the Nadīr were expelled to Syria, and ordered to pay the jizya; and on the Day of Resurrection to be
returned to the most terrible of chastisement? And God is not heedless of what you do (ta‘malūna, or read
ya‘malūna, ‘they do’).

15
[2:86]

Those are the ones who have purchased the life of this world at the price of the Hereafter, by preferring the
former to the latter — for them the punishment shall not be lightened, neither shall they be helped, [neither
shall they be] protected against it.

[2:87]

And We gave Moses the Scripture, the Torah, and after him We sent successive messengers, that is, We
sent them one after another, and We gave Jesus son of Mary the clear proofs, that is, the miracles of
bringing the dead back to life and healing the blind and the leper, and We confirmed him, We strengthened
him, with the Holy Spirit (the expression rūh al-qudus is an example of annexing [in a genitive construction]
the noun described to the adjective [qualifying it], in other words, al-rūh al-muqaddasa), that is, Gabriel, [so
described] on account of his [Jesus’s] sanctity; he would accompany him [Jesus] wherever he went; still you
refuse to be upright, and whenever there came to you a messenger, with what your souls did not desire,
[did not] like, in the way of truth, you became arrogant, you disdained to follow him (istakbartum, ‘you
became arrogant’, is the response to the particle kullamā, ‘whenever’, and constitutes the interrogative, and
is meant as a rebuke); and some, of them, you called liars, such as Jesus, and some you slay?, such as
Zachariah and John (the present tenses [of these verbs] are used to narrate the past events [as though they
were events in the present], in other words, ‘[and some] you slew’).

[2:88]

And they say, to the Prophet mockingly: ‘Our hearts are encased’ (ghulf is the plural of aghlaf), that is to
say, wrapped up in covers and cannot comprehend what you say; God, exalted be He, says: Nay (bal
introduces the rebuttal), but God has cursed them, removed them far from His mercy and degraded them
when they rejected [the messengers], for their unbelief, which is not the result of anything defective in their
hearts; and little will they believe (fa-qalīlan mā yu’minūn: the mā here is extra, emphasising the ‘littleness’
involved): that is, their belief is minimal.

[2:89]

When there came to them a Book from God, confirming what was with them, in the Torah, that is the
Qur’ān — and they formerly, before it came, prayed for victory, for assistance, over the disbelievers, saying:
‘God, give us assistance against them through the Prophet that shall be sent at the end of time’; but when
there came to them what they recognised, as the truth, that is, the mission of the Prophet, they disbelieved
in it, out of envy and for fear of losing leadership (the response to the first lammā particle is indicated by the
response to the second one); and the curse of God is on the disbelievers.

[2:90]

Evil is that for which they sell their souls, that is, their share of the reward [in the Hereafter] (bi’samā, ‘evil is
that [for] which’: mā here is an indefinite particle, representing ‘a thing’, and constitutes a specification
qualifying the subject of [the verb] bi’s, ‘evil is’, the very thing being singled out for criticism); that they
disbelieve in that, Qur’ān, which God has revealed, grudging (baghyan here is an object denoting reason for
yakfurū, ‘they disbelieve’), that is, out of envy, that God should reveal (read either yunzil or yunazzil) of His
bounty, the Inspiration, to whomever He will of His servants, to deliver the Message; and they were laden,
they returned, with anger, from God for their disbelief in what He has revealed (the indefinite form, bi-
ghadabin, ‘with anger’, is used to emphasise the awesomeness [of the ‘anger’]), upon anger, which they
deserved formerly, when they neglected the Torah and disbelieved in Jesus; and for the disbelievers there
shall be a humiliating chastisement.

[2:91]

And when it was said to them, ‘Believe in what God has revealed, that is, the Qur’ān and other [Books], they
said, ‘We believe in what was revealed to us’, that is, the Torah; and (wā, here indicates a circumstantial

16
qualifier) they disbelieve in what is beyond that, what is other than that or what came afterwards, such as
the Qur’ān; yet it is the truth (wa-huwa’l-haqqu is a circumstantial qualifier) confirming (musaddiqan, a
second circumstantial qualifier for emphasis) what is with them. Say, to them: ‘Why then were you slaying
the prophets of God formerly, if you were believers?’ in the Torah and in it you were forbidden to kill them:
this address, concerning what their forefathers did, is directed towards those present at the time of our
Prophet, on account of their approval of it [that is, of what the forefathers had done].

[2:92]

And Moses came to you with clear proofs, miracles, such as the staff, his hand, and the parting of the sea;
then you took to yourselves the calf, as a god, after him, after he had gone to the appointment, and you
were evildoers, for taking it [in worship].

[2:93]

And when We made a covenant with you, to act according to what is in the Torah, and raised over you the
Mount, to drop it on you, when you had refused to accept it; We said, ‘Take forcefully, seriously and with
effort, what We have given you, and listen’, to what you have been commanded, and be prepared to accept
it, They said, ‘We hear, your words, and disobey’, your command; and they were made to drink the calf in
their hearts, that is to say, the love of it [the golden calf] intoxicated their hearts in the way that wine does,
on account of their unbelief. Say, to them: ‘Evil is that, thing, which your belief, in the Torah, enjoins on
you, [in the way of] the worship of the [golden] calf, if you are believers’, in it, as you claim; meaning, you
are not believers, for faith does not command that you worship the calf — their forefathers are meant here.
Likewise, you do not believe in the Torah, because you have denied [the prophethood of] Muhammad (s),
whereas faith in it does not command you to reject him.

[2:94]

Say, to them: ‘If the Abode of the Hereafter, that is, Paradise, with God is purely yours, that is, exclusively,
and not for other people, as you allege, then long for death — if you speak truly’ (here both conditionals are
connected to the verb tamannū, ‘long for’, so that the first is dependent upon the second, in other words, ‘If
you speak truly when you claim that it is yours, then you will naturally incline to what is yours, and since the
path to it is death, long for it [death]’).

[2:95]

But they will never long for it, because of that which their own hands have sent before them, as a result of
their rejection of the Prophet (s), the consequence of their mendacity. God knows the evildoers, the
disbelievers and He will requite them.

[2:96]

And you shall find them (the lām of la-tajidannahum is for oaths) the people most covetous of life, and,
more covetous of it than, the idolaters, who reject the [idea of the] Resurrection, for the former know that
their journey’s end will be the Fire, while the idolaters do not believe even in this; any one of them would
love, wishes, that he might be given life for a thousand years (law yu‘ammar, ‘[if only] he might be given
life’: the particle law, ‘if only’, relates to the verbal noun and functions with the sense of an, ‘that’, and
together with its relative clause explains the [implicit] verbal noun in the object of the verb yawaddu, ‘he
would love’); yet, any one of them, his being given life (an yu‘ammara, ‘that he should be given life’,
constitutes the subject of the verb muzahzihihi, ‘that it should budge him’ [this verb comes later], as though
it were ta‘mīruhu, ‘the giving of life to him’) shall not budge, remove, him from the chastisement, of the Fire.
God sees what they do (ya‘malūna may be alternatively read ta‘malūna, ‘you do’), and will requite them.
[‘Abd Allāh] Ibn Sūryā asked the Prophet (s), or ‘Umar [b. al-Khattāb], about which angel brings down the
revelation, and he replied that it was Gabriel; he [Ibn Sūryā] then said, ‘He is our enemy, because he brings
chastisement with him; had it been Michael, we would have believed in him, because he brings fertility and
security.’ Then, the following was revealed:

17
[2:97]

Say, to them: ‘Whoever is an enemy to Gabriel, let him die in exasperation — he it was that brought it, the
Qur’ān, down upon your heart by the leave, by the command, of God, confirming what was before it, of
scriptures, a guidance, from error, and good tidings, of Paradise, for the believers.

[2:98]

Whoever is an enemy to God and His angels and His messengers, and Gabriel (read Jibrīl or Jabrīl, Jibra’il or
Jabra’il, Jibra’īl or Jabra’īl), and Michael (Mīkāl, also read Mīkā’īl, or Mīkā’il; a supplement to malā’ikatihi, ‘His
angels’, an example of the specific being supplemented to the collective) — then surely God is an enemy to
the disbelievers’ (He says ‘to the disbelievers’ instead of ‘to them’ in order to point out their status).

[2:99]

And We have revealed to you, O Muhammad (s), clear proofs, lucid [ones] (bayyinātin, ‘clear proofs’, is a
circumstantial qualifier; this was in response to Ibn Sūryā saying to the Prophet (s), ‘You have not brought
us anything’); and none disbelieves in them except the wicked, these have disbelieved in them.

[2:100]

Why, whenever they make a covenant, with God that they will believe in the Prophet (s) when he appears,
or that they will not give assistance to the idolaters against the Prophet (s), does a party of them reject it?,
cast it away repudiating it (this is the response to the clause beginning with kullamā, the interrogative of
rebuke). Nay (bal indicates a transition), but most of them are disbelievers.

[2:101]

When there came to them a messenger from God, namely, Muhammad (s), confirming what was with them,
a party of them who were given the Scripture have cast away the Scripture of God, that is, the Torah,
behind their backs, that is to say, they have not acted according to what it said about belief in the
Messenger and otherwise; as though they did not know, what is contained in it, to the effect that he is a
true Prophet, or that it is the Book of God.

[2:102]

And they follow (wa’ttaba‘ū is a supplement to nabadha, ‘[it] cast away’) what the devils used to relate,
during the time of, Solomon’s kingdom, in the way of sorcery: it is said that they [the devils] buried these
[books of sorcery] underneath his throne when his kingdom was taken from him; it is also said that they
used to listen stealthily and add fabrications to what they heard, and then pass it on to the priests, who
would compile it in books; this would be disseminated and rumours spread that the jinn had knowledge of
the Unseen. Solomon gathered these books and buried them. When he died, the devils showed people
where these books were, and the latter brought them out and found that they contained sorcery, and said,
‘Your kingdom was only thanks to what is in here’; they then took to learning them and rejected the
Scriptures of their prophets. In order to demonstrate Solomon’s innocence and in repudiation of the Jews
when they said, ‘Look at this Muhammad, he mentions Solomon as one of the prophets, when he was only a
sorcerer’, God, exalted, says: Solomon disbelieved not, that is, he did not work magic because he
disbelieved, but the devils disbelieved, teaching the people sorcery (this sentence is a circumstantial qualifier
referring to the person governing the verb kafarū); and, teaching them, that which was revealed to the two
angels, that is, the sorcery that they were inspired to [perform] (al-malakayn, ‘the two angels’: a variant
reading has al-malikayn, ‘the two kings’) who were, in Babylon — a town in lower Iraq — Hārūt and Mārūt
(here the names are standing in for ‘the two angels’, or an explication of the latter). Ibn ‘Abbās said, ‘They
were two sorcerers who used to teach [people] magic’; it is also said that they were two angels that had
been sent to teach [sorcery] to people as a trial from God. They taught not any man, without them saying,
by way of counsel, ‘We are but a temptation, a trial from God for people, so that He may test them when

18
they are taught it: whoever learns it is a disbeliever, but whoever renounces it, he is a believer; do not
disbelieve’, by learning it; if this person refused and insisted on learning it, they would teach him. From
them they learned how they might cause division between a man and his wife, so that they would hate each
other, yet they, the sorcerers, did not hurt any man thereby, that is, by this magic, save by the leave of
God, by His will; and they learned what hurt them, in the Hereafter, and did not profit them, and this was
sorcery. And surely (the lām [of la-qad, ‘surely’] is for oaths) they, the Jews, knew well that whoever (la-
man: the lām denotes [part of] the subject of the sentence and is semantically connected to what precedes
it; the man introduces the relative clause) buys it, [whoever] chooses it and took it in place of God’s Book,
he shall have no share in the Hereafter, that is, no portion of Paradise; evil then would have been, the thing,
that they sold themselves for, those sellers, that is to say, the portion due for this [act] in the Hereafter, if
they were to learn it; for it would have made the Fire obligatory in their case; if they had but known, the
reality of the chastisement they would be destined for, they would not have learnt it.

[2:103]

Yet if only they, the Jews, had believed, in the Prophet and the Qur’ān, and been fearful, of God’s
chastisement, by abandoning acts of disobedience towards Him, such as sorcery (the response to the
[conditional clause beginning with] law, ‘if’, has been omitted, [but it is intimated to be] ‘they would have
been rewarded’, and this is indicated by [His following words]) verily, a reward from God would have been
better, than that for which they sold themselves, if they had but known, that this is better they would not
have preferred that over this (la-mathūbatun, ‘verily the reward’, is the subject; the lām is that of oaths; and
min ‘indi’Llāhi khayrun, ‘from God, would have been better’, is the predicate).

[2:104]

O you who believe, do not say, to the Prophet (s), ‘Observe us’, (rā‘inā is an imperative form from murā‘āt)
which they used to say to him, and this was a derogatory term in Hebrew, derived from the noun al-ru‘ūna
[‘thoughtlessness’]. They found this very amusing and used to address the Prophet (s) in this way, and so
the believers were forbidden to use it; but say, instead, ‘Regard us’, that is, look at us, and give ear, to what
you are commanded and be prepared to accept it; and for disbelievers awaits a painful chastisement, that is,
the Fire.

[2:105]

Those disbelievers of the People of the Scripture and the idolaters, from among the Arabs (al-mushrikīna,
‘idolaters’, is a supplement to ahl al-kitābi, ‘People of the Scripture’, and the min, ‘of’, is explicative), do not
wish that any good, any Inspiration, should be revealed to you from your Lord, out of envy of you, but God
singles out for His mercy, [for] the office of His Prophet, whom He will; God is of bounty abounding.

[2:106]

When the disbelievers began to deride the matter of abrogation, saying that one day Muhammad enjoins his
Companions to one thing and then the next day he forbids it, God revealed: And whatever verse (mā is the
conditional particle), that has been revealed containing a judgement, We abrogate, either together with its
recital or not [that is only its judgement, but its recital continues]; there is a variant reading, nunsikh,
meaning ‘[Whatever verse] We command you or Gabriel to abrogate’, or postpone, so that We do not reveal
the judgement contained in it, and We withhold its recital or retain it in the Preserved Tablet; a variant
reading [of nunsi’hā] is nunsihā, from ‘to forget’: so ‘[Whatever verse We abrogate] or We make you forget,
that is, We erase from your heart’; the response to the conditional sentence [begun with mā] is: We bring
[in place] a better, one that is more beneficial for [Our] servants, either because it is easier [to implement]
or contains much reward; or the like of it, in terms of religious obligation and reward; do you not know that
God has power over all things?, including abrogating and substituting [verses]? (the interrogative here is
meant as an affirmative).

[2:107]

19
Do you not know that to God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, doing what He pleases,
and that you have none, besides God, other than God, neither protector, to safeguard you, nor helper?, to
keep away His chastisement when it comes.

[2:108]

When the Meccans asked [the Prophet] to enlarge the size of Mecca and make Safā full of gold, the
following was revealed: Or do you desire to question your Messenger as Moses was questioned, by his
people, aforetime?, when they asked him to show them God openly among other things; whoever
exchanges belief for unbelief, taking the latter in place of the former by refraining from contemplating the
clear proofs and by requesting others instead, has surely strayed from the even way, meaning, he has
mistaken the proper path (al-sawā‘ essentially means al-wasat, ‘middle way’).

[2:109]

Many of the People of the Scripture long that (law, ‘[if only] that’, represents [the import of] the verbal
noun) they might make you disbelievers, after you have believed, from the envy (hasadan is the object
denoting reason), being, of their own souls, that is to say, their wicked souls have prompted them to this
[attitude]; after the truth, with regard to the Prophet (s), has become clear to them, in the Torah; yet
pardon, leave them be, and be forgiving, stay away, and make no encroachments against them, till God
brings His command, concerning fighting them; truly God has power over all things.

[2:110]

And perform the prayer, and pay the alms; whatever good, in the way of obedience, such as [observing]
kinship and charity, you shall offer for your own souls, you shall find it, that is, its reward, with God;
assuredly God sees what you do, and will requite you for it.

[2:111]

And they say, ‘None shall enter Paradise except those who are Jews (hūd is the plural of hā’id) or
Christians’: this is what the Jews of Medina and the Christians of Najrān said when they disputed with the
Prophet (s), each party separately claiming Paradise for its members exclusively. Such, sayings, are their
desires, their false passions. Say, to them: ‘Produce your proof, your evidence for this, if you speak truly’, in
this matter.

[2:112]

Nay, but, others will also enter Paradise, namely, whoever submits his purpose to God, that is, adheres to
His commands (wajh, ‘face’ [sc. ‘purpose’], is here mentioned because it is the most noble part of the body,
so that [when it has submitted] there is all the more reason for the other parts [to follow]), being virtuous,
affirming God’s Oneness, his reward is with his Lord, the reward of his deeds being Paradise, and no fear
shall befall them, neither shall they grieve, in the Hereafter.

[2:113]

The Jews say, ‘The Christians stand on nothing’, that can be used as support [for their claims], and they
rejected Jesus; and the Christians say, ‘The Jews stand on nothing’, that can be used as support [for their
claims], and they rejected Moses; yet they, both groups, recite the Scripture, revealed to them: in the
Scripture of the Jews there is the confirmation of Jesus, and in that of the Christians there is the
confirmation of Moses (yatlūna’l-kitāba, ‘they recite the Scripture’: the sentence is a circumstantial qualifier).
Thus, in the way that these have said, the ignorant, from among the Arabs and others, say the like of what
these say (this last phrase [mithla qawlihim, ‘the like of what they say’] is the explication of dhālika, ‘that
[way]’): that is to say, to every person of religion they would say, ‘You have no basis’; God shall decide
between them on the Day of Resurrection regarding their differences, in religion and will admit the confirmer
into Paradise and the falsifier into the Fire.1568039483

20
[2:114]

And who does greater evil — that is, none does more evil — than he who bars God’s places of worship, so
that His Name be not invoked in them, in prayer and praise, and strives to ruin them?, through destruction
and impeding people from them: this was revealed to inform of the Byzantines’ destruction of the Holy
House [sc. Jerusalem], or [it was revealed] when the idolaters barred the Prophet (s) from entering Mecca in
the year of the battle of Hudaybiyya; such men might never enter them, save in fear (illā khā’ifīna is a
predicate, also functioning as a command, that is to say, ‘Frighten them by threats of waging war against
them, so that not one of them shall enter it feeling secure’); for them in this world is degradation,
debasement through being killed, taken captive and forced to pay the jizya; and in the Hereafter a mighty
chastisement, namely, the Fire.

[2:115]

The following was revealed either when the Jews criticised the change of the direction of prayer [qibla], or
concerning the supererogatory prayers on animal-back during journeys, which one may pray in any
direction: To God belong the East and the West, that is, the entire earth, because these two [directions]
represent both sides of it [the earth]; whithersoever you turn, your faces in prayer by His command, there is
the Face of God, the direction of prayer with which He is pleased. Lo! God is Embracing, His bounty
embracing all things, Knowing, how to manage His creation.

[2:116]

And they, the Jews and the Christians, and those that claim that the angels are God’s daughters, say (read
wa-qālū or [simply] qālū) ‘God has taken to Himself a son’; God says: Glory be to Him!, as a way of exalting
Himself above this; Nay, to Him belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth, as possessions, creatures
and servants, and this sovereignty contradicts having a child, and is expressed by [the particle] mā, ‘all that’,
in order to include all [creation] that is not rational; all obey His will, submitting to that which is required
from each one of them: here the emphasis is on rational beings.

[2:117]

Creator of the heavens and the earth, making them exist without any exemplary precedent; and when He
decrees, wills, a thing, to exist, He but says to it ‘Be’ and it is, that is to say, it becomes (fa-yakūnu: a
variant reading has fa-yakūna, on account of it being the response [in the subjunctive mood] to the jussive
statement).

[2:118]

And they, that is the disbelievers of Mecca, who do not know, say, to the Prophet (s): ‘Why does God not
speak to us?, [to say] that you are His Messenger; Why does a sign not come to us?’, of the sort we have
requested in order to show your sincerity. So, in the same way that these [disbelievers] have spoken, spoke
those before them, from among past communities, to their prophets, the like of what they say, in [their]
obstinacy and demand for signs; their hearts are much alike, in terms of unbelief and stubbornness: this is
meant as consolation for the Prophet (s). Yet We have made clear the signs to a people who are certain, [a
people] who know that these are [God’s] signs and so they believe in them, for to request other signs would
be obduracy.

[2:119]

We have sent you, Muhammad (s), with the truth, the guidance, a bearer of good tidings, of Paradise, for
those who respond to this [guidance], and warner, of the Fire, to those who do not respond to it. You shall
not be asked about the inhabitants of Hell-fire, that is, about why the disbelievers did not believe, for your
responsibility is only to deliver the Message (a variant reading of lā tus’al is lā tas’al, ‘do not ask’, with the
final apocopation of the vowel on account of it being an imperative).

21
[2:120]

Never will the Jews be pleased with you, neither the Christians, not until you follow their creed, their
religion, Say: ‘God’s guidance, that is, Islam, is the true guidance’, besides which there is only error. And if
you were (wa-la-in: the lām is for oaths) to follow their whims, hypothetically speaking, [whims] to which
they are calling you, after the knowledge, the Divine revelation, that has come to you, you shall have
against God neither friend, to protect you, nor helper, to defend you against Him.

[2:121]

Those to whom We have given the Scripture (this is the subject of the sentence), and who recite it with true
recitation, that is, who recite it as it was revealed (haqqa tilāwatihi, ‘its true recitation’, is a circumstantial
qualifier; haqqa is in the accusative because it is the object of the verbal noun), they believe in it (this is the
predicate): this was revealed concerning a group of Ethiopians that presented themselves [to the Prophet]
and accepted Islam; and whoever disbelieves in it, that is, in the revealed Book, by distorting it, they shall
be the losers, because they will be destined for the Fire, made everlasting for them.

[2:122]

O Children of Israel, remember My favour wherewith I favoured you, and that I have preferred you over all
the worlds: a similar verse has already been mentioned.

[2:123]

And beware of, fear, a day when no soul shall for another, on this [Day] be requited, that is, [when no soul
for another] shall be of any avail, and no compensation, no ransom, shall be accepted from it, nor any
intercession shall benefit it, neither shall they be helped, against God’s chastisement.

[2:124]

And, mention, when his Lord tested, tried, Abraham (Ibrāhīm: also read Ibrāhām) with certain words, with
certain commands and prohibitions with which He charged him: it is said that these included the rituals of
the Pilgrimage, the rinsing of the mouth, snuffing up water into the nostrils [to clean them], cleaning of the
teeth, trimming facial hair, combing of the hair, trimming the fingernails, shaving armpit and pubic hair,
circumcision and washing one’s private parts after elimination; and he fulfilled them, he performed them
thoroughly; He, God, exalted, said, to him: ‘I make you a leader, an exemplar in religion, for the people.’
Said he, ‘And of my seed?’, my progeny, make leaders [from among them]; He said, ‘My covenant, of
leadership, shall not reach the evildoers’, the disbelievers from among them: this indicates that [the
covenant] will reach only those who are not evildoers.

[2:125]

And when We appointed the House, the Ka‘ba, to be a place of visitation, to which they flock from every
direction, for the people, and a sanctuary, of safety for them from the injustice and attacks that befall other
places: a person could come across his father’s killer there, and yet not act violently against him; and: ‘Take
(ittakhidhū is also read ittakhadhū, making it a predicate), O people, to yourselves Abraham’s station, the
founding stone he used when building the House, for a place of prayer’, so that you perform two units of
prayer for the circumambulation; And We made a covenant with Abraham and Ishmael, We commanded
them: ‘Purify My House, of graven images, for those that shall go round it and those that cleave to it, in
ritual residence, to those who bow and prostrate themselves’, that is, those who pray: (al-rukka‘ and al-
sujūd are the plurals of rāki‘, ‘one bowing’, and sājid, ‘one prostrated’, respectively).

[2:126]

And when Abraham said, ‘My Lord, make this, place, a land secure, in which there is safety: God granted

22
him his request, making it a sanctuary in which no human blood is shed, no injustice is committed towards
anyone, no prey is hunted and which is never deserted in any of its parts; and provide its people with fruits:
something which actually happened when there came itinerants from as far as Syria, whereas before, it had
been devoid of any vegetation or water; such of them as believe in God and the Last Day’ (this phrase
stands in place of its people, and they are here singled out for mention in the request in accordance with
God’s saying My covenant shall not reach the evildoers); He, exalted, said, ‘And whoever disbelieves, I will
also provide with fruits, to him I shall give enjoyment (read either umti‘uhu or umatti‘uhu), by granting him
sustenance in this life, a little, the length of his life, but then I shall compel him, I shall drive him in the
Hereafter to the chastisement of the Fire, so that he cannot find an escape — how evil a journey’s end!’, a
place to which to return.

[2:127]

And, mention, when Abraham raised up the foundations, the supports or the walls, of the House, building it
(min al-bayt, ‘of the House’, is semantically connected to yarfa‘u, ‘raises up’), and Ishmael with him (wa-
Ismā‘īlu is a supplement to Ibrāhīmu), both of them saying: ‘Our Lord! Receive this, building, from us. Truly
You are the Hearing, of words, the Knowing, of deeds.

[2:128]

Our Lord! And make us submissive, compliant, to You and, make, of our seed, our progeny, a community, a
people, submissive to You (min [in the phrase min dhurriyyatinā, ‘of our seed’] here is partitive, and is used
here in accordance with God’s above-mentioned saying My covenant shall not reach the evildoers); and
show us, teach us, our holy rites, our ceremonies for worship or for the pilgrimage, and relent to us. Surely
You are the Relenting, the Merciful: they asked Him to turn towards them, despite their [moral]
impeccability, out of humbleness and in order to teach their progeny.

[2:129]

Our Lord! And send among them, the people of this House, a messenger, one of them and God granted him
this petition with [the sending of] Muhammad (s), who shall recite to them Your signs, the Qur’ān, and teach
them the Book, the Qur’ān, and Wisdom, that is, what the former contains of judgments, and purify them,
cleanse them of idolatry; You are the Mighty, the Victor, the Wise, in His creation.

[2:130]

Who therefore, meaning ‘none’, shrinks from the religion of Abraham, abandoning it, except he who fools
himself?, that is to say, either the one who ignores that his soul has been created for God, and that it is
obliged to worship Him, or the one who treats it with frivolity and degrades it. Indeed We chose him, We
elected him, in this world, for prophethood and friendship, and in the Hereafter he shall be among the
righteous, those of the high stations [al-darajāt al-‘ulā, cf. Q. 20:75].

[2:131]

And mention: When his Lord said to him, ‘Submit’, obey God and devote your religion purely to Him, he said,
‘I have submitted to the Lord of the Worlds’.

[2:132]

And Abraham enjoined (wassā; may also be read awsā) upon his sons this, creed, and [so did] Jacob, upon
his sons, saying: ‘My sons, God has chosen for you the [true] religion, the religion of submission [to God]
(islām), see that you die not save in submission: he forbade them from abandoning this submission [to
God], and enjoined them to adhere firmly to it until death overtook them.

[2:133]

23
When the Jews said to the Prophet (s), ‘Do you not know that on the day of his death Jacob charged his
sons with Judaism?’, the following was revealed: Or, were you witnesses, present, when death came to
Jacob? When (idh, ‘when’, substitutes for the preceding idh) he said to his sons, ‘What will you worship after
me?’, after I die?; They said, ‘We will worship your God and the God of your fathers Abraham and Ishmael
and Isaac (in recognition of the predominant [mention of the father figures] Ishmael is also counted as a
father, and also because the status of an uncle is akin to that of a father), One God (ilāhan wāhidan, ‘One
God’, substitutes for ilāhaka, ‘your God’), to Him we submit’ (the initial am [of the phrase am kuntum, ‘Or,
were you …’] is similar to the hamza of denial [sc. a-kuntum], the sense being, ‘You were not present at his
death, so how do you ascribe to him what does not befit him?’).

[2:134]

That (tilka, is the subject of this sentence and denotes Abraham, Jacob and his sons, and is feminine
because it agrees with the gender of its predicate) is a community that has passed away, has gone before;
theirs is what they have earned, the reward for their deeds (lahā mā kasabat, theirs is what they have
earned’, constitutes the commencement of a new sentence) and yours (the Jews are being addressed here)
is what you have earned; you shall not be asked about what they did, in the same way that they will not be
asked about what you did, this latter statement being an affirmation of the former.

[2:135]

And they say, ‘Be Jews or Christians (the particle aw is for detail; the first of these is the saying of the
Medinan Jews, while the second is that of the Christians of Najrān), and you shall be guided’. Say, to them:
‘Nay, we follow, rather the creed of Abraham, a hanīf (hanīfan is a circumstantial qualifier referring to
Ibrāhīma, that is to say, one that inclines away from all other religions to the upright religion); and he was
not of the idolaters’.

[2:136]

Say: (this address is to the believers) ‘We believe in God, and in that which has been revealed to us, the
Qur’ān, and revealed to Abraham, the ten scrolls, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, his sons, and that
which was given to Moses, the Torah, and Jesus, the Gospel, and the prophets, from their Lord, of Books
and signs, we make no division between any of them, believing in some and disbelieving in others in the
manner of Jews and Christians, and to Him we submit’.

[2:137]

And if they, the Jews and the Christians, believe in the like (mithl, ‘the like’ is extra) of what you believe in,
then they are truly guided; but if they turn away, from belief in it, then they are clearly in schism, in
opposition to you; God will suffice you, O Muhammad (s), against them, and their schisms; He is the Hearer,
of their sayings, the Knower, of their circumstances: God sufficed him [with regard to them] by killing
Qurayza, expelling Nadīr and exacting the jizya from them.

[2:138]

The mark of God (sibghata’Llāhi: a verbal noun reaffirming the earlier āmannā, and it is in the accusative,
because of the verbal construction implied, that is to say, sabaghanā’Llāhu, ‘God has marked us’): this
denotes His religion, the one towards which He made human beings naturally inclined, as it leaves its mark
on a person, in the same way that a dye leaves its mark on a garment; and who has, that is, none [has], a
better mark (sibghatan, ‘marking’, is for specification) than God? And Him we worship: the Jews said to the
Muslims, ‘We are the people of the first Book and our direction of prayer (qibla) is more ancient, and
prophets were never sent from among the Arabs; if Muhammad were a prophet, he would have been one of
us’. Thus, the following was revealed:

[2:139]

24
Say, to them: ‘Would you then dispute with us concerning God, that He chose a prophet from among the
Arabs, and He is our Lord and your Lord?, and so it is for Him to choose whom He will, Our deeds belong to
us, for which we will be requited, and to you belong your deeds, for which you will be requited, so that it is
not improbable that among our deeds there will be those for which we will deserve to be honoured; and to
Him we are sincerely devoted, in religion and in deed, unlike you, hence, we are more worthy to be chosen
(the hamza [of a-tuhājjūnanā, ‘would you then dispute’] is for rejection, and the three clauses that follow it
are all circumstantial qualifiers).

[2:140]

Or, nay, do you say (taqūlūna, also read yaqūlūna, ‘do they say?’): ‘Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac and Jacob, and
the Tribes — they were Jews, or they were Christians?’ Say, to them: ‘Have you then greater knowledge, or
has God?, that is, God has greater knowledge; He dissociated Abraham from both [groups], when He said,
Abraham was not a Jew, nor a Christian [Q. 3:67]; and those mentioned with him [Abraham] are his
followers [in not belonging to either group]. And who does greater injustice than he who conceals, hides
from people, a testimony, he has, received from God?, that is, there is none more unjust than him: these
are the Jews, for they concealed God’s testimony about Abraham’s pure faith in the Torah; And God is not
heedless of what you do’: [this is] a threat for them.

[2:141]

That is a community that has passed away; theirs is what they have earned, and yours is what you have
earned; you shall not be asked about what they did: a similar [verse] has already been mentioned above.

[2:142]

The fools, the ignorant, among the people, that is, the Jews and the idolaters, will say, ‘What, matter, has
turned them, the Prophet (s) and the believers, from the direction they were facing in their prayers
formerly?’, this being the Holy House (bayt al-maqdis, sc. Jerusalem); the sīn [of sa-yaqūlu, ‘they will say’]
denotes the future tense and informs of the Unseen. Say: ‘To God belong the East and the West, that is, all
directions. Thus He commands that they face whichever direction He wills, and there can be no objection.
He guides whomever He will, His guidance being, to a straight path’, that is, the religion of Islam, and you
are among these [guided ones].

[2:143]

Thus, in the same way that We guided you to it, We appointed you, O community of Muhammad (s), a
midmost community, excellent and upright, that you might be witnesses to the people, on the Day of
Resurrection, that their messengers delivered [the Message] to them; and that the Messenger might be a
witness to you, that he delivered [the Message] to you, and We did not appoint, make, the direction, for you
now, the direction, you were facing, that is the Ka‘ba: the Prophet (s) used to face it in prayer, but when he
emigrated he was commanded to face the Holy House [of Jerusalem], in order to win the hearts of the Jews.
He prayed in this direction for sixteen or seventeen months before he changed direction; except that We
might know, [that it become] manifest knowledge, who followed the Messenger, and believed in him, from
him who turned on his heels, and returned to unbelief doubting the religion and thinking that the Prophet (s)
was confused about this issue; and a number of them apostatised as a result of this— though it, the change
of direction, were (wa-in, ‘though’, is softened, and its noun apocopated, originally being: wa-innahā) a
grave thing, troublesome for people, save for those, of them, whom God has guided; but God would never
cause your faith, that is, your prayers towards the Holy House [of Jerusalem], to be wasted, but He will
reward you for them (the reason that this [verse] was revealed was that some had asked about the status of
those that had died before the change of direction [of prayer]); truly, God is Gentle with, believing, people,
Merciful, when He does not let their deeds go to waste (al-ra’fa means ‘intensity of mercy’, and is mentioned
first to allow for the end rhyme of the verse [with the preceding one]).

[2:144]

25
We have indeed (qad, ‘indeed’, is for affirmation) seen you turning your face about in the, direction of the,
heaven, looking around for the Revelation and longing for the command to face the Ka‘ba: he [the Prophet]
wished for this because it was the prayer-direction of Abraham and would be more conducive to the
submission of the Arabs [to Islam]; now We will surely turn you to a direction that shall satisfy you, that you
will love. Turn your face, in prayer, towards the Sacred Mosque, that is, the Ka‘ba, and wherever you are
(addressing the [Muslim] community) turn your faces, in prayer, towards it. Those who have been given the
Scripture know that it, the change towards the Ka‘ba, is the, fixed, truth from their Lord, on account of the
description in their Scripture of how the Prophet (s) would re-orient himself to it; God is not heedless of
what you do, O believers, when you obey His command (alternatively, ta‘malūna, ‘you do’, can be read
ya‘malūna, ‘they do’, in other words [it would be referring to] the Jews’ denial of the matter concerning the
direction of prayer).

[2:145]

Yet if (wa-la-in: the lām is for oaths) you should bring to those who have been given the Scripture every
sign, about your truthfulness in the matter of the direction of prayer, they will not follow your direction, out
of obduracy, and you are not a follower of their direction (this is a categorical negation of his [the Prophet’s]
desire that they become Muslims and of their desire that he return to their direction of prayer; neither are
they, the Jews and the Christians, followers of one another’s direction. If you were to follow their whims, the
ones to which they summon you, after the knowledge, the revelation, that has come to you, then you, if,
hypothetically, you were to follow them, will surely be among the evildoers.

[2:146]

Those to whom We have given the Scripture, they recognise him, Muhammad (s), as they recognise their
sons, because of the descriptions of him in their Scripture: [‘Abd Allāh] Ibn Salām said, ‘I recognised him the
moment I saw him, as I would my own son; but my recognition of Muhammad (s) was more intense’; even
though there is a party of them that conceal the truth, that is, his description, while they know, this [truth]
which you [Muhammad (s)] follow.

[2:147]

The truth comes from your Lord; then be not among the doubters, who doubt it, that is to say, ‘[be not] of
such a disposition’, which is more eloquent than merely saying, ‘do not waver’.

[2:148]

Every person, of every community, has his direction (wijha), [his] qibla, to which he turns (muwallīhā, ‘he
turns to it’, is also read as muwallāhā, ‘he is made to turn to it’), in his prayers, so vie with one another in
good works, strive with acts of obedience and acceptance of these. Wherever you may be, God will bring
you all together, gathering you on the Day of Resurrection and requiting you for your deeds; surely God has
power over all things.

[2:149]

From whatever place you issue, on a journey, turn your face towards the Sacred Mosque; it is the truth from
your Lord. God is not heedless of what you do (ta‘malūna, ‘you do’, may also be read as ya‘malūna, ‘they
do’, as already appears above [sc. 2:144]; its repetition is intended to point out that the stipulation applies
equally to being on a journey or otherwise).

[2:150]

From whatever place you issue, turn your face towards the Sacred Mosque; and wherever you may be, turn
your faces towards it (all of which is being repeated for emphasis), so that there be not any argument from
the people, the Jews or the idolaters, against you, [so that there be not] any cause for contention regarding
the change to a different direction of prayer. In this way, their contentions against you will cease to exist,

26
both [the contentions] of the Jews when they say, ‘He [Muhammad (s)] rejects our religion, but follows our
direction of prayer’, and of the idolaters when they say, ‘He [Muhammad (s)] claims to follow the creed of
Abraham, but he contravenes his [Abraham’s] qibla’; excepting the evildoers among them, acting in
obstinacy, who will say, ‘He [Muhammad (s)] only changed to this direction because of his [natural]
inclination towards the [idolatrous] religion of his forefathers’. The exceptive statement [indicated by illā] is
a continuous one, the meaning being: ‘No one will have anything to say against you, except for what these
people say’; and do not fear them, do not fear their arguing [with you] regarding the change to it [the
Ka‘ba], but fear Me, by complying with My command; and that I may perfect My grace upon you, by guiding
you to the principal rituals of your religion, and that you may be guided, to the truth (wa-li-utimma, ‘that I
may perfect’, is a supplement to li-allā yakūna, ‘that there be not’).

[2:151]

As also We have sent (this [verbal clause ka-mā arsalnā, ‘as We have sent’] is semantically connected to wa-
li-utimma [of the previous verse], that is to say, ‘[Also We have sent] by way of perfection’); as it [My grace]
has been perfected by Our sending, among you, of yourselves, Muhammad (s), a messenger, to recite Our
verses, the Qur’ān, to you and to purify you, to cleanse you from idolatry, and to teach you the Book, the
Qur’ān, and wisdom, the rulings therein, and to teach you what you knew not.

[2:152]

So remember Me, through prayer, glorification and the like, I will remember you: this is said to mean, ‘I will
reward you’; in a hadīth about God [that He says]: ‘whoever remembers Me in himself, I will remember him
in Myself, and whoever remembers Me in an assembly, I will remember him in an Assembly more excellent
than his’; and be thankful to Me, for My grace, by being obedient, and be not ungrateful towards Me,
through disobedience.

[2:153]

O you who believe, seek help, regarding the Hereafter, through patience, in obedience and afflictions, and
prayer (He singles it out for mention on account of its frequency and its greatness); surely God is with the
patient, helping them.

[2:154]

And say not of those slain in God’s way, that, ‘They are dead’; rather they are living, their spirits are,
according to a hadīth, contained in green birds that take wing freely wherever they wish in Paradise; but you
are not aware, [but you] do not know their condition.

[2:155]

Surely We will try you with something of fear, of an enemy, and hunger, by way of drought, and diminution
of goods, as a result of destruction, and lives, as a result of slaughter, death and disease, and fruits, by way
of crop damage: that is to say, We will try you to see if you practise patience or not; yet give good tidings,
of Paradise, to the patient, during calamities;

[2:156]

those who, when they are struck by an affliction, a calamity, say, ‘Surely we belong to God, we are His
possession and servants, with whom He does as He pleases; and to Him we will return’, in the Hereafter,
whereupon He will requite us: in one hadīth [it is said that], ‘whoever pronounces the istirjā‘ [sc. the formula
‘surely we belong to God and to Him we will return’] when an affliction befalls him, God will reward him and
compensate him with what is better’. Similarly, it is said that on one occasion when his lamp blew out, the
Prophet (s) uttered the istirjā‘, whereupon ‘Ā’isha said to him, saying: ‘But, it is just a lamp’, to which he
replied, ‘Whatever bothers a believer is an affliction [of sorts]’: this is reported by Abū Dāwūd in his [section
on] mursal reports.

27
[2:157]

Upon those rest blessings, forgiveness, and mercy, grace, from their Lord, and those — they are the truly
guided, to rectitude.

[2:158]

Truly Safā and Marwa, two mountains near Mecca, are among the waymarks (sha‘ā’ir, plural of sha‘īra) of
God, the [ritual] ceremonies of His religion, so whoever makes the Pilgrimage to the House, or the Visitation,
that is, whoever prepares to perform the Pilgrimage [hajj] or the Visitation [‘umra]: the original sense of
both terms [hajja and i‘tamara] is ‘to aim for’ and ‘to visit’, respectively; he would not be at fault, [it would
not be] a sin, if he circumambulates them (the original tā’ [of yatatawwafa, ‘circumambulate’] has been
assimilated with the tā’), by pacing quickly (sa‘y) between them seven times: this was revealed when the
Muslims were averse to this [circumambulation], because the pagan Arabs used to circumambulate them,
and there was an idol atop each mountain which they used to stroke. It is reported from Ibn ‘Abbās that this
pacing [between the two] is not obligatory, based on the fact that when no sin can be incurred, the context
implies free choice. Al-Shāfi‘ī and others, however, considered it to be a pillar [of the Pilgrimage rituals]. The
Prophet made clear its obligatory aspect when he said that, ‘God has prescribed for you the pacing [sa‘y]’,
as reported by al-Bayhaqī and others; and he [the Prophet] also said, ‘Begin with what God has begun’,
meaning, al-Safā, as reported by Muslim; and whoever volunteers (tatawwa‘a: a variant reading is yattawa‘,
the ta’ here being assimilated) good, that is, any good deed such as circumambulation or other, that is not
obligatory on him; God is Grateful, for such a deed and rewards that person for it, Knowing, it.

[2:159]

The following was revealed concerning the Jews: Those who conceal, from people, the clear proofs and the
guidance that We have revealed, such as the ‘stoning’ verse and the description of Muhammad (s), after We
have shown them clearly in the Scripture, the Torah — they shall be cursed by God, that is, He will move
them far away from His mercy, and by the cursers, the angels, believers, or by every single thing, when they
supplicate that they be cursed.

[2:160]

Except those that repent, turning back from such [deeds], and make amends, in their actions, and show
clearly, what they were concealing — them I shall turn [relenting], accepting their repentance; I am the
Relenting, the Merciful, to believers.

[2:161]

But those who disbelieve, and die disbelieving (wa-hum kuffār, ‘they being disbelievers’, is a circumstantial
qualifier) — upon them shall be the curse of God and the angels, and of people altogether, that is, they
deserve such [a curse] in this life and in the next; ‘people’ here is said to be either [people] in general, or
believers.

[2:162]

Abiding therein, that is, [in] the curse and the Fire, [the latter] indicated by the following words: the
chastisement shall not be lightened for them, [not even for] a blink of an eye, no respite shall be given
them, in which to have time to repent or to excuse themselves.

[2:163]

When they asked him [Muhammad (s)] to describe his Lord, the following was revealed: Your God, the One
deserving of your worship, is One God, without any equal in either essence or attribute; there is no god
except Him, He is the Compassionate, the Merciful.

28
[2:164]

They then asked for a sign to prove this, and the following was revealed: Surely in the creation of the
heavens and the earth, and the marvels contained in them, and the alternation of the night and day, passing
and returning, increasing and diminishing, and the ships that run in the sea, and do not become cracked and
sink, with what profits men, of trade and merchandise, and the water, the rain, God sends down from the
heaven with which He revives the earth, with vegetation, after it is dead, after it has dried out, and He
scatters abroad in it all manner of crawling thing, by dividing them and spreading them throughout on
account of the vegetation, for they thrive on the fertile pastures it produces; and the disposition of the
winds, changing it from south to north, from cold to warm, and the clouds compelled, subjugated by God’s
command, moving to wherever God wishes, between heaven and the earth, without being attached [to
either of the two] — surely there are signs, indicating His Oneness, exalted be He, for a people who
comprehend, [a people] who contemplate.

[2:165]

Yet there be people who take to themselves compeers, idols, besides God, that is, other than God, loving
them, by magnifying them and being subservient to them, as God is loved, that is, as their love of Him; but
those who believe love God more ardently, than those who love their compeers, because the former never
reject God, whereas the latter when faced with hardship soon abandon those [compeers] for God; If he, [if
you] O Muhammad (s), were to see those who did evil, by taking to themselves compeers, when (idh here
denotes idhā) they see (read either as active [yarawna, ‘they see’] or passive [yurawna, ‘they are made to
see’]) the chastisement, you would see a grave sight, that, this is because, the might, the power and the
vanquishing, altogether (a circumstantial qualifier) belongs to God, and that God is terrible in chastisement
(according to one reading, the person listening [to the verse] governs the verb yarā, ‘he sees’, and
constitutes the subject [of the clause]; according to another [reading], it is the ‘evildoers’ [who constitute
the subject of the clause and govern the verb yarā]; and so it [yarā] has the sense of ya‘lam, ‘he knows’;
the particle an, ‘that’, and what comes after it have taken the place of the objects in both cases; the
response to the [initial conditional] law, ‘if’, has been omitted). The general meaning [of the verse] then is:
‘If they were aware in this world of the severity of God’s chastisement and of the fact that power is God’s
alone, the moment they come to see it with their own eyes, on the Day of Resurrection, they would not take
to themselves compeers’.

[2:166]

When (idh here substitutes for the previous idh) those who were followed, that is, the leaders, disown their
followers, that is to say, [when] they have denied misleading them [the latter], and they have seen the
chastisement, and the cords, the bonds of affection and kinship that were between them on earth, are cut
away before them, from them (taqatta‘at, ‘cut away’, is a supplement to tabarra’a, ‘disown’).

[2:167]

And those who followed say, ‘O, if only we might return again, to the world, and disown them, the ones who
had been followed, as they have disowned us!’, on this day (the particle law, ‘if only’, is an optative, and its
response is natabarra’a, ‘we disown’). So, just as He showed them the severity of His chastisement and their
disowning of one another, so too, God shall show them their, evil, works, as, anguish (hasarāt is a
circumstantial qualifier), regrets, for them! Never shall they exit from the Fire, once they have entered it.

[2:168]

The following was revealed when some said that it was unlawful to take a camel that has been let loose
(sawā’ib): O people, eat of what is in the earth, lawful (halālan is a circumstantial qualifier) and wholesome
(tayyiban is an adjective for emphasis), that is to say, what is delicious; and follow not the steps, the ways,
of Satan, meaning, what he embellishes [of temptations]; he is a manifest foe to you, whose enmity is clear;

29
[2:169]

he only commands you to evil, sin, and indecency, what is abhorred by the Law, and that you should speak
against God what you do not know, such as forbidding what He has not forbidden and otherwise.

[2:170]

And when it is said to them, the disbelievers, ‘Follow what God has revealed’, pertaining to affirmation of
God’s Oneness and the good things that He has made lawful, they say, ‘No; but we follow what we found
our fathers doing’, in the way of idol-worship, deeming unlawful the camel let loose, and [practising] the
slitting of the camel’s ear (sc. bahīra). God says: What? (the hamza [of a-wa-law] is for repudiation), do
they follow them, Even if their fathers do not understand anything, concerning religion, and they were not
guided?, to the truth.

[2:171]

The likeness, the attribute, of those who disbelieve, and the one who calls them to guidance, is as the
likeness of one who shouts to that which hears nothing, save a call and a cry, only a sound, not
understanding its meaning: when they listen to an admonition they are like cattle that hear the cry of their
shepherd but do not understand what he is saying; they are deaf, dumb, blind — they do not comprehend,
any admonition.

[2:172]

O you who believe, eat of the good things, that are lawful, wherewith We have provided you, and give
thanks to God, for what He has made lawful for you, if it be Him that you worship.

[2:173]

He has only forbidden you: carrion, that is, the consumption of it, since this is the subject of the general
address here, and similarly [the consumption of] what follows, [all of] which is what has not been
slaughtered in accordance with [prescriptions of] the Law; to this the Sunna adds [as also constituting
carrion] what has been severed from a living creature. A special status is, however, accorded fish and
locusts; blood, poured forth, as in [sūrat] al-An‘ām [see Q. 6:145], the flesh of swine, the meat is singled
out for mention because that [part] is what people mostly seek, every other [part] being implied thereby;
what has been hallowed to other than God, that is to say, what has been slaughtered in other than His
Name (al-ihlāl is the raising of one’s voice, which they used to do when sacrificing for their gods). Yet
whoever is constrained, forced by dire need to eat of the above-mentioned, not desiring, to rebel against
Muslims, nor transgressing, committing aggression against them by waylaying them, no sin shall be on him,
for eating it. God is Forgiving, to His friends, Merciful, to those who are obedient to Him, for He has granted
them wide berth in this matter. The aggressor and the transgressor are excluded from this [dispensation],
and to these two [categories] one should also add every person that sets out on a journey in disobedience,
such as the fugitive or the excise collector, for whom it would be unlawful to eat any of the mentioned,
unless they repent [of their disobedience]; this is the opinion of al-Shāfi‘ī.

[2:174]

Those who conceal what God has revealed of the Scripture, comprising all the descriptions of Muhammad
(s), meaning the Jews, and sell it for a little price, in this world, taking this [little price] in its place from the
debased ones among them, for fear of losing out if they were to manifest it [sc. the truth of Muhammad (s)]
— they shall consume nothing in their bellies but the Fire, because that is their journey’s end; God shall not
speak to them on the Day of Resurrection, out of anger with them, neither purify them, from the filth of sin;
and theirs is a painful chastisement, that is, the Fire.

[2:175]

30
Those are they that have bought error at the price of guidance, taking the former in place of the latter in
this world, and chastisement at the price of pardon, [the pardon] that would have been prepared for them in
the Hereafter, had they not concealed this matter; what makes them so patient for the Fire?, that is, how
great is the extent of their patience? This [statement] is intended to provoke amazement in the believers at
the way in which they [the disbelievers] commit sins that necessitate their punishment in the Fire with
complete indifference. In reality they would have no patience whatever [to endure the Fire].

[2:176]

That, which has been mentioned of their eating of the Fire and what follows it, is because God has revealed
the Book with the truth, but they are at variance regarding it, believing in parts of it while disbelieving in
others, and concealing them; and those that are at variance regarding the Book, concerning this matter,
namely, the Jews — although it is said that these are the idolaters some of whom said, with regard to the
Qur’ān, that it was poetry, others, that it was sorcery, and others still, that it was divination — are in schism,
disagreement, far removed, from the truth.

[2:177]

It is not piety, that you turn your faces, in prayer, to the East and to the West. This was revealed in
response to the claim made by the Jews and the Christians to this effect. True piety, that is, the pious
person (al-birr, is also read al-barr, in the sense of al-bārr [‘the dutiful person’]) is [that of] the one who
believes in God and the Last Day and the angels and the Book, that is, the scriptures, and the prophets, and
who gives of his substance, however, despite [it being], cherished, by him, to kinsmen and orphans and the
needy and the traveller and beggars, and for, the setting free of, slaves, both the captive and the one to be
manumitted by contract; and who observes prayer and pays the alms, that are obligatory, and what was
[given] before [alms were made obligatory], in the way of charity; and those who fulfil their covenant when
they have engaged in a covenant, with God or with others, those who endure with fortitude (al-sābirīna is
the accusative of laudation) misfortune (al-ba’sā’ is abject poverty), hardship, illness, and peril, at the height
of a battle in the way of God; these, described in the way mentioned, are the ones who are truthful, in their
faith and in their claims to piety, and these are the ones who are fearful, of God.

[2:178]

O you who believe, prescribed, made obligatory, for you is retaliation, on equal terms, regarding the slain,
both in the attributes [of the one slain] and in the action involved; a free man, is killed, for a free man, and
not for a slave; and a slave for a slave, and a female for a female. The Sunna makes it clear that a male
may be killed [in retaliation] for a female, and that religious affiliation should be taken into account also, so
that a Muslim cannot be killed in return for an disbeliever, even if the former be a slave and the latter a free
man. But if anything, of the blood, is pardoned any one, of those who have slain, in relation to his brother,
the one slain, so that the retaliation is waived (the use of the indefinite shay’un, ‘anything’, here implies the
waiving of retaliation through a partial pardon by the inheritors [of the slain]; the mention of akhīh [‘his
brother’] is intended as a conciliatory entreaty to pardon and a declaration that killing should not sever the
bonds of religious brotherhood; the particle man, ‘any one’, is the subject of a conditional or a relative
clause, of which the predicate is [the following, fa’ittibā‘un]) let the pursuing, that is, the action of the one
who has pardoned in pursuing the killer, be honourable, demanding the blood money without force. The fact
that the ‘pursuing’ results from the ‘pardoning’ implies that one of the two [actions] is a duty, which is one
of al-Shāfi‘ī’s two opinions here. The other [opinion] is that retaliation is the duty, whereas the blood money
is merely compensation [for non-retaliation], so that if one were to pardon but not name his blood money,
then nothing [happens]; and this [latter] is the preferred [opinion]. And let the payment, of the blood
money by the slayer, to him, the pardoner, that is, the one inheriting [from the slain], be with kindliness,
without procrastination or fraud; that, stipulation mentioned here about the possibility of retaliation and the
forgoing of this in return for blood money, is an alleviation, a facilitation, given, to you, by your Lord, and a
mercy, for you, for He has given you latitude in this matter and has not categorically demanded that one [of
the said options] be followed through, in the way that He made it obligatory for Jews to retaliate and for
Christians to [pardon and] accept blood money; and for him who commits aggression, by being unjust
towards the killer and slaying him, after that, that is, [after] pardoning — his is a painful chastisement, of

31
the Fire in the Hereafter, or of being killed in this world.

[2:179]

In retaliation there is life for you, that is great longevity, O people of pith, possessors of intellect, because if
the would-be killer knew that he would be killed [in retaliation], he would refrain [from such action] and
would have thereby given life to himself and to the one whom he had intended to kill; and so it [retaliation]
was stipulated by the Law, so that you might fear killing, fearing retaliation.

[2:180]

Prescribed, made obligatory, for you, when any of you is approached by death, that is, [by] its causes, and
leaves behind some good, material possessions, is to make testament (al-wasiyyatu is in the nominative
because of kutiba, and is semantically connected to the particle idhā, ‘when’, if the latter is adverbial; but if
this latter is conditional, then it [al-wasiyyatu] indicates the response; the response to the [conditional]
particle in, ‘if’, is, in other words, [implied to be] fa’l-yūsi, ‘let him make testament’); in favour of his parents
and kinsmen honourably, that is justly, not giving more than the allotted share of a third, nor preferring the
richer person — an obligation (haqqan here emphasises the import of what has preceded) on those that
fear, God (this verse has been abrogated by the ‘inheritance’ verse [āyat al-mīrāth, see Q. 4:11] and by the
hadīth: ‘Do not make testament for one [already] inheriting’, as reported by al-Tirmidhī).

[2:181]

Then if anyone, whether a witness or a trustee, changes it, that is, the testament, after hearing it, and
knowing it, the sin, resulting from the changed testament, shall rest upon those who change it (here the
explicit subject stands in place of the implicit one); surely God is Hearing, of the testator’s words, Knowing,
of the deeds of the trustee, requiting [each] accordingly.

[2:182]

But if any one fears injustice, an error, in straying from what is right, or sin, because he has purposely
increased the share of a third or specified a rich individual, from one making testament (read mūsī or
muwassī), and so makes things right between them, the testator and the trustee, by commanding that
justice be done, then no sin shall be upon him, with regard to this matter; surely God is Forgiving, Merciful.

[2:183]

O you who believe, prescribed for you, obligatory [for you], is the Fast, just as it was prescribed for those,
communities, that were before you so that you might guard yourselves, against acts of disobedience, for, it
[the fast] curbs the desires that prompt these [acts].

[2:184]

For days (ayyāman, ‘days’, is in the accusative as the object of al-siyām, ‘the fast’, or of an implied yasūmū,
‘he fasts’) numbered, few or specific in number, that is, those of Ramadān, as will be mentioned below; God
has specified a small number as a way of facilitating matters for those under the obligation; and if any of
you, during the month, be sick, or be on a journey, in which prayers are shortened, or if one is strained by
the fast in both cases and breaks it, then a number of other days, equal to the ones during which he broke
his fast — let him fast them instead; and for those who are, not, able to do it, [to fast] on account of old
age or chronic illness, a redemption: which is, the feeding of a poor man, with about the same amount one
consumes in a given day, that is, one mudd measure of the principal food of that town each day (a variant
reading has [genitive] fidyatin as an explicative clause. It is also said that the [lā] negation of the verb
[yutīqūnahu] is not actually implied, because at the very beginning of Islam, they could choose between
fasting or offering the redemption; but later on this was abrogated by fixing the Fast [as an obligation],
where God says, So let those of you, who are present at the month, fast it [Q. 2:185]: Ibn ‘Abbās said [by
way of qualification] ‘Except for the pregnant one and the one breastfeeding, if they break their fast out of

32
concern for the child; in the case of these two, the verse remains valid and has not been abrogated’). For
him who volunteers good, by offering more than the minimum amount mentioned for the redemption; that,
volunteering, is good for him; but that you should fast (wa-an tasūmū is the subject) is better for you
(khayrun lakum is its predicate), than breaking the fast and paying the redemption, if you but knew, that
this is better for you, then do it.

[2:185]

These days of, the month of Ramadān, wherein the Qur’ān was revealed, from the Preserved Tablet to the
earthly heaven on the Night of Ordainment [laylat al-qadr] from Him, a guidance (hudan, ‘a guidance’, is a
circumstantial qualifier), guiding away from error, for the people, and as clear proofs, lucid verses, of the
Guidance, the rulings that guide to truth, and, of, the Criterion, that discriminates between truth and
falsehood; So let those of you, who are present at the month, fast it and if any of you be sick, or if he be on
a journey, then a number of other days (this [concession] has already been mentioned, but it is repeated
here to avoid the mistaken impression that it has been abrogated by the comprehensive implication of man
shahida, ‘who are present’). God desires ease for you, and desires not hardship for you, and for this reason
He has permitted you the breaking of the fast during illness or travel, [this ease being] the very reason He
has commanded you to fast; He supplements [the previous statement with]: and that you fulfil (read tukmilū
or tukammilū) the number, of the fasting days of Ramadān, and magnify God, when you have completed
them, for having guided you, for having directed you to the principal rites of His religion, and that you might
be thankful, to God for this.

[2:186]

A group of followers of the Prophet (s) asked him, ‘Is our Lord nearby so that we should talk to Him secretly,
or is He far away, so that we should call out to him?’, and the following was revealed: And when My
servants question you concerning Me — I am near, to them in My knowledge, and he informed them of this;
I answer the call of the caller, by granting him his request, when he calls to Me; so let them respond to Me,
My call to them to be obedient, and let them believe, [let them] persevere in faith, in Me that they might go
aright, [that] they [might] become guided.

[2:187]

Permitted to you, upon the night of the Fast, is to go in to your wives, in sexual intercourse: this was
revealed as an abrogation of its unlawfulness during the earliest phase of Islam, as well as [an abrogation
of] the unlawfulness of eating and drinking after the night prayer; they are a vestment for you, and you are
a vestment for them (a metaphor for their embraces or their need for one another); God knows that you
have been betraying yourselves, by having sexual intercourse on the eve of the fast: this happened with
‘Umar [b. al-Khattāb] and others, and they apologised to the Prophet (s), and so He has turned to you
[relenting], before you even turned in repentance, and He has pardoned you. So now, when it is permitted
to you, lie with them, in sexual intercourse, and seek what God has prescribed for you, of sexual intercourse
or what it produces of offspring; and eat and drink, [at any time] during the night, until the white thread is
distinct, to you, from the black thread at daybreak, that is, the true [moment of daybreak], which explains
the white thread, while the explanation of the black thread, namely, the night, has been left out. The
whiteness and the darkness of the dawn [twilight] are likened to two black and white threads in the way
they stretch out; then complete the fast, from daybreak, to the night, that is, until it arrives, after the setting
of the sun; and do not lie with them, your women, while you cleave to the mosques in devotion [to God],
while you are residing [therein] with the intention of [performing] i‘tikāf (‘spiritual retreat’). This was a
prohibition pertaining to one who used to leave [the mosque], whilst in a state of i‘tikāf, have sexual
intercourse with his wife, and then return. Those, rulings mentioned, are God’s bounds, delimited by God for
His servants so that they do not overstep them; do not approach them (lā taqrabūhā, is more intense than
lā ta‘taddūhā, ‘Do not overstep’, used in verses elsewhere). So, just as He makes clear to you what has been
mentioned, God makes clear His signs to people so that they might fear [disobeying] His prohibitions.

[2:188]

33
Consume not your goods between you, that is to say, do not let one consume the goods of the other, in
deception, that which is illicit according to the Law, such as theft and extortion; and, do not, proffer them,
the regulation of these [goods] or any bribes, to the judges, that you may consume, as a result of any
arbitration, a portion of other people’s goods, embroiled, in sin while you are aware, that you are in error.

[2:189]

They will ask you, O Muhammad (s), about the new moons (ahilla, plural of hilāl): ‘Why do they seem very
thin, and then wax until they are full of light, and then wane again as at the first, and are not always the
same, in the way that the sun is?’ Say, to them: ‘They are appointed times (mawāqīt is the plural of mīqāt)
for the people, for them to know the times for sowing the land, for business, for their women’s waiting
periods, their fast and their breaking it, and the Pilgrimage’ (wa’l-hajji and the Pilgrimage’, is a supplement
to li’l-nāsi, ‘for the people’), that is to say, [appointed times] by which its season is known, for if they [the
new moons] always looked the same, none of these things could be known. It is not piety to come to the
houses from their backs, in [your] state of pilgrimage inviolability (ihrām), when you would bore holes in
them to enter them and then exit, disregarding their doors; they used to do this and claim that it was out of
piety; but piety is to fear, God by not contravening His commands; so come to the houses by their doors,
when in a state of pilgrimage inviolability, and fear God, that you may prosper, [that you may] triumph.

[2:190]

After the Prophet (s) was prevented from [visiting] the House in the year of the battle of Hudaybiyya, he
made a pact with the disbelievers that he would be allowed to return the following year, at which time they
would vacate Mecca for three days. Having prepared to depart for the Visitation [‘umra], [he and] the
believers were concerned that Quraysh would not keep to the agreement and instigate fighting. The Muslims
were averse to becoming engaged in fighting while in a state of pilgrimage inviolability in the Sacred
Enclosure [al-haram] and during the sacred months, and so the following was revealed: And fight in the way
of God, to elevate His religion, with those who fight against you, the disbelievers, but aggress not, against
them by initiating the fighting; God loves not the aggressors, the ones that overstep the bounds which God
has set for them: this stipulation was abrogated by the verse of barā’a, ‘immunity’ [Q. 9:1], or by His saying
[below]:

[2:191]

And slay them wherever you come upon them, and expel them from where they expelled you, that is, from
Mecca, and this was done after the Conquest of Mecca; sedition, their idolatry, is more grievous, more
serious, than slaying, them in the Sacred Enclosure or while in a state of pilgrimage inviolability, the thing
that you greatly feared. But fight them not by the Sacred Mosque, that is, in the Sacred Enclosure, until they
should fight you there; then if they fight you, there, slay them, there (a variant reading drops the alif in the
three verbs [sc. wa-lā taqtilūhum, hattā yaqtulūkum, fa-in qatalūkum, so that the sense is ‘slaying’ in all
three, and not just ‘fighting’]) — such, killing and expulsion, is the requital of disbelievers.

[2:192]

But if they desist, from unbelief and become Muslims, surely God is Forgiving, Merciful, to them.

[2:193]

Fight them till there is no sedition, no idolatry, and the religion, all worship, is for God, alone and none are
worshipped apart from Him; then if they desist, from idolatry, do not aggress against them. This is indicated
by the following words, there shall be no enmity, no aggression through slaying or otherwise, save against
evildoers. Those that desist, however, are not evildoers and should not be shown any enmity.

[2:194]

The sacred month, in return, for the sacred month, therefore, just as they fight you during it, kill them

34
during it: a response to the Muslims’ consideration of the momentous nature of this matter; holy things
(hurumāt, plural of hurma, is what must be treated as sacrosanct) demand retaliation, in kind if these [holy
things] are violated; whoever commits aggression against you, through fighting in the Sacred Enclosure, or
during a state of ritual purity or in the sacred months, then commit aggression against him in the manner
that he committed against you, the [Muslim] response is also referred to as ‘aggression’, because that is
what it resembles formally; and fear God, when avenging yourselves and [by] renouncing aggression, and
know that God is with the God-fearing, helping and assisting [them].

[2:195]

And spend in the way of God, in obedience to Him, in holy struggle and the like; and cast not your own
hands, yourselves (the bā’ of bi-aydīkum ‘with your hands’ is extra) into destruction, by withholding funds
needed for the struggle or abandoning it altogether, because this will give your enemy the advantage over
you; but be virtuous, by spending etc.; God loves the virtuous, that is, He rewards them.

[2:196]

Fulfil the Pilgrimage and the Visitation to God, by completing them according to their due; but if you are
prevented, from fulfilling them by an enemy, then [give] such offering as may be feasible, for you — a
sheep — and do not shave your heads, that is, do not release yourselves from the state of pilgrimage
inviolability, until the offering, mentioned, reaches its place, its place of sacrifice, that is, within the
enclosure, according to al-Shāfi‘ī; the sacrifice is then made with the intention of releasing oneself from the
state of pilgrimage inviolability, and is divided among the needy, after which the head is shaved and the
release is effected. If any of you is sick, or has an ailment of the head, such as lice or severe pains, and has
thus shaved his head while in a state of pilgrimage inviolability, then, incumbent upon him is, a redemption
by fast, for three days, or a voluntary almsgiving, consisting of three cubic measures of the principal food of
the town for six needy persons, or a ritual sacrifice, that is, the slaughter of a sheep (aw, ‘or’, denotes
freedom of choice). To this [last] has been added the [case of the] one who shaves his head without excuse
because the requirement of redemption is most obvious in his case; but also [it is required in the case of]
one that enjoys, without shaving, such things as scents, attire, or oils, be it with an excuse or without. When
you are secure, knowing that the enemy has gone or is not present, then whoever enjoys the Visitation,
having completed it and observed its ritual prohibitions, until the Pilgrimage, until he enters its ritual
inviolability in the relevant months; let his offering be such as is feasible, for him, such as a sheep that he
sacrifices after entering into the state of pilgrimage inviolability, ideally, on the Day of Sacrifice; or if he finds
none, because there are none available, or because he does not have sufficient funds, then, incumbent upon
him is, a fast of three days in the Pilgrimage, that is to say, in a state of pilgrimage inviolability. In such a
case, he should enter into the state of pilgrimage inviolability before the seventh of Dhū’l-Hijja, but ideally
before the sixth, because one is discouraged from fasting on the Day of ‘Arafa. Moreover, he should not fast
during these the days of tashrīq, according to the sounder of two opinions attributed to al-Shāfi‘ī. And of
seven when you return, to your domicile, [be it] Mecca or any other; or when you have completed the rites
of the Pilgrimage’ (there is a shift from the third [to the second] person); that is a full ten (this sentence
reaffirms what has just been said); that, mentioned stipulation regarding the incumbency of the offering or
the fast upon the person that has enjoyed [the Visitation], is for him whose family are not present at the
Sacred Mosque, so that they are not within 50 miles of the Sacred Enclosure, according to al-Shāfi‘ī. If they
are [present however], then no blood [sacrifice] or fast is obligatory in his case, even if he has enjoyed [the
Visitation]. The mention of ‘family’ is intended as a notification of the proviso in the case of being ‘domiciled’
[in the vicinity of the Sacred Mosque]. If one were to take up [temporary] residence, but not be domiciled,
before the months of the Pilgrimage and enjoy the Visitation, then that [fast or sacrifice] will be incumbent
upon him; this is one of two opinions of al-Shāfi‘ī, the other being that it is not [incumbent]. The term ahl,
‘family’, is said to denote ‘oneself’. In the Sunna, in addition to the one that enjoys the Visitation, as
mentioned, there is also the one that enters into the state of pilgrimage inviolability for both the Visitation
and the Pilgrimage together [sc. qārin, ‘one who combines’] or in the case where the Pilgrimage encroaches
upon [a Visitation], but before circumambulation [has been performed]. And fear God, in what He
commands you and prohibits you; and know that God is severe in retribution, against whoever opposes Him.

[2:197]

35
The Pilgrimage, the time for it, is in months well-known: Shawwāl, Dhū’l-Qa’da and ten nights, some say all,
of Dhū’l Hijja; whoever undertakes, upon himself, the duty of Pilgrimage during them, by entering into the
state of pilgrimage inviolability, then no lewdness, [no] sexual intercourse for them, nor wickedness, [nor]
acts of disobedience, or disputing, [or] quarrelling, in the Pilgrimage (a variant reading [for fa-lā rafathun
wa-lā fusūqun wa-lā jidāla] has the accusative for all three nouns [sc. fa-lā rafatha wa-lā fusūqa wa-lā
jidāla]; prohibition is meant in all three cases). Whatever good you do, by way of voluntary almsgiving, God
knows it, and will reward you for it. And take provision, to suffice you your journey: this was revealed
regarding the people of Yemen, who use to make the Pilgrimage and not take any provisions with them,
thus, becoming a burden for others. But the best provision is piety [taqwā, ‘piety’, literally ‘guarding’] with
which you are able to guard against asking others [for things]; and fear you Me, O people of pith!, [O]
possessors of intellect.

[2:198]

You would not be at fault if you should seek bounty, sustenance, from your Lord, by engaging in commerce
at the Pilgrimage: this was revealed in response to their aversion to such an idea; but when you press on,
push on, from ‘Arafāt, having stood [in prayer] upon it, then remember God, after the overnight stay at
Muzdalifa, by repeating the talbiya [sc. labbayka Llāhummā labbayk, ‘at thy service, O God, at thy service’],
the tahlīl [lā ilāha illā Llāh, ‘no god but God’] and making supplications, at the Sacred Waymark, a mountain
at the end of Muzdalifa, called Quzah. In one hadīth, the Prophet (s) stood there remembering God and
supplicating until his face began to glow brightly, according to Muslim; and remember Him as He has guided
you, to the principal rites of His religion and the rituals of His Pilgrimage (the kāf of ka-mā, ‘as’, is the
particle denoting the reason), though previously, before His guidance, you were astray.

[2:199]

Then (thumma denotes the sequence intended) press on, O Quraysh, from where the people press on, that
is, from ‘Arafa, by standing there together with them (for, they used to stand at Muzdalifa, disdaining to
stand with other people); and seek God’s forgiveness, for your sins; God is Forgiving, Merciful, to the
believers.

[2:200]

And when you have performed, and completed, your holy rites, that is, the devotions pertaining to your
pilgrimage, having cast [stones] at the Jamrat al-‘Aqaba, performed the circumambulation and stopped at
Minā, remember God, by extolling Him and repeating the takbīr [saying Allāhu akbar, ‘God is Great’], as you
remember your fathers, as you used to remember them and boast about them at the end of your
pilgrimage, or yet more intensely, than your remembrance of them (ashadda is in the accusative because it
is a circumstantial qualifier referring to dhikr ‘remembrance’, which itself is in the accusative as the object of
udhkurū, ‘remember’, because had it come after it, it would have functioned as an adjectival phrase). There
are some people who say, ‘Our Lord, give to us, our lot, in this world’, and they are given it; such people will
have no part, no lot, in the Hereafter.

[2:201]

And there are others who say, ‘Our Lord, give to us in this world good, a grace, and good, Paradise, in the
Hereafter, and guard us against the chastisement of the Fire’, by not making us enter it. This [former
statement] depicts the manner of the idolaters, while [the latter] the way of the believers, and is intended to
encourage [people] to petition for good in both abodes, for which one is promised a reward, as He says:

[2:202]

Those — they shall have a portion, a reward, from, as a result of, what they have earned, the deeds they
have performed, such as Pilgrimage and supplication; and God is swift at reckoning, reckoning with the
whole of creation in half a day of this world, as one hadīth states.

36
[2:203]

And remember God, by making takbīr [saying Allāhu akbar, ‘God is Great’] while you cast your stones at the
Jamarāt, during certain days numbered, the three days of tashrīq. If any man hastens on, his departure
from Minā, in two days, that is, on the second day of tashrīq after he has cast his stones, that, hastening, is
no sin for him; and if he delays, such that he stays until the third night and cast his stones, it is not a sin for
him: that is, they have the choice of either, for the sin has been precluded in both cases; if he fears, God
during his pilgrimage — for such [a person] is truly a pilgrim — and fear God, and know that to Him you
shall be gathered, in the Hereafter, that He may requite you for your deeds.

[2:204]

And among people there is he whose speech in the life of this world pleases you, but it would not please you
in the Hereafter because it contradicts what he actually used to believe; and who calls on God to witness
what is in his heart, as being in accordance with what he says; yet he is most stubborn in dispute, with you
and your followers on account of his enmity towards you: this was al-Akhnas b. Sharīq, a hypocrite who
spoke kindly in the presence of the Prophet (s), swearing that he believed in him and that he loved him, and
frequently sitting with him. God then revealed his mendacity in this matter. On one occasion he passed by
some crops and livestock that belonged to the Muslims and later that night he set fire to them [the crops]
and slaughtered them [the livestock]. God, moreover, says:

[2:205]

And when he turns his back, leaving you behind, he hastens, he walks, about the earth to do corruption
there and to destroy the tillage and the stock (these [last two actions] are included in such ‘corruption’); and
God loves not corruption, that is to say, it does not please Him.

[2:206]

And when it is said to him, ‘Fear God’, in your actions, he is seized by vainglory, pride and rage, in his sin,
the one he was commanded to avoid committing. So Hell shall be enough, [it] suffices, for him — how evil a
cradling, a resting place it is!

[2:207]

But there are other men who sell themselves, expend themselves in obedience to God, desiring God’s
pleasure: this was Suhayb [b. Sinān al-Rūmī], who emigrated to Medina when the idolaters began to
persecute him, leaving them all his property; and God is Gentle with His servants, for He guides them to
what pleases Him.

[2:208]

The following verse was revealed regarding ‘Abd Allāh b. Salām and his companions, who after converting to
Islam still observed the Sabbath with reverence and were averse to [the consumption of] camels: O you who
believe, come, all of you, into submission (read al-salm or al-silm), that is, Islam; kāffatan is a circumstantial
qualifier referring to al-silm, meaning, into all of its precepts; and follow not the steps, the ways, of Satan,
that is, his temptations to you by way of creating divisions; he is a manifest foe to you, one whose enmity is
obvious.

[2:209]

But if you slip, and incline away from implementing all of its precepts, after the clear proofs, the lucid
arguments, have come to you, to the effect that this is the truth, know then that God is Mighty, and nothing
can prevent Him from taking His vengeance against you; Wise, in His actions.

37
[2:210]

What do they, those that fail to enter into it [sc. Islam] completely, wait for, await, that God shall come to
them, that is, His Command; this is similar to where God says, or that God’s command should come to pass
[Q. 16:33], meaning His chastisement, in the shadows (zulal, plural of zulla) of clouds, and the angels? The
matter is determined, the matter of their destruction has been completed, and to God all matters are
returned, in the Hereafter, where He will requite each according to his deeds (read passive [turja‘u al-umūr,
‘matters are returned’] or active [tarji‘u al-umūr, ‘matters return’]).

[2:211]

Ask, O Muhammad (s), the Children of Israel, by way of rebuke, how many a clear proof, manifest ones
such as the parting of the sea, and the sending down of manna and quails, which they exchanged for
unbelief, did We give them (kam, ‘how many’, is the interrogative particle linking the second object of the
verb sal, ‘ask’, and is also the second object of the verb ātaynā, ‘We gave’, and its specifier); whoever
changes God’s grace, that is, what God has blessed him with in the way of signs, for these constitute the
causes of guidance, after it has come to him, out of unbelief, God is severe in retribution against him.

[2:212]

Decked out fair to the disbelievers, of Mecca, is the life of this world, in disguise and they have fallen in love
with it; and they deride the believers, on account of their poverty, the likes of Bilāl [al-Habashī], ‘Ammār [b.
Yāsir], and Suhayb [al-Rūmī], mocking them and treating them condescendingly with their wealth; but those
who fear, idolatry, namely, those mentioned, shall be above them on the Day of Resurrection; and God
sustains whomever He will without reckoning, with ample sustenance in the Hereafter or in this world, when
He gives to those that were mocked possession of the property and lives of those that mocked them.

[2:213]

People were one community, in faith, but they fell into disagreement, and some believed, while others
disbelieved; then God sent forth the prophets, to them, as bearers of good tidings, of Paradise for the
believers, and warners, of the Fire for the disbelievers; and He revealed with them the Scripture, meaning,
the Books, with the truth (bi’l-haqqi, ‘with the truth’, is semantically connected to anzala, ‘He revealed’) that
He might decide, according to it, between people regarding their differences, in religion; and only those who
had been given it, the Scripture, so that some believed while others disbelieved, differed about it, [about]
religion, after the clear proofs, the manifest arguments for God’s Oneness, had come to them (min [of min
ba‘di, ‘after’] is semantically connected to ikhtalafa, ‘they differed’, and together with what follows should be
understood as coming before the exception [illā lladhīna, ‘only those’]); out of insolence, on the part of the
disbelievers, one to another; then God guided those who believed to the truth, regarding which (min [of min
al-haqqi, ‘of the truth’] here is explicative) they were at variance, by His leave, by His will; and God guides,
with His guidance, whomever He will to a straight path, the path of truth.

[2:214]

The following was revealed after the Muslims suffered a trying experience: Or did you suppose that you
should enter Paradise without there having come upon you the like of, what came upon, those, believers,
who passed away before you?, of trials, so that you may endure as they did; a new sentence begins here,
explaining the previous one: They were afflicted by misery, extreme poverty, and hardship, illness, and were
so convulsed, by all types of tribulations, that the Messenger and those who believed with him said (read
yaqūla or yaqūlu), not expecting to see any help, on account of the extreme hardship afflicting them, ‘When
will God’s help come?’, [the help] which we were promised; and God responded to them: Ah, but surely
God’s help is nigh, in coming.

[2:215]

They will ask you, O Muhammad (s), about what they should expend. This was the question posed by ‘Amr

38
b. al-Jamūh. He was a wealthy elderly man and went to ask the Prophet (s) what and for whom he should
expend; Say, to them: ‘Whatever you expend of good (min khayrin, ‘of good’, is an explication of mā,
‘whatever’, covering small and large amounts, and denotes one half of the question represented by the
expender; God responds with regard to the one receiving the expenditure, this pertaining to the other half of
the question, in the following) it is for parents and kinsmen, orphans, the needy, and the traveller, that is,
they are the most deserving of it; and whatever good you may do, by way of expending or otherwise, God
has knowledge of it’, and will requite it accordingly.

[2:216]

Prescribed for you, obligatory [for you], is fighting, disbelievers, though it be hateful to you, by nature,
because of the hardship involved. Yet it may happen that you hate a thing which is good for you; and it may
happen that you love a thing which is bad for you: because the soul inclines towards those desires which
result in its destruction and its rejection of the religious obligations that would bring about its happiness.
Perhaps, then, even if you are averse to it, you will find much good in fighting, as a result of victory, booty,
martyrdom or reward; while, if you were to reject fighting, even if you would like to do so, you will find
much evil, because then you may be subjugated, impoverished and denied the reward; God knows, what is
good for you, and you know, this, not, so strive in what He commands you.

[2:217]

Thus the Prophet (s) sent forth the first of his raiding parties under the command of ‘Abd Allāh b. Jahsh.
They fought against the idolaters and killed [‘Amr b. ‘Abd Allāh] Ibn al-Hadramī in [the sacred month of]
Rajab, thinking that it was the last day of Jumādā II. The disbelievers reviled them for making fighting lawful
in a sacred month, and so God revealed the following: They ask you about the sacred, the forbidden, month,
and fighting in it (qitālin fīhi, ‘fighting in it’, is an inclusive substitution [for al-shahri l-harāmi, ‘the sacred
month’]). Say, to them: ‘Fighting (qitālun is the subject) in it is a grave thing (kabīr, ‘grave’, is the
predicate), that is, heinous in terms of sin; but to bar (saddun is the subject), people, from God’s way, His
religion, and disbelief in Him, in God, and, to bar from, the Sacred Mosque, that is, Mecca, and to expel its
people, the Prophet (s) and the believers, from it — that is graver (the predicate of the [last] subject), [that
is] more heinous in terms of sin than fighting in it, in God’s sight; and sedition, your idolatry, is graver than,
your, slaying’, in it. They, the disbelievers, will not cease to fight against you, O believers, until, so that, they
turn you from your religion, to unbelief, if they are able; and whoever of you turns from his religion, and
dies disbelieving — their, good, works have failed, that is, they are invalid, in this world and the Hereafter.
Thus they will not count for anything and will not result in any reward. The specification of death as a
condition is because if that person were to return to Islam [again], his original deeds would not be
invalidated, and he will be rewarded for them, and he would not have to repeat them, [deeds] such as
[performing] the Pilgrimage: al-Shāfi‘ī is of this opinion. Those are the inhabitants of the Fire, abiding
therein.

[2:218]

When those of the raiding party [of ‘Abd Allāh b. Jahsh] thought that, although they had been released from
the sin [of having slain in the sacred month], they would not receive any reward, the following was
revealed: Verily the believers, and those who emigrate, and depart from their homeland, and struggle in
God’s way, in order to elevate His religion — those have hope of God’s compassion, His reward; and God is
Forgiving, of believers, Merciful, to them.

[2:219]

They ask you about wine, and divinatory arrows, gambling, and what the ruling is regarding them. Say, to
them: ‘In both, that is, in the partaking of both, is great sin (a variant reading [for kabīr, ‘great’] has kathīr,
‘much’) because of the fighting, cursing and swearing that ensue from it; and profit for men, by way of
delight and enjoyment in wine, and acquiring money effortlessly from gambling; but the sin in them, that is,
the degenerate behaviour in which they result, is greater, graver, than the usefulness’. When this verse was
revealed, some gave up drinking, while others persisted, until the verse of sūrat al-Mā’ida [Q. 5:90-91]

39
finally made it illicit. And they will ask you what, that is to say, how much, they should expend. Say, expend,
‘Comfortably’ (al-‘afwa [in the accusative] is also read in the nominative, al-‘afwu, implying a preceding
huwa), that is, the surplus of your need, and do not expend what you need, ruining yourselves. So, just as
He explained to you what has been mentioned, God makes clear His signs to you that you might reflect,

[2:220]

on, the matters of, this world and the Hereafter, and follow what is best for you in both. They will ask you
about orphans, and the distress their affair caused them, for, if they became intimate with them, they may
slip into error, but if they put aside the money due to them and prepare their meals for them separately, this
would distress them. Say: ‘To set their affairs aright, in terms of their funds, by looking after it, and your
mingling with them, is better’, than you not doing this; and if you intermix with them, your funds and theirs,
they are your brothers, in religion and it is only natural for one to intermix his affair with his brother, so you
do too; God knows well him who works corruption, in their property when he intermixes with them, from
him who sets, it, aright, and God will requite both; and had He willed He would have harassed you, and
made it difficult for you by prohibiting you from intermixing with them. Surely God is Mighty, victorious in His
affair, Wise, in His actions.

[2:221]

O Muslims, Do not marry idolatresses, disbelievers, until they believe; a believing slavegirl is better than an
idolatress, who may be a free woman; this was revealed as a rebuttal of the idea that it was shameful to
marry a slavegirl and that it was better to marry an idolatress free woman; though you may admire her,
because of her beauty and wealth: this provision excludes the womenfolk of the People of the Scripture (as
indicated by the verse [Q. 5:5], [lawful to you] are the chaste women among those who were given the
Scripture). And do not marry, off believing women to, idolaters, until they believe. A believing slave is better
than an idolater, though you may admire him, for his wealth and good looks. Those, the people of idolatry,
call to the Fire, because they invite one to perform deeds that merit this, and for this reason one should not
marry with them; and God calls, through the voice of His prophets, to Paradise and pardon, that is, to the
deeds that merit these two, by His leave, by His will, so that His call may be heeded by marrying with His
friends; and He makes clear His signs to the people so that they might remember, [that] they [might] be
admonished.

[2:222]

They will ask you about the monthly period, that is, menstruation and the spot in which it occurs, and how
should one treat women during it. Say: ‘It is an ailment, filth, or the place whence it issues is so; so part
with women, refrain from sexual intercourse with them, in the monthly period, in this time, or in the part
affected; and do not approach them, for sexual intercourse, until they are pure (yathurna, or yattahharna:
the original tā’ [of yatatahharna] has been assimilated with the tā’), that is, until they have cleansed
themselves after its cessation; when they have cleansed themselves, then come to them, in sexual
intercourse, as God has commanded you’, by avoiding it, the female organ, during menstruation and not
resorting to any other part. Truly, God loves, that is, He rewards and honours, those who repent, of sins,
and He loves those who cleanse themselves, from impurities.

[2:223]

Your women are a tillage for you, that is, the place where you sow [the seeds of] your children; so come to
your tillage, that is, the specified place, the front part, as, in whichever way, you wish, whether standing up,
sitting down, lying down, from the front or the back: this was revealed in response to the Jews saying that if
a person had vaginal intercourse with his wife from behind, the child would be born cross-eyed; and offer
for your souls, righteous deeds, such as saying, ‘In the Name of God’ (bismillāh) when you commence
intercourse; and fear God, in what He commands and prohibits; and know that you shall meet Him, at the
Resurrection, where He will requite you according to your deeds; and give good tidings, of Paradise, to the
believers, who feared Him.

40
[2:224]

Do not make God, by swearing in His Name, a hindrance, a cause of impediment, in your oaths, that is,
setting up [such impediments] by swearing in His Name frequently, so as not, to be pious and God-fearing;
in such instances oaths are hateful, and result in perjury, which requires a redemption, effected by doing the
opposite [of the oath], such as performing righteous deeds and so forth, which constitute an act of
obedience; and to put things right between people: this means, do not be prevented from doing righteous
deeds, as mentioned, just because you swore against them; nay, do them and make redemption; [this
understanding of the verse is] justified by the reason for its revelation, namely, their refraining from such
deeds; surely God is All-Hearing, of what you say, Knower, of your circumstances.

[2:225]

God will not take you to task for a slip, that results, in your oaths, which is what the tongue utters
spontaneously and unintentionally, such as ‘By God’, ‘Indeed, by God’: in such instances there is no sin and
no redemption required; but He will take you to task for what your hearts have earned, what their intention
is, when you commit perjury in your oaths; and God is Forgiving, of slips [in your oaths], Forbearing, since
He delays the punishment of the one deserving it.

[2:226]

For those who forswear their women, by swearing that they will not have sexual intercourse with them, a
wait of four months; if they revert, back from the oath, or repeal it and resume sexual relations, God is
Forgiving, of the harm they caused their women by swearing, Merciful, to them.

[2:227]

But if they resolve upon divorce, by not repealing it, then let them go through with it; surely God is Hearing,
of what they say; Knowing, of their resolve, meaning that after the waiting period mentioned, they can only
revert or divorce.

[2:228]

Divorced women shall wait by themselves, before remarrying, for three periods (qurū’in is the plural of qar’),
of purity or menstruation — these are two different opinions — which begin from the moment of divorce.
This [stipulation] applies to those who have been sexually penetrated but not to those otherwise, on account
of His saying, there shall be no [waiting] period for you to reckon against them [Q. 33:49]. The waiting
period for immature or menopausal women is three months; pregnant women, on the other hand, must wait
until they give birth, as stated in the sūrat al-Talāq [Q. 65:4], while slavegirls must wait two months,
according to the Sunna. And it is not lawful for them to hide what God has created in their wombs, of child
or menstruation, if they believe in God and the Last Day. Their mates, their spouses, have a better right to
restore them, to bring them back, even if they refuse, in such time, that is, during the waiting period, if they
desire to set things right, between them, and put pressure on the woman [to return]; the statement is not a
condition for the possibility of return, but an incitement [to set things right] in the case of repealed divorce;
the term ahaqq, ‘better right to’, does not denote any priority, since, in any case, no other person has the
right to marry them during their waiting period; women shall have rights, due from their spouses, similar to
those, rights, due from them, with justice, as stipulated by the Law, in the way of kind conjugality and not
being harmed; but their men have a degree above them, in rights, as in their duty to obey their husbands,
because of their [the husbands’] payment of a dowry and their [husbands] being the bread-winners; God is
Mighty, in His Kingdom, Wise, in what He has ordained for His creatures.

[2:229]

Divorce, that is, repudiation of the type that may be revoked, is twice; then honourable retention, that is to
say, you are then obliged to revert to them to retain them, without harming them; or setting, them, free
kindly. It is not lawful for you, O male spouses, to take of what you have given them, of dowry, if you

41
divorce them, unless the, married, couple fear that they may not maintain God’s bounds, that is to say, that
they will not honour the rights God has established for them (a variant reading [for yakhāfā, ‘they (dual
form) fear’] has yukhāfā, with the direct object taking the accusative ending; allā yuqīmā is an inclusive
substitution for the person [governing the verb]; both verbs are also read in the second person [sc. takhāfā,
‘you fear’, tuqīmā, ‘you maintain’]). If you fear they may not maintain God’s bounds, neither of them would
be at fault if she were to ransom herself, of some money, so that he should divorce her. In other words, in
this instance, there is no culpability either for the man, should he take of the dowry, or for the woman,
should she offer of it. Those, prescriptions mentioned, are God’s bounds; do not transgress them. Whoever
transgresses God’s bounds — those are the evildoers.

[2:230]

If he, the husband, divorces her, after the two utterances [of divorce]; she shall not be lawful to him after
that, after the third [utterance of] divorce, until she marries another husband, who has sexual intercourse
with her, as reported by the two Shaykhs [Bukhārī and Muslim]. If he, the second husband, divorces her,
then neither of them would be at fault, that is, the woman and her first husband, to return to each other, in
wedlock, after the completion of the waiting period, if they think that they will maintain God’s bounds.
Those, matters mentioned, are God’s bounds, which He makes clear to a people who have knowledge, [a
people who] reflect.

[2:231]

When you divorce women, and they have, very nearly, reached, the end of, their term, then retain them, by
returning to them, honourably, not harming them, or set them free honourably, or leave them until their
term is completed; do not retain them, when reverting, in harm (dirāran is an object denoting reason), to
transgress, that is, so as to force them to redemption, or to repudiate them or confine them indoors for a
long time; whoever does that has wronged his soul, by exposing it to God’s chastisement; take not God’s
verses in mockery, in jest by contravening them, and remember God’s grace upon you, that is, Islam, and
the Book, the Qur’ān, and the wisdom, the rulings contained therein, He has revealed to you, to exhort you
therewith, so that you should give thanks by acting in accordance with it; and fear God, and know that God
has knowledge of all things, and nothing can be hidden from Him.

[2:232]

When you divorce women, and they have reached, completed, their term, of waiting, do not debar them —
addressing the guardians here — from marrying their, divorced, husbands when they, the male spouses and
their women, have agreed together honourably, in accordance with the Law. The occasion for the revelation
[of this verse] was: Ma‘qil b. Yasār’s sister was divorced by her husband, who then wanted to restore her,
but Ma‘qil refused, as reported by al-Hākim. That, the prohibition against debarring, is an admonition for
whoever of you believe in God and the Last Day, because it is for the benefit of such a person; that,
refraining from debarring, is purer for you, better, and cleaner, for you and for them, bearing in mind the
suspicion that can be aroused by the couple on account of prior intimacy. God knows, what is in your
interest, and you know not, any of this, so follow His commands.

[2:233]

Mothers, shall, suckle their children for two full years (kāmilayn, ‘two full ones’, is an adjective for
emphasis); this is, for such as desire to fulfil the suckling, and this is the maximum length of time. It is for
the father to provide, food for, them, the mothers, and clothe them, during the suckling if they be divorced,
honourably, to the best of his ability. No soul is charged save to its capacity, its ability; a mother shall not be
harmed by her child, that is, on account of the child, by being forced to suckle it, if she does not want to;
neither, should, a father, be harmed, by his child, that is, on account of it, by being charged with more than
he is able to bear. The mention of both parents here in relation to the child is intended to show sympathy
[for both]. The heir, the one inheriting from his father, that is, the young man who is the trustee of his
[father’s] property, has a similar duty, to that of the father in terms of providing sustenance and clothing for
the [other] parent. But if the two, parents, desire by mutual consent, agreement, and consultation, so that

42
the child’s best interests are clear, to wean, that is, to effect ablactation before the completion of the two-
year period, then they would not be at fault, in this matter. And if you (addressing the parents) desire to
seek nursing, from other than the mothers, for your children, you would not be at fault, in this respect,
provided you hand over, to them, what you have given, what you intend to give them in the way of wages,
honourably, in kindness and good nature; and fear God, and know that God sees what you do, and that
nothing of it can be hidden from Him.

[2:234]

And those of you who pass away, die, leaving, behind, wives, they shall wait by themselves, after their
death, refraining from marriage, for four months and ten, nights: this applies to women who are not
pregnant. The waiting period in the case of pregnant women is for them to give birth — as stated by a verse
in sūrat al-Talāq [Q. 65:4]. The slavegirl must wait for half this period [of four months] according to the
Sunna; when they have reached, completed, their term, of waiting, then you would not be at fault, O
guardians, regarding what they may do with themselves, in the way of adorning themselves and offering
themselves before suitors, honourably, in accordance with the Law; God is aware of what you do, both
secretly and openly.

[2:235]

You would not be at fault regarding the proposal, with the intention of marriage, you present, offer, or hide
in your hearts, during the waiting period, to women, whose spouses have died: such as men saying, ‘How
beautiful you are!’, or, ‘Who could find one like you?’, or ‘How many a man must desire you!’. God knows
that you will be mindful of them, in proposing to them impatiently, and so He has permitted you to make
such offers; but do not make arrangements, of marriage, with them secretly, unless you speak honourable
words, such as are acknowledged by the Law, in other words, such as proposals, that which is permitted to
you. And do not resolve on the knot, the consummation, of marriage until that which is written, the period
prescribed, has reached its term, and has been completed; and know that God knows what is in your souls,
of resolve or otherwise; so be fearful of Him, that He should chastise you if you have made such resolve;
and know that God is Forgiving, toward him who is fearful of Him, Forbearing, in delaying the chastisement
of the one deserving it.

[2:236]

You would not be at fault if you divorce women while you have not touched them (tamassūhunna: also read
tumāssūhunna), that is, [while] you have not had sexual intercourse with them, nor appointed any
obligation, dowry, for them (the particle mā, ‘while’, relates to the verbal action and is also adverbial) that is
to say, there are no sinful consequences for divorcing them if you have not copulated with them or assigned
them a dowry, so divorce them; yet make provision of comforts for them honourably, that is, in accordance
with the Law (bi’l-ma‘rūf, ‘honourably’, is an adjectival qualification of matā‘an, ‘comforts’), giving them what
they can enjoy, the one of ample means, the affluent among you, according to his means, and the needy
man, of restricted income, according to his means — an obligation (haqqan, ‘obligation’, is either a second
qualifier of matā‘an, ‘comforts’, or an emphatic verbal noun), on the virtuous, the obedient ones.

[2:237]

And if you divorce them before you have touched them, and you have already appointed for them an
obligation, then one-half of what you have appointed, must be given to them and the other half returns to
you; unless it be that they, the women, make remission, and forgo it, or he makes remission, by leaving her
the entire amount, the one in whose hand is the knot of marriage, the husband to be, or as Ibn ‘Abbās is
reported to have said, ‘The legal guardian, where the female is a minor’; in which case nobody would be at
fault; yet that you should remit (wa-an ta‘fū is the subject) is nearer to piety (aqrabu li’l-taqwā is its
predicate). Forget not kindness between you, that is, to be bountiful towards one another; surely God sees
what you do, and will requite you accordingly.

[2:238]

43
Maintain the, five, prayers, by performing them at their appointed times, and the middle prayer, either that
of the afternoon, or the morning, or the midday, or another prayer (there are many opinions on this
matter); God has singled it out for mention because of its merit; and stand, in prayer, submissive to God, li
Lllāhi qānitīn: some have said that this means ‘obedience’, on account of the Prophet (s) saying, ‘Wherever
the [expression] qunūt [‘submission’], appears in the Qur’ān, it denotes obedience’, as reported by Ahmad
[b. Hanbal] and others; it is also said to mean ‘in silence’ [sākitīn], on the basis of a hadīth of Zayd b.
Arqam, in which he said, ‘We used to speak to each other sometimes during prayer, but when this was
revealed, we were commanded to be silent and were forbidden to talk’, as reported by the two Shaykhs
[Bukhārī and Muslim].

[2:239]

And if you are in fear, of an enemy, or a torrent, or a predatory animal, then standing (rijāl, plural of rājil),
praying while walking, or mounted (rukbān, plural of rākib). In other words, in whichever way you can,
facing the direction of the qibla or otherwise, making the gestures of genuflexion and prostration; but when
you are secure, from any fear, then remember God, by performing prayer, as He taught you what you knew
not, before He taught you its obligations and its proper ways (the particle kāf [of ka-mā, ‘as’] has the same
meaning as mithl [‘like’], while the mā is related to the verbal action, or is relative).

[2:240]

And those of you who die, leaving wives, let them, make testament (wasiyyatan, or wasiyyatun) for their
wives, as an obligation, and give them provision, what they can enjoy of property and clothes, for, until the
completion of, a year (matā‘an ilā l-hawl, ‘provision for a year’, is a circumstantial qualifier), that is, without
expelling them from their habitations; but if they go forth, of their own accord, you would not be at fault,
[you] the guardians of the dead one, regarding what they may do with themselves honourably, in
accordance with the Law, such as adorning themselves or abandoning the mourning, or that you should cut
off their expenditure; God is Mighty, in His Kingdom, Wise, in His actions. The testament mentioned here
was abrogated by the ‘inheritance’ verse [Q. 4:12], and the waiting of one year [without expulsion] was
abrogated by the previous verse four months and ten [Q. 2:234] which was revealed later. In the opinion of
al-Shāfi‘ī, may God have mercy on him, the habitation remains hers.

[2:241]

There shall be provision for divorced women, which they are given, honourably, as is feasible — an
obligation (haqqan, ‘obligation’, is in the accusative because it is governed by an implied verb) on those who
fear God, may He be exalted. He has repeated the phrase in order to include the woman that has been
touched [sexually], since the previous verse addresses a different issue.

[2:242]

So, in the same way that He has explained to you what has been mentioned, God makes clear His signs for
you, so that you might understand, reflect.

[2:243]

Have you not seen (an interrogative to provoke amazement and a longing to hear what will follow), that is,
‘Has your knowledge not attained’, those thousands, four, eight, ten, thirty, forty or seventy thousand, who
went forth from their habitations fearful of death? (hadhara’l-mawt: an object denoting reason). These were
a people from among the Children of Israel who fled their homeland after it was afflicted with plague. God
said to them, ‘Die!’, and they did. Then He gave them life, after eight days or more, as a result of the
supplication of their prophet Ezekiel (Hizqīl), and they lived on for a while with the effects of death still upon
them, such that when they wore garments these turned into shrouds for the deceased; and this
[phenomenon] remained with their descendants. Truly God is bounteous to people, such as when He gave
life back to those just mentioned, but most people, that is, disbelievers, are not thankful. The purpose of

44
mentioning the story of these people is to encourage believers to fight [in the way of God], which is why the
following [statement] is supplemented to it:

[2:244]

So fight in God’s way, in order to elevate His religion, and know that God is Hearing, of your sayings,
Knowing, of your affairs, and He will requite you accordingly.

[2:245]

Who is he that will lend God a loan, by expending his property in the way of God, that is good, by expending
it for the sake of God, Mighty and Majestic, out of pureness of heart, and He will multiply (yudā‘if, also read
yuda‘‘if) it for him manifold?, up to ten or seven hundred times or more, as will be mentioned soon. God
straitens, sustenance for whomever He wills in order to try him, and enlarges, it in abundance for whomever
He wills in order to test him; and to Him you shall be returned, in the Hereafter through the Resurrection,
where He will requite you for your deeds.

[2:246]

Have you not seen, the story and the tale of, the council, an assembly, of the Children of Israel, after, the
death of, Moses, when they said to a prophet of theirs, namely, Samuel, ‘Send, establish, for us a king, to
unite us and to whom we can refer [matters], and we will fight, with him, in God’s way’. He, the prophet,
said, to them: ‘Might it be that (‘asaytum, or ‘asītum) if fighting is prescribed for you, you will not fight? (allā
tuqātilū is the predicate of ‘asā, ‘might it be’; the interrogative is intended to confirm the expectation that
follows [sc. that they will not fight]). They said, ‘Why should we not fight in God’s way, when we have been
expelled from our habitations and our children?’, as a result of these latter being taken captive or killed, that
which they suffered at the hands of Goliath and his men. The meaning is, ‘There is nothing to stop us
fighting, provided the requirement [we demanded] is forthcoming’. God, exalted be He, says, Yet when
fighting was prescribed for them, they turned their backs, from fighting in cowardice, except a few of them,
the ones that crossed the river with Saul (Tālūt), as will be mentioned; and God has knowledge of the
evildoers, and will requite them accordingly. The prophet then asked his Lord to send forth a king, and God
responded by sending forth Saul.

[2:247]

Then their prophet said to them, ‘Verily God has raised up Saul for you as king’ They said, ‘How can he be
king over us when we have better right than he to kingship, since he is not of the tribe of monarchs or that
of prophets; he [Saul] was a tanner or a shepherd; seeing he has not been given amplitude of wealth?’
which he can use to establish a kingdom. He, the prophet, said, to them, ‘God has chosen him over you, for
kingship, and has increased him broadly, amply, in knowledge and body: at that time, he was the most
knowledgeable and the most handsome of all the Children of Israel, and the most perfect of character. God
gives the kingship to whom He will, in the way He does, and there can be no objection; and God is
Embracing, in His bounty, Knowing, of those who deserve it.

[2:248]

And their prophet said to them, after they had demanded a sign of his kingship: ‘The sign of his kingship is
that there will come to you the Ark, a chest containing the images of the prophets, which God sent down to
Adam, and which was handed down to them [sc. the Israelites], until the Amalekites seized it from them in
battle. They used to commence fighting invoking it before their enemy and marching behind it, as well as
experience peacefulness in its presence, as God says: therein is a Spirit of Peace, reassurance for your
hearts, from your Lord, and a remnant of what the folk of Moses and the folk of Aaron left behind, which
were Moses’s pair of sandals and his staff, Aaron’s turban, a measure (qafīz) of the manna that used to
come down on them, and the pieces of the broken tablets, the angels bearing it (tahmiluhu l-malā’ikatu, the
circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of the verb ya’tiyakum, ‘there will come to’). Surely in that
shall be a sign for you, of his kingship, if you are believers’. The angels bore it between the earth and the

45
sky while they gazed at it, until finally they placed it before Saul. They then acknowledged his kingship and
hastened to enlist in the [holy] struggle, and he chose seventy thousand of their young men.

[2:249]

And when Saul went forth with the hosts, from the Holy House [sc. Jerusalem], the heat was intense and so
they asked him for water; he said, ‘God will try, test, you, in order to distinguish the obedient among you
from the disobedient, with a river, between Jordan and Palestine, whoever drinks of it, of its water, is not of
me, is not of my followers, and whoever tastes it not, he is of me, except for him who scoops up with his
hand’ (ghurfa, or gharfa, ‘a scoop’), satisfying himself therewith and not taking more, he is also of my
followers. But they drank of it, when they reached it and saw that it was abundant, except a few of them,
who restricted themselves to a scoop: it is reported that one scoop was enough for each man and his horse,
and they numbered over three hundred; and when he crossed it, with those who believed, the ones who
confined themselves to the one scoop, they, the ones that drank profusely, said, ‘We have no power today
against Goliath and his troops’, that is, [no power] to fight them, and they were cowardly and did not cross
it. Those who thought, with certainty that, they would meet God, at the Resurrection, and these were the
ones that crossed it, said, ‘How often (kam, ‘how’, functions as a predicate, meaning kathīr, ‘many’) a little
company, group of men, has overcome a numerous one, by God’s leave, by His will; and God is with the
patient’, [providing them] with help and assistance.

[2:250]

So, when they went forth against Goliath and his troops, facing them in military columns, they said, ‘Our
Lord, pour out upon us patience, and make firm our feet, by strengthening our hearts for this struggle, and
grant us victory over the disbelieving folk!’

[2:251]

And they routed, they broke, them, by the leave of God, by His will, and David, who was among the ranks of
Saul’s army, slew Goliath; and God gave him, David, the kingship, over the Children of Israel, and Wisdom,
prophethood after the death of Samuel and Saul, and the combination [of kingship and prophethood] had
never come to anyone before him; and He taught him such as He willed, of the manufacture of mail-coats
and the speech of birds. Had God not repelled people some (ba‘dahum, ‘some’, substitutes for [saying]
ba‘dan min al-nās, ‘some people’) by means of others the earth would have surely been corrupted, with
idolaters defeating and slaying Muslims, and mosques being destroyed; but God is bounteous to all worlds,
by repelling some by means of others.

[2:252]

These, verses, are the verses of God We recite to you, O Muhammad (s), as narration, in truth, and
assuredly you are one of the Messengers [of God], the emphasis is made here with the particle inna [of
innaka, ‘surely you are’], with the remainder of the statement being a rebuttal of the disbelievers’ saying,
‘You are no Messenger’.

[2:253]

Those (tilka is the subject) messengers (al-rusul is either an adjective or the predicate) some We have
preferred above others, by assigning a particular trait to one not found in the other; some there are to
whom God spoke, such as Moses, and some He raised in rank, namely, Muhammad (s), on account of his
call being to all peoples, his being the Seal of the Prophets, on account of the superiority of his community
to all others, the sundry miracles and the many special qualities. And We gave Jesus son of Mary the clear
proofs, and confirmed him, strengthened him, with the Holy Spirit, namely, Gabriel who would accompany
him wherever he went. And had God willed, that all people be guided, those who came after them, after the
messengers, that is, their communities, would not have fought against one another after the clear proofs
had come to them, because of their disagreement and their leading one another astray; but they fell into
variance, as He willed, and some of them believed, and adhered firmly to his faith, and some disbelieved, as

46
the Christians did after Jesus (al-Masīh), and had God willed they would not have fought against one
another (repeated here for emphasis), but God does whatever He desires, giving success to whomever He
will and disappointment to whomever He will.

[2:254]

O you who believe, expend of what We have provided you with, what is due of it as alms, before there
comes a day in which there shall be neither commerce, ransom, nor friendship, that can be of any benefit,
nor intercession, without His permission (a variant reading has all three nouns in nominative inflection
bay‘un, khullatun, shafā‘atun [as opposed to lā bay‘a, lā khullata, lā shafā‘ata]): this is the Day of
Resurrection. And the disbelievers, those that disbelieve in God or in the obligations He has imposed on
them — they are the evildoers, for not respecting God’s command.

[2:255]

God, there is no god, that is, there is none worthy of being worshipped in [all] existence, except Him, the
Living, the Everlasting, the Eternal Sustainer, the One constantly engaged in the management of His
creation. Slumber does not seize Him, neither sleep; to Him belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth,
as possessions, creatures and servants; who is there, that is to say, none is there, that shall intercede with
Him save by His leave?, in this for him. He knows what lies before them, that is, creation, and what is after
them, of the affairs of this world and the Hereafter; and they encompass nothing of His knowledge, that is,
they know nothing of what He knows, save such as He wills, to inform of it by way of His messengers. His
throne subsumes the heavens and the earth, it is said that His knowledge encompasses them both; it is also
said that the kursī (‘throne’) itself subsumes them on account of its vastness, as in the hadīth, ‘The seven
heavens compared to the kursī are like seven silver coins lying in a metal shield [of armour]’; the preserving
of them, the heavens and the earth, wearies Him not, does not burden Him; He is the Sublime, above His
creation by virtue of His subjugation [of them], the Tremendous, the Great.

[2:256]

There is no compulsion in, entering into, religion. Rectitude has become clear from error, that is say,
through clear proofs it has become manifest that faith is rectitude and disbelief is error: this was revealed
concerning the Ansār [of Medina] who tried to compel their sons to enter into Islam; so whoever disbelieves
in the false deity, namely, Satan or idols (tāghūt, ‘false deity’, is used in a singular and plural sense), and
believes in God, has laid hold of the most firm handle, the tight knot, unbreaking, that cannot be severed;
God is Hearing, of what is said, Knowing, of what is done.

[2:257]

God is the Protector, helper, of the believers; He brings them forth from the shadows, of unbelief, into the
light, of faith. And the disbelievers — their protectors are false deities, that bring them forth from the light
into the shadows: the repetition of ‘bringing forth from’ here is either to be taken as a reflection of His
[previous] words, “He brings them forth from the shadows”, or as a reference to all those Jews who believed
in the Prophet before he was sent, but then rejected him, those are the inhabitants of the Fire, therein they
shall abide.

[2:258]

Have you not seen him who disputed with Abraham, concerning his Lord, because of the fact, that God had
given him the kingship?, that is, his arrogance towards this very grace of God: this was Nimrod (Nimrūd).
When (idh is a substitution for hājja, ‘disputed’) Abraham, in response to the other’s question, ‘Who is this
Lord of yours to whom you are calling us?’, said: ‘My Lord is He who gives life, and makes to die’, the One
that creates life and death in bodies; he [Nimrod] said, ‘I give life, by sparing, and make to die’, by killing.
He then had two men brought before him, killed one and spared the other. When Abraham realised that this
man was a fool, Abraham, resorting to a more sophisticated argument, said: ‘God brings the sun from the
east; so bring, you, it from the west.’ Then the disbeliever was confused, perplexed and amazed; and God

47
guides not the folk who do evil, disbelieving, to the art of argument.

[2:259]

Or, did you see, such as he, Ezra (‘Uzayr), who (the kāf of ka’lladhī, ‘such as he who’, is extra) passed by a
city, namely, the Holy House [sc. Jerusalem], riding on an ass and carrying with him a basket of figs and a
cup of juice, [a city] that was fallen down, collapsed, upon its turrets, its roof tops: after Nebuchadnezzar
had destroyed it; he said, ‘How (annā means kayfa, ‘how’) shall God give life to this now that it is dead?’,
challenging the power of the exalted One, so God made him die, and remain dead for, a hundred years,
then he raised him up, brought him back to life to show him how this could be done; He, God, said, ‘How
long have you tarried?’, been here?; he said, ‘I have tarried a day, or part of a day’, because he fell asleep
before noon, and was made dead and then brought back to life again at sunset, and thus he thought it was
a day’s sleep; He said, ‘Nay; you have tarried a hundred years. Look at your food, the figs, and drink, the
cup of juice, it has not spoiled, despite the length of time (the final hā’ of yatasannah, ‘to spoil’, is said to
belong to the original root, s-n-h; but it is also said to be silent, in which case the root would be s-n-y; a
variant reading omits the final hā’); and look at your ass, how it is, and he saw that it had died, and all that
remained were its withered white bones. We did this so that you would know and, so that We would make
you a sign, of [the truth of] the Resurrection, for the people. And look at the bones, of the ass, how We
shall set them up, how We shall raise them back to life (nunshiruhā, or nanshiruhā, derived from the two
expressions, nashara and anshara; a variant reading has nunshizuhā, meaning ‘How We shall move it and
make it stand’); and then clothe them with flesh’, and when he looked at it, he saw that [the bones] had
been reconstituted and clothed with flesh, and that the Spirit had been breathed into it, making it bray. So,
when it was made clear to him, as a result of witnessing it, he said, ‘I know (a variant reading for a‘lam, ‘I
know’, has [the imperative] i‘lam, ‘know!’, thus making it a command from God), with the knowledge of
direct vision, that God has power over all things’.

[2:260]

And, mention, when Abraham said, ‘My Lord show me how You give life to the dead,’ He, God, exalted be
He, said, to him, ‘Why, do you not believe?’, in My power to revive; God asks him this even though He
knows of his belief in this [power], as a response to his request, and so that the ones listening will know the
purpose [of the request]; ‘Yes,’, I do believe, he said, ‘but, I ask You, so that my heart may be re-assured’,
[so that it may be] at peace, through direct vision, in addition to that [certainty] which is sought through
logical reasoning. Said He, ‘Take four birds, and twist them to you (sirhunna, or surhunna), turn them
towards you, cut them up and mix together their flesh and feathers, then set a part of them on every hill, in
the land around you, then summon them, to you, and they will come to you in haste. And know that God is
Mighty, that nothing is beyond Him, Wise’, in His actions. Abraham took a peacock, an eagle, a raven and a
cock and did with them as has been mentioned, but kept their heads with him. He called them, and all the
parts began to fly back together, combining until they were whole and returning to their heads.

[2:261]

The likeness, of the quality of the expenditure, of those who expend their wealth in the way of God, that is,
in obedience of Him, is as the likeness of a grain of corn that sprouts seven ears, in every ear a hundred
grains: likewise what they expend will be multiplied seven hundred times; so God multiplies, even more than
this, for whom He will; God is Embracing, in His bounty, Knowing, those who deserve such multiplications.

[2:262]

Those who expend their wealth in the way of God then do not follow up their expenditure with reminder of
their generosity, of the one on whom they expended, for example, by saying, ‘I was good to him and
restored his affairs’; and injury, to that person, by mentioning this to people whom he would prefer not to
know about it; their wage, the reward for their expenditure, is with their Lord, and no fear shall befall them,
neither shall they grieve, in the Hereafter.

[2:263]

48
Honourable words, kind talk and a generous reply to the beggar, and forgiveness, towards him for his
persistence, are better than a voluntary almsgiving followed by injury, through reproach and deriding him for
his begging; and God is Independent, of the voluntary almsgiving of His servants, Forbearing, in His delaying
the punishment of the reproachful and injurious one.

[2:264]

O you who believe, annul not, the rewards of, your voluntary almsgivings with reproach and injury, as, in
the manner of the annulment of the expenditure of, one who expends of his substance to show off to men
and believes not in God and the Last Day: this is the hypocrite. The likeness of him is as the likeness of a
smooth rock on which is soil, and a torrent, of intense rain, smites it, and leaves it barren, and smooth with
nothing on it. They have no power (lā yaqdirūna is a resumption of the statement about the likeness of the
one that expends for show; the person becomes plural on account of the [potential plural] implication of
alladhī, ‘the one who’) over anything that they have earned, that they did, in other words, they find no
reward for it in the Hereafter, just as one finds nothing of the dust that was on the surface of the smooth
rock, after the rain has washed it away. God guides not the disbelieving folk.

[2:265]

But the likeness, of the expenditure, of those who expend their wealth, seeking God’s good pleasure, and to
confirm themselves, that is, to realise the reward thereof, in contrast to the hypocrites who do not hope for
it, since they do not believe in it, is as the likeness of a garden, an orchard, upon a hill, (read rabwa or
rubwa) a high ground; a torrent smites it and it yields, gives forth, its produce (read ukulahā or uklahā), its
fruits, twofold, twice the fruits of another [garden]; if no torrent smites it, then dew, (tall, a light drizzle)
which falls on it and suffices it on account of its altitude. In other words, it grows and bears fruit, regardless
of how much rain falls; likewise are the expenditures of those mentioned: they will increase with God,
regardless of how much they were; and God sees what you do, and He will requite you for it.

[2:266]

Would any of you wish to have a garden, an orchard, of date-palms and vines, with rivers flowing beneath
it, for him there is in it all manner of fruit, then old age smites him, and makes him too weak to profit from
it, and he has seed, but they are weak, young children who cannot manage it; then a whirlwind (i‘sār are
violent winds) with fire smites it, and it is consumed?, so that he loses what he is most in need of, and now
he and his children have become incapacitated, confused, without any resources. This is a similitude of how
the expenditure of the one expending for show, or the one who reproaches [after having expended],
vanishes and how it is of no avail when he will be most in need of it in the Hereafter (the interrogative [a-
yawaddu, ‘would any wish’] is intended as a denial). According to Ibn ‘Abbās, this is the person who
performs deeds of obedience, but when Satan comes to him, he begins to work disobedience, until all his
good deeds have been consumed. So, in the way that He has explained what has been mentioned, God
makes clear the signs to you, so that you might reflect, and take heed.

[2:267]

O you who believe, expend of, that is to say, purify, the good things you have earned, of property, and, the
good things, of what We have produced for you from the earth, of grains and fruits, and seek not (lā
tayammamū, means lā taqsudū) the corrupt, the vile, of it, the above-mentioned, for your expending, it as
alms (tunfiqūna, ‘you expend’, is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the person of [the verb] tayammamū,
‘seek’); for you would never take it, the vile part, yourselves, if you were given it as something due to you;
without closing your eyes to it, by being careless and mindless, so how do you expect to give what is due to
God from this?; and know that God is Independent, of your expenditures, Laudable, praised in every
situation.

[2:268]

49
Satan promises you poverty, by making you fear [loss] when you make a voluntary almsgiving, and so you
withhold it, and enjoins you to indecency, niggardliness and the impeding of almsgiving; but God promises
you, in return for your expenditure, His pardon, for your sins, and His bounty, as sustenance from Him; and
God is Embracing, in His bounty, Knowing, the one who expends.

[2:269]

He gives wisdom, that is, the profitable knowledge that leads to [righteous] action, to whomever He will,
and he who is given wisdom, has been given much good, because he will end up in perpetual bliss; yet none
remembers (the tā’ of yadhdhakkar has been assimilated with the dhāl), that is to say, [none] is
admonished, but the people of pith, possessors of intellects.

[2:270]

And whatever expenditure you expend, be it as alms or a voluntary almsgiving, and whatever vow you
make, and fulfil, surely God knows it, and will requite you for it. For the evildoers, who prevent almsgiving
and vows, or expend other than the way they should, in disobedience to God, they have no helpers, to
protect them from His chastisement.

[2:271]

If you proclaim, make manifest, your voluntary almsgivings, that is, your supererogatory deeds, it is a fine
thing, to show them; but if you conceal them, and give them to the poor, that is even better for you, than
making them manifest or giving it to the rich. As regards the obligatory almsgiving, it is better to make it
manifest, so that it serves as an example and so that one is not accused [falsely of not giving]; as regards
giving it to the poor, this is obligatory; and it will absolve you of, some of, your evil deeds (read yukaffir, ‘it
will absolve’, or nukaffir, ‘We will absolve’, either in apocopated form [with no final vowel, yukaffir, nukaffir],
being a supplement to the locus of fa-huwa, ‘that is’, or with nominative inflection [yukaffiru, nukaffiru],
indicating the beginning of a new sentence). God is aware of what you do, knowing its inner and outer
aspects, nothing of it being hidden from Him.

[2:272]

When the Prophet (s) was prohibited from giving voluntary alms to idolaters [as an incentive] for them to
embrace Islam, the following was revealed: You are not responsible for guiding them, that is to say, for
people, that they should embrace Islam, [you are responsible] only for conveying the Message [to them];
but God guides, with His guidance, whomever He will, to embrace Islam. And whatever good, property, you
expend is for yourselves, since the reward is for you; for then you are expending, desiring only God’s Face
(this clause is the predicate, denoting a prohibition), that is to say, His reward and not any other transient
object of this world, and whatever good you expend, its requital, shall be repaid to you in full, and you will
not be wronged, you will not suffer any diminishment of it (both [of the last two] sentences emphasise the
first one).

[2:273]

For the poor (this is the predicate of the missing subject, al-sadaqāt, ‘voluntary almsgiving’), who are
constrained in the way of God, those who have confined themselves [in preparation] for the struggle: this
was revealed concerning the people of Suffa, consisting in some four hundred of the Emigrants (muhājirūn),
set apart [from the other Muslims] for the study of the Qur’ān and to take part in raids; and they are unable
to journey (darban, means safaran) in the land, to engage in commerce and earn their living, since they are
fully engaged in the struggle; the ignorant man supposes them, on account of the way they behave, rich
because of their abstinence, that is, their refraining from asking for things; but you, the one being
addressed, shall know them by their mark, by the signs of their humility and exertion; they do not beg of
men, and make urgent demands, importunately, that is to say, they do not beg in the first place, so there is
no question of persistence. And whatever good you expend, surely God has knowledge of it, and will requite
it accordingly.

50
[2:274]

Those who expend their wealth night and day, secretly and openly, their wage awaits them with their Lord,
and no fear shall befall them, neither shall they grieve.

[2:275]

Those who devour, that is, [those who] seize by way of, usury, which is an excess [levied] in transactions of
money or foodstuffs either on their value or on credit, shall not rise again, from their graves, except, rising,
as one whom Satan has made prostrate, demented, from touch, [through] madness (min al-mass, ‘from
touch’, is semantically connected to yaqūmūna, ‘they rise’); that, which befalls them, is because, of the fact
that, they say, ‘Trade is like usury’, in terms of permissibility: this [statement] is a type of reversed simile
used for intensity [sc. ‘usury is like trade’ is the expected word order]. God responds to them saying that:
God has permitted trade, and forbidden usury. Whoever receives an admonition from his Lord and desists,
from devouring it, he shall have his past gains, those made before the prohibition and which cannot be
reclaimed from him, and his affair, with regard to pardoning him, is committed to God; but whoever reverts,
to devouring it, treating it like trade in terms of lawfulness — those are the inhabitants of the Fire, abiding
therein.

[2:276]

God effaces usury, diminishing it and eliminating any blessing in it, but He augments voluntary almsgivings
with interest, increasing them, making them grow and multiplying their reward. God loves not, that is to say,
He will requite, any guilty, profligate devouring it, ingrate, who deems usury licit.

[2:277]

Those who believe and perform righteous deeds, and establish the prayer, and pay the alms — their wage
awaits them with their Lord, and no fear shall befall them, neither shall they grieve.

[2:278]

O you who believe, fear God, and give up, abandon, the usury that is outstanding, if you are believers, true
to your faith, since it is expected of the believer that he adhere to God’s command: this was revealed when
some of the Companions, after the prohibition, wanted to reclaim some of the usury from before.

[2:279]

But if you do not, do what you have been commanded, then be warned, have knowledge, of war from God,
and His Messenger, against you: herein is a grave threat for them. When it was revealed, they said, ‘What
power can we have in a war against Him!’ Yet if you repent, and forgo it, you shall have your principal sums,
the original amounts, not being unjust, by charging interest, and no injustice being done to you, by way of
any diminution.

[2:280]

And if any man, in debt, should be in difficulties, then, let him have, respite, a postponement, till things are
easier (read maysara or maysura, meaning ‘a time of ease’); but that you should give (tassaddaqū, where
the second tā’ of the softened form, tatasaddaqū, has been assimilated with the sād), the one in difficulty, a
voluntary almsgiving, by waiving his debt, is better for you, did you but know, [if you know] that it is better
for you, then do it. In a hadīth it is said, ‘Whoever gives respite to one in difficulty, or waives his debt, God
will place him under His shade, on a day when there shall be no shade except God’s’, as reported by Muslim.

[2:281]

51
And fear a day wherein you shall be returned to God, namely, the Day of Resurrection (read the passive
[turja‘ūna] meaning, ‘you shall be returned’, or the active [tarji‘ūna] meaning ‘you shall return’), and every
soul, on that day, shall be paid in full, the requital of, what it has earned, what it has done of good or evil;
and they shall not be wronged, through any loss of a good deed or the incurring of an extra evil deed.

[2:282]

O you who believe, when you contract, when you are dealing with, a debt, such as in prepayment for
(future) delivery of goods or a loan, one upon another for a stated, a known, term, write it down, as
confirmation and security against any dispute; and let a writer write it, the contract of debt, down between
you justly, accurately, not increasing or decreasing the amount or the terms; and let not any writer refuse to
write it down, if he is requested for such a task, as God has taught him (the kāf of ka-mā, ‘as’, is
semantically connected to the verb ya’ba, ‘refuse’), that is, just as He has given him the advantage of
knowing how to write, he should not be niggardly in this respect; so let him write (repeated for emphasis),
and let the debtor dictate, to the one writing the contract, for he is the one being witnessed, and must be
fully aware of his obligations; and let him fear God his Lord, when dictating, and not diminish anything of it,
of the debt due. And if the debtor be a fool, a squanderer, or weak, not up to dictating on account of old
age or immaturity, or unable to dictate himself, on account of being dumb, or not knowing the language and
so forth, then let his guardian, the one in charge of his affairs, be it a parent, an executor, a custodian or an
interpreter, dictate justly. And summon to bear witness, the debt, two witnesses, men, mature Muslim free
men; or if the two, witnesses, be not men, then one man and two women, to bear witness, such witnesses
as you approve of, on account of their piety and probity; the number of women is because of the fact, so
that if one of the two women errs, forgets the testimony, given their lesser astuteness and accuracy; the
other, the one remembering, will remind her (read fa-tudhakkira or fa-tudhkira), the one that has forgotten
— the ‘reminding’ clause is the reason [for the choice of two women], that is to say, so that she may be
reminded if she errs or strays into error, because this [forgetfulness] is the cause of it (a variant reading [for
an, ‘that’] has the conditional in, ‘if’, with [the verb inflected as] tudhakkiru, ‘she will remind’, making it a
new sentence, the response to which [follows]); and let the witnesses not refuse, whenever (the mā of idhā
mā, ‘whenever’, is extra) they are summoned, to bear witness and take responsibility for the testimony; and
be not disdainful, lazy, to write it down, that which you have witnessed in truth (for this frequently
occurred), be it, small or great, a little or much, with its term, that is, the date on which it is due (ilā ajlihi is
a circumstantial qualifier referring to the [pronominal suffix] hā’ of taktubū-hu, ‘you write it down’); that,
writing down, is more equitable, more just, in God’s sight, more upright for testimony, that is to say, [that
is] more helpful in summoning witness, because it contains the reminder; and nearer, closer to attaining
[the desired state] that you will not be in doubt, with regard to the amount and the due dates; unless it be,
[that] there is, trade carried out there and then (tijāratun hādiratun: a variant reading has tijāratan
hādiratan, in which case the nominal sentence is missing its subject, and must be the pronoun for tijāra,
‘trade’, that is, hiya, ‘it [fem. pronoun]’) that you give and take between you, without there being a time-
frame, then you will not be at fault if you do not write it, the merchandise itself, down. And take witnesses,
over it, when you are trading with one another, for this is a better means of preventing dispute. The
provisions here are delegated (to the personal choice of the people involved). And let not either writer or
witness, the creditor and the debtor, be pressed, to distorting [the agreement], being prevented from
testimony or dictation; nor should the creditor press them by charging them with what is not suitable for the
testimony or the dictation; and if you do, what is prohibited to you, that is sinfulness, a rebellion against
obedience, and lack of truth, in you. And fear God, in what He commands and prohibits. God teaches you
(wa-yu‘allimukumu Llāhu, is an implied circumstantial qualifier or it denotes the beginning of a new clause),
what is in your best interests, and God knows all things.

[2:283]

And if you are upon a journey, travelling and you contract a debt, and you do not find a writer, then a
pledge (ruhun or rihān, plural of rahn) in hand, as a guarantee for you. The Sunna clarifies the permissibility
of making pledges in towns, where writers may be forthcoming; but the stipulation is made in the event of
travel because in this case it is more important to have a guarantee; God’s reference to it being ‘in hand’
(maqbūda) is a condition for the pledge given to be valid, and to satisfy the pledgee or his representative.
But if one of you, the creditor, trusts another, the debtor, over the debt and does not require a pledge, let

52
him who is trusted, the debtor, deliver his trust, the debt; and let him fear God his Lord, when delivering it.
And do not conceal the testimony, if you are summoned to give it; whoever conceals it, his heart is sinful:
the heart is mentioned because it is the locus of the testimony, and because if it sins, there are other sinful
consequences, and so the person will be punished as though he were a sinner; and God knows what you do,
nothing of which can be hidden from Him.

[2:284]

To God belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth. Whether you disclose, manifest, what is in your
hearts or hide it, of evil and resolve for it, God shall take you to account for it, informing you of it on the Day
of Resurrection. Then He will forgive whom He will, to forgive, and chastise whom He will, to chastise (both
verbs are apocopated [fa-yaghfir, ‘he will forgive’, wa-yu‘adhdhib, ‘he will chastise’] if taken as the responses
to the conditional, in tubdū, ‘if you proclaim’; but they may also be read with a final nominative inflection
[yaghfiru, yu‘adhdhibu] in which case, it would [constitute a new clause and] follow on from an implicit fa-
huwa, ‘then He’). And God has power over all things, including reckoning with you and requiting you.

[2:285]

The Messenger, Muhammad (s) believes in, affirms the truth of, what was revealed to him from his Lord,
namely, the Qur’ān, and the believers (wa’l-mu’minūna is a supplement to al-rasūlu, ‘the Messenger’); each
one (the tanwīn of kullun stands in place of the second noun in an annexation [sc. kullu wāhidin]) believes in
God and His angels, and in His Books, all of them and each of them, and His messengers, and they say, ‘we
make no distinction between any of His messengers’, believing in some and disbelieving in others, in the
manner of the Jews and the Christians. And they say, ‘We hear, what we have been enjoined to hear and
accept, and obey; we ask you: Your forgiveness, our Lord; to You is the homecoming’, that is, the return at
the Resurrection. When the previous verse was revealed, the believers complained of evil whisperings and it
grieved them that they should be taken to account according to [the principle expressed in] it, and so the
following was revealed:

[2:286]

God charges no soul save to its capacity, that is, what it is capable of bearing; for it is what it has merited,
of good and its reward, and against it is what it has earned, of evil and its burden: no person shall be
requited for another’s sin or for what he has not earned, even if he was tempted to do it. Say: Our Lord,
take us not to task, by way of chastisement, if we forget, or err, by straying from the right path unknowingly
— as You used to take to task those before us: God has lifted this [burden] from this community, as
reported in hadīth. The petition here, then, is a way of acknowledging God’s favour; our Lord, burden us not
with a load, an affair which we cannot bear, such as You did lay upon those before us, namely, upon the
Children of Israel, as for example, the killing of oneself in repentance, the paying of a quarter of one’s
property for alms, and the severing of the impure part. Our Lord, do not burden us beyond what we have
the power, the strength, to bear, of obligations and trials; and pardon us, effacing our sins, and forgive us,
and have mercy on us, with mercy added to Your forgiveness; You are our Patron, our Master and the
Guardian of our affairs; so grant us assistance against the disbelieving folk, by establishing definitive proof
[for us] and victory over them in battle, for it is expected of a patron that he assist his clients against their
enemies. In a hadīth it is stated that when this verse was revealed and the Prophet (s) was reciting it, after
each word it was said to him, “Granted”.
Medinese: [consisting of] 200 or 199 verses, and revealed after [sūrat] al-Anfāl.

53
 (Al ‘Imrân)
[3:1]

Alif Lām Mīm: God knows best what He means by these [letters].

[3:2]

God! There is no god except Him, the Living, the Eternal.

[3:3]

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

[3:4]

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.

[3:5]

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.

[3:6]

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.

[3:7]

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:

54
[3:8]

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.

[3:9]

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.

[3:10]

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’).

[3:11]

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.

[3:12]

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.

[3:13]

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

55
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?

[3:14]

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].

[3:15]

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.

[3:16]

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”.

[3:17]

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.

[3:18]

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.

[3:19]

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.

56
[3:20]

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.

[3:21]

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…’, fa-
bashshirhum, ‘then, give them good tidings…’]).

[3:22]

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.

[3:23]

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.

[3:24]

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 (wa-
gharrahum fī dīnihim, ‘it has deluded them in their religion’, is semantically connected to mā kānū yaftarūna,
‘the lies which they used to invent’).

[3:25]

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.

[3:26]

57
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.

[3:27]

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’.

[3:28]

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.

[3:29]

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.

[3:30]

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.

[3:31]

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.

[3:32]

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’]).

[3:33]

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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:

[3:34]

the seed of one, offspring from, another, of them; God is Hearer, Knower.

[3:35]

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.

[3:36]

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].

[3:37]

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.

[3:38]

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,

59
[You are] the One Who answers, supplication’.

[3:39]

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.

[3:40]

He said, ‘My Lord! How shall I have a boy, a son, when old age has overtaken me, that is, [after] I have
reached extreme [old] age, 120 years [old]; and my wife is barren?’, having reached the age of 98. He said,
‘So it, the matter, will be’, with God creating a boy from both of you. ‘God does what He will’, nothing can
prevent Him therefrom, and in order to manifest this great power he was inspired with the question so that
he would be answered through it [this great power]. And when his soul longed for the swift fulfilment of that
of which good tidings had been given:

[3:41]

He said, ‘My Lord! Appoint for me a sign’, that is, an indication of my wife’s pregnancy. He said, ‘Your sign,
for this, is that you shall not speak to men, that is, you shall refrain from speaking to them, but not from
remembrance of God, save by tokens, gestures, for three days, and nights. And remember your Lord often,
and glorify, perform prayer, at evening and dawn’, at the end of the day and at its beginning.

[3:42]

And, mention, when the angels, namely, Gabriel, said, ‘O Mary, God has preferred you, He has elected you,
and made you pure, of the touch of men; He has preferred you above all women of the worlds, that is, the
inhabitants of your time.

[3:43]

O Mary, be obedient to your Lord, be compliant before Him, prostrating and bowing with those who bow’,
that is, pray with those who pray.

[3:44]

That, which has been mentioned of the matter of Zachariah and Mary, is of the tidings of the Unseen, of the
news of what was unknown to you. We reveal it to you, O Muhammad (s), for you were not with them,
when they were casting quills, in the water, drawing their lots so that it be manifested to them, which of
them should have charge of, [which of them should] bring up, Mary; nor were you with them, when they
were disputing, about the custodianship of Mary, such that you might have known it and related it; but truly
you know it only through revelation.

[3:45]

Mention, when the angels, namely, Gabriel, said, ‘O Mary, God gives you good tidings of a Word from Him,
that is, a boy, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, He addresses her attributing him to her in
order to point out that she will give birth to him without a father, for, the custom is to attribute the child to
its father, honoured shall he be in this world, through prophethood, and the Hereafter, through [his]
intercession and the high stations [al-darajāt al-‘ulā, cf. Q. 20:75], and of those brought close, to God.

[3:46]

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He shall speak to mankind in the cradle, that is to say, as a child before the age of speech, and in his
manhood, and he is of the righteous’.

[3:47]

She said, ‘Lord, how shall I have a child when no mortal has touched me?’, neither through conjugality or
otherwise; He said, the command, ‘It is such, that God will create from you a child without a father. God
creates what He will. When He decrees a thing, willing its creation, He says to it only: “Be”, and it is, that is,
[and] ‘he is’.

[3:48]

And We will teach him (read nu‘allimuhu, or, yu‘allimuhu, ‘He will teach him’) the Book, that is, script,
wisdom, and the Torah, and the Gospel.

[3:49]

And He will make him, to be a messenger to the Children of Israel, during his tender years, or after puberty.
Gabriel breathed into the opening of her garment and she became pregnant. What happened to her after
this is mentioned later in sūrat Maryam [Q. 19:21ff]. Thus, when God sent him to the Children of Israel, he
said to them, ‘I am God’s Messenger to you’, and, ‘I have come to you with a sign, an indication of my
truthfulness, from your Lord, and it is that, I will create (a variant reading for [the particle introducing the
relative clause] annī, ‘that I’, has innī, ‘truly I’, indicating a new [independent] sentence) [that] I will fashion,
for you out of clay like the shape of a bird (ka-hay’at, ‘something like the shape of’: the kāf is the subject of
a passive participle) then I will breathe into it (fīhi, the [suffixed] pronoun [-hi] refers to the [preceding]
kāf), and it will be a bird (tayran, is also read tā’iran) by the leave, the will, of God. So he created for them a
bat, being the most perfectly-created of birds, and they would watch it flying, but when it went out of sight,
it would fall dead — so that the work of a creature [sc. Jesus] may be distinguished from the work of the
Creator, namely, God, exalted be He, and that he might know that perfection belongs to God [alone]. I will
also heal the blind (akmah is one that is blind from birth) and the leper; these two are singled out for
mention because with both afflictions the person is completely helpless. He [Jesus] was sent in an age of
[characterised by] medicinal science, and he cured, through supplication, fifty thousand in one day on the
condition that each person would become a believer; and I bring to life the dead, by the leave of God — He
repeats this to preclude any false attributions of divinity to him — he brought back to life his friend ‘Āzar, the
son of an old woman, and the daughter of the tithe-collector, all of whom lived on and produced offspring,
and [he also brought back to life] Shem, son of Noah, but he died [again] immediately. I will inform you too
of what things you eat, and what you treasure up, store, in your houses, and what I have never seen, and
he would inform people what they had eaten and what they would eat. Surely in that, mentioned, is a sign
for you, if you are believers.

[3:50]

Likewise, I have come to you, confirming that which was before me of the Torah, and to make lawful for
you some of that which was forbidden to you, in it. Thus he made lawful for them fish and birds which had
no spikes; it is also said that he made it all lawful for them, so that ba‘d, ‘some’, means, kull, ‘all’). I have
come to you with a sign from your Lord, He has repeated it for emphasis and to expand upon it: so fear
God, and obey me, in what I command you of affirming God’s Oneness and being obedient to Him.

[3:51]

Surely God is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him. This, that which I enjoin upon you, is a straight path’.
But they rejected him and did not believe in him.

[3:52]

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And when Jesus sensed, [when] he became aware of, their disbelief, and they plotted to kill him, he said,
‘Who will be my helpers, departing, unto God?’, to help His religion; The disciples said, ‘We will be helpers of
God, those who assist His religion: they were Jesus’s intimates and the first to believe in him. [They were]
twelve men who were of pure white complexion (hawar); but some say that they [were called hawāriyyūn
because they] were bleachers of clothes (qassārūn); we believe in, we accept the truth of, God; witness, O
Jesus, that we have submitted.

[3:53]

Lord, we believe in what You have revealed, of the Gospel, and we follow the Messenger, Jesus; inscribe us
therefore with those who bear witness’, to Your Oneness and to the truthfulness of Your Messenger.

[3:54]

God says: And they, the disbelievers among the Children of Israel, schemed, against Jesus, by assigning
someone to assassinate him; and God schemed, by casting the likeness of Jesus onto the person who
intended to kill him, and so they killed him, while Jesus was raised up into heaven; and God is the best of
schemers, most knowledgeable of him [Jesus].

[3:55]

And mention, when God said, ‘O Jesus, I am gathering you, seizing you, and raising you to Me, away from
the world without death, and I am cleansing you of, removing you far away from, those who disbelieved,
and I am setting those who follow you, those Christians and Muslims who believed in your prophethood,
above those who disbelieved, in you, namely, the Jews, becoming above them through [definitive] argument
and the sword, until the Day of Resurrection. Then to Me shall be your return, and I will decide between
you, as to what you were at variance about, as regards religion.

[3:56]

As for the disbelievers, I will chastise them with a terrible chastisement in this world, through being killed,
taken captive and made to pay the jizya, and the Hereafter, in the Fire; they shall have no helpers, none to
protect them from it.

[3:57]

But as for the believers, who do righteous deeds, He will pay them in full (yuwaffīhim, is also read
nuwaffīhim, ‘We will pay them in full’) their wages. God loves not the evildoers, that is, He will chastise
them. It is reported that God, exalted be He, sent him [Jesus] a cloud which raised him up, but his mother
clutched to him in tears. He then said to her, ‘Verily, the Resurrection shall bring us together again’. This
took place on the Night of Ordainment (laylat al-qadr) in the Holy House [of Jerusalem], when he was thirty
three years old. His mother lived on after him for six years. The two Shaykhs [Bukhārī and Muslim] narrate a
hadīth [in which it is stated] that he [Jesus] will descend when the Hour is nigh and will rule according to
the Law of our Prophet [Muhammad], and that he will slay the false messiah and the swine, break the cross
and impose the jizya. In a hadīth recorded by Muslim, he will remain for seven years; according to Abū
Dāwūd al-Tayālisī, [he will remain for] forty years, and he will die and have prayers performed over him. It
is possible that what is meant [by the forty years] is the total time he will have spent on earth, before he
was raised and afterwards.

[3:58]

This, what is mentioned of the matter of Jesus, We recite to you, narrate to you, O Muhammad (s), of
verses and wise, clear, remembrance, namely, the Qur’ān (min al-āyāt, ‘of verses’ is a circumstantial qualifier
referring to the [suffixed pronoun] hā’ of natlūhu, and its operator is the demonstrative import of dhālika,
‘this’).

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[3:59]

Truly, the likeness of Jesus, his remarkable case, in God’s sight, is as Adam’s likeness, as the case of Adam,
whom God created without father or mother: this is a comparison of one remarkable thing with another
more remarkable, so that it convinces the disputer and establishes itself in one’s mind more effectively. He
created him, Adam, that is, his form, of dust, then said He to him, ‘Be,’, a human being, and he was;
similarly, He said to Jesus, ‘Be’ — without a father — and he was.

[3:60]

The truth is from your Lord (al-haqqu min rabbik, the predicate of a missing subject, which is [implied to be]
amr ‘Īsā [‘the matter concerning Jesus’]); be not of those who waver, those who are uncertain about it.

[3:61]

And whoever, from among the Christians, disputes with you concerning him, after the knowledge, of his
affair, that has come to you, say, to them: ‘Come! Let us call our sons and your sons, our wives and your
wives, our selves and your selves, and gather them together, then let us humbly pray and invoke God’s
curse upon those who lie’, by saying: ‘Lord, curse the one that tells lies concerning the affair of Jesus’. The
Prophet (s) had called upon the Najrān delegation to do this when they disputed with him about Jesus. They
said, ‘Let us think about it and we will come back to you’. The judicious one among them said, ‘You know
that he is a prophet, and that every people that has ever challenged a prophet to a mutual imprecation has
been destroyed’. They left him and departed. When they went to see the Prophet (s), who had set out with
al-Hasan, al-Husayn, Fātima and ‘Alī, he said to them [the Najrān delegation], ‘When I supplicate, you say
‘Amen’; but they refrained from this mutual imprecation and made peace with the Prophet on the condition
that they pay the jizya, as reported by Abū Nu‘aym. According to Ibn ‘Abbās [the Prophet] said, ‘Had they
set out and performed the mutual cursing, they would have gone home and found neither possessions nor
family’. It is also reported that had they set out with this intention, they would have been consumed by fire.

[3:62]

This, mentioned above, is the true story, the report free of any doubt. There is no god but God, and
assuredly God is Mighty, in His Kingdom, Wise, in His actions.

[3:63]

And if they turn their backs, rejecting faith, assuredly God knows the agents of corruption, and will requite
them (here the [third person] pronominalisation has been replaced with the overt noun [al-mufsidūn, ‘the
agents of corruption’]).

[3:64]

Say: ‘O People of the Scripture!, Jews and Christians, come now to a word agreed upon (sawā’, is the verbal
noun, meaning mustawin amruhā, ‘[a word] regarding which the matter is upright’) between us and you,
and it is, that we worship none but God (allā is [made up of] an-lā, ‘that…not’) and that we do not associate
anything with Him, and do not take each other for lords, beside God’, as you have taken rabbis and monks;
and if they turn their backs, in rejection of God’s Oneness, say, you to them: ‘Bear witness that we have
submitted’, [that we are of] those who affirm the Oneness of God.

[3:65]

When the Jews claimed that Abraham was Jewish and that they were following his religion, and the
Christians made a similar claim, the following was revealed: O People of the Scripture! Why do you argue
about, dispute over, Abraham?, claiming that he belonged to one of your [two] religions, when the Torah
was not revealed, neither the Gospel, but, a very long time, after him, and it was only after these two were
revealed that Jewry and Christianity came into being. What, do you not comprehend?, the falsehood of what

63
you say?

[3:66]

Lo! (hā, ‘lo’, is for calling attention to something), You (antum, ‘you’, is the subject) are those (the predicate
is [what follows]) who dispute about what you know, concerning the affair of Moses and Jesus, and your
claim to be adhering to their religions: why do you then dispute concerning that of which you have no
knowledge?, of Abraham’s circumstances; and God knows, his circumstances, and you know not.

[3:67]

God, in order to dissociate Abraham [from their claims], said: No; Abraham in truth was not a Jew, neither a
Christian, but he was a Muslim, professing the Oneness of God, and a hanīf, who inclined away from all
other religions towards the upright one; and he was never of the idolaters.

[3:68]

Surely the people with the best claim, most worthy of, Abraham are those who followed him, during his
time, and this Prophet, Muhammad (s) on account of his according with him as regards most [of the rulings]
of his Law, and those who believe, from among his community, they are the ones that ought to say, ‘We
follow his religion’, and not you; and God is the Protector of the believers, their Helper and Preserver.

[3:69]

When the Jews called Mu‘ādh [b. Jabal], Hudhayfa [b. al-Yamān] and ‘Ammār [b. Yāsir] to [join] their
religion, the following was revealed: There is a party of the People of the Scripture who yearn to make you
go astray; yet they cause none to stray, except themselves, because the sin for their leading [others] astray
falls upon them, while the believers do not heed them in this; but they are not aware, of this.

[3:70]

O People of the Scripture! Why do you disbelieve in God’s verses, the Qur’ān, that includes all the
descriptions of Muhammad (s), when you yourselves bear witness?, [when] you know that it is the truth.

[3:71]

O People of the Scripture! Why do you confound, [why do] you mix, truth with falsehood, by distorting and
falsifying [scripture], and conceal the truth, the descriptions of the Prophet, while you know?, that it is the
truth?

[3:72]

A party of the People of the Scripture, the Jews, say, to some among them, ‘Believe in what has been
revealed to those who believe, that is, the Qur’ān, at the beginning of the day, and disbelieve, in it, at the
end of it, so that they, the believers, might then turn back, from his [Muhammad’s] religion, and that they
[the believers] will then say: these [Jews] are knowledgeable and they could only have turned away from it
after accepting it because they know it to be false.

[3:73]

And they also said: And do not believe except in one who (the lām of li-man, ‘in one who’, is extra) follows,
accords with, your religion’. God, exalted be He, says, Say, to them, O Muhammad (s): ‘True guidance is
God’s guidance, that is Islam, everything else being error (this statement is parenthetical) — that (an [and
what follows] is the direct object of the verb wa-lā tu’minū, ‘do not believe’) anyone should be given the like
of what you have been given, of the Book, wisdom, and of the virtues (the term ahad, ‘anyone’, from whom
the exclusion is being made, precedes that which is being excluded, ‘the like of what you have been given’,

64
the meaning being: ‘Do not affirm that anyone should be given this unless they follow your religion’); or that
they, the believers, should dispute with you, [that they should] prevail over you, before your Lord’, on the
Day of Resurrection, for you have the sounder religion (a variant reading has a-an, ‘such that’, the extra
hamza denoting rebuke) in other words, [the Jews say do not believe] that another has been given the like
of it, such that you might affirm it. God, exalted be He, says, Say: ‘Surely bounty is in God’s Hand; He gives
it to whomever He will, so how can you say that no one else will be given what you have been given? God is
Embracing, of ample bounty, Knowing, those who deserve it.

[3:74]

He singles out for His mercy whom He will; God is of bounty abounding’.

[3:75]

And of the People of the Scripture is he who, if you trust him with a hundredweight, that is, with much
money, he will return it to you, on account of his trustworthiness, the like of ‘Abd Allāh b. Salām to whom a
man entrusted 1200 plates of gold, which he then returned to him; and of them is he who, if you trust him
with one dinar, will not return it to you, on account of his treachery; unless you keep standing over him, not
leaving him for one minute, for as soon as you leave him, he will deny it, as was the case with Ka‘b b. al-
Ashraf, to whom a man from Quraysh entrusted a dinar and later denied it. That, refusal to return things, is
because they say, ‘We have no duty towards, namely, [no possibility of acquiring] sin because of, the
Gentiles’, the Arabs; for they considered it lawful to be unjust towards any person of a different religion, and
they attributed [the source of] this conviction to God, exalted be He. God, exalted be He, says, They speak
falsehood against God, by attributing such things to Him, while they are aware, that they are liars.

[3:76]

Nay, there is a duty incumbent over them in this regard; but whoever fulfils his covenant, the one he has
made or the covenant of God, by restoring a trust and other such things, and has fear, of God, by refraining
from disobedience and performing deeds of obedience, for truly God loves the God-fearing: ‘He loves them’
means that He will reward them (the overt noun [al-muttaqīn, ‘the God-fearing’] has replaced the [third
person] pronominalisation).

[3:77]

The following was revealed with regard to the Jews when they distorted the descriptions of the Prophet (s)
and God’s covenant with them in the Torah, and [God’s covenant with them] regarding one that swears an
oath to a falsehood when bearing witness or when selling merchandise: Those that sell, exchange, God’s
covenant, with them that they believe in the Prophet and return faithfully what has been entrusted to them,
and their own oaths, their invoking God’s name in mendacity, for a small price, of this world, there shall be
no share, [no] lot, for them in the Hereafter; and God shall not speak to them, out of wrath against them,
nor look upon them, [nor] have mercy upon them, on the Day of Resurrection, nor will He purify them,
cleanse them, and theirs will be a painful chastisement.

[3:78]

And there is a group, a party, of them, the People of the Scripture, like Ka‘b b. al-Ashraf, who twist their
tongues with the Book, altering it by reciting it not according to the way in which it was revealed, but
according to the way in which they have distorted it, as in the case of the descriptions of the Prophet (s) and
other similar matters; so that you may suppose it, such distortion, as part of the Book, that God revealed;
yet it is not part of the Book; and they say, ‘It is from God’, yet it is not from God, and they speak falsehood
against God, while they know, that they are liars.

[3:79]

When the Christians of Najrān claimed that Jesus had commanded them to take him as a Divinity, and some

65
Muslims asked that they should be permitted to prostrate themselves before him, the Prophet (s), the
following was revealed: It belongs not to any mortal that God should give him the Book, the Judgement, the
understanding of the Divine Law, prophethood, then that he should say to men, ‘Be servants to me instead
of God.’ Rather, he should say, ‘Be masters, scholars, labouring (rabbāniyyūn, ‘those of the Lord’, is derived
from rabb, ‘lord’, with the extra alif and nūn, as a superlative [of rabbiyyūn]), by virtue of what you know
(ta‘lamūn, also read as tu‘allimūn, ‘you teach’) of the Book and in what you study’, that is, on account of the
fact that you used to do this, for its benefit is that you engage in action.

[3:80]

He would never order you (read lā ya’murukum, to denote a new clause, meaning ‘God [would not order
you]’; or if read lā ya’murakum, it would be a supplement to yaqūla, ‘he should say’, meaning ‘[it belongs
not that…] a mortal [should order you]’); to take the angels and the prophets as lords, in the way that the
Sabaeans have taken the angels, the Jews, Ezra, and the Christians, Jesus. Would He order you to
disbelieve, after you have submitted? He would not do this.

[3:81]

And, mention, when God made a covenant with the prophets, ‘What (if read lamā, it would be introducing a
subject clause, and emphasising the aspect of the oath in this ‘making of the covenant’; if it is read limā, it
would then be connected to the verb akhadha, ‘He took’; the mā, ‘what’, is a relative particle in both cases,
meaning la’lladhī [or li’lladhī respectively]) I have given you (ātaytukum, or in a variant reading, ātaynākum,
‘We have given you’) of the Book and wisdom; then there shall come to you a messenger confirming what is
with you, of the Book and wisdom, and that is Muhammad (s) — you shall believe in him and you shall help
him’ (this constitutes the response to the oath), if you reach his time and perceive him, and their
communities [of descendants] follow them [in what is incumbent upon them]. He, God, exalted be He, said
to them, ‘Do you affirm, this? And do you take, [do you] accept, My load, My covenant, on you on that
condition?’ They said, ‘We affirm’. He said, ‘Then bear witness, to this before your own souls and [those of]
your followers, and I shall be with you among the witnesses’, before you and them.

[3:82]

Then whoever turns his back, in rejection, after that, covenant, they are the wicked.

[3:83]

What! Do they, the ones who turn away, desire (yabghūna, is also read tabghūna, ‘[do] you desire?’) other
than God’s religion, when to Him has submitted, [to Him] has yielded, whoever is in the heavens and the
earth, willingly, without refusal, or unwillingly, by the sword and by seeing what it [such refusal] results in,
and to Him they shall be returned? (yurja‘ūna, may also be read turja‘ūna, ‘you shall be returned’; the
hamza at the beginning of the verse [a-fa-ghayra, ‘what…other’] denotes a disavowal).

[3:84]

Say, to them, O Muhammad (s): ‘We believe in God, and that which has been revealed to us, and that which
has been revealed to Abraham and Ishmael, and Isaac and Jacob, and the Tribes, the latter’s sons; and in
that which was given to Moses and Jesus, and the prophets, from their Lord; we make no division between
any of them, by believing [in some] and disbelieving [in others]; and to Him we submit’, devoting worship
sincerely [to Him].

[3:85]

The following was revealed regarding those who apostatized and became disbelievers: Whoever desires a
religion other than Islam, it shall not be accepted from him and in the Hereafter he shall be among the
losers, because he will end up in the Fire, made everlasting for him.

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[3:86]

How shall God guide, that is to say, [He shall] not [guide], a people who have disbelieved after their belief,
and bore witness, that is, [and after] their bearing witness, that the Messenger is true, and after the clear
signs, the manifest proofs of the truth of the Prophet, had come to them? God guides not the evildoing, that
is, the disbelieving, folk.

[3:87]

Those — their requital is that there shall rest on them the curse of God and of the angels and of men
altogether.

[3:88]

Abiding therein, that is, in the curse, or in the Fire implied by it [the curse]; the chastisement shall not be
lightened for them and they shall not be reprieved, they shall [not] be given any respite.

[3:89]

But those who repent thereafter, and make amends, in their actions, then truly God is Forgiving, Merciful, to
them.

[3:90]

The following was revealed regarding the Jews: Surely those who disbelieve, in Jesus, after they have
believed, in Moses, and then increase in unbelief, in Muhammad (s) — their repentance shall not be
accepted, when they are drawing their last gasps of life, or when they have died as disbelievers; those are
the ones who go astray.

[3:91]

Surely those who disbelieve, and die disbelieving, the whole earth full, the amount needed to fill it up, of
gold shall not be accepted from any one of them (the fā’ [of fa-lan yuqbala, ‘it shall not be accepted’] has
been included in the predicate of the inna clause, because the statement about alladhīna, ‘those [who
disbelieve]’, resembles a conditional statement; and as a declaration of the reason for it [repentance] not
being acceptable in the case of one who dies in unbelief) if he would ransom himself thereby; for them
awaits a painful chastisement (alīm is [the same as] mu’lim, ‘painful’), and they shall have no helpers, to
protect them from it.

[3:92]

You will not attain piety, that is, the reward for it, which is Paradise, until you expend, [until] you give
voluntary alms, of what you love, of your wealth; and whatever thing you expend, God knows of it, and He
will requite it accordingly.

[3:93]

When the Jews said to the Prophet, ‘You claim that you follow the creed of Abraham, but Abraham did not
eat camel’s meat nor drink its milk’, the following was revealed: All food was lawful to the Children of Israel
save what Israel, Jacob, forbade for himself, namely, camels: when he was afflicted with sciatica (‘irq al-
nasā), he made a vow that if he were cured he would not eat of it again, and so it was forbidden him;
before the Torah was revealed, which was after the time of Abraham, as it was not unlawful in his time, as
they claimed. Say, to them: ‘Bring the Torah now, and recite it, so that the truth of what you say may
become clear, if you are truthful’, in what you say; they were stupified and did not bring it [the Torah]. God,
exalted be He, then said:

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[3:94]

Whoever invents falsehood against God after that, that is, after the proof has become manifest that the
prohibition was made by Jacob, and not during the time of Abraham, those are the evildoers, that transgress
the truth into falsehood.

[3:95]

Say: ‘God has spoken the truth, in this matter, just as He has in all that He has related; therefore follow the
creed of Abraham, the one which I follow, a hanīf, inclining away from all religions towards submission
(islām), and he was not an idolater’.

[3:96]

When they said, ‘Our direction of prayer (qibla) came before yours’, the following was revealed: The first
house, for worship, established for the people, on earth, was that at Bakka (a variant of Makka [Mecca], so
called because it ‘crushes’ [tabukku] the necks of tyrants); it was built by the angels before the creation of
Adam, and after it the Aqsā [in Jerusalem] was built, a period of forty years separating them, as reported in
the hadīth of the two Sahīhs [sc. of al-Bukhārī and Muslim], and in the hadīth [that states]: ‘The first thing
to appear on the surface of the water, at the creation of the heavens and the earth, was a white foam,
underneath which the earth was unrolled’; a blessed place (mubārakan, a circumstantial qualifier referring to
la’lladhī, ‘that’) meaning a place of blessings, and a guidance to all worlds, because it is their qibla.

[3:97]

Therein are clear signs, among which is, the station of Abraham, that is, the stone upon which he stood to
build the House, and on which his footprints remain; and it [the House] has endured all this length of time
and the constant passing of hands over it. Among these [signs] are the fact that the reward for good deeds
is multiplied in it and that birds never fly over it; and whoever enters it is in security, not liable therein to be
killed or oppressed or otherwise. It is the duty of people towards God to make the pilgrimage to the House
(read either as hijj al-bayt or hajj al-bayt, as two variants of the verbal noun from hajj, meaning ‘the
intention [to journey there]’), if he is able to make his way there (man istatā‘a ilayhi sabīlan substitutes for
al-nās, ‘people’). The Prophet (s) explained this [ability] as having provisions and a ride, as reported by al-
Hākim [al-Naysābūrī] and others. As for the one who disbelieves, in God or in what He has made obligatory
with regard to the Pilgrimage, God is Independent of all worlds, the humans, the jinn and the angels, and [is
Independent of] their devotions.

[3:98]

Say: ‘O People of the Scripture, why do you disbelieve in God’s verses, that is, the Qur’ān, when God is
Witness of what you do?’, and will requite you for it?

[3:99]

Say: ‘O People of the Scripture, why do you bar believers, causing them to turn away, from God’s way, His
religion, by denying the truth of the Prophet and concealing His graces, desiring to make it crooked (‘iwajan
is the verbal noun, meaning mu‘awwajatan, ‘made crooked’), inclining away from the truth, while you
yourselves are witnesses, [while] you know that the religion which is upright and pleasing [to God] is that of
Islam, as stated in your Book? God is not heedless of what you do’, in the way of unbelief and mendacity;
instead He gives you respite until your appointed time and then requites you.

[3:100]

The following was revealed when the Jews passed by the Aws and the Khazraj and were infuriated by their
comradeship, and set about reminding them of their mutual hostility in the days before Islam, such that they
caused them to quarrel and the two [tribes] were on the verge of fighting one another: O you who believe,

68
if you obey a party of those who have been given the Scripture, they will turn you, after you have believed,
into disbelievers.

[3:101]

How can you disbelieve (this is an interrogative of amazement and rebuke) while you have God’s verses
recited to you, and His Messenger is in your midst? Whoever holds fast to, clings to, God, he is guided to a
straight path.

[3:102]

O you who believe, fear God as He should be feared, so that He is obeyed and not disobeyed, thanked and
not shown ingratitude, remembered and not forgotten. They said, ‘Who, O Messenger of God, is strong
enough for this [task]?’ But it was then abrogated by His statement: So fear God as much as you can [Q.
64:16]; and do not die, except as Muslims, professing the Oneness of God.

[3:103]

And hold fast to, clutch, God’s bond, namely, His religion, together, and do not scatter, after submitting [to
Islam]; remember God’s grace, His bestowing of favours, upon you, O companies of the Aws and the
Khazraj, when you were enemies, and He brought your hearts together, through Islam, so that by His grace
you became brothers, in religion and comradeship; and you were upon the brink, the edge, of a pit of fire,
such that to fall into it you only had to die disbelieving; but He delivered you from it, through belief. So, just
as He has made clear for you what has been mentioned, God makes clear to you His signs that you might be
guided.

[3:104]

Let there be one community of you calling to good, to Islam, and enjoining decency, and forbidding
indecency; those, that call, bid and forbid, are the successful, the victorious (the particle min, ‘of’, [in
minkum, ‘of you’] is partitive, since what is mentioned is a collective obligation [fard kifāya], and is not
incumbent upon every individual of the community, for not every person, such as the ignorant, is up to it.
However, it is also said that this particle is extra, and what is meant is, ‘so that you are a community [calling
to good and so on]’).

[3:105]

Be not as those who scattered, in their religion, and disputed, over it, after the clear proofs came to them,
and these are the Jews and the Christians, those there awaits a mighty chastisement.

[3:106]

The day when some faces are blackened, and some faces whitened, that is, the Day of Resurrection. As for
those whose faces are blackened, these being the disbelievers, who are thrown into the Fire and to whom it
is said in rebuke: ‘Did you disbelieve after you had believed, on the day the covenant was made? Then taste
the chastisement for what you disbelieved!’

[3:107]

But as for those whose faces are whitened, and these are the believers, they shall be in God’s mercy, that is
to say, in Paradise, abiding therein.

[3:108]

Those, that is to say, these verses, are the verses of God which We recite to you, O Muhammad (s), in truth,
and God desires not any injustice for the worlds, punishing them for no crime.

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[3:109]

To God belongs all that is in the heavens and in the earth, as possessions, creatures and servants, and to
Him all matters are returned.

[3:110]

You, O community of Muhammad (s), are the best community brought forth, manifested, to men, according
to God’s knowledge, enjoining decency, and forbidding indecency, and believing in God. Had the People of
the Scripture believed, it, their belief, would have been better for them; some of them are believers, such as
‘Abd Allāh b. Salām, may God be pleased with him and his companions; but most of them, the disbelievers,
are wicked.

[3:111]

They, the Jews, will not harm you, O company of Muslims, in any way, except a little hurt, with their
tongues, such as slander and threats; and if they fight against you, they will turn their backs to you, in
retreat, then they will not be helped, against you, but you will be helped against them.

[3:112]

Abasement shall be cast upon them, wherever they are found, so that they have no strength and no
protection, save, if they be [clinging to], a rope of God, and a rope of the, believing, people, this being the
latter’s covenant of security for them on the condition that they pay the jizya, in other words, they have no
protection other than this; they have incurred, they have ended up, with anger from God, and poverty shall
be cast upon them; that, is, because they disbelieved in God’s signs, and slew the prophets without right;
that (dhālika is [repeated] for emphasis), is, because they disobeyed, God’s command, and used to
transgress, passing from what is lawful into what is unlawful.

[3:113]

Yet they, the People of the Scripture, are not all alike, equal; some of the People of the Scripture are a
community upright, with integrity, adhering to the truth, such as ‘Abd Allāh b. Salām, may God be pleased
with him and his companions, who recite God’s verses in the watches of the night, that is, during its hours,
prostrating themselves, performing prayer (wa-hum yasjudūn, ‘prostrating themselves’, is a circumstantial
qualifier).

[3:114]

They believe in God and in the Last Day, enjoining decency and forbidding indecency, vying with one
another in good works; those, described in the way God has mentioned, are of the righteous, and some of
them are not like this and are not righteous.

[3:115]

And whatever good you do, O community, (taf‘alū, ‘you do’, or if this is read yaf‘alū, ‘they do’, then [it is
referring to them] ‘the upright community’), you shall not be denied it ([read] in both ways [fa-lan
tukfarūhu, ‘you shall not be denied it’, or fa-lan yukfarūhu, ‘they shall not be denied it’]), you shall not be
deprived of its reward, but you will be rewarded for it, and God knows the God-fearing.

[3:116]

As for the disbelievers, their riches shall not avail, protect, them, neither their children, against God, that is,
against His chastisement: these two are singled out for mention because a person usually avails himself
either by paying a ransom, or by [resorting to] the help of his children; those are the inhabitants of the Fire,

70
abiding therein.

[3:117]

The likeness, the description, of what they, the disbelievers, expend in the life of this world, in the way of
enmity towards the Prophet or in the way of voluntary almsgiving or the like, is as the likeness of a wind
wherein is a blast, of extreme hot or cold, that smote the tillage, the crops, of a people who have wronged
themselves, through unbelief and disobedience, and destroyed it, so that they could not profit from it; so it
is with what they expend, it perishes and they profit nothing from it. God did not wrong them, when they
lost what they expended, but they wronged themselves, through unbelief, which necessitated this loss.

[3:118]

O you who believe, do not take as intimates, as sincere friends, revealing to them your secret thoughts,
anyone apart from yourselves, from among the Jews, Christians and the hypocrites; such men spare nothing
to ruin you (khabālan is in the accusative because the preposition [that usually precedes it, sc. fī’l-khabāl]
has been omitted), that is to say, they would not be remiss about corrupting you; they would love, they
wish, for you to suffer ([al-‘anat means] extreme hardship). Hatred, enmity towards you, is revealed, it is
manifested, by their mouths, by sowing discord among you and informing the idolaters of your secret
[plans]; and what their breasts conceal, of enmity, is yet greater. Now We have made clear to you the signs,
of their enmity; if you understand, this, then do not befriend them.

[3:119]

Lo (hā, ‘lo!’, is for calling attention [to something]), there you are, O believers, you love them, on account of
their kinship and their [pretence of] friendship towards you, but they love you not, since they oppose you in
religion; you believe in the Book, all of it, that is to say, in the Books, all of them, but they do not believe in
your Book, and when they meet you they say, ‘We believe,’ but when they are alone, they bite at you their
fingertips, in rage, in extreme fury at what they see of your mutual affection: the biting of the fingertips is
used to figuratively express the severity of rage, even if there be no biting involved. Say: ‘Perish in your
rage, that is, be this way until the end of your lives, for you shall not see what will please you; God knows
what is in the breasts’, what is in the hearts, including that which these conceal.

[3:120]

If good fortune, a favour such as victory or booty, befalls you, it is evil for them, it grieves them; but if evil,
such as defeat or drought, befalls you, they rejoice thereat (the conditional statement here is semantically
connected to the previous conditional, and what comes in between is a parenthetical [statement], the
meaning being that their enmity towards you is endless, so why do you befriend them? Avoid them!) Yet if
you endure, their harm, and fear, God by [not] befriending them and so on, their guile will not hurt you
(read either lā yadirkum or lā yadurrukum) at all; God encompasses what they do (ya‘malūn, or may be read
ta‘malūn, ‘what you do’), He has knowledge of it and will requite them for it.

[3:121]

And, mention O Muhammad (s), when you went forth at dawn from your family, at Medina, to assign the
believers, to have [them] occupy, their places, stations for them to stand at, for battle, and God hears, what
you say, knows, your circumstances: this was the day of [the battle of] Uhud. The Prophet (s) set out with
1000 or 950 men, while the idolaters numbered 3000. The Prophet pitched camp at the ravine on Saturday
7th of Shawwāl in year 3 of the Hijra. He had his back and that of his troops to Uhud. He arranged their
lines and placed a group of archers under the command of ‘Abd Allāh b. Jubayr at the foot of the mountain
and said to them: ‘Defend us with your arrows in case they come up from behind us, and remain here
whether we are being defeated or on the verge of victory’.

[3:122]

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When (idh, substitutes for the previous idh) two parties of you, the Banū Salima and the Banū Hāritha, the
two flanks of the army, were about to lose heart, [about] to shrink from the battle and retreat, after ‘Abd
Allāh b. Ubayy, the hypocrite, and his companions began to retreat. He [Ibn Ubayy] said, ‘Why should we
get ourselves and our children killed?’ and he also said to Abū Jābir al-Salamī — who had said to him, ‘I
implore you by God for your Prophet’s sake and yours’ — ‘If we knew how to fight, we would follow you!’
But God then made them [the Banū Salima and the Banū Hāritha] steadfast and they did not abandon [the
field]; and God was their Protector, their Helper, and let the believers rely on God, let them place their trust
in Him and none other.

[3:123]

When they were defeated, the following was revealed as a way of reminding them of God’s favour: God
already gave you victory at Badr, a location between Mecca and Medina, when you were contemptible, few
in number and weapons. So fear God, in order that you might be thankful, for His blessings.

[3:124]

When (idh, an adverbial qualifier of nasarakum, ‘He gave you victory’ [in the previous verse]) you were
saying to the believers, promising them as reassurance [for them]: ‘Is it not sufficient for you that your Lord
should reinforce you, [that] He should succour you, with three thousand angels sent down? (read munzalīn
or munazzalīn, ‘sent down’).

[3:125]

Yea, it is sufficient for you. In [sūrat] al-Anfāl [it is stated] with a thousand [Q. 8:9], because at first He
reinforced them with this [thousand], then it became three [thousand] then five [thousand], as God says: if
you are patient, in encountering the enemy, and fear, God in not contravening [His command], and they,
the idolaters, come against you instantly, your Lord will reinforce you with five thousand angels accoutred’
(read musawimmīn or musawammīn), that is to say, distinctively marked [for the battle]. Indeed, they were
patient and God fulfilled His promise to them, so that the angels fought together with them riding upon
piebald horses wearing yellow or white turbans, let loose down to their shoulders.

[3:126]

What God ordained, that is, of reinforcement, was only as a good tiding to you, of victory, and that your
hearts might be at peace, [that] they might be at rest, and not be terrified by the large number of the
enemy as compared to your small number. Victory comes only from God, the Mighty, the Wise, He gives it
to whomever He will, and [victory comes] not because of a large army.

[3:127]

And that He might cut off (li-yaqta‘, is semantically connected to the clause containing nasarakum, ‘He gave
you victory’), that is to say, that He might destroy, a party of the disbelievers, by slaying them or making
them fall captive, or suppress them, humiliate them through defeat, so that they fall back, return, frustrated,
not having secured what they desired.

[3:128]

When, on the Day of Uhud, the Prophet received a head wound and his front tooth was broken, and he said,
‘How does a people who have drenched the face of their Prophet in blood [expect to] prosper?’, the
following was revealed: It is no concern at all of yours, nay, it is God’s concern, so be patient, whether,
meaning, until such time as, He relents to them, through [their acceptance of] Islam, or chastises them; for
they are indeed evildoers, by [virtue of their] disbelief.

[3:129]

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