| This Surah (Revealed) Meccan, except for the two verses 28 and 29, which are Medinese; it consists of
52, 54 or 55 verses.263 (Ibrâhâm)
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| بِسْم ِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ | |
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Tafseer
Alif lām rāâ: God knows best what He means by these [letters]. This Qurâān is, a
Book We have revealed to you, O Muhammad (s), that you may bring forth mankind from darkness, [from]
unbelief, into light, [into] faith, by the leave, by the command, of their Lord (ilāâl-nūr, âinto lightâ, may
be substituted by [the following ilā sirāt]), to the path, the way, of the Mighty, the Victor, the Praised, the
One who is [constantly] praised.
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Tafseer
God (Allāhi, read in the genitive as a substitution or an explicative
supplement, with what follows being an adjectival qualification; or [read as] Allāhu in the nominative as a subject,
the predicate of which is [what follows]) to Whom belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is in the
earth, as possessions, creatures and servants. And woe to the disbelievers from a terrible chastisement,
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Tafseer
those who (alladhīna is a description) prefer, choose, the life of this world
over the Hereafter, and bar, people, from Godâs way, [from] the religion of Islam, and seek to make it, that
is, the path, crooked â those, they are far astray, from the truth.
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Tafseer
And We have not sent any Messenger except with the tongue, with the language, of
his people, that he might make [the Message] clear to them, that he might make them understand what
he brings to them; God then sends astray whomever He will and He guides whomever He will; and He is
the Mighty, in His kingdom, the Wise, in His actions.
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Tafseer
And verily We sent Moses with Our signs, the nine [signs], and We said to him:
âBring forth your people, the Children of Israel, out of darkness, [out of] unbelief, into light, [into]
faith, and remind them of the Days of Godâ, of His graces. Surely in that, reminder, are signs for every man enduring,
in obedience [to God], thankful, for [His] graces.
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Tafseer
And, mention, when Moses said to his people, âRemember Godâs grace to you when
He delivered you from the folk of Pharaoh, who were inflicting upon you a dreadful chastisement, and
were slaughtering your sons, the new-born, and sparing, keeping alive, your women â this was because some of
the priests [of Egypt] had stated that a child born among the Israelites shall be the cause of the
destruction of Pharaohâs kingdom; and in that, deliverance â or [in that] chastisement â was a tremendous trial,
grace â or [a tremendous] test â from your Lord.
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Tafseer
And when your Lord proclaimed, [when] He made it known that: âIf you are
thankful, for My graces, through affirmation of [My] Oneness and obedience [to Me], then assuredly I
shall give you more; but if you are thankless, [if] you deny [the truth of] the grace, through disbelief and
disobedience, then assuredly I shall chastise you â as is indicated by [His following words] â My chastisement
is indeed severeâ â.
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Tafseer
And Moses said, to his people: âIf you are thankless, you and all who are on
earth, lo! assuredly God is Independent, [without need] of His creatures, Praisedâ, praiseworthy in what He
does with them. 264
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Tafseer
Has there not come to you (an interrogative meant as an affirmative) the
tidings, the news, of those who were before you â the people of Noah, and âĀd â the people of Hūd â and Thamūd â
the people of Sālih â and those after them? None knows them save God. [This is] on account of their
multitude. Their messengers brought them clear signs, with lucid arguments demonstrating their
truthfulness; but they, that is, the communities, thrust their hands into their mouths, to bite on them, out
of extreme spite, and said, âLo! we disbelieve in that wherewith you have been sent, according to what you
claim, and lo! we are in grave doubt concerning that to which you call usâ, [doubt] creating [great]
uncertainty.
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Tafseer
Their messengers said, âCan there be doubt concerning God (an interrogative
meant as a denial), in other words, there can be no doubt concerning His Oneness, given the manifest proofs
of it, the Originator, the Creator, of the heavens and the earth? He calls you, to obedience of Him, so
that He might forgive you your sins (min dhunūbikum: min is extra, since through submission [to the One God]
all that may have been committed previously is forgiven (or else it [min, âsome ofâ] is partitive,
intended to state that [forgiveness] which is due to [Godâs] servants) and defer you, without chastisement, to an
appointed termâ, the term of death. They said, âYou are but mortals like us, desiring to bar us from that
which our fathers used to worship, in the way of idols. So bring us a clear warrantâ, a manifest argument
demonstrating your truthfulness.
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Tafseer
Their messengers said to them, âWe are but mortals like you, as you have said;
but God is gracious to whomever He will of His servants, by way of [assigning] prophethood. And it is
not ours to bring you any warrant save by the leave of God, by His command, for we are servants,
enthralled; and in God let believers put their trust, [let them] have confidence in Him.
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Tafseer
And why, indeed, should we not put our trust in God, in other words, there is
nothing to prevent us from [doing] this, when He has guided us our ways? And we shall surely endure the
hurt you do us. And in God let the trusting put their trustâ.
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Tafseer
And those who disbelieved said to their messengers, âWe will assuredly expel you
from our land, or you will surely return, you will [surely] end up [returning], to our creedâ, our
religion. Then their Lord inspired them [saying]: âWe shall surely destroy the evildoers, the disbelievers,
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Tafseer
and We shall surely make you dwell in the land, their land, after them, after
they have been destroyed â that, victory [over them] and bequest of the land [to you] is, for whoever fears
the standing before Me, that is, [whoever fears] when he comes to stand before Me, and fears My threatâ, of
chastisement.
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Tafseer
And they sought victory, the messengers sought assistance from God against their
people; and every tyrant, disdaining obedience to God, rebellious, obstinate to the truth, was brought to
nothing;
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Tafseer
beyond him, that is, in front of him, is Hell, which he will enter, and he is
given to drink, in it, of festering 265 fluid â which is what issues out of the insides of the people of the Fire, mixed
with pus and blood â
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Tafseer
which he sips, gulping it repeatedly, because of its acridity, but can scarcely
swallow, [scarcely] ingest because it is so foul and disgusting; and death, that is, those causes of it
that necessarily bring it about, in the way of [different] types of chastisement, comes to him from every side, yet
he cannot die; and still beyond him, after that chastisement, there is a harsh chastisement, a severe
one, following on [from the previous one].
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Tafseer
The likeness, the description, of those who disbelieve in their Lord (alladhīna
kafarū bi-rabbihim: the subject, substituted by [the following, aâmāluhum,]): their works, the righteous ones,
such as kindness [to kin] or an act of charity â in the way that no benefit can be derived from them [it is
because these works] â are as ashes over which the wind blows hard on a tempestuous day, one in which the
winds blow violently, making them as scattered dust, over which none can have power (the genitive [clause
beginning with ka-ramādin, âas ashesâ] constitutes the predicate of the [above-mentioned] subject); they,
that is, the disbelievers, have no power over anything that they have earned, [anything] that they had done in
[their] life on earth, in other words, they shall find no reward for it, since this was never a
precondition. That is extreme error, [extreme] perdition!
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Tafseer
Have you not seen, have you not observed, O you being addressed (this is an
interrogative meant as an affirmative) that God created the heavens and the earth in truth? (biâl-haqq is
semantically connected to [the action of the verb] khalaqa, âcreatedâ). If He will, He can take you away, O
mankind, and bring [about] a new creation, in your place.
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Tafseer
And that for God is surely no great, [no] difficult, matter.
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Tafseer
And they, that is, [all] creatures, sally forth to God (wa-barazū: this, and
what follows, is expressed in the past tense because it will come to pass) all together; then the weak, the
followers, say to those who were arrogant, those who were followed: âIndeed we were your followers (tabaâan is
the plural of tābiâ). Will you then avail, defend, us against the chastisement of God in any way?â (min
âadhābiâLlāhi min shayâin: the first min is explicative, while the second one is partitive). They, the ones followed,
say, âIf God had guided us, we would have guided you, we would have called you to [right] guidance. It is the
same for us whether we rage [impatiently] or patiently endure; we do not have any asylumâ, [any] refuge (min
mahīs, âany asylumâ, min is extra).
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Tafseer
And Satan, Iblīs, says, when the issue has been decided, and the people of
Paradise are in Paradise and those of the Fire are in the Fire, and they [the people of the Fire] have
gathered round him: âTruly God promised you a promise of truth, regarding resurrection and requital, fulfilling
[it] to you; whereas I promised you, that this would not be, then failed you, for over you I had no
warrant (min sultān: min is extra), [no] power or capacity, to compel you to follow me, except that I called
you and you responded to me. So do not blame me, but blame yourselves, for having responded to me. I
cannot heed your [distress] call, [I cannot] bring aid to you, nor can you heed mine (read bi-musrikhiyya or
bi-musrikhī). Lo! I disbelieved in your making me an associate of God formerlyâ, during life on
earth. God, exalted be He, says: Truly for the evildoers, the disbelievers, there shall be a painful
chastisement. 266
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Tafseer
And those who believed and performed righteous deeds, they are admitted to
gardens underneath which rivers flow, abiding (khālidīna is a circumstantial qualifier of an implied
situation) therein by the leave of their Lord, their greeting therein, from God and from the angels, and between
themselves: âPeace!â.
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Tafseer
Have you not seen, observed, how God has struck a similitude? (mathalan is
substituted by [the following words, kalimatan tayyibatan]): a goodly saying, which is, âthere is no god but
Godâ, is as a goodly tree, a palm tree, its root set firm, in the ground, and its shoots, its branches, are
in heaven;
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Tafseer
it gives its produce, its fruit, every season by the leave of its Lord, by His
will. Similarly, the words of faith are set firm in the heart of the believer; his works are raised up to heaven and
he receives the blessings and reward therefrom all the time. And God strikes, He makes clear, similitudes for
mankind, so that they might remember, be admonished, and therefore believe.
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Tafseer
And the similitude of a bad saying, that is, the word of unbelief, is as a bad
tree, a colocynth, uprooted from upon the earth, having no stability, [no] fixing or foundation. Similarly, the
word of unbelief has no foundation, and no shoot or blessing.
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Tafseer
God confirms those who believe by a firm saying, namely, the profession of [His]
Oneness, in the life of this world and in the Hereafter, that is, in the grave, when the two angels question
them about their Lord, their religion and their Prophet, and they respond correctly, as [reported] in the
hadīth of the two Shaykhs [alBukhārī and Muslim]; and God sends astray the evildoers, the disbelievers, and therefore
they are not guided to the correct response, saying instead, âWe do not knowâ, as [reported]
in the hadīth; and God does what He will.
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Tafseer
Have you not seen, observed, those who exchanged Godâs grace, that is, the
thanks [due] for it, for unthankfulness â these were the disbelievers of Quraysh â and who, by leading
them astray, caused their people to take up residence in the Abode of Ruin?
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