1. Praise be to Allah – Allah’s praise of Himself in this way was explained at the beginning of Surat Saba’, the Bringer into Being of the heavens and earth; the name Fatir means the One who creates without any prior model. He who made the angels messengers to the Prophets with wings – two, three or four. He adds to creation in any way He wills. Allah has power over all things.

2. Any mercy – such as provision and rain – Allah opens up to people, no one can withhold; and any He withholds, no one can afterwards release. He is the Almighty in His affair; the All-Wise in what He does.

3. Mankind – particularly the people of Makka, remember Allah’s blessing upon you – by letting you live in the haram and preventing attacks on you. Is there any creator other (read as khaliqin ghayru and khaliqin ghayri) than Allah providing for you with rain from heaven and with plants from the earth? The question demands the negative response that there is no Creator and Provider other than Him. There is no god but Him. So how have you been perverted? How have you turned away from affirming His unity while understanding that He is your Creator and Provider?

4. If they deny you, Muhammad, and the Message you bring of Allah’s unity, the Resurrection, the Reckoning and the Punishment, Messengers before you were also denied in the same way; so remain steadfast as they remained steadfast. All matters return to Allah in the Next World, and He will repay those who deny and those who help the Muslims.

5. Mankind, Allah’s promise regarding the Resurrection and other things is true. Do not let the life of this world delude you and seduce you into not believing in Allah’s promise, and do not let the Deluder (Shaytan) delude you about Allah on account of His deferral of your punishment and His forbearance towards you.

6. Shaytan is your enemy, so treat him as an enemy by obeying Allah and not obeying him. He summons his party – those who follow him in unbelief – to be among the people of the Searing Blaze.

7. Those who disbelieve will suffer a harsh punishment, but those who believe and do right actions will receive forgiveness and an immense reward. This explains what will happen to those who side with Shaytan and to those who oppose him.

8. This was revealed about Abu Jahl and others. And what of him the evil of whose actions appears fine to him – through distortion – so that he sees them as good? Is such a person like someone Allah has guided? Allah misguides whomever He wills and guides whomever He wills. So do not let yourself waste away out of regret for them – about the fact that they do not believe. Allah knows what they do and will repay them for it.

9. It is Allah who sends the winds (read as riyah, pl. and also rih, sing.) which raise and stir up the clouds which We then drive to a dead (read as mayyit and mayt) land – with no plants in it – and by them bring the earth to life after it was dry and dead, making crops and fodder grow in it. That is how the Resurrection and bringing back to life will be.

10. If anyone wants power, all power belongs to Allah – in this world and the Next World. If anyone wants power, it is only obtained by obeying Allah, who then gives it to him if He wills. All good words rise to Him – and He knows them, and they are “There is no god but Allah” and things like that – and He raises up and accepts all virtuous deeds. But people who plot evil deeds a gainst the Prophet in the Dar an-Nadwa, to imprison him, kill him or expel him, as mentioned in Surat al-Anfal (8:30), will suffer a harsh punishment. The plotting of such people is profitless and they will be destroyed.

11. Allah created you from dust, by creating your forefather, Adam, from it, and then from a drop of sperm, by creating all his descendants from that, and then made you into pairs, male and female. No female becomes pregnant or gives birth except with His knowledge, and no living thing lives long or has its life cut short without that being in a Book – the Preserved Tablet. That is easy for Allah.

12. The two seas are not the same: the one is very sweet, refreshing, delicious to drink; the other salty, bitter to the taste. Yet from both of them you eat fresh flesh – fish – and extract – from the salt sea or from both fresh and salt – ornaments for yourselves to wear such as pearls and coral. And you see ships on them, cleaving through the waves so that you may seek His bounty through trade and so that perhaps you will be thankful to Allah for that.

13. He makes night merge into day and day merge into night – making them increase – and He has made the sun and moon subservient, each one running until a specified time – until the Day of Rising. That is Allah, your Lord. All Sovereignty is His. Those (idols) you call on and worship besides Him have no power over even the smallest speck.

14. If you call on them they will not hear your call, and were they to hear they would not respond to you. On the Day of Rising they will reject your making associates of them with Allah, meaning declare themselves free of you and your worship of them. No one can inform you about the states of this world and the Next like One who is All-aware – and that is Allah Almighty.

15. Mankind, you are the poor in need of Allah in every state, whereas Allah is the Rich Beyond Need of His creation, the Praiseworthy with respect to whatever He does with them.

16. If He wills He can dispense with you and bring about a new creation to replace you.

17. That is not difficult for Allah.

18. No burden-bearer (soul) can bear another’s burden of sin. If someone weighed down calls for help to bear his load, none of it will be borne for him, even by his next of kin – such as a father or son. This mutual inability is the decree of Allah. You can only warn those who fear their Lord in the Unseen without seeing Him, because they are the ones who benefit from the warning, and establish the prayer regularly. Whoever is purified – of shirk and other things – is purified for himself alone – and alone reaps the benefit of it. Allah is your final destination, and He will repay people in the Next World for their actions in this world.

19. The blind (unbelievers) and seeing (believers) are not the same,

20. …nor are darkness (unbelief) and light (faith),

21. …nor are cool shade (the Garden) and fierce heat (the Fire).

22. The living (believers) and dead (unbelievers) are not the same. Allah makes anyone He wills hear – and guides them so they respond by believing – but you cannot make those in the grave hear – meaning unbelievers, who are likened to those in graves who do not respond.

23. You are only a warner.

24. We have sent you with the truth (guidance), bringing good news to those who respond to you and giving warning to those who do not respond. There is no community to which a warner (Prophet) has not come.

25. If they (the people of Makka) deny you, those before them also denied the truth. Their Messengers came to them with Clear Signs (miracles) and Psalms – which include the Pages of Ibrahim – and the Illuminating Book – the Torah and the Gospel. Be steadfast as they were steadfast.

26. Then I seized hold of those who disbelieved, on account of their denial, and how absolute was My rejection of them demonstrated by their punishment and destruction!

27. Do you not see (know) that Allah sends down water from the sky and by it We bring forth fruits of varying colours – green, red, yellow and other colours? There is a change of person in this sentence from third person singular to first person plural. And in the mountains there are streaks of white and red – such as paths and other things which are white, red and yellow – of varying shades of intensity, and rocks of deep jet black.

28. And mankind and beasts and livestock are likewise of varying colours – in the same way as fruits and mountains. Only those of His slaves with knowledge have fear of Allah – unlike the ignorant, such as the unbelievers of Makka. Allah is Almighty in His kingdom, Ever-Forgiving of the wrong actions of His believing slaves.

29. Those who recite the Book of Allah and establish the prayer regularly and give of what We have provided for them, secretly and openly – in other words, pay zakat and give other charity hope for a transaction which will not prove profitless and come to nothing –

30. …that He may pay them their wages in full – their reward for those actions mentioned – and give them more from His unbounded favour. He is Ever-Forgiving, Ever-Thankful. He forgives their wrong actions on account of their obedience.

31. What We have revealed to you of the Book (the Qur’an) is the truth, confirming what (Books) came before it. Allah is aware of and sees His slaves – both their inward and outward.

32. Then We made Our chosen slaves inherit the Book (the Qur’an). This means the Muslims. But some of them wrong themselves – by falling short in acting by it; some are ambivalent – and act by it most of the time; and some outdo each other in good by Allah’s permission (will) – combining teaching and guidance to action with knowledge by the will of Allah. That – inheritance of the Book – is the great favour.

33. They will enter (read as yadkhulunaha and yudkhalunaha) – and abide in – Gardens of Eden, where they will be adorned with gold bracelets and pearls, and where their clothing will be of silk.

34. They will say, ‘Praise be to Allah Who has removed all sadness from us. Truly our Lord is Ever-Forgiving of wrong actions, Ever- Thankful for obedience:

35. He who has lodged us, out of His munificence, in the Abode of Permanence where no weariness or fatigue affects us – since there is no responsibility.’ Both are mentioned, despite their similarity, to stress the absence of them.

36. But for those who disbelieve there will be the Fire of Hell. They will not be killed off so that they die, and its punishment will not be lightened for them – for even the blink of an eye. That is how We repay (read as najzi, and also yuzja, in which case the meaning becomes “is repaid”) every thankless man.

37. They will shout out for help in it, ‘Our Lord, take us out of it! We will act rightly, differently from the way we used to act!’ They will be told: Did We not let you live long enough for anyone who was going to pay heed to pay heed? And did not the warner (Messenger) come to you – and yet you failed to respond? Taste it, then! There is no helper for the wrongdoers (unbelievers). They will have no helper to avert the punishment from them.

38. Allah knows the Unseen of the heavens and earth. Allah knows what the heart contains – and so it is more likely that He will know other things about people’s situation.

39. It is He who made you khalifs on the earth – meaning that they succeed one another. So whoever disbelieves, his unbelief is against himself. In Allah’s sight, the evil consequences of the unbelief of the unbelievers only increases their loathsomeness by incurring Allah’s anger; the unbelief of the unbelievers only increases their loss in the Next World.

40. Say: ‘Have you thought about your partner gods, those you call upon and worship besides Allah – meaning the idols which you claim are the partners of Allah? Show (inform) me what they have created of the earth; or do they have a partnership with Allah in the heavens?’ Have We given them a Book whose Clear Signs they follow – stating that they have partnership? No indeed! The wrongdoers (unbelievers) promise each other nothing but delusion – falsehood, when they say that the idols will intercede for them.

41. Allah keeps a firm hold on the heavens and earth, preventing them from vanishing away. And if they vanished no one could then keep hold of them except Him. Certainly He is Most Forbearing, Ever-Forgiving – and defers the punishment of the unbelievers.

42. They (the unbelievers of Makka) swore by Allah with their most earnest and strongest oaths that if a warner (Messenger) came to them they would be better guided than any other community – than the Jews, the Christians and others. This was when they saw that they denied one another, since the Jews said, “The Christians have no basis,” and the Christians say, “The Jews have no basis.” But then when a warner – Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace – did come to them, it only increased their aversion to guidance –

43. …shown by their arrogance – regarding the faith – in the land and evil plotting – shirk and other things. But evil plotting envelops only those who do it. It encompasses the one who plots. Plotting was described as fundamentally evil. Do they expect anything but the pattern of previous peoples? The custom of Allah with them is to punish them for their denying their Messengers. You will not find any changing in the pattern of Allah. You will not find any alteration in the pattern of Allah. There is no alteration with regard to His punishing others nor with regard to letting it descend on other than those who merit it.

44. Have they not travelled in the land and seen the final fate of those before them? Allah destroyed these people for their denial of their Messengers. They were far greater than them in strength. Allah cannot be withstood in any way, either in the heavens or on earth. He cannot be escaped. He is All-Knowing, All-Powerful.

45. If Allah were to take mankind to task for what – acts of disobedience – they have earned, He would not leave a single creature crawling on it (the earth); but He is deferring them until a specified time – the Day of Rising. Then, when their time comes, Allah sees His slaves – and will repay them for their actions by rewarding the believers and punishing the unbelievers.