1. Ha Mim. Allah knows best what is meant by this.

2. The revelation of the Book (the Qur’an) is from Allah, the Almighty in His kingdom, the All-Wise in what He does.

3. In the creation of the heavens and earth there are certainly Signs for the believers which indicate the power and unity of Allah.

4. And in your creation – the creation of each of you from a sperm drop, then a clot, then a piece of flesh, until you emerge as a human being – and all the creatures – animals and people – He has spread about on the surface of the earth there are Signs for people with certainty about the Resurrection.

5. And in the alternation of night and day – their coming and going – and the provision – meaning here rain, which is a means by which provision comes to people – Allah sends down from the sky, bringing the earth to life by it after it has died, and the varying direction of the winds – sometimes south, sometimes north, sometimes cold and sometimes dry – there are Signs for people who use their intellect – who understand the evidence and come to believe.

6. Those Signs mentioned are Allah’s Signs that indicate His unity – which We recite to you with truth. In what discourse, then, after the speech of Allah – meaning the Qur’an – and His Signs – evidence of His unity – will they believe (read as yu’minuna and also tu’minuna, “will you believe”) in? This means that they do not believe.

7. Woe (punishment) to every wicked (full of wrong actions) liar …

8. …who hears the Signs of Allah (the Qur’an) recited to him and then persists in his arrogance – in his unbelief, too proud to believe – as if he had never heard them. Give him the news of a painful punishment.

9. When he does learn something of Our Signs (the Qur’an) he makes a mockery of them. Such people (those liars) will have a humiliating punishment.

10. Hell is right at their heels – right in front of them, because they are in this world. Nothing they have earned – in terms of wealth and actions – will be of any use to them, nor will those idols they took as protectors besides Allah. They will have a terrible punishment.

11. This Qur’an is guidance away from misguidance; and those who reject the Signs of their Lord will have a punishment of agonising pain.

12. It is Allah who has made the sea subservient to you so that the ships sail on it at His command (permission) enabling you to seek His bounty by trading so that perhaps you may be thankful.

13. And He has made everything in the heavens – the sun and moon and stars and water and other things – and everything on the earth – animals, trees, plants, rivers and other things – subservient to you – He created all of that for your benefit; it is all from Him. The word “all” is used for emphasis. There are certainly Signs in that for people who reflect and believe.

14. Tell those who believe that they should forgive those who feel no fear – the word yarjuna, which normally means “hope”, here means “fear” – about the Days of Allah – the momentous events He causes to occur, the meaning being: Forgive the unbelievers for the harm they have done to you. This was before the command to fight them in jihad – when He will repay (read as yajza and also najza, “We will repay”) people according to what they earned – in other words, will reward them for forgiving the harm done to them by the unbelievers.

15. Whoever acts rightly, it is to his own good. Whoever does evil, it is to his detriment. Then you will be returned to your Lord – and He will repay both the good-doer and the evildoer.

16. We gave the Book (the Torah) and Judgement – by it between people – and Prophethood to the tribe of Israel – Musa, Harun, and others, and provided them with good things – lawful things like manna and quail – and favoured them over all other people of their time.

17. We made the Commandments very clear to them – the commandments of the din defining the lawful and unlawful, and the sending of Muammad, may the best prayer and blessing be upon him – and they only differed about his mission after knowledge came to them, tyrannising one other out of envy about him. Your Lord will decide between them on the Day of Rising regarding the things they differed about.

18. Then We placed you, Muhammad, on the right road of Our Command (the dın of Islam), so follow it. Do not follow the whims and desires of those who do not know. In other words, do not worship anything other than Allah.

19. They will not help or defend you in any way against the punishment of Allah. The wrongdoers (the unbelievers) are protectors of one another; but Allah is the Protector of those who are godfearing.

20. This Qur’an is clear insight for mankind – a medium by which one can discern the rulings and limits – and guidance and mercy for people with certainty about the Resurrection.

21. Or do those who perpetrate evil deeds of unbelief and disobedience suppose that We will make them like those who believe and do right actions, so that their lives and deaths will be the same? They imagine that We will give them good in the Next World as We will the believers, in the form of a life comparable to the one they had in this world, as when they told the believers, “If we are resurrected, we will be given the same good things which we have been given in this world.” Allah denies this by saying, How bad their judgement is! That is not how it will be in the Next World. In the Next World they will suffer punishment contrary to their experience during their life in this world, while the believers will have a reward in the Next World for doing righteous actions in this world in the form of prayer, zakat, fasting, and other things.

22. Allah created the heavens and earth with truth – to provide evidence of His power and unity – so that every self might be repaid for what it earned for its acts of disobedience and obedience, showing that unbelievers and believers are not the same, and they will not be wronged

23. Tell me, have you seen him who takes his whims and desires to be his god, and whom Allah has misguided knowingly – knowing that he would be one of the misguided before He created him, sealing up his hearing and his heart – so that he is unable to hear guidance and does not understand it – and placing a blindfold over his eyes so that he is unable to recognise guidance? Here there is an elision which implies: “Do you think he will be guided? Who then will guide him after Allah has misguided him? He will not be guided. So will you not pay heed and be warned?

24. They (those who deny the Resurrection) say, ‘There is nothing but our existence in this world. We die and we live – and continue by producing children – and nothing destroys us except the passage of time.’ Allah says: They have no knowledge of that. They are only conjecturing.

25. When Our Clear Signs – verses of the Qur’an which indicate Our power to Resurrect – are recited to them, their only argument is to say, ‘Bring us our fathers alive if you are telling the truth about us being resurrected.’

26. Say: ‘Allah gives you life, when you have been sperm, then causes you to die, and then will gather you together alive for the Day of Rising, about which there is no doubt. But most people do not know it.’

27. The kingdom of the heavens and earth belongs to Allah – and, on the Day that the Hour arrives, that Day the liars (unbelievers) will be lost. Their loss will be clear because they will go to the Fire.

28. You will see every nation – the people of every religion – on its knees, herded together, e very nation summoned to its Book – the book of their actions. They will be told: ‘Today you will be repaid for what you did.

29. This is Our Book – the register kept by the guardian angels – speaking against you with the truth. We have been recording and preserving everything you did.’

30. As for those who believed and did right actions, their Lord will admit them into His mercy (His Garden). That is the Clear Victory.

31. But as for those who disbelieved, they will be told: ‘Were My Signs (the Qur’an) not recited to you? And yet you proved arrogant; you were a people of evildoers (unbelievers).

32. When you, unbelievers, were told, “Allah’s promise of the Resurrection is true and so is the Hour (read as as-sa‘atu and assa‘ata), of which there is no doubt,” you said, “We have no idea what the Hour is. We have only been conjecturing; we are by no means certain that it will come.”

33. The recompense for the evil deeds they did in this world will appear before them in the Next World and the punishment for the things they mocked at will engulf them.

34. They will be told, ‘Today We have forgotten you – and will leave you in the Fire – as you forgot the meeting of this your Day and failed to act for it. Your refuge is the Fire and you have no helpers to defend you from the Fire.

35. That is because you made a mockery of Allah’s Signs (the Qur’an) and the life of this world deluded you – so that you said that there was no Resurrection and no Reckoning.’ Therefore, today they will not get out (read as yukhrajuna and yakhrujuna) of it (the Fire). They will not be able to appease Allah – to please their Lord by repentance and obedience, because that will be of no benefit on that day.

36. All praise belongs to Allah – because He will fulfil His promise about the deniers, the Lord of the heavens and the Lord of the earth, Lord of all the worlds. He created the heavens and the earth and all the worlds. ‘Alam (world) is all that is other than Allah. It is in the plural because of the variety of species in existence.

37. All greatness belongs to Him in the heavens and earth. He is the Almighty, the All-Wise.