1. By the scatterers scattering – the winds which scatter the dust and other things,

2. …and those bearing weighty loads – the clouds which bear water,

3. …and those speeding along with ease – ships which sail with the winds across the surface of the seas,

4. …and those apportioning the command – the angels who distribute provision, rain and other things between different lands and people with ease!

5. What you are promised regarding the Resurrection and other things is certainly true –

6. …the Judgement – the Repayment after the Reckoning – will certainly take place!

7. By Heaven with its oscillating orbits – there are paths through it in the same way as there are paths through the desert sand,

8. … you, people of Makka, certainly have differing beliefs – you say different things about the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and the Qur’an. It was said that he was a poet, magician or soothsayer, and that the Qur’an was poetry, magic or soothsaying.

9. Averted from it – or him, meaning from belief in the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, or the Qur’an – is he who is averted – turned aside from guidance, in the foreknowledge of Allah.

10. Death to the conjecturers – may the liars be cursed! They are the ones with differing beliefs –

11. …those who flounder in a glut of ignorance – and are unmindful of the business of the Next World,

12. …asking, ‘When is the Day of Judgement?’ They ask the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, this out of mockery.

13. On the Day they are tormented by the Fire, they are punished in it, and the following will be said to them while they are being punished:

14. ‘Taste your torment! This is what you were trying to hasten: in this world out of mockery!’

15. The people who are godfearing will be among Gardens and Fountains,

16. …receiving what their Lord has given them – meaning “obtaining in the Garden the good things and the reward their Lord had promised them.” Certainly before that – before they entered the Garden – they were good-doers in this world.

17. The part of the night they spent asleep was small – they slept for a short portion of the night and prayed for the majority of it,

18. …and they would seek forgiveness before the dawn, with the words: “O Allah, forgive us!”…

19. …and beggars and the destitute – referring to people who do not beg because of their diffidence – received a due share of their wealth.

20. There are certainly Signs in the earth for people with certainty – such as mountains, soil, seas, trees, fruits, plants and other things –

21. …and in yourselves there are signs as well – from the beginning of your gestation to its end, and in the wonders which the human body contains. Do you not then see? “Do you not see that and take it as evidence of your Maker and His power?”

22. Your provision is in heaven – a reference to the rain which sustains plant life from which much of our provision comes – and what you are promised, which is the Resurrection and the reward or penalty that follow it, meaning that it is written in heaven.

23. By the Lord of heaven and earth, it (what you are promised) is certainly the truth, just as you have speech. “As you speak in reality, meaning you have knowledge of that a priori as it issues from you.”

24. This is addressed to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Has the story reached you of the honoured guests of Ibrahim? The honoured guests were angels. There were twelve, ten or three of them. Jibrıl was one of them.

25. When they entered his dwelling and said, ‘Peace!’ he said, ‘Peace, to people we do not know.’ He said to himself, “We do not recognise them.”

26. So he slipped off secretly to his household and brought a fattened calf. The Qur’an says in Surat Hud that it was roasted.

27. He offered it to them to eat, but they would not eat, and then exclaimed, ‘Do you not then eat?’

28. He felt afraid of them – and concealed this in himself – but they said, ‘Do not be afraid! We are the messengers of your Lord’, and gave him the good news of a son imbued with much knowledge. That was Ishaq, as mentioned in Surat Hud.

29. His wife – Sara – came up with a shriek and struck her face and said, ‘What, and me a barren old woman? Those like me do not give birth!’ She was 99 and Ibrahim was 100, or he was 120 and she was 90.

30. They said, ‘That is what your Lord says. That is our good news. He is the All-Wi s e in what He does, the All-Knowing of His ,creation.’

31. He inquired, ‘What, then, is your business, O messengers?’

32. They said, ‘We have been sent to a people of evildoers (unbelievers) – the people of Lü† –

33. …to unleash upon them lumps of clay baked with fire …

34. …earmarked with the name of the person they are intended for by your Lord for the profligate on account of their unbelief.’

35. We brought out all the believers who were there, so that the unbelievers could be destroyed,

36. …but found in it only one house of Muslims: Lut and his sons, who were true in their hearts and performed acts of obedience with their limbs.

37. And We left a Sign of their destruction in it – after the unbelievers were destroyed there – for those who fear painful punishment and hence do not do the same as they did.

38. And also We left a Sign in the story of Musa, when We sent him to Pharaoh with clear authority – clear evidence.

39. But he turned away from faith with his forces, because they supported him, saying ‘Musa is a magician or a madman!’

40. So We seized him and his armies and hurled them into the sea and they were drowned; and he was to blame. Pharoah did what was reprehensible by denying the Messengers and claiming to be divine.

41. And also in the destruction of ‘Ad there is a sign – when We unleashed against them the barren wind in which there was no good because it did not bring rain and did not fertilise the trees. It was a west wind –

42. …which left nothing – neither living person nor property – it touched without turning it to dust.

43. And also in the destruction of Thamud there is a Sign – when they were told after they had hamstrung the Camel, ‘ Enjoy yourselves a while until the end of your set term,’ as in the ayat: “Enjoy yourselves in your land for three more days.” (11:65)

44. But they spurned their Lord’s command out of arrogance, and did not obey their Messenger, so the Blast seized them three days later as they watched.

45. They could not stand upright – being unable to rise when the punishment descended – and they were not helped against what destroyed them.

46. And there is a Sign in the destruction of the people of Nuh before who were destroyed by Allah before these others were destroyed – they were a people of deviators.

47. As for heaven, We built it with great power and gave it its vast expanse. “We had the power to do so and made it contain vastness and strength.”

48. And the earth – We spread it like a carpet and stretched it out – and how well We smoothed it out!

49. And We created all things in pairs of opposites, such as male and female, earth and heaven, sun and moon, plains and mountains, summer and winter, sweet and sour, light and darkness, so that perhaps you would pay heed, know that the Creator of the pairs is unique, and worship Him.

50. So flee to Allah – to His reward from the punishment from Him that awaits you if you do not obey Him. Do not disobey Him. Truly I bring you a clear warning from Him.

51. Do not set up another god together with Allah. Truly I bring you a clear warning from Him. This is repeating the command to flee to Him.

52. Equally, no Messenger came to those before them without their saying, ‘A magician or a madman!’ Their denial of Muhammad by saying that he was a magician or madman mirrors how earlier

nations also denied their Messengers by saying that.

53. Did they all bequeathe this to one another? The answer is “No”. Indeed they are an unbridled people. All who called him that were a people who transgressed.

54. So turn away from them, for you are not to blame – because you have conveyed the Message;

55. …and remind them – admonish them by the Qur’an, for truly the believers benefit from being reminded – those who Allah knows will believe. 56. I created jinn and man only to worship Me. This is not incompatible with the unbelievers’ failure to worship Allah because the statement does not demand that it actually happen, as is the case when you say, “I have sharpened this pen so that I can write with it,” and then you do not write with it.

57. I do not require any provision from them for Myself or themselves or for anyone else and I do not require them to nourish Me.

58. Truly Allah is the Provider, the Possessor of Strength, the Sure.

59. Those who do wrong to themselves by disbelief among the people of Makka and others will have their due portion of the punishment, the same as that of their friends – those who were destroyed before them — so they should not hurry Me: hasten the punishment if it is delayed for them until the Day of Rising.

60. Woe (a great punishment), then, to those who disbelieve, on account of the Day they have been promised – the Day of Rising.