1. Nun – one of the letters whose meaning Allah has the best knowledge of. By the Pen – which is that which inscribed all created things on the Preserved Tablet – and what they (the angels) write down in terms of good and righteousness!

2. By the blessing of your Lord, you – Muhammad – are not mad. Allah has blessed you with Prophethood and other things. This refutes the assertion of the idolaters that he was insane.

3. You shall have a wage which never fails.

4. Indeed you are truly vast in character – meaning, in dın.

5. So you will see and they will see…

6. …which of you is mad.

7. Your Lord knows best who is misguided away from His Way, and He knows best those who are guided.

8. So do not obey those who deny the truth.

9. They wish that you would conciliate them and be easy with them – then they too would be conciliating.

10. But do not obey any vile swearer of oaths who swears many false oaths;

11. …any backbiter, slandermonger – a backbiter is someone who criticises people and a slandermonger is one who listens to what people say in order to spread corruption among them;

12. …impeder of good – one who is miserly with wealth and does not pay the due on it, evil aggressor;

13. …gross, coarse (rough and rude) and furthermore, despicable – all of this is a reference to al Walid ibn al-Mughira. Ibn ‘Abbas said, “We do not know that Allah described anyone with the faults with which He described him. A shame was attached to him which will never leave him.”

14. …simply because he possesses wealth and sons.

15. When Our Signs (the Qur’an) are recited to him, he says, ‘Just myths (lies) of previous peoples!’

16. We will brand him on the snout! We will put a mark on his nose by which he will be marked as long as he lives. His nose was cut by a sword during the Battle of Badr.

17. We have tried them (the people of Makka) with drought and hunger as We tried the owners of the garden when they swore that they would harvest in the morning – so that the poor would not be aware of it and they would not have to give them any of what their father used to give the poor as charity

18. … but did not say the redeeming words, ‘If Allah wills’ when they swore their oath.

19. So a visitation from your Lord came upon it while they slept – a fire which burned it up during the night –

20. …and in the morning it was like burnt land stripped bare – like night, because it was dark and blackened.

21. In the morning they called out to one another,

22. ‘Leave early for your land if you want to pick the fruit.’

23. So they set off, quietly saying to one another – whispering –

24. ‘Do not let any poor man into it today while you are there.’ This explains the preceding sentences.

25. They left early, intent on carrying out their scheme to deprive the poor, and thought that they could achieve that.

26. But when they saw it black and burned they said, ‘We must have lost our way.

27. No, the truth is we are destitute!’ They were deprived of its fruits because of their denying the poor some of it.

28. The best of them said, ‘Did I not say to you, “Why do you not glorify Allah and repent and turn to Him?”’

29. They said, ‘Glory be to our Lord! Truly we have been wrongdoers in denying the poor their due.’

30. They turned to face each other in mutual accusation.

31. They said, ‘Woe to us! We were indeed inordinate.

32. Maybe our Lord will give us something better than it in exchange (read as yubdilana and yubaddilana). We entreat our Lord to accept our repentance and to give us something better than our garden.’ It is reported that they did receive something better than it.

33. Such – the punishment of these people – is the punishment that will alight on those unbelievers of Makka and others who oppose Allah’s command; and the punishment of the Next World is much greater than the punishment of this world if they oppose Our command, if they only knew. This was revealed when they said, “If we are resurrected, we will be given better than you.”

34. The people who are godfearing will have Gardens of Delight with their Lord.

35. Would We make the Muslims the same as the evildoers? Would they be given the same?

36. What is the matter with you? On what basis do you judge? That is an unsound decision.

37. Or have you a revealed Book which you study and read,

38. …so that you may have anything in it you choose?

39. Or have you firm oaths that bind Us, extending (lasting) to the Day of Rising, that you will have whatever you decide for yourselves?

40. Ask them which of them stands as guarantor – the word za‘im means one who guarantees a business he undertakes – for that – the judgement which they make for themselves that they will be given better than the believers in the Next World.

41. Or do they have Divine partners who agree with them about this claim and will act as guarantors for them? Then let them produce their partners if they are telling the truth!

42. Remember that – on the Day when legs are bared – a metaphor for the hardship of the trials of the Day of Rising with respect to the Reckoning and Repayment. Metaphorically, one says, “War has bared its leg” when the fighting is very hard – and they are called on to prostrate – as a test of their faith – they will not be able to do so. When they attempt to do so, they will not be able to because their backs will become rigid.

43. Their eyes will be downcast, darkened by debasement; for they were called on to prostrate – in this world but did not do so – when they were in full possession of their faculties. But they did not pray.

44. So leave anyone who denies this discourse (the Qur’an) to Me! We will lead them, step by step – little by little – into destruction from where they do not know.

45. I will allow them more time. My subterfuge and devising is sure.

46. Or do you ask them for a wage for conveying the Message so they are weighed down with debt by what they have to pay you so that they do not believe it?

47. Or is the Unseen in their hands – the Preserved Tablet which contains the Unseen – so they can write out what is to happen from it?

48. So wait steadfastly for the judgement of your Lord to do what He wills with them. Do not be like the Companion of the Fish – Yunus, peace be upon him – when he called out in absolute despair – annoyance and haste, when he called on his Lord and was filled with sorrow in the belly of the Fish.

49. Had a blessing (mercy) from his Lord not overtaken him, he would have been thrown up on the naked shore – on barren land, for he was at fault; but Allah had mercy and saved him without rendering him blameworthy.

50. Instead, his Lord chose him for Prophethood and made him one of the righteous Prophets.

51. Those who disbelieve all but strike you dow n (read as la-yuzliqünaka and la- yazliqunaka) with their evil looks – looking at you harshly with a look which nearly fells you – when they hear the Reminder (the Qur’an) and say – out of envy that he is mad, because of the Qur’an which he brought – ‘He is quite mad.’

52. But it (the Qur’an) is nothing less than a Reminder to all the worlds: the worlds of jinn and men. It is not the result of madness.