1. You who are enveloped in your cloak! This is addressed to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. He was enveloped in his garment when the Revelation was sent down on him.

2. Arise and warn the people of Makka about what will happen if they do not believe.

3. Magnify your Lord, exalting Him above the shirk of the idolaters.

4. Purify your clothes of impurity; or, shorten your garments to avoid the custom of the Arabs of dragging their garments on the ground out of pride, and to avoid impurity getting on them.

5. Shun all filth. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, explained “filth” as meaning idols. Continue to avoid them.

6. Do not give anything out of a desire for gain – in order to seek a greater gift in return. This is peculiar to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, because he was commanded to have the most beautiful character and noblest manners.

7. Be steadfast for your Lord in observing His commands and prohibitions.

8. For when the second blast of the Trumpet is blown,

9. …that Day when the Trumpet is blown will be a difficult day,

10. …not easy for the unbelievers. This indicates that it will be easy for the believers.

11. Leave the person I created on his own to Me alone without his family or wealth, meaning al-Walıd ibn al-Mughira –

12. …him to whom I have given great wealth – vast fields and flocks and trade –

13. …and sons who stay with him – al-Walıd had ten or more sons present in assemblies, whose testimony was accepted –

14. …and whose way I have smoothed with respect to his live l ihood, life and children.

15. Then he wants Me to add yet more!

16. No indeed! I will not give him more. He is obdurate about Our Signs – meaning that he opposes the Qur’an.

17. I will force him to climb a fiery slope – endure a difficult punishment; or it may refer to a mountain of fire which he will constantly climb up and then slip down and then do it again.

18. He reflected on what the Qur’an says, which he heard from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and considered it further.

19. Curse him, how he considered! The word qutila is an invocation against someone.

20. Again curse him, how he considered!

21. Then he looked at the faces of his people, or thought of how he would be rebuked if he accepted it.

22. Then he frowned and glowered. Glowering is a stronger form of frowning.

23. Then he drew back from faith and was too proud to follow the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

24. He said, ‘This is nothing but a transmitted magic from the past.

25. This is nothing but the words of a human being – another human being taught him this.’

26. I will make him enter Hellfire and roast him in Saqar.

27. What will convey to you what Saqaris? Because it is so immense and terrifying.

28. It does not spare anything of flesh or sinew, but destroys it all and does not ease up, and then it is restored to what it was before –

29. …ceaselessly scorching the outside of the flesh.

30. There are nineteen angels in charge of it. One of the unbelievers who was very strong said, “I can deal with seventeen and you can deal with two for me.” Then Allah revealed:

31. We have only appointed angels as masters of the Fire – and they are not as they imagine – and We have only specified their number as a trial for those who disbelieve – to misguide them so that they would say what they did say – so that those who were given the Book – meaning the Jews who believed in the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace – might gain in certainty – might confirm their number as being nineteen, that since was in their Book as well; and that those who believe among the People of the Book might increase in their belief by realising that what the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, brought was in harmony with the previous Books, and that both those who were given the Book and the believers might have no doubt about the number of the angels; and so that those with sickness in their hearts in Madina and the unbelievers in Makka might say, ‘What did Allah intend by this example involving their number?’ because of the strangeness of it. In this way – as He misguides the one who denies this number and the guides the one who affirms it – Allah misguides those He wills and guides those He wills. No one knows the legions of your Lord – meaning here the angels with their power and their helpers – but Him. This (Saqar) is nothing but a reminder to all human beings.

32. No indeed! By the moon…

33. …and the night when it withdraws (read as adbara and dabara) – and the day comes after it –

34. …and the dawn when it grows clear and bright,

35. …it (Saqar) truly is one of the greatest of all things – trials…

36. …a warning to human beings,

37. … for any of you who want to go forward to good or to the Garden by means of faith or hang back and go to evil or to the Fire because of unbelief.

38. Every self is held in pledge against what it earned – it will be seized in the Fire on account of its actions –

39. …except for the companions of the Right – the believers. They will be saved from the Fire.

40. In Gardens they will ask…

41. …the evildoers,

42. ‘What caused you to enter Saqar?’

43. They will say, ‘We were not among those who performed the prayer…

44. …and we did not feed the poor.

45. We plunged into falsehood and vanity with those who plunged…

46. …and denied the Day of Judgement – meaning the Resurrection and Repayment –

47. …until the Certain (death) came to us.’

48. The intercession of the interceders will not help them. The interceders are the angels, the Prophets, and righteous. This means that there will be no intercession for them.

49. What is the matter with them that they run from the Reminder – and turn away from the Warning –

50. …like panicked wild donkeys…

51. …fleeing from a lion, as fast as one can flee?

52. In fact each one of them wants to be given an unfurled scroll from Allah before they follow the Prophet, for they said, “We will not believe until a book is sent down on us which we can read.”

53. No indeed! This is to reject what they wanted The truth is that they do not fear the punishment of the Next World.

54. No indeed! It is truly a reminder (Qur’an)…

55. …to which anyone who wills may pay heed. Anyone who wishes may recite it and be admonished.

56. But they will only pay heed (read as yadhkuruna and tadhkuruna, “you will only pay heed”) if Allah wills. He is entitled to be feared, and entitled to forgive. Allah should be feared and He will forgive those who fear Him.