1. By Heaven, with its Houses of the Zodiac – the twelve constellations mentioned in Surat al-Furqan,

2. …and the Promised Day – the Day of Rising,

3. …and the witness and the witnessed! This may mean that the “witness” is Friday and the “witnessed” is the Day of ‘Arafa, an interpretation made by three people in a hadıth. The first is an agreed time and the second has actions witnessed in it. The third is that the people and the angels visit it. The object of the oath is elided.

4. Cursed – the word qutila, which literally means “killed”, is used as a curse – be the Companions of the Pit,

5. …the fire well stocked with fuel,

6. …when they were seated right beside it on chairs at the side of the pit,

7. …witnessing what they did to the believers: how they tortured those who believed in Allah by throwing them into the fire when they would not recant their faith. The witnesses were present. It is related that Allah saved the believers cast into the fire by taking their souls before they actually fell into it – and that the fire rose up and burned the others who were present.

8. The only reason they punished them was because they believed in Allah, the Almighty in His kingdom, the All-Praiseworthy in what He does;

9. …Him to whom the Kingdom of the heavens and the earth belongs. Allah is Witness of all things – to all the objections made by the unbelievers against the believers simply because they believe.

10. Those who persecute believing men and women by burning them and then do not repent will have the punishment of Hell for their unbelief; and they shall have the punishment of the Burning of Hellfire. They will be punished in the Next World for burning the believers. It is said that that came about in this world when the fire burst out of the pit and burned them.

11. But those who believe and do right actions will have Gardens with rivers flowing under them. That is the Great Victory.

12. Your Lord’s assault on the unbelievers is very fierce.

13. He originates creation and regenerates it; and so He does not lack the power to do whatever He wishes.

14. He is the Ever-Forgiving of believers who do wrong actions, the All-Loving towards His friends by honouring them;

15. …the Possessor of the Throne – its Creator and Owner, the All- Glorious;

16. … always the Doer of whatever He desires. Nothing is beyond His power.

17. Has the story reached you, Mu˛ammad, of the legions…

18. …of Pharaoh and Thamüd? It is their legions that are mentioned: they were destroyed because of their unbelief. This is directed to those who rejected the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and the Qur’an, so that they might be admonished.

19. Yet those who disbelieve insist on their denial of what was mentioned above –

20. …while Allah is encircling them from behind. No one and nothing can defend them from Him.

21. It is indeed a Glorious Qur’an…

22. …preserved on a Tablet. It is above the seventh heaven. It is preserved from shaytans and from anything being altered in it. Its height extends between heaven and the earth and its width is from the east to the west. It is made of white pearl. All that was stated by Ibn ‘Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him.