Al-Qalam

Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

1. The discussion on similar letters has already passed in Sūrah Al-Baqarah. Allah takes an oath on the Pen and whatever the people write with their pens.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

al-Maḥallī & al-Suyūṭī · 864–911 AH / 1459–1505 CE

seek refuge with God againSt that we should be insolent towards Him or His verses. In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful: [68:1] Nun, one of the letters of the alphabet: God knows be St what He means by it. By the Pen, with which He has inscribed [the records of] all creatures in the Preserved Tablet, and what they inscribe, that is, the angels, of good and righteousness. [68:2] You are not, O Muhammad (s), by the grace of your Lord, a madman, that is to say, madness is precluded in your case, on account of your Lord’s grace to you by way of [His assigning to you] prophet-…

Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

2. O Messenger! You are not a madman, due to the messengership Allah has blessed you with. Rather, you are free of the insanity the idolaters accuse you with.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

3. Indeed, there is definitely a great, everlasting reward for you for your conveying the message to the people, without there being a favour outstanding upon you for anyone.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

al-Maḥallī & al-Suyūṭī · 864–911 AH / 1459–1505 CE

ation of their saying that he was a madman. [68:3] And assuredly you will have an unfailing reward. [68:4] And assuredly you possess a magnificent nature, [a magnificent] religion. [68:5] Then you will see and they will see, [68:6] which of you is demented ( al-maftun is a verbal noun, similar [in expressional form] to al¬ maqul, ‘intelligible’; al-futun meaning al-junun, ‘insanity’) in other words, is it [this insanity] in you or in them? [68:7] Assuredly your Lord knows be it those who ftrayfrom His way, and He knows be it those who are guided, to Him.

Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

4. And indeed, you are definitely on the greatest of character that the Qur’ān has brought; you are embodied with it to the most perfect degree.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

5. So you will soon see, and these rejectors will also see.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

6. When the truth is revealed, who from amongst you was actually a madman.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

7. O Messenger! Indeed, your Lord knows of whoever deviates from His path, and He is best aware of those who are guided to it. Therefore, He knows that they are the ones who have deviated from it, and that you have been guided to it.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

8. So, O Messenger, do not follow the rejectors in what you have brought.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

9. They wish that you were soft and compromising towards them in matters of religion, so they can be soft and kind to you in return.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

al-Maḥallī & al-Suyūṭī · 864–911 AH / 1459–1505 CE

your Lord knows be it those who ftrayfrom His way, and He knows be it those who are guided, to Him. [68:9] They desire, they yearn, that (law relates to the verbal acftion) you should be pliable, [that] you should yield to them, so that they may be pliable [towards you], [so that] they may yield to you (fa- yudhinuna is a supplement to tudhinu, ‘you should be pliable’, but if it is understood to be the response to the optative clause of waddu, ‘they yearn, then [a free Standing pronoun] hum should be read as implied before it after the fa [sc.…

Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

10. And do not follow anyone who frequently takes false oaths, and is vulgar.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

al-Maḥallī & al-Suyūṭī · 864–911 AH / 1459–1505 CE

[68:10] And do not obey any mean, despicable, oath-monger, given to frequent swearing by falsehood, [68:11] backbiting, faultfinder, that is to say, calumniator, scandal-monger. Spreading [evil] talk among people in order to sow dissension between them, [68:12] hinderer of good, niggardly with his wealth againSt deserving causes, sinful transgressor, wrongdoer, [68:13] coarse-grained, crude, moreover ignoble, an adopted son of Quraysh — namely, al-Walid b.…

Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

11. Who frequently backbites the people, and bears tales between them to cause division between them.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

12. Who often prevents goodness and oppresses the people in their wealth, their dignity and their lives; who is a habitual sinner and disobeyer.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

al-Maḥallī & al-Suyūṭī · 864–911 AH / 1459–1505 CE

say, calumniator, scandal-monger. Spreading [evil] talk among people in order to sow dissension between them, [68:12] hinderer of good, niggardly with his wealth againSt deserving causes, sinful transgressor, wrongdoer, [68:13] coarse-grained, crude, moreover ignoble, an adopted son of Quraysh — namely, al-Walid b.…

Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

13. Who is stubborn and rude, one residing among his people without being related to them.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

14. Just because he is a person of wealth and many sons, he is too arrogant to have faith in Allah and in His Messenger.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

al-Maḥallī & al-Suyūṭī · 864–911 AH / 1459–1505 CE

the adverbial qualifier [bada dhalika, ‘moreover’] is semantically connected to zanim, ‘ignoble’) — [68:14] [only] because (an should be understood as li-an, ‘because’, and it is semantically connected to that [meaning] which it is indicating) he has wealth and sons. [68:15] When Our signs — the Qur’an — are recited to him, he says, that they are [merely], ‘Fables of the ancients!’, in other words, he denies them [in arrogance] on account of the mentioned things which We have beStowed on him out of Our grace (a variant reading [for an of the previous verse] has [the interrogative] a-an )…

Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

15. When My verses are read to him, he says, “This are the tales written of the people of the past.”

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

16. I will place a mark on his nose which will stick with him and disfigure him.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

al-Maḥallī & al-Suyūṭī · 864–911 AH / 1459–1505 CE

s [the interrogative] a-an ). 1 The verse would then read, ‘Is it because he has wealth and sons?’ [68:16] We shall brand him on the snout: We shall leave a distinguishing mark upon his nose, one by which he will be reviled for as long as he lives; and so his nose was chopped off by a sword at Badr. [68:17] Indeed We have tried them.…

Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

17. Indeed, I have tested these idolaters with drought and hunger, just as I tested the people of the garden when they swore that they will quickly harvest its fruits in the morning, so that the poor cannot eat from them.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

18. They did not attribute the matter to Allah among themselves, by saying: “If Allah wills”.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

al-Maḥallī & al-Suyūṭī · 864–911 AH / 1459–1505 CE

have to give them of it that [portion] which their father used to give them of it by way of charily. [68:18] And they did not make any exception, to their vow, for God’s will (the sentence is a new [syntac¬ tically independent] one, in other words: and that was their condition). [68:19] Then a visitation from your Lord visited it, [that is] a fire consumed it during the night, while they slept. [68:20] So by the morning it was like the darkness of night, in other words, black. 2 [68:21] They then called out to one another in the morning,

Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

19. So I sent a fire to the garden which consumed it while its owners were asleep, unable to defend it.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

20. It became black, like a dark night.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

21. In the morning, its owners called on each other.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

al-Maḥallī & al-Suyūṭī · 864–911 AH / 1459–1505 CE

ness of night, in other words, black. 2 [68:21] They then called out to one another in the morning, [68:22] [saying], ‘Goforth early to your tillage, your produce ( ani’ghdu ‘ala harthikum constitutes an explication of [the import of] tanadaw, ‘they called out to one another’; otherwise, an relates to the ver¬ bal adtion, [to be understood as] being bi-an ) if you are going to pluck’, if your intention is to pick [the fruits] (the response to the conditional is indicated by what preceded it). [68:23] So off they went, whimpering to one another, talking secretly: [68:24] ‘No needy person…

Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

22. Saying, “Leave early towards your crop before the poor people arrive, if indeed, you wish to harvest your crops.”

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

23. So they made their way towards their crop quickly, talking among themselves in hushed tones.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

24. They were saying to one another: “No poor person should come to you at the garden today.”

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

25. They left in the early morning, determined not to let anyone get to their crops.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

al-Maḥallī & al-Suyūṭī · 864–911 AH / 1459–1505 CE

the preceding [verse]; or else, an relates to the verbal adtion, [to be understood] to mean bi-an). [68:25] And they went forth early, supposing themselves, able to prohibit, to prevent the poor folk [from enjoying the fruit], [68:26] But when they saw it, blackened and charred, they said, ‘Assuredly we have Strayed!’, from it, that is to say: this is not the one.…

Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

26. Then, when they saw their crops having been burnt, they said to each other, “Surely, we have lost our way?!”

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

27. “Nay! We have been deprived of harvesting our crops because of us having been determined to prevent the poor from eating them.”

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

28. The most virtuous among them said, “Did I not tell you when you made up your mind to prevent the poor from your crops: “Why do you not glorify Allah and repent to Him?””

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

29. They said, “Glory be to our Lord; indeed, we wronged ourselves when we decided to prevent the poor from the crops of our garden.”

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

30. So they began to go back on their words out of regret.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

al-Maḥallī & al-Suyūṭī · 864–911 AH / 1459–1505 CE

be to God, our Lord. Verily we have been wrongdoers’, by denying the poor folk [what is] their due. [68:30] They then turned to one another, blaming each other. [68:31] They said, ‘O ([yd is] for calling attention to something) woe to us!, [O] destruction of ours. We have indeed been unjuSl. [68:32] It may be that our Lord will give us in its place (read yubaddilana or yubdilana) one that is better than it.…

Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

31. They said, regretfully, “How much we have lost! Indeed, we transgressed the limits by depriving the poor of their rights.”

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

32. “It is hoped from our Lord that He gives us better than our garden in return. Indeed, we are desirous towards Him; we hope for forgiveness from Him and seek goodness from Him.”

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

33. I punish those who disobey Me just like I punished these people with the punishment of depravation. And indeed, the punishment of the afterlife is greater, if only they were to know its severity and permanence.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

34. Indeed, those who are mindful of Allah by fulfilling His commands and refraining from the things He has not allowed, will have gardens of pleasure by their Lord, wherein they will live in permanent luxury.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

35. Should I make the Muslims the same as the disbelievers in terms of requital, as the idolaters of Makkah claim?

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

36. O idolaters! What is wrong with you; how can you come to this oppressive, warped conclusion?

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

al-Maḥallī & al-Suyūṭī · 864–911 AH / 1459–1505 CE

in terms of reward? [68:36] What is wrong with you? How do you judge?, with such corrupt judgement? [68:37] Or (am lakum means a-lakum ) do you have a Scripture, revealed, wherein you learn, [wherein] you read, [68:38] that you will indeed have in it whatever you choose? [68:39] Or do you have oaths, pledges, binding, secured, on Us until the Day of Resurrection (ila yawmi’l- qiyamati is semantically connected to ‘alaynd, ‘on Us’; these words [‘alaynd bdlighatun, ‘binding on Us’] contain the sense of an oath [given], in other words, ‘Did We swear to you?’, the response to which is [what…

Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

37. Do you have a book in which you read that there should be equality between the obedient and disobedient?

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

38. Indeed, in that book you would then have whatever you choose in the afterlife.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

39. Or, do you have covenants with Me weighted with oaths, that you will get whatever you decide for yourselves?

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

40. O Messenger! Ask those making these statement: “Who is their guarantor for this?”

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

al-Maḥallī & al-Suyūṭī · 864–911 AH / 1459–1505 CE

to which is [what follows]) that you will indeed have whatever you decide?, to have for yourselves. [68:40] Ask them, which of them will aver, will guarantee for them, that?, [that] decision which they have made for themselves, namely, that they will be given better [reward] than the believers in the Hereafter? [68:41] Or do they have partners?, who agree with them in this claim of theirs and able to guarantee it for them; if that is the case: Then let them produce their partners, those who will guarantee this for them, if they are truthfid.

Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

41. Or do they have associates other than Allah who make them equal in requital with the believers? If so, they should bring forth these associates of theirs if they are true in their claim that they have made them equal in requital with the believers.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

42. On the Day of Judgement, the horror will become clear and our Lord will expose a part of His Shin. The people will be invited to prostrate, so the believers will prostrate, but the disbelievers and hypocrites will remain standing, unable to prostrate.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

al-Maḥallī & al-Suyūṭī · 864–911 AH / 1459–1505 CE

Then let them produce their partners, those who will guarantee this for them, if they are truthfid. [68:42] Mention, the day when the shank is bared (an expression denoting the severity of the predica¬ ment during the reckoning and the requital on the Day of Resurrection: one says kashafati’l-harbu 'an sdqin, ‘the war has bared its shank’, to mean that it has intensified) and they are summoned to prostrate themselves, as a test of their faith, but they will not be able [to do so] — their backs will become as [stiff as] a brick wall.

Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

43. Their eyesight will be humiliated; humiliation and regret will overcome them. Yet in the world, they were asked to prostrate to Allah while they were in safety from what they will be facing on that day.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

al-Maḥallī & al-Suyūṭī · 864–911 AH / 1459–1505 CE

r faith, but they will not be able [to do so] — their backs will become as [stiff as] a brick wall. [68:43] With humbled ( khashiatan is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the person [of the verb] yud‘awna, ‘they are summoned’) that is to say, with abjeCt, gazes, which they do not raise, they will be overcast, enveloped, by abasement; for they had indeed been summoned, in this world, to prostrate themselves while they were yet sound, but they never used to do it, by the faCt that they never performed prayer. [68:44] So leave Me [to deal] with those who deny this discourse — the Qur’…

Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

44. O Messenger! Leave me to deal with whoever denies this Qur’ān that has been revealed to you. I will drive them to the punishment gradually, in a way they do not realise that it is a method of leading them gradually into destruction.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

45. And I give them respite for a short while so that they go to extremes in their sin. Indeed, My plan regarding the people of disbelief and rejection is firm; they will not escape Me nor be safe from My punishment.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

al-Maḥallī & al-Suyūṭī · 864–911 AH / 1459–1505 CE

’an. We will draw them on by degrees. We will seize them little by little, whence they do not know. [68:45] And I will grant them respite; [for] assuredly My devising is firm, [My devising is] severe and cannot be withstood. [68:46] Or are you asking them a fee, in return for delivering the Message, so that they are weighed down with debt?, [so that they are weighed down] with what they will [have to] give you, and that is why they do not believe. [68:47] Or do they possess [access to] the Unseen, that is, [access to] the Preserved Tablet which contains [knowledge of] the Unseen, so tha…

Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

46. O Messenger! Do you seek a reward from them for what you invite them towards, due to which they are greatly burdened, being the cause of their turning away from you? The reality is the opposite: you do not seek any reward from them; so what stops them from following you?

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

al-Maḥallī & al-Suyūṭī · 864–911 AH / 1459–1505 CE

respite; [for] assuredly My devising is firm, [My devising is] severe and cannot be withstood. [68:46] Or are you asking them a fee, in return for delivering the Message, so that they are weighed down with debt?, [so that they are weighed down] with what they will [have to] give you, and that is why they do not believe. [68:47] Or do they possess [access to] the Unseen, that is, [access to] the Preserved Tablet which contains [knowledge of] the Unseen, so that they are writing down?, from it what they say.

Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

47. Or do they have knowledge of the Ghaib from which they write whatever proof appeal to them, that they then use to argue against you?

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

48. O Messenger! So wait for the decision of your Lord to give them respite and gradually lead them into destruction. And do not be like the companion of the whale i.e. Jonah (peace be upon him) who became annoyed with his people, and then called out to his Lord while distressed in the darkness of the sea and the darkness of the stomach of the whale.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

al-Maḥallī & al-Suyūṭī · 864–911 AH / 1459–1505 CE

et which contains [knowledge of] the Unseen, so that they are writing down?, from it what they say. [68:48] So await patiently the judgement of your Lord, regarding them in the way that He wills, and do not be like the one of the whale, in terms of impatience and haSte — this is Jonah, peace be upon him — who called out, [who] supplicated his Lord, choking with grief, filled with anguish inside the [68:49] Had it not been for a grace, a mercy, from his Lord that reached him, he would have surely been caft, out of the belly of the whale, onto a wilderness, a desolate land, while he was bla…

Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

49. Had it not been for the mercy of Allah reaching him, the whale would have thrown him on a barren land, rebuked.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

50. But his Lord chose him and made him one of His pious servants.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

al-Maḥallī & al-Suyūṭī · 864–911 AH / 1459–1505 CE

. [68:50] But his Lord chose him, for prophethood, and made him one of the righteous, the prophets. [68:51] Indeed those who disbelieve would almost throw you down [to the ground] (read la-yuzliqunaka or la-yazliqunaka ) with their looks, looking at you in a severe way, almost hurling you to the ground or making you fall from your place, when they hear the Reminder, the Qur’an, and they say, out of envy: ‘He is truly a madman!’, on account of the Qur’an that he has brought. [68:52] Yet it, namely, the Qur’an, is juft a Reminder, an admonition, for all the worlds, of [both] humans and jin…

Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

51. And indeed, those who disbelieve in Allah and reject his Messengers could almost bring you to the ground with their eyes due to their extremely sharp glances towards you when they hear this Qur’ān that was revealed to you. While following their desires and turning away from the truth, they say, “Indeed, the Messenger who has brought it is a madman.”

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

al-Maḥallī & al-Suyūṭī · 864–911 AH / 1459–1505 CE

his Lord chose him, for prophethood, and made him one of the righteous, the prophets. [68:51] Indeed those who disbelieve would almost throw you down [to the ground] (read la-yuzliqunaka or la-yazliqunaka ) with their looks, looking at you in a severe way, almost hurling you to the ground or making you fall from your place, when they hear the Reminder, the Qur’an, and they say, out of envy: ‘He is truly a madman!’, on account of the Qur’an that he has brought. [68:52] Yet it, namely, the Qur’an, is juft a Reminder, an admonition, for all the worlds, of [both] humans and jinn, and cannot b…

Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

52. Yet the Qur’ān that has been revealed to you is only a reminder and admonition for the humans and the Jinn.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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