13. Ar-Ra'd

The following was revealed when they said to him, ‘If you are [truly] a prophet, then make these mountains of Mecca drift away before us, and make for us rivers and springs in it, that we may plant and sow seeds, and resurrect for us our dead fathers to speak to us and tell us that you are a prophet’: Even if it were a Qur’ān whereby the mountains were set in motion, moved from their places, or the earth were cleft, torn, or the dead were spoken to, such that they would respond, they still would not believe. Nay, but the affair belongs entirely to God, and none other, so that none believes except he whom He wills that he believes, and no other; even if they were given what they request [of signs]. The following was revealed when the Companions were keen that what was requested [of signs] should be manifested, hoping that they [the ones requesting them] might believe: Have they not realised, those who believe, that (an is softened, in other words [understand it as] annahu) had God willed, He could have guided all mankind?, to faith, without [the need for] any sign? And the disbelievers, from among the people of Mecca, continue to be struck by devastation, a catastrophe that devastates them through all manner of hardship, such as being killed, taken captive, and [suffering] war or drought, because of what they wrought, because of their actions, that is, their disbelief; or you alight, O Muhammad (s), together with your army, near their home — Mecca — until God’s promise, of victory against them, comes to pass; truly God does not break His promise: and indeed, he alighted at Hudaybiyya until the conquest of Mecca took place;

messengers were certainly mocked before you, in the same way that you have been mocked — this is meant as solace for the Prophet (s) — but I gave respite to those who disbelieved; then I seized them, with retribution, and how was My retribution?, that is to say, it [My retribution] will come to pass; and I shall deal with those who have mocked you in the same way.

Is He Who stands, watches, over every soul what it has earned?, what it has done of good or evil — and this is God — like the idols who are not so? No! This [response] is suggested by [the following words]: Yet they ascribe to God associates. Say: ‘Name them!, for Him: who are they? Or will you inform Him, will you inform God, of something, that is, of an associate, which He does not know in the earth? (an interrogative of disavowal); in other words, He has no associate, for if He did, He would know him — exalted be He above such a thing. Or is it — nay — you call them associates, merely [a manner of] speaking?’, that is, [it is merely] on the basis of false conjecture, without any truth in it. Nay, but their scheming, their unbelief, has been adorned for those who disbelieve and they have been barred from the way, [from] the path of guidance; and whomever God sends astray, for him there is no guide.

The likeness, the description, of Paradise, which has been promised to the God-fearing (this is a subject, the predicate of which has been omitted), in other words, according to what We recount to you [is as follows]: beneath it rivers flow, its food, what is consumed in it, is everlasting, never perishing, and its shade, is everlasting, never replaced by any sun, because it does not exist therein. That, namely, Paradise, is the reward, the sequel, of those who were wary, of idolatry, and the requital of the disbelievers is the Fire!

And those to whom We have given the Scripture, such as ‘Abd Allāh b. Salām and others from among the believing Jews, rejoice in that which has been revealed to you, because of its according with what they have with them [of revelation]; and among the factions, that aligned themselves against you in enmity, from among the idolaters and the Jews, are those who reject some of it, such as the mention of the ‘Compassionate One’ (al-Rahmān) and all that is other than the stories [related therein]. Say: ‘I have been commanded — in that which has been revealed to me — only to worship God, and not to associate [anything] with Him. To Him I call and to Him shall be my return’.

And so, just like that [manner of] revelation, We have revealed it, that is, the Qur’ān, as a [decisive] judgement in Arabic, in the language of the Arabs, for you to judge thereby between people. And if you should follow their whims, that is, [those of] the disbelievers, in that to which they summon you of their creed, hypothetically [speaking], after what has come to you of knowledge, of God’s Oneness, you shall have no protector, to assist you, against God (mina’Llāhi min: the [second] min is extra) and no defender, to ward off His chastisement.

And when they derided him for having many wives, the following was revealed: And indeed We sent messengers before you, and We assigned to them wives and seed, children — and you are like them; and it was not for any Messenger, from among them, that he should bring a sign, save by God’s leave, because they are servants enthralled [by Him]. For every term, period, there is a Book, wherein is inscribed its delimitation.

God effaces, of it [the Book], whatever He will and He fixes (read yuthbit or yuthabbit), therein whatever He will of rulings or other matters, and with Him is the Mother of the Book, its [source of] origin, of which nothing is ever changed, and which consists of what He inscribed in pre-eternity (azal).

And whether ([read as] immā: the nūn of the conditional particle in, ‘whether’, has been assimiliated with the extra mā) We show you a part of that which We promise them, of chastisement, during your lifetime (the response of the conditional statement has been omitted, in other words [understand it as being], fa-dhāk [‘then so shall it be’]); or We take you [to Us], before chastising them; it is for you only to convey [the Message], your duty is only to deliver [the Message], and it is for Us to do the reckoning, when they finally come to Us, whereupon We shall requite them.