16. An-Nahl

Gardens of Eden as a place of residence jannātu ‘Adnin is a subject the predicate of which is what follows which they will enter Gardens underneath which rivers flow wherein they shall have whatever they wish. So with such a reward God rewards the God-fearing

those whom alladhīna is a description the angels take away in death while they are goodly pure of any unbelief saying to them upon death ‘Peace be on you! and it is said to them in the Hereafter Enter Paradise because of what you used to do’.

Do they the disbelievers await anything but that the angels should come to them read feminine person ta’tīhim or masculine ya’tīhim to seize their spirits or that there should come your Lord’s command? chastisement or the resurrection that entails it. So just as these have done did those before them from among the former communities they denied their messengers and were therefore destroyed. And God did not wrong them destroying them for no sin but they used to wrong themselves through disbelief.

So that the evils of what they did smote them that is the requital of these evil things smote them and there besieged it was sent down against them that which they used to mock namely the chastisement.

And the idolaters from among the Meccans say ‘Had God willed we would not have worshipped anything besides Him — neither we nor our fathers — nor would we have deemed anything sacred besides Him’ in the way of those camels called bahīras and sā’iba. In other words our idolatry and our deeming these animals sacred are effected by His will; therefore He must be satisfied with this. God exalted He be says So did those before them that is they denied their messengers regarding that which they the messengers brought them. Yet are messengers charged with anything save plain conveyance of the Message? It is not their duty to guide.

And verily We sent forth among every community a messenger just as We have sent you forth among these Meccans to say ‘Worship God profess belief in His Oneness and shun false deities’ graven images and do not worship them. Then among them were some whom God guided and they believed and among them were some who deserved to be in error according to God’s knowledge and so they did not believe. So travel O disbelievers of Mecca in the land and observe the nature of the consequence of those who denied their messengers in that they were destroyed.

And they swear by God their most earnest oaths in other words with their utmost earnestness therein that God will not resurrect the dead. God exalted be He says Nay He will resurrect them it is a promise binding upon Him both wa‘dan and haqqan are verbal nouns used for emphasis and are in the accusative because of the verbal actions implicit in them; in other words He promised that and made it a binding truth but most people that is the people of Mecca do not know that.

That He may make clear to them li-yubayyina is semantically connected to an implied yab‘athuhum ‘He will resurrect them’ what they differ with believers in of matters of religion by punishing them and rewarding the believers and that the disbelievers may know that they were liars when they denied the Resurrection.

All that We say to a thing when We will it that is when We will that it come into existence qawlunā is a subject the predicate of which is what follows is to say to it ‘Be’ and it is in other words and that thing is a variant reading for fa-yakūnu has fa-yakūna as a supplement to naqūla. The verse is intended as an affirmation of the power of God to resurrect.