2. Al-Baqara

And they routed, they broke, them, by the leave of God, by His will, and David, who was among the ranks of Saul’s army, slew Goliath; and God gave him, David, the kingship, over the Children of Israel, and Wisdom, prophethood after the death of Samuel and Saul, and the combination [of kingship and prophethood] had never come to anyone before him; and He taught him such as He willed, of the manufacture of mail-coats and the speech of birds. Had God not repelled people some (ba‘dahum, ‘some’, substitutes for [saying] ba‘dan min al-nās, ‘some people’) by means of others the earth would have surely been corrupted, with idolaters defeating and slaying Muslims, and mosques being destroyed; but God is bounteous to all worlds, by repelling some by means of others.

These, verses, are the verses of God We recite to you, O Muhammad (s), as narration, in truth, and assuredly you are one of the Messengers [of God], the emphasis is made here with the particle inna [of innaka, ‘surely you are’], with the remainder of the statement being a rebuttal of the disbelievers’ saying, ‘You are no Messenger’.

O you who believe, expend of what We have provided you with, what is due of it as alms, before there comes a day in which there shall be neither commerce, ransom, nor friendship, that can be of any benefit, nor intercession, without His permission (a variant reading has all three nouns in nominative inflection bay‘un, khullatun, shafā‘atun [as opposed to lā bay‘a, lā khullata, lā shafā‘ata]): this is the Day of Resurrection. And the disbelievers, those that disbelieve in God or in the obligations He has imposed on them — they are the evildoers, for not respecting God’s command.

God, there is no god, that is, there is none worthy of being worshipped in [all] existence, except Him, the Living, the Everlasting, the Eternal Sustainer, the One constantly engaged in the management of His creation. Slumber does not seize Him, neither sleep; to Him belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth, as possessions, creatures and servants; who is there, that is to say, none is there, that shall intercede with Him save by His leave?, in this for him. He knows what lies before them, that is, creation, and what is after them, of the affairs of this world and the Hereafter; and they encompass nothing of His knowledge, that is, they know nothing of what He knows, save such as He wills, to inform of it by way of His messengers. His throne subsumes the heavens and the earth, it is said that His knowledge encompasses them both; it is also said that the kursī (‘throne’) itself subsumes them on account of its vastness, as in the hadīth, ‘The seven heavens compared to the kursī are like seven silver coins lying in a metal shield [of armour]’; the preserving of them, the heavens and the earth, wearies Him not, does not burden Him; He is the Sublime, above His creation by virtue of His subjugation [of them], the Tremendous, the Great.

There is no compulsion in, entering into, religion. Rectitude has become clear from error, that is say, through clear proofs it has become manifest that faith is rectitude and disbelief is error: this was revealed concerning the Ansār [of Medina] who tried to compel their sons to enter into Islam; so whoever disbelieves in the false deity, namely, Satan or idols (tāghūt, ‘false deity’, is used in a singular and plural sense), and believes in God, has laid hold of the most firm handle, the tight knot, unbreaking, that cannot be severed; God is Hearing, of what is said, Knowing, of what is done.

God is the Protector, helper, of the believers; He brings them forth from the shadows, of unbelief, into the light, of faith. And the disbelievers — their protectors are false deities, that bring them forth from the light into the shadows: the repetition of ‘bringing forth from’ here is either to be taken as a reflection of His [previous] words, “He brings them forth from the shadows”, or as a reference to all those Jews who believed in the Prophet before he was sent, but then rejected him, those are the inhabitants of the Fire, therein they shall abide.

Have you not seen him who disputed with Abraham, concerning his Lord, because of the fact, that God had given him the kingship?, that is, his arrogance towards this very grace of God: this was Nimrod (Nimrūd). When (idh is a substitution for hājja, ‘disputed’) Abraham, in response to the other’s question, ‘Who is this Lord of yours to whom you are calling us?’, said: ‘My Lord is He who gives life, and makes to die’, the One that creates life and death in bodies; he [Nimrod] said, ‘I give life, by sparing, and make to die’, by killing. He then had two men brought before him, killed one and spared the other. When Abraham realised that this man was a fool, Abraham, resorting to a more sophisticated argument, said: ‘God brings the sun from the east; so bring, you, it from the west.’ Then the disbeliever was confused, perplexed and amazed; and God guides not the folk who do evil, disbelieving, to the art of argument.

Or, did you see, such as he, Ezra (‘Uzayr), who (the kāf of ka’lladhī, ‘such as he who’, is extra) passed by a city, namely, the Holy House [sc. Jerusalem], riding on an ass and carrying with him a basket of figs and a cup of juice, [a city] that was fallen down, collapsed, upon its turrets, its roof tops: after Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed it; he said, ‘How (annā means kayfa, ‘how’) shall God give life to this now that it is dead?’, challenging the power of the exalted One, so God made him die, and remain dead for, a hundred years, then he raised him up, brought him back to life to show him how this could be done; He, God, said, ‘How long have you tarried?’, been here?; he said, ‘I have tarried a day, or part of a day’, because he fell asleep before noon, and was made dead and then brought back to life again at sunset, and thus he thought it was a day’s sleep; He said, ‘Nay; you have tarried a hundred years. Look at your food, the figs, and drink, the cup of juice, it has not spoiled, despite the length of time (the final hā’ of yatasannah, ‘to spoil’, is said to belong to the original root, s-n-h; but it is also said to be silent, in which case the root would be s-n-y; a variant reading omits the final hā’); and look at your ass, how it is, and he saw that it had died, and all that remained were its withered white bones. We did this so that you would know and, so that We would make you a sign, of [the truth of] the Resurrection, for the people. And look at the bones, of the ass, how We shall set them up, how We shall raise them back to life (nunshiruhā, or nanshiruhā, derived from the two expressions, nashara and anshara; a variant reading has nunshizuhā, meaning ‘How We shall move it and make it stand’); and then clothe them with flesh’, and when he looked at it, he saw that [the bones] had been reconstituted and clothed with flesh, and that the Spirit had been breathed into it, making it bray. So, when it was made clear to him, as a result of witnessing it, he said, ‘I know (a variant reading for a‘lam, ‘I know’, has [the imperative] i‘lam, ‘know!’, thus making it a command from God), with the knowledge of direct vision, that God has power over all things’.

And, mention, when Abraham said, ‘My Lord show me how You give life to the dead,’ He, God, exalted be He, said, to him, ‘Why, do you not believe?’, in My power to revive; God asks him this even though He knows of his belief in this [power], as a response to his request, and so that the ones listening will know the purpose [of the request]; ‘Yes,’, I do believe, he said, ‘but, I ask You, so that my heart may be re-assured’, [so that it may be] at peace, through direct vision, in addition to that [certainty] which is sought through logical reasoning. Said He, ‘Take four birds, and twist them to you (sirhunna, or surhunna), turn them towards you, cut them up and mix together their flesh and feathers, then set a part of them on every hill, in the land around you, then summon them, to you, and they will come to you in haste. And know that God is Mighty, that nothing is beyond Him, Wise’, in His actions. Abraham took a peacock, an eagle, a raven and a cock and did with them as has been mentioned, but kept their heads with him. He called them, and all the parts began to fly back together, combining until they were whole and returning to their heads.