2. Al-Baqara

Not so it will touch you and you will abide therein; whoever earns evil through associating another with God and is encompassed by his transgression in the singular and the plural that is to say it overcomes him and encircles him totally for he has died an idolater — those are the inhabitants of the Fire therein abiding khālidūn this plural noun takes account of the plural import of man ‘whoever’.

And those who believe and perform righteous deeds — those are the inhabitants of Paradise therein abiding.

And when We made a covenant with you and We said ‘You shall not shed your own blood spilling it by slaying one another; neither expel your own from your habitations’ let no one of you expel the other from his house; then you confirmed it that is you accepted this covenant and you bore witness upon your own souls.

Then there you are killing one another and expelling a party of you from their habitations conspiring tazzāharūna the original ta’ has been assimilated with the zā’; a variant reading has it without the assimilation that is tazāharūna assisting one another against them in sin in disobedience and enmity injustice and if they come to you as captives a variant reading for usārā has asrā you ransom them a variant reading for tafdūhum has tufādūhum that is to say you deliver them from captivity with money etc. and this ransoming was one of the things to which they were pledged; yet their expulsion was forbidden you muharramun ‘alaykum ikhrājuhum is semantically connected to wa-tukhrijūna ‘and expelling’ and the statement that comes in between is parenthetical that is expulsion was forbidden you in the same way that non-ransoming was forbidden you. Qurayza had allied themselves with the Aws and the Nadīr with the Khazraj but every member of an alliance would fight against a fellow ally thus destroying each other’s homes and expelling one another taking prisoners and then ransoming them. When they were asked ‘Why do you fight them and then pay their ransom?’ they would reply ‘Because we have been commanded to ransom’; and they would be asked ‘So why do you fight them then?’ to which they would say ‘For fear that our allies be humiliated’; God exalted says What do you believe in part of the Book that is the part about ransom and disbelieve in part? namely the part about renouncing fighting expulsion and assistance against one another; What shall be the requital of those of you who do that but degradation disgrace and ignominy in the life of this world they were disgraced when Qurayza were slewn and the Nadīr were expelled to Syria and ordered to pay the jizya; and on the Day of Resurrection to be returned to the most terrible of chastisement? And God is not heedless of what you do ta‘malūna or read ya‘malūna ‘they do’.

Those are the ones who have purchased the life of this world at the price of the Hereafter by preferring the former to the latter — for them the punishment shall not be lightened neither shall they be helped neither shall they be protected against it.

And We gave Moses the Scripture the Torah and after him We sent successive messengers that is We sent them one after another and We gave Jesus son of Mary the clear proofs that is the miracles of bringing the dead back to life and healing the blind and the leper and We confirmed him We strengthened him with the Holy Spirit the expression rūh al-qudus is an example of annexing in a genitive construction the noun described to the adjective qualifying it in other words al-rūh al-muqaddasa that is Gabriel so described on account of his Jesus’s sanctity; he would accompany him Jesus wherever he went; still you refuse to be upright and whenever there came to you a messenger with what your souls did not desire did not like in the way of truth you became arrogant you disdained to follow him istakbartum ‘you became arrogant’ is the response to the particle kullamā ‘whenever’ and constitutes the interrogative and is meant as a rebuke; and some of them you called liars such as Jesus and some you slay? such as Zachariah and John the present tenses of these verbs are used to narrate the past events as though they were events in the present in other words ‘and some you slew’.

And they say to the Prophet mockingly ‘Our hearts are encased’ ghulf is the plural of aghlaf that is to say wrapped up in covers and cannot comprehend what you say; God exalted be He says Nay bal introduces the rebuttal but God has cursed them removed them far from His mercy and degraded them when they rejected the messengers for their unbelief which is not the result of anything defective in their hearts; and little will they believe fa-qalīlan mā yu’minūn the mā here is extra emphasising the ‘littleness’ involved that is their belief is minimal.

When there came to them a Book from God confirming what was with them in the Torah that is the Qur’ān — and they formerly before it came prayed for victory for assistance over the disbelievers saying ‘God give us assistance against them through the Prophet that shall be sent at the end of time’; but when there came to them what they recognised as the truth that is the mission of the Prophet they disbelieved in it out of envy and for fear of losing leadership the response to the first lammā particle is indicated by the response to the second one; and the curse of God is on the disbelievers.

Evil is that for which they sell their souls that is their share of the reward in the Hereafter bi’samā ‘evil is that for which’ mā here is an indefinite particle representing ‘a thing’ and constitutes a specification qualifying the subject of the verb bi’s ‘evil is’ the very thing being singled out for criticism; that they disbelieve in that Qur’ān which God has revealed grudging baghyan here is an object denoting reason for yakfurū ‘they disbelieve’ that is out of envy that God should reveal read either yunzil or yunazzil of His bounty the Inspiration to whomever He will of His servants to deliver the Message; and they were laden they returned with anger from God for their disbelief in what He has revealed the indefinite form bi-ghadabin ‘with anger’ is used to emphasise the awesomeness of the ‘anger’ upon anger which they deserved formerly when they neglected the Torah and disbelieved in Jesus; and for the disbelievers there shall be a humiliating chastisement.