3. Aal-i-Imraan

Verily God has heard the saying of those, namely the Jews, who said, ‘Indeed God is poor, and we are rich’: they said this when the verse, who is he that will lend God a good loan [Q. 2:245] was revealed, adding that, ‘If God were [truly] rich, He would not be asking us for loans’. We shall write down, We shall order that it be written, what they have said, in the scrolls containing their deeds so that they will be requited for it (a variant reading [for active naktubu, ‘We shall write’] has the passive yuktabu, ‘it shall be written’) and, We shall write down, their slaying (read accusative qatlahum or nominative qatluhum) the prophets without right, and We shall say (naqūlu, also read yaqūlu, meaning God [shall say]) to them by the tongue of the angels in the Hereafter, ‘Taste the chastisement of the Burning, the Fire.

When they are thrown into [the Fire], it will be said to them: That, punishment, is for what your hands have sent before: ‘hands’ are used to designate a human being because most actions are performed with them; for God is never unjust towards His servants’, punishing them without them having sinned.

Those (alladhīna, an adjectival qualification of the previous alladhīna, ‘those who’ [Q. 3:181]) same who said, to Muhammad (s), ‘God has already made covenant with us, in the Torah, that we should not believe in any messenger, accepting his truthfulness, until he bring us an offering to be devoured by fire’, and so we will not believe in you until you bring us this [offering], namely, of grazing livestock or other [kind of animal] one offers [in sacrifice] to God. If it is accepted, a white fire will come down from the heaven and consume it, otherwise it will remain as it is. Such a covenant was made with the Children of Israel, but not in the case of Jesus and Muhammad. God, exalted be He, says, Say, to them in rebuke: ‘messengers have come to you before me with clear proofs, with miracles, and with that which you said, [messengers] such as Zachariah and John, but you slew them: the address here is for those living at the time of our Prophet Muhammad (s), even though the deed was their forefathers’, for they [their descendants] are content with it. Why did you slay them, then, if you are truthful?’, about [the fact] that you would believe if it [the offering] were brought [to you].

But if they deny you, so were denied messengers before you who came bearing clear proofs, miracles, and the Scriptures, such as the scrolls of Abraham, and the Illuminating, the lucid, Book, that is, the Torah and the Gospel (a variant reading establishes the [prefixed preposition] bā’ in both [words, sc. bi’l-zubur wa-bi’l-kitāb l-munīr, ‘with the Scriptures and with the Illuminating Book’]), so be patient as they were.

Every soul shall taste of death; you shall surely be paid in full your wages, the requital of your deeds, on the Day of Resurrection. Whoever is moved away, distanced, from the Fire and admitted to Paradise, will have triumphed, he will have attained his ultimate wish. Living in, the life of this world is but the comfort of delusion; of inanity, enjoyed for a little while, then perishing.

You shall surely be tried (la-tublawunna, the [final] nūn nominative indicator has been omitted because two nūn letters [would otherwise] succeed one another, as has been the plural person indicator wāw where two unvocalised consonants have come together), in other words, you shall surely be tested, in your property, through the duties [imposed] thereupon and through the damages that affect them; and in your selves, through [the obligations of] worship and through calamities, and you shall hear from those who were given the Scripture before you, the Jews and the Christians, and from those who are idolaters, from among the Arabs, much hurt, in the way of insult, slander and [their] flirting with your women; but if you are patient, through this, and fear, God — surely that is true resolve, that is, it is one of those things regarding which one must necessarily have firm resolve.

And, mention, when God made covenant with those who had been given the Scripture, that is, the pledge [taken] from them in the Torah, ‘You shall expound it (read tubayyinunnahu, or yubayyinunnahu, ‘they shall expound it’) the Book, to people, and not conceal it’ (read taktumūnahu, ‘you shall not conceal it’, or yaktumūnahu, ‘they shall not conceal it’). But they rejected it, they discarded the covenant, behind their backs, and so they did not act in accordance with it, and bought with it, they took in its place, a small price, of this world from the debased among them, enjoying supremacy over them in knowledge, and they concealed it, lest it [the supremacy] escape them; how evil is what they have bought, [how evil is] this purchase of theirs!

Do not reckon that (lā tahsabanna, or read lā yahsabanna, ‘let them not reckon’) those who rejoice in what they have brought, that is, [in what] they have done by leading people astray, and who love to be praised for what they have not done, in the way of adherence to the truth, being [themselves] misguided — do not reckon them (fa-lā tahsabannahum, is for emphasis [in the case of both readings above]) secure, in a place where they can escape, from the chastisement, in the Hereafter; but instead they shall be in a place of wherein they shall be tortured, and that is Hell; there shall be a painful chastisement for them, in it (alīm means mu’lim, ‘painful’). (If one reads yahsabanna, ‘let them [not] reckon’, the two direct objects of the first h-s-b verb would be indicated by the two direct objects of the second h-s-b verb; but if one reads tahsabanna, ‘do [not] reckon’, then only second direct object would be omitted).

Surely in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the marvels contained in them, and in the alternation of night and day, coming and going, increasing and diminishing, there are signs, indications of God’s power, for people of pith, for people possessing intellects.