4. An-Nisaa

To God belongs all that is in the heavens and in the earth. We have charged those who were given the Scripture, meaning the scriptures, before you, namely, the Jews and Christians, and you, O people of the Qur’ān: ‘Fear God’, fear His punishment, by being obedient to Him. And We said to them and to you: ‘If you disbelieve, in what you have been charged with, then to God belongs all that is in the heavens and in the earth’, as creatures, possessions and servants, and He will not be harmed by your disbelief: God is ever Independent, of the need for His creation or their worship, Praised, praise-worthy for what He does with them.

If He will, He can remove you, O people, and bring others, instead of you, surely God is ever able to do that.

Whoever desires, by his deeds, the reward of this world, then God has the reward of this world and of the Hereafter, for the one who wants it, and no one else has it, so why do any of you demand the lower [reward]? Why do you not seek the higher one, by devoting yourself sincerely to Him, since what [reward] he seeks can only be found with Him; God is ever Hearer, Seer.

O you who believe, be upright in justice; witnesses, of the truth, for God, even though it, the witnessing, be against yourselves, so be witness against them [your selves] by affirming the truth and not concealing it; or, against, parents and kinsmen, whether the person, witnessed against, be rich or poor; God is closer to the two, than you and He has better knowledge of what is good for them. So do not follow any whim, in your testimonies by being partial to the rich one, seeking his pleasure, or [by being partial] to the poor one out of compassion for him, lest you swerve, so that you do not incline away from the truth, for if you twist (a variant reading [for talwūw] has talū) [if] you distort your testimony, or refrain, from giving it, surely God is ever aware of what you do, and will requite you accordingly.

O you who believe, believe, with perseverance, in God and His Messenger and the Book which has been revealed to His Messenger, Muhammad (s), and that is the Qur’ān; and the Book which was revealed before, to the messengers, namely, the scriptures (a variant reading [for nuzzila and unzila, ‘was revealed’] has the active form for both verbs [nazzala and anzala, ‘He revealed’]). And whoever disbelieves in God and His angels and His Books, and His messengers, and the Last Day, verily he has strayed far away, from the truth.

Verily, those who believed, in Moses, namely, the Jews, and then disbelieved, by worshipping the calf, and then believed, after that, and then disbelieved, in Jesus, and then increased in disbelief, in Muhammad — it was not for God to forgive them, for what they have persisted in [of disbelief], nor to guide them to a way, to the truth.

Give tidings to, inform, O Muhammad (s), the hypocrites that for them there is a painful chastisement, namely, the chastisement of the Fire.

Those who (alladhīna, is either a substitution for, or an adjectival qualification of, al-munāfiqīna, ‘the hypocrites’) take disbelievers for friends instead of believers, because they mistakenly believe them to be strong — do they desire, [do] they seek, power with them? (an interrogative of disavowal), that is to say, they shall not find such [power] with them. Truly, power belongs altogether to God, in this world and the Hereafter, and none but His friends shall attain it.

It has been revealed (read active nazzala, ‘He has revealed’, or passive nuzzila, ‘It has been revealed’) to you in the Book, in the Qur’ān, in sūrat al-An‘ām [Q. 6:68], that: (an has been softened and its subject omitted, in other words, [read it as] annahu) ‘When you hear God’s signs, the Qur’ān, being disbelieved in and mocked, do not sit with them, that is, the disbelievers and the mockers, until they engage in some other talk, for otherwise you, if you were to sit with them, would surely be like them’, in sinfulness. God will gather the hypocrites and disbelievers, all together, into Hell, just as they were gathered together in this world in unbelief and mockery.