6. Al-An'aam

That then is God, your Lord. There is no god but Him, the Creator of all things. So worship Him, affirm His Oneness. And He is Guardian over, [He is] Keeper of, all things.

Vision cannot attain Him, that is, they [the eyes] cannot see Him — this is [a denial that applies] in particular [circumstances], since [it is accepted] that the believer will see Him in the Hereafter, as indicated by God’s words, On that Day faces shall be radiant, gazing upon their Lord [Q. 75:22f.], and by the hadīth of the two Shaykhs [Bukhārī and Muslim]: ‘Verily you shall see your Lord, as clearly as you see the full moon at night’) — and it is also said [to mean] that it [vision] cannot encompass Him; but He attains [all] vision, that is to say, He perceives them, whereas they cannot perceive Him; it is not possible in [the case of] anyone other than Him to attain all vision while it [vision] cannot attain Him or encompass Him in knowledge. And He is the Subtle, [in dealing] with His friends, the Aware, of them.

Say, O Muhammad (s), to them: Clear proofs have come to you from your Lord; whoever perceives, them and believes, then it is for his own good, that he has perceived [them], since the reward resulting from his perception will be his; and whoever is blind, to them and goes astray, then it, the evil consequence of his being astray, will be to his own hurt. And I am not a keeper, a watcher, over you, of your deeds: I am but a warner.

And so, in the same way that We have explained what has been mentioned, We dispense, We elucidate, the signs, that they might take heed, and that they, the disbelievers, may say, at the end of this: ‘You have studied with someone’, that you have consulted with (dārasta) the People of the Scripture or [that] you have studied (darasta, variant reading) the scriptures of past peoples and brought this [Qur’ān] therefrom; and that We may make it clear for a people who have knowledge.

Follow what has been revealed to you from your Lord, namely, the Qur’ān. There is no god but Him; and turn away from the idolaters.

Had God willed, they would not have been idolaters; and We have not set you as a keeper over them, a watcher, so that you might then requite them for their deeds; nor are you a guardian over them, so that you might [be able to] coerce them to faith — this was [revealed] before the command to fight [them].

Do not revile those whom they call upon, besides God, namely, the idols, lest they then revile God out of spite, out of aggression and wrongfully, through ignorance, that is, through their ignorance of God. So, in the same way that We have adorned for these that which they practise, We have adorned for every community their, good and evil, deeds, and they commit them; then to their Lord they shall return, in the Hereafter, and He will tell them what they used to do, and requite them for it.

They, that is, the disbelievers of Mecca, have sworn by God the most earnest oaths that if there came to them a sign, of what they requested, they will believe in it. Say, to them: ‘Signs are only with God’, and He sends them down as [and when] He wills; I am but a warner. But what will make you realise?, how would you know if they have believed, if these [signs] did come [to them]? In other words, you would not know this; truly, when they come, they will not believe, because of what I already know (a variant reading [for lā yu’minūna, ‘they will not believe’] has lā tu’minūna, ‘you will not believe’, making the address to the disbelievers; another [variant reading] has annahā [instead of innahā, ‘that truly’] as meaning la‘alla, ‘that perhaps’, or as governed by the preceding clause [la’in jā’athum āyatun, ‘if there came to them a sign’).

And We shall confound their hearts, We shall turn their hearts away from the truth, so that they cannot understand it, and their eyes, away from it, so that they do not see it and thus do not believe; just as they did not believe in it, that is, in the verses that have been revealed, the first time; and We shall leave them in their insolence, in their misguidance, wandering blindly, hesitating, perplexed.