6. Al-An'aam

And if We had sent down the angels to them, and the dead had spoken with them, as they have requested, and We had gathered against them all things in droves (read qubulan, plural of qabīl, meaning ‘throng upon throng’, or read qibalan, meaning ‘before their very eyes’), and they were witness to your truthfulness, yet they would not have believed, as God already knows, unless God willed, that they believe and they did; but most of them are ignorant, of this.

And so We have appointed to every Prophet an enemy, just as We have appointed these your enemies (and this [‘adūwwan, ‘an enemy’, is substituted by [the following, shayātīn, ‘devils’]) devils, the rebels, of mankind and jinn who inspire, whisper, fine speech to each other, the falsehood that is disguised as such [fine speech], in delusion, that is, in order to delude them; yet, had your Lord willed, they would never have done it, that mutual inspiration. So leave them, let the disbelievers be, with what they fabricate, of disbelief and otherwise, of what has been adorned for them — this was [revealed] before the command to fight [them].

And that the hearts of those who do not believe in the Hereafter may incline to it (wa-li-tasghā is a supplement to [the above] ghurūran, ‘in delusion’), that is, [to] that fine [speech], and that they may be pleased with it, and that they may acquire, earn, what they are acquiring, of sins, and be punished for it.

The following was revealed when they asked the Prophet (s) to appoint an arbiter between him and themselves. Say: Shall I seek, demand, other than God as a judge, an arbiter between you and me, when it is He Who revealed to you the Book, the Qur’ān, clearly explained?, wherein truth is distinguished from falsehood. Those to whom We have given the Scripture, the Torah, the likes of ‘Abd Allāh b. Salām and his companions, know that it is revealed (read munzal or munazzal) from your Lord in truth; so do not be of the waverers, the doubters, regarding it: this is intended to affirm to the disbelievers that it is the truth.

Perfected is the word of your Lord, in the way of rulings and appointed terms, in truthfulness and justice (sidqan wa-‘adlan is for specification); none can change His words, either by contravening [His rulings] or evading [His appointed terms]. He is the Hearing, of what is said, the Knowing, of what is done.

If you obey most of those on earth, that is, the disbelievers, they will lead you astray from the way of God, [from] His religion; they follow only supposition, when they dispute with you concerning [the status of] carrion, saying: ‘What God has killed is more worthy of your consumption than what you kill yourselves!’; they are merely guessing, speaking falsehood in this [matter].

Your Lord knows best those who stray from His way and He knows well the rightly guided, and will requite both of them.

What is wrong with you, that you do not eat from that over which God’s Name has been invoked, of sacrifices, when He has detailed (for both verbs, read the passive [fussila, ‘it has been detailed’, and hurrima, ‘[that which] has been forbidden’] or the active [fassala, ‘He has detailed’, and harrama, ‘[what] He has forbidden’]) for you what He has forbidden, in the verse: Forbidden to you is carrion … [Q. 5:3], except that to which you are compelled?, thereof, which is also lawful for you. The meaning is: there is nothing to prevent you from eating what has been mentioned, for He has explained to you what is forbidden for consumption, and that [over which God’s Name has been invoked] is not among these [forbidden things]. But truly many are led astray (read la-yadillūna, ‘[many] are led astray’, or la-yudillūna, ‘[many] lead [others] astray’), by their whims, by what their own selves fancy, in the way of permitting [the consumption of] carrion and otherwise, without any knowledge, with which to support their claims. Truly your Lord knows the transgressors, those who overstep [the bounds] of what is lawful into what is unlawful.

And forsake, leave, outward aspect of sin and its inward aspect, that is, what is overt of it and what is secret — it is said that ‘sin’ here means fornication, or, it is said, any act of disobedience; surely those who earn sin shall be requited, in the Hereafter, for what they used to perpetrate, [what] they used to earn.