6. Al-An'aam

And who, that is, none, does greater evil than he who invents a lie against God, by ascribing to Him an associate, or denies His signs?, the Qur’ān; it is verily the case that, they the evildoers shall not prosper, on account of this.

Then their dissension (read accusative fitnatahum or nominative fitnatuhum) their apology, was (read lam takun or lam yakun) only to say, in other words, [was only] their saying, ‘By God, our Lord (read rabbinā as an adjective of [wa’Llāhi, ‘by God’], or rabbanā as a vocative) we were never idolaters’.

God, exalted be He, says: See, O Muhammad (s), how they lie against themselves, by denying that their idolatry, and how that which they were forging, against God, in the way of associates, has failed, is absent [before], them!

And there are some of them who listen to you, when you recite, and We have placed veils, covers, upon their hearts so that they do not understand it, [so that] they [do not] comprehend the Qur’ān; and in their ears a heaviness, a deafness, so that they do not hear it with a willingness to accept it. And if they were to see every sign, they would not believe in it, so that when they come to you to argue with you, the disbelievers say, ‘This, Qur’ān, is nothing but the fables, the lies, of the ancients’, similar to [their] jokes and strange tales (asātīr, ‘fables’, is the plural of ustūra).

And, to people, they forbid it, the following of the Prophet (s), and keep away from it, and so they do not believe in him: it is said that this was revealed regarding Abū Tālib, who used to forbid [people from] hurting him, but did not [himself] believe in him; and it is only themselves they destroy, when they keep away from him, because the harm thereof will befall them, but they do not perceive, this.

If you, O Muhammad (s), could see when they are made to stand, [when] they are exposed, before the Fire, and they say, ‘Oh (yā is for exclamation) would that we might be returned, to the world; then we would not deny the signs of our Lord, but we would be among the believers!’ (read nukadhdhibu and nakūnu as a new [independent] sentence; or read nukadhdhiba and nakūna as the [subjunctive] response to the optative [clause]; or read nukadhdhibu and nakūna). The response to the clause ‘if [you could see]’ would be ‘you would be seeing a terrible thing indeed’.

God, exalted be He, says: Nay — [here used] in order to reject the desire to believe implied by the optative [exclamation] — that which they used to conceal, to hide, before, by their saying, By God, our Lord, we were never idolaters! [Q. 6:23]) has now become evident to them, as their limbs have borne witness [against them], and so they [now] wish for that [mentioned in the previous verse]; and even if, hypothetically, they were returned, to the world, they would return to that which they are forbidden, of idolatry; they are truly liars, when they promise that they would believe [if they were to be returned].

And they, those who deny the Resurrection, say, ‘There is no other, life, than our present life; we shall not be resurrected’.

If you could see when they are made to stand, [when they are] presented, before their Lord, you would certainly see an awesome thing! He will say, to them, by the tongue of the angels, in rebuke: ‘Is this, resurrection and reckoning, not the truth?’ They will say, ‘Yes indeed, by our Lord’, it is the truth! He will say, ‘Then taste the chastisement because you disbelieved’, during life on earth.