7. Al-A'raaf

those who took their religion for a diversion and a game and whom the life of this world has deluded.’ Therefore today We have forgotten them We have left them in the Fire just as they forgot the encounter of this day of theirs when they neglected to perform good deeds for it and because they used to deny Our signs.

And indeed We have brought them that is the people of Mecca a Book the Qur’ān which We have detailed which We have made clear through tidings and the Promise of reward and the Threat of punishment with knowledge ‘alā ‘ilmin is a circumstantial qualifier in other words ‘knowing what has been detailed in it’ a guidance hudan is also a circumstantial qualifier referring to the hā’ the suffixed pronoun of fassālnā-hu ‘which We have detailed’ and a mercy for a people who believe in it.

Are they waiting — they are not waiting — for anything but its fulfilment the consequences of what is in it? On the day when its fulfilment comes which will be on the Day of Resurrection those who were forgetful of it before those who neglected to believe in it shall say ‘Indeed our Lord’s messengers came with the truth. Have we then any intercessors that they may intercede for us or shall we be returned to the world that we may act otherwise than we used to act?’ and instead affirm God’s Oneness and refrain from associating others with Him. It will then be said to them ‘No!’ God exalted be He says Verily they have lost their souls for they have ended up in perdition and that which they used to invent in alleging that God has a partner has failed has abandoned them.

Surely your Lord is God Who created the heavens and the earth in six days of the days of this world that is to say in the equivalent thereof since there was no sun then. Had He willed He could have created them in an instant; but the reason for His not having done so is that He wanted to teach His creatures to be circumspect; then presided upon the Throne a presiding befitting of Him al-‘arsh ‘throne’ in the classical language is the elevated seat on which a king sits. He cloaks read yughshī or yughashshī the night with the day that is He covers each one with the other each following the other in swift pursuit — and the sun and the moon and the stars if all of these are read in the accusative then they constitute a supplement to al-samāwāt ‘the heavens’ and if in the nominative then they constitute the subject of the sentence the predicate of which follows have been made subservient have been subdued by His command by His power. Verily His is all creation and the command in its entirety. Blessed Magnified be God the Lord the Master of the Worlds!

Call upon your Lord humbly tadarru‘an is a circumstantial qualifier in subservience and quietly in secret. Truly He loves not the aggressors who are braggarts and loud-mouthed in their supplications.

And work not corruption in the land through idolatry and acts of disobedience after it has been set right as a result of the sending forth of messengers to it and call upon Him in fear of His punishment and in hope of His mercy — surely the mercy of God is near to the virtuous the obedient qarīb ‘near’ as the predicate of the feminine noun rahma ‘mercy’ is in the masculine because it rahma is annexed to Allāh ‘God’.

He it is Who sends the winds unfolding with His mercy that is dispersing before the rains a variant reading for nushuran ‘unfolding’ has nushran; another reading has nashran as the verbal noun; and a third variant has bushran meaning mubashshiran ‘with which He is bearing good tidings of His mercy’; the singular of the first reading is nashūr similar in pattern to rasūl ‘messenger’; the singular of the last is bashīr until when they the winds bear heavy clouds clouds heavy with rain We lead it that is We lead the clouds herein is a shift from the third to the first person to a dead land one devoid of any vegetation in other words We lead it there in order to revive it and then We send down thereon on that land and bring forth thereby by this water fruits of every kind. Like that bringing forth We shall bring forth the dead from their graves through revivification so that you might remember and believe.

Verily laqad is the response to an oath that has been omitted We sent Noah to his people and he said ‘O my people worship God! You have no god other than Him read ghayrihi as an adjective of ilāh ‘god’ or ghayruhu as a substitution in its place sc. instead of min ilāhin ‘any god’. Truly I fear for you if you worship other than Him the chastisement of an Awful Day’ that is the Day of Resurrection.

The council of the respected elders of his people said ‘Truly We see you in manifest error’.