literally, “and it gives knowledge of the hour.” The sentence could, alternatively, be translated as “The Quran gives knowledge of the hour.” But a well-attested hadith declares: “One of the signs of the hour will be the appearance of Jesus the son of Mary before the day of resurrection.”
43:77Malik is the angel who serves as the keeper of hell.
43:88Arabic wa-qilihi: literally, “and his saying.” What follows is an echo of the same lament from 25:30: “The messenger said, ‘My Lord, my people have forsaken this Quran.’ ”
Sura 44
Smoke (Al-Dukhan)
44:1On these disconnected letters, see muqattaʿat in Glossary, page 531.
44:7Arabic in kuntum muqinin: literally, “if only you were certain.”
44:13Arabic rasul mubin: literally, “a clarifying messenger.”
44:20Arabic an tarjumuni: literally, “if you seek to stone me,” but here meant allegorically.
44:24Arabic rahw: literally, “at rest or calmed.”
44:27Arabic naʿma: literally, “a blessing.”
44:32Arabic ʿala al-ʿalamin: literally, “over all the worlds.” See Glossary, page 529.
44:33Arabic ma fihi balaʾ mubin: literally, “in which there was a clear test.” An example of such testing through revelatory signs is God’s command to Abraham that he sacrifice his son (37:102–6), not mentioned by name but thought to be Ishmael.
44:37A title for kings in South Arabia—that is, Yemen—since Tubbaʿ is a town noted also in 50:14 for rejecting the prophets.
44:43A tree distinctive to hell, whose fronds cause great pain and disgust. See also 37:62 and 56:52.
44:59That is, the unbelievers.
Sura 45
Kneeling (Al-Jathiya)
45:1On these disconnected letters, see muqattaʿat in Glossary, page 531.
45:14References to “days of God” occur only here and in 14:5, addressed to Moses. It is likely a reference to the day of final reckoning, also known as the day of resurrection (v. 17 and elsewhere). The plural reference is yet another sign that God’s ways are not ours, nor His days like our days.
45:18Here shariʿa is rendered as “proper path [of religion],” to set Muhammad’s mission apart from those that preceded him. Subsequently shariʿa became a technical term for the expansive set of ethical and juridical norms in Islam.
45:20Arabic basaʾir: literally, “visible proofs,” echoing the Divine Name of God as al-Basir, the All Observant, the All Seeing.
45:28Arabic: ila kitabiha: literally, “to its book.” It is also a reference to the ultimate Book, umm al-kitab, “the Mother of the Book.” See Glossary, page 532.
Sura 46
Sand Dunes (Al-Ahqaf)
46:1On these disconnected letters, see muqattaʿat in Glossary, page 531.
46:3Arabic bi al-haqq: literally, “with truth” or “in truth.” That is, God created the heavens and earth with just reasons and an appropriate purpose, since the word haqq can mean not only “truth” but also “right” or “just.”
46:3Arabic ʿamma ʿundhiru muʿridun: literally, “turning away from what they have been warned about.”
46:15Arabic min al-muslimin: literally, “among the submitters.” See muslim in Glossary, page 531.
46:16Arabic waʿd al-sidq alladhi kanu yuʿadun: literally, “a true promise they had been promised.”
46:35Arabic ulu al-ʿazm min al-rusul: literally, “the resolute among the [prior] messengers,” usually taken to refer to Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus (all prior to Muhammad), due to the severe tests they underwent after being called to prophecy.
Sura 47
Muhammad
47:3Arabic yadrib Allah li al-nas amthalahum: literally, “God coins their likeness for people,” anticipating that God alone can judge their true likeness, as He does below in v. 38.
47:10Arabic afalam yasiru fi al-ard: literally, “have they not traveled through the earth.” Here, it’s a metaphor of time as well as space, encompassing all preceding generations of humankind.
47:17Arabic atahum taqwahum: literally, “He gives them their mindfulness.”
47:19Arabic mutaqallabakum wa mathwakum: literally, “your restlessness and your places of rest.”
47:21Arabic qawl maʿruf: literally, “an honorable saying,” but the qualifier maʿruf means more than honor. It is part of the axial moral norm in Islam: al-amr bil-maʿruf wa al-nahy ʿan al-munkar—“Enjoining what is good and forbidding what is bad.” Often used in the Quran (3:104, 110; 9:71, 112; 31:17), it highlights a collective duty to encourage righteous behavior and discourage immorality at all times, in peace and in war.
47:21Arabic fa-idha ʿazama al-amr: literally, “once the matter is determined.”
47:23Arabic wa-aʿma absarahum: literally, “and He blinds their sight.”
47:31Arabic hatta naʿlama: literally, “so that We might know.”
47:31Arabic akhbarakum: literally, “your news.”
Sura 48
Victory (Al-Fath)
48:9Some commentators interpret “honoring” and “revering” as applying to the Prophet.
48:10This verse equates loyalty to the Prophet with loyalty to God. It echoes a historical moment in 628 CE, when the Prophet was undertaking a return pilgrimage to Mecca. Encamped at Hudaybiyya, an area just outside Mecca, Muhammad requested a pledge of allegiance from his followers, and what later became known as the Treaty of Hudaybiyya was then secured with Muhammad’s opponents, permitting Muslims to reenter Mecca peacefully as pilgrims—although only after a year’s delay.
48:18The actual pledge at Hudaybiyya was reported to have taken place under a tree, while the victory, with “many spoils of war yet to take” (v. 19), refers to the conquest of Khaybar, which took place in 629 CE, after the treaty but before the peaceful pilgrimage to Mecca in 630.
48:26Arabic kalimat al-taqwa: literally, “the word of mindfulness of God.” This refers, as in v. 18, to the promise that they had made to God under the tree at Hudaybiyya.
48:29Arabic simahum fi wujuhihim: literally, “their mark is on their faces.”
48:29The reference in the Gospels is to the seed and mustard seed parables in Mark 4:26–32, while the Torah likely a reference to the command for bands of God’s word to mark the forehead, as set forth in Deuteronomy 6:8 and 11:18.
Sura 49
The Private Apartments (Al-Hujurat)
49:1Arabic la tuqaddimu bain yadai Allah wa rasulihi: literally, “do not advance [yourselves] before God and His messenger.”
49:14The priority of submission over faith is echoed in what is known as the hadith of Gabriel: conveyed to the Prophet Muhammad by the Archangel Gabriel, it explains islam (“submission”) as the first step, followed by iman (“faith”), then ihsan (“virtue”) the highest stage of human engagement with the Divine.
49:17Arabic sadiqin: literally, “truthful.”
49:18Only the second of these accolades (“He Sees”) echoes a Beautiful Name (Arabic basir: literally, Seer), but both it and “God Knows” are capitalized to underscore the consistency of God’s presence in English.
Sura 50
Qaf (Qaf)
50:1On this disconnected letter, see muqattaʿat in Glossary, page 531.
50:4Arabic ma tanqus al-ard minhum: literally, “what the earth diminishes of them.”
50:4A reference to umm al-kitab. See Glossary, page 532.
50:14Nearly all these groups are identified elsewhere in the Quran as disbelievers and, in the case of Pharaoh, persecutors of believers. The people of Midian are ashab al-aika (literally, “people of the forest”) since it is they who were sent, and rejected, the prophet Shuʿayb (26:176–89).
50:17Arabic yatalaqqa al-mutalaqqiyani: literally, “Two receivers . . . receive.” These are Nakir and Munkar, noted in 16:28–32.
Sura 51
Scattering Winds (Al-Dhariyat)
51:4Like the first three verses of Sura 37, these four verses could refer to either winds or angels, but here winds seems more likely.
51:19Arabic wa-fi amwalihim haqq li al-saʾil wa-al-mahrum: literally, “and both beggars and the needy have a right to their wealth.”
51:36Arabic al-muslimin: literally, “those who submit.” See muslim in Glossary, page 531.
Sura 52
Mount Sinai (Al-Tur)
52:2The Torah, delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai.
52:4The Kaʿba, “maintained only by those who believe in God and the last day” (9:18).
52:5The sky, as also in 21:32: “We raised the sky, a secure canopy.”
52:21Arabic rahin: literally, “a pledge.”
Sura 53
The Star (Al-Najm)
53:5The Archangel Gabriel.
53:16Arabic idh yaghsha al-sidra ma yaghsha: literally, “when the lote-tree was cloaked with whatever cloaked it.”
53:20All three were pre-Islamic goddesses, whose stone idols the pagan Arabs worshipped.
53:21This refers to the attribution of male offspring (considered desirable) to pagan Arabs, contrasting them with goddesses as God’s daughters (daughters being deemed undesirable).
53:25Arabic fa-li Allah al-akhira wa-al-ula: literally, “to God belong the next life and the first.”
53:31The sense of goodness here is twofold, as it is elsewhere (e.g., 55:60): God is always “with those who are mindful of Him and those who do good” (16:128; see also 5:93), and then there is the reward of paradise: “that [paradise] is the reward of those who do good (5:85).
53:36The Torah.
53:37Upheld his belief in the One God.
53:47Life after death.
53:49A star worshipped by the polytheistic Arabs.
53:54Arabic fa-ghashshaha ma ghashsha: literally, “So there covered them that which covered.”
Sura 54
The Moon (Al-Qamar)
54:1Some commentators have connected this verse to an alleged miracle of the Prophet Muhammad, while others have suggested that the split moon refers to a future event, auguring the end of the world and the day of resurrection. The message from v. 6ff. seems to favor the latter interpretation.
54:2Another rendering would be “This is powerful sorcery.”
54:29Arabic Arabic fa-taʿata: literally, “then he took hold.”
54:29A more extended account of this incident is furnished in 7:73–79, where the prophet Salih urges the people of Thamud to serve God alone and explains to them that God’s she-camel, which was sent as a sign to them, should be left unharmed and allowed to pasture. But the leader of the most rebellious and proud faction in Thamud denounced the believers, and the disbelieving faction slaughtered the camel, thereby bringing divine retribution (Sura 91).
Sura 55
The All Merciful (Al-Rahman)
55:16Although in the Arabic this refrain is repeated verbatim at v. 18 etc., it has here been varied across a range of word combinations and moods in a manner that is intended to retain its essential meaning. When the Arabic is recited, the refrain can be intoned in a variety of ways; if exactly the same refrain is repeated in English, it would not only come across as tedious and mechanical, but would fail to be faithful to the variation of tone that animates the Arabic.
55:17Where the sun rises in winter and summer.
55:17Where the sun sets in winter and summer.
55:29Arabic kull yawm huwa fi shaʾn: literally, “He is daily in a matter.”
55:37Arabic ka al-dihan: literally, “like dregs of olive oil” or “red leather.”
55:54Cf. 18:30–31: “those who believe and do good deeds . . . will have eternal gardens,