Note 1
See Appendix II.

Note 2
For an explanation of this rendering of the adjurative particle Wa, see first half of note 23 on 74:32.

Note 3
Or: "endowed with eminence" (Zamakhshari), since the term dhikr (lit., "reminder" or "remembrance") has also the connotation of "that which is remembered", i.e., "renown", "fame" and, tropically, "eminence". As regards the rendering preferred by me, see 21:10, where the phrase fihi dhikrukum (relating, as above, to the Qur'an) has been translated as "wherein is found all that you ought to bear in mind", i.e., in order to attain to dignity and happiness.

Note 4
I.e., they refuse to acknowledge the fact of divine revelation because such an acknowledg­ment would imply an admission of man's responsibility to God - and this their false pride, manifested in their arrogant belief in man's "self-sufficiency", does not allow them to do. The same idea is expressed in 16:22 and, in a more general way, in 2:206. Cf. also 96:6.

Note 5
It is to be noted that the term qarn signifies not merely a "generation" but also - and quite frequently in the Qur'an - "people belonging to a particular period and environment', i.e., a "civilization" in the historical connotation of this word.

Note 6
Lit., "while there was no time for escaping".

Note 7
Although this passage describes, in the first instance, the attitude of the pagan Quraysh towards the Prophet, it touches upon the reluctance of most people, at all times, to recognize "a man from their own midst" - i.e., a human being like themselves - as God-inspired. (See note 2 on 50:2.)

Note 8
Divorced from its purely historical background, this criticism acquires a timeless significance, and may be thus paraphrased: "Does he claim that all creative powers and qualities are inherent exclusively in what he conceives as 'one God'?" - a paraphrase which illustrates the tendency of many people to attribute a decisive influence on human life - and, hence, a quasi-divine status - to a variety of fortuitous phenomena or circumstances (like wealth, "luck", social position, etc.) rather than to acknowledge the overwhelming evidence, in all observable nature, of God's unique existence.

Note 9
Lit., "a thing desired" or "to be desired", i.e., a sensible course of action.

Note 10
I.e., "in any of the faiths prevalent in our days": an oblique reference to Christianity and its dogma of the Trinity, which contrasts with the Quranic concept of God's oneness and uniqueness, as well as to any other faith based on the belief in a multiplicity or multiform incarnation of divine powers (e.g., Hinduism with its triad of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva).

Note 11
Lit., "that they are in doubt of": i.e., it is not the personality of the Prophet that fills them with distrust, but, rather, the substance of the message proclaimed by him - and, in particular, his insistence on God's absolute oneness and uniqueness, which runs counter to their habits of thought and social traditions.

Note 12
Sc., "on people who refuse to accept the truth".

Note 13
I.e., "Do they think that it is for them to decide as to who should and who should not be graced with divine revelation?"

Note 14
I.e., "Do they think that human beings are so highly endowed that they are bound to attain, some day, to mastery over the universe and all nature, and thus to God-like power?" Cf. in this connection 96:6 and the corresponding note. As regards my rendering of al-asbab as "all [conceivable] means", see note 82 on 18:84.

Note 15
The collective noun jund, which primarily denotes "a host" or "an army", has also the meaning of "created beings", in this context obviously human beings; in combination with the particle ma, "any number of human beings". The term hizb (of which ahzab is the plural), on the other hand, denotes "a party" or "a group of people of the same mind" or "people leagued together", i.e., for a definite purpose.

Note 16
Lit., "before them", i.e., before the people who opposed or oppose Muhammad's message.

Note 17
In classical Arabic, this ancient bedouin term is used idiomatically as a metonym for "mighty dominion" or "firmness of power" (Zamakhshari). The number of poles supporting a bedouin tent is determined by its size, and the latter has always depended on the status and power of its owner: thus, a mighty chieftain is often alluded to as "he of many tent-poles".

Note 18
Sc., "beyond the term set for it by God".

Note 19
Cf. 8:32. This mocking "demand" of the unbelievers is mentioned in several other places in the Qur'an.

Note 20
Lit., "We compelled" or "constrained".

Note 21
See surah 21 note 73.

Note 22
The story which, according to the oldest sources at our disposal, is alluded to in verses 21-26 affects the question as to whether God's elect, the prophets - all of whom were endowed, like David, with "wisdom and sagacity in judgment" - could or could not ever commit a sin: in other words, whether they, too, were originally subject to the weaknesses inherent in human nature as such or were a priori endowed with an essential purity of character which rendered each of them incapable of sinning" (masum). In the form in which it has been handed down from the earliest authorities (including, according to Tabari and Baghawi, Companions like Abd Allah ibn Abbas and Anas ibn Malik, as well as several of the most prominent of their immediate successors), the story contradicts the doctrine - somewhat arbitrarily developed by Muslim theologians in the course of the centuries - that prophets cannot sin by virtue of their very nature, and tends to show that their purity and subsequent sinless ness is a result of inner struggles and trials and, thus, represents in each case a moral achievement rather than an inborn quality. As narrated in some detail by Tabari and other early commentators, David fell in love with a beautiful woman whom he accidentally observed from his roof terrace. On inquiring, he was told that she was the wife of one of his officers, named Uriah. Impelled by his passion, David ordered his field-commander to place Uriah in a particularly exposed battle position, where he would be certain to be killed; and as soon as his order was fulfilled and Uriah died, David married the widow (who subsequently became the mother of Solomon). This story agrees more or less with the Old Testament, which gives the woman's name as Bath-Sheba (II Samuel xi), barring the Biblical allegation that David committed adultery with her before Uriah's death (ibid. xi, 4-5) - an allegation which has always been rejected by Muslims as highly offensive and slanderous: cf. the saying of the fourth Caliph, Ali ibn Abi Talib (quoted by Zamakhshari on the authority of Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab): "If anyone should narrate the story of David in the manner in which the story-tellers narrate it, I will have him flogged with one hundred and sixty stripes - for this is a [suitable] punishment for slandering prophets" (thus indirectly recalling the Quranic ordinance, in 24:4, which stipulates flogging with eighty stripes for accusing ordinary persons of adultery without legal proof). According to most of the commentators, the two "litigants" who suddenly appeared before David were angels sent to bring home to him his sin. It is possible, however, to see in their appearance an allegory of David's own realization of having sinned: voices of his own conscience which at last "surmounted the walls" of the passion that had blinded him for a time.

Note 23
The term khulata (sing. khalit) denotes, literally, "people who mix [i.e., are familiar or intimate] with others" or "with one another". In the present instance it evidently alludes to the "brotherhood" between the two mysterious litigants, and is therefore best rendered as "kinsmen".

Note 24
Sc., "and that he had failed" (in the matter of Bath-Sheba).

Note 25
Cf. 3:191. The above statement appears in the Qur'an in several formulations; see, in particular, note 11 on 10:5. In the present instance it connects with the mention of the Day of Reckoning in the preceding verse, thus leading organically from a specific aspect of David's story to a moral teaching of wider import.

Note 26
I.e., a deliberate rejection of the belief that the universe - and, in particular, human life - is imbued with meaning and purpose leads unavoidably - though sometimes imperceptibly - to a rejection of all moral imperatives, to spiritual blindness and, hence, to suffering in the life to come.

Note 27
By implication, belief in resurrection, judgment and life after death is postulated in this passage (verses 27-28) as a logical corollary - almost a premise - of all belief in God: for, since we see that many righteous people suffer all manner of misery and deprivations in this world, while, on the other hand, many of the wicked and depraved enjoy their lives in peace and affluence, we must either assume that God does not exist (because the concept of injustice is incompatible with that of Godhead), or - alternatively - that there is a hereafter in which both the righteous and the unrighteous will harvest in full what they had morally sown during their lives on earth.

Note 28
I.e., he would always think of God, as illustrated by the example given in the sequence.

Note 29
Lit., "because of [or "out of"] the remembrance of my Sustainer".

Note 30
This and the preceding interpolation are based on Razi's interpretation of this passage.

Note 31
The story of Solomon's love of beautiful horses is meant to show that all true love of God is bound to be reflected in one's realization of, and reverence for, the beauty created by Him.

Note 32
To explain this verse, some of the commentators advance the most fantastic stories, almost all of them going back to Talmudic sources. Razi rejects them all, maintaining that they are unworthy of serious consideration. Instead, he plausibly suggests that the "body" (jasad) upon Solomon's throne is an allusion to his own body, and - metonymically - to his kingly power, which was bound to remain "lifeless" so long as it was not inspired by God-willed ethical values. (It is to be borne in mind that in classical Arabic a person utterly weakened by illness, worry or fear, or devoid of moral values, is often described as "a body without a soul".) In other words, Solomon's early trial consisted in his inheriting no more than a kingly position, and it rested upon him to endow that position with spiritual essence and meaning.

Note 33
I.e., a spiritual kingdom, which could not be inherited by anyone and, hence, would not be exposed to envy or worldly intrigue.

Note 34
I.e., as a reward for his humility and turning-away from worldly ambitions, implied in the prayer, "Forgive me my sins".

Note 35
Cf. 21:81 and the corresponding note 75. For the meaning, in general, of the many legends surrounding the person of Solomon, see note 77 on 21:82.

Note 36
I.e., subdued and, as it were, tamed by him: see note 76 on 21:82, which explains my rendering, in this context, of shayatin as "rebellious forces".

Note 37
See note 78 on 21:83.

Note 38
I.e., with life-weariness in consequence of suffering. As soon as he realizes that God has been testing him, Job perceives that his utter despondency and weariness of life - eloquently described in the Old Testament (The Book of Job iii) - was but due to what is described as "Satan's whisperings": this is the moral to be drawn from the above evocation of Job's story.

Note 39
According to the classical commentators, the miraculous appearance of a healing spring heralded the end of Job's suffering, both physical and mental.

Note 40
Lit., "his family" (cf. 21:84 and the corresponding note 79).

Note 41
In the words of the Bible (The Book of Job ii, 9), at the time of his seemingly hopeless suffering Job's wife reproached her husband for persevering in his faith: "Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God, and die." According to the classical Qur'an-commentators, Job swore that, if God would restore him to health, he would punish her blasphemy with a hundred stripes. But when he did recover, he bitterly regretted his hasty oath, for he realized that his wife's "blasphemy" had been an outcome of her love and pity for him; and thereupon he was told in a revelation that he could fulfill his vow in a symbolic manner by striking her once with "a bunch of grass containing a hundred blades or more". (Cf. 5:89 - "God will not take you to task for oaths which you may have uttered without thought.")

Note 42
Lit., "of the [final] abode".

Note 43
Al-Yasa in Arabic - the Biblical prophet who succeeded Elijah (see surah 37 note 48).

Note 44
For an explanation of this rendering of dhu l-kifl, see surah 21, note 81.

Note 45
In all the eleven instances in which the noun adn occurs in the Qur'an - and of which the present is the oldest - it is used as a qualifying term for the "gardens" (jannat) of paradise. This noun is derived from the verb adana, which primarily denotes "he remained [somewhere]" or "he kept [to something]", i.e., permanently: cf. the phrase adantu l-balad ("I remained for good [or "settled"] in the country"). In Biblical Hebrew - which, after all, is but a very ancient Arabian dialect - the closely related noun eden has also the additional connotation of "delight", "pleasure" or bliss". Hence the combination of the two concepts in my rendering of adn as "perpetual bliss". As in many other places in the Qur'an, this bliss is here allegorized - and thus brought closer to man's imagination - by means of descriptions recalling earthly joys.

Note 46
Lit., "such as restrain their gaze", i.e., are of modest bearing and have eyes only for their mates (Razi). This allegorical reference to the delights of paradise occurs in the Qur'an three times (apart from the above instance, which is chronologically the earliest, in 37: 48 and 55: 56 as well). As an allegory, this phrase evidently applies to the righteous of both sexes, who in the life to come will be rejoined with those whom they loved and by whom they were loved in this world: for, "God has promised the believers, both men and women, gardens through which running waters flow, therein to abide, and goodly dwellings in gardens of perpetual bliss" (9:72); and, "anyone - be it man or woman - who does [whatever he can] of good deeds and is a believer withal, shall enter paradise" (4:124, with similar statements in 16:97 and 40:40). Finally, we are told in 36:56 that in this paradise "will they and their spouses on couches recline" - i.e., will find peace and inner fulfillment with and in one another. (For an explanation of the term atrab, rendered by me as "well-matched", see note 15 on 56:38.)

Note 47
Lit., "of its kind": i.e., corresponding in intensity to what the Qur'an describes as hamim and ghassaq. For my rendering of hamim as "burning despair", see surah 6 note 62. The term ghassaq, on the other hand, is derived from the verb ghasaqa, "it became dark" or "intensely dark" (Taj al-'Arus); thus, al-ghasiq denotes "black darkness" and, tropically, "the night" or, rather, "the black night". According to some authorities, the form ghassaq signifies "intense [or "icy"] cold". A combination of these two meanings gives us the concept of the "ice-cold darkness" of the spirit which, together with "burning despair" (hamim), will characterize the suffering of inveterate sinners in the life to come. All other interpretations of the term ghassaq are purely speculative and, therefore, irrelevant.

Note 48
I.e., "people whom you had seduced, and who thereupon blindly followed you": an apostrophe stressing the double responsibility of the seducers.

Note 49
In Arabic usage, the phrase "no welcome to them" or "to you" (la marhaban bihim, resp.bikum) is equivalent to a curse. In this context - carried on into the next verse - it expresses a mutual disavowal of the seducers and the seduced.

Note 50
Cf. 7:38 (and the corresponding notes 28 and 29) as well as 33:67.

Note 51
I.e., the prophets and the righteous, who - as the Qur'an points out in many places - have always been derided by people enamoured of the life of this world and, therefore, averse to all moral exhortation.

Note 52
For the allegorical contention of the angels ("the host on high") against the creation of man, see 2:30 ff. and the corresponding notes 22-24. The allegory of man's creation, of God's command to the angels to "prostrate themselves" before the new creature, and of Iblis' refusal to do so appears in the Qur'an six times (2:30, 7:11 ff., 15:28, 17:61, 18:50, and -85), each time with an accent on a different aspect of this allegory. In the present instance (which is undoubtedly the earliest in the chronology of revelation) it is connected with the statement, in 2:31, that God "imparted unto Adam the names of all things", i.e., endowed man with the faculty of conceptual thinking (see note 23 on 2:31) and, thus, with the ability to discern between what is true and what false. Since he possesses this faculty, man has no excuse for not realizing God's existence and oneness - the "message tremendous" referred to in the preceding passage.

Note 53
Lit., "otherwise than that I be (illa annama ana) a plain warner" - i.e., of the prospect of spiritual self-destruction inherent in a willful disregard of the fact of God's existence and oneness, which is the core of all religious cognition and, hence, of all true prophethood.

Note 54
For this rendering of idh, see surah 2, note 21.

Note 55
See note 24 on 15:26.

Note 56
See 15:29 and the corresponding note 26.

Note 57
See note 26 on 2:34 and note 31 on 15:41.

Note 58
Cf. the metaphorical phrase "the things which Our hands have wrought" in 36:71, explained in the corresponding note 42. In the present instance, the stress lies on the God-willed superiority of man's intellect - which, like everything else in the universe, is God's "handiwork" - over the rest of creation (see note 25 on 2:34).

Note 59
This "question" is, of course, only rhetorical, since God is omniscient. The phrase inter­polated by me ("to bow down before another created being") reflects Zamakhshari's interpretation of this passage.

Note 60
I.e., out of something non-corporeal and, therefore (in the view of Iblis), superior to the "clay" out of which man has been created. Inasmuch as "fire" is a symbol of passion, the above "saying" of Iblis contains, I believe, a subtle allusion to the Quranic concept of the "satanic forces" (shayatin) active within man's own heart: forces engendered by uncontrolled passions and love of self, symbolized by the preceding characterization of Iblis, the foremost of the shayatin, as "one of those who think only of themselves as high" (min al-alin).

Note 61
The grant of "respite" to Iblis implies that he would have the power to tempt man until the end of time.

Note 62
Cf. 15:41 - "This is, with Me, a straight way"- and the corresponding note 31.

Note 63
The expression mutakallif denotes, primarily, "a person who takes too much upon himself", be it in action or in feeling; hence, a person who pretends to be more than he really is, or to feel what he does not really feel. In this instance, it indicates the Prophet's disclaimer of any "supernatural" status.