Note 1
See Appendix II.

Note 2
See note 2 on 12:1.

Note 3
I.e., the night on which the revelation of the Qur'an began: see surah 97.

Note 4
The revelation of the Qur'an is but a continuation and, indeed, the climax of all divine revelation which has been going on since the very dawn of human consciousness. Its innermost purpose has always been the warning extended by God to man not to abandon himself to mere material ambitions and pursuits and, thus, to lose sight of spiritual values.

Note 5
Lit., "was made distinct everything wise", i.e., "wisely" or "in wisdom": a metonymical attribution of the adjective "wise" - which in reality relates to God, the maker of that distinction - to what has thus been made distinct (Zamakhshari and Razi). The meaning is that the revelation of the Qur'an, symbolized by that "blessed night" of its beginning, provides man with a standard whereby to discern between good and evil, or between all that leads to spiritual growth through an ever-deepening realization (ma'rifah) of God's existence, on the one hand, and all that results in spiritual blindness and self-destruction, on the other.

Note 6
Lit., "if you had but inner certainty". According to Abu Muslim al-Isfahani (as quoted by Razi), this means, "you would know it if you would but truly desire inner certainty and would pray for it".

Note 7
Lit., "are toying in doubt": i.e., their half-hearted admission of the possibility that God exists is compounded of doubt and irony (Zamakhshari ) - doubt as to the proposition of God's existence, and an ironical amusement at the idea of divine revelation.

Note 8
A reference to the allegation of the Prophet's opponents that someone else had "imparted" to him the ideas expressed in the Qur'an (see 16:103 and the corresponding notes 129 and 130.), or at least had "helped" him to compose it (cf. 25:4 and note 5 and 6).

Note 9
Lit., "remove". This is apparently said on the time-level of the present - i.e., before the coming of the Last Hour - so as to give the sinners an opportunity to repent.

Note 10
Most of the classical commentators (e.g., Tabari, Zamakhshari , Razi, Baydawi) point out that this phrase can be understood in either of two senses, namely: "Give in unto me, O God's bondmen (ibad), implying a call to the Egyptians (since all human beings are "God's bondmen") to accept the divine message which Moses was about to convey to them; or, alternatively, "Give up to me God's servants", i.e., the children of Israel, who were kept in bondage in Egypt. Inasmuch as the vocalization ibada is applicable to the vocative as well as the accusative case, either of these two interpretations is legitimate.

Note 11
Lit., "lest you throw stones at me". It is to be noted that the verb rajama is used in the physical sense of "throwing stones" as well as, metaphorically, in the sense of "throwing aspersions" or "reviling".

Note 12
Or: "cleft" - the expression rahwan having both these connotations (Jawhari, with especial reference to the above phrase). See also notes 33 and 35 on 26:63.

Note 29
For these particular allegories of life in paradise, see note 41 on 18:31 .

Note 14
For this rendering of the term musrif, see the last surah 10 note 21.

Note 15
I.e., according to all commentators, above all people of their time, because at that time the children of Israel were the only people who worshipped the One God: which is the reason of the frequent Quranic references to the story of their delivery from bondage. The stress on God's having "chosen them knowingly" alludes to His foreknowledge that in later times they would deteriorate morally and thus forfeit His grace (Zamakhshari and Razi).

Note 16
Lit., "as would have in them a manifest test": an allusion to the long line of prophets rose in their midst, as well as to the freedom and prosperity which they were to enjoy in the Promised Land. All this presaged a test of their sincerity with regard to the spiritual principles which in the beginning raised them "above all other people" and, thus, of their willingness to act as God's message-bearers to the entire world. The formulation of the above sentence implies elliptically that they did not pass that test inasmuch as they soon forgot the spiritual mission for which they had been elected, and began to regard themselves as God's "chosen people" simply on account of their descent from Abraham: a notion which the Qur'an condemns in many places. Apart from this, the majority of the children of Israel very soon lost their erstwhile conviction that the life in this world is but the first and not the final stage of human life, and - as their Biblical history shows - abandoned themselves entirely to the pursuit of material prosperity and power. (See next note.)

Note 17
Although, on the face of it, by "these people" the Israelites are meant, the reference is obviously a general one, applying to all who hold the views expressed in the sequence, and in particular to the pagan contemporaries of the Prophet Muhammad. Nevertheless, there is a subtle connection between this passage and the preceding allusion to the "test" with which the children of Israel were to be faced: for it is a historical fact that up to the time of the destruction of the Second Temple and their dispersion by the Roman emperor Titus, the priestly aristocracy among the Jews, known as the Sadducees, openly denied the concepts of resurrection, divine judgment and life in the hereafter, and advocated a thoroughly materialistic outlook on life.

Note 18
I.e., "it is a final death, with nothing beyond it".

Note 19
I.e., "bring our forefathers back to life and let them bear witness that there is a hereafter". This ironic demand accords with the saying of the unbelievers mentioned in 43:22 and 23, "We found our forefathers agreed on what to believe - and, verily, it is in their footsteps that we find our guidance!" Thus, in the last resort, the fact that their ancestors did not believe in a hereafter is to them as conclusive an argument against it as the fact that nobody has as yet come back to life to confirm the truth of resurrection.

Note 20
"Tubba" was the title borne by a succession of powerful Himyar kings who ruled for centuries over the whole of South Arabia , and were finally overcome by the Abyssinians in the fourth century of the Christian era. They are mentioned elsewhere in the Qur'an (50:14) as having denied the truth of resurrection and God's judgment.

Note 21
I.e., without meaning or purpose (cf. 21:16) - implying that if there were no hereafter, man's life on earth would be utterly meaningless, and thus in contradiction to the above as well as the subsequent statement, "none of all this have We created without [an inner] truth".

Note 22
See note 11 on 10:5.

Note 23
See note 6 on 77:13.

Note 24
See surah 37 note 22.

Note 25
The term al-athim (lit., "the sinful one") has here apparently a specific connotation, referring to a willful denial of resurrection and of God's judgment: in other words, of all sense and meaning in man's existence.

Note 26
For this tropical meaning of the term hamim, see surah 6 note 62.

Note 27
Lit., "for, behold, thou wert…", etc. - thus alluding to the sin of arrogance due to disbelief in a continuation of life after death and, hence, in man's ultimate responsibility to God. (Cf. 96:6 - "Verily, man becomes grossly overweening whenever he believes himself to be self- sufficient" - and the corresponding note.)

Note 28
I.e., the continuation of life after death.

Note 30
For the rendering of hur'in as "companions pure, most beautiful of eye", see surah 56,notes 8 and 13. It is to be noted that the noun zawj (lit., "a pair" or - according to the context - "one of a pair") applies to either of the two sexes, as does the transitive verb zawaja, "he paired" or "joined", i.e., one person with another.

Note 31
Cf. 43:73.

Note 32
Lit., "except [or "beyond"] the first [i.e., erstwhile] death" (cf. 37:58).

Note 33
I.e., by His having offered them guidance, of which they availed themselves: thus, the attainment of ultimate felicity is the result of an interaction between God and man, and of man's communion with Him.

Note 34
See note 81 on 19:97.

Note 35
I.e., whether they know it or not, God's will shall be done