Note 1
Chronologically, the above is the second occurrence (after surah 68) of one of the disjointed letter-symbols which precede some of the Quranic surahs. For the theories relating to these symbols, see Appendix II. As regards my rendering of the adjurative particle wa which opens the next sentence as "Consider", see first half of note 23 on 74:32, where this adjuration appears for the first time in the chronological order of revelation.

Note 2
This is the earliest Quranic mention - repeated again and again in other places - of people's "deeming it strange" that a purportedly divine message should have been delivered by someone "from their own midst", i.e., a mortal like themselves. Although it is undoubtedly, in the first instance, a reference to the negative attitude of the Meccan pagans to Muhammad's call, its frequent repetition throughout the Qur'an has obviously an implication going far beyond that historical reference: it points to the tendency common to many people, at all stages of human development, to distrust any religious statement that is devoid of all exoticism inasmuch as it is enunciated by a person sharing the social and cultural background of those whom he addresses and because the message itself relies exclusively - as the Qur'an does - on an appeal to man's reason and moral sense. Hence, the Qur'an explicitly mentions people's "objections" to a prophet "who eats food [like ordinary mortals] and goes about in the market-places" (25:7; see also note 16 on 25:20).

Note 3
Lit., "what the earth diminishes of them" - implying that God's promise of resurrection takes the fact of the dead bodies' decomposition fully into account. Consequently, resurrection will be like "a new creation" (cf. 10:4, 21:104, 30:11, 85:13, etc.), recalling the recurrent process of creation and re-creation visible in all organic nature (cf. 10:34, 27:64, 30:27).

Note 4
Since they reject a priori all thought of life after death, they are perplexed by the lack of any answer to the "why" and "what for" of man's life, by the evident inequality of human destinies, and by what appears to them as a senseless, blind cruelty of nature: problems which can be resolved only against the background of a belief in a continuation of life after bodily "death" and, hence, in the existence of a purpose and a plan underlying all creation.

Note 5
Lit., "and it has no gaps [or "breaks"] whatever".

Note 6
See note 33 on 25:38.

Note 7
The term "brethren' (ikhwan) is used here metonymically, denoting a group of people who share the same views or, alternatively, the same environment. Since the people referred to formed Lot 's social environment (cf. 7:83 or 11:77), they are described as his "brethren" although his moral concepts and inclinations were entirely different from theirs.

Note 8
Regarding "the people of Tubba", see 44:37 and the corresponding note. The "dwellers of the wooded dales" are the people of Madyan (the Biblical Midian), as is evident from 26:176 ff. Their story is found in the Qur'an in several places; for the most detailed version, see 11:84.

Note 9
I.e., by the creation of the universe or, more specifically, of man.

Note 10
Lit., "they".

Note 11
The first part of the above sentence - i.e., the phrase yatalaqqa al-mutalaqqiyan - may be understood in either of two senses: "the two that are meant to receive do receive", or "the two that aim at meeting each other do meet". The classical commentators adopt, as a rule, the first sense and, consequently, interpret the passage thus: "… the two angels that are charged with recording man's doings do record them, sitting on his right and on his left". In my opinion, however, the second of the two possible meanings ("the two that aim at meeting each other") corresponds better with the preceding verse, which speaks of what man's innermost self (nafs) "whispers within him", i.e., voices his subconscious desires. Thus, "the two that aim at meeting" are, I believe, the two demands of, or, more properly, the two fundamental motive forces within man's nature: his primal, instinctive urges and desires, both sensual and non-sensual (all of them comprised in the modern psychological term "libido"), on the one side, and his reason, both intuitive and reflective, on the other. The "sitting (qa'id) on the right and on the left" is, to my mind, a metaphor for the conflicting nature of these dual forces which strive for predominance within every human being: hence, my rendering of qa'id as "contending". This interpretation is, moreover, strongly supported by the reference, in verse 21, to man's appearing on Judgment Day with "that which drives and that which bears witness" - a phrase which undoubtedly alludes to man's instinctive urges as well as his conscious reason (see note 14 below).

Note 12
I.e., his conscience. The "uttering of a word" is conceptually connected with the "whisper­ing" within man's psyche spoken of in the preceding verse.

Note 13
I.e., full insight into one's own self.

Note 14
Lit., "with that which drives (sa'iq) and that which bears witness (shahid)". While the former term evidently circumscribes man's primal urges - and particularly those which drive him into unrestrained self-indulgence and, thus, into sin - the term shahid (rendered by me as "conscious mind") alludes here to the awakening of the deeper layers of man's consciousness, leading to a sudden perception of his own moral reality - the "lifting of the veil" referred to in the next verse - which forces him to "bear witness" against himself (cf. 17:14, 24:24, 36:65, 41:20 ff.).

Note 15
Lit., "his intimate companion" (qarinuhu). The term qarin denotes something that is "connected", "linked" or "intimately associated" with another thing (cf. 41:25 and 43:36, where qarin is rendered as "[one's] other self"). In the present instance - read together with verse 21 - the term apparently denotes "one part" of man, namely, his awakened moral consciousness.

Note 16
I.e., the sinner's reason will plead that he had always been more or less conscious, and perhaps even critical, of the urges and appetites that drove him into evildoing: but, as is shown in the sequence, this belated and, therefore, morally ineffective rational cognition does not diminish but, rather, enhances the burden of man's guilt.

Note 17
In this instance, as well as in verse 26, the imperative "cast" has the dual form (alqiya). As many classical philologists (and almost all of the commentators) point out, this linguistically permissible for the sake of special stress, and is equivalent to an emphatic repetition of the imperative in question. Alternatively, the dual form may be taken as indicative of an actual duality thus addressed: namely, the two manifestations within man's psyche alluded to in verse 17 and described in verse 21 as sa'iq and shahid (see note 14 above), both of which, in their interaction, are responsible for his spiritual downfall and, hence, for his suffering in the life to come.

Note 18
This relates not merely to the veneration of real or imaginary beings or forces to which one ascribes divine qualities, but also to the "worship" of false values and immoral concepts to which people often adhere with an almost religious fervour.

Note 19
Lit., as in verse 23, "his intimate companion" (qarin): but whereas there it may be taken as denoting man's moral consciousness or reason (Cf note 15 above), in the present instance the "speaker" is obviously its counterpart, namely, the complex of the sinner's instinctive urges and inordinate, unrestrained appetites summarized in the term sa'iq ("that which drives") and often symbolized as shaytan ("Satan" or "satanic force": see Razi's remarks quoted in note 31 on 14:22.) In this sense, the term qarin has the same connotation as in 41:25 and 43:36.

Note 20
Lit., "him" or "it" - referring to man's faculty of conscious, controlling reason (shahid).] -

Note 21
I.e., man's evil impulses and appetites cannot gain ascendancy unless his conscious mind goes astray from moral verities: and this explains the purport, in the present context, of verses 24-25 above.

Note 22
Lit., "brought near to".

Note 23
See last sentence of 24:31 and the corresponding note 41 .

Note 24
Lit., "the Day of Abiding".

Note 25
This connects with verses 12-14 above. It should be borne in mind that in ancient Arabic usage the term qarn - here rendered as "generation" - often denotes "a period of time succeeding another": hence, a "century", or "people of one and the same period" and, finally, a "civilization" in the historical sense of this word. That this last significance is intended here becomes evident from the sequence.

Note 26
Lit., "they wandered searching (naqqabu) in the lands: Is there any place of refuge?" - implying that after the destruction of their civilization they could do no more than strive for bare survival.

Note 27
Thus Zamakhshari ; literally, the phrase reads, "who has a heart".

Note 28
Lit., "or lends ear and is withal a witness (wa-huwa shahid)", which latter phrase Zamakhshari explains as meaning "is present with his intellect", i.e., with a conscious mind. (Cf. the same use of the term shahid in verse 21.) The conjunctive particle "or" (aw) which precedes the above clause does not signify an alternative but has - as is often the case in Quranic usage - an explanatory function, similar to phrases like "that is" or "in other words", followed by an amplification of what was said before.

Note 29
The whole of this passage (verses 36-38) stresses God's omnipotence, which can be perceived by "anyone whose heart is wide-awake". The above reference to God's having created the universe "in six aeons" is the oldest in the chronology of Quranic revelation. In this connection it is to be noted that in ancient Arabic usage the term yawm does not always denote the twenty-four hours of the earthly "day", but is also applied to any period of time, however long or short. In the cosmic sense in which it is used here and elsewhere in the Qur'an, the plural ayyam is best rendered as "aeons". The mention of the impossibility of God's ever being "wearied" by the process of creation connects the present passage with verse 15 of this surah and, thus, alludes to God's power to resurrect the dead.

Note 30
Sc., "regarding the alleged 'impossibility' of resurrection".

Note 31
I.e., "remember His almightiness at all times of day".

Note 32
Lit., "at the ends (adbar) of prostration".

Note 33
Lit., "from a place nearby" - i.e., from within man himself: an echo of verse 15, "We are closer to him than his neck-vein". The "call" spoken of here is evidently the call of death, for which man should always be prepared.