1. Glorifying God
is everything in the heavens and the earth. He is the Noble, the Wise.
2. To Him is the kingship of the heavens and the earth. He brings life and death.
And He is capable of all things.
3. He is the first and the last. He is the Evident and the Innermost. He is
fully aware of all things.
4. He is the One who created the heavens and the earth in six periods, then
He settled on the throne. He knows everything that enters into the land, and
everything that comes out of it, and everything that comes down from the sky,
and everything that climbs into it. And He is with you wherever you may be.
God is Seer of everything you do.
5. To Him belongs the kingship of the heavens and the earth. And to God all
matters are returned.
6. He merges the night into the day, and merges the day into the night. He is
fully aware of the innermost thoughts.
7. Believe in God and His messenger, and spend from what He has made you successor
to. Those among you who believe and spend have deserved a great recompense.
8. Why should you not believe in God when the messenger is inviting you to believe
in your Lord? And He has already taken a pledge from you, if you are believers.
9. He is the One who sends down to His servant clear revelations, in order to
lead you out of the darkness into the light. God is Compassionate towards you,
Merciful.
10. Why do you not spend in the cause of God, when God possesses all wealth
in the heavens and the earth? Distinguished from the rest are those among you
who spent before the victory and fought. They attain a greater rank than those
who spend after the victory and fight. For each, God promises goodness. God
is Expert in everything you do.
11. Who will loan God a loan of righteousness, to have it multiplied for him
manifold, and he will have a generous recompense?
12. The day will come when you see the believing men and women with their lights
radiating ahead of them and to their right. Good news is yours that, on that
day, you will have gardens with flowing streams. You will abide therein forever.
This is the great triumph.
13. On that day, the hypocrite men and women will say to those who believed:
"Wait for us! Let us absorb some of your light" It will be said: "Go
back behind you, and seek light" So a barrier will be set up between them,
whose gate separates mercy on the inner side, from retribution on the outer
side.
14. They will call upon them: "Were we not with you?" They will answer:
"Yes, but you led yourself into temptation, and you hesitated, and doubted,
and became misled by wishful thinking, until God's judgment came. You were diverted
from God by illusions"
15. "This day, no ransom can be taken from you, nor from those who disbelieved.
Your abode is the Fire, it is your patron; what a miserable abode"
16. Is it not time for those who believed to open up their hearts for the remembrance
of God, and the truth that is revealed herein? They should not be like the followers
of previous scriptures whose hearts became hardened with time and, consequently,
many of them turned wicked.
17. Know that God revives the land after it had died. We thus explain the revelations
for you, that you may understand.
18. Surely, the charitable men and women have loaned God a loan of goodness.
They will receive their reward multiplied manifold; they have deserved a generous
recompense.
19. Those who believed in God and His messengers are the truthful and martyrs.
Reserved for them at their Lord are their rewards and their light. As for those
who disbelieved and rejected our revelations, they have incurred Hell.
20. Know that this worldly life is no more than play and games, and boasting
among you, and hoarding of money and children. It is like abundant rain that
produces plants and pleases the disbelievers. But then the plants turn into
useless hay, and are blown away by the wind. In the Hereafter there is severe
retribution, and forgiveness from God and approval. This worldly life is no
more than a temporary illusion.
21. Therefore, you shall race towards forgiveness from your Lord, and a Paradise
whose width encompasses the heaven and the earth. It awaits those who believed
in God and His messengers. Such is God's grace that He bestows upon whomever
He wills. God is Possessor of Infinite Grace.
22. No misfortune can happen on earth, or in yourselves, except as it is decreed
in a record, before We bring it about. This is easy for God to do.
23. In order that you do not despair over anything that passes you by, nor be
happy of anything He has bestowed upon you. God does not love those who are
boastful, proud.
24. They are stingy, and order the people to be stingy. And for anyone who turns
away, then know that God is the Rich, the Praiseworthy.
25. We have sent Our messengers with proofs, and We sent down with them the
scripture and the balance, that the people may uphold justice. And We sent down
the iron, wherein there is great strength, and many benefits for the people.
All this in order for God to distinguish those who would support Him and His
messengers, on faith. God is Powerful, Noble.
26. We sent Noah and Abraham, and we granted their descendants prophethood and
the scripture. Some of them were guided, while many were wicked.
27. Then We sent in their tracks Our messengers. We sent Jesus the son of Mary,
and we gave him the Injeel, and we placed, in the hearts of his followers, kindness
and mercy. But they invented hermitism which we never decreed for them. All
we asked them to do was to uphold the commandments approved by God. But they
did not uphold the message as they should have. Consequently, we gave those
who believed among them their recompense, while many of them were wicked.
28. O you who believe, you shall reverence God and believe in His messenger.
He will then grant you double the reward from His mercy, endow you with light
to guide you, and forgive you. God is Forgiver, Merciful.
29. So that the followers of the scripture should know that they have no power
over God's mercy and grace, and that all grace is in God's hand. He bestows
it upon whomever He wills. God is Possessor of Infinite Grace.