سُبْحَانَ ٱللَّٰهِ
Holy Qur'an
Al-Qur'an
Kids Qur'an
By "calling it to witness", i.e., by speaking of the Day of Resurrection as if it had already occurred, the above phrase is meant to convey the certainty of its coming.
Lit., "the [self-]reproaching soul": i.e., man's subconscious awareness of his own shortcomings and failings.
I.e., in their loss of light, or in the moon's colliding with the sun.
Lit., "what he has sent ahead and left behind", i.e., whatever good and bad deeds he committed or omitted (Zamakhshari).
Cf. 24:24 , 36:65 or {41:2-22}.
Lit. "Move not thy tongue therewith so that thou might hasten it" - the pronoun undoubtedly referring to the contents of revelation. In order to understand this parenthetic passage (verses {16-19}) more fully, one should read it side by side with the related passage in 20:114 , together with the corresponding note [101]. Both these passages are in the first instance addressed to the Prophet, who is said to have been afraid that he might forget some of the revealed words unless he repeated them at the very moment of revelation; but both have also a wider import inasmuch as they apply to every believer who reads, listens to or studies the Qur'an. In 20:114 we are told not to draw hasty - and therefore potentially erroneous - conclusions from isolated verses or statements of the Qur'an, since only the study of the whole of its message can give us a correct insight. The present passage, on the other hand, lays stress on the need to imbibe the divine writ slowly, patiently, to give full thought to the meaning of every word and phrase, and to avoid the kind of haste which is indistinguishable from mechanical glibness, and which, moreover, induces the person who reads, recites or listens to it to remain satisfied with the mere beautiful sound of the Qur'anic language without understanding - or even paying adequate attention to - its message.
I.e., "it is for Us to make thee remember it and to cause it to be read with mind and heart". As pointed out in the preceding note, the Qur'an can be understood only if it is read thoughtfully, as one integral whole, and not as a mere collection of moral maxims, stories or disjointed laws.
Lit., "follow thou its recitation", i.e., its message as expressed in words. Since it is God who reveals the Qur'an and bestows upon man the ability to understand it, He attributes its "recitation" to Himself.
I.e., if the Qur'an is read "as it ought to be read" (see note [7] above), it becomes - as stressed by Muhammad 'Abduh - "its own best commentary".
Lit., "Who is a wizard [or "a charmer"]?" A similar construction is found in 28:71 and {72}.
Lit., "when shank is wrapped around shank" - an idiomatic phrase denoting "the affliction of the present state of existence...combined with that of the final state" (Lane IV, 1471, quoting both the Qamus and the Taj al-'Arus). As pointed out by Zamakhshari, the noun saq (lit., "shank") is often used metaphorically in the sense of "difficulty", "hardship" or "vehemence" (shiddah); hence the well-known phrase, qamat al-harb 'ala saq, "the war broke out with vehemence" (Taj al-'Arus).
Lit., "towards thy Sustainer will be the driving", i.e., with belated repentance (see next three verses). The phrase rendered above as "at the time" reads, literally, "on that day"; but the term yawm is often used idiomatically in the sense of "time" regardless of its duration.
This interpolation, necessary for a full understanding of the sequence, is based on {4:17-18}, which has a definite bearing on the above passage.
Lit., "to his people": i.e., to the arrogant belief, rooted in the materialism of his social environments that man is "self-sufficient" and, therefore, not in need of any divine guidance (cf. 96:6 ).
I.e., without being held morally responsible for his doings.
For this rendering of sawwa, see note [1] on 87:2 and note [5] on 91:7 . The stress on God's creating man after he had been a germ-cell is a metonym for His endowing the (originally) lowly organism with what is described as a "soul".