74- Surat Almuddaththir

56 Verses Meccan (revealed in Mecca)

A'auzu Bellahi mena ash-shytani ar-rajim

I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan

Bismi Ellahi Ar-rhmani Ar-rahim

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Ya ayyuha almuddaththir (1).

O you, who covers himself.

Qum fa-anzer (2).

Stand up and warn.

Wa Rabbaka fa-kabber (3).

And Your Lord, magnify.

Wa thyabaka fa-tahher (4).

And your clothes, purify.

Wa alrujza fa-hjur (5).

And the filth, abandon.

Wa la tamnun tastakther (6).

And do not bestow favor to acquire more.

Wa lee Rabbika fa-ssber (7).

And for Your Lord, be patient.

Fa iza nuqera fee alnaquor (8).

Then when it is blown in the trumpet. 

Fa-zaleka yawma-izin yawmun aseer (9).

That day will be a difficult day.

Ala alkafereena ghaiyruo yaseer (10).

For the disbelievers, not easy.

Zarnee wa man khalaqtuo waheeda (11).

Leave me and whom I have created, alone.

Wa ja'altuo lahu malan mamduoda (12).

And I granted to him abundant wealth.

Wa baneena shuhuda (13).

And sons, present.

Wa mahhadtuo lahu tamheeda (14).

And spread for him, ease.

Thumma yatma'uo an azeed (15).

Then he desires that I should add more.

Kalla innahuo kana le-ayatena aneeda (16).

Nay! indeed, he has been stubborn to Our verses.

Sa-aurhekuhuo Ssauda (17).

I will punish him by Ssaud.

Innahuo fakkara wa qaddar (18).

Indeed, he thought and planned.

Fa-qutela kaifa qaddar (19).

So, may he be destroyed, how he planned.

Thumma qutela kaifa qaddar (20).

Then may he be destroyed, how he planned.

Thumma nazar (21).

Then he looked.

Thumma abasa wa basar (22).

Then he frowned and scowled.

Thumma adbara wa-stakbar (23).

Then he turned back and was arrogant.

Fa qala inn haza ella sehrun you'thar (24).

Then said, this is nothing but magic, imitated.

Inn haza ella qawluo albashar (25).

This is nothing but the saying of human beings.

Sa-ausslehi Saqar (26).

Soon, I will cast him into Saqar.

Wa ma addraka ma Saqar (27).

And what will make You know what Saqar is?.

La tuobqi wa-la tazar (28).

It neither lets remain nor leaves.

Lawwahatun lel-bashar (29).

Scorching the human beings.

Alaiyha tes'ata ashar (30).

Over it are nineteen.

Wa ma ja'alna ass-haba alnari ella malaikatan wa ma ja'alna eddatahum ella fetnatan lel-lazina kafaruo le-yastayqena allazina auto alketaba wa yazdada allazina amanuo emanan wa la yartaba allazina auto alketaba wa almu'minuona wa le-yaquola allazina fee qulubehim  maradun wa alkaferuona maza arada Allahu be-haza mathalan kazaleka youdelluo Allahu man yasha'uo wa yahdi man yasha'uo wa ma ya'lamuo junuoda Rabbika ella huwa wa ma heya ella zekra lel-bashar (31).

And We have not make the wardens of the fire except angels, and We have not fix their number except a trial for those who disbelieve, that may be certain those who were given the book, and may increase those who believe in faith, and may not doubt those who were given the book and the believers, and that may say those whose in their hearts a disease and the disbelievers what does Allah mean by this example?, thus does Allah let go astray whomever He wills, and guides whoever He wills, and none knows the hosts of Your Lord except Him, and this is nothing but a reminder for the human beings.

Kalla wal-qamar (32). 

Nay! by the moon.

Wa al-layli iza adbar (33).

And by the night when it departs.

Wa alssubhi iza asfar (34).

And by the morning when it becomes bright.

Innaha la-ehda alkubar (35).

Indeed, it is one of the greatest.

Nazeeran lel-bashar (36).

A warning to the human beings.

Le-man saha'a menkum ann yataqaddama aw yata'akhkhar (37).

To whomever of you wills to proceed or stay behind.

Kullu nafsen bema kasabat raheenah (38).

Every soul for what it has earned is held hostage.  

Ella asshaba alyameen (39).

Except the companions of the right.

Fee jannatin yatasa'luon (40).

In gardens, asking one another.

Anni almujremeen (41).

About the criminals.

Ma salakakum fee Saqar (42).

What led you into Saqar.

Qaluo lam nakuo mena almussaleen (43).

They will say we were not among those who prayed.

Wa lam nakuo nut'emuo almeskeen (44).

And we were not feed the needy.

Wa kunna nakhuduo ma'a alkhaedeen (45).

And we indulge in vain talk with the vain talkers.

Wa kunna nukazzebuo be-yawmi alddin (46).

And we used to deny the day of Judgment.

Hatta atana alyaqeen (47).

Until came to us the certainty.

Fama tanfa'uhum shafa'atuo alshafeen (48).

Then, will not benefit them the intercession of the intercessors.

Fama lahum ani altazkerati mu'redeen (49).

Then what is with them that they are from the reminder, turning away.

Ka-annahum humurun mustanferah (50).

As if they a frightened donkeys.

Farrat men qaswarah (51).

Fleeing from a lion.

Bal youreduo  kullu emri-in menhum an you'ta ssuhufan munashasharah (52).

But every person of them desires that he should be given a spread out pages.

Kalla bal la yakhafuona alakherah (53).

Nay! but they do not fear the Hereafter.

Kalla innahuo tazkerah (54). 

Nay! indeed, it is a reminder.

Fa-man sha'a zakarah (55).

So, whoever wills will remember it.

Wa ma yazkuruna ella an yasha'a Allahu huwa ahlu altaqwa wa ahlu almaghferah (56).

And they will not remember except that Allah wills, He is worthy to be feared, and He is worthy to forgive. 

Simplified interpretation: 

 Surat Almudaththir is a command to initiate the call to worship Allah and to abandon idolatry, where Allah commanded His Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to warn of a painful punishment awaiting the infidels. And it is largely  revolves around the punishment that the infidels will receive in the Hereafter, as well as the deeds that they used to do so they deserved the painful torment.

 Our Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said in narration of Jabir bin Abdullah: "Once will I was walking, all of sudden I heard a voice from the sky, I looked up and saw to my surprise, the same Angel as had visited me in the cave of Hiraa, He was sitting on a chair between the sky and the earth, I got afraid of Him and came back home and said "wrap me, wrap me", so they covered him and then Allah revealed "O you, who covers himself, stand up and warn, and Your Lord, magnify, and your clothes, purify, and the filth, abandon" Ayat (1-5).

 Allah called and described him in the state he was in and said "O you, who covers himself", then He commanded Him to rise to warn the people of Mecca from a severe punishment awaiting them if they did not believe in the Lord of the worlds, then ordered Him to magnify His Lord, and to purify His clothes, and some commentators gone beyond the idiomatic meaning of the word "clothes" and said that it means: to purify the heart and the soul from sins and misdeeds. And Allah commanded Him to abandon the filth, that is, to desert the idols that these polytheists worshiped, where Allah described that idols by ''the filth" in Surat Alhajj Aya (30) and says "So refrain from the filth of the idols".

 And Allah says to His Messenger in the next two verses (6,7) "And do not bestow favor to acquire more, and for Your Lord, be patient", where Allah commanded him not to give a gift to await for something better than it, and his reward is with Allah alone, and to be patient with the harm that He will face when conveying the message for as mentioned in narration of Aisha, when Gabriel came to Him in the cave Hiraa for the first time, He was trembling till he came upon His wife Khadijah (may Allah be blessed with her) and said "cover Me!, they covered Him and when the sate of fear was over, He said to Khadijah "O Khadijah! what is wrong with Me?, I was afraid that some thing bad might happen to Me", then He told Her the story, Khadijah said ''Nay! but receive the good tidings, By Allah, Allah will never disgrace you, for by Allah, You keep good relations with Your kith and kin, speak the truth, help the poor and the destitute, entertain Your guests generously and assist those who are stricken with calamities", then She took Him to Waraqah Bin Naufil, the son of her paternal uncle, Waraqah had been converted to Christianity in the Pre-Islamic period, and used to write Arabic and write of the Gospel in Arabic as much as Allah wished him to write, he was an old man, and had lost his eyesight. Khadijah said to him "O my cousin! listen to what your Nephew is going to say, then Our prophet described whatever He had seen, Waraqah said: this is the same Angel (Gabriel) who was sent to Moses. I wish I were young, and he added some other statement, Our prophet asked: ''Will these people drive Me out?, Waraqah said: yes, for nobody brought the like of what you have brought, but was treated with hostility. If I were to remain alive till your day then I would support You strongly, but a short while later Waraqah died.  

 Then Allah describes some scenes of the day of resurrection and says "Then when it is blown in the trumpet, that day will be a difficult day, for the disbelievers, not easy" Ayat (8-10), where the day of resurrection will come when it is blown in the trumpet and it will be blown twice as mentioned in Surat Alzumur Aya (68), and Surat Alnazi'at Ayat (6,7), and that day will be difficult and not easy for the disbelievers, because they will be certain that there is no escape from the torment of that day.

 Therefore, Allah says to His messenger in the next seven verses (11-17): Leave me and whom I have created, alone in his mother's womb, he had neither money nor children, and I granted to him abundant wealth, and a present sons, and spread for him live in ease, then he desires that I should add more money and children. So Allah says "Nay! indeed, he has been stubborn to Our verses", where he did not believe in the revelation because his stubbornness and arrogance, thereupon Allah will punish him by Ssaud which is a mountain in Hellfire that the people of Hellfire will climb it.

 What made him deserve the painful punishment is what came in the verses (18-25), where he thought and planned about what he will say about the Holy Quran, and Allah said "So may he be destroyed, how he planned" and Allah repeated it again to confirm the curse and the denial of what he says, also he looked, then he frowned and scowled, then he turned back and was arrogant, and he refused to believe in Allah, and said that Holy Quran is nothing but magic, imitated from witches, and it is not from Allah rather it is the saying of human beings.

 Then Allah threatens him with another kind of torment and says in Ayat (26-30) "Soon, I will cast him into Saqar, and what will make You know what Saqar is?, it neither lets remain nor leaves, scorching the human beings, over it are nineteen", where Allah will burn him in Saqar, and Saqar is one of the names of Hellfire, and Allah says what will make you know what Saqar is to glorify the affairs and the horrors that it carries, where it scorching the human being, and it will not leave bones, flesh, or blood unless it burn it, and Our Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said in narration of Alnu'man Bin Basheer: "Indeed the person among the inhabitants of the Fire punished least is a man who has two coals beneath his feet, which cause his brain to boil", and over the Fire are nineteen Angels: Malek and eighteen others.  

 And Allah says about them in the next verse (31) that He has not make the wardens of the fire except Angels, and He has not fix their number except a trial for those who disbelieve from the polytheists of Quraish, and that may be certain those who were given the book, and may increase those who believe in faith that what Muhammad brought is true, because the number of the wardens of Hellfire is nineteen in the Torah and the Gospel, and may not doubt those who were given the book and the believers in the truth of that, and that may say those whose in their hearts a disease (doubt and hypocrisy) and the disbelievers what does Allah mean by this example (the number of wardens of Hellfire)?, So Allah says that example is a trial through it Allah let go astray whomever He wills, and guides whoever He wills,  and none knows the hosts of Your Lord whom He created to torment the people of Hellfire except Him, and the Hellfire and its wardens is nothing but a reminder for the human beings.

 Then Allah swears by the moon, And by the night when it departs, and by the morning when it becomes bright, Ayat (32-34), it is as if Allah says to the infidels as the night departs and you see the next day before you, the worldly life will pass and you will see Saqar (Hellfire) in front of you as well, so Allah says about it in the next three verses (35-37): "Indeed, it is one of the greatest, a warning to the human beings, to whomever of you wills to proceed or stay behind (in obedience to Allah and faith in Him)", thereupon Allah says in the next verse (38) "Every soul for what it has earned is held hostage", where the disbelievers will remain in the Hellfire for what they have done of disobedience to Allah in the worldly life.

 Except the companions of the right who will take their book in the right hand as mentioned in Surat Alinshiqaq, they will enter paradise and will be in gardens, asking one another, about the criminals Ayat (39-41), and they will ask the companions of Hellfire as mentioned in the next verse (42) "What led you into Saqar", So the criminal will say that they were not among those who prayed, and they were not feed the needy, and they indulge in vain talk with the vain talkers, And they used to deny the day of Judgment Ayat (43-46), that is, they did not obey Allah in what He commanded them to do (Performing prayer, and feed the food), and did not avoid what He forbade them (Ill talk, and denying the resurrection). They committed these four sins till came to them the certainty Aya (47), which is the death and then they realized the fate that awaited them.

 Then Allah says "Then, will not benefit them the intercession of the intercessors" Aya (48), where will be no intercessor to take them out of the Hellfire and they will say as mentioned in Surat Alshu'araa Aya (100) "So now we have no intercessors", then Allah says in the next three verses (49-51) "Then what is with them that they are from the reminder, turning away, as if they a frightened donkeys, fleeing from a lion", where they are fleeing from the Holy Quran as if they are a frightened donkeys fleeing from their enemy, they want the Holy Quran according to their whims as mentioned in Aya (52) "But every person of them desires that he should be given a spread out pages", and Allah will not give them what they want for they do not fear the Hereafter Aya (53).

 And Allah says in the last three verses (54-56) that the Holy Quran is a reminder, and it is not a magic nor a saying of human being as mentioned above, so whoever wills will remember it, and they will not remember except that Allah wills, He is worthy to be feared, and He is worthy to forgive, and these three verses are also similar to the last three verses of Surat Altakwir, where the guidance is related to the will of Allah who is worthy to be feared, and worthy to forgive, and Allah forgives those who feared the standing before Him, and did righteous deeds, and He is the Most merciful, the Most Gracious. 

No one Knows its interpretation except Allah