This series of posts will include a translation of select verses from the Surahs in the Quran. This will be a selection of verses that I thought carried one or more of the following attributes:
They were direct commandments.
They hinted upon action and behavior that is deemed superior by the Almighty.
They were a reflection of a way to live our lives on this planet.
They provided an answer to some of society’s most burning religious and social questions.
They offer a stark contrast to some extremist agenda often attached to the religion Islam.
They shed light on morality, peacekeeping, intention, and integrity.
Translation with verse number in brackets:
(2) And give orphans their properties, and do not substitute the bad for the good. And do not consume their properties by combining them with yours, for that would be a serious sin.
(3) If you fear you cannot act fairly towards the orphans—then marry the women you like—two, or three, or four. But if you fear you will not be fair, then one, or what you already have. That makes it more likely that you avoid bias.
(4) Give women their dowries graciously. But if they willingly forego some of it, then consume it with enjoyment and pleasure.
(6) Test the orphans until they reach the age of marriage. If you find them to be mature enough, hand over their properties to them. And do not consume it extravagantly or hastily before they grow up. The rich shall not charge any wage, but the poor may charge fairly. When you hand over their properties to them, have it witnessed for them. God suffices as a Reckoner.
(7) Men receive a share of what their parents and relatives leave, and women receive a share of what their parents and relatives leave; be it little or much—a legal share.
(8) If the distribution is attended by the relatives, and the orphans, and the needy, give them something out of it, and speak to them kindly.
(9) Those who are concerned about the fate of their weak children, in case they leave them behind, should fear God, and speak appropriate words.
(10) Those who consume the wealth of orphans illicitly consume only fire into their bellies; and they will roast in a Blaze.
(11) God instructs you regarding your children: The male receives the equivalent of the share of two females. If they are daughters, more than two, they get two-thirds of what he leaves. If there is only one, she gets one-half. As for the parents, each gets one-sixth of what he leaves, if he had children. If he had no children, and his parents inherit from him, his mother gets one-third. If he has siblings, his mother gets one-sixth. After fulfilling any bequest and paying off debts. Your parents and your children—you do not know which are closer to you in welfare. This is God’s Law. God is Knowing and Judicious.
(12) You get one-half of what your wives leave behind, if they had no children. If they had children, you get one-fourth of what they leave. After fulfilling any bequest and paying off debts. They get one-fourth of what you leave behind, if you have no children. If you have children, they get one-eighth of what you leave. After fulfilling any bequest and paying off debts. If a man or woman leaves neither parents nor children, but has a brother or sister, each of them gets one-sixth. If there are more siblings, they share one-third. After fulfilling any bequest and paying off debts, without any prejudice. This is a will from God. God is Knowing and Clement.
(15) Those of your women who commit lewdness, you must have four witnesses against them, from among you. If they testify, confine them to the homes until death claims them, or God makes a way for them.
(16) If two men among you commit it, punish them both. But if they repent and reform, leave them alone. God is Redeemer, Full of Mercy.
(17) Repentance is available from God for those who commit evil out of ignorance, and then repent soon after. These—God will relent towards them. God is Knowing and Wise.
(18) But repentance is not available for those who commit evils, until when death approaches one of them, he says, “Now I repent,” nor for those who die as disbelievers. These—We have prepared for them a painful torment.
(19) O you who believe! It is not permitted for you to inherit women against their will. And do not coerce them in order to take away some of what you had given them, unless they commit a proven adultery. And live with them in kindness. If you dislike them, it may be that you dislike something in which God has placed much good.
(20) If you wish to replace one wife with another, and you have given one of them a fortune, take nothing back from it. Would you take it back fraudulently and sinfully?
(22) Do not marry women whom your fathers married, except what is already past. That is improper, indecent, and a bad custom.
(23) Forbidden for you are your mothers, your daughters, your sisters, your paternal aunts, your maternal aunts, your brother’s daughters, your sister’s daughters, your foster-mothers who nursed you, your sisters through nursing, your wives’ mothers, and your stepdaughters in your guardianship—born of wives you have gone into—but if you have not gone into them, there is no blame on you. And the wives of your genetic sons, and marrying two sisters simultaneously. Except what is past. God is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
(24) And all married women, except those you rightfully possess. This is God’s decree, binding upon you. Permitted for you are those that lie outside these limits, provided you seek them in legal marriage, with gifts from your property, seeking wedlock, not prostitution. If you wish to enjoy them, then give them their dowry—a legal obligation. You commit no error by agreeing to any change to the dowry. God is All-Knowing, Most Wise.
(25) If any of you lack the means to marry free believing women, he may marry one of the believing maids under your control. God is well aware of your faith. You are from one another. Marry them with the permission of their guardians, and give them their recompense fairly—to be protected—neither committing adultery, nor taking secret lovers. When they are married, if they commit adultery, their punishment shall be half that of free women. That is for those among you who fear falling into decadence. But to practice self-restraint is better for you. God is Most Forgiving, Most Merciful.
(29) O you who believe! Do not consume each other’s wealth illicitly, but trade by mutual consent. And do not kill yourselves, for God is Merciful towards you.
(32) Do not covet what God has given to some of you in preference to others. For men is a share of what they have earned, and for women is a share of what they have earned. And ask God of his bounty. God has knowledge of everything.
(36) Worship God, and ascribe no partners to Him, and be good to the parents, and the relatives, and the orphans, and the poor, and the neighbor next door, and the distant neighbor, and the close associate, and the traveler, and your servants. God does not love the arrogant showoff.
(40) God does not commit an atom’s weight of injustice; and if there is a good deed, He doubles it, and gives from His Presence a sublime compensation.
(43) O you who believe! Do not approach the prayer while you are drunk, so that you know what you say; nor after sexual orgasm—unless you are travelling—until you have bathed. If you are sick, or traveling, or one of you comes from the toilet, or you have had intercourse with women, and cannot find water, find clean sand and wipe your faces and your hands with it. God is Pardoning and Forgiving.
(48) God does not forgive association with Him, but He forgives anything less than that to whomever He wills. Whoever associates anything with God has devised a monstrous sin.
(57) As for those who believe and do good deeds, We will admit them into Gardens beneath which rivers flow, abiding therein forever. They will have purified spouses therein, and We will admit them into a shady shade.
(58) God instructs you to give back things entrusted to you to their owners. And when you judge between people, judge with justice. God’s instructions to you are excellent. God is All-Hearing, All-Seeing.
(63) They are those whom God knows what is in their hearts. So ignore them, and admonish them, and say to them concerning themselves penetrating words.
(82) Do they not ponder the Quran? Had it been from any other than God, they would have found in it much discrepancy.
(84) So fight in the cause of God; you are responsible only for yourself. And rouse the believers. Perhaps God will restrain the might of those who disbelieve. God is Stronger in Might, and More Punishing.
(86) When you are greeted with a greeting, respond with a better greeting, or return it. God keeps count of everything.
(91) You will find others who want security from you, and security from their own people. But whenever they are tempted into civil discord, they plunge into it. So if they do not withdraw from you, nor offer you peace, nor restrain their hands, seize them and execute them wherever you find them. Against these, We have given you clear authorization.
(92) Never should a believer kill another believer, unless by error. Anyone who kills a believer by error must set free a believing slave, and pay compensation to the victim’s family, unless they remit it as charity. If the victim belonged to a people who are hostile to you, but is a believer, then the compensation is to free a believing slave. If he belonged to a people with whom you have a treaty, then compensation should be handed over to his family, and a believing slave set free. Anyone who lacks the means must fast for two consecutive months, by way of repentance to God. God is All-Knowing, Most Wise.
(93) Whoever kills a believer deliberately, the penalty for him is Hell, where he will remain forever. And God will be angry with him, and will curse him, and will prepare for him a terrible punishment.
(94) O you who believe! When you journey in the way of God, investigate, and do not say to him who offers you peace, “You are not a believer,” aspiring for the goods of this world. With God are abundant riches. You yourselves were like this before, and God bestowed favor on you; so investigate. God is well aware of what you do.
(95) Not equal are the inactive among the believers—except the disabled—and the strivers in the cause of God with their possessions and their persons. God prefers the strivers with their possessions and their persons above the inactive, by a degree. But God has promised goodness to both. Yet God favors the strivers, over the inactive, with a great reward.
(101) When you travel in the land, there is no blame on you for shortening the prayers, if you fear that the disbelievers may harm you. The disbelievers are your manifest enemies.
(106) And ask God for forgiveness. God is Forgiver and Merciful.
(110) Whoever commits evil, or wrongs his soul, then implores God for forgiveness, will find God Forgiving and Merciful.
(112) And whoever commits a mistake, or a sin, and then blames it on an innocent person, has taken a slander and a clear sin.
(114) There is no good in much of their private counsels, except for him who advocates charity, or kindness, or reconciliation between people. Whoever does that, seeking God’s approval, We will give him a great compensation.
(122) But as for those who believe and do righteous deeds, We will admit them into gardens beneath which rivers flow, where they will abide forever. The promise of God is true—and who is more truthful in speech than God?
(124) But whoever works righteousness, whether male or female, and is a believer—those will enter Paradise, and will not be wronged a whit.
(127) They ask you for a ruling about women. Say, “God gives you a ruling about them, and so does what is stated to you in the Book about widowed women from whom you withhold what is decreed for them, yet you desire to marry them, and about helpless children: that you should treat the orphans fairly.” Whatever good you do, God knows it.
(135) O you who believe! Stand firmly for justice, as witnesses to God, even if against yourselves, or your parents, or your relatives. Whether one is rich or poor, God takes care of both. So do not follow your desires, lest you swerve. If you deviate, or turn away—then God is Aware of what you do.
(140) He has revealed to you in the Book that when you hear God’s revelations being rejected, or ridiculed, do not sit with them until they engage in some other subject. Otherwise, you would be like them. God will gather the hypocrites and the disbelievers, into Hell, altogether.
(145) The hypocrites will be in the lowest level of the Fire, and you will find no helper for them.
(146) Except those who repent, and reform, and hold fast to God, and dedicate their religion to God alone. These are with the believers; and God will give the believers a great reward.
(148) God does not like the public uttering of bad language, unless someone was wronged. God is Hearing and Knowing.
(162) But those among them firmly rooted in knowledge, and the believers, believe in what was revealed to you, and in what was revealed before you; and the observers of prayers, and the givers of charity, and the believers in God and the Last Day—upon these We will bestow an immense reward.
(176) They ask you for a ruling. Say, “God gives you a ruling concerning the person who has neither parents nor children.” If a man dies, and leaves no children, and he had a sister, she receives one-half of what he leaves. And he inherits from her if she leaves no children. But if there are two sisters, they receive two-thirds of what he leaves. If the siblings are men and women, the male receives the share of two females.” God makes things clear for you, lest you err. God is Aware of everything.
Disclaimer: All the translations of the verses in the posts will be directly from the translation by Talal Itani which can be found at this link. Furthermore, all posts will be a selection of verses taken from the Quran. If you feel like you need a contextual reference, the verse numbers will help you locate it in the Surah’s translation found at the link mentioned before.
2 COMMENTS
Farooq e Azanm
4 years agoMa Shaa Allah, good actions enjoy Allah’s blessings
Muhammad Afzaal
4 years agoMashllah,