THE HOLY QURAN (KORAN) English Translation of the Meanings and Commentary by Abdullah Yusuf Ali Formatting by William B. Brown TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS.............................................. i INTRODUCTION................................................... 1 SURA 1 INTRO................................................... 8 SURA 2 INTRO................................................... 9 SURA 3 INTRO.................................................. 38 SURA 4 INTRO.................................................. 57 SURA 5 INTRO.................................................. 75 SURA 6 INTRO.................................................. 89 SURA 7 INTRO................................................. 104 SURA 8 INTRO................................................. 122 SURA 9 INTRO................................................. 129 SURA 10 INTRO................................................ 142 SURA 11 INTRO................................................ 152 SURA 12 INTRO................................................ 162 SURA 13 INTRO................................................ 173 SURA 14 INTRO................................................ 177 SURA 15 INTRO................................................ 182 SURA 16 INTRO................................................ 188 SURA 17 INTRO................................................ 198 SURA 18 INTRO................................................ 207 SURA 19 INTRO................................................ 217 SURA 20 INTRO................................................ 223 SURA 21 INTRO................................................ 232 SURA 22 INTRO................................................ 240 SURA 23 INTRO................................................ 247 SURA 24 INTRO................................................ 254 SURA 25 INTRO................................................ 261 SURA 26 INTRO................................................ 267 SURA 27 INTRO................................................ 277 SURA 28 INTRO................................................ 284 SURA 29 INTRO................................................ 292 SURA 30 INTRO................................................ 297 SURA 31 INTRO................................................ 302 SURA 32 INTRO................................................ 305 SURA 33 INTRO................................................ 307 SURA 34 INTRO................................................ 315 SURA 35 INTRO................................................ 319 SURA 36 INTRO................................................ 324 SURA 37 INTRO................................................ 329 SURA 38 INTRO................................................ 337 SURA 39 INTRO................................................ 342 SURA 40 INTRO................................................ 349 SURA 41 INTRO................................................ 355 SURA 42 INTRO................................................ 360 SURA 43 INTRO................................................ 365 SURA 44 INTRO................................................ 371 SURA 45 INTRO................................................ 374 SURA 46 INTRO................................................ 377 SURA 47 INTRO................................................ 380 SURA 48 INTRO................................................ 383 SURA 49 INTRO................................................ 386 SURA 50 INTRO................................................ 388 SURA 51 INTRO................................................ 391 SURA 52 INTRO................................................ 394 SURA 53 INTRO................................................ 397 SURA 54 INTRO................................................ 400 SURA 55 INTRO................................................ 403 SURA 56 INTRO................................................ 406 SURA 57 INTRO................................................ 410 SURA 58 INTRO................................................ 414 SURA 59 INTRO................................................ 416 SURA 60 INTRO................................................ 419 SURA 61 INTRO................................................ 421 SURA 62 INTRO................................................ 422 SURA 63 INTRO................................................ 423 SURA 64 INTRO................................................ 425 ii SURA 65 INTRO................................................ 426 SURA 66 INTRO................................................ 428 SURA 67 INTRO................................................ 430 SURA 68 INTRO................................................ 432 SURA 69 INTRO................................................ 435 SURA 70 INTRO................................................ 437 SURA 71 INTRO................................................ 439 SURA 72 INTRO................................................ 441 SURA 73 INTRO................................................ 443 SURA 74 INTRO................................................ 444 SURA 75 INTRO................................................ 447 SURA 76 INTRO................................................ 448 SURA 77 INTRO................................................ 450 SURA 78 INTRO................................................ 452 SURA 79 INTRO................................................ 454 SURA 80 INTRO................................................ 456 SURA 81 INTRO................................................ 458 SURA 82 INTRO................................................ 459 SURA 83 INTRO................................................ 460 SURA 84 INTRO................................................ 462 SURA 85 INTRO................................................ 463 SURA 86 INTRO................................................ 464 SURA 87 INTRO................................................ 465 SURA 88 INTRO................................................ 466 SURA 89 INTRO................................................ 467 SURA 90 INTRO................................................ 468 SURA 91 INTRO................................................ 469 SURA 92 INTRO................................................ 470 SURA 93 INTRO................................................ 471 SURA 94 INTRO................................................ 472 SURA 95 INTRO................................................ 472 SURA 96 INTRO................................................ 473 SURA 97 INTRO................................................ 474 SURA 98 INTRO................................................ 474 SURA 99 INTRO................................................ 475 SURA 100 INTRO............................................... 475 SURA 101 INTRO............................................... 476 SURA 102 INTRO............................................... 477 SURA 103 INTRO............................................... 477 SURA 104 INTRO............................................... 478 SURA 105 INTRO............................................... 478 SURA 106 INTRO............................................... 479 SURA 107 INTRO............................................... 479 SURA 108 INTRO............................................... 479 SURA 109 INTRO............................................... 480 SURA 110 INTRO............................................... 480 SURA 111 INTRO............................................... 480 SURA 112 INTRO............................................... 481 SURA 113 INTRO............................................... 481 SURA 114 INTRO............................................... 482 iv INTRODUCTION C.1.-Glory to Allah Most High, full of Grace and Mercy; he created All, including Man. To Man He gave a special place in His Creation. He honored man to be His Agent, and to that end, endued him with understanding, purified his affections, and gave him spiritual insight: So that man should understand Nature, understand himself, and know Allah through His wondrous Signs, and glorify Him in truth, reverence, and unity. C.2.-For the fulfillment of this great trust Man was further given a Will, so that his acts should reflect Allah's universal Will and Law, and his mind, freely choosing, should experience the sublime joy of being in harmony with the Infinite, and with the great drama of the world around him, and with his own spiritual growth. C.3.-But, created though he was in the best of molds, Man fell from Unity when his Will was warped, and he chose the crooked path of Discord. And sorrow and pain, selfishness and degradation, ignorance and hatred, despair and unbelief. Poisoned his life, and he saw shapes of evil in the physical, moral, and spiritual world, and in himself. C.4.-Then did his soul rise against himself, and his self- discord made discord between kith and kin. Men began to fear the strong and oppress the weak, to boast in prosperity, and curse in adversity, and to flee each other, pursuing phantoms, for the truth and reality of Unity was gone from their minds. C.5.-When men spread themselves over the earth, and became any nations, speaking diverse languages, and observing diverse customs and laws; he evils became multiplied, as one race or nation became alienated from another. The Brotherhood of Man was now doubly forgotten, -- first, between individuals, and secondly, between nations. Arrogance, selfishness, and untruth were sown and reaped in larger fields; and Peace, Faith, Love, and Justice were obscured over masses of men, as large tracts of land are starved of sunshine by clouds floating far on high. C.6.-But Allah, in His infinite mercy and love, Who forgives and guides individuals and nations, and turns to good even what seems to us evil, never forsakes the struggling soul that turns to Him, nor the groups of men and women who join together to obey His Will and Law and strengthen each other in unity and truth, nor the Nations that dwell in mountain or valley, heat or cold, in regions fertile or arid, in societies that roam over land or seas, or hunt, or tend flocks, or till the soil, or seek the seas for food or oil or fat or gems, or dig out from the bowels of the earth precious stones or metals or stored-up heat and energy, or practice arts and crafts, or produce abundant wealth by machines of ingenious workmanship, or live a frugal life of contemplation: for all are children of One God, and share His loving care and must be brought within the pale of His eternal unity and harmony.of Allah, who came as men to dwell among men, to share. C.7.-And so this light of eternal Unity has shown in all ages and among all nations, through chosen Apostles their joys and sorrows, to suffer for them and with them. Aye, and to suffer more than falls to ordinary mortal lot, -that so their message and their life might fulfill the eternal and unchanging purpose of the Most High, -- to lead man to his noblest destiny. C.8.-Ever this eternal light of Unity, this mystic light of Allah's own Will, has shown and shines with undiminished splendor. The names of many Messengers are inscribed in the records of many nations and many tongues, and many were the forms in which their message was delivered, according to the needs of the times and the understanding of the people; and manifold were the lives of the messengers, and manifold also was the response of their people; but they all witnessed to the One Truth: of Allah's unity, might, grace and love. C.9.-As the records of man are imperfect, and the memory of man unstable: The names of many of these messengers are known in one place and not in another, or among one people and not among others; and some of their names may have perished utterly; but their message stands one and indivisible, even though it may have been forgotten, or twisted by ignorance, error, superstition, or perversity; or misunderstood in the blinding light of time or tortuous circumstance. C.10.-Many were the faiths in the composite world of Western Asia, Northern Africa, and Europe, and many were the fragments of ancient wisdom, saved, transformed, renewed, or mingled; and many new streams of wisdom were poured through the crucibles of noble minds, -prophets, poets, preachers, philosophers, and thinking men of action; and many were the conflicts, and many the noble attempts reaching out towards Unity, and many were the subtle influences interchanged with the other worlds of further and Eastern Asia, -- Aye, and perchance with the scattered Isles of the Pacific and the world between the Atlantic and the Pacific. C.11.-At length came the time when the Voice of Unity should speak and declare to the People, without the need of Priests or Priestcraft, without miracles save those that happen now and always in the spiritual world, without mystery, save those mysteries which unfold themselves in the growing inner experience of man and his vision of Allah, -- to declare with unfaltering voice the Unity of Allah, the Brotherhood of Man, 2 and Grace and Mercy, Bounty and Love, poured out in unstinted measure for ever and ever. C.12-And this great healing light shown among a people steeped in ignorance, brave and free, but without cohesion or union, simple and rude, but with an easy familiarity with Nature, accustomed to Nature's hardships and her rugged resistance to man, but dreaming of the delights of gardens and fruitful fields, cruel, yet with a rough sense of equality, and wielding a tongue, flexible, beautiful, and able to respond, with brevity and eloquence, to the sublimest thoughts which man could conceive. C.13.-Who were fit to be vehicles of this light? -- Not men intoxicated with words and mysteries, Men whom politics had debauched or tyranny had subdued, Men whose refinements had ended in vices, who saw Nature only through books or artificial conceits, or in moods which bred softness, indolence, or luxury, who spoke of love and justice, but practiced gross selfishness between class and class, sex and sex, condition and condition; and had perverted their language, once beautiful, into jargons of empty elegance and unmeaning futility. C.14.-For the glory of Hellas, and her freedom and wisdom had departed; Rome's great systems of law, organization, and universal citizenship had sunk into the mire of ecclesiastical formalism, and dogmatism, and exclusive arrogance; the living fire of Persia's Prophet scarce smoldered in her votaries of luxury; in India, countless castes and kingdoms cancelled the unity of Buddha's teaching; the wounds of China had not yet been healed by T'ang culture; and Japan was still a disciple of China. C.15.-Then, in the sacred city of pagan Arabia, shown a light that spread in all directions. It was centrally placed for the bounds of the world of man's habitations in Asia, Europe, and Africa. It made the Arabs the leading nation of culture and science, of organized enterprise, law, and arts, with a zeal for the conquest of Nature and her mysteries. C.16.-Behold! There was born into the world of sense the unlettered Apostle, the comely child, noble of birth, but nobler still in the grace and wisdom of human love and human understanding; dowered with the key which opened to him the enchanted palace of Nature; marked out to receive -- to receive and preach in burning words the spiritual truth and message of the Most High. C.17.-Others before him had been born in darkness, beyond the reach of history; others again it pleased Allah to send as Messengers, preaching, working in the dim twilight of history, wherein men fashion legends after their own hearts and dimly seek a light afar, remote from the lives mean and sordid, such as they knew. C.18.-But Muhammad came in the fullest blaze of history; with no learning he put to shame the wisdom of the learned; with pasture folk he lived and worked, and won their love; in hills and valleys, caves and deserts, he wandered, but never lost his way to truth and righteousness; from his pure and spotless heart the Angels washed off the dust that flew around him; through the ways of crooked city folk, he walked upright and straight, and won from them the ungrudging name of the Man of Faith who never broke his word. C.19.-To the Praiseworthy indeed be praise: born in the Sacred City he destroyed its superstition; loyal to his people to the core, he stood for all humanity; orphan-born and poor, he envied not the rich, and made his special care all those whom the world neglected or oppressed, orphans, women, slaves, and those in need of food or comforts, mental solace, spiritual strength, or virtues downtrodden in the haunts of men. C.20.-His mother and his foster mother loved and wondered at the child; his grandfather, 'Abdul Muttalib, of all his twice-eight children and their offspring, loved him best and all his sweet and gentle ways; his uncle Abu Talib, loath though he was to give up the cult of his fathers, knew well the purity of Muhammad's mind and soul, and was his stoutest champion when the other chiefs of Mecca sought to kill the man who challenged in his person their narrow Pagan selfish lives. C.21.-To his cousin 'Ali, the well-beloved, born when he was thirty, he appeared as the very pattern of a perfect man, as gentle as he was wise and true and strong, the one in whose defense and aid he spent his utmost strength and skill, holding life cheap in support of a cause so high, and placing without reserve his chivalry, his prowess, his wit and learning, and his sword at the service of this mighty Messenger of Allah. C.22.-Not till the age of forty did he receive the Commission to stand forth and proclaim the Bounty of Allah, and His gift, to lowly Man, of knowledge by Word and Pen; but all through his years of preparation he did search the Truth: he sought it in Nature's forms and laws, her beauty and her stern unflinching ways; he sought it in the inner world of human lives, men's joys and sorrows, their kindly virtues and their sins of pride, injustice, cruel wrong, and greed of gain, scarce checked by the inner voice that spoke of duty, moral law, and higher still, the Will Supreme of Allah, to which the will of man must tune itself to find its highest bliss. C.23.-But he grew steadfastly in virtue and purity; untaught by men, he learnt from them, and learned to teach them; even as a 4