50 - Qaf

By the Qur’an I swear what you, Muhammad, warn the disbelievers of what will come

Yet they say ‘what a far-fetched idea, such a thing cannot be done -

How will we be raised after death, and reformed when we are dust?’

But We know well what occurs to bodies after death, the Earth is in Our trust.

We keep a detailed record, thorough and comprehensive,

Yet the disbelievers abhor the truth you bring, turning fearful and apprehensive.

Do they not note the sky, from its tiniest clouds and grandest constellations?

Do they not see that their perfection is a more complex element of creation?

What then in comparison is the reforming of dust, back to bone and flesh?

Consider too the extent of the earth and mountains - will the disbelievers not reflect?

Have they not seen a plant wither, rot, go underground and soon re-grow.

Is this process familiar to them or is something yet unknown?

Do they not see the water fall from the sky, making dead land fertile once again?

Providing date palms, green gardens, and row upon row of harvestable grain?

And as it is with the re-emergence of plants from a single pollen dot

So will be the resurrection of man, who was made from a tiny clot.

The disbelieving words of the Quraysh and others like them are not new.

So it was with people of Noah, Ad, Rass, Thamud and many others too

For them - punishment was due

And these disbelievers head for the same fate for ignoring the warnings brought by you.

To make it clearer still – Did We not give the disbelievers life in this first creation?

Is it not then just as easy for Us to create them again and flesh their bones into reanimation?

We created man and know the desires and warnings his soul whispers to him,

And We are closer to him than the main vein which his life's blood flows in.

We have assigned man watchers on his shoulders, recording every deed.

Noting all he’s said and done, for him on Judgement day to see.

And a devil of the jinn is assigned him too

Who will incite him to evil or be mastered to encourage him to truth

And those of the disbelievers will learn this, and other truths at death -

Will know My warnings and Messengers were true, and see the life they left was just a test.

And that is just the start of the endless regret

that is sure to beset them

For when they are raised again, they‘ll be informed ‘THIS IS THE DAY,

The Day of Judgement, the day of which’s warnings you arrogantly cast away.’

Man’s recording angels will spur him and his devil on to the meeting place and say:

‘See you now the truth of that which you called a lie and deemed frivolous poetic word play?’

And his devil will tell of all the evil he enticed him to do

And his hands and feet will speak and bear witness too

And Hell will be his home where he will be accompanied by

Malicious, aggressive, rumour spreaders and those who would lie

Along with idol worshippers and those who mocked the warnings sent

They will taste the endless, fiery, bitterness of God’s punishment.

And even then his scheming jinn will try to absolve himself of sin

Saying ‘I did not force his hand once, all those transgressions were done by him’

And God will ensure their silence and remind them of the chance that passed

And that His words will never change

And that He is just to all His creatures, cared for them all the same. 

On that day Hell will be asked if whether it’ll be full soon

And it will respond in loyal tones ‘my Lord ensures, I will always have room’

And Paradise will be brought to the righteous, an abode truly one of a kind

They’ll be told ‘this is the reward for those who were aware of God, and kept Him firmly in mind,

Who believed in God even though He was unseen,

Who presents his heart in the best of states, utterly pure, thoroughly clean.

They will have ever lasting joy and all of what they wish

And God will then, also bestow on them, so much more than this.

So remind the disbelievers, We destroyed more powerful previous generations

Search their remnants I have left as signs, did they escape the annihilation?

Those whose hearts are wise will heed the lessons learnt of those from the previous age

Knowing We created the heavens and the earth and all between, with ease, in six days.

Those who claim I rested on the 7^th day, tell a terrible lie

They will come to know the severity of such a claim when death comes to them and they die

So Prophet, bear what they say and be of the patient ones,

Praise your Lord before the rising and the setting of the sun

And proclaim his Glory all during the night, supplicate, perform extra prayers

And await the call from Israfeel in Jerusalem, commanding the earth to peel back its layers

The graves will burst forth and all creatures will be brought back to life

And for the disbelievers this will be the only evidence of the hereafter that will suffice

Only then they will realise that We were in control of life, death and the resurrection

On that Day some taste My wrath and some will be adorned with My protection

All that We mention will indeed, surely unfold as such

And the disbelievers will plainly see it was all so easy for Us

So caution them again with this Quran, but never force a soul to do anything

For the believers this sacred text is enough, for them to heed My warnings.

71 - Noah

Muhammad tell the Meccans,

We sent Noah to his people and told him ‘Warn them before the painful torment:

The drowning in this life, and the tremendous Fire in the life to come like none before it!’

So he went to his people and said ‘I give you a clear message in a language you understand

Turn to God, leave your idols, follow me to Him as the Judgment is coming, close at hand.’

He called to them for 950 years ‘all the through the night, all the through the day

But the more I call them to You, my Lord, the more they turn and run away

I call them to Your forgiveness but they cover their ears with their fingers,

Wrap themselves in cloaks to ignore me, and their arrogance and insolence lingers!

I call to them in the open places at the top of my voice, as loud as I can

And I call to them through secret whispers when they are close at hand

I told them: ‘ask forgiveness of the Forgiving One, He’ll end the 40 year drought

He will replenish the earth, and from the wombs of your wives make children come out!

No child has been born to you or even your animals over the last 2 scores

But turn to Him and He will give you children, livestock, rivers and so much more!

So what is wrong with you all?

  Why won’t you believe in God’s majesty?

And avoid the coming tragedy,

By turning to the One deserving of all praise,

The One who created you and made you grow from stage to stage.’

Oh Meccans as Noah warned, I warn too,

Have you not seen how God created the 7 heavens in harmony?

Made the sun as a lamp and the moon a light for all to see

Made you from dust of the Earth like Adam was originally

Then returns you to it in death, and brings you back for the next life accordingly

Do you not have the earth as place to rest and lay sufficiently

With its valleys to tread and paths to walk, that all are set out so spaciously?

And Noah also said: ‘My Lord they have ignored and disobeyed me

And turned to their chieftains believing their wealth and children make them mighty

They do not see, that what they have, on the Last Day, will only increase their loss

They are the ones who spread a terrible lie, part of their terrible plot;

As their chieftains say ‘don’t ignore our idols, stick with Nasr, Yaguth and Wa’ad

My Lord, they have led many astray, so Lord, let their destruction be close at hand.

Lord forgive me and my parents and who ever enters my ship as a believer

And Lord if you left sinners on the earth they'd only produce more corrupt, lying, deceivers

So Lord, wipe them them from the face of the earth, leave them completely overawed’

So they were drowned and sent to Hell, and had none to help them against the Lord.

72 - The Jinn

Prophet, tell the people “it has been revealed to me that a group of Jinn

9 in number, came to listen in on the Qur’an while I was reciting.

Then returned to their kind to tell them of what they’d observed

Saying ‘there is a glorious message from God that we’ve heard

It gives right guidance and we have turned in true belief

And hereby renounce all previous lords we took like the devil, Iblis.

We now know the One True God is above claims He has a child or spouse

It is the foolish, Iblis who moves among us, who utters such lies from his mouth

And we thought none would have the audacity from Mankind and Jinn

To spread such a mendacious and terrible lie against the Almighty - All praise be to Him.’”

Prophet, tell the people

Many previous generations have sought protection and asked it of the Jinn

And for example would call out, ‘I ask for safety from the master of the valley I am in’

And such words would increase the arrogance of the jinn there

And they began to act as if they would not be raised again before the One who was All Aware

The 9 believing jinn also said ‘we used to try to steal our way up to the Heaven and listen in

To hear what angels discussed so we could head to earth and pass on what they were saying

But after the Qur’an’s reciter, Muhammad, was born

We would head there and find the boundaries of Heaven adorned

With angels ready to fight us off with meteors;

So we have no knowledge of what the Lord intends for those on earth 

We know not whether they will head to good or bad ends on return to Him at the Rebirth’

The jinn also said of their kind ‘some of us are believers and some ignore Guidance

We believing ones know we can’t escape God, and turn to Him in full compliance

The wrongdoers have hell but whoever believes need not fear injustice or loss of any kind

Wise guidance has been given to those who believe in God, and keep Him in mind.’

Prophet,

If the Meccans would believe –

There will be water they’ll receive

As We would send the rain again,

That We’ve withheld for 7 years

As a clear

Test for them and anyone that turns from Revelation then

Will be spun away into an agonizing fiery torment.

And know

The places of worship are for God’s remembrance alone

And when Muhammad rose to recite the Quran , in Batn Nakhl, which many Jinn call home

They were so eager to hear revelation they pressed around him in numbers and it was said

‘This sounds like the scripture that the Prophet Moses once read!’

And when the Meccans told Muhammad to turn away from Me

He replied ‘I pray to God alone and will call others to do the same unashamedly!

Oh Meccans, I can only warn;

I cannot of myself keep harm from you or bring you any good thing

Nor could anyone of you save me from God’s punishment, if I were to ever disobey Him.'

Indeed!

Whoever disobeys God and the Messenger will have a terrible end

And the disbelievers will see what I promised and see only I can offer protection then

When the disbelievers ask you of this ‘end’ saying ‘when is it coming - tell us the time?’

Reply ‘The Lord has set it, but as for it being near or far, that is not knowledge of mine.’

God alone knows what is hidden from mankind and reveals what He wills to angels

And to messengers to deliver God’s words, warning and reminder of His favours

He has knowledge of all things, and of all things He keeps a full written account

And He has prepared a fitting reward for those who do good, the righteous, the devout.

80 - He Frowned

While Muhammad was preaching to Qurayshi disbelievers, the blind Ibn Shurayh came

But Muhammad turned away and frowned when this Muslim man called out his name.

Muhammed’s hope was to make those notable Meccans, embrace the religion of Islam

But Muhammad, for all you know, you could have raised the spirits of your brother, the blind man

You could have given benefit; he blindly searched for you to listen to what you say

And you ignored him for the self satisfied ones, turned your attention their way.

You were sent only to warn, so do not be concerned whether or not they accept this faith

But from the eager ones in search of the truth, never turn your face!

No Indeed – Never turn from the believers to those ignorant of your Lord

This Qur’an is the best of lessons, those who wish to learn it, will be taught

It is written on honoured pages, by the hands of truthful scribes

Offering mankind divine knowledge on how to live their lives.

Woe to men like Abu Lahab – the ungrateful – the ignorant sycophant

Was he not created from something tiny? Yet he forgets and becomes arrogant

Man was a drop of sperm, then proportioned then released from the womb

To life, then to death and onto next life he will go through

Yet the disbelievers doubt this, and do not follow their Lord’s command

They should consider the development and growth, of their food from within the land

We pour down the water, which We cause the soil to absorb

From that grown all kinds of food you and your animals adore

And even if disbelievers ignore this, know there will come a Day when they believe

The Day with the Deafening blast, the Day when, from his family, man will turn and flee

As they will come to him begging ‘oh so and so... from your good deeds give me a share’

And he will respond ‘No, in this place it is just myself of who I will take care’

And even the Prophet’s families will come to them, in desperate search of aid

But Abraham’s father, Adam’s son and Lot’s wife will all be turned away

On that day some faces will show signs of rejoicing true believers

But on knowing God’s promises were true, others will be down cast, such is the fate of liars and deceivers.

The Format of the Chapters

The Qur’an cannot be translated and should be taught one to one by a teacher with ijaza to do so for a full understanding as one without knowledge may miss or misinterpret the meanings of the verses.

In Islam there is a whole science behind this that includes hadeeth exploration, reasons for Qur’anic revelation, the rules and intricacies of Arabic language and grammar, knowledge of abrogated verses, etc etc. This list could go on.

Most laymen do not have the time to engage fully in all of the above and so ‘translations’ have been deemed the best way to convey the meaning of the Arabic to an English reading audience.

In trying to make this clearer and more detailed than other English versions, this poetic rendition is colour coded for the reader, to offer a clear understanding of where the information is coming from and what is behind a verse.

Key:

Items written in black are a rendition of the qur’anic text – this is to say the meaning has been turned into English in what is hopefully easy to read and follow as well as being memorable through rhyme. The rhyme is attempted as a respectful attempt at replicating the way of Islamic teachers of the past who would sometimes advise and teach rules of Islam through poetry as it was better remembered.

Example:       Abu Lahab's hands will be destroyed and so will he
Nothing he has in wealth will make what's to come easy.

Explanation: This meaning is conveyed even if it is laboured to fit the rhyme scheme

Items in blue are hadeeth inclusions – this is done in the hope of providing first hand reference material for a specific verse. The majority of hadeeth are used from the direct explanation from Ibn Abaas (R.A) and the tafsir of the Jalalayin (R.A). On occasion a hadeeth may also be used from Bukhari (R.A) and Muslim (R.A) as it is understood to support the section being rendered. I will try to maximize use of the hadeeth where appropriate to facilitate a better understanding for readers.

Example:         We have blessed you with plenty
  And you'll have a river in Heaven by that name

Explanation:   The double meaning of ‘Kawthar’ is noted by the scholars and an important addition to understanding the favours given by Allah to his Prophet (pbuh)

Items in red are qur’anic additions from other parts of the Qur’an that help to explain the meaning or link the meaning from another section. This is very common practice as the Qur’an often revisits topics and material to shed new light on them and to reinforce their importance.

Example:        There will be no nourishment in either, or hunger relief

An ample reward for those who wallowed in disbelief

Explanation: The reference to the punishment of the disbelievers is often mentioned and therefore here it is referenced: namely they will be punished for their disbelief.

Items in green are stylistic additions to generally make the transitions between sections smoother and if needs be to provide a few words, to complete a rhyme set, but the words chosen MUST be in keeping with the qur’anic verse and will be in line with general Islamic understanding.

Example:         It is written on honoured pages, by the hands of truthful scribes

Offering mankind divine knowledge on how to live their lives

Explanation: The ending a topic in a chapter would ideally be at the end of a couplet, however this is dictated by the text that is being reflected. As such, sometimes such lines are needed to complete one section before moving to the next one. In the example above the addition is in keeping with Islamic understanding but is not, to my knowledge, directly referencable from one source; it is an understanding gathered from several sources and therefore not easy to label as an isolated piece of hadeeth or Qur’an. For this reason I have labeled it green. I will try and minimize any use of this.  

The Intention of this Project

If it is in accordance with God's will, I intend to complete a rendition of the meaning of all the chapters of the Qur'an through a poetic English format. 

The body of work undertaken is not meant as a translation (the Qur’an cannot be translated) but as a contemporary understanding, in simple language, of the thrust of the Qur'an. It is meant for younger viewers and converts, but I hope it will be of use to a wider audience too.

I have put this together after years of teaching in secondary schools and colleges with the intention of making the Qur'an more accessible to a generation who I’ve found do not access the Qur’an much.

God willing, this will be a stepping stone for them and others on the way towards a full appreciation and desire to learn the inimitable, mesmeric Qur’an in Arabic. 

I plan to complete this project and will provide various versions of the chapters, firstly by producing the English rendition and then a reference version which demonstrates where the hadeeth and other sources were taken from so that they are fully understood.

I go through all I have written with a Sheikh of the Hanbali Math'hab and hope that this is beneficial to all interested in Islam and the Qur'an, whatever background and understanding they have.

As is the case with some people, they will want to know what my 'angle' is and what my aqueeda is etc and in a separate post I have attached an introductory text on Hanbali fiqh, that I compiled with my Sheikh which I believe, affirm and hold to as the Imam who wrote it did as it is what he understood from his Imam, who understood it from his Imam etc etc, in a continuous line back to the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (SAS) through Ali (RA).


In summarising my stance I hope it suffices that when the angels in the grave ask me the questions in the grave, I pray with all my heart that Allah allows me to be one of those who responds: My Lord is Allah, My religion is Islam and Muhammad (SAS) is my prophet.


I can only answer questions on choices I have made in my rendition. I am not qualified in ANY WAY to answer questions on Islam, so please refer questions to the proper authorities. 


I hope I am qualified to attempt this as I have worked with young Muslims as an ISOC president while at university and over the last 5 years in London as a Teacher, Head of Department and most recently an AST in secondary schools. I have an MA in English and have had various writing published.  


I have only commenced this with permission from Sheiks I learn from / with. Please be assured this is not a spur of the moment scheme, but a serious endeavor in preparation of the life to come. I hope all the above is information that will ease the minds of those who are interested in why this project was undertaken.

If there is any good in it Allah is to be praised, for its flaws I am responsible.

And with Allah is every success.

Layout of the Videos

Each video's layout is intended to be simple and clear. The poetic, colour coded rendition is on the left of the screen and the popular English translation by Yusuf Ali is on the right.

This translation is used as it is one of the most popular, widely read and longest serving English versions of the Qur’an and it is hoped that the audience will be able to see how close the meaning of the poetic version is to other translations, even though the style is very different.

It was suggested that Arabic text be placed on the right rather than another English version, so people could assess the proximity of the rendition to the Magisterial, Inimitable, Divine, Original, Qur’an but my personal opinion is that anyone who is blessed with the ability and knowledge of reading and understanding the Qur’an in Arabic would not be viewing such a video. Alhamdulilah they will have passed the station where this version would be of benefit in the understanding. For the rest on the way towards such an understanding, I hope the videos are of use.

The explanation videos will be more fluid, dictated by the need to switch windows to discuss different qur’anic ayat, tafseer interpretations and hadeeth collections that support  the colour coded poetic version in question.

And with Allah is every success

Please, sincerely, make du’a for us all.