Surah Al-'Alaq English Translation & Brief Tafsir

¹Jibril (Gabriel) said: O Muhammad! You are a prophet chosen by Allah. From now on, it is your turn to recite to people the verses revealed to you, in the name of your Lord, who created everything from nothing and shaped it with matchless beauty, and to convey them by His command. With His permission and help, read slowly, taking it in fully; reflect, proclaim, understand, and explain. Read this Book, which your Lord is sending down to you and which will address you from now on, verse by verse and surah by surah, so that you understand it well, put it into practice in your life, and convey it to others. In His first verse to you, your Lord has made clear what the concept of “Lord” means. Your Lord, who created everything from nothing, is Allah; those who do not have the power to create even a fly are false lords and false gods. Choose your path from the very beginning: either the path of tawhid (affirming the oneness of Allah), which is the path of your Lord who created everything from nothing, or the path of shirk (associating partners with Allah), which is the path of false gods and lords who have no power to create. The choice is yours: either the Paradise your Lord has promised you, or the Hell into which false lords and false gods will drag you.

²Do not be surprised that this prophetic mission has been given to you, and to see this truth, begin your reading with yourself! For your Lord shaped you in your mother’s womb from an alaq, that is, from an embryo that was no more than a drop-sized clot, and created you as a human being of perfect form. Stage by stage, He equipped that human being with the blessings that would sustain his life, and made him a distinguished being with the abilities to speak, think, read, learn, and teach. The power that did this is surely also able to grant you revelation.

³Yes, from now on, constantly and attentively read the story of the creation of all things as well, and convey this divine revelation to people. When you read, you will understand that your Lord, the Creator of all things, is the possessor of infinite grace and generosity. This revelation is a generous gift from Him. Your Lord, who has granted you so many blessings you did not have before, will fill your heart with treasures of knowledge and wisdom and raise you to far higher ranks.

⁴For He is the One who taught writing with the pen, and how to record knowledge and pass it on to future generations.

⁵It is He who granted the human being the means and abilities to think, investigate, and learn, and who, by sending him prophets and scriptures, also teaches him what he did not know: the reasons for his creation, which he needs to know, and how he should live accordingly. From now on, He will reveal His word to you and equip you with the knowledge of divine revelation.

⁶The truth is that ingratitude, too, is among the traits with which the human being was created. So does the human being value all these gifts and act in accordance with the purpose of his creation? Sadly, no. Indeed, despite so much kindness from his Lord, the disbelieving human being imagines that he needs no one, and the knowledge, power, and wealth he possesses make him insolent. Relying on his wealth, he goes to extremes in rebellion and injustice, transgresses, and oversteps his bounds. Forgetting that he was created, he imagines that his wealth will make him immortal, and in the end he suffers loss. In his insolence, he makes a god of himself, as the pharaohs did. Why?

⁷Because he thinks he has no need of Allah’s guidance, and at once he grows haughty and arrogant. He begins to see himself as superior and considers himself self-sufficient. The human being attributes blessings such as knowledge, wealth, and power to himself, and imagines that he needs no one. Because of the wealth he owns, he claims that he has no need of the Quran’s guidance! In other words, a kind of intoxication with power takes hold of him. He does not think about the blessings his Lord has given him in this world. He imagines that whatever he has in this world, he acquired on his own.

⁸Yet one day life will end. Then you will understand that you are to be questioned and called to account in the presence of your Lord, and that the return will certainly be to your Lord. Every living soul will sooner or later taste death; leaving behind the possessions and property, the power and strength, the authority and dominion given to him as a test, he will appear before his Lord. At the great tribunal, he will answer to Allah for all he did in this world, and for how he used the blessings his Lord granted. When the human being is returned to his Lord, he is held fast, with no way to escape, because of the wrongs he committed. Every wrong he did is read out to his face. In His presence he will surely answer for this transgression of his.

⁹O Muhammad, try to remember those who once obstructed the prophets who, like you, were messengers, for you too will face people who obstruct you in the same way. Have you seen the unjust and transgressing disbeliever who tries to deprive people who wish to live by their faith of this sacred right of theirs and to obstruct them? Suppose a person invites people to be servants of Allah, in keeping with the purpose of their creation: can the conduct of someone who tries to obstruct him be considered justified?

¹⁰Have you seen the one who tries to prevent a servant from performing the prayer, a servant who turns to Allah in supplication and entreaty and invites people to Allah’s religion? With his transgressing, insolent manner, that person obstructs the one who turns to his Lord. The transgressing, insolent person finds it hard to bear that people enter Allah’s path. The transgressing, insolent deniers want people to be slaves to them! Yet those who enter their Lord’s path do not become slaves to people. The insolent transgressors, on the other hand, oppose Allah’s laws and want to establish their sovereignty over people through their own laws. By doing so, they pose as gods. But they know that those who walk in Allah’s path have parted ways with the system built on man-made laws. The deniers know this very well.

¹¹Do you never stop to think? Can it possibly be right for someone to try to obstruct a person who invites people to live an Allah-centered life? Yet the one he obstructed, who was a servant of his Lord, was on the right path.

¹²Or if he calls people to taqwa (God-consciousness), to honesty, and to the morality of the Quran, and encourages them to guard themselves against sin, against evil, and against disobeying Allah, how will the one who obstructs him answer for this in the Hereafter? What is wrong with this? If a person who enters his Lord’s path guards himself against every kind of evil and commands people to guard themselves as well, would this not be good for people? Yet that person was calling people to the absolute truth, that is, to liberation from servitude to fellow human beings.

¹³Does that disbeliever never take a hard look at himself? What if the one who seeks to obstruct others is himself denying the truth and turning away from faith? Will he then be able to escape Our punishment? Consider this, too: if the people you support have denied the truth that came from Allah and turned away from His verses, and you follow them blindly, how will you be able to face your Lord tomorrow?

¹⁴Abu Jahl pays lip service, saying, “I too believe in Allah.” Well then, does this unjust man, who torments the believers and sets out to cover up the truth and deny it, not know that Allah sees everything? And has he no fear of Allah’s punishment, to behave like this? What is to be said of such a man, who not only rejects the call the Prophet makes in Allah’s name but even tries to obstruct him?

¹⁵Let him beware! Let him not imagine that what he does will go unpunished. If he does not give up his disbelief and this shameful conduct he displays, We swear that, just as We did to those before him, We will at once seize him by the forelock and drag him to the Hell he deserves.

¹⁶We will seize that utterly shameless liar, who associates partners with Allah, by his sinful forelock and cast him into Hell. Then he will see who can stop whom.

¹⁷If he says, “I have powerful backing; no one can do anything to me,” then let him go ahead and summon his inner circle and the supporters who stand behind him, and ask them to save him!

¹⁸In any case, We for Our part will summon the guardians of Hell, who are among Our angels of punishment. We will hand him over to them, humiliated and disgraced, and have him thrown into Hell. Will they be able to save him from the hands of the guardians of Hell?

¹⁹O My Messenger, the path of the likes of Abu Jahl, who are disbelievers and wrongdoers, is a path of error. Do what befits you, and be patient in spite of everything. Continue on your way under the guidance of revelation. Whatever happens, never yield to him or to the threats and attacks of those like him. They can do nothing to you. Their power prevails only over those who fear them. As for you, with all your soul and all your being, fall prostrate in His presence, and with the most heartfelt pleas, draw near to your Lord alone. Taking Allah alone as your Lord and your God, draw near to Him, and obey and worship Him. If you hold people’s words above the word of your Lord, they will force you into sin and drag you into Hell along with them.