بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
In the name of Allah, the All-Beneficent, the All-Merciful
الر ۚ كِتَابٌ أَنزَلْنَاهُ إِلَيْكَ لِتُخْرِجَ النَّاسَ مِنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ إِلَى النُّورِ بِإِذْنِ رَبِّهِمْ إِلَىٰ صِرَاطِ الْعَزِيزِ الْحَمِيدِ
Alif, Lam, Ra. [This is] a Book We have sent down to you that you may bring mankind out from darkness into light, by the command of their Lord, to the path of the All-mighty, the All-laudable
اللَّهِ الَّذِي لَهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ ۗ وَوَيْلٌ لِّلْكَافِرِينَ مِنْ عَذَابٍ شَدِيدٍ
—Allah, to whom belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. Woe to the faithless for a severe punishment
الَّذِينَ يَسْتَحِبُّونَ الْحَيَاةَ الدُّنْيَا عَلَى الْآخِرَةِ وَيَصُدُّونَ عَن سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَيَبْغُونَهَا عِوَجًا ۚ أُولَـٰئِكَ فِي ضَلَالٍ بَعِيدٍ
—those who prefer the life of this world to the Hereafter, and bar [others] from the way of Allah, and seek to make it crooked. They are in extreme error.
وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا مِن رَّسُولٍ إِلَّا بِلِسَانِ قَوْمِهِ لِيُبَيِّنَ لَهُمْ ۖ فَيُضِلُّ اللَّهُ مَن يَشَاءُ وَيَهْدِي مَن يَشَاءُ ۚ وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ
We did not send any apostle except with the language of his people, so that he might make [Our messages] clear to them. Then Allah leads astray whomever He wishes, and He guides whomsoever He wishes, and He is the All-mighty, the All-wise.
وَلَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا مُوسَىٰ بِآيَاتِنَا أَنْ أَخْرِجْ قَوْمَكَ مِنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ إِلَى النُّورِ وَذَكِّرْهُم بِأَيَّامِ اللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِّكُلِّ صَبَّارٍ شَكُورٍ
Certainly We sent Moses with Our signs: ‘Bring your people out from darkness into light and remind them of Allah’s [holy] days. There are indeed signs in that for every patient and grateful [servant].’
وَإِذْ قَالَ مُوسَىٰ لِقَوْمِهِ اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ إِذْ أَنجَاكُم مِّنْ آلِ فِرْعَوْنَ يَسُومُونَكُمْ سُوءَ الْعَذَابِ وَيُذَبِّحُونَ أَبْنَاءَكُمْ وَيَسْتَحْيُونَ نِسَاءَكُمْ ۚ وَفِي ذَٰلِكُم بَلَاءٌ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ عَظِيمٌ
When Moses said to his people, ‘Remember Allah’s blessing upon you when He delivered you from Pharaoh’s clan who inflicted a terrible torment on you, and slaughtered your sons and spared your women, and in that there was a great test from your Lord.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
The sūra opens with the disconnected letters Alif-Lām-Rā and at once states the Qurʾān's purpose: a Book sent to the Prophet so that, by their Lord's permission, he may bring humanity from the darknesses (ẓulumāt) into the light (nūr) — the path of the Mighty (al-ʿAzīz), the Praised (al-Ḥamīd), to whom belongs all in the heavens and the earth. Woe is pronounced on disbelievers who prefer this world, hinder others from God's path, and seek to make it crooked. Verse 4 grounds prophecy in intelligibility — every messenger is sent in his people's tongue — while reserving guidance and misguidance to God. Verses 5–6 instance this in Moses, sent with God's signs to bring his people into the light and to remind them of the Days of Allah, culminating in the deliverance from Pharaoh.
Darknesses, light, and the lām of purpose. All five Arabic witnesses read ẓulumāt → nūr as disbelief/error yielding to faith/guidance. Al-Ṭabarsī and al-Ṭūsī both insist the lām in li-tukhrija is the lām of purpose (gharaḍ), not consequence (ʿāqiba), and from it draw the inference that God wills faith from all the morally accountable, since otherwise all would have believed. Ṭabāṭabāʾī affirms the same reading but reframes it as a legislative purpose: God's acts have intended ends (maṣāliḥ) abstracted from the station of His act, yet — being self-sufficient — He is neither perfected by them nor ruled by benefit and harm, the truth in the Ashʿarī–Muʿtazilī dispute being 'a matter between the two matters.'
The path as imamate. A distinctively Shīʿī gloss appears in al-Qummī, who identifies al-ṣirāṭ with the imamate of the Imams (ʿalayhim al-salām); al-Baḥrānī transmits the same identification on al-Qummī's authority. Al-Ṭūsī and al-Ṭabarsī instead gloss the path lexically as the road to knowledge of God, and Ṭabāṭabāʾī treats it as a badal of 'into the light.'
Philology of al-ʿAzīz al-Ḥamīd. Al-Ṭabarsī and al-Ṭūsī both preserve the qirāʾa that Allāhu lladhī is read nominative by the Madinan/Syrian (Ibn ʿĀmir, Nāfiʿ) and genitive by the rest, relaying Abū ʿAlī al-Fārisī's argument that the genitive makes Allāh a badal of al-Ḥamīd (with the etymology from al-Ilāh, citing Abū Zayd and Ruʾba). Ṭabāṭabāʾī instead leans on al-Rāghib and pointedly rejects al-Rāzī's gloss of al-Ḥamīd as 'the Knowing, the Self-sufficient' and Abū Ḥayyān's reasoning as foreign to the sūra.
'In the tongue of his people' (v. 4). Al-Ṭūsī and al-Ṭabarsī read this as sending each messenger in his community's language for clarity, both citing al-Ḥasan and Mujāhid that the Prophet alone was sent to all creation. Al-Baḥrānī narrates, via Ibn Bābawayh from al-Ṣādiq (ʿalayhi al-salām), that revelation descended in Arabic yet fell on each prophet's ears in his own tongue, Jibrāʾīl translating. Ṭabāṭabāʾī argues 'his people' refers to the messenger, instancing Lūṭ — Aramaic by origin but sent to a Hebrew people.
The 'Days of Allah' (v. 5). Here the sources are richest. Al-Qummī reports al-Ṣādiq: three days — the Qāʾim, Death, and Resurrection. Al-Baḥrānī stacks chains (via al-Muthannā al-Ḥannāṭ from al-Bāqir and al-Ṣādiq) giving the rising of the Qāʾim, the Return (al-karra/rajʿa), and Resurrection, and preserves the long Companions' ḥadīth (the Prophet questioning ʿAlī on the first blessings) and the report — also in al-Ṭabarsī and al-ʿAyyāshī — that the days are God's blessings. Al-Ṭabarsī and al-Ṭūsī catalogue the options: vengeance on past nations (Ibn Zayd, al-Balkhī), blessings (Ibn ʿAbbās, Ubayy, al-Ḥasan, Mujāhid, Qatāda, al-Ṣādiq), or both as God's customary ways (Abū Muslim). Ṭabāṭabāʾī harmonizes — 'specific days' are those in which God's command manifests wholly, encompassing both retribution and blessing — and notes the narrational variants confirm this, being illustrative not exhaustive. The Enlightening Commentary parallels this, citing Imam al-Bāqir for the rising of the Mahdī, the Return, and the Resurrection, and stressing that every day justice triumphs or a tyrant falls is a 'Day of Allah.'