بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
In the name of Allah, the All-Beneficent, the All-Merciful
قٓ ۚ وَٱلْقُرْءَانِ ٱلْمَجِيدِ
Qaf. By the glorious Quran.
بَلْ عَجِبُوٓا۟ أَن جَآءَهُم مُّنذِرٌۭ مِّنْهُمْ فَقَالَ ٱلْكَٰفِرُونَ هَٰذَا شَىْءٌ عَجِيبٌ
Indeed they consider it odd that a warner from among themselves should have come to them. So the faithless say, ‘This is an odd thing.’
أَءِذَا مِتْنَا وَكُنَّا تُرَابًۭا ۖ ذَٰلِكَ رَجْعٌۢ بَعِيدٌۭ
‘What! When we are dead and have become dust, [shall we be raised again]? That is a far-fetched return!’
قَدْ عَلِمْنَا مَا تَنقُصُ ٱلْأَرْضُ مِنْهُمْ ۖ وَعِندَنَا كِتَٰبٌ حَفِيظٌۢ
We know what the earth diminishes from them, and with Us is a preserving Book.
بَلْ كَذَّبُوا۟ بِٱلْحَقِّ لَمَّا جَآءَهُمْ فَهُمْ فِىٓ أَمْرٍۢ مَّرِيجٍ
Indeed, they denied the truth when it came to them; so they are now in a perplexed state of affairs.
أَفَلَمْ يَنظُرُوٓا۟ إِلَى ٱلسَّمَآءِ فَوْقَهُمْ كَيْفَ بَنَيْنَٰهَا وَزَيَّنَّٰهَا وَمَا لَهَا مِن فُرُوجٍۢ
Have they not, then, observed the heaven above them, how We have built it and adorned it, and that there are no cracks in it?
وَٱلْأَرْضَ مَدَدْنَٰهَا وَأَلْقَيْنَا فِيهَا رَوَٰسِىَ وَأَنۢبَتْنَا فِيهَا مِن كُلِّ زَوْجٍۭ بَهِيجٍۢ
And We spread out the earth, and cast in it firm mountains, and caused every delightful kind [of vegetation] to grow in it.
تَبْصِرَةًۭ وَذِكْرَىٰ لِكُلِّ عَبْدٍۢ مُّنِيبٍۢ
[In this there is] an insight and admonition for every penitent servant.
وَنَزَّلْنَا مِنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ مَآءًۭ مُّبَٰرَكًۭا فَأَنۢبَتْنَا بِهِۦ جَنَّٰتٍۢ وَحَبَّ ٱلْحَصِيدِ
We send down from the sky salubrious water, with which We grow gardens and the grain which is harvested,
وَٱلنَّخْلَ بَاسِقَٰتٍۢ لَّهَا طَلْعٌۭ نَّضِيدٌۭ
and tall date palms with regularly set spathes,
رِّزْقًۭا لِّلْعِبَادِ ۖ وَأَحْيَيْنَا بِهِۦ بَلْدَةًۭ مَّيْتًۭا ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ ٱلْخُرُوجُ
as a provision for Our servants, and with it We revive a dead country. Likewise will be the rising [from the dead].
كَذَّبَتْ قَبْلَهُمْ قَوْمُ نُوحٍۢ وَأَصْحَٰبُ ٱلرَّسِّ وَثَمُودُ
The people of Noah denied before them, and [so did] the people of Rass and Thamud,
وَعَادٌۭ وَفِرْعَوْنُ وَإِخْوَٰنُ لُوطٍۢ
and ‘Ad, Pharaoh, and the brethren of Lot,
وَأَصْحَٰبُ ٱلْأَيْكَةِ وَقَوْمُ تُبَّعٍۢ ۚ كُلٌّۭ كَذَّبَ ٱلرُّسُلَ فَحَقَّ وَعِيدِ
and the inhabitants of Aykah and the people of Tubbac. Each [of them] impugned the apostles, and so My threat became due [against them].
أَفَعَيِينَا بِٱلْخَلْقِ ٱلْأَوَّلِ ۚ بَلْ هُمْ فِى لَبْسٍۢ مِّنْ خَلْقٍۢ جَدِيدٍۢ
Have We been exhausted by the first creation? No, they are in doubt about a new creation.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
The passage opens with the lone letter q and an oath 'By the glorious Qurʾan,' then reports the idolaters' astonishment that a human warner should arise among them and their scorn at resurrection: 'When we are dead and are dust — that is a far-fetched return.' God answers that His knowledge diminishes nothing ('with Us is a preserving Book'), musters the witness of the built heaven and the outspread earth, and seals the argument with the reviving of dead land by rain: 'thus is the coming-forth.' It closes by naming seven destroyed nations and asking, 'Were We wearied by the first creation?'
al-Mizan frames the entire sura around the Return: the opening astonishment, the answer from divine knowledge and power, and the warning of past nations all serve that single theme; the oath's answer is suppressed ('the resurrection is true'), and 'a far-fetched return' means far from reason, not from God's power. On v.15 Tabatabaʾi reads 'the first creation' as heaven, earth and man together — He who originated is not powerless to restore. Tabarsi and Tusi supply the grammar and lexicon (the suppressed oath-answer; majid = abundant honour; marij = confusion; furuj = rifts; bahij = of beautiful aspect) and gather the classical glosses on q — a Name of God, or the emerald mountain encircling the earth from which the sky is green, or 'the matter is decreed' — while Tusi favours its being a name/key of the sura. Both list the seven peoples (Noah, the Rass, Thamud, ʿAd, Pharaoh, the brethren of Lot, the Thicket, Tubbaʿ), Tusi adding the report 'do not curse Tubbaʿ, for he had submitted; God blamed only his people.'
The Imami sources sharpen particular points. al-Qummi anchors vv.2-3 in Ubayy ibn Khalaf crumbling a bone to mock the raising, and — like al-Bahrani — glosses 'the People of the Rass' through narrations of al-Sadiq identifying their sin as women lying with women (with al-Rass as a river of Adharbayjan). al-Bahrani's q-narrations describe the encircling emerald mountain and, in reports from al-Baqir and al-Rida, unseen worlds beyond it 'who curse two men of this community' (a companion-directed polemic, rendered strictly as-attributed), plus the marvel-report of ʿAli borne by the wind to Mount Qaf. On v.15 al-Bahrani preserves al-Baqir's cosmic teaching of successive creations — 'a thousand thousand Adams.' The Enlightening Commentary supplies the published English, including the merits of reciting the sura (the Prophet recited it in the Friday sermon) and the reading of the whole as testimony of nature to the Resurrection. No source was silent for this passage.