بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
In the name of Allah, the All-Beneficent, the All-Merciful
سَبَّحَ لِلَّهِ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۖ وَهُوَ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْحَكِيمُ
Whatever there is in the heavens and [whatever there is on] the earth glorifies Allah and He is the All-mighty, the All-wise.
لَهُۥ مُلْكُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۖ يُحْىِۦ وَيُمِيتُ ۖ وَهُوَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍۢ قَدِيرٌ
To Him belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth: He gives life and brings death, and He has power over all things.
هُوَ ٱلْأَوَّلُ وَٱلْءَاخِرُ وَٱلظَّٰهِرُ وَٱلْبَاطِنُ ۖ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَىْءٍ عَلِيمٌ
He is the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden, and He has knowledge of all things.
هُوَ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضَ فِى سِتَّةِ أَيَّامٍۢ ثُمَّ ٱسْتَوَىٰ عَلَى ٱلْعَرْشِ ۚ يَعْلَمُ مَا يَلِجُ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَمَا يَخْرُجُ مِنْهَا وَمَا يَنزِلُ مِنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ وَمَا يَعْرُجُ فِيهَا ۖ وَهُوَ مَعَكُمْ أَيْنَ مَا كُنتُمْ ۚ وَٱللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌۭ
It is He who created the heavens and the earth in six days; then settled on the Throne. He knows whatever enters the earth and whatever emerges from it and whatever descends from the sky and whatever ascends to it, and He is with you wherever you may be, and Allah watches what you do.
لَّهُۥ مُلْكُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۚ وَإِلَى ٱللَّهِ تُرْجَعُ ٱلْأُمُورُ
To Him belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, and to Allah all matters are returned.
يُولِجُ ٱلَّيْلَ فِى ٱلنَّهَارِ وَيُولِجُ ٱلنَّهَارَ فِى ٱلَّيْلِ ۚ وَهُوَ عَلِيمٌۢ بِذَاتِ ٱلصُّدُورِ
He makes the night pass into the day and makes the day pass into the night, and He knows best what is in the breasts.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
The sura opens on the widest possible horizon before it turns, from verse 7 on, to its practical theme of spending in God's way. Whatever is in the heavens and the earth glorifies God (v.1), who is the Mighty, the Wise; His is the dominion, He gives life and causes death (v.2), He is the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden (v.3), Creator of the heavens and earth in six days who then mounted the Throne, knowing all that enters and leaves the earth and descends and ascends, with you wherever you are (v.4); to Him all things return (v.5); He merges night and day and knows what is in the breasts (v.6).
On the opening glorification the four Arabic authorities converge. al-Ṭabarsī and al-Ṭūsī agree that the rational glorify God in word and belief while inanimate things glorify Him by the evidence in them of His oneness, and both read the enthronement (istiwāʾ) as a figure for sovereignty, not a body on a seat. al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī deepens this: the glorification is literal speech we cannot hear (17:44), and the four names — First, Last, Manifest, Hidden — are branches of God's being al-Muḥīṭ, the All-Encompassing, so that none of them is temporal or spatial. The Enlightening Commentary frames the whole passage as an enumeration of some twenty attributes and, with al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī and al-Baḥrānī, preserves the tradition of Imam ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn that these six verses, with Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ, were revealed for the profound thinkers of the last age — a report cross-checked here against al-Kāfī.
The two narration-based tafsīrs add their characteristic materials. al-Qummī and al-Baḥrānī both open with the Prophet's «I was given the comprehensive words,» and al-Baḥrānī assembles a dossier on the First and the Last: al-Ṣādiq's contrast between the changeless Lord and changing creatures, and al-Riḍā's careful gloss that «Manifest» means overwhelming dominance and «Hidden» encompassing knowledge — a determined anti-anthropomorphism shared with al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī. al-Baḥrānī also carries the day-by-day account of the six days of creation (Sunday to Friday) from al-Ṣādiq, and a set of devotional narrations in which the sun addresses ʿAlī by these four names; the latter are recorded here strictly as attributed. al-Qummī, glossing the six ‘days’ as six periods and «what is in the breasts» as the innermost secrets, already slips in al-Ṣādiq's saying that a loan outweighs alms on the gate of Paradise — anticipating the sura's turn to infāq.