إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يَغْفِرُ أَن يُشْرَكَ بِهِۦ وَيَغْفِرُ مَا دُونَ ذَٰلِكَ لِمَن يَشَآءُ ۚ وَمَن يُشْرِكْ بِٱللَّهِ فَقَدْ ضَلَّ ضَلَٰلًۢا بَعِيدًا
Indeed Allah does not forgive that any partner should be ascribed to Him, but He forgives anything besides that to whomever He wishes. And whoever ascribes partners to Allah has certainly strayed into far error.
إِن يَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِهِۦٓ إِلَّآ إِنَٰثًۭا وَإِن يَدْعُونَ إِلَّا شَيْطَٰنًۭا مَّرِيدًۭا
They invoke none but females besides Him, and invoke none but a froward Satan,
لَّعَنَهُ ٱللَّهُ ۘ وَقَالَ لَأَتَّخِذَنَّ مِنْ عِبَادِكَ نَصِيبًۭا مَّفْرُوضًۭا
whom Allah has cursed, and who said, ‘I will surely take of Your servants a settled share,
وَلَأُضِلَّنَّهُمْ وَلَأُمَنِّيَنَّهُمْ وَلَءَامُرَنَّهُمْ فَلَيُبَتِّكُنَّ ءَاذَانَ ٱلْأَنْعَٰمِ وَلَءَامُرَنَّهُمْ فَلَيُغَيِّرُنَّ خَلْقَ ٱللَّهِ ۚ وَمَن يَتَّخِذِ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنَ وَلِيًّۭا مِّن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ فَقَدْ خَسِرَ خُسْرَانًۭا مُّبِينًۭا
and I will lead them astray and give them [false] hopes, and prompt them to slit the ears of cattle, and I will prompt them to alter Allah’s creation.’ Whoever takes Satan as a guardian instead of Allah has certainly incurred a manifest loss.
يَعِدُهُمْ وَيُمَنِّيهِمْ ۖ وَمَا يَعِدُهُمُ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنُ إِلَّا غُرُورًا
He makes them promises and gives them [false] hopes, yet Satan does not promise them anything but delusion.
أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ مَأْوَىٰهُمْ جَهَنَّمُ وَلَا يَجِدُونَ عَنْهَا مَحِيصًۭا
The refuge of such shall be hell, and they will not find any escape from it.
وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّٰلِحَٰتِ سَنُدْخِلُهُمْ جَنَّٰتٍۢ تَجْرِى مِن تَحْتِهَا ٱلْأَنْهَٰرُ خَٰلِدِينَ فِيهَآ أَبَدًۭا ۖ وَعْدَ ٱللَّهِ حَقًّۭا ۚ وَمَنْ أَصْدَقُ مِنَ ٱللَّهِ قِيلًۭا
But those who have faith and do righteous deeds, We will admit them into gardens with streams running in them, to remain in them forever—a true promise of Allah, and who is truer in speech than Allah?
لَّيْسَ بِأَمَانِيِّكُمْ وَلَآ أَمَانِىِّ أَهْلِ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ ۗ مَن يَعْمَلْ سُوٓءًۭا يُجْزَ بِهِۦ وَلَا يَجِدْ لَهُۥ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ وَلِيًّۭا وَلَا نَصِيرًۭا
It will be neither after your hopes nor the hopes of the People of the Book: whoever commits evil shall be requited for it, and he will not find for himself any guardian or helper besides Allah.
وَمَن يَعْمَلْ مِنَ ٱلصَّٰلِحَٰتِ مِن ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنثَىٰ وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌۭ فَأُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ يَدْخُلُونَ ٱلْجَنَّةَ وَلَا يُظْلَمُونَ نَقِيرًۭا
And whoever does righteous deeds, whether male or female, should he be faithful—such shall enter paradise and they will not be wronged [so much as] the speck on a date-stone.
وَمَنْ أَحْسَنُ دِينًۭا مِّمَّنْ أَسْلَمَ وَجْهَهُۥ لِلَّهِ وَهُوَ مُحْسِنٌۭ وَٱتَّبَعَ مِلَّةَ إِبْرَٰهِيمَ حَنِيفًۭا ۗ وَٱتَّخَذَ ٱللَّهُ إِبْرَٰهِيمَ خَلِيلًۭا
Who has a better religion than him who submits his will to Allah, being virtuous, and follows the creed of Abraham, a Hanif? And Allah took Abraham for a dedicated friend.
وَلِلَّهِ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ ۚ وَكَانَ ٱللَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَىْءٍۢ مُّحِيطًۭا
To Allah belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth, and Allah comprehends all things.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
Sources triangulated: Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan]; Ṭūsī [tusi_al_tibyan]; Baḥrānī, al-Burhān [bahrani_al_burhan]; al-Qummī [qummi]; Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan]; An Enlightening Commentary [enlightening_commentary]. All six are present (non-silent).
The passage returns to the gravity of shirk (v.116), unmasks idolatry as the worship of lifeless 'females' and ultimately of a rebellious Satan whose vow is to corrupt and 'alter God's creation' (vv.117–119), exposes his promises as delusion ending in Hell (vv.120–121), sets against them the abiding Gardens of the faithful (v.122), and lays down the cardinal principle that destiny turns on DEEDS, not wishes — every evil requited and every believing good rewarded (vv.123–124) — crowned by the model of Abraham, who 'submitted his face to God' and was taken as His intimate friend (vv.125–126).
1. Idolatry as Satan-worship (vv.117–119). All sources read the 'females' as the female-named or lifeless idols (and the angels-as-daughters), behind which stands Satan; al-Qummī and the others note Quraysh's claim that the angels are God's daughters and the worship of the jinn. [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] [tusi_al_tibyan] [qummi] [tabatabai_al_mizan]
2. 'Altering God's creation' = altering His religion. Ṭabarsī, Ṭūsī and al-Qummī all give the primary reading (from Ibn ʿAbbās and al-Ṣādiq) that Satan's incitement to 'alter God's creation' means corrupting the fiṭra and God's law — making lawful the forbidden — alongside the secondary senses (slitting cattle's ears, castration, tattooing). [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] [tusi_al_tibyan] [qummi]
3. Deeds, not wishes (vv.123–124). All four Arabic sources, with the English ones, read 'not by your wishes nor the People of the Book's' as the refutation of every complacent hope of immunity: evil is requited and believing good rewarded, faith being the indispensable condition — the verse holding the believer between fear and hope. [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] [tusi_al_tibyan] [qummi] [tabatabai_al_mizan] [enlightening_commentary]
4. Abraham the friend of God (v.125). All sources expound 'submitting the face to God' and the creed of Abraham, and rehearse the meanings of khalīl (love / need); Ṭabarsī, al-Qummī and al-Burhān all transmit al-Ṣādiq's narration of the sand turned to flour. [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] [qummi] [bahrani_al_burhan] [tabatabai_al_mizan]
This passage is markedly free of confessional divergence — the six sources read it in close harmony. The only Imāmī colouring is in the framing details: al-Qummī and al-Burhān specify that Abraham's 'upright creed' is the TEN ḥanīfiyya practices 'unabrogated until the Day of Resurrection,' a detail the other sources leave general. [qummi] [bahrani_al_burhan] [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] On the requital of 'whoever does evil' (v.123), Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī canvass the range of views (all sins / the unbelievers / shirk) and resist reading it as a denial of God's pardon — consistent with their treatment of 4:48 — where the English sources emphasise the consoling balance of the following verse. [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] [tusi_al_tibyan] [tabatabai_al_mizan] [enlightening_commentary]