۞ هُوَ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَكُم مِّن نَّفْسٍۢ وَٰحِدَةٍۢ وَجَعَلَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا لِيَسْكُنَ إِلَيْهَا ۖ فَلَمَّا تَغَشَّىٰهَا حَمَلَتْ حَمْلًا خَفِيفًۭا فَمَرَّتْ بِهِۦ ۖ فَلَمَّآ أَثْقَلَت دَّعَوَا ٱللَّهَ رَبَّهُمَا لَئِنْ ءَاتَيْتَنَا صَٰلِحًۭا لَّنَكُونَنَّ مِنَ ٱلشَّٰكِرِينَ
It is He who created you from a single soul, and made from it its mate, that he might find comfort with her. So when he had covered her, she bore a light burden and passed [some time] with it. When she had grown heavy, they both invoked Allah, their Lord: ‘If You give us a healthy [child], we will be surely grateful.’
فَلَمَّآ ءَاتَىٰهُمَا صَٰلِحًۭا جَعَلَا لَهُۥ شُرَكَآءَ فِيمَآ ءَاتَىٰهُمَا ۚ فَتَعَٰلَى ٱللَّهُ عَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ
Then when He gave them a healthy [child], they ascribed partners to Him in what He had given them. Exalted is Allah above [having] any partners that they ascribe [to Him]!
أَيُشْرِكُونَ مَا لَا يَخْلُقُ شَيْـًۭٔا وَهُمْ يُخْلَقُونَ
Do they ascribe [to Him] partners that create nothing and have been created themselves,
وَلَا يَسْتَطِيعُونَ لَهُمْ نَصْرًۭا وَلَآ أَنفُسَهُمْ يَنصُرُونَ
and can neither help them, nor help themselves?
وَإِن تَدْعُوهُمْ إِلَى ٱلْهُدَىٰ لَا يَتَّبِعُوكُمْ ۚ سَوَآءٌ عَلَيْكُمْ أَدَعَوْتُمُوهُمْ أَمْ أَنتُمْ صَٰمِتُونَ
If you call them to guidance, they will not follow you: it is the same to you whether you call them or whether you are silent.
إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ تَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ عِبَادٌ أَمْثَالُكُمْ ۖ فَٱدْعُوهُمْ فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُوا۟ لَكُمْ إِن كُنتُمْ صَٰدِقِينَ
Indeed those whom you invoke besides Allah are creatures like you. So invoke them: they should answer you, if you are truthful.
أَلَهُمْ أَرْجُلٌۭ يَمْشُونَ بِهَآ ۖ أَمْ لَهُمْ أَيْدٍۢ يَبْطِشُونَ بِهَآ ۖ أَمْ لَهُمْ أَعْيُنٌۭ يُبْصِرُونَ بِهَآ ۖ أَمْ لَهُمْ ءَاذَانٌۭ يَسْمَعُونَ بِهَا ۗ قُلِ ٱدْعُوا۟ شُرَكَآءَكُمْ ثُمَّ كِيدُونِ فَلَا تُنظِرُونِ
Do they have any feet to walk with? Do they have any hands to grasp with? Do they have any eyes to see with? Do they have any ears to hear with? Say, ‘Invoke your partners [that you ascribe to Allah] and try out your stratagems against me without granting me any respite.
إِنَّ وَلِۦِّىَ ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِى نَزَّلَ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ ۖ وَهُوَ يَتَوَلَّى ٱلصَّٰلِحِينَ
My guardian is indeed Allah who sent down the Book, and He takes care of the righteous.
وَٱلَّذِينَ تَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِهِۦ لَا يَسْتَطِيعُونَ نَصْرَكُمْ وَلَآ أَنفُسَهُمْ يَنصُرُونَ
Those whom you invoke besides Him can neither help you, nor help themselves.
وَإِن تَدْعُوهُمْ إِلَى ٱلْهُدَىٰ لَا يَسْمَعُوا۟ ۖ وَتَرَىٰهُمْ يَنظُرُونَ إِلَيْكَ وَهُمْ لَا يُبْصِرُونَ
If you call them to guidance, they will not hear. You see them facing you, but they do not see.’
خُذِ ٱلْعَفْوَ وَأْمُرْ بِٱلْعُرْفِ وَأَعْرِضْ عَنِ ٱلْجَٰهِلِينَ
Adopt [a policy of] excusing [the faults of people], bid what is right, and turn away from the ignorant.
وَإِمَّا يَنزَغَنَّكَ مِنَ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنِ نَزْغٌۭ فَٱسْتَعِذْ بِٱللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ
Should a temptation from Satan disturb you, invoke the protection of Allah; indeed He is all-hearing, all-knowing.
إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ ٱتَّقَوْا۟ إِذَا مَسَّهُمْ طَٰٓئِفٌۭ مِّنَ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنِ تَذَكَّرُوا۟ فَإِذَا هُم مُّبْصِرُونَ
When those who are Godwary are touched by a visitation of Satan, they remember [Allah] and, behold, they perceive.
وَإِخْوَٰنُهُمْ يَمُدُّونَهُمْ فِى ٱلْغَىِّ ثُمَّ لَا يُقْصِرُونَ
But their brethren, they draw them into error, and then they do not spare [any harm].
وَإِذَا لَمْ تَأْتِهِم بِـَٔايَةٍۢ قَالُوا۟ لَوْلَا ٱجْتَبَيْتَهَا ۚ قُلْ إِنَّمَآ أَتَّبِعُ مَا يُوحَىٰٓ إِلَىَّ مِن رَّبِّى ۚ هَٰذَا بَصَآئِرُ مِن رَّبِّكُمْ وَهُدًۭى وَرَحْمَةٌۭ لِّقَوْمٍۢ يُؤْمِنُونَ
When you do not bring them a sign, they say, ‘Why do you not improvise one?’ Say, ‘I only follow what is revealed to me from my Lord; these are insights from your Lord, and a guidance and mercy for a people who have faith.’
وَإِذَا قُرِئَ ٱلْقُرْءَانُ فَٱسْتَمِعُوا۟ لَهُۥ وَأَنصِتُوا۟ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُرْحَمُونَ
When the Quran is recited, listen to it and be silent, maybe you will receive [Allah’s] mercy.
وَٱذْكُر رَّبَّكَ فِى نَفْسِكَ تَضَرُّعًۭا وَخِيفَةًۭ وَدُونَ ٱلْجَهْرِ مِنَ ٱلْقَوْلِ بِٱلْغُدُوِّ وَٱلْءَاصَالِ وَلَا تَكُن مِّنَ ٱلْغَٰفِلِينَ
And remember your Lord within your heart beseechingly and reverentially, without being loud, morning, and evening, and do not be among the heedless.
إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ عِندَ رَبِّكَ لَا يَسْتَكْبِرُونَ عَنْ عِبَادَتِهِۦ وَيُسَبِّحُونَهُۥ وَلَهُۥ يَسْجُدُونَ ۩
Indeed those who are [stationed] near your Lord do not disdain to worship Him. They glorify Him and prostrate to Him.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
The sūra returns to its first theme — the one God and the one origin — "It is He who created you from a single soul, and made from it its mate" (189), and then to its hardest verse: "when He gave them a sound child, they ascribed to Him partners" (190). Every Imāmī source bends its effort here toward guarding prophetic ʿiṣma. al-Ṭabarsī and al-Ṭūsī reject outright the famous report that Adam and Eve made Iblīs ("al-Ḥārith") a partner by naming the child ʿAbd al-Ḥārith — "repugnant to the intellect… impugned in its chain… and the verse speaks of associating idols that create nothing, with no mention of Iblīs" — reading the "partners" instead as the idolaters among Adam's descendants. al-Burhān clears Adam decisively through al-Riḍā's answer to al-Maʾmūn: the offspring, "two kinds, male and female," ascribed the partners, "not as their parents thanked Him." Even al-Qummī, who alone relates the ʿAbd al-Ḥārith narration in full, immediately defangs it on al-Bāqir's authority: "their associating was an associating of obedience, not of worship — a share in the naming, not in the godhead."
From this the sūra mounts its last argument against idolatry (191–198): the gods "create nothing and are themselves created," "servants like you" with "no feet, no hands, no eyes, no ears" — "call them and let them answer you, if you are truthful" — while the Prophet's confession, "my Protector (Walī) is God, who sent down the Book," sets the living God against the deaf stone. Then comes the turn to character that all the sources cherish: "Take to forgiveness, enjoin the good, and turn away from the ignorant" (199). al-Ṭabarsī attaches Gabriel's gloss — "forgive him who wrongs you, give him who deprives you, join him who cuts you" — and al-Burhān makes it al-Ṣādiq's epitome of "the noble traits (makārim) of this world and the next" and one of "the three sunnas of a believer." The godfearing are known by the same reflex (201): "when a visitation of Satan touches them, they remember, and at once they see clearly" — which al-Burhān and al-Qummī render as "the servant about to sin, who remembers God and holds back."
The sūra ends in the posture of worship. "When the Qurʾān is recited, listen and be silent" (204) the Imams read as the law of the follower behind his imam — al-Burhān preserving the image of ʿAlī himself falling silent in the dawn prayer "in reverence for the Qurʾān" when Ibn al-Kawwāʾ recited behind him. "Remember your Lord within yourself, humbly and in awe, morning and evening" (205) becomes, in Zurāra's narration, the secret dhikr "whose reward none knows but God, for its greatness." And the long warning that opened with the Book and the Balance closes on the angels — and, al-Qummī adds, "the prophets, the messengers and the Imams" — "who are not too proud to worship Him; they glorify Him, and to Him they prostrate" (206): the first prostration-verse of the Qurʾān, where the sūra of the Heights lays the reader down, at last, in the worship it has been calling to from its first word.