أَفَرَءَيْتُمُ ٱللَّٰتَ وَٱلْعُزَّىٰ
Have you considered Lat and ‘Uzza?
وَمَنَوٰةَ ٱلثَّالِثَةَ ٱلْأُخْرَىٰٓ
and Manat, the third one?
أَلَكُمُ ٱلذَّكَرُ وَلَهُ ٱلْأُنثَىٰ
Are you to have males and He females?
تِلْكَ إِذًۭا قِسْمَةٌۭ ضِيزَىٰٓ
That, then, will be an unfair division!
إِنْ هِىَ إِلَّآ أَسْمَآءٌۭ سَمَّيْتُمُوهَآ أَنتُمْ وَءَابَآؤُكُم مَّآ أَنزَلَ ٱللَّهُ بِهَا مِن سُلْطَٰنٍ ۚ إِن يَتَّبِعُونَ إِلَّا ٱلظَّنَّ وَمَا تَهْوَى ٱلْأَنفُسُ ۖ وَلَقَدْ جَآءَهُم مِّن رَّبِّهِمُ ٱلْهُدَىٰٓ
These are but names, which you have coined—you and your fathers—for which Allah has not sent down any authority. They follow nothing but conjectures and the desires of the [lower] soul, while there has already come to them the guidance from their Lord.
أَمْ لِلْإِنسَٰنِ مَا تَمَنَّىٰ
Shall man have whatever he yearns for?
فَلِلَّهِ ٱلْءَاخِرَةُ وَٱلْأُولَىٰ
Yet to Allah belong this world and the Hereafter.
۞ وَكَم مِّن مَّلَكٍۢ فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ لَا تُغْنِى شَفَٰعَتُهُمْ شَيْـًٔا إِلَّا مِنۢ بَعْدِ أَن يَأْذَنَ ٱللَّهُ لِمَن يَشَآءُ وَيَرْضَىٰٓ
How many an angel there is in the heavens whose intercession is of not any avail, except after Allah permits whomever He wishes and approves of!
إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱلْءَاخِرَةِ لَيُسَمُّونَ ٱلْمَلَٰٓئِكَةَ تَسْمِيَةَ ٱلْأُنثَىٰ
Indeed those who do not believe in the Hereafter give female names to the angels.
وَمَا لَهُم بِهِۦ مِنْ عِلْمٍ ۖ إِن يَتَّبِعُونَ إِلَّا ٱلظَّنَّ ۖ وَإِنَّ ٱلظَّنَّ لَا يُغْنِى مِنَ ٱلْحَقِّ شَيْـًۭٔا
They do not have any knowledge of that. They follow nothing but conjectures, and conjecture is no substitute for the truth.
فَأَعْرِضْ عَن مَّن تَوَلَّىٰ عَن ذِكْرِنَا وَلَمْ يُرِدْ إِلَّا ٱلْحَيَوٰةَ ٱلدُّنْيَا
So avoid those who turn away from Our remembrance and desire nothing but the life of the world.
ذَٰلِكَ مَبْلَغُهُم مِّنَ ٱلْعِلْمِ ۚ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ هُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِمَن ضَلَّ عَن سَبِيلِهِۦ وَهُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِمَنِ ٱهْتَدَىٰ
That is the ultimate reach of their knowledge. Indeed your Lord knows best those who stray from His way, and He knows best those who are [rightly] guided.
وَلِلَّهِ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ لِيَجْزِىَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَسَٰٓـُٔوا۟ بِمَا عَمِلُوا۟ وَيَجْزِىَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَحْسَنُوا۟ بِٱلْحُسْنَى
To Allah belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth, that He may requite those who do evil for what they have done, and reward those who do good with the best [of rewards].
ٱلَّذِينَ يَجْتَنِبُونَ كَبَٰٓئِرَ ٱلْإِثْمِ وَٱلْفَوَٰحِشَ إِلَّا ٱللَّمَمَ ۚ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ وَٰسِعُ ٱلْمَغْفِرَةِ ۚ هُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِكُمْ إِذْ أَنشَأَكُم مِّنَ ٱلْأَرْضِ وَإِذْ أَنتُمْ أَجِنَّةٌۭ فِى بُطُونِ أُمَّهَٰتِكُمْ ۖ فَلَا تُزَكُّوٓا۟ أَنفُسَكُمْ ۖ هُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِمَنِ ٱتَّقَىٰٓ
Those who avoid major sins and indecencies, apart from [minor and occasional] lapses. Indeed your Lord is expansive in [His] forgiveness. He knows you best since [the time] He produced you from the earth and since you were foetuses in the bellies of your mothers. So do not flaunt your piety: He knows best those who are Godwary.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
From the vindicated revelation the sura turns to demolish the idols. It names the three goddesses of the Ḥijāz — al-Lāt, al-ʿUzzā, and Manāt, the third, the other — and skewers the logic of those who called the angels 'daughters of God': Have you the male and He the female? That then is an unjust division (vv.19–22). The idols are only names you have named… God has sent down no authority; their devotees follow only conjecture and what their souls desire (v.23). The passage then denies that wishing confers ownership, bounds all intercession by God's leave, rebukes the naming of angels as female, and commands the Prophet to turn away from him who turns from Our remembrance — closing on God's just recompense and the marks of the God-fearing (vv.24–32).
The idols as empty names. All present sources converge here. Al-Ṭabarsī, al-Ṭūsī, al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī and the Enlightening Commentary read ḍīzā as an unjust, lopsided division and the idols as mere names with no reality and no revealed proof (sulṭān = burhān). Al-Qummī adds the concrete identifications — al-Lāt 'a man,' al-ʿUzzā 'a woman,' Manāt an idol six miles outside the Sanctuary — while al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī cautions that the many stories of the idols' shapes and sites are too conflicting to trust.
Intercession and the epistemology of conjecture. On how many an angel… whose intercession avails nothing except after God gives leave, al-Ṭabarsī and al-Baḥrānī cite Ibn ʿAbbās (angels intercede only for those God approves, 21:28); al-Ṭūsī draws the Imāmī corollary that the Prophet and Imams do intercede, but only by God's leave; and al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī distinguishes idhn (removal of impediment) from riḍā (God's accord), affirming angelic intercession in principle while binding it entirely to God. On conjecture avails nothing against the truth, al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī builds a sharp epistemology: the idolaters' claim is not even warranted supposition but tawahhum driven by desire, and belief may never rest on ẓann — only practical rulings may, where evidence licenses it.
Avoiding the major sins, and lamam. For vv.31–32 all four Arabic authorities survey the views on lamam — small sins short of the gross ones, or the sins of the Jāhiliyya now pardoned, or the occasional lapse followed at once by repentance (al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī and al-Qummī favouring the last). Al-Baḥrānī supplies the passage's richest deposit: al-Ṣādiq's celebrated enumeration to ʿAmr b. ʿUbayd of the major sins, each anchored to a Qurʾānic verse; Zurāra's 'seven great sins in ʿAlī's book'; and, on do not claim purity for yourselves, the sayings that one should not boast 'I prayed last night, I fasted yesterday,' and that 'preserving a deed is harder than the deed' lest it turn to ostentation. Al-Baḥrānī also transmits a ḥadīth of Ibn Shahrāshūb naming the Twelve Imams as stations at the Pool — walāya material rendered here strictly as attributed. The common thread the sources draw is God's exhaustive knowledge: He knows you best when He produced you from the earth and when you were embryos in your mothers' wombs, so the pretence of self-purity is idle before the One who recompenses each precisely as he has earned.