ٱعْلَمُوٓا۟ أَنَّمَا ٱلْحَيَوٰةُ ٱلدُّنْيَا لَعِبٌۭ وَلَهْوٌۭ وَزِينَةٌۭ وَتَفَاخُرٌۢ بَيْنَكُمْ وَتَكَاثُرٌۭ فِى ٱلْأَمْوَٰلِ وَٱلْأَوْلَٰدِ ۖ كَمَثَلِ غَيْثٍ أَعْجَبَ ٱلْكُفَّارَ نَبَاتُهُۥ ثُمَّ يَهِيجُ فَتَرَىٰهُ مُصْفَرًّۭا ثُمَّ يَكُونُ حُطَٰمًۭا ۖ وَفِى ٱلْءَاخِرَةِ عَذَابٌۭ شَدِيدٌۭ وَمَغْفِرَةٌۭ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ وَرِضْوَٰنٌۭ ۚ وَمَا ٱلْحَيَوٰةُ ٱلدُّنْيَآ إِلَّا مَتَٰعُ ٱلْغُرُورِ
Know that the life of this world is mere diversion and play, glamour and mutual vainglory among you and rivalry for wealth and children—like rain, whose growth impresses the farmer. Then it withers and you see it turn yellow, then it becomes chaff. Whereas in the Hereafter there is forgiveness from Allah and His approval and a severe punishment. The life of this world is nothing but the wares of delusion.
سَابِقُوٓا۟ إِلَىٰ مَغْفِرَةٍۢ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ وَجَنَّةٍ عَرْضُهَا كَعَرْضِ ٱلسَّمَآءِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ أُعِدَّتْ لِلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ بِٱللَّهِ وَرُسُلِهِۦ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ فَضْلُ ٱللَّهِ يُؤْتِيهِ مَن يَشَآءُ ۚ وَٱللَّهُ ذُو ٱلْفَضْلِ ٱلْعَظِيمِ
Take the lead towards forgiveness from your Lord and a paradise as vast as the heavens and the earth, prepared for those who have faith in Allah and His apostles. That is Allah’s grace, which He grants to whomever He wishes, and Allah is dispenser of a great grace.
مَآ أَصَابَ مِن مُّصِيبَةٍۢ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَلَا فِىٓ أَنفُسِكُمْ إِلَّا فِى كِتَٰبٍۢ مِّن قَبْلِ أَن نَّبْرَأَهَآ ۚ إِنَّ ذَٰلِكَ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ يَسِيرٌۭ
No affliction visits the land or yourselves but it is in a Book before We bring it about—that is indeed easy for Allah—
لِّكَيْلَا تَأْسَوْا۟ عَلَىٰ مَا فَاتَكُمْ وَلَا تَفْرَحُوا۟ بِمَآ ءَاتَىٰكُمْ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ كُلَّ مُخْتَالٍۢ فَخُورٍ
so that you may not grieve for what escapes you, nor boast for what comes your way, and Allah does not like any swaggering braggart.
ٱلَّذِينَ يَبْخَلُونَ وَيَأْمُرُونَ ٱلنَّاسَ بِٱلْبُخْلِ ۗ وَمَن يَتَوَلَّ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ هُوَ ٱلْغَنِىُّ ٱلْحَمِيدُ
Such as are [themselves] stingy and bid [other] people to be stingy. And whoever refuses to comply [should know that] indeed Allah is the All-sufficient, the All-laudable.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
The passage first shrinks the world, then re-anchors the heart. The life of this world is only play and diversion, adornment, boasting and rivalry in wealth and children — like a rain whose growth pleases the tillers, then withers to straw (v.20); race to forgiveness from your Lord and a Garden as broad as heaven and earth (v.21); no affliction befalls in the earth or in yourselves but it is in a Book before We bring it about (v.22), that you grieve not over what escapes you nor exult at what He gives you (v.23), God loves not any arrogant boaster who is miserly and enjoins miserliness (v.24).
The plain reading is shared across all five present sources and the Enlightening Commentary: the world is a vanishing show, forgiveness is placed before the Garden because the abode of purity requires the removal of sin first, and the «Book» of afflictions is the Preserved Tablet that decrees loss and gift alike so the heart will neither grieve nor gloat. al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī sharpens the grammar (race asks more than hasten, 3:133) and, with al-Ṭabarsī, crowns the passage with the saying — from Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn in al-Ṭabarsī, from ʿAlī in al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī — that «all asceticism lies between two words of the Qurʾān: that you grieve not over what escapes you nor exult at what He gives you,» a saying cross-checked here against Nahj al-Balāgha. al-Ṭūsī keeps to lexicon and law, even noting a view that verse 24 was revealed about those who withheld the Prophet's description in their scriptures.
Verse 22-23 is where the narration-tafsīrs turn the decree of affliction toward a specific grievance. Both al-Qummī and al-Baḥrānī — and even the sober Enlightening Commentary — preserve the Karbalāʾ scene of ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn refuting Yazīd's use of 42:30 with this verse. But al-Qummī (with its code-name «Zuriyq») and al-Baḥrānī go further, reading grieve not over what escapes you as «what was singled out for ʿAlī» and exult not as «the fitna after the Messenger,» al-Baḥrānī naming «Abū Bakr and his companions» outright; al-Baḥrānī also carries the ʿUmar–Najrān-bishop dialogue in which ʿAlī answers every question his interlocutor cannot. These companion-critical readings are the sharpest in the sura and are recorded strictly as attributed and flagged for review, standing beside — not displacing — the universal ascetic sense that the classical sources give the verse.