لَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا رُسُلَنَا بِٱلْبَيِّنَٰتِ وَأَنزَلْنَا مَعَهُمُ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ وَٱلْمِيزَانَ لِيَقُومَ ٱلنَّاسُ بِٱلْقِسْطِ ۖ وَأَنزَلْنَا ٱلْحَدِيدَ فِيهِ بَأْسٌۭ شَدِيدٌۭ وَمَنَٰفِعُ لِلنَّاسِ وَلِيَعْلَمَ ٱللَّهُ مَن يَنصُرُهُۥ وَرُسُلَهُۥ بِٱلْغَيْبِ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ قَوِىٌّ عَزِيزٌۭ
Certainly We sent Our apostles with manifest proofs, and We sent down with them the Book and the Balance, so that mankind may maintain justice; and We sent down iron, in which there is great might and uses for mankind, and so that Allah may know those who help Him and His apostles [with faith] in the Unseen. Indeed Allah is all-strong, all-mighty.
وَلَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا نُوحًۭا وَإِبْرَٰهِيمَ وَجَعَلْنَا فِى ذُرِّيَّتِهِمَا ٱلنُّبُوَّةَ وَٱلْكِتَٰبَ ۖ فَمِنْهُم مُّهْتَدٍۢ ۖ وَكَثِيرٌۭ مِّنْهُمْ فَٰسِقُونَ
Certainly We sent Noah and Abraham and We ordained among their descendants prophethood and the Book. Some of them are [rightly] guided, and many of them are transgressors.
ثُمَّ قَفَّيْنَا عَلَىٰٓ ءَاثَٰرِهِم بِرُسُلِنَا وَقَفَّيْنَا بِعِيسَى ٱبْنِ مَرْيَمَ وَءَاتَيْنَٰهُ ٱلْإِنجِيلَ وَجَعَلْنَا فِى قُلُوبِ ٱلَّذِينَ ٱتَّبَعُوهُ رَأْفَةًۭ وَرَحْمَةًۭ وَرَهْبَانِيَّةً ٱبْتَدَعُوهَا مَا كَتَبْنَٰهَا عَلَيْهِمْ إِلَّا ٱبْتِغَآءَ رِضْوَٰنِ ٱللَّهِ فَمَا رَعَوْهَا حَقَّ رِعَايَتِهَا ۖ فَـَٔاتَيْنَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ مِنْهُمْ أَجْرَهُمْ ۖ وَكَثِيرٌۭ مِّنْهُمْ فَٰسِقُونَ
Then We followed them up with Our apostles and We followed [them] with Jesus son of Mary, and We gave him the Evangel, and We put kindness and mercy into the hearts of those who followed him. But as for monasticism, they innovated it—We had not prescribed it for them—only seeking Allah’s pleasure. Yet they did not observe it with due observance. So We gave to the faithful among them their [due] reward, but many of them are transgressors.
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ وَءَامِنُوا۟ بِرَسُولِهِۦ يُؤْتِكُمْ كِفْلَيْنِ مِن رَّحْمَتِهِۦ وَيَجْعَل لَّكُمْ نُورًۭا تَمْشُونَ بِهِۦ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ۚ وَٱللَّهُ غَفُورٌۭ رَّحِيمٌۭ
O you who have faith! Be wary of Allah and have faith in His Apostle. He will grant you a double share of His mercy and a light to walk by, and He will forgive you, and Allah is all-forgiving, all-merciful;
لِّئَلَّا يَعْلَمَ أَهْلُ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ أَلَّا يَقْدِرُونَ عَلَىٰ شَىْءٍۢ مِّن فَضْلِ ٱللَّهِ ۙ وَأَنَّ ٱلْفَضْلَ بِيَدِ ٱللَّهِ يُؤْتِيهِ مَن يَشَآءُ ۚ وَٱللَّهُ ذُو ٱلْفَضْلِ ٱلْعَظِيمِ
so that the People of the Book may know that they do not control Allah grace in any wise and that in Allah’s hand is all grace, which He grants to whomever He wishes and Allah is dispenser of a mighty grace.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
The closing passage names the sura and gathers its themes. We sent Our messengers with clear proofs, and sent down with them the Book and the Balance, that people might uphold justice; and We sent down iron, in which is great might and benefits for mankind, that God may know who helps Him and His messengers in the unseen (v.25); We sent Noah and Abraham (v.26); We sent Jesus… and monasticism they invented (v.27); O believers, fear God and believe in His messenger, He will give you a double portion of His mercy and a light to walk by (v.28); so that the People of the Book may know they have no power over God's grace (v.29).
On the Book, the Balance and the iron the classical sources array the options. al-Ṭabarsī and al-Ṭūsī take the Balance as the literal two-pan scale (al-Ṭabarsī citing Ibn ʿUmar's «four blessings sent down: iron, fire, water and salt»; al-Ṭūsī the tradition of the anvil and hammer sent with Adam, which he defends as logically necessary), while the Enlightening Commentary reads it as the immaterial standard of the divine law. al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī proposes, as more fitting to the context, that «the Balance is the Religion itself,» and, with all the sources, glosses the ‘sending down’ of iron on ʿAlī's authority as its creation, the might being the sinew of jihad «in the unseen.»
On Jesus and monasticism the sources are strikingly united. al-Ṭabarsī, al-Ṭūsī, the Enlightening Commentary and al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī all hold that God did not prescribe monasticism, which the followers invented «seeking God's good pleasure» but failed to keep; al-Ṭabarsī and the Commentary carry Ibn Masʿūd's long narration and the maxim «There is no monasticism in Islam» — cross-checked here and traced to Aḥmad's Musnad — whose true substance is jihad, prayer, fasting and ḥajj. al-Baḥrānī alone gives it a positive twist: al-Kāẓim's «monasticism is the night prayer.»
Verses 25 and 28 are the sura's densest walāya seam, and here the narration-tafsīrs diverge sharply from the plain sense. al-Qummī and al-Baḥrānī read the Balance as «the Imam,» the iron as Dhū al-Fiqār given to ʿAlī, the double portion as al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn, and the light to walk by as «an Imam you follow — ʿAlī,» al-Baḥrānī framing verse 25 with a full Ghadīr-and-succession narration. Even the measured al-Mīzān and the Enlightening Commentary preserve, as attributed, al-Bāqir's «God has given you as He gave them… meaning an Imam whom you follow,» alongside the Najāshī–Jaʿfar occasion of the double reward. These readings — the strongest concentrated in al-Baḥrānī and al-Qummī — are recorded strictly as attributed and flagged, closing a sura that opened on the names of God and ends on the grace that «is in God's hand, He gives it to whom He wills.»