يَٰبَنِىٓ ءَادَمَ قَدْ أَنزَلْنَا عَلَيْكُمْ لِبَاسًۭا يُوَٰرِى سَوْءَٰتِكُمْ وَرِيشًۭا ۖ وَلِبَاسُ ٱلتَّقْوَىٰ ذَٰلِكَ خَيْرٌۭ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ مِنْ ءَايَٰتِ ٱللَّهِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَذَّكَّرُونَ
‘O Children of Adam! We have certainly sent down to you garments to cover your nakedness, and for adornment. Yet the garment of Godwariness—that is the best.’ That is [one] of Allah’s signs, so that they may take admonition.
يَٰبَنِىٓ ءَادَمَ لَا يَفْتِنَنَّكُمُ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنُ كَمَآ أَخْرَجَ أَبَوَيْكُم مِّنَ ٱلْجَنَّةِ يَنزِعُ عَنْهُمَا لِبَاسَهُمَا لِيُرِيَهُمَا سَوْءَٰتِهِمَآ ۗ إِنَّهُۥ يَرَىٰكُمْ هُوَ وَقَبِيلُهُۥ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا تَرَوْنَهُمْ ۗ إِنَّا جَعَلْنَا ٱلشَّيَٰطِينَ أَوْلِيَآءَ لِلَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ
‘O Children of Adam! Do not let Satan tempt you, like he expelled your parents from paradise, stripping them of their garments to expose to them their nakedness. Indeed he sees you—he and his hosts—whence you do not see them. We have indeed made the devils friends of those who have no faith.’
وَإِذَا فَعَلُوا۟ فَٰحِشَةًۭ قَالُوا۟ وَجَدْنَا عَلَيْهَآ ءَابَآءَنَا وَٱللَّهُ أَمَرَنَا بِهَا ۗ قُلْ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يَأْمُرُ بِٱلْفَحْشَآءِ ۖ أَتَقُولُونَ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ
When they commit an indecency, they say, ‘We found our fathers practising it, and Allah has enjoined it upon us.’ Say, ‘Indeed Allah does not enjoin indecencies. Do you attribute to Allah what you do not know?’
قُلْ أَمَرَ رَبِّى بِٱلْقِسْطِ ۖ وَأَقِيمُوا۟ وُجُوهَكُمْ عِندَ كُلِّ مَسْجِدٍۢ وَٱدْعُوهُ مُخْلِصِينَ لَهُ ٱلدِّينَ ۚ كَمَا بَدَأَكُمْ تَعُودُونَ
Say, ‘My Lord has enjoined justice,’ and [He has enjoined,] ‘Set your heart [on Him] at every occasion of prayer, and invoke Him, putting your exclusive faith in Him. Even as He brought you forth in the beginning, so will you return.’
فَرِيقًا هَدَىٰ وَفَرِيقًا حَقَّ عَلَيْهِمُ ٱلضَّلَٰلَةُ ۗ إِنَّهُمُ ٱتَّخَذُوا۟ ٱلشَّيَٰطِينَ أَوْلِيَآءَ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ وَيَحْسَبُونَ أَنَّهُم مُّهْتَدُونَ
A part [of mankind] He has guided and a part has deserved [to be consigned to] error, for they took devils for guardians instead of Allah, and supposed they were guided.
۞ يَٰبَنِىٓ ءَادَمَ خُذُوا۟ زِينَتَكُمْ عِندَ كُلِّ مَسْجِدٍۢ وَكُلُوا۟ وَٱشْرَبُوا۟ وَلَا تُسْرِفُوٓا۟ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ لَا يُحِبُّ ٱلْمُسْرِفِينَ
O Children of Adam! Put on your adornment on every occasion of prayer, and eat and drink, but do not waste; indeed, He does not like the wasteful.
قُلْ مَنْ حَرَّمَ زِينَةَ ٱللَّهِ ٱلَّتِىٓ أَخْرَجَ لِعِبَادِهِۦ وَٱلطَّيِّبَٰتِ مِنَ ٱلرِّزْقِ ۚ قُلْ هِىَ لِلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ فِى ٱلْحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا خَالِصَةًۭ يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَٰمَةِ ۗ كَذَٰلِكَ نُفَصِّلُ ٱلْءَايَٰتِ لِقَوْمٍۢ يَعْلَمُونَ
Say, ‘Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah which He has brought forth for His servants, and the good things of [His] provision?’ Say, ‘These are for the faithful in the life of this world, and exclusively for them on the Day of Resurrection.’ Thus do We elaborate the signs for a people who have knowledge.
قُلْ إِنَّمَا حَرَّمَ رَبِّىَ ٱلْفَوَٰحِشَ مَا ظَهَرَ مِنْهَا وَمَا بَطَنَ وَٱلْإِثْمَ وَٱلْبَغْىَ بِغَيْرِ ٱلْحَقِّ وَأَن تُشْرِكُوا۟ بِٱللَّهِ مَا لَمْ يُنَزِّلْ بِهِۦ سُلْطَٰنًۭا وَأَن تَقُولُوا۟ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ
Say, ‘My Lord has only forbidden indecencies, the outward among them and the inward ones, and sin and undue aggression, and that you should ascribe to Allah partners for which He has not sent down any authority, and that you should attribute to Allah what you do not know.’
وَلِكُلِّ أُمَّةٍ أَجَلٌۭ ۖ فَإِذَا جَآءَ أَجَلُهُمْ لَا يَسْتَأْخِرُونَ سَاعَةًۭ ۖ وَلَا يَسْتَقْدِمُونَ
There is a [preordained] time for every nation: when their time comes, they shall not defer it by a single hour nor shall they advance it.
يَٰبَنِىٓ ءَادَمَ إِمَّا يَأْتِيَنَّكُمْ رُسُلٌۭ مِّنكُمْ يَقُصُّونَ عَلَيْكُمْ ءَايَٰتِى ۙ فَمَنِ ٱتَّقَىٰ وَأَصْلَحَ فَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
O Children of Adam! If there come to you apostles from among yourselves, recounting to you My signs, then those who are Godwary and righteous will have no fear, nor will they grieve.
وَٱلَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا۟ بِـَٔايَٰتِنَا وَٱسْتَكْبَرُوا۟ عَنْهَآ أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ أَصْحَٰبُ ٱلنَّارِ ۖ هُمْ فِيهَا خَٰلِدُونَ
But those who deny Our signs and are disdainful of them, they shall be the inmates of the Fire and they shall remain in it [forever].
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
The refrain "O Children of Adam" (sounded four times here) turns the Adam story into address. al-Ṭabarsī, al-Ṭūsī and al-Qummī all read the opening favour — a garment to cover nakedness and rīsh (finery) — against the historical backdrop the next verses supply: the polytheist Ḥums who circled the Kaʿba naked, "for we do not circle in the garments in which we sinned." Against that, "the garment of godwariness is better" gathers a spread of readings the commentators decline to choose among — righteous deed, faith, modesty, the armour of war, fear of God — while al-Qummī fixes it memorably as chastity: "the chaste one's nakedness does not show even when bare, and the dissolute one's shows even when clothed."
Verse 27 names the real antagonist: Satan, "who sees you whence you do not see him." al-Ṭabarsī and al-Ṭūsī take up the old question of whether the jinn can be seen — al-Ṭūsī siding with al-Jubbāʾī that the verse's "you do not see them" is general, the Shaykhs (al-Mufīd, al-Ṭūsī) allowing that God may make them visible — and both note that the expulsion is ascribed to Satan "by his beguiling," not because he, rather than God, decreed it. The polytheists' excuse — "we found our fathers upon it, and God commanded us to it" (28) — draws the sharpest theological reply: al-Mīzān treats the verse as proof that God never commands the vile, and al-Ṭūsī reads it as a refutation of both blind imitation (taqlīd) and the determinism (jabr) of the Jāhiliyya. The Imāmī narrations in al-Burhān and al-Qummī drive it inward — the "vileness God is falsely said to command" is the claim of the unjust imams to be followed — and gloss "a party He guided, a party deserved misguidance" (30) against the Qadariyya, "the Magians of this community," insisting that will and power belong to God.
The passage's positive core is moderation without austerity. "Take your adornment at every mosque… eat and drink, but be not excessive" (31) yields, in al-Ṭabarsī, the maxim "God gathered all medicine in half a verse," and in al-Burhān an unusually rich body of reports: the Imams wearing fine khazz (Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn's fifty-dinar robes, sold in summer for charity), Ibn ʿAbbās dressing his best before the Khawārij, al-Ṣādiq answering Sufyān al-Thawrī by baring the coarse shirt beneath his fine robe, and the prophet Yūsuf in gold-buttoned brocade — "the people needed not his dress but his justice." Isrāf, the Imams explain, "is only what wastes wealth and harms the body," not owning thirty shirts. "Who forbade the adornment of God?" (32) thus becomes, for all the sources, a charter that things are by default permissible, the believers sharing the world's good things now and owning them purely hereafter. al-Mīzān and the four sources alike close the unit on its solemn counterweight — "My Lord forbade only the vile acts, outward and inward" (33), and "every nation has a term" (34) — before the universal offer of 35–36: messengers "from among you," security for whoever fears God and reforms, the Fire for those who deny the signs in arrogance.