وَلَوْ بَسَطَ اللَّهُ الرِّزْقَ لِعِبَادِهِ لَبَغَوْا فِي الْأَرْضِ وَلَـٰكِن يُنَزِّلُ بِقَدَرٍ مَّا يَشَاءُ ۚ إِنَّهُ بِعِبَادِهِ خَبِيرٌ بَصِيرٌ
Were Allah to expand the provision for [all] His servants, they would surely create havoc on the earth. But He sends down in a [precise] measure whatever He wishes. Indeed, He is all-aware, all-seeing about His servants
وَهُوَ الَّذِي يُنَزِّلُ الْغَيْثَ مِن بَعْدِ مَا قَنَطُوا وَيَنشُرُ رَحْمَتَهُ ۚ وَهُوَ الْوَلِيُّ الْحَمِيدُ
It is He who sends down the rain after they have been despondent, and unfolds His mercy, and He is the Guardian, the All-laudable
وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ خَلْقُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَمَا بَثَّ فِيهِمَا مِن دَابَّةٍ ۚ وَهُوَ عَلَىٰ جَمْعِهِمْ إِذَا يَشَاءُ قَدِيرٌ
Among His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and whatever creatures He has scattered in them, and He is able to gather them whenever He wishes
وَمَا أَصَابَكُم مِّن مُّصِيبَةٍ فَبِمَا كَسَبَتْ أَيْدِيكُمْ وَيَعْفُو عَن كَثِيرٍ
Whatever affliction that may visit you is because of what your hands have earned, and He excuses many [an offense of yours]
وَمَا أَنتُم بِمُعْجِزِينَ فِي الْأَرْضِ ۖ وَمَا لَكُم مِّن دُونِ اللَّهِ مِن وَلِيٍّ وَلَا نَصِيرٍ
You cannot frustrate [Allah] on the earth, and you do not have besides Allah any guardian or helper
وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ الْجَوَارِ فِي الْبَحْرِ كَالْأَعْلَامِ
Among His signs are the ships [that run] on the sea [appearing] like landmarks
إِن يَشَأْ يُسْكِنِ الرِّيحَ فَيَظْلَلْنَ رَوَاكِدَ عَلَىٰ ظَهْرِهِ ۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِّكُلِّ صَبَّارٍ شَكُورٍ
If He wishes He stills the wind, whereat they remain standstill on its surface. There are indeed signs in that for every patient and grateful [servant]
أَوْ يُوبِقْهُنَّ بِمَا كَسَبُوا وَيَعْفُ عَن كَثِيرٍ
Or He wrecks them because of what they have earned, and He excuses many [an offense]
وَيَعْلَمَ الَّذِينَ يُجَادِلُونَ فِي آيَاتِنَا مَا لَهُم مِّن مَّحِيصٍ
Let those who dispute Our signs know that there is no escape for them
فَمَا أُوتِيتُم مِّن شَيْءٍ فَمَتَاعُ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا ۖ وَمَا عِندَ اللَّهِ خَيْرٌ وَأَبْقَىٰ لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَلَىٰ رَبِّهِمْ يَتَوَكَّلُونَ
Whatever you have been given are the wares of the life of this world, but what is with Allah is better and more lasting for those who have faith and who put their trust in their Lord
وَالَّذِينَ يَجْتَنِبُونَ كَبَائِرَ الْإِثْمِ وَالْفَوَاحِشَ وَإِذَا مَا غَضِبُوا هُمْ يَغْفِرُونَ
—those who avoid major sins and indecencies, and forgive when angered
وَالَّذِينَ اسْتَجَابُوا لِرَبِّهِمْ وَأَقَامُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَأَمْرُهُمْ شُورَىٰ بَيْنَهُمْ وَمِمَّا رَزَقْنَاهُمْ يُنفِقُونَ
those who answer their Lord, maintain the prayer, and [conduct] their affairs by counsel among themselves, and they spend out of what We have provided them
وَالَّذِينَ إِذَا أَصَابَهُمُ الْبَغْيُ هُمْ يَنتَصِرُونَ
those who, when afflicted by oppression, defend themselves
وَجَزَاءُ سَيِّئَةٍ سَيِّئَةٌ مِّثْلُهَا ۖ فَمَنْ عَفَا وَأَصْلَحَ فَأَجْرُهُ عَلَى اللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ الظَّالِمِينَ
The requital of evil is an evil like it, so whoever excuses and conciliates, his reward lies with Allah. Indeed, He does not like the wrongdoers
وَلَمَنِ انتَصَرَ بَعْدَ ظُلْمِهِ فَأُولَـٰئِكَ مَا عَلَيْهِم مِّن سَبِيلٍ
As for those who retaliate after being wronged, there is no ground for action against them
إِنَّمَا السَّبِيلُ عَلَى الَّذِينَ يَظْلِمُونَ النَّاسَ وَيَبْغُونَ فِي الْأَرْضِ بِغَيْرِ الْحَقِّ ۚ أُولَـٰئِكَ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ
The ground for action is only against those who oppress the people and commit tyranny in the land in violation of justice. For such there will be a painful punishment
وَلَمَن صَبَرَ وَغَفَرَ إِنَّ ذَٰلِكَ لَمِنْ عَزْمِ الْأُمُورِ
As for someone who endures patiently and forgives—that is indeed the steadiest of courses
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
This passage gathers the sūra's social and ethical core. God withholds boundless provision lest people "transgress in the earth," sending it instead "by a measure" (v.27); He revives the land with rain (v.28); His signs fill the heavens, the earth, and the sea (vv.29, 32–35); affliction tracks "what your hands have earned" (v.30); and then comes the celebrated portrait of the believing community — those who shun major sins, forgive when angry, answer their Lord, keep the prayer, "conduct their affairs by counsel (shūrā) among themselves" (v.38, from which the sūra takes its name), spend, and lawfully resist oppression while being urged toward the higher path of patient pardon (vv.36–43).
Provision by measure (v.27). All sources agree: unrestrained wealth breeds baghy (insolent transgression). al-Qummī and al-Burhān quote al-Ṣādiq — "He made them needy of one another" — and al-Ṭabarsī the ḥadīth that God apportions by what He knows of each heart. al-Mīzān systematizes this into a sunna of welfare-apportionment governed by the further customs of trial and istidrāj, and adds a striking point: the religion itself — revelation, knowledge, law — is apportioned provision, sent gradually (17:106) so each may receive "by his measure" (13:17).
Affliction (v.30) yields the passage's sharpest divergence. al-Ṭabarsī and al-Ṭūsī weigh whether the verse is general or specific to the ḥudūd, noting the difficulty of the sinless being afflicted. al-Qummī and al-Burhān preserve the powerful Ahl al-Bayt answer: the afflictions of the infallibles are not for sin but to earn them reward — the Prophet repenting "a hundred times a day without sin" — capped by ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn's reply to Yazīd: "this verse is not about us; about us is 57:22–23." al-Mīzān takes a different road: the address is collective (general calamities from collective sin), and the infallibles and the non-responsible fall outside it by exclusion-of-definition (takhaṣṣuṣ), not specification — a rational complement to the narrational answer.
The shūrā verse (v.38). al-Ṭabarsī glosses it as mutual deliberation "to bring out the truth" — they do not act unilaterally until they consult — citing the Anṣār's consultative assemblies and the Prophet's "no one consults but he is guided to right." al-Ṭūsī concurs: "no people consult but they are guided to the best." al-Mīzān reads it as the believers' deliberative virtue — "people of right guidance who extract the soundest view," close to 39:18 ("who follow the best of what they hear"). al-Qummī and al-Burhān give the Imāmī inflection (as attributed): "answering their Lord" is establishing the Imam, and the shūrā is the community's consulting the Imam in the affairs of religion (cf. 4:83).
Redress and pardon (vv.39–43). al-Ṭabarsī and al-Ṭūsī read the believers as two classes — pardoners (v.37) and those who lawfully take redress (v.39) — with "the recompense of an evil is an evil like it" bounded to exact equivalence, pardon's reward "upon Allah," and patience-with-forgiveness "of the resolute of matters." al-Mīzān frames vv.41–43 as removing a misgiving: the call to pardon never annuls the wronged's right; the blame lies wholly on the oppressor. al-Qummī and al-Burhān add the eschatological taʾwīl (as attributed): the one who "defends himself after being wronged" is the Qāʾim, who takes redress from Banū Umayya and the nawāṣib.
Convergence: the sources unite on provision-by-wisdom, the moral seriousness of affliction, and the dignity of a consultative, self-restrained, redress-balanced community. Divergence: al-Ṭabarsī, al-Ṭūsī and al-Mīzān expound the verses ethically and theologically (al-Mīzān's takhaṣṣuṣ, his shūrā-as-virtue), while al-Qummī and al-Burhān read "answering the Lord," the redress, and the wrongdoers through Imāma and the rising of the Qāʾim.