وَأَنَّ إِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ ٱلْمُنتَهَىٰ
that the terminus is toward your Lord,
وَأَنَّهُۥ هُوَ أَضْحَكَ وَأَبْكَىٰ
that it is He who makes [men] laugh, and weep,
وَأَنَّهُۥ هُوَ أَمَاتَ وَأَحْيَا
that it is He who brings death and gives life,
وَأَنَّهُۥ خَلَقَ ٱلزَّوْجَيْنِ ٱلذَّكَرَ وَٱلْأُنثَىٰ
that it is He who created the mates, the male and the female,
مِن نُّطْفَةٍ إِذَا تُمْنَىٰ
from a drop of [seminal] fluid when emitted;
وَأَنَّ عَلَيْهِ ٱلنَّشْأَةَ ٱلْأُخْرَىٰ
that with Him lies the second genesis,
وَأَنَّهُۥ هُوَ أَغْنَىٰ وَأَقْنَىٰ
that it is He who enriches and grants possessions,
وَأَنَّهُۥ هُوَ رَبُّ ٱلشِّعْرَىٰ
that it is He who is the Lord of Sirius;
وَأَنَّهُۥٓ أَهْلَكَ عَادًا ٱلْأُولَىٰ
that it is He who destroyed the former ‘Ad,
وَثَمُودَا۟ فَمَآ أَبْقَىٰ
and Thamud, sparing none [of them];
وَقَوْمَ نُوحٍۢ مِّن قَبْلُ ۖ إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا۟ هُمْ أَظْلَمَ وَأَطْغَىٰ
and the people of Noah before that; indeed they were more unjust and rebellious;
وَٱلْمُؤْتَفِكَةَ أَهْوَىٰ
and He overthrew the town that was overturned,
فَغَشَّىٰهَا مَا غَشَّىٰ
covering it with what covered it.
فَبِأَىِّ ءَالَآءِ رَبِّكَ تَتَمَارَىٰ
Then which of the bounties of your Lord will you dispute?
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
From the scrolls' principle to your Lord is the end (al-muntahā) (v.42), the sura unfolds a litany of divine acts, each opened with and that He…: He makes to laugh and to weep, gives death and life (vv.43–44), created the two kinds… from a drop and upon Him is the second bringing-forth (vv.45–47), He enriches and gives possession and is the Lord of Sirius (vv.48–49), He destroyed the former ʿĀd, and Thamūd… and the people of Noah before… and the overturned cities (vv.50–54) — closing: so which of your Lord's favours do you doubt? (v.55).
'To your Lord is the end.' The sources split illuminatingly. Al-Ṭūsī reads al-muntahā as the final issue of reward and punishment; al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī insists it is absolute — every existent and act of governance terminates in God, in origin and return alike. Al-Qummī and al-Baḥrānī turn it to theology proper: 'when the discourse reaches God, stop; speak of what is below the Throne, not above it' — a rebuke of anthropomorphism, transmitted from al-Ṣādiq and al-Bāqir and, via Zurāra, that 'describing God is disliked.'
The twelve acts of exclusive lordship. On He makes to laugh and to weep, al-Ṭabarsī and al-Ṭūsī gather the range of glosses (God creates the affect; the earth laughs with blossoms and the sky weeps with rain), and al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī builds his most careful argument: the mediation of secondary causes never displaces God's exclusive origination, and the human will lies in the longitudinal order of God's will — so neither Jabrī determinism nor Muʿtazilī autonomy holds. Al-Baḥrānī adds a walāya register, reading the laughter and weeping through Badr (ʿAlī, Ḥamza and the Muslims laughing, Mecca's slain weeping). On Sirius, al-Ṭabarsī, al-Ṭūsī, al-Qummī and al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī agree it was a worshipped star, several naming Abū Kabsha — the ancestor whose name the Meccans threw at the Prophet. The Enlightening Commentary stresses the same monotheistic point: the God who governs life, death, wealth and the stars alone deserves worship.
The ruined nations, and 'the overturned city.' All read ʿĀd, Thamūd and Noah's people as the classic destroyed nations; al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī notes 'the former ʿĀd' implies a later one and that the believers were spared. On al-muʾtafika, al-Ṭabarsī, al-Ṭūsī and al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī take it as Lot's overturned towns — but al-Qummī and al-Baḥrānī transmit a distinctive Imāmī reading that al-muʾtafika is al-Baṣra, citing ʿAlī's sermon after the Battle of the Camel and a rajʿa (return) reading of its 'third overturning' — material rendered here strictly as attributed and flagged for review. All converge on the close: even the retributions are favours (ālāʾ), and al-Baḥrānī records ʿAlī's word that doubt (tatamārā) has four branches — so no bounty of the Lord may honestly be doubted.