وَلَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَآ إِلَىٰٓ أُمَمٍۢ مِّن قَبْلِكَ فَأَخَذْنَٰهُم بِٱلْبَأْسَآءِ وَٱلضَّرَّآءِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَضَرَّعُونَ
We have certainly sent [apostles] to nations before you, then We seized them with stress and distress so that they might entreat [Us].
فَلَوْلَآ إِذْ جَآءَهُم بَأْسُنَا تَضَرَّعُوا۟ وَلَٰكِن قَسَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَزَيَّنَ لَهُمُ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنُ مَا كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ
Why did they not entreat when Our punishment overtook them! But their hearts had hardened, and Satan had made what they had been doing seem decorous to them.
فَلَمَّا نَسُوا۟ مَا ذُكِّرُوا۟ بِهِۦ فَتَحْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ أَبْوَٰبَ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَا فَرِحُوا۟ بِمَآ أُوتُوٓا۟ أَخَذْنَٰهُم بَغْتَةًۭ فَإِذَا هُم مُّبْلِسُونَ
So when they forgot what they had been admonished of, We opened for them the gates of all [good] things. When they became proud of what they were given, We seized them suddenly, whereat, behold, they were despondent.
فَقُطِعَ دَابِرُ ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا۟ ۚ وَٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ
Thus the wrongdoing lot were rooted out, and all praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds.
قُلْ أَرَءَيْتُمْ إِنْ أَخَذَ ٱللَّهُ سَمْعَكُمْ وَأَبْصَٰرَكُمْ وَخَتَمَ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِكُم مَّنْ إِلَٰهٌ غَيْرُ ٱللَّهِ يَأْتِيكُم بِهِ ۗ ٱنظُرْ كَيْفَ نُصَرِّفُ ٱلْءَايَٰتِ ثُمَّ هُمْ يَصْدِفُونَ
Say, ‘Tell me, should Allah take away your hearing and your sight and set a seal on your hearts, which god other than Allah can bring it [back] to you?’ Look, how We paraphrase the signs variously; nevertheless they turn away.
قُلْ أَرَءَيْتَكُمْ إِنْ أَتَىٰكُمْ عَذَابُ ٱللَّهِ بَغْتَةً أَوْ جَهْرَةً هَلْ يُهْلَكُ إِلَّا ٱلْقَوْمُ ٱلظَّٰلِمُونَ
Say, ‘Tell me, should Allah’s punishment overtake you suddenly or visibly, will anyone be destroyed except the wrongdoing lot?’
وَمَا نُرْسِلُ ٱلْمُرْسَلِينَ إِلَّا مُبَشِّرِينَ وَمُنذِرِينَ ۖ فَمَنْ ءَامَنَ وَأَصْلَحَ فَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
We do not send the apostles except as bearers of good news and warners. As for those who are faithful and righteous, they will have no fear, nor will they grieve.
وَٱلَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا۟ بِـَٔايَٰتِنَا يَمَسُّهُمُ ٱلْعَذَابُ بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَفْسُقُونَ
But as for those who deny Our signs, the punishment shall befall them because of the transgressions they used to commit.
قُل لَّآ أَقُولُ لَكُمْ عِندِى خَزَآئِنُ ٱللَّهِ وَلَآ أَعْلَمُ ٱلْغَيْبَ وَلَآ أَقُولُ لَكُمْ إِنِّى مَلَكٌ ۖ إِنْ أَتَّبِعُ إِلَّا مَا يُوحَىٰٓ إِلَىَّ ۚ قُلْ هَلْ يَسْتَوِى ٱلْأَعْمَىٰ وَٱلْبَصِيرُ ۚ أَفَلَا تَتَفَكَّرُونَ
Say, ‘I do not say to you that I possess the treasuries of Allah, nor do I know the Unseen, nor do I say to you that I am an angel. I follow only what is revealed to me.’ Say, ‘Are the blind one and the seer equal? So do you not reflect?’
وَأَنذِرْ بِهِ ٱلَّذِينَ يَخَافُونَ أَن يُحْشَرُوٓا۟ إِلَىٰ رَبِّهِمْ ۙ لَيْسَ لَهُم مِّن دُونِهِۦ وَلِىٌّۭ وَلَا شَفِيعٌۭ لَّعَلَّهُمْ يَتَّقُونَ
And warn by its means those who fear being mustered toward their Lord, besides whom they shall have neither any guardian nor any intercessor, so that they may be Godwary.
وَلَا تَطْرُدِ ٱلَّذِينَ يَدْعُونَ رَبَّهُم بِٱلْغَدَوٰةِ وَٱلْعَشِىِّ يُرِيدُونَ وَجْهَهُۥ ۖ مَا عَلَيْكَ مِنْ حِسَابِهِم مِّن شَىْءٍۢ وَمَا مِنْ حِسَابِكَ عَلَيْهِم مِّن شَىْءٍۢ فَتَطْرُدَهُمْ فَتَكُونَ مِنَ ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ
Do not drive away those who supplicate their Lord morning and evening desiring His face. Neither are you accountable for them in any way, nor are they accountable for you in any way, so that you may drive them away and thus become one of the wrongdoers.
وَكَذَٰلِكَ فَتَنَّا بَعْضَهُم بِبَعْضٍۢ لِّيَقُولُوٓا۟ أَهَٰٓؤُلَآءِ مَنَّ ٱللَّهُ عَلَيْهِم مِّنۢ بَيْنِنَآ ۗ أَلَيْسَ ٱللَّهُ بِأَعْلَمَ بِٱلشَّٰكِرِينَ
Thus do We test them by means of one another so that they should say, ‘Are these the ones whom Allah has favoured from among us?!’ Does not Allah know best the grateful?!
وَإِذَا جَآءَكَ ٱلَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِـَٔايَٰتِنَا فَقُلْ سَلَٰمٌ عَلَيْكُمْ ۖ كَتَبَ رَبُّكُمْ عَلَىٰ نَفْسِهِ ٱلرَّحْمَةَ ۖ أَنَّهُۥ مَنْ عَمِلَ مِنكُمْ سُوٓءًۢا بِجَهَٰلَةٍۢ ثُمَّ تَابَ مِنۢ بَعْدِهِۦ وَأَصْلَحَ فَأَنَّهُۥ غَفُورٌۭ رَّحِيمٌۭ
When those who have faith in Our signs come to you, say, ‘Peace to you! Your Lord has made mercy incumbent upon Himself: whoever of you commits an evil [deed] out of ignorance and then repents after that and reforms, then He is indeed all-forgiving, all-merciful.’
وَكَذَٰلِكَ نُفَصِّلُ ٱلْءَايَٰتِ وَلِتَسْتَبِينَ سَبِيلُ ٱلْمُجْرِمِينَ
Thus do We elaborate the signs, so that the way of the guilty may be exposed.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
Sources present: Ṭabarsī, Majmaʿ al-Bayān [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan]; Ṭūsī, al-Tibyān [tusi_al_tibyan]; Baḥrānī, al-Burhān [bahrani_al_burhan]; al-Qummī [qummi]; Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan]; An Enlightening Commentary [enlightening_commentary]. All six present.
The passage turns from threat to summons. It recalls how former nations were tested by affliction and then, when unrepentant, lured by abundance into sudden ruin (6:42–45); it argues God's sole power over hearing, sight and hearts (6:46–47); it defines the Prophet's office as warner, not lord of the unseen (6:48–50); and it commands him to honour the poor believers who seek God's face and to proclaim God's prescribed mercy to the repentant (6:51–55).
1. Affliction, lure, and sudden ruin (6:42–45). All read the sequence as God's pedagogy: affliction to induce humility, then — when hearts hardened — abundance as a gradual lure (istidrāj) ending in sudden destruction. [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and [tusi_al_tibyan] make it a proof against determinism — Satan, not God, "made their deeds fair-seeming," and the affliction was willed for their good (luṭf); [tusi_al_tibyan] reads "the gates of all things" as hyperbole and refuses the literal "so they earn punishment." [bahrani_al_burhan] and [qummi] add the distinctly Imāmī gloss of al-Bāqir: "forgetting the reminder" is abandoning ʿAlī's walāya, the "opened gates" their worldly dominion, and the "sudden" seizure the rising of the Qāʾim; [qummi] preserves the confidence to Moses on poverty as the badge of the righteous.
2. God's sole power and the Prophet's office (6:46–50). All take 6:46 ("if God took your hearing and sight…") as proof that none but God restores them — [bahrani_al_burhan] and [qummi] gloss it "if He took the guidance from you" — and read yaṣdifūn as turning away. On 6:48–50 [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and [tusi_al_tibyan] insist that messengers, sent only as warners, do not claim God's treasuries, the unseen, or angelic nature, and that "are the blind and the seeing equal?" contrasts the knower with the ignorant; both reject the inference that angels outrank prophets.
3. Honouring the poor and prescribed mercy (6:51–55). All four Arabic sources tie 6:52 to the occasion of the poor believers whom the Meccan or Medinan notables wished excluded; [bahrani_al_burhan] and [qummi] give the People of the Bench (Aṣḥāb al-Ṣuffa) and the Anṣārī who shunned them, and [bahrani_al_burhan] adds ʿAlī's rebuke of al-Ashʿath. On 6:53 [tusi_al_tibyan], [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and [qummi] read the testing of rich by poor and deny that the lām makes their disdain God's purpose. On 6:54 all gloss "your Lord has prescribed mercy upon Himself" of the repentant, [qummi] and [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] citing al-Ṣādiq.
[tabatabai_al_mizan], present in full for 6:37–55, frames the passage within God's unfailing order — the meeting with God, the communities of creatures (6:38), and divine justice — and the Prophet's disclaimer of the treasuries and the unseen. [enlightening_commentary] (6:42–50) draws the moral that neither welfare is automatically grace nor hardship wrath, citing ʿAlī that truthful supplication in calamity lifts it. [bahrani_al_burhan] alone carries the walāya/Qāʾim reading of 6:44 and the sun-and-moon parable on 6:55; the classical pair [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and [tusi_al_tibyan] supply the luṭf theology, the qirāʾāt, and the defense of human free agency. No source is silent for this passage.