وَلَقَدْ آتَيْنَا إِبْرَاهِيمَ رُشْدَهُ مِن قَبْلُ وَكُنَّا بِهِ عَالِمِينَ
Certainly We had given Abraham his probity before, and We knew him
إِذْ قَالَ لِأَبِيهِ وَقَوْمِهِ مَا هَـٰذِهِ التَّمَاثِيلُ الَّتِي أَنتُمْ لَهَا عَاكِفُونَ
when he said to his father and his people, ‘What are these images to which you keep on clinging?’
قَالُوا وَجَدْنَا آبَاءَنَا لَهَا عَابِدِينَ
They said, ‘We found our fathers worshipping them.’
قَالَ لَقَدْ كُنتُمْ أَنتُمْ وَآبَاؤُكُمْ فِي ضَلَالٍ مُّبِينٍ
He said, ‘Certainly you and your fathers have been in manifest error.’
قَالُوا أَجِئْتَنَا بِالْحَقِّ أَمْ أَنتَ مِنَ اللَّاعِبِينَ
They said, ‘Are you telling the truth, or are you [just] kidding?’
قَالَ بَل رَّبُّكُمْ رَبُّ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ الَّذِي فَطَرَهُنَّ وَأَنَا عَلَىٰ ذَٰلِكُم مِّنَ الشَّاهِدِينَ
He said, ‘Indeed, your Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth, who originated them, and I affirm that.
وَتَاللَّهِ لَأَكِيدَنَّ أَصْنَامَكُم بَعْدَ أَن تُوَلُّوا مُدْبِرِينَ
By Allah, I will devise a stratagem against your idols after you have gone away.’
فَجَعَلَهُمْ جُذَاذًا إِلَّا كَبِيرًا لَّهُمْ لَعَلَّهُمْ إِلَيْهِ يَرْجِعُونَ
So he broke them into pieces—all except the biggest of them—so that they might come back to it.
قَالُوا مَن فَعَلَ هَـٰذَا بِآلِهَتِنَا إِنَّهُ لَمِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ
They said, ‘Whoever has done this to Our gods?! He is indeed a wrongdoer!’
قَالُوا سَمِعْنَا فَتًى يَذْكُرُهُمْ يُقَالُ لَهُ إِبْرَاهِيمُ
They said, ‘We heard a young man mentioning them. He is called ‘‘Abraham.’’ ’
قَالُوا فَأْتُوا بِهِ عَلَىٰ أَعْيُنِ النَّاسِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَشْهَدُونَ
They said, ‘Bring him before the people’s eyes so that they may bear witness [against him].’
قَالُوا أَأَنتَ فَعَلْتَ هَـٰذَا بِآلِهَتِنَا يَا إِبْرَاهِيمُ
They said, ‘Was it you who did this to our gods, O Abraham?’
قَالَ بَلْ فَعَلَهُ كَبِيرُهُمْ هَـٰذَا فَاسْأَلُوهُمْ إِن كَانُوا يَنطِقُونَ
He said, ‘No, it was this biggest one of them who did it! Ask them, if they can speak.’
فَرَجَعُوا إِلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ فَقَالُوا إِنَّكُمْ أَنتُمُ الظَّالِمُونَ
Thereat they came to themselves and said [to one another], ‘Indeed it is you who are the wrongdoers!’
ثُمَّ نُكِسُوا عَلَىٰ رُءُوسِهِمْ لَقَدْ عَلِمْتَ مَا هَـٰؤُلَاءِ يَنطِقُونَ
Then they hung their heads. [However, they said,] ‘You certainly know that they cannot speak.’
قَالَ أَفَتَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ مَا لَا يَنفَعُكُمْ شَيْئًا وَلَا يَضُرُّكُمْ
He said, ‘Then, do you worship besides Allah that which cannot cause you any benefit or harm?
أُفٍّ لَّكُمْ وَلِمَا تَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ ۖ أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ
Fie on you and what you worship besides Allah! Do you not exercise your reason?’
قَالُوا حَرِّقُوهُ وَانصُرُوا آلِهَتَكُمْ إِن كُنتُمْ فَاعِلِينَ
They said, ‘Burn him, and help your gods, if you are to do anything!’
قُلْنَا يَا نَارُ كُونِي بَرْدًا وَسَلَامًا عَلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ
We said, ‘O fire! Be cool and safe for Abraham!’
وَأَرَادُوا بِهِ كَيْدًا فَجَعَلْنَاهُمُ الْأَخْسَرِينَ
They plotted to harm him, but We made them the biggest losers.
وَنَجَّيْنَاهُ وَلُوطًا إِلَى الْأَرْضِ الَّتِي بَارَكْنَا فِيهَا لِلْعَالَمِينَ
We delivered him and Lot toward the land, which We have blessed for all nations.
وَوَهَبْنَا لَهُ إِسْحَاقَ وَيَعْقُوبَ نَافِلَةً ۖ وَكُلًّا جَعَلْنَا صَالِحِينَ
And We gave him Isaac, and Jacob as well for a grandson, and each of them We made righteous.
وَجَعَلْنَاهُمْ أَئِمَّةً يَهْدُونَ بِأَمْرِنَا وَأَوْحَيْنَا إِلَيْهِمْ فِعْلَ الْخَيْرَاتِ وَإِقَامَ الصَّلَاةِ وَإِيتَاءَ الزَّكَاةِ ۖ وَكَانُوا لَنَا عَابِدِينَ
We made them imams, guiding by Our command, and We revealed to them [concerning] the performance of good deeds, the maintenance of prayers, and the giving of zakat, and they used to worship Us.
وَلُوطًا آتَيْنَاهُ حُكْمًا وَعِلْمًا وَنَجَّيْنَاهُ مِنَ الْقَرْيَةِ الَّتِي كَانَت تَّعْمَلُ الْخَبَائِثَ ۗ إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا قَوْمَ سَوْءٍ فَاسِقِينَ
We gave judgement and knowledge to Lot, and We delivered him from the town which used to commit vicious acts. Indeed, they were an evil and depraved lot.
وَأَدْخَلْنَاهُ فِي رَحْمَتِنَا ۖ إِنَّهُ مِنَ الصَّالِحِينَ
And We admitted him into Our mercy. Indeed, he was one of the righteous.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
Triangulating five present sources: Ṭabarsī, Majmaʿ al-Bayān [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan]; al-Qummī [qummi]; al-Ṭūsī, al-Tibyān [tusi_al_tibyan]; al-Baḥrānī, al-Burhān [bahrani_al_burhan]; and al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan].
Human-review flags: al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan] is a single coarse unit covering 21:48–77; only the 51–75 portion was translated and it was substantially condensed (al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī's wording roughly halved, no content added). Confidence 0.85; the rendering should be checked against the full Arabic before publication.
What the passage says. It opens the gallery of prophets with Ibrāhīm: God gave him his rushd "beforehand" (51); he confronts his father and people over the tamāthīl (52–54), is challenged as a jester (55), affirms the Lord of the heavens and earth (56), vows to scheme against the idols (57), shatters all but the greatest (58), is identified, tried, and answers "Nay, this great one did it — ask them if they speak" (59–63); the people are momentarily convicted, then relapse (64–66); fire is decreed against him and made "cool and safe" (68–70); he and Lūṭ are delivered to the blessed land, granted Isḥāq and Yaʿqūb, made guiding leaders (71–73); and Lūṭ is given judgement and rescued from the town of foul deeds (74–75).
How the sources read it. On rushd (51) the sources converge with nuance: Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] glosses it as "the proofs leading to knowledge of God and His oneness" (also citing Qatāda/Mujāhid that he was "guided while young"), al-Ṭūsī [tusi_al_tibyan] identically defines rushd as "the truth leading to benefit," while al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī [tabatabai_al_mizan] sharpens it into his signature claim: a complete innate (fiṭrī) attainment of tawḥīd "without the teaching of any teacher."
The interpretive centre of gravity is 21:63, bal faʿalahu kabīruhum — did Ibrāhīm lie? Here the present sources speak with one voice but distinct registers. Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] lays out three grammatical solutions (a suppressed conditional "if they speak"; an ilzām / binding rebuttal in the form of a report; al-Kisāʾī's "whoever did it, did it") and rejects the "three lies" tradition on rational grounds, noting prophets cannot lie even harmlessly and that Ibrāhīm's words may be maʿārīḍ (equivocation). Al-Ṭūsī [tusi_al_tibyan] presses the same point most polemically, branding the "three lies" ḥadīth "a report with no basis." Al-Qummī [qummi] and al-Baḥrānī [bahrani_al_burhan] supply the Imāmī proof-text: Imām al-Ṣādiq's "By God, the great one did not do it, and Ibrāhīm did not lie — he said the great one did it, if it speaks; and if it does not speak, the great one did nothing." Al-Baḥrānī enriches this with a juristic frame (Ḥadīth 10–11): God "loves a lie told for reconciliation (iṣlāḥ)" and "no lying is imputed to a reconciler," linking Ibrāhīm's words to Yūsuf's "you are thieves." Al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī [tabatabai_al_mizan] reaches the same verdict by siyāq alone: the statement is a daʿwā bi-dāʿī ilzām al-khaṣm, "by no means a serious report," and the verse stands "upon its apparent sense without artifice."
On the fire (69), Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] preserves Abū al-ʿĀliya's precise reading — had God not added "and a safety," the cold itself would have harmed Ibrāhīm, and had He not said "upon Ibrāhīm," the cold would have stayed forever — a reading al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī [tabatabai_al_mizan] corroborates with ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib's report (via al-Durr al-Manthūr) that "it became cold until it nearly harmed him, until 'safety' was said." Al-Qummī [qummi] and al-Baḥrānī [bahrani_al_burhan] add the vivid narrative layer: Iblīs inventing the first mangonel, the ring of tawḥīd, the chattering teeth, Jibrāʾīl's offer ("From you, no"), and Lūṭ's consequent belief.
The sources diverge mildly on geography (71): Ṭabarsī and al-Ṭūsī canvass al-Shām, Bayt al-Maqdis, or Mecca, whereas al-Qummī and al-Baḥrānī specify "al-Shām, the black-soil of Kūfa, and Kūthā Rabbā." On nāfila (72) all read Yaʿqūb as the "child's child" given beyond request. On aʾimma yahdūna bi-amrinā (73) the Shīʿī sources are emphatic: al-Baḥrānī [bahrani_al_burhan] and al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī [tabatabai_al_mizan] read it as imāma vested in Ibrāhīm's purified progeny down to the Mahdī, al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī construing the "guidance by command" as takwīnī (engendering) conveyance of inward effusions distinct from prophetic way-showing — recorded here as the sources' own doctrine.
Sources present: tabarsi_majma_al_bayan, qummi, tusi_al_tibyan, bahrani_al_burhan, tabatabai_al_mizan; silent: none.