أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى ٱلَّذِينَ أُوتُوا۟ نَصِيبًۭا مِّنَ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱلْجِبْتِ وَٱلطَّٰغُوتِ وَيَقُولُونَ لِلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ هَٰٓؤُلَآءِ أَهْدَىٰ مِنَ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ سَبِيلًا
Have you not regarded those who were given a share of the Book, believing in idols and fake deities and saying of the pagans: ‘These are better guided on the way than the faithful’?
أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ ٱلَّذِينَ لَعَنَهُمُ ٱللَّهُ ۖ وَمَن يَلْعَنِ ٱللَّهُ فَلَن تَجِدَ لَهُۥ نَصِيرًا
They are the ones whom Allah has cursed, and whomever Allah curses, you will never find any helper for him.
أَمْ لَهُمْ نَصِيبٌۭ مِّنَ ٱلْمُلْكِ فَإِذًۭا لَّا يُؤْتُونَ ٱلنَّاسَ نَقِيرًا
Do they have a share in sovereignty? If so, they will not give those people [so much as] a speck on a date-stone!
أَمْ يَحْسُدُونَ ٱلنَّاسَ عَلَىٰ مَآ ءَاتَىٰهُمُ ٱللَّهُ مِن فَضْلِهِۦ ۖ فَقَدْ ءَاتَيْنَآ ءَالَ إِبْرَٰهِيمَ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ وَٱلْحِكْمَةَ وَءَاتَيْنَٰهُم مُّلْكًا عَظِيمًۭا
Do they envy those people for what Allah has given them out of His bounty? We have certainly given the progeny of Abraham the Book and wisdom, and We have given them a great sovereignty.
فَمِنْهُم مَّنْ ءَامَنَ بِهِۦ وَمِنْهُم مَّن صَدَّ عَنْهُ ۚ وَكَفَىٰ بِجَهَنَّمَ سَعِيرًا
Of them are some who believe in him, and of them are some who deter [others] from him; and hell suffices for a blaze!
إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ بِـَٔايَٰتِنَا سَوْفَ نُصْلِيهِمْ نَارًۭا كُلَّمَا نَضِجَتْ جُلُودُهُم بَدَّلْنَٰهُمْ جُلُودًا غَيْرَهَا لِيَذُوقُوا۟ ٱلْعَذَابَ ۗ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ كَانَ عَزِيزًا حَكِيمًۭا
Indeed We shall soon make those who deny Our signs enter a Fire: as often as their skins become scorched, We shall replace them with other skins, so that they may taste the punishment. Indeed Allah is all-mighty, all-wise.
وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّٰلِحَٰتِ سَنُدْخِلُهُمْ جَنَّٰتٍۢ تَجْرِى مِن تَحْتِهَا ٱلْأَنْهَٰرُ خَٰلِدِينَ فِيهَآ أَبَدًۭا ۖ لَّهُمْ فِيهَآ أَزْوَٰجٌۭ مُّطَهَّرَةٌۭ ۖ وَنُدْخِلُهُمْ ظِلًّۭا ظَلِيلًا
As for those who have faith and do righteous deeds, We shall admit them into gardens with streams running in them, to remain in them forever. In it, there will be chaste mates for them, and We shall admit them into a deep shade.
۞ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَأْمُرُكُمْ أَن تُؤَدُّوا۟ ٱلْأَمَٰنَٰتِ إِلَىٰٓ أَهْلِهَا وَإِذَا حَكَمْتُم بَيْنَ ٱلنَّاسِ أَن تَحْكُمُوا۟ بِٱلْعَدْلِ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ نِعِمَّا يَعِظُكُم بِهِۦٓ ۗ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ كَانَ سَمِيعًۢا بَصِيرًۭا
Indeed Allah commands you to deliver the trusts to their [rightful] owners, and to judge with fairness when you judge between people. Excellent indeed is what Allah advises you. Indeed Allah is all-hearing, all-seeing.
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ أَطِيعُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُوا۟ ٱلرَّسُولَ وَأُو۟لِى ٱلْأَمْرِ مِنكُمْ ۖ فَإِن تَنَٰزَعْتُمْ فِى شَىْءٍۢ فَرُدُّوهُ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ وَٱلرَّسُولِ إِن كُنتُمْ تُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱللَّهِ وَٱلْيَوْمِ ٱلْءَاخِرِ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ خَيْرٌۭ وَأَحْسَنُ تَأْوِيلًا
O you who have faith! Obey Allah and obey the Apostle and those vested with authority among you. And if you dispute concerning anything, refer it to Allah and the Apostle, if you have faith in Allah and the Last Day. That is better and more favourable in outcome.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
Sources triangulated: Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan]; Ṭūsī [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 are present (non-silent).
The passage exposes Scriptuaries who, out of envy, endorse idolatry over faith (vv.51–52); denies them any share of God-given rule and recalls the Book, wisdom and dominion granted to Abraham's house (vv.53–55); contrasts the renewed torment of the Fire with the shaded Gardens of the faithful (vv.56–57); and culminates in two foundational commands — render trusts and judge justly (v.58), and obey God, the Messenger, and those in authority while referring disputes back to God and the Messenger (v.59).
1. The jibt/ṭāghūt episode (vv.51–52). All sources tie the verse to Scriptuaries (the Kaʿb b. al-Ashraf delegation in Ṭabarsī, Ṭūsī and al-Mīzān; al-Qummī's terser 'your religion is better than Muḥammad's') who preferred idolaters to the believers and were therefore cursed. [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] [tusi_al_tibyan] [qummi] [tabatabai_al_mizan] [enlightening_commentary]
2. The renewed skins (v.56). Ṭabarsī, Ṭūsī, al-Qummī and al-Mīzān all rehearse the same options — fresh skins, or the same skin restored — to answer the objection that an 'innocent' skin would be punished, al-Qummī preserving al-Ṣādiq's brick-analogy. [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] [tusi_al_tibyan] [qummi] [tabatabai_al_mizan]
3. Trusts and justice (v.58). All read v.58 as commanding the faithful discharge of trusts and even-handed judgement; Ṭabarsī, Ṭūsī and al-Mīzān give the Kaʿba-key occasion and the ʿAlī-as-judge traditions, treating the verse's plain sense as universal even as the Imāmī sources add the Imamate layer. [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] [tusi_al_tibyan] [tabatabai_al_mizan] [enlightening_commentary]
'The people' who are envied (v.54). al-Qummī flatly reads al-nās as ʿAlī and the Imāms and 'the tremendous dominion' as the caliphate; Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī report this Imāmī reading (with al-Ṣādiq's 'we are the envied') ALONGSIDE the readings that al-nās is the Prophet, his Companions, or the Arabs. [qummi] [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] [tusi_al_tibyan] The English sources keep the broader sense (envy of the Prophet and the favoured community). [tabatabai_al_mizan] [enlightening_commentary]
'Those in authority' (v.59) — the central fault-line. Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī lay out three views — the princes, the scholars, or the infallible Imāms — and argue for the last on the ground that ABSOLUTE obedience can be commanded only of the infallible (ʿiṣma). [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] [tusi_al_tibyan] al-Qummī identifies ulī al-amr with ʿAlī, and al-Burhān supplies the doctrine's locus classicus — Jābir al-Anṣārī's narration in which the Prophet names the TWELVE Imāms one by one, ending with the occulted Mahdī. [qummi] [bahrani_al_burhan] The English sources, and the universal layer of Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī, read ulī al-amr more broadly as legitimate authority/scholars and 'refer to God and the Messenger' as recourse to the Book and Sunna. [tabatabai_al_mizan] [enlightening_commentary]
The trusts as the Imamate (v.58). al-Qummī and al-Burhān read 'render the trusts to their owners' as each Imām's handing of the Imamate (with its books, knowledge and weapons) to his successor — 'two verses, one for the Imāms, one for the people' — where the other sources keep the general sense of deposits and offices. [qummi] [bahrani_al_burhan] [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] These charged Imāmī readings are recorded here as what the sources transmit, not as endorsed interpretation.