أَفَمَن وَعَدْنَٰهُ وَعْدًا حَسَنًۭا فَهُوَ لَٰقِيهِ كَمَن مَّتَّعْنَٰهُ مَتَٰعَ ٱلْحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا ثُمَّ هُوَ يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَٰمَةِ مِنَ ٱلْمُحْضَرِينَ
Is he to whom We have given a good promise, which he will receive, like him whom We have provided the wares of the life of this world, but who will be arraigned on the Day of Resurrection?
وَيَوْمَ يُنَادِيهِمْ فَيَقُولُ أَيْنَ شُرَكَآءِىَ ٱلَّذِينَ كُنتُمْ تَزْعُمُونَ
The day He will call out to them and ask, ‘Where are My ‘partners’ that you used to claim?’
قَالَ ٱلَّذِينَ حَقَّ عَلَيْهِمُ ٱلْقَوْلُ رَبَّنَا هَٰٓؤُلَآءِ ٱلَّذِينَ أَغْوَيْنَآ أَغْوَيْنَٰهُمْ كَمَا غَوَيْنَا ۖ تَبَرَّأْنَآ إِلَيْكَ ۖ مَا كَانُوٓا۟ إِيَّانَا يَعْبُدُونَ
Those against whom the word had become due will say, ‘Our Lord! These are the ones whom we have perverted. We perverted them as we were perverse ourselves. We repudiate them before You: it was not us that they worshipped.’
وَقِيلَ ٱدْعُوا۟ شُرَكَآءَكُمْ فَدَعَوْهُمْ فَلَمْ يَسْتَجِيبُوا۟ لَهُمْ وَرَأَوُا۟ ٱلْعَذَابَ ۚ لَوْ أَنَّهُمْ كَانُوا۟ يَهْتَدُونَ
It will be said, ‘Invoke your partners!’ So they will invoke them, but they will not respond to them, and they will sight the punishment, wishing they had followed guidance.
وَيَوْمَ يُنَادِيهِمْ فَيَقُولُ مَاذَآ أَجَبْتُمُ ٱلْمُرْسَلِينَ
The day He will call out to them and say, ‘What response did you give to the apostles?’
فَعَمِيَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ ٱلْأَنۢبَآءُ يَوْمَئِذٍۢ فَهُمْ لَا يَتَسَآءَلُونَ
That day all information will be withheld from them, so they will not question one another.
فَأَمَّا مَن تَابَ وَءَامَنَ وَعَمِلَ صَٰلِحًۭا فَعَسَىٰٓ أَن يَكُونَ مِنَ ٱلْمُفْلِحِينَ
As for him who repents, has faith and acts righteously, maybe he will be among the felicitous.
وَرَبُّكَ يَخْلُقُ مَا يَشَآءُ وَيَخْتَارُ ۗ مَا كَانَ لَهُمُ ٱلْخِيَرَةُ ۚ سُبْحَٰنَ ٱللَّهِ وَتَعَٰلَىٰ عَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ
Your Lord creates whatever He wishes and chooses: they have no choice. Immaculate is Allah and exalted above [having] any partners that they ascribe [to Him].
وَرَبُّكَ يَعْلَمُ مَا تُكِنُّ صُدُورُهُمْ وَمَا يُعْلِنُونَ
Your Lord knows whatever their breasts conceal, and whatever they disclose.
وَهُوَ ٱللَّهُ لَآ إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ ۖ لَهُ ٱلْحَمْدُ فِى ٱلْأُولَىٰ وَٱلْءَاخِرَةِ ۖ وَلَهُ ٱلْحُكْمُ وَإِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ
He is Allah, there is no god except Him. All praise belongs to Him in this world and the Hereafter. All judgement belongs to Him, and to Him you will be brought back.
قُلْ أَرَءَيْتُمْ إِن جَعَلَ ٱللَّهُ عَلَيْكُمُ ٱلَّيْلَ سَرْمَدًا إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ ٱلْقِيَٰمَةِ مَنْ إِلَٰهٌ غَيْرُ ٱللَّهِ يَأْتِيكُم بِضِيَآءٍ ۖ أَفَلَا تَسْمَعُونَ
Say, ‘Tell me, if Allah were to make the night perpetual for you until the Day of Resurrection, what god other than Allah can bring you light? Will you not listen?’
قُلْ أَرَءَيْتُمْ إِن جَعَلَ ٱللَّهُ عَلَيْكُمُ ٱلنَّهَارَ سَرْمَدًا إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ ٱلْقِيَٰمَةِ مَنْ إِلَٰهٌ غَيْرُ ٱللَّهِ يَأْتِيكُم بِلَيْلٍۢ تَسْكُنُونَ فِيهِ ۖ أَفَلَا تُبْصِرُونَ
Say, ‘Tell me, if Allah were to make the day perpetual for you until the Day of Resurrection, what god other than Allah can bring you night wherein you can rest? Will you not perceive?’
وَمِن رَّحْمَتِهِۦ جَعَلَ لَكُمُ ٱلَّيْلَ وَٱلنَّهَارَ لِتَسْكُنُوا۟ فِيهِ وَلِتَبْتَغُوا۟ مِن فَضْلِهِۦ وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ
He has made for you the night and the day out of His mercy, so that you may rest therein and that you may seek His bounty and so that you may give thanks.
وَيَوْمَ يُنَادِيهِمْ فَيَقُولُ أَيْنَ شُرَكَآءِىَ ٱلَّذِينَ كُنتُمْ تَزْعُمُونَ
The day He will call out to them and say, ‘Where are My ‘partners’ that you used to claim?’
وَنَزَعْنَا مِن كُلِّ أُمَّةٍۢ شَهِيدًۭا فَقُلْنَا هَاتُوا۟ بُرْهَٰنَكُمْ فَعَلِمُوٓا۟ أَنَّ ٱلْحَقَّ لِلَّهِ وَضَلَّ عَنْهُم مَّا كَانُوا۟ يَفْتَرُونَ
We shall draw from every nation a witness and say, ‘Produce your evidence.’ Then they will know that all reality belongs to Allah and what they used to fabricate will forsake them.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
Triangulated from: enlightening_commentary, tabatabai_al_mizan, tabarsi_majma_al_bayan, tusi_al_tibyan, bahrani_al_burhan, qummi (all six present).
This passage pivots from the Meccans' excuse ("we'll be snatched from our land") to a sequence of Resurrection-scenes and a proof of God's oneness, culminating in the sūra's most theologically loaded verse: "your Lord creates what He wills and chooses."
The two destinies (v.61). All sources open with the contrast between the one "promised a fair reward, which he will meet" and the one "given the enjoyment of this world, then arraigned." The classical occasion, cited by al-Ṭūsī, al-Ṭabarsī and al-Baḥrānī alike, names Ḥamza and ʿAlī (promised the Garden) against Abū Jahl — though al-Ṭabarsī prudently adds it is "better taken as general."
The arraignment scenes (vv.62–66). All six trace the same grim dialogue: God asks "Where are My partners?"; the leaders of misguidance disown their followers ("we misled them as we ourselves were misled… it was not us they worshipped"). al-Mīzān analyses the "partners" into two kinds — God's honoured servants (angels, Jesus) versus the arrogant claimants of divinity — and, drawing on Iblīs's words in 14:22, stresses that the misleading was never by compulsion: both leaders and followers strayed by choice. On v.65 ("What did you answer the messengers?"), Qummī and al-Baḥrānī preserve a distinctive Imāmī turn: the "general" transmission reads it of the Resurrection, but the "special" transmission applies it to the questioning in the grave (Munkar), with the vivid narration of the believer shown his place in the Garden and the disbeliever pressed by his grave.
"They have no choice" (vv.67–70). This is the passage's centre of gravity. The plain reading (v.68) — that God "creates and chooses" — draws from al-Ṭabarsī and al-Ṭūsī the two grammatical options ("they have no choice against God" / "He chooses that in which is their good"), with the anti-shirk occasion of al-Walīd b. al-Mughīra. al-Mīzān builds its fullest metaphysical argument here: since God alone is Creator, nothing can compel or prevent Him, so He is Chooser in the truest sense (takwīnan and tashrīʿan); man is naturally free toward his own kind but wholly owned by God, and so "has no choice" against what God wills. The Imāmī sources read this christologically of the Imāmate: Qummī and al-Baḥrānī gloss it "God chooses the Imam; it is not for them to choose," and al-Baḥrānī anchors it in the magnificent al-Riḍā ḥadīth (ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Muslim) that the Imāmate is God's appointment of an infallible, not the people's election — a sublime portrait of the imam "like the rising sun no hand can reach." al-Mīzān cites the same narration but frames it, per its method, as jary — application of the general principle (God, not the people, appoints the infallible) onto the verse. The Anas ḥadīth ("God chose me and my House") appears in al-Baḥrānī with both Shīʿī and Sunnī chains.
The sign of night and day (vv.71–73). All sources read the "perpetual night / perpetual day" as a rational proof of tawḥīd — none but God could restore light or rest. al-Ṭūsī notably deploys it against the Ashʿarī claim that knowledge of God is "necessary" (for then no proof would be needed). al-Mīzān adds a fine logical observation: God says "bring you light," not "bring you day," as a binding of the argument at its very easiest.
The final witness (vv.74–75). The repeated "Where are My partners?" and "We shall draw from every nation a witness" close the passage. The classical sources (al-Ṭabarsī, al-Ṭūsī) read the witness as each nation's prophet; Qummī and al-Baḥrānī (Abū al-Jārūd) read it as "from every group, its imam"; al-Mīzān keeps to "a witness of deeds" and ends on its characteristic note — that on that Day "the truth becomes God's" not by argument but by a witnessed clarity that lifts every falsehood.