وَلَقَدْ جَآءَتْ رُسُلُنَآ إِبْرَٰهِيمَ بِٱلْبُشْرَىٰ قَالُوا۟ سَلَٰمًۭا ۖ قَالَ سَلَٰمٌۭ ۖ فَمَا لَبِثَ أَن جَآءَ بِعِجْلٍ حَنِيذٍۢ
Certainly Our messengers came to Abraham with the good news, and said, ‘Peace!’ ‘Peace!’ He replied. Presently he brought [for them] a roasted calf.
فَلَمَّا رَءَآ أَيْدِيَهُمْ لَا تَصِلُ إِلَيْهِ نَكِرَهُمْ وَأَوْجَسَ مِنْهُمْ خِيفَةًۭ ۚ قَالُوا۟ لَا تَخَفْ إِنَّآ أُرْسِلْنَآ إِلَىٰ قَوْمِ لُوطٍۢ
But when he saw their hands not reaching for it, he took them amiss and felt a fear of them. They said, ‘Do not be afraid. We have been sent to the people of Lot.’
وَٱمْرَأَتُهُۥ قَآئِمَةٌۭ فَضَحِكَتْ فَبَشَّرْنَٰهَا بِإِسْحَٰقَ وَمِن وَرَآءِ إِسْحَٰقَ يَعْقُوبَ
His wife, standing by, laughed as We gave her the good news of [the birth of] Isaac, and of Jacob, after Isaac.
قَالَتْ يَٰوَيْلَتَىٰٓ ءَأَلِدُ وَأَنَا۠ عَجُوزٌۭ وَهَٰذَا بَعْلِى شَيْخًا ۖ إِنَّ هَٰذَا لَشَىْءٌ عَجِيبٌۭ
She said, ‘Oh, my! Shall I, an old woman, bear [children], and [while] this husband of mine is an old man?! That is indeed an odd thing!’
قَالُوٓا۟ أَتَعْجَبِينَ مِنْ أَمْرِ ٱللَّهِ ۖ رَحْمَتُ ٱللَّهِ وَبَرَكَٰتُهُۥ عَلَيْكُمْ أَهْلَ ٱلْبَيْتِ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ حَمِيدٌۭ مَّجِيدٌۭ
They said, ‘Are you amazed at Allah’s dispensation? [That is] Allah’s mercy and His blessings upon you, members of the household. Indeed He is all-laudable, all-glorious.’
فَلَمَّا ذَهَبَ عَنْ إِبْرَٰهِيمَ ٱلرَّوْعُ وَجَآءَتْهُ ٱلْبُشْرَىٰ يُجَٰدِلُنَا فِى قَوْمِ لُوطٍ
So when the awe had left Abraham and the good news had reached him, he pleaded with Us concerning the people of Lot.
إِنَّ إِبْرَٰهِيمَ لَحَلِيمٌ أَوَّٰهٌۭ مُّنِيبٌۭ
Abraham was indeed most forbearing, plaintive, [and] penitent.
يَٰٓإِبْرَٰهِيمُ أَعْرِضْ عَنْ هَٰذَآ ۖ إِنَّهُۥ قَدْ جَآءَ أَمْرُ رَبِّكَ ۖ وَإِنَّهُمْ ءَاتِيهِمْ عَذَابٌ غَيْرُ مَرْدُودٍۢ
‘O Abraham, let this matter alone! Your Lord’s edict has certainly come, and an irrevocable punishment shall overtake them.’
وَلَمَّا جَآءَتْ رُسُلُنَا لُوطًۭا سِىٓءَ بِهِمْ وَضَاقَ بِهِمْ ذَرْعًۭا وَقَالَ هَٰذَا يَوْمٌ عَصِيبٌۭ
When Our messengers came to Lot, he was distressed on their account and in a predicament for their sake, and he said, ‘This is a terrible day!’
وَجَآءَهُۥ قَوْمُهُۥ يُهْرَعُونَ إِلَيْهِ وَمِن قَبْلُ كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ ٱلسَّيِّـَٔاتِ ۚ قَالَ يَٰقَوْمِ هَٰٓؤُلَآءِ بَنَاتِى هُنَّ أَطْهَرُ لَكُمْ ۖ فَٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ وَلَا تُخْزُونِ فِى ضَيْفِىٓ ۖ أَلَيْسَ مِنكُمْ رَجُلٌۭ رَّشِيدٌۭ
Then his people came running toward him, and they had been committing vices aforetime. He said, ‘O my people, these are my daughters: they are purer for you. Be wary of Allah and do not humiliate me with regard to my guests. Is there not a right-minded man among you?’
قَالُوا۟ لَقَدْ عَلِمْتَ مَا لَنَا فِى بَنَاتِكَ مِنْ حَقٍّۢ وَإِنَّكَ لَتَعْلَمُ مَا نُرِيدُ
They said, ‘You certainly know that we have no interest in your daughters, and indeed you know what we want.’
قَالَ لَوْ أَنَّ لِى بِكُمْ قُوَّةً أَوْ ءَاوِىٓ إِلَىٰ رُكْنٍۢ شَدِيدٍۢ
He said, ‘If only I had the power to deter you, or could take refuge in a mighty support!’
قَالُوا۟ يَٰلُوطُ إِنَّا رُسُلُ رَبِّكَ لَن يَصِلُوٓا۟ إِلَيْكَ ۖ فَأَسْرِ بِأَهْلِكَ بِقِطْعٍۢ مِّنَ ٱلَّيْلِ وَلَا يَلْتَفِتْ مِنكُمْ أَحَدٌ إِلَّا ٱمْرَأَتَكَ ۖ إِنَّهُۥ مُصِيبُهَا مَآ أَصَابَهُمْ ۚ إِنَّ مَوْعِدَهُمُ ٱلصُّبْحُ ۚ أَلَيْسَ ٱلصُّبْحُ بِقَرِيبٍۢ
They said, ‘O Lot, we are messengers of your Lord. They will never get at you. Set out with your family in a watch of the night; and none of you shall turn round, except your wife; indeed she will be struck by what strikes them. Indeed their tryst is the dawn. Is not the dawn [already] near?’
فَلَمَّا جَآءَ أَمْرُنَا جَعَلْنَا عَٰلِيَهَا سَافِلَهَا وَأَمْطَرْنَا عَلَيْهَا حِجَارَةًۭ مِّن سِجِّيلٍۢ مَّنضُودٍۢ
So when Our edict came, We made its topmost part its nethermost, and We rained on it stones of laminar shale,
مُّسَوَّمَةً عِندَ رَبِّكَ ۖ وَمَا هِىَ مِنَ ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ بِبَعِيدٍۢ
sent in from your Lord [for the profligate], never far from the wrongdoers.
۞ وَإِلَىٰ مَدْيَنَ أَخَاهُمْ شُعَيْبًۭا ۚ قَالَ يَٰقَوْمِ ٱعْبُدُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ مَا لَكُم مِّنْ إِلَٰهٍ غَيْرُهُۥ ۖ وَلَا تَنقُصُوا۟ ٱلْمِكْيَالَ وَٱلْمِيزَانَ ۚ إِنِّىٓ أَرَىٰكُم بِخَيْرٍۢ وَإِنِّىٓ أَخَافُ عَلَيْكُمْ عَذَابَ يَوْمٍۢ مُّحِيطٍۢ
And to Midian [We sent] Shu‘ayb, their brother. He said, ‘O my people! Worship Allah. You have no other god besides Him. Do not diminish the measure or the balance. Indeed I see that you are faring well, but I fear for you the punishment of an all-embracing day.’
وَيَٰقَوْمِ أَوْفُوا۟ ٱلْمِكْيَالَ وَٱلْمِيزَانَ بِٱلْقِسْطِ ۖ وَلَا تَبْخَسُوا۟ ٱلنَّاسَ أَشْيَآءَهُمْ وَلَا تَعْثَوْا۟ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ مُفْسِدِينَ
‘O my people! Observe fully the measure and the balance, with justice, and do not cheat the people of their goods, and do not act wickedly on the earth, causing corruption.’
بَقِيَّتُ ٱللَّهِ خَيْرٌۭ لَّكُمْ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ ۚ وَمَآ أَنَا۠ عَلَيْكُم بِحَفِيظٍۢ
‘What remains of Allah’s provision is better for you, should you be faithful, and I am not a keeper over you.’
قَالُوا۟ يَٰشُعَيْبُ أَصَلَوٰتُكَ تَأْمُرُكَ أَن نَّتْرُكَ مَا يَعْبُدُ ءَابَآؤُنَآ أَوْ أَن نَّفْعَلَ فِىٓ أَمْوَٰلِنَا مَا نَشَٰٓؤُا۟ ۖ إِنَّكَ لَأَنتَ ٱلْحَلِيمُ ٱلرَّشِيدُ
They said, ‘O Shu‘ayb, does your worship require that we abandon what our fathers have been worshiping, or that we should not do with our wealth whatever we wish? You are indeed [a] gentle and sensible [person].’
قَالَ يَٰقَوْمِ أَرَءَيْتُمْ إِن كُنتُ عَلَىٰ بَيِّنَةٍۢ مِّن رَّبِّى وَرَزَقَنِى مِنْهُ رِزْقًا حَسَنًۭا ۚ وَمَآ أُرِيدُ أَنْ أُخَالِفَكُمْ إِلَىٰ مَآ أَنْهَىٰكُمْ عَنْهُ ۚ إِنْ أُرِيدُ إِلَّا ٱلْإِصْلَٰحَ مَا ٱسْتَطَعْتُ ۚ وَمَا تَوْفِيقِىٓ إِلَّا بِٱللَّهِ ۚ عَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلْتُ وَإِلَيْهِ أُنِيبُ
He said, ‘O my people! Have you considered, should I stand on a manifest proof from my Lord, who has provided me a good provision from Himself? I do not wish to oppose you by what I forbid you. I only desire to put things in order, as far as I can, and my success lies only with Allah: in Him I have put my trust, and to Him I turn penitently.
وَيَٰقَوْمِ لَا يَجْرِمَنَّكُمْ شِقَاقِىٓ أَن يُصِيبَكُم مِّثْلُ مَآ أَصَابَ قَوْمَ نُوحٍ أَوْ قَوْمَ هُودٍ أَوْ قَوْمَ صَٰلِحٍۢ ۚ وَمَا قَوْمُ لُوطٍۢ مِّنكُم بِبَعِيدٍۢ
O my people, do not let your defiance toward me lead you to be visited by the like of what was visited on the people of Noah, or the people of Hud, or the people of Salih, and the people of Lot are not distant from you.
وَٱسْتَغْفِرُوا۟ رَبَّكُمْ ثُمَّ تُوبُوٓا۟ إِلَيْهِ ۚ إِنَّ رَبِّى رَحِيمٌۭ وَدُودٌۭ
Plead with your Lord for forgiveness, then turn to Him penitently. My Lord is indeed all-merciful, all-affectionate.’
قَالُوا۟ يَٰشُعَيْبُ مَا نَفْقَهُ كَثِيرًۭا مِّمَّا تَقُولُ وَإِنَّا لَنَرَىٰكَ فِينَا ضَعِيفًۭا ۖ وَلَوْلَا رَهْطُكَ لَرَجَمْنَٰكَ ۖ وَمَآ أَنتَ عَلَيْنَا بِعَزِيزٍۢ
They said, ‘O Shu‘ayb, we do not understand much of what you say. Indeed we see that you are weak amongst us, and were it not for your tribe, we would have stoned you, and you are not a formidable [challenge] for us.’
قَالَ يَٰقَوْمِ أَرَهْطِىٓ أَعَزُّ عَلَيْكُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ وَٱتَّخَذْتُمُوهُ وَرَآءَكُمْ ظِهْرِيًّا ۖ إِنَّ رَبِّى بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ مُحِيطٌۭ
He said, ‘O my people! Is my tribe more formidable in your sight than Allah, to whom you pay no regard? Indeed my Lord comprehends whatever you do.
وَيَٰقَوْمِ ٱعْمَلُوا۟ عَلَىٰ مَكَانَتِكُمْ إِنِّى عَٰمِلٌۭ ۖ سَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ مَن يَأْتِيهِ عَذَابٌۭ يُخْزِيهِ وَمَنْ هُوَ كَٰذِبٌۭ ۖ وَٱرْتَقِبُوٓا۟ إِنِّى مَعَكُمْ رَقِيبٌۭ
O my people! Act according to your ability; I too am acting. Soon you will know who will be overtaken by a punishment that will disgrace him, and who is a liar. So be on the watch; I too will be watching along with you.’
وَلَمَّا جَآءَ أَمْرُنَا نَجَّيْنَا شُعَيْبًۭا وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ مَعَهُۥ بِرَحْمَةٍۢ مِّنَّا وَأَخَذَتِ ٱلَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا۟ ٱلصَّيْحَةُ فَأَصْبَحُوا۟ فِى دِيَٰرِهِمْ جَٰثِمِينَ
When Our edict came, We delivered Shu‘ayb and the faithful who were with him by a mercy from Us. And the Cry seized those who were wrongdoers, whereat they lay lifeless prostrate in their homes,
كَأَن لَّمْ يَغْنَوْا۟ فِيهَآ ۗ أَلَا بُعْدًۭا لِّمَدْيَنَ كَمَا بَعِدَتْ ثَمُودُ
as if they had never lived there. Behold, away with Midian!—just as Thamud was done away with!
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
After Noah, Hūd, and Ṣāliḥ, the sūra turns to a linked pair of stories: the angels who bring Abraham glad tidings and then go on to destroy the people of Lot, followed by the mission of Shuʿayb to Madyan. All six of the present sources treat these passages, and they divide neatly into two registers — the exegetical-grammatical (Ṭabarsī, Ṭūsī), the narrative-hadith (Qummī, Baḥrānī), and the philosophical (al-Mīzān) — with the Enlightening Commentary supplying a plain published English reading.
The annunciation and Abraham's fear (69–76). The messengers are angels; Ṭabarsī and al-Mīzān record disagreement over their number (three, four, nine, eleven), with the Imāmī reports settling on four — Gabriel, Michael, Isrāfīl, and Karrūbīl (so the Kāfī report cited by Baḥrānī and al-Mīzān). Abraham hastens a roasted calf, which Ṭabarsī, Ṭūsī and Qummī gloss ḥanīdh as "roasted on heated stones / dripping fat." When the guests' hands do not reach the food he conceives fear. Al-Mīzān makes this the occasion of an important discourse: attributing fear to Abraham does not touch his ʿiṣma, for natural fear that rouses prudent self-defence is no vice — the vice is cowardice (jubn) that paralyses judgement, just as recklessness (tahawwur) is no virtue; the prophets are given shajāʿa, not fearlessness. On Sarah's laughter, Qummī, Baḥrānī (from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. al-Ḥajjāj ← al-Ṣādiq) and al-Mīzān prefer ḍaḥikat = "she menstruated," the sign on which the tidings of Isaac are built, though Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī also report the ordinary "laughed in wonder." All note the angels' rebuke — "Do you wonder at the command of God?" — and the greeting "the mercy of God and His blessings upon you, People of the House," which Ṭabarsī and Baḥrānī tie to the tradition of ʿAlī correcting an over-elaborate return of greeting. Abraham's pleading for Lot's people is praised, not censured: Ṭabarsī and al-Mīzān read ḥalīm, awwāh, munīb as showing his mercy and tenderness of heart, and Baḥrānī glosses awwāh as "supplication."
The destruction of Lot's people (77–83). Qummī and Baḥrānī give the fullest narrative — Iblis introducing the abomination as a beautiful youth, Gabriel's three-fold testimony against the people, the wife's signal of smoke, the blinding of the crowd, and the town torn from the seven earths and overturned. Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī gloss the lexicon (ʿaṣīb = a day of intertwined evil; sijjīl = Persian sang-o-gil, baked clay; mandūd = piled; musawwama = marked). On "these are my daughters, they are purer for you," al-Mīzān argues decisively that Lot offered lawful marriage (the qualifier "purer" excludes fornication), refuting the reading that he meant the community's women; Qummī uniquely reports the view that he meant "your wives." The Imāmī sources (Qummī, Baḥrānī, and al-Mīzān citing them) carry the distinctive taʾwīl of "would that I had power (quwwa) or a strong support (rukn shadīd)" as a longing for the Qāʾim and his 313 companions — recorded here as the sources' reading, not endorsed. Al-Mīzān soberly treats the "raising to the sky" reports as solitary and unestablished, even proposing a volcanic mechanism, and quotes the Torah's version at length to mark its contradictions with the Qurʾān (two angels vs. the plural, the guests eating, the incest story, the anthropomorphism).
Shuʿayb of Madyan (84–95). All sources identify the sin as short-measuring (tatfīf). The Enlightening Commentary frames it as "economic corruption" beside the "sexual deviation" of Lot's people. Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī canvass whether "you are the forbearing, the right-minded" was mockery (Ibn ʿAbbās) or literal, and gloss "we see you weak" as blindness or bodily weakness; Qummī and Baḥrānī note his sight had weakened. Al-Mīzān builds its longest essay here — a "Discourse on human freedom": man is free before his own kind but not before God the absolute Owner, so a prophet enjoining good on a clear proof does not usurp anyone's liberty; and Shuʿayb's own conformity ("I do not oppose you in what I forbid you") and refusal of a wage are the tokens of sincerity. On "await; I am with you watching," Baḥrānī and al-Mīzān cite al-Riḍā: "awaiting relief (intiẓār al-faraj) is itself relief." The Cry then seizes Madyan, "as Thamūd was cast away."