بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
In the name of Allah, the All-Beneficent, the All-Merciful
الٓمٓ
Alif, Lam, Mim.
ذَٰلِكَ ٱلْكِتَٰبُ لَا رَيْبَ ۛ فِيهِ ۛ هُدًۭى لِّلْمُتَّقِينَ
This is the Book, there is no doubt in it, a guidance to the Godwary,
ٱلَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱلْغَيْبِ وَيُقِيمُونَ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَمِمَّا رَزَقْنَٰهُمْ يُنفِقُونَ
who believe in the Unseen, maintain the prayer, and spend out of what We have provided for them;
وَٱلَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِمَآ أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكَ وَمَآ أُنزِلَ مِن قَبْلِكَ وَبِٱلْءَاخِرَةِ هُمْ يُوقِنُونَ
and who believe in what has been sent down to you and what was sent down before you, and are certain of the Hereafter.
أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ عَلَىٰ هُدًۭى مِّن رَّبِّهِمْ ۖ وَأُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْمُفْلِحُونَ
Those follow their Lord’s guidance and it is they who are the felicitous.
إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ سَوَآءٌ عَلَيْهِمْ ءَأَنذَرْتَهُمْ أَمْ لَمْ تُنذِرْهُمْ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ
As for the faithless, it is the same to them whether you warn them or do not warn them, they will not have faith.
خَتَمَ ٱللَّهُ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِمْ وَعَلَىٰ سَمْعِهِمْ ۖ وَعَلَىٰٓ أَبْصَٰرِهِمْ غِشَٰوَةٌۭ ۖ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌۭ
Allah has set a seal on their hearts and their hearing, and there is a blindfold on their sight, and there is a great punishment for them.
وَمِنَ ٱلنَّاسِ مَن يَقُولُ ءَامَنَّا بِٱللَّهِ وَبِٱلْيَوْمِ ٱلْءَاخِرِ وَمَا هُم بِمُؤْمِنِينَ
Among the people are those who say, ‘We have faith in Allah and the Last Day,’ but they have no faith.
يُخَٰدِعُونَ ٱللَّهَ وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَمَا يَخْدَعُونَ إِلَّآ أَنفُسَهُمْ وَمَا يَشْعُرُونَ
They seek to deceive Allah and those who have faith, yet they deceive no one but themselves, but they are not aware.
فِى قُلُوبِهِم مَّرَضٌۭ فَزَادَهُمُ ٱللَّهُ مَرَضًۭا ۖ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌۢ بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَكْذِبُونَ
There is a sickness in their hearts; then Allah increased their sickness, and there is a painful punishment for them because of the lies they used to tell.
وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ لَا تُفْسِدُوا۟ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ قَالُوٓا۟ إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُصْلِحُونَ
When they are told, ‘Do not cause corruption on the earth,’ they say, ‘We are only reformers!’
أَلَآ إِنَّهُمْ هُمُ ٱلْمُفْسِدُونَ وَلَٰكِن لَّا يَشْعُرُونَ
Behold! They are themselves the agents of corruption, but they are not aware.
وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ ءَامِنُوا۟ كَمَآ ءَامَنَ ٱلنَّاسُ قَالُوٓا۟ أَنُؤْمِنُ كَمَآ ءَامَنَ ٱلسُّفَهَآءُ ۗ أَلَآ إِنَّهُمْ هُمُ ٱلسُّفَهَآءُ وَلَٰكِن لَّا يَعْلَمُونَ
And when they are told, ‘Believe like the people who have believed,’ they say, ‘Shall we believe like the fools who have believed?’ Behold! They are themselves the fools, but they do not know.
وَإِذَا لَقُوا۟ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ قَالُوٓا۟ ءَامَنَّا وَإِذَا خَلَوْا۟ إِلَىٰ شَيَٰطِينِهِمْ قَالُوٓا۟ إِنَّا مَعَكُمْ إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُسْتَهْزِءُونَ
When they meet the faithful, they say, ‘We believe,’ but when they are alone with their devils, they say, ‘We are with you; we were only deriding [them].’
ٱللَّهُ يَسْتَهْزِئُ بِهِمْ وَيَمُدُّهُمْ فِى طُغْيَٰنِهِمْ يَعْمَهُونَ
It is Allah who derides them, and leaves them bewildered in their rebellion.
أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ ٱلَّذِينَ ٱشْتَرَوُا۟ ٱلضَّلَٰلَةَ بِٱلْهُدَىٰ فَمَا رَبِحَت تِّجَٰرَتُهُمْ وَمَا كَانُوا۟ مُهْتَدِينَ
They are the ones who bought error for guidance, so their trade did not profit them, nor were they guided.
مَثَلُهُمْ كَمَثَلِ ٱلَّذِى ٱسْتَوْقَدَ نَارًۭا فَلَمَّآ أَضَآءَتْ مَا حَوْلَهُۥ ذَهَبَ ٱللَّهُ بِنُورِهِمْ وَتَرَكَهُمْ فِى ظُلُمَٰتٍۢ لَّا يُبْصِرُونَ
Their parable is that of one who lighted a torch, and when it had lit up all around him, Allah took away their light, and left them sightless in a manifold darkness.
صُمٌّۢ بُكْمٌ عُمْىٌۭ فَهُمْ لَا يَرْجِعُونَ
Deaf, dumb, and blind, they will not come back.
أَوْ كَصَيِّبٍۢ مِّنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ فِيهِ ظُلُمَٰتٌۭ وَرَعْدٌۭ وَبَرْقٌۭ يَجْعَلُونَ أَصَٰبِعَهُمْ فِىٓ ءَاذَانِهِم مِّنَ ٱلصَّوَٰعِقِ حَذَرَ ٱلْمَوْتِ ۚ وَٱللَّهُ مُحِيطٌۢ بِٱلْكَٰفِرِينَ
Or that of a rainstorm from the sky, wherein is darkness, thunder and lightning: they put their fingers in their ears due to the thunderclaps, apprehensive of death; and Allah besieges the faithless.
يَكَادُ ٱلْبَرْقُ يَخْطَفُ أَبْصَٰرَهُمْ ۖ كُلَّمَآ أَضَآءَ لَهُم مَّشَوْا۟ فِيهِ وَإِذَآ أَظْلَمَ عَلَيْهِمْ قَامُوا۟ ۚ وَلَوْ شَآءَ ٱللَّهُ لَذَهَبَ بِسَمْعِهِمْ وَأَبْصَٰرِهِمْ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍۢ قَدِيرٌۭ
The lightning almost snatches away their sight: whenever it shines for them, they walk in it, and when the darkness falls upon them, they stand. Had Allah willed, He would have taken away their hearing and sight. Indeed Allah has power over all things.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
The sura opens with the disjoined letters Alif-Lām-Mīm, then sets out the central claim of the whole Qur'an — "That is the Book, no doubt in it, a guidance for the godfearing" — and sorts humanity by its response: the believers (1–5), the disbelievers who reject outright (6–7), and the hypocrites who profess with the tongue what they deny in the heart (8–20), to whom more than half the passage is given.
The disjoined letters. All four classical sources catalogue the same spread of views. Majmaʿ al-Bayān (al-Ṭabarsī) lists ten — from "ambiguous letters known only to God" (the view he attributes to the Imams) to "names of the suras" (which he prefers), to "I am God, I know best" (ALM), to the reckoning by which the Jews tried to fix the umma's term — and al-Tibyān (al-Ṭūsī) runs the same gamut, preferring "names of the suras" and rejecting the abjad acrostic about Adam as unworthy of a prophet. The Enlightening Commentary treats them under "The Abbreviated Letters" as a standing challenge and sign of the Qur'an's inimitability, while al-Mīzān (al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī) reads them as a class of Qur'anic symbol. The narration-collections turn esoteric: al-Qummī and al-Burhān report that ALM is "a letter of God's Greatest Name," and al-Burhān preserves the long debate of the Jews Ḥuyayy and Abū Yāsir b. Akhṭab over the letters' numerical value, refuted by ʿAlī.
"Guidance for the godfearing." Here al-Mīzān contributes its distinctive thesis: the pious are "surrounded by two guidances" — an innate, sound first guidance that made them receptive, and the Qur'an as the second — whereas the Enlightening Commentary distinguishes Divine from religious-legislative guidance and asks why guidance is particular to the pious, answering (with al-Ṭabarsī and al-Ṭūsī) that all are addressed but only the godfearing profit. On "who believe in the unseen," al-Ṭabarsī and al-Ṭūsī both prefer Ibn Masʿūd's broad sense ("what is hidden from the servants' knowledge") and both explicitly fold in the Mahdī's occultation; al-Burhān makes this explicit — al-ghayb is "the absent Proof," and the believers are those who affirm the rising of the Qāʾim.
The disbelievers and the sealing (6–7). The mainstream pair read khatm carefully: al-Ṭūsī insists the "sealing" and "covering" are not something God works in the heart to bar faith, but His report about those known to refuse it and "their habituation to disbelief by their love of it" — so responsibility remains intact; al-Ṭabarsī offers four parallel readings to the same end. al-Qummī's narration sets the five modes of kufr (denial in two kinds, disavowal, abandonment of a command, ingratitude), and al-Burhān gives the same from al-Kāfī. From al-Riḍā in al-Burhān, the sealing is a penalty for their own disbelief.
The hypocrites (8–20). al-Qummī gives the plain occasion — those who said "we are with you" to the disbelievers and "we believe" to the believers — while al-Burhān's long Tafsīr al-ʿAskarī narrations read the whole hypocrite-section as the breakers of the Ghadīr pledge to ʿAlī. al-Ṭabarsī and al-Ṭūsī expound the two parables: the kindled fire whose light God removes (the professed faith that warms them in this world and fails them at death), and the rainstorm of thunder and lightning — which al-Ṭabarsī glosses variously as the Qur'an itself, or Islam, or the two men who fled the Prophet, were caught in the storm, and then embraced Islam. Across the passage the present sources converge: the Book judges its readers, and hypocrisy — professing what the heart denies — is its sharpest indictment.