Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)
until death finishes them,
or Allah decrees a course for them.1
16 Should two among you commit it,2
chastise them both;
but if they repent and reform, let them alone.
Indeed Allah is all-clement, all-merciful.
17 [Acceptance of] repentance by Allah is only for those
who commit evil out of ignorance,
then repent promptly.
It is such whose repentance Allah will accept,
and Allah is all-knowing, all-wise.
18 But [acceptance of] repentance is not for those
who go on committing misdeeds:
when death approaches any of them,
he says, ‘I repent now.’
Nor is it for those who die while they are faithless.
For such We have prepared a painful punishment.
19 O you who have faith!
It is not lawful for you to inherit women forcibly,
and do not press them
to take away part of what you have given them,
unless they commit a gross indecency.3
Consort with them in an honourable manner;
and should you dislike them,
maybe you dislike something
while Allah invests it with an abundant good.
20 If you desire to take a wife in place of another,
1 Superseded by the punishment by stoning for adultery and by verse 24:2 which prescribes the punishment for fornication.
2 That is, fornication (or sodomy, according to some exegetes).
3 That is, adultery.
