Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)
and that Allah has knowledge of all things.
98 Know that Allah is severe in retribution,
and that Allah is all-forgiving, all-merciful.
99 The Apostle’s duty is only to communicate
and Allah knows whatever you disclose
and whatever you conceal.
100 Say, ‘The good and the bad are not equal,
though the abundance of the bad should amaze you.’
So be wary of Allah, O you who possess intellect,
so that you may be felicitous!
101 O you who have faith!
Do not ask about things
which, if they are disclosed to you, will upset you.
Yet if you ask about them
while the Qur’ān is being sent down,
they shall be disclosed to you.
Allah has excused it,
and Allah is all-forgiving, all-forbearing.
102 Certainly some people asked about them before you
and then came to disbelieve in them.
103 Allah has not prescribed any such thing as Baḥīrah,
Sā’ibah, Waṣīlah, or Hām;1
but those who are faithless
fabricate lies against Allah,
and most of them do not apply reason.
104 And when they are told,
1 The pre-Islamic Arabs used these terms for individual camels and sheep, which were subject to such practices as the slitting of ears, the forbidding of their use for burden, their dedication to idols, and restriction of their flesh to males. The commentators give different descriptions of these primitive customs and their significance, reflecting probably their varying practice among pre-Islamic Arabs.
