Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)
and do not spend it in the way of Allah,
inform them of a painful punishment
35 on the day when these shall be heated in hell fire
and therewith branded on their foreheads,
their sides and their backs [and told]:
‘This is what you treasured up for yourselves!
So taste what you have treasured!’
36 Indeed the number of months with Allah
is twelve months in Allah’s Book,
the day when He created the heavens
and the earth.
Of these, four are sacred.
That is the upright religion.
So do not wrong yourselves during them.1
Fight all the polytheists,
just as they fight you all,
and know that Allah is with the Godwary.
37 Indeed nasī 2 is an increase in unfaith,
whereby the faithless are led [further] astray.
They allow it in one year and forbid it another year,
so as to fit in with the number
which Allah has made inviolable,
thus permitting what Allah has forbidden.
Their evil deeds appear to them as decorous,
and Allah does not guide the faithless lot.
38 O you who have faith!
What is the matter with you
1 The sacred months are Muḥarram, Rajab, Dhū al-Qa‘dah and Dhū al-Ḥijjah.
2 A pre-Islamic practice of intercalation. Its exact character is somewhat uncertain.
