Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)
He has chosen you
and has not placed for you
any obstacle in the religion,
the faith of your father, Abraham.
He named you ‘muslims’ before,
and in this,1
so that the Apostle may be a witness to you,
and that you may be witnesses to mankind.
So maintain the prayer,
give the zakāt,
and hold fast to Allah.
He is your master
— an excellent master and an excellent helper.
23. Sūrat al-Mu’minūn 2
the All-beneficent, the All-merciful.
1 Certainly, the faithful have attained salvation
2 — those who are humble in their prayers,
3 who avoid vain talk,
4 who carry out their [duty of] zakāt,
5 who guard their private parts3
6 (except from their spouses
or their slave women,
for then they are not blameworthy;
1 That is, in the earlier scriptures and in the present one, that is, the Qur’ān.
2 The sūrah takes its name from verse 1 which mentions the faithful (mu’minūn).
3 That is, those who refrain from unlawful sexual relations and cover their private parts properly, except in the state of privacy with their spouses.
