Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)
and a noble reward.
12 Indeed it is We who revive the dead
and write what they have sent ahead 1
and their effects [which they left behind],2
and We have figured everything
in a manifest Imam.3
13 Cite for them
the example of the inhabitants of the town
when the apostles came to it.
14 When We sent to them two [apostles],
they impugned both of them.
Then We reinforced them with a third,
and they said, ‘We have indeed been sent to you.’
15 They said, ‘You are nothing but humans like us,
and the All-beneficent has not sent down anything,
and you are only lying.’
16 They said, ‘Our Lord knows
that we have indeed been sent to you,
17 and our duty is only to communicate in clear terms.’
18 They said, ‘Indeed we take you for a bad omen.
If you do not relinquish we will stone you,
and surely a painful punishment will visit you from us.’
19 They said, ‘Your bad omens attend you.
What! If you are admonished.…4
Rather you are a profligate lot.’
20 There came a man from the city outskirts,
1 That is, the deeds they have done.
2 That is, the good or evil heritage and imprint they leave behind in the society in which they have lived, and which outlive them.
3 Or, in a manifest book.
4 Ellipsis. The phrase omitted is ‘do you take it for a bad omen?!’
