Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)
11 [They are but] a routed host out there,
from among the factions.1
12 Before them Noah’s people impugned [their apostle]
and [so did the people of] ‘Ād,
and Pharaoh, the Impaler 2 [of his victims],
13 and Thamūd, and the people of Lot,
and the inhabitants of Aykah:3
those were the factions.
14 Each of them did not but impugn the apostles;
so My retribution became due [against them].
15 These 4 do not await
but a single Cry
which will not grant any respite.
16 They say, ‘Our Lord!
Hasten on for us our share 5
before the Day of Reckoning.’
17 Be patient over what they say,
and remember Our servant, David,
[the man] of strength.
Indeed he was a penitent [soul].
1 A prophesy of the defeat of the Makkan army at Badr (see Ṭabarī and Ṭabrisī). Or ‘from among the confederates,’ that is, of Satan (cf. 35:6, 58:19).
2 Lit.: ‘the one of stakes.’ According to several traditions, Pharaoh used to torture and execute his victims by piercing their bodies with stakes, or awtād (see Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 13, p. 136, from ‘Ilal al-Sharāyi‘, p. 161; vol. 71, p. 13; vol. 75, p. 403). Hence the epithet ‘dhi’l-awtād,’ which occurs twice in the Qur’ān with reference to Pharaoh, refers to him as one who used to impale his victims. Other alternate explanations have been suggested for this epithet by the commentators, but they are not convincing.
3 Cf. 15:78.
4 That is, the pagans of Makkah.
5 That is, ‘our share of punishment,’ said mockingly.
