Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)
75 So I swear 1
by the places where 2 the stars set!3
76 And indeed it is a great oath, should you know.
77 This is indeed a noble Qur’ān,
78 in a guarded Book,4
79 — no one touches it except the pure ones —
80 gradually sent down
from the Lord of all the worlds.
81 What! Do you take lightly this discourse?
82 And make your denial of it your vocation?5
83 So when it 6 reaches the throat [of the dying person]
84 and at that moment you are looking on
85 — and We are nearer to him 7 than you are,
though you do not perceive —
86 then why do you not, if you are not subject 8
87 [to the Divine dispensation], restore it,
should you be truthful?
88 Then, if he be of those brought near,9
89 then ease, abundance, and a garden of bliss.
90 And if he be of the People of the Right Hand,
91 then ‘Peace be on you,’
1 Or ‘I will not swear.’
2 Or ‘by the times when.’
3 Or ‘by the places where the stars fall.’ Or ‘I swear by the orbits of the stars.’
4 That is, the Preserved Tablet.
5 Or ‘livelihood.’ According to the reading taj‘alūna shukrakum, narrated from Imam ‘Ali ibn Abī Ṭālib and Imam al-Ṣādiq in al-Tafsīr al-Qummī under this verse, the translation will be ‘You make your denial of it your thanksgiving.’ That is, instead of being grateful for it, you deny it.
6 That is, the soul, while leaving the body during the death-throes.
7 That is, to the dying person.
8 Or ‘if you are not liable to retribution.’
9 That is, of ‘the foremost ones’ mentioned in verses 10-11.
