Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)
96. Sūrat al-‘Alaq 1
the All-beneficent, the All-merciful.
1 Read in the Name of your Lord who created;
2 created man from a clinging mass.
3 Read, and your Lord is the most generous,
4 who taught by the pen,
5 taught man what he did not know.
6 Indeed man becomes rebellious
7 when he considers himself without need.
8 Indeed to your Lord is the return.
9 Tell me, he who forbids
10 a servant when he prays,
11 tell me, should he be on [true] guidance,
12 or bid [others] to Godwariness,
13 tell me, should he call him a liar and turn away
14 — does he not know that Allah sees?
15 No indeed! If he does not stop,
We shall seize him by the forelock,
16 a lying, sinful forelock!
17 Then let him call out his gang!
18 We [too] shall call the keepers of hell.
19 No indeed! Do not obey him,
but prostrate and draw near [to Allah]!
1 Named after ‘the clinging mass’ (‘alaq) mentioned in verse 2.
