Texts of Islam

The Meaning of the Glorious Qur'ân,: 23. al-Mu'minun: The Believers

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This is Surah 23 ("Al-Mu'minun" / The Believers) from the Quran, in M.M. Pickthall's early 20th-century English translation — a formal, archaic-register rendering that uses "thee/thou" and King James-style diction. The surah opens by defining the qualities of the faithful (humility in prayer, avoidance of idle talk, payment of alms, sexual propriety, honoring commitments) and promises them paradise as their inheritance. It then develops a theological argument through natural signs — human embryology, rainfall, livestock, crops — presenting them as evidence of God's creative power and providence, before moving through a series of prophetic narratives: Noah's ark, unnamed messengers, Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh, and Jesus and Mary. A recurring structural pattern runs through the prophetic stories: each messenger is dismissed by ruling elites as a mere mortal or madman, disbelief brings destruction, and the cycle repeats across generations. The surah's distinctive claims include a monotheist argument against polytheism via internal logic (multiple gods would each champion their own creation and conflict), and an eschatological sequence depicting the Day of Resurrection as a moment when earthly life will seem to have lasted only a day or part of a day. It closes with the Prophet being instructed to repel evil with good and to seek God's mercy rather than vengeance.

The Meaning of the Glorious Qur'ân,: 23. al-Mu'minun: The Believers

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