O people, of Mecca, fear your Lord, that is, His punishment by being obedient to Him, Who created you of a single soul, Adam, and from it created its mate, Eve (Hawwā’), from one of his left ribs, and from the pair of them, Adam and Eve, scattered, separated and spread, many men and, many, women; and fear God by whom you claim [your rights] from one another (tassā’alūna: the original tā’ [of tatasā’alūna] has been assimilated with the sīn; a variant reading has tasā’alūna), so that one of you says to the other, ‘I ask you, by God…’, or ‘For God’s sake…’; and, fear, kinship ties, lest you sever them (a variant reading [of wa’l-arhāma, ‘and kinship ties’] is wa’l-arhāmi, as a supplement to the pronoun contained in bihi [sc. God]). They used to implore one another by ties of kinship. Surely God has been watchful over you, heedful of your deeds, for which He will requite you, that is to say, He is ever possessed of such an attribute.