إِبْرَاهِيم : ٤٦

  • وَقَدۡ And indeed
  • مَكَرُواْ they planned
  • مَكۡرَهُمۡ their plan
  • وَعِندَ but with
  • ٱللَّهِ Allah
  • مَكۡرُهُمۡ (was) their plan
  • وَإِن even if
  • كَانَ was
  • مَكۡرُهُمۡ their plan
  • لِتَزُولَ that should be moved
  • مِنۡهُ by it
  • ٱلۡجِبَالُ the mountains
And they had planned their plan, but with Allāh is [recorded] their plan, even if their plan had been [sufficient] to do away with the mountains.1
Footnotes
1 An alternative meaning is "...and their plan was not [sufficient] to do away with the mountains," i.e., it had no effect against Allāh's will.
And verily they plotted, against the Prophet may peace and salutation be upon him, their plot - when they desired to kill him, or detain him [in his house] or banish him - but their plotting is with God, that is to say, knowledge or the requital thereof [is with God], and their plotting, even though it be great, was not such whereby mountains should be moved, meaning that it is not of any importance, but that they are only harming themselves thereby. It is said that the use of 'mountains' here is meant to be literal; alternatively, it is also said [to be a reference to] the laws of Islam, which are likened to these [mountains] in the way that they are established and fixed (a variant reading has la-tazoolu [instead of li-tazoola], with in softened [from inna, 'verily'], in which case the intended meaning is that [the extent of] their plotting is great. It is said that 'plotting' here is [actually a reference to] their unbelief. This second [reading] is consonant with [God's saying]: Whereby the skies are almost torn and the earth split asunder and the mountains fall crashing [Q. 19:90]; according to the former [reading], however, one should read it as [if it were] wa-maa kaana, and [their plotting] was not such .).