ForOneCreator

Surah An-Nur (24:37–43)

English Translation with Commentary from Tafheem ul-Quran (Sayyid Abul A’la Mawdudi)

Verse 37

رِجَالٌ لَّا تُلْهِيهِمْ تِجَارَةٌ وَلَا بَيْعٌ عَن ذِكْرِ اللَّهِ وَإِقَامِ الصَّلَاةِ وَإِيتَاءِ الزَّكَاةِ يَخَافُونَ يَوْمًا تَتَقَلَّبُ فِيهِ الْقُلُوبُ وَالْأَبْصَارُ

Men whom neither commerce nor sale distracts from the remembrance of Allah, the establishment of prayer, and the giving of zakah. They fear a Day in which the hearts and eyes will be overturned.

Mawdudi notes that these are people found in the houses which Allah has permitted to be raised and in which His name is remembered — whether understood as mosques, or as the homes of believers whose domestic life is oriented toward worship. Their trade never eclipses their devotion; commerce runs alongside remembrance rather than replacing it. They live with an abiding awareness of the Day when hearts will be wrenched with terror and eyes will be transfixed in dread, and this awareness disciplines their daily conduct.

Verse 38

لِيَجْزِيَهُمُ اللَّهُ أَحْسَنَ مَا عَمِلُوا وَيَزِيدَهُم مِّن فَضْلِهِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ يَرْزُقُ مَن يَشَاءُ بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ

That Allah may reward them according to the best of what they did and increase them from His bounty. And Allah gives provision to whom He wills without account.

This explains the purpose behind their devotion: Allah rewards them not merely in proportion to their deeds, but according to the very best of what they did, and then adds further from His own bounty — a grace that exceeds strict recompense. Mawdudi highlights that this open-handed, uncounted provision is a mark of divine generosity reserved for whoever Allah wills.

Verse 39

وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا أَعْمَالُهُمْ كَسَرَابٍ بِقِيعَةٍ يَحْسَبُهُ الظَّمْآنُ مَاءً حَتَّىٰ إِذَا جَاءَهُ لَمْ يَجِدْهُ شَيْئًا وَوَجَدَ اللَّهَ عِندَهُ فَوَفَّاهُ حِسَابَهُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ سَرِيعُ الْحِسَابِ

But those who disbelieved — their deeds are like a mirage in a lowland which a thirsty one thinks is water until, when he comes to it, he finds it is nothing, but finds Allah before him, and He will pay him his due in full; and Allah is swift in account.

Mawdudi draws out the desert imagery directly: a thirsty traveler, deceived by shimmering sand that looks like a spring, races toward it only to find nothing there at all. In the same way, those who deliberately reject the truth — despite whatever apparently good deeds they performed — will discover in the Hereafter that none of it avails them. Instead of the reward they expected, they will find Allah there to settle their account in full for their disbelief, hypocrisy, and misdeeds, however outwardly virtuous those deeds may have seemed.

Verse 40

أَوْ كَظُلُمَاتٍ فِي بَحْرٍ لُّجِّيٍّ يَغْشَاهُ مَوْجٌ مِّن فَوْقِهِ مَوْجٌ مِّن فَوْقِهِ سَحَابٌ ۚ ظُلُمَاتٌ بَعْضُهَا فَوْقَ بَعْضٍ إِذَا أَخْرَجَ يَدَهُ لَمْ يَكَدْ يَرَاهَا ۗ وَمَن لَّمْ يَجْعَلِ اللَّهُ لَهُ نُورًا فَمَا لَهُ مِن نُّورٍ

Or [the state of a disbeliever] is like layers of darkness in a vast, deep sea, overwhelmed by waves, above which are waves, above which are clouds — darkness upon darkness. When he puts out his hand, he can hardly see it. And whoever Allah does not grant light — for him there is no light.

This second parable describes a deeper and more total form of loss than the first. Mawdudi explains it as the condition of those wholly submerged in ignorance, layer upon layer — deep water, then wave, then wave again, then cloud blotting out the sky above — such that even one’s own outstretched hand becomes invisible. The final statement anchors the whole discourse: since every form of light in existence ultimately derives from Allah’s own Light, whoever is cut off from it has, quite simply, no light of any kind, in this life or the next.

Verse 41

أَلَمْ تَرَ أَنَّ اللَّهَ يُسَبِّحُ لَهُ مَن فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَالطَّيْرُ صَافَّاتٍ ۖ كُلٌّ قَدْ عَلِمَ صَلَاتَهُ وَتَسْبِيحَهُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ بِمَا يَفْعَلُونَ

Do you not see that Allah is glorified by whoever is in the heavens and the earth, and the birds with wings outspread? Each has known its own prayer and glorification, and Allah is Knowing of what they do.

Mawdudi reads this as a turn from the parables of light and darkness toward the visible signs of tawhid scattered throughout creation. Everything in the heavens and earth — including birds spreading their wings in flight — glorifies Allah, each after its own mode of prayer and praise, a mode it instinctively knows even without human language to express it. Allah is fully aware of this worship, whatever form it takes.

Verse 42

وَلِلَّهِ مُلْكُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ ۖ وَإِلَى اللَّهِ الْمَصِيرُ

And to Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and to Allah is the final destination.

A brief but decisive statement: sovereignty over all creation belongs to Allah alone, and every creature’s ultimate return is to Him — the same Allah who is glorified, consciously or instinctively, by everything that exists.

Verse 43

أَلَمْ تَرَ أَنَّ اللَّهَ يُزْجِي سَحَابًا ثُمَّ يُؤَلِّفُ بَيْنَهُ ثُمَّ يَجْعَلُهُ رُكَامًا فَتَرَى الْوَدْقَ يَخْرُجُ مِنْ خِلَالِهِ وَيُنَزِّلُ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مِن جِبَالٍ فِيهَا مِن بَرَدٍ فَيُصِيبُ بِهِ مَن يَشَاءُ وَيَصْرِفُهُ عَن مَّن يَشَاءُ ۖ يَكَادُ سَنَا بَرْقِهِ يَذْهَبُ بِالْأَبْصَارِ

Do you not see that Allah drives the clouds, then joins them together, then makes them into a mass, and you see the rain emerge from within it? And He sends down from the sky, mountains [of clouds] within which is hail, and He strikes with it whom He wills and averts it from whom He wills. The flash of its lightning almost takes away the eyesight.

Mawdudi treats this as a further sign drawn from meteorology: Allah gently gathers scattered clouds, joins them, and piles them into a dense mass from which rain finally emerges. The ‘mountains’ of cloud mentioned may refer either to towering, snow-laden cloud formations pictured as mountains in the sky, or to actual mountains whose height chills the air enough to produce hail. Allah directs where this hail falls and where it is withheld, entirely by His will — and even the lightning accompanying such storms is so intense that it nearly blinds the eyes that behold it. The passage closes the discourse on light and darkness by grounding both in observable, everyday phenomena of the natural world, all governed by the same Divine will introduced at the start of the surah.

Translation: Sahih International (adapted). Commentary: condensed and paraphrased from Sayyid Abul A’la Mawdudi, Tafheem ul-Quran / Towards Understanding the Qur’an (Islamic Foundation UK), for ForOneCreator’s Comparative Tafsir Series.