ForOneCreator  |  Comparative Tafsir Series

Surah Al-Furqan

سُورَةُ الْفُرْقَان

Verses 21–32  |  English Translation with Tafheem ul-Qur’an Commentary

 

Verse 21

Translation: And those who do not expect the meeting with Us say, “Why were not angels sent down to us, or [why] do we not see our Lord?” They have certainly become arrogant within themselves and gone far astray in insolence.

Tafsir — Tafheem ul-Qur’an (Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi)

This objection assumed that if Allah truly intended to convey His message, He would not have sent revelation through a single chosen prophet, but would instead have addressed every individual directly through an angel, or sent a whole company of angels to make the appeal before the people in person. The same demand recurs elsewhere in the Qur’an — the disbelievers insisting they would not believe unless given what was given to the messengers themselves. Allah alone knows best whom to entrust with His mission and how it is to be carried out.

The disbelievers’ claim to “want to see God” or “want angels sent to them” is not a sincere epistemic demand — it is a demand designed to be impossible to satisfy, which the Qur’an exposes as arrogance (istikbar) rather than honest inquiry.

Verse 22

Translation: The Day they see the angels — no good tidings will there be that Day for the criminals, and they will say, “Numbered and forbidden!”

Tafsir — Tafheem ul-Qur’an (Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi)

The very thing the disbelievers demanded to see — the angels — will indeed appear to them, but not as a proof granted in mercy; rather at the moment of death and on the Day of Judgment, when it will bring them nothing but terror. On that day, when the wrongdoers cry out for protection, they will be told that all refuge and good news is barred to them — the root meaning of hijran mahjura being an absolute, sealed prohibition, drawn from the same root as hijr (restraint, that which is forbidden or fenced off).

Verse 23

Translation: And We will regard what they have done of deeds and make them as scattered dust.

Tafsir — Tafheem ul-Qur’an (Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi)

Every action the disbelievers relied upon for salvation — charitable works, apparent piety, worldly achievements — will be brought forward on that Day and found to be worthless, because it lacked the two conditions any deed needs to be accepted: sincerity of intention, and conformity with the guidance Allah sent. Deeds built on neither foundation dissolve like dust scattered by the wind or motes floating in a shaft of light — visible, yet impossible to grasp or hold onto.

Verse 24

Translation: The companions of Paradise, that Day, are best in settlement and best in resting place.

Tafsir — Tafheem ul-Qur’an (Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi)

In direct contrast to the disbelievers, the people of Paradise will have already been judged and settled into rest by the time the Hereafter’s reckoning is underway — their abode secure, their place of repose the finest possible, precisely because their deeds, unlike those of the disbelievers, were built on sincerity and true guidance.

Verse 25

Translation: And [mention] the Day when the heaven will split open with clouds, and the angels will be sent down in successive descent.

Tafsir — Tafheem ul-Qur’an (Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi)

On that Day the sky shall be rent asunder by a cloud, and a whole cavalcade of angels will be made to descend — a scene of overwhelming grandeur marking the arrival of divine judgment, echoing the imagery elsewhere in the Qur’an of Allah’s coming in the shadows of clouds with the angels.

Verse 26

Translation: True sovereignty, that Day, is for the Most Merciful. And it will be a Day difficult for the disbelievers.

Tafsir — Tafheem ul-Qur’an (Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi)

On that Day every claim of worldly kingship, power, or authority will be stripped away, and it will be plain to all that sovereignty belongs, and has always belonged, to Allah alone. For the disbelievers this will be an exceptionally hard day — a day of true reckoning and decisive judgment — while for the believers, this same terror will hold no grief, only relief and glad tidings.

Verse 27

Translation: And the Day the wrongdoer will bite his hands [in regret] he will say, “Oh, I wish I had taken with the Messenger a way.”

Tafsir — Tafheem ul-Qur’an (Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi)

This describes the extremity of regret felt by the one who rejected the Messenger’s path in favor of some other way, only to realize on the Day of Resurrection that his choice was catastrophic and irreversible. Though the occasion for revelation is linked to specific individuals among the Prophet’s Makkan opponents, the warning applies to every wrongdoer who turns away from guidance once it has reached him.

Verse 28

Translation: “Oh, woe to me! I wish I had not taken that one as a friend.”

Tafsir — Tafheem ul-Qur’an (Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi)

The wrongdoer’s regret turns specifically toward the companion who led him astray — whether a particular disbeliever named in the traditional reports or, more broadly, anyone whose companionship diverted a person from the truth. The verse stands as a permanent warning about the weight of choosing one’s closest companions and the influence such friendships carry over a person’s ultimate fate.

Verse 29

Translation: “He led me away from the remembrance after it had come to me. And Satan is ever, to man, a deserter.”

Tafsir — Tafheem ul-Qur’an (Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi)

“The remembrance” (adh-dhikr) refers to the Qur’an itself, which had already reached this person before he was turned away from it by his companion’s influence. The verse closes with a sobering principle: Satan actively invites a person toward falsehood, but abandons him the moment he is in real need — offering no support at the very moment his victim faces the consequences of following him.

Verse 30

Translation: And the Messenger has said, “O my Lord, indeed my people have taken this Qur’an as [a thing] abandoned.”

Tafsir — Tafheem ul-Qur’an (Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi)

The word mahjur (abandoned) carries several possible senses here: that the Prophet’s own people considered the Qur’an unworthy of serious attention, neither accepting nor acting upon it; or that they dismissed it as meaningless talk; or that they made it an object of mockery and ridicule. Each of these constitutes a form of “forsaking” the Qur’an — refusing to hear it, refusing to believe it, refusing to reflect on its meaning, or refusing to act upon its commands are all, in their own way, ways of abandoning it.

Verse 31

Translation: And thus have We made for every prophet an enemy from among the criminals. But sufficient is your Lord as a guide and a helper.

Tafsir — Tafheem ul-Qur’an (Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi)

This is offered as a consolation to the Prophet: the hostility he faced from his own people was not a unique misfortune, but the same pattern Allah has established for every prophet sent before him — each was opposed by enemies drawn from among the wrongdoers of his own community. The verse closes by affirming that Allah Himself suffices as guide and helper for whoever follows His Messenger and holds fast to His Book, regardless of how fierce that opposition becomes.

Verse 32

Translation: And those who disbelieve say, “Why was the Qur’an not revealed to him all at once?” Thus [it is] that We may strengthen your heart thereby, and We have spaced it distinctly.

Tafsir — Tafheem ul-Qur’an (Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi)

The disbelievers of Makkah pressed this objection repeatedly, implying that if the Qur’an were truly the word of Allah, it would have been sent down complete and entire like earlier scriptures — and that its gradual, piecemeal delivery was itself evidence that the Prophet was composing it himself rather than receiving revelation. The Qur’an’s answer is that the gradual revelation served several deliberate purposes: enabling the Prophet, addressing a largely non-literate people, to memorize and transmit it accurately; allowing its teachings to be absorbed and internalized gradually rather than overwhelming its audience all at once; enabling its guidance to be followed with full conviction, responsive to the real circumstances the community faced; and — perhaps most significantly — providing ongoing reassurance and courage to the Prophet and his followers at each critical juncture of their struggle, showing that Allah was directly engaged with their situation rather than having left them to face it alone.

This verse is frequently cited in the Comparative Tafsir Series’ discussions of revelation methodology (tadarruj) — the same principle of gradual, situationally responsive guidance that also underlies the staged legislation on matters such as riba and intoxicants.

Source: Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, Tafheem ul-Qur’an (Towards Understanding the Qur’an), Surah Al-Furqan. English translation by Zafar Ishaq Ansari.

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