Surah Yunus — English Translation and Tafsir
Introduction
Name
As is customary, the name of this surah is taken merely as a label from verse 98, which alludes to Prophet Yunus (peace be upon him). The story of Prophet Yunus is not the subject of the surah.
Place of Revelation
The narrations indicate, and the content itself confirms, that the entire surah was revealed in Makkah. Some have supposed that a few of its verses belong to the Madinan period, but this is only a superficial conjecture. The flow of the discourse makes it clear that it is not a collection of separate speeches or of verses revealed on different occasions. It is one connected discourse from beginning to end, which must have been revealed all at once, and its content clearly shows that it belongs to the Makkan period.
Period of Revelation
We have not found any narration about when it was revealed. The content, however, suggests that it was revealed in the last phase of the Prophet’s stay in Makkah. Its tone clearly shows several things:
• The opposition to the message has reached its full intensity.
• The opponents are no longer willing to tolerate the Prophet and his followers among them.
• There is no longer any hope that explanation and exhortation will bring them to the right path.
• The time has come to warn them of the fate they must inevitably face if they finally and decisively reject the Prophet.
These features of the content are what tell us which surahs belong to the last Makkan phase. However, this surah contains no allusion to the Hijrah, so it should be dated before those surahs that contain some allusion to the Hijrah, whether subtle or explicit. With the period fixed in this way, there is no need to describe the historical background here. The background of this period has already been given in the introductions to Surah Al-An’am and Surah Al-A’raf.
Subject
The theme of the discourse is invitation, admonition and warning. The discourse opens along these lines:
People are astonished that a human being should come with the message of prophethood, and they needlessly accuse him of sorcery. Yet nothing in what he presents is strange, and none of it has anything to do with magic or soothsaying. He is only making you aware of two important realities.
The first is that the God who created this universe, and who is actually running its affairs, is alone your Master and Lord. He alone has the right to be served.
The second is that another phase of life will come after this worldly one. In it you will be raised again and will give an account of everything you did in your present life. You will then be rewarded or punished on one fundamental question: did you accept that same God as your Master and live righteously according to His will, or did you keep acting against it?
These two realities are facts in themselves, whether you accept them or not. He invites you to accept them and to shape your life according to them. If you accept his invitation, your own end will be good; otherwise you yourselves will see the evil result.
Topics Discussed
After this introduction, the following topics come up in a deliberate order:
1. Arguments for Tawhid and the Hereafter. The surah gives arguments for the oneness of God’s lordship and for the life of the Hereafter. These arguments can satisfy the reason and conscience of people who are free of ignorant prejudice. Such people care less about winning or losing an argument and more about protecting themselves from false thinking and its evil consequences.
2. Misconceptions and heedlessness. It clears up the misconceptions, and warns against the heedlessness, that were keeping people from accepting belief in Tawhid and the Hereafter (as they always do).
3. Objections to the Prophet. It answers the doubts and objections raised about the prophethood of Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the message he brought.
4. The next life. It gives advance news of what will happen in the second life. The purpose is that people take warning from it and correct their present conduct, so that they do not come to regret it later.
5. This life as a trial. It warns that the present worldly life is really a life of trial. The only time you have for this trial is the time you are alive and breathing in this world. If you waste that time and do not prepare to succeed by accepting the Prophet’s guidance, you will get no second chance. The coming of this Prophet, and the knowledge of reality that reaches you through this Quran, is the best opportunity you will have and the only one. If you do not benefit from it, you will regret it forever in the eternal life to come.
6. Ignorance and misguidance. It points to the open ignorance and misguidance found in people’s lives, which existed only because they were living without divine guidance.
The Stories of Nuh and Musa
In this connection, the story of Nuh (peace be upon him) is told briefly and that of Musa (peace be upon him) in somewhat more detail. Four points are meant to be impressed on the reader through them.
First: the way you are treating Muhammad (peace be upon him) resembles the way your predecessors treated Nuh and Musa (peace be upon them). Be certain that you will meet the same end that they met for that conduct.
Second: you see Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his companions helpless and weak today, but do not conclude that things will always stay this way. You do not know that the same God who stood behind Musa and Harun stands behind these people. He overturns circumstances in ways no one can foresee.
Third: God is giving you time to mend your ways. If you waste it, and then repent at the very last moment after God has seized you, as Pharaoh did, you will not be forgiven.
Fourth: those who had believed in Muhammad (peace be upon him) should not despair when they see how hostile their surroundings have become and how helpless they are against them, and they should understand how to work under such conditions. They are also warned about what comes after. When Allah, by His grace, delivers them from this state, they must not follow the course the Children of Israel took after being delivered from Egypt.
Conclusion
At the end, it is declared that this is the creed and the way of life that Allah has directed His Messenger to follow. No change whatsoever can be made to it. Whoever accepts it does good for himself, and whoever abandons it and strays onto wrong paths harms only himself.
Section 1 (Verses 1–10)
Arabic Text
بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
الٓر ۚ تِلْكَ ءَايَٰتُ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ ٱلْحَكِيمِ ﴿١﴾ أَكَانَ لِلنَّاسِ عَجَبًا أَنْ أَوْحَيْنَآ إِلَىٰ رَجُلٍۢ مِّنْهُمْ أَنْ أَنذِرِ ٱلنَّاسَ وَبَشِّرِ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ أَنَّ لَهُمْ قَدَمَ صِدْقٍ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ ۗ قَالَ ٱلْكَٰفِرُونَ إِنَّ هَٰذَا لَسَٰحِرٌۭ مُّبِينٌ ﴿٢﴾ إِنَّ رَبَّكُمُ ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضَ فِى سِتَّةِ أَيَّامٍۢ ثُمَّ ٱسْتَوَىٰ عَلَى ٱلْعَرْشِ ۖ يُدَبِّرُ ٱلْأَمْرَ ۖ مَا مِن شَفِيعٍ إِلَّا مِنۢ بَعْدِ إِذْنِهِۦ ۚ ذَٰلِكُمُ ٱللَّهُ رَبُّكُمْ فَٱعْبُدُوهُ ۚ أَفَلَا تَذَكَّرُونَ ﴿٣﴾ إِلَيْهِ مَرْجِعُكُمْ جَمِيعًۭا ۖ وَعْدَ ٱللَّهِ حَقًّا ۚ إِنَّهُۥ يَبْدَؤُا۟ ٱلْخَلْقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُۥ لِيَجْزِىَ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّٰلِحَٰتِ بِٱلْقِسْطِ ۚ وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ لَهُمْ شَرَابٌۭ مِّنْ حَمِيمٍۢ وَعَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌۢ بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَكْفُرُونَ ﴿٤﴾ هُوَ ٱلَّذِى جَعَلَ ٱلشَّمْسَ ضِيَآءًۭ وَٱلْقَمَرَ نُورًۭا وَقَدَّرَهُۥ مَنَازِلَ لِتَعْلَمُوا۟ عَدَدَ ٱلسِّنِينَ وَٱلْحِسَابَ ۚ مَا خَلَقَ ٱللَّهُ ذَٰلِكَ إِلَّا بِٱلْحَقِّ ۚ يُفَصِّلُ ٱلْءَايَٰتِ لِقَوْمٍۢ يَعْلَمُونَ ﴿٥﴾ إِنَّ فِى ٱخْتِلَٰفِ ٱلَّيْلِ وَٱلنَّهَارِ وَمَا خَلَقَ ٱللَّهُ فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ لَءَايَٰتٍۢ لِّقَوْمٍۢ يَتَّقُونَ ﴿٦﴾ إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ لَا يَرْجُونَ لِقَآءَنَا وَرَضُوا۟ بِٱلْحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا وَٱطْمَأَنُّوا۟ بِهَا وَٱلَّذِينَ هُمْ عَنْ ءَايَٰتِنَا غَٰفِلُونَ ﴿٧﴾ أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ مَأْوَىٰهُمُ ٱلنَّارُ بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَكْسِبُونَ ﴿٨﴾ إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّٰلِحَٰتِ يَهْدِيهِمْ رَبُّهُم بِإِيمَٰنِهِمْ ۖ تَجْرِى مِن تَحْتِهِمُ ٱلْأَنْهَٰرُ فِى جَنَّٰتِ ٱلنَّعِيمِ ﴿٩﴾ دَعْوَىٰهُمْ فِيهَا سُبْحَٰنَكَ ٱللَّهُمَّ وَتَحِيَّتُهُمْ فِيهَا سَلَٰمٌۭ ۚ وَءَاخِرُ دَعْوَىٰهُمْ أَنِ ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ ﴿١٠﴾
Translation
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Alif Lam Ra. These are the verses of the Book that is full of wisdom.¹
Is it something strange to people that We inspired a man from among themselves to rouse the [heedless] people, and to give those who believe the good news that true honour and high rank await them with their Lord?² [Is this why] the deniers said, “This man is plainly a sorcerer”?³
In truth, your Lord is the God who created the heavens and the earth in six days, then established Himself on the Throne of sovereignty, and He is running the affairs of the universe.⁴ No one can intercede except after His permission.⁵ This is Allah, your Lord, so worship Him alone.⁶ Will you not then come to your senses?⁷
To Him you will all return.⁸ This is Allah’s firm promise. He is the one who begins creation, and He is the one who will create it again.⁹ He does this to reward with full justice those who believed and did good deeds. Those who chose the way of disbelief will drink boiling water and suffer a painful punishment for the denial of truth they persisted in.¹⁰
He is the one who made the sun radiant and gave the moon its light. He precisely fixed the moon’s stages of waxing and waning so that you may know the count of years and the reckoning of dates. Allah has not created all this [as a game]; He created it with purpose. He lays out His signs in detail for people who have knowledge. In the alternation of night and day, and in everything Allah has created in the earth and the heavens, there are signs for people who want to guard themselves [against false perception and wrong conduct].¹¹
In truth, some people do not expect to meet Us and are content and at ease with the life of this world, and some are heedless of Our signs. Their final abode will be Hell, as recompense for the evils they kept earning [through their false beliefs and wrong conduct].¹²
It is equally true that those who believed [that is, accepted the truths presented in this Book] and kept doing good deeds will be guided on the straight path by their Lord because of their faith. In gardens of bliss, rivers will flow beneath them.¹³ Their call there will be, “Glory be to You, O God!” Their greeting will be, “Peace!” And their every word will end with, “All praise belongs to Allah alone, Lord of all the worlds.”¹⁴
Notes
Note 1. This opening sentence carries a subtle warning. Foolish people thought that what the Prophet recited to them in the name of the Quran was nothing more than verbal magic, a poetic flight of imagination, or talk of the higher realm like the utterances of soothsayers. This verse warns them that it is not what they imagine. These are the verses of a Book full of wisdom, and if they do not pay attention to them, they will deprive themselves of that wisdom.
Note 2. In other words, what is so surprising about this? If a human being were not appointed to warn human beings, should an angel, a jinn or an animal have been appointed instead? And if people have become heedless of reality and are living the wrong way, which would be surprising: that their Creator and Sustainer leaves them to their own devices, or that He makes some arrangement to guide and direct them? And if guidance does come from God, who should receive honour and high rank: those who accept it, or those who reject it? So those who express surprise ought to stop and think about what it is they are actually surprised at.
Note 3. In other words, they were quick to brand him a sorcerer, but never stopped to ask whether the label actually fit. That a man is winning over hearts and minds through eloquence of the highest order is not enough, on its own, to accuse him of sorcery. The real questions are these: what is he saying through that eloquence, for what purpose is he using his power of speech, and what kind of effect is his speech having on the lives of those who believe in him?
An orator who uses the power of enchanting speech for an illegitimate end is brash, unrestrained and irresponsible. Unbound by truth, honesty or fairness, he says whatever will sway his listeners, however false, exaggerated or unjust it may be. His words contain demagoguery instead of wisdom, contradiction and inconsistency instead of coherent thought, and excess instead of balance. He talks only to establish his own dominance, or he intoxicates people with his rhetoric to set them against one another and stir up one group against another. His influence produces no moral elevation in people and no beneficial change in their lives. It gives rise to no sound thinking and no sound practical conduct. Instead, people begin to display worse traits than before.
Here, however, you can see that the discourse the Prophet presents is full of wisdom. It has a well-proportioned system of thought, the utmost balance, and a strict commitment to truth and honesty. Every word is carefully measured, and every statement is exactly weighed. In his speech you cannot point to any purpose other than the reform of God’s creatures. Nothing he says carries the slightest trace of any personal, family, national or other worldly interest. His only wish is to warn people of the evil consequences of the heedlessness they have fallen into, and to call them to the way that is for their own good.
The effects of his speech are also entirely different from those of sorcerers. Everyone here who has accepted his influence has had their life set right. They have become people of better character than before, and goodness and righteousness now show clearly in all their conduct. Now think for yourselves: is this how sorcerers speak, and does their sorcery produce results like these?
Note 4. In other words, after creating the universe He did not withdraw into inactivity. He Himself took His seat on the throne of sovereignty over the universe He created, and the management of the whole world is now actually in His hands. Foolish people imagine that God created the universe and then simply left it to run however it would, or handed it over to others to control as they please.
The Quran presents the opposite as the truth. Allah Himself rules over the entire workshop of His creation. All authority is in His own hands, and He alone holds the reins of power. Whatever happens in every corner of the universe, at every moment, happens directly by His command or permission. His relationship with this world of existence is not merely that He brought it into being at some point in the past. He is its constant planner and manager: it stands because He sustains it, and it runs because He runs it. (See Surah Al-A’raf, Notes 40 and 41.)
Note 5. In other words, far from anyone else having a share in running and managing the world, no one even has enough authority to intercede with God and get one of His decisions changed, or to have someone’s fortune made or ruined. The most anyone can do is pray to God, and whether that prayer is accepted depends entirely on God’s will. In all of God’s dominion there is no one so powerful that his word must prevail and his intercession cannot be refused, no one who can cling to the leg of the Throne and refuse to budge until he gets his way.
Note 6. The three preceding sentences stated an objective reality: God alone is in fact your Lord. Now you are being told how you should conduct yourselves given this fact. Since lordship (rububiyyah) belongs entirely to God, it necessarily follows that you should worship (‘ibadah) Him alone.
The word rububiyyah carries three meanings: nurturing and sustaining, ownership and mastery, and rule and sovereignty. In the same way, the word ‘ibadah, its counterpart, carries three meanings: devotion, servitude and obedience.
• First meaning: devotion. Because God is the only Sustainer, people should be grateful to Him alone, make their supplications to Him alone, and bow their heads before Him alone in love and reverence.
• Second meaning: servitude. Because God is the only Owner and Master, people should live as His servants and slaves. They should not act independently of Him, and they should not accept mental or practical servitude to anyone besides Him.
• Third meaning: obedience. Because God is the only [Ruler], people should obey His command and follow His law. They should neither make themselves their own rulers nor accept the sovereignty of anyone other than Him.
Note 7. In other words, this reality has now been laid open before you, and you have been told plainly what the right conduct is in light of it. Will your eyes still not open? Will you remain caught in the same misconceptions that have kept the whole course of your life at odds with reality until now?
Note 8. This is the second fundamental principle of the Prophet’s teaching. The first principle is that Allah alone is your Lord, so worship Him alone. The second principle is that you must return from this world and give an account to your Lord.
Note 9. This sentence contains both a claim and its proof. The claim is that God will create human beings again. The proof offered for it is that He is the one who created them the first time.
Anyone who accepts that God began creation cannot call it impossible or unreasonable that the same God will bring that creation back again. And who could deny that God began creation, apart from the atheists who, simply to escape the religion of the clergy, have been willing to adopt a theory as foolish as creation without a Creator?
Note 10. This is the need on account of which Allah will create human beings again. The argument given above was enough to prove that bringing creation back is possible and that it is wrong to consider it far-fetched. Now we are told that this repetition of creation is necessary according to reason and justice, and that this need cannot be met in any way except by a second creation.
Those who accept God as their only Lord and adopt the proper attitude of servitude deserve the full reward for their right conduct. Those who deny reality and live in opposition to it also deserve to see the evil result of their wrong conduct. If this need is not being met in the present worldly life, and anyone who is not obstinate knows that it is not, then another life is certainly unavoidable to meet it. (For further explanation, see Surah Al-A’raf, Note 30, and Surah Hud, Note 105.)
Note 11. This is the third argument for belief in the Hereafter. God’s works are visible everywhere in the universe, and some of their greatest signs are there for everyone to see in the sun and the moon and the cycle of night and day. They give the clearest proof that the Creator of this magnificent workshop of existence is not a child who made it all just to play with, only to smash the toy house once he has had his fill. It is plainly evident that there is order, wisdom and purpose in all His works, and deep intention in the creation of every single particle. He is All-Wise, and the marks and signs of His wisdom are openly before you. How, then, can you expect Him to leave unanswered the entitlement to reward and punishment that necessarily arises from giving human beings reason and moral responsibility?
In this way, these verses present belief in the Hereafter together with three arguments for it, set out in precise logical order:
• First: a second life is possible, because the first life actually exists, which proves such a life can exist.
• Second: a second life is necessary. In this present life people carry out their moral responsibility rightly or wrongly, and that creates an entitlement to punishment or reward. Reason and justice therefore demand another life in which everyone sees the result their moral conduct deserves.
• Third: since reason and justice require a second life, that requirement will certainly be met. The Creator of humanity and the universe is All-Wise, and no one can expect the All-Wise to hold back from bringing about what wisdom and justice demand.
On careful reflection, these three arguments turn out to be the only ones possible for proving life after death by reasoning, and they are also sufficient. After them, only one thing could be added: showing people with their own eyes that the thing which is possible, which needs to exist, and which God’s wisdom requires Him to bring about, is standing right before them. That will not be done in this present worldly life, however, because believing after seeing means nothing. The very test God intends for human beings is whether they will accept realities beyond sense and observation through pure reflection, thought and sound reasoning.
In this connection, another important point is made that deserves close attention. The verses say that God “lays out His signs in detail for people who have knowledge,” and that “in everything Allah has created there are signs for people who want to guard themselves against false perception and wrong conduct.” This means that God, in His great wisdom, has spread signs throughout the phenomena of life that clearly point to the realities hidden behind them. But only people who have two qualities can reach the reality through these signs:
• First, they must be free of ignorant prejudice and must use the means of acquiring knowledge that God has given to human beings.
• Second, they must themselves want to avoid error and take the right path.
Note 12. Here again, a claim is made and its proof is indicated alongside it. The claim is that the necessary and certain result of denying the Hereafter is Hell. The proof is that a person who denies this belief, or is simply indifferent to it, goes on earning evils whose punishment can be nothing other than Hell.
This is a fact, and thousands of years of human experience bear witness to it. Consider people who do not see themselves as responsible and answerable before God, who have no fear that they must eventually account to God for the full record of their lives, and who act on the assumption that this worldly life is the only life. For them the only measure of success and failure is how much prosperity, comfort, fame and power a person gains in this world, and because of these materialist notions they regard God’s signs as unworthy of attention. The whole of their lives goes wrong. They live in the world like unbridled camels, acquire the worst morals and qualities, fill God’s earth with oppression, corruption, sin and immorality, and so become deserving of Hell.
This is a different kind of argument for belief in the Hereafter. The first three arguments were rational ones, while this one is empirical. It is only alluded to here, but the Quran gives it in detail in various places. In short, the argument is this: neither an individual’s conduct nor the collective conduct of human groups is ever set right unless the awareness and conviction that we must answer to God for our deeds is embedded at the foundation of human character.
The question to consider is why this should be so. Why does human character and conduct head down the path of evil as soon as this awareness and conviction disappear or weaken? If belief in the Hereafter did not correspond to objective reality, and denying it did not go against reality, the results of affirming or denying it could not keep appearing in our experience with such inevitable consistency. When one thing consistently produces right results, and its absence always produces wrong ones, that is conclusive proof that the thing itself is right.
In response, people sometimes argue that many who deny the Hereafter base their moral philosophy and way of life entirely on atheism and materialism. They say such people still have fairly upright characters, do not commit oppression, corruption, sin or immorality, and are good in their dealings and devoted to serving others.
The weakness of this argument becomes clear with a moment’s thought. Examine every materialist, irreligious philosophy and system of thought. You will find no foundation anywhere for the moral excellences and good deeds for which these “virtuous” atheists are praised. No logic can show that these irreligious philosophies provide any motive for truthfulness, trustworthiness, honesty, keeping one’s word, justice, compassion, generosity, self-sacrifice, sympathy, self-control, chastity, recognition of what is right, and fulfilling the rights of others.
Once God and the Hereafter are set aside, the only workable system of morality that can be built rests on utilitarianism. All other moral philosophies are merely hypothetical and bookish, not practical. However far the morality produced by utilitarianism is extended, it never goes beyond one thing: a person does whatever is expected to bring some benefit in this world to himself or to the society he belongs to. Driven by hope of gain and fear of loss, such a morality can lead a person to commit truth or falsehood, trustworthiness or betrayal, honesty or dishonesty, loyalty or treachery, justice or oppression, as the occasion demands. In short, it can lead him to any virtue or its opposite.
The best example of this morality is the modern English nation. It is often cited to show that, despite holding a materialist view of life and lacking any concept of the Hereafter, its individuals are generally more truthful, straightforward, honest, faithful to their commitments, just-minded and reliable in their dealings than others. In reality, however, the character of this very nation gives us the most striking practical proof of how unstable utilitarian morality is.
If the truthfulness, fairness, uprightness and fidelity to agreements of the English really rested on a firm conviction that these qualities are permanent moral virtues in themselves, how could the following be possible? Each individual Englishman carries these qualities in his personal character. Yet the people the whole nation chooses as its representatives and the heads of its collective affairs openly use lies, broken promises, oppression, injustice and dishonesty on a vast scale in running its empire and its international affairs, and they keep the trust of the entire nation. Is this not clear proof that these people do not believe in permanent moral values? It shows that, according to worldly gain and loss, they adopt, and are able to adopt, two contradictory moral attitudes at the same time.
Still, suppose there really is someone in the world who denies God and the Hereafter and yet consistently practises certain virtues and avoids certain vices. His virtue and restraint are not the result of his materialist view of life. They result from religious influences that have unconsciously settled in his soul. His moral capital has been stolen from religion, and he is using it improperly in irreligion, because he can never point to the source of this capital anywhere in the treasury of his irreligion and materialism.
Note 13. Do not pass over this sentence casually. The sequence of its ideas deserves close attention.
Why will these people receive Paradise in the life of the Hereafter? Because they walked the straight path in the life of this world. In every task, in every area of life, and in every individual and collective matter, they chose the right way and abandoned false ways.
How did they gain the ability to tell right from wrong, truth from falsehood and straight from crooked at every step, at every turn and at every crossroads of life? And where did they find the strength to hold firm to the right course that this discernment showed them, and to avoid going astray? From their Lord, because He is the source of guidance in knowledge and of enabling grace in action.
Why did their Lord keep granting them this guidance and this enabling grace? Because of their faith.
What kind of faith produces the results described above? Not a faith that means mere acceptance, but a faith that becomes the soul of one’s character and conduct, and by whose power goodness begins to show in one’s morals and deeds.
In your physical life you can see for yourself that staying alive, being healthy, having the strength to work, and enjoying life all depend on the right kind of food. But these results do not come from nourishment that means merely eating. They come from nourishment that is digested, becomes blood, and reaches every vein. There it gives every part of the body the strength to do its own work properly.
In exactly the same way, in the moral life, being guided, seeing rightly, acting rightly and finally attaining success all depend on right beliefs. But these results do not come from beliefs that are merely spoken or lie idle in some corner of the heart and mind. They come from beliefs that are absorbed into the self and become one’s way of thinking, one’s taste and one’s temperament. They then show clearly in one’s character, conduct and way of life.
Under God’s physical law, a person who eats but remains like one who has not eaten does not earn the benefits reserved for one who eats and digests. Why, then, should anyone expect that under His moral law a person who believes but remains like one who does not believe can deserve the rewards reserved for one who believes and becomes righteous?
Note 14. [Not yet translated. The source text for this note was not supplied.]
[End of Section 1]
Section 2 (Verses 11–20)
Arabic Text
۞ وَلَوْ يُعَجِّلُ ٱللَّهُ لِلنَّاسِ ٱلشَّرَّ ٱسْتِعْجَالَهُم بِٱلْخَيْرِ لَقُضِىَ إِلَيْهِمْ أَجَلُهُمْ ۖ فَنَذَرُ ٱلَّذِينَ لَا يَرْجُونَ لِقَآءَنَا فِى طُغْيَٰنِهِمْ يَعْمَهُونَ ﴿١١﴾ وَإِذَا مَسَّ ٱلْإِنسَٰنَ ٱلضُّرُّ دَعَانَا لِجَنۢبِهِۦٓ أَوْ قَاعِدًا أَوْ قَآئِمًۭا فَلَمَّا كَشَفْنَا عَنْهُ ضُرَّهُۥ مَرَّ كَأَن لَّمْ يَدْعُنَآ إِلَىٰ ضُرٍّۢ مَّسَّهُۥ ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ زُيِّنَ لِلْمُسْرِفِينَ مَا كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ ﴿١٢﴾ وَلَقَدْ أَهْلَكْنَا ٱلْقُرُونَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ لَمَّا ظَلَمُوا۟ ۙ وَجَآءَتْهُمْ رُسُلُهُم بِٱلْبَيِّنَٰتِ وَمَا كَانُوا۟ لِيُؤْمِنُوا۟ ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ نَجْزِى ٱلْقَوْمَ ٱلْمُجْرِمِينَ ﴿١٣﴾ ثُمَّ جَعَلْنَٰكُمْ خَلَٰٓئِفَ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ مِنۢ بَعْدِهِمْ لِنَنظُرَ كَيْفَ تَعْمَلُونَ ﴿١٤﴾ وَإِذَا تُتْلَىٰ عَلَيْهِمْ ءَايَاتُنَا بَيِّنَٰتٍۢ ۙ قَالَ ٱلَّذِينَ لَا يَرْجُونَ لِقَآءَنَا ٱئْتِ بِقُرْءَانٍ غَيْرِ هَٰذَآ أَوْ بَدِّلْهُ ۚ قُلْ مَا يَكُونُ لِىٓ أَنْ أُبَدِّلَهُۥ مِن تِلْقَآئِ نَفْسِىٓ ۖ إِنْ أَتَّبِعُ إِلَّا مَا يُوحَىٰٓ إِلَىَّ ۖ إِنِّىٓ أَخَافُ إِنْ عَصَيْتُ رَبِّى عَذَابَ يَوْمٍ عَظِيمٍۢ ﴿١٥﴾ قُل لَّوْ شَآءَ ٱللَّهُ مَا تَلَوْتُهُۥ عَلَيْكُمْ وَلَآ أَدْرَىٰكُم بِهِۦ ۖ فَقَدْ لَبِثْتُ فِيكُمْ عُمُرًۭا مِّن قَبْلِهِۦٓ ۚ أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ ﴿١٦﴾ فَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنِ ٱفْتَرَىٰ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ كَذِبًا أَوْ كَذَّبَ بِـَٔايَٰتِهِۦٓ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ لَا يُفْلِحُ ٱلْمُجْرِمُونَ ﴿١٧﴾ وَيَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ مَا لَا يَضُرُّهُمْ وَلَا يَنفَعُهُمْ وَيَقُولُونَ هَٰٓؤُلَآءِ شُفَعَٰٓؤُنَا عِندَ ٱللَّهِ ۚ قُلْ أَتُنَبِّـُٔونَ ٱللَّهَ بِمَا لَا يَعْلَمُ فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَلَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ ۚ سُبْحَٰنَهُۥ وَتَعَٰلَىٰ عَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ ﴿١٨﴾ وَمَا كَانَ ٱلنَّاسُ إِلَّآ أُمَّةًۭ وَٰحِدَةًۭ فَٱخْتَلَفُوا۟ ۚ وَلَوْلَا كَلِمَةٌۭ سَبَقَتْ مِن رَّبِّكَ لَقُضِىَ بَيْنَهُمْ فِيمَا فِيهِ يَخْتَلِفُونَ ﴿١٩﴾ وَيَقُولُونَ لَوْلَآ أُنزِلَ عَلَيْهِ ءَايَةٌۭ مِّن رَّبِّهِۦ ۖ فَقُلْ إِنَّمَا ٱلْغَيْبُ لِلَّهِ فَٱنتَظِرُوٓا۟ إِنِّى مَعَكُم مِّنَ ٱلْمُنتَظِرِينَ ﴿٢٠﴾
Translation
If¹⁵ Allah were as quick to deal harshly with people as they are to ask for worldly good, their time to act would have ended long ago. [But that is not Our way.] So We leave those who do not expect to meet Us to wander blindly in their rebellion.
Such is man: when hard times strike him, he calls on Us whether standing, sitting or lying down. But when We remove his hardship, he carries on as though he had never called on Us in any hour of distress. In this way the deeds of those who go beyond all limits are made to seem attractive to them.
People, We destroyed the nations before you¹⁶ [each of which was at its height in its own time] when they took the path of wrongdoing.¹⁷ Their messengers came to them with clear signs, and they would not believe. This is how We repay criminals for their crimes. Now We have made you their successors on the earth, to see how you will act.¹⁸
When Our clear verses are recited to them, those who do not expect to meet Us say, “Bring a different Quran instead of this, or make some changes to it.”¹⁹ O Muhammad, tell them, “It is not for me to change anything in it on my own. I only follow the revelation sent to me. If I disobey my Lord, I fear the punishment of a terrible Day.”²⁰
And say, “Had Allah willed otherwise, I would never have recited this Quran to you, and Allah would not even have made it known to you. After all, I have already spent a lifetime among you before this. Do you not use your reason?²¹ Who, then, is more unjust than someone who invents a lie and attributes it to Allah, or who denies Allah’s true verses?²² Criminals will certainly never succeed.”²³
Besides Allah, these people worship things that can neither harm them nor benefit them, and they say, “These are our intercessors with Allah.” O Muhammad, tell them, “Are you informing Allah of something He does not know, either in the heavens or on the earth?”²⁴ Glory be to Him! He is far above the partners they associate with Him.
In the beginning, all people were a single community. Later they formed different beliefs and ways.²⁵ Had a word not already been decided by your Lord, the matter they differ over would have been settled between them.²⁶
As for their saying, “Why has no sign been sent down to this Prophet from his Lord?”,²⁷ tell them, “The unseen belongs to Allah alone. So wait. I too am waiting with you.”²⁸
Notes
Note 15. After the introductory sentences above, the discourse of admonition and explanation now begins. Before reading it, two points about its background should be kept in mind.
First, not long before this discourse, a prolonged and severely distressing famine had ended, and the people of Makkah had cried out under its hardship. During that famine, the stiff necks of the arrogant leaders of Quraysh had bowed low. They prayed and wept, idol worship declined, and turning to the One God increased. It reached the point where Abu Sufyan finally came to the Prophet (peace be upon him) and asked him to pray to God to remove the calamity. But once the famine was over, the rains came and prosperity returned, the same rebellion, the same misdeeds and the same campaign against the true religion began again. The hearts that had started turning to God sank back into their old heedlessness. (See An-Nahl, verse 113; Al-Mu’minun, verses 75–77; Ad-Dukhan, verses 10–16.)
Second, whenever the Prophet (peace be upon him) warned these people of the consequences of rejecting the truth, they would reply: why doesn’t the divine punishment you keep threatening us with actually come? What is taking it so long?
In response, they are told that God is quick to show mercy and kindness to people, but not equally quick to punish them and seize them for their sins. You want Him to send punishment at once in response to your challenges and your rebellion, just as He quickly removed the famine after hearing your prayers. But that is not God’s way. However rebellious people may be, He gives them ample opportunity to reform before He seizes them. He sends repeated warnings and keeps the rope slack. Only when the limit of leniency has been reached is the law of recompense enforced.
That is God’s way. The opposite is the way of small-minded people, the way you have followed: when calamity struck, you remembered God and began to wail and plead, and as soon as ease returned, you forgot everything. These are exactly the habits through which nations make themselves deserving of God’s punishment.
Note 16. The original word is qarn. In Arabic it generally means “the people of an era.” However, the way the Quran uses this word in various places suggests that qarn refers to a nation that was at its height in its own time and held leadership of the world, wholly or partly.
The destruction of such a nation does not necessarily mean that its people are wiped out entirely. Being brought down from its position of power and leadership is also a form of destruction. So are the ruin of its civilization and culture, the erasing of its identity, and the scattering of its parts until they are lost among other nations.
Note 17. The word zulm (wrongdoing) is not used here in the limited sense usually given to it. It covers every sin a person commits by going beyond the bounds of servitude to God. (For explanation, see Surah Al-Baqarah, Note 49.)
Note 18. Keep in mind that the Arabs are being addressed here. They are being told that earlier nations were each given the opportunity to act in their own time, but in the end they chose the path of wrongdoing and rebellion. They did not listen to the prophets sent to show them the right path, so they failed Our test and were removed from the field.
Now, O Arabs, your turn has come. You are being given the opportunity to act in their place. You stand in the same examination hall from which your predecessors were expelled after failing. If you do not want your end to be like theirs, make proper use of the opportunity you are being given. Learn from the history of earlier nations, and do not repeat the mistakes that caused their ruin.
Note 19. Their demand rested, first, on the assumption that what Muhammad (peace be upon him) was presenting did not come from God. They assumed it was the product of his own mind, and that he attributed it to God only to give his words more weight.
Second, they meant something like this: why have you started this debate about Tawhid, the Hereafter and moral restrictions? If you have risen to lead us, offer something that benefits the nation and visibly improves its worldly affairs. And if you refuse to change your message altogether, at least make it flexible enough for us to reach a compromise, more or less. We will accept some of what you say, and you accept some of what we say.
Your Tawhid should make some room for our shirk. Your worship of God should make some room for our worship of our desires and of the world. Your belief in the Hereafter should make some room for our hope that we can do whatever we like in this world and still somehow be saved in the Hereafter. Your absolute, uncompromising moral principles are also unacceptable to us. They should make room for our prejudices, our customs and traditions, our personal and national interests, and our desires.
Why not agree between us on a reasonable sphere for religion’s demands, within which we give God His due? After that, we should be left free to run our worldly affairs however we like. But you are going too far by trying to bind all of life and every affair to the belief in Tawhid and the Hereafter and to the rules of the Shari’ah.
Note 20. This answers both points above. It states, first, that I am not the author of this Book. It has come to me through revelation, and I have no authority to change anything in it. It also states that there is absolutely no possibility of compromise in this matter. If you accept it, accept this entire religion exactly as it is; otherwise, reject all of it.
Note 21. This is a powerful argument. It refutes their idea that Muhammad (peace be upon him) was making up the Quran himself and attributing it to God. It also supports his claim that he was not its author and that it was being revealed to him from God. The other arguments were comparatively remote, but the life of Muhammad (peace be upon him) was right before these people’s eyes.
Before prophethood he had spent a full forty years among them. He was born in their city and grew from childhood to youth to middle age in front of them. He lived among them, mixed with them, did business with them and married among them. In short, every kind of social tie he had was with them, and no aspect of his life was hidden from them. What clearer testimony could there be than something so well known and so closely observed?
Two things about his life were perfectly plain, and every single person in Makkah knew them.
First: in the whole forty years before prophethood, he received no education, training or company from which he could have gained the knowledge that suddenly began to pour from his tongue once he claimed prophethood. He had never before been seen taking an interest in these questions, discussing these subjects or voicing these ideas, which were now being taken up in surah after surah of the Quran. Indeed, throughout those forty years, not even his closest friend or nearest relative noticed anything in his words or behaviour that could be called a prelude to the tremendous call he suddenly began to give at the age of forty.
This was clear proof that the Quran was not the product of his own mind but something that had come into him from outside. At no stage of life can the human mind produce something without clear signs of its growth and development in the stages before it. For this reason, when some of the shrewder people of Makkah realized that calling the Quran the product of his mind was plainly absurd, they began saying instead that someone else was teaching Muhammad these things. But this second claim was even more absurd than the first. Not just in Makkah but in all of Arabia, there was no one of such ability that anyone could point to him and say he was, or could be, the author of this speech. How could a man of such ability stay hidden in any society?
Second: his earlier life showed plainly that there was not the slightest trace in his character of lying, deceit, forgery, cunning, trickery or any similar trait. No one in the whole society could say that in forty years of living together they had experienced any such trait from him. On the contrary, everyone who had dealt with him knew him only as an utterly truthful, spotless and trustworthy person (al-Amin).
Just five years before prophethood, the well-known incident during the rebuilding of the Ka’bah had taken place. The different clans of Quraysh quarrelled over who would set the Black Stone in place. They agreed among themselves that the first person to enter the Haram the next morning would be accepted as arbiter. The next day, the one who entered was Muhammad (peace be upon him). As soon as they saw him, they all cried out, “Hadha al-Amin, radina, hadha Muhammad”: “This is the trustworthy one; we accept him. This is Muhammad.”
In this way, before appointing him as Prophet, Allah had already taken testimony from the entire tribe of Quraysh, in a crowded gathering, that he was al-Amin. Here was a man who had never once in his life used falsehood, forgery or deceit, even in the smallest matter. What grounds were there now to imagine that he had suddenly come forward with such an enormous lie and such a colossal fraud, composing words in his own mind and attributing them to God with full force and open challenge?
That is why Allah tells the Prophet (peace be upon him) to answer their absurd accusation by telling them: O servants of Allah, use some reason. I am not a stranger who has come from outside. I have already spent a lifetime among you. Given my past life, how can you expect that I could have presented this Quran to you without God’s teaching and command? (For further explanation, see Surah Al-Qasas, Note 109.)
Note 22. In other words, if these verses are not from God, and I am composing them myself and presenting them as divine verses, then no one is more unjust than I am. But if they truly are Allah’s verses and you are denying them, then no one is more unjust than you.
Note 23. Some ignorant people take falah (success) to mean long life, worldly prosperity or worldly advancement. They then try to conclude from this verse that anyone who claims prophethood and stays alive, prospers in the world, or sees his message spread should be accepted as a true prophet, because he has attained falah. If he were not a true prophet, they argue, he would have been killed the moment he made the false claim, or starved to death, and his message would never have gained any hold in the world.
Only someone who fails to understand three things could make this foolish argument. He does not know what the Quranic term falah means. He is unaware of the law of respite (imhal) that, according to the Quran, Allah has set for criminals. And he does not understand the sense in which this sentence appears in the flow of the discourse.
First, in this context the statement “criminals never succeed” was not given as a test for judging anyone’s claim to prophethood. It is not meant to let ordinary people decide for themselves to accept a claimant who is “succeeding” and reject one who is not. It is said here in this sense: “I know with certainty that criminals cannot attain success, so I myself cannot commit the crime of falsely claiming prophethood. But I am certain that you are committing the crime of denying a true prophet, and so you will not attain success.”
Second, the word falah in the Quran does not carry the limited meaning of worldly success. It means lasting success that does not end in loss, whether or not it includes any kind of success in this early stage of worldly life. A caller to misguidance may live comfortably in this world, prosper greatly, and see his error spread widely, yet in the Quran’s terminology this is not falahbut sheer loss. Likewise, a caller to the truth may face severe hardship in this world. He may leave the world early, worn down by suffering or victimized by oppressors, with no one accepting his message. Yet in the Quran’s language this is not loss but true falah.
Moreover, the Quran explains in many places that Allah is not quick to seize criminals. He gives them ample time to reform. If they misuse that respite and grow worse, Allah gives them more rope, and often even showers them with blessings. This lets them bring every hidden wickedness of their souls fully into the open, so that by their own deeds they earn the punishment they truly deserve because of their evil qualities.
So if a false claimant’s rope is being lengthened and worldly “success” is raining down on him, it would be a serious mistake to treat his condition as proof that he is rightly guided. God’s law of respite and gradual approach to ruin (imhal wa istidraj) applies to false claimants to prophethood just as it applies to all criminals, and there is no evidence that they are exempt from it. Nor does the respite Allah granted Satan until the Day of Judgment mention any exception such as: “All your other deceptions will be allowed to work, but if you raise up a prophet of your own, that deception will not be allowed to work.”
Someone might answer this point by citing Surah Al-Haqqah, verses 44–47: وَلَوْ تَقَوَّلَ عَلَيْنَا بَعْضَ الْأَقَاوِيلِ لَأَخَذْنَا مِنْهُ بِالْيَمِينِ ثُمَّ لَقَطَعْنَا مِنْهُ الْوَتِينَ, meaning: “If Muhammad had invented something himself and attributed it to Us, We would have seized him by the hand and cut his heart’s artery.”
What this verse says, however, is that a person whom God has truly appointed as a prophet would be seized at once if he invented something false and presented it as revelation. To infer from this that any claimant to prophethood who is not being seized must be truthful is nothing but a logical fallacy. The exception to God’s law of respite and gradual ruin that this verse establishes applies only to a true prophet. It does not follow that someone who falsely claims prophethood is also exempt.
Obviously, a law the government makes for its employees applies only to people who really are government employees. Those who fraudulently present themselves as government officials are not subject to the service regulations. They are dealt with under criminal law, like ordinary scoundrels and criminals.
Furthermore, the verse of Surah Al-Haqqah was also not revealed to give people a test for judging a prophet, as if they should conclude that he is false if a hand appears from the unseen and suddenly cuts his heart’s artery, and otherwise accept that he is true. Such an unreasonable test might have been needed only if it were impossible to judge a prophet’s truthfulness or falsehood by his character, his work and what he presents.
Note 24. For something to be unknown to Allah means that it does not exist at all, since everything that exists is within Allah’s knowledge. This is therefore a very subtle way of stating that the intercessors do not exist. Allah does not know of anyone in the earth or the heavens who will intercede for you before Him, so what intercessors are you telling Him about?
Note 25. For explanation, see Surah Al-Baqarah, Note 230, and Al-An’am, Note 24.
Note 26. In other words, Allah decided beforehand to keep reality hidden from human senses and so put people’s reason, understanding, conscience and inner sense to the test. He also decided that those who fail this test and want to go the wrong way will be given the opportunity to take that path and follow it. Had He not made this decision, reality could have been unveiled today and every dispute settled.
This point is made here to clear up a major misunderstanding. People today are generally caught in the same confusion as people were when the Quran was revealed. There are many religions in the world, and the followers of each consider their own religion to be the truth. In that situation, how can it be decided who is right and who is not?
The answer given is that this diversity of religions is actually a later development. In the beginning, all humankind had one religion, and that religion was the truth. People then differed over that truth and went on forming different beliefs and religions.
Now, perhaps you think this tumult of religions can only be settled if God Himself unveils the truth and brings it before you, rather than through the proper use of reason and understanding. If so, that will not happen in this present worldly life. This life exists precisely as a test, and the whole test here is whether you recognize the truth through reason and understanding without seeing it.
Note 27. That is, a sign proving that he truly is a genuine prophet and that everything he presents is entirely correct.
Keep in mind that their demand for a sign was not made because they were sincerely ready to accept the call to truth. They were not prepared to reshape their morals, habits, social and civic order, and indeed their whole lives according to its demands, holding back only because they had not yet seen a sign in the Prophet’s support that would convince them of his prophethood. In reality, the demand for a sign was only an excuse for not believing. Whatever they were shown, they would still say that no sign had been shown to them at all, because they did not want to believe.
In their worldly lives they enjoyed the freedom to act however their desires and inclinations dictated, and to chase whatever they found pleasurable or profitable. They were not willing to give up that freedom to accept unseen realities (Tawhid and the Hereafter). Accepting those realities would have forced them to bind their entire way of life to permanent moral principles.
Note 28. In other words, I have presented what Allah has sent down. What He has not sent down is “unseen” for both you and me, and no one but God has any say over it. He may send it down if He wills, and not if He does not. If your belief depends on His sending down what He has not sent, then sit and wait for it. I too will watch to see whether your stubborn demand is met.
[End of Section 2]
Section 3 (Verses 21–30)
Arabic Text
وَإِذَآ أَذَقْنَا ٱلنَّاسَ رَحْمَةًۭ مِّنۢ بَعْدِ ضَرَّآءَ مَسَّتْهُمْ إِذَا لَهُم مَّكْرٌۭ فِىٓ ءَايَاتِنَا ۚ قُلِ ٱللَّهُ أَسْرَعُ مَكْرًا ۚ إِنَّ رُسُلَنَا يَكْتُبُونَ مَا تَمْكُرُونَ ﴿٢١﴾ هُوَ ٱلَّذِى يُسَيِّرُكُمْ فِى ٱلْبَرِّ وَٱلْبَحْرِ ۖ حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَا كُنتُمْ فِى ٱلْفُلْكِ وَجَرَيْنَ بِهِم بِرِيحٍۢ طَيِّبَةٍۢ وَفَرِحُوا۟ بِهَا جَآءَتْهَا رِيحٌ عَاصِفٌۭ وَجَآءَهُمُ ٱلْمَوْجُ مِن كُلِّ مَكَانٍۢ وَظَنُّوٓا۟ أَنَّهُمْ أُحِيطَ بِهِمْ ۙ دَعَوُا۟ ٱللَّهَ مُخْلِصِينَ لَهُ ٱلدِّينَ لَئِنْ أَنجَيْتَنَا مِنْ هَٰذِهِۦ لَنَكُونَنَّ مِنَ ٱلشَّٰكِرِينَ ﴿٢٢﴾ فَلَمَّآ أَنجَىٰهُمْ إِذَا هُمْ يَبْغُونَ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ بِغَيْرِ ٱلْحَقِّ ۗ يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ إِنَّمَا بَغْيُكُمْ عَلَىٰٓ أَنفُسِكُم ۖ مَّتَٰعَ ٱلْحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا ۖ ثُمَّ إِلَيْنَا مَرْجِعُكُمْ فَنُنَبِّئُكُم بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ ﴿٢٣﴾ إِنَّمَا مَثَلُ ٱلْحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا كَمَآءٍ أَنزَلْنَٰهُ مِنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ فَٱخْتَلَطَ بِهِۦ نَبَاتُ ٱلْأَرْضِ مِمَّا يَأْكُلُ ٱلنَّاسُ وَٱلْأَنْعَٰمُ حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَآ أَخَذَتِ ٱلْأَرْضُ زُخْرُفَهَا وَٱزَّيَّنَتْ وَظَنَّ أَهْلُهَآ أَنَّهُمْ قَٰدِرُونَ عَلَيْهَآ أَتَىٰهَآ أَمْرُنَا لَيْلًا أَوْ نَهَارًۭا فَجَعَلْنَٰهَا حَصِيدًۭا كَأَن لَّمْ تَغْنَ بِٱلْأَمْسِ ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ نُفَصِّلُ ٱلْءَايَٰتِ لِقَوْمٍۢ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ ﴿٢٤﴾ وَٱللَّهُ يَدْعُوٓا۟ إِلَىٰ دَارِ ٱلسَّلَٰمِ وَيَهْدِى مَن يَشَآءُ إِلَىٰ صِرَٰطٍۢ مُّسْتَقِيمٍۢ ﴿٢٥﴾ ۞ لِّلَّذِينَ أَحْسَنُوا۟ ٱلْحُسْنَىٰ وَزِيَادَةٌۭ ۖ وَلَا يَرْهَقُ وُجُوهَهُمْ قَتَرٌۭ وَلَا ذِلَّةٌ ۚ أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ أَصْحَٰبُ ٱلْجَنَّةِ ۖ هُمْ فِيهَا خَٰلِدُونَ ﴿٢٦﴾ وَٱلَّذِينَ كَسَبُوا۟ ٱلسَّيِّـَٔاتِ جَزَآءُ سَيِّئَةٍۭ بِمِثْلِهَا وَتَرْهَقُهُمْ ذِلَّةٌۭ ۖ مَّا لَهُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ مِنْ عَاصِمٍۢ ۖ كَأَنَّمَآ أُغْشِيَتْ وُجُوهُهُمْ قِطَعًۭا مِّنَ ٱلَّيْلِ مُظْلِمًا ۚ أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ أَصْحَٰبُ ٱلنَّارِ ۖ هُمْ فِيهَا خَٰلِدُونَ ﴿٢٧﴾ وَيَوْمَ نَحْشُرُهُمْ جَمِيعًۭا ثُمَّ نَقُولُ لِلَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُوا۟ مَكَانَكُمْ أَنتُمْ وَشُرَكَآؤُكُمْ ۚ فَزَيَّلْنَا بَيْنَهُمْ ۖ وَقَالَ شُرَكَآؤُهُم مَّا كُنتُمْ إِيَّانَا تَعْبُدُونَ ﴿٢٨﴾ فَكَفَىٰ بِٱللَّهِ شَهِيدًۢا بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَكُمْ إِن كُنَّا عَنْ عِبَادَتِكُمْ لَغَٰفِلِينَ ﴿٢٩﴾ هُنَالِكَ تَبْلُوا۟ كُلُّ نَفْسٍۢ مَّآ أَسْلَفَتْ ۚ وَرُدُّوٓا۟ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ مَوْلَىٰهُمُ ٱلْحَقِّ ۖ وَضَلَّ عَنْهُم مَّا كَانُوا۟ يَفْتَرُونَ ﴿٣٠﴾
Translation
When We let people taste mercy after hardship has touched them, they immediately begin scheming against Our signs.²⁹ Tell them, “Allah is swifter in scheming than you. His angels are recording all your cunning.”³⁰
It is Allah who enables you to travel on land and sea. You sail in ships, rejoicing in a favourable wind. Then suddenly a violent contrary wind strikes, waves batter you from every side, and the travellers realize they are trapped. At that moment they all call on Allah, devoting their religion sincerely to Him alone: “If You save us from this calamity, we will surely be grateful servants.”³¹ But once He rescues them, those same people turn away from the truth and begin rebelling on the earth.
People, your rebellion is only turning against yourselves. [Enjoy] the few days of worldly pleasure. Then you must return to Us, and at that time We will tell you everything you used to do.
This worldly life [whose intoxication makes you neglect Our signs] is like this. We sent down water from the sky, and the earth’s vegetation, which people and animals alike eat, grew thick and lush. Then, just when the earth was at its most beautiful, the crops stood fully adorned, and their owners thought they were now able to enjoy their harvest, Our command came suddenly, by night or by day. We laid it waste so completely that it was as if nothing had been there the day before. In this way We explain Our signs in detail for people who reflect.
[You are being deceived by this fleeting life,] while Allah is inviting you to the Home of Peace.³² [Guidance is in His hands;] He shows the straight path to whomever He wills.
Those who chose the way of goodness will have goodness, and more besides.³³ No darkness or disgrace will cover their faces. They deserve Paradise, where they will remain forever.
Those who earned evil will receive a recompense equal to their evil.³⁴ Disgrace will overwhelm them, and no one will protect them from Allah. Their faces will be covered in darkness,³⁵ as if dark veils of night had been drawn over them. They deserve the Fire, where they will remain forever.
On the Day We gather them all together [in Our court], We will say to those who associated partners with Allah, “Stay where you are, you and the partners you made up.” Then We will remove the veil of unfamiliarity between them.³⁶ Their partners will say, “It was not us you worshipped. Allah is sufficient as a witness between us and you that [even if you did worship us,] we were completely unaware of your worship.”³⁷
At that time every soul will taste the result of what it did. All will be returned to their true Master, and every lie they had invented will vanish.
Notes
Note 29. This again refers to the famine mentioned earlier in verses 11–12. The point is: how can you have the nerve to ask for a sign? During the famine you just went through, you lost all hope in the deities you had made your intercessors with Allah. You used to say that an offering at such-and-such a shrine never fails, and that one only has to present an offering at such-and-such a tomb for one’s wish to be granted. You saw for yourselves that these so-called gods have nothing in their hands, and that Allah alone holds all power. That is exactly why you finally began praying to Allah alone.
Was that not a sufficient sign to convince you that the teaching Muhammad (peace be upon him) is giving you is true? Yet what did you do after seeing this sign? As soon as the famine ended and merciful rain brought your hardship to an end, you began inventing a thousand explanations and interpretations (schemes) for why the calamity had come and then gone. You did this to avoid accepting Tawhid and to hold on to your shirk. Now, what sign could be shown to people who have corrupted their conscience to such a degree, and what would be gained by showing it?
Note 30. Allah’s “scheming” means this: if you do not accept reality and correct your conduct accordingly, He will leave you free to continue on your rebellious course. As long as you live, He will keep favouring you with provision and blessings, so that the intoxication of life keeps you in its daze. Throughout that daze, Allah’s angels will quietly sit and record everything you do. Then, suddenly, the message of death will arrive, and you will be seized to give an account of your deeds.
Note 31. This sign of the truth of Tawhid is present within every human being. As long as circumstances are favourable, a person forgets God and prides himself on his worldly life. But once the means he relied on abandon him and all the supports he lived by collapse, even the most hardened polytheist and the most stubborn atheist feel this testimony well up from their hearts: some God is in control of this whole world of causes, and He is the one, all-powerful and all-mighty God. (See Al-An’am, Note 29.)
Note 32. That is, to the way of living in this world that will make you deserving of Dar as-Salam in the life of the Hereafter. Dar as-Salam means Paradise. It means “the Home of Peace,” a place free of every calamity, loss, grief and hardship.
Note 33. That is, they will not receive a reward matching only their good deeds. Allah, out of His grace, will also grant them further rewards.
Note 34. That is, unlike the righteous, the wrongdoers will be dealt with this way: they will be punished exactly in proportion to their evil. They will never be punished even a particle more than their crime. (For further explanation, see An-Naml, Note 109a.)
Note 35. This is the darkness that falls over the faces of criminals when they have been caught and have lost all hope of escape.
Note 36. The original text has the words فَزَيَّلْنَا بَيْنَهُمْ (fa-zayyalna baynahum). Some commentators take this to mean “We will break the bonds and ties between them,” so that they no longer show each other any consideration on account of a relationship. That meaning, however, does not fit Arabic idiom. According to Arabic usage, the correct meaning is “We will create a distinction between them” or “We will set them apart from one another.”
To convey this meaning, I have used the phrase “We will remove the veil of unfamiliarity between them.” That is, the polytheists and the beings they worshipped will stand face to face, and each group’s identity will become clear to the other. The polytheists will realize, “These are the ones we made our deities in the world,” and their deities will realize, “These are the ones who made us their deities.”
Note 37. That is, all the angels who were worshipped in the world as gods and goddesses, and all the jinn, spirits, forebears, ancestors, prophets, saints, martyrs and others who were made partners in God’s attributes and given rights that truly belonged to God, will tell their worshippers plainly there: “We did not even know that you were worshipping us. None of your prayers, entreaties, cries or pleas reached us. None of your vows and offerings reached us, nor anything you presented to us, nor any praise or glorification, nor any chanting of our names. None of your prostrations, your kissing of thresholds or your circling of shrines ever reached us.”
[End of Section 3]
Section 4 (Verses 31–40)
Arabic Text
قُلْ مَن يَرْزُقُكُم مِّنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ أَمَّن يَمْلِكُ ٱلسَّمْعَ وَٱلْأَبْصَٰرَ وَمَن يُخْرِجُ ٱلْحَىَّ مِنَ ٱلْمَيِّتِ وَيُخْرِجُ ٱلْمَيِّتَ مِنَ ٱلْحَىِّ وَمَن يُدَبِّرُ ٱلْأَمْرَ ۚ فَسَيَقُولُونَ ٱللَّهُ ۚ فَقُلْ أَفَلَا تَتَّقُونَ ﴿٣١﴾ فَذَٰلِكُمُ ٱللَّهُ رَبُّكُمُ ٱلْحَقُّ ۖ فَمَاذَا بَعْدَ ٱلْحَقِّ إِلَّا ٱلضَّلَٰلُ ۖ فَأَنَّىٰ تُصْرَفُونَ ﴿٣٢﴾ كَذَٰلِكَ حَقَّتْ كَلِمَتُ رَبِّكَ عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ فَسَقُوٓا۟ أَنَّهُمْ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ ﴿٣٣﴾ قُلْ هَلْ مِن شُرَكَآئِكُم مَّن يَبْدَؤُا۟ ٱلْخَلْقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُۥ ۚ قُلِ ٱللَّهُ يَبْدَؤُا۟ ٱلْخَلْقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُۥ ۖ فَأَنَّىٰ تُؤْفَكُونَ ﴿٣٤﴾ قُلْ هَلْ مِن شُرَكَآئِكُم مَّن يَهْدِىٓ إِلَى ٱلْحَقِّ ۚ قُلِ ٱللَّهُ يَهْدِى لِلْحَقِّ ۗ أَفَمَن يَهْدِىٓ إِلَى ٱلْحَقِّ أَحَقُّ أَن يُتَّبَعَ أَمَّن لَّا يَهِدِّىٓ إِلَّآ أَن يُهْدَىٰ ۖ فَمَا لَكُمْ كَيْفَ تَحْكُمُونَ ﴿٣٥﴾ وَمَا يَتَّبِعُ أَكْثَرُهُمْ إِلَّا ظَنًّا ۚ إِنَّ ٱلظَّنَّ لَا يُغْنِى مِنَ ٱلْحَقِّ شَيْـًٔا ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلِيمٌۢ بِمَا يَفْعَلُونَ ﴿٣٦﴾ وَمَا كَانَ هَٰذَا ٱلْقُرْءَانُ أَن يُفْتَرَىٰ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ وَلَٰكِن تَصْدِيقَ ٱلَّذِى بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ وَتَفْصِيلَ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ لَا رَيْبَ فِيهِ مِن رَّبِّ ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ ﴿٣٧﴾ أَمْ يَقُولُونَ ٱفْتَرَىٰهُ ۖ قُلْ فَأْتُوا۟ بِسُورَةٍۢ مِّثْلِهِۦ وَٱدْعُوا۟ مَنِ ٱسْتَطَعْتُم مِّن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ إِن كُنتُمْ صَٰدِقِينَ ﴿٣٨﴾ بَلْ كَذَّبُوا۟ بِمَا لَمْ يُحِيطُوا۟ بِعِلْمِهِۦ وَلَمَّا يَأْتِهِمْ تَأْوِيلُهُۥ ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ كَذَّبَ ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ ۖ فَٱنظُرْ كَيْفَ كَانَ عَٰقِبَةُ ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ ﴿٣٩﴾ وَمِنْهُم مَّن يُؤْمِنُ بِهِۦ وَمِنْهُم مَّن لَّا يُؤْمِنُ بِهِۦ ۚ وَرَبُّكَ أَعْلَمُ بِٱلْمُفْسِدِينَ ﴿٤٠﴾
Translation
Ask them: “Who provides for you from the sky and the earth? Who controls these faculties of hearing and sight? Who brings forth the living from the dead and the dead from the living? Who is managing the order of the universe?” They will surely say, “Allah.” Say, “Then will you not guard yourselves [against going against reality]? This Allah, then, is your true Lord.³⁸ After the truth, what remains but misguidance? Where, then, are you being turned?”³⁹ [O Prophet, see] how your Lord’s word has come true about those who chose disobedience: they will not believe.⁴⁰
Ask them: “Is there any among the partners you have set up who begins creation and then repeats it?” Say, “It is Allah alone who begins creation and then repeats it.⁴¹ So on what backward path are you being led?”⁴²
Ask them: “Is there any among the partners you have set up who guides to the truth?”⁴³ Say, “It is Allah alone who guides to the truth. Tell me, then: which is more worthy of being followed, the One who guides to the truth, or one who cannot find guidance unless he is guided? What is wrong with you? How perverse your judgements are!”
The truth is that most of them are only following conjecture and guesswork,⁴⁴ and guesswork can in no way serve as a substitute for the truth. Allah knows full well what they are doing.
This Quran is not something that could be composed without Allah’s revelation and teaching. Rather, it confirms what came before it and is a detailed exposition of the Book.⁴⁵ There is no doubt that it is from the Sovereign of the universe.
Do they say that the Prophet has composed it himself? Say, “If you are truthful in this accusation, then produce one surah like it, and call for help on anyone you can besides the One God.”⁴⁶ The truth is that they [recklessly, by guesswork,] denied something that their knowledge has not grasped and whose outcome has not yet come before them.⁴⁷ The people before them denied in exactly the same way, so see what became of those wrongdoers.
Some of them will believe and some will not, and your Lord knows the corrupters best.⁴⁸
Notes
Note 38. In other words, if all these works belong to Allah, as you yourselves admit, then Allah alone is your true Sustainer, Owner and Master, and He alone has the right to your servitude and worship. How did others, who have no share in any of these works, become partners in His lordship?
Note 39. Note that the address is to people in general. The question put to them is not “Where are you turning?” but “Where are you being turned?” This clearly shows that some misleading person or group is present, diverting people from the right direction and turning them in the wrong one.
That is why the appeal to people is: why are you blindly following those who mislead you? Why don’t you use your own reason and ask, when this is the reality, where you are being led?
The Quran uses this form of question in many such places. Each time, instead of naming those who mislead, it hides them behind the passive voice. This lets their followers reflect calmly on their own situation. It also denies anyone the chance to provoke them and upset their mental balance by saying, “Look, your elders and leaders are being attacked.” Hidden in this is an important principle of wisdom in conveying the message, which should not be overlooked.
Note 40. In other words, the matter is explained with such clear and easily understood arguments, yet those who have decided not to believe will not accept it in any way because of their stubbornness.
Note 41. As for the beginning of creation, the polytheists already accepted that it was Allah’s work alone and that none of their partners had any share in it. As for repeating creation, it is obvious that the one who created in the first place can also repeat that act of creation. How could anyone unable to create in the first place be able to create again?
This is plainly reasonable, and the polytheists’ own hearts testified inwardly that it was entirely sound. Yet they hesitated to admit it, because once they accepted it, denying the Hereafter would become difficult. That is why, in the earlier questions, Allah said that they themselves would answer that these works belong to Allah. Here, instead, the Prophet (peace be upon him) is told to declare openly that the work of beginning creation and repeating it also belongs to Allah alone.
Note 42. In other words, the thread of your beginning is in Allah’s hands, and so is the thread of your end. So be your own well-wishers and think for a moment: how are you being persuaded that someone other than Allah has acquired the right to your servitude and devotion in between?
Note 43. This is a very important question and deserves to be understood in some detail. Human needs in this world are not limited to obtaining food, drink, clothing and the means of living, and to being protected from calamities, hardships and losses. People also have another need, and in fact their greatest need: to know the right way to live in this world. They need to know how to deal with:
• their own selves
• their own powers and abilities
• the resources on earth placed under their control
• the countless people they deal with in various capacities
• the whole order of the universe, under which they must work in any case
They need to know what to do and how to do it, so that their life as a whole succeeds and their efforts and labours are not wasted on wrong paths that end in ruin and destruction. This right way is called al-haqq (the truth), and the guidance that leads a person to it is hidayat al-haqq, guidance to the truth.
Now the Quran asks all the polytheists, and everyone who refuses to accept the Prophet’s teaching: is there anyone among those you serve besides God who is, or could be, a means of obtaining guidance to the truth for you? Obviously, the only possible answer is no. The beings people serve besides God fall into two broad categories.
The first category is the goddesses, gods and living or dead human beings who are worshipped. People turn to them only so that they may fulfil their needs and protect them from calamities by supernatural means. Guidance to the truth has never come from them, no polytheist has ever turned to them for it, and no polytheist claims that these deities teach him principles of morality, society, culture, economics, politics, law, justice and so on.
The second category is the human beings whose principles and laws are followed and obeyed. They are certainly guides, but the question is whether they really are, or could be, guides to the truth.
Does the knowledge of any of them cover all the realities one must know in order to lay down sound principles for human life? Does the vision of any of them take in the whole range across which the problems of human life are spread? Is any of them free of the weaknesses, prejudices, personal or group interests, selfish aims and desires, and inclinations and leanings that prevent the making of just laws for human society?
If the answer is no, and obviously no sane person can answer these questions with yes, how can such people be the source of guidance to the truth?
That is why the Quran asks: O people, among these religious deities and cultural gods of yours, is there anyone who can guide you to the right path? Taken together with the questions before it, this final question settles the entire matter of religion.
All human needs are of two kinds.
The first kind is the need for someone to be one’s Sustainer, a refuge and shelter, someone who hears prayers and fulfils needs. Living among the unstable supports of this world of causes, a person needs a permanent support to hold on to. The earlier questions settled that no one but God can meet this need.
The second kind is the need for a guide who can teach the right principles for living in this world, whose laws of life can be followed with complete trust and confidence. This final question settled that this too is God alone.
After this, nothing remains but stubbornness and obstinacy to keep a person clinging to polytheistic religions and to secular principles of culture, morality and politics.
Note 44. In other words, those who founded religions, composed philosophies and devised laws of life did all this on the basis of conjecture and guesswork, not knowledge. And those who followed these religious and worldly leaders did not do so knowingly and with understanding either. They followed them only on the assumption that such great people must surely be right: after all, their forefathers had been accepting them, and a whole world was following them.
Note 45. “It confirms what came before it” means that, from the beginning, fundamental teachings have been sent to humankind through the prophets (peace be upon them). This Quran does not present anything new that departs from them; it confirms and endorses them. If it were the product of the mind of some new religion’s founder, it would certainly show an attempt to mix a distinctive colour of his own into the old truths, in order to highlight his own originality.
“It is a detailed exposition of the Book” means that the fundamental teachings forming the essence of all revealed scriptures (al-Kitab, “the Book”) are set out in it at length. They are presented with arguments and evidence, with exhortation and explanation, with commentary and clarification, and with application to practical situations.
Note 46. People generally think this challenge concerned only the Quran’s eloquence, rhetoric and literary excellence. Given the way the inimitability of the Quran (i’jaz al-Quran) has usually been discussed, this misunderstanding is not surprising. But the Quran stands far above basing its claim to uniqueness on its verbal beauty alone. The Quran is certainly unmatched in its language as well. Yet the real reason it is said that the human mind cannot produce such a book is its content and its teachings.
The Quran itself sets out, in various places, the aspects of its inimitability and the reasons that make its divine origin certain and a human author impossible. I have explained all such passages before and will continue to do so. To avoid excessive length, I will not go into that discussion here. (For explanation, see At-Tur, Notes 26 and 27.)
Note 47. This Book could reasonably be denied on only two grounds. Either these people had established through investigation that it was a forged book, or the realities it describes and the news it gives had been proven false. Neither ground exists here.
No one can claim to know that this Book was fabricated and attributed to God. No one has looked behind the veil of the unseen and seen that there really are many gods and that this Book is needlessly announcing only one God. Nor has anyone seen that God, angels and revelation have no reality and that this Book has needlessly invented the whole story. And no one has died and seen that the news this Book gives about a second life, its reckoning, and its reward and punishment is false.
In spite of all this, the Book is being denied on the basis of mere doubt and guesswork, with as much confidence as if its forgery and falsehood had been established through research.
Note 48. About those who do not believe, it is said that “your Lord knows the corrupters best.” In other words, they may silence the world by saying, “Sir, we simply don’t understand it, so we reject it in good faith.” But God knows the hidden secrets of hearts and consciences. He knows about each one of them exactly how that person:
• locked his heart and mind
• lost himself in heedlessness
• suppressed the voice of his conscience
• kept the heart’s testimony to the truth from rising
• destroyed his mind’s capacity to accept the truth
• heard and yet did not hear
• tried not to understand even while understanding
• put his prejudices, worldly interests, tangled inner motives, and desires and cravings ahead of the truth
That is why they are not “innocent people who went astray” but corrupters in reality.
[End of Section 4]
Section 5 (Verses 41–53)
Arabic Text
وَإِن كَذَّبُوكَ فَقُل لِّى عَمَلِى وَلَكُمْ عَمَلُكُمْ ۖ أَنتُم بَرِيٓـُٔونَ مِمَّآ أَعْمَلُ وَأَنَا۠ بَرِىٓءٌۭ مِّمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ ﴿٤١﴾ وَمِنْهُم مَّن يَسْتَمِعُونَ إِلَيْكَ ۚ أَفَأَنتَ تُسْمِعُ ٱلصُّمَّ وَلَوْ كَانُوا۟ لَا يَعْقِلُونَ ﴿٤٢﴾ وَمِنْهُم مَّن يَنظُرُ إِلَيْكَ ۚ أَفَأَنتَ تَهْدِى ٱلْعُمْىَ وَلَوْ كَانُوا۟ لَا يُبْصِرُونَ ﴿٤٣﴾ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يَظْلِمُ ٱلنَّاسَ شَيْـًۭٔا وَلَٰكِنَّ ٱلنَّاسَ أَنفُسَهُمْ يَظْلِمُونَ ﴿٤٤﴾ وَيَوْمَ يَحْشُرُهُمْ كَأَن لَّمْ يَلْبَثُوٓا۟ إِلَّا سَاعَةًۭ مِّنَ ٱلنَّهَارِ يَتَعَارَفُونَ بَيْنَهُمْ ۚ قَدْ خَسِرَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا۟ بِلِقَآءِ ٱللَّهِ وَمَا كَانُوا۟ مُهْتَدِينَ ﴿٤٥﴾ وَإِمَّا نُرِيَنَّكَ بَعْضَ ٱلَّذِى نَعِدُهُمْ أَوْ نَتَوَفَّيَنَّكَ فَإِلَيْنَا مَرْجِعُهُمْ ثُمَّ ٱللَّهُ شَهِيدٌ عَلَىٰ مَا يَفْعَلُونَ ﴿٤٦﴾ وَلِكُلِّ أُمَّةٍۢ رَّسُولٌۭ ۖ فَإِذَا جَآءَ رَسُولُهُمْ قُضِىَ بَيْنَهُم بِٱلْقِسْطِ وَهُمْ لَا يُظْلَمُونَ ﴿٤٧﴾ وَيَقُولُونَ مَتَىٰ هَٰذَا ٱلْوَعْدُ إِن كُنتُمْ صَٰدِقِينَ ﴿٤٨﴾ قُل لَّآ أَمْلِكُ لِنَفْسِى ضَرًّۭا وَلَا نَفْعًا إِلَّا مَا شَآءَ ٱللَّهُ ۗ لِكُلِّ أُمَّةٍ أَجَلٌ ۚ إِذَا جَآءَ أَجَلُهُمْ فَلَا يَسْتَـْٔخِرُونَ سَاعَةًۭ ۖ وَلَا يَسْتَقْدِمُونَ ﴿٤٩﴾ قُلْ أَرَءَيْتُمْ إِنْ أَتَىٰكُمْ عَذَابُهُۥ بَيَٰتًا أَوْ نَهَارًۭا مَّاذَا يَسْتَعْجِلُ مِنْهُ ٱلْمُجْرِمُونَ ﴿٥٠﴾ أَثُمَّ إِذَا مَا وَقَعَ ءَامَنتُم بِهِۦٓ ۚ ءَآلْـَٰٔنَ وَقَدْ كُنتُم بِهِۦ تَسْتَعْجِلُونَ ﴿٥١﴾ ثُمَّ قِيلَ لِلَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا۟ ذُوقُوا۟ عَذَابَ ٱلْخُلْدِ هَلْ تُجْزَوْنَ إِلَّا بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَكْسِبُونَ ﴿٥٢﴾ ۞ وَيَسْتَنۢبِـُٔونَكَ أَحَقٌّ هُوَ ۖ قُلْ إِى وَرَبِّىٓ إِنَّهُۥ لَحَقٌّۭ ۖ وَمَآ أَنتُم بِمُعْجِزِينَ ﴿٥٣﴾
Translation
If they deny you, say: “My deeds are mine and your deeds are yours. You are free of responsibility for what I do, and I am free of responsibility for what you do.”⁴⁹
Many of them listen to you, but can you make the deaf hear, even when they understand nothing?⁵⁰ Many of them look at you, but can you guide the blind, even when they see nothing?⁵¹ The truth is that Allah does not wrong people at all; people wrong themselves.⁵²
[Today they are intoxicated with the life of this world,] but on the Day Allah gathers them together, [this same worldly life will feel to them] as if they had stayed only an hour to get acquainted with one another.⁵³ [At that time it will become clear that] those who denied the meeting with Allah were truly the great losers,⁵⁴ and they were never on the right path.
Whether We show you some of the evil consequences We are warning them of during your lifetime, or take you before that, in any case they must return to Us, and Allah is witness to everything they are doing.
Every community has a messenger.⁵⁵ When a community’s messenger comes to it, its case is decided with complete justice, and it is not wronged in the least.⁵⁶
They say, “If your threat is true, when will it be fulfilled?” Say, “I have no power even over my own benefit or harm; everything depends on Allah’s will.⁵⁷ Every community has a term of respite. When that term is complete, it is not delayed or advanced by even an hour.”⁵⁸
Say to them, “Have you ever considered what [you could do] if Allah’s punishment came upon you suddenly, by night or by day? What is it about this that makes criminals so eager to hurry it on? Will you believe in it only when it actually falls upon you? Now you want to escape it? Yet you yourselves were demanding that it come quickly!” Then the wrongdoers will be told, “Now taste everlasting punishment. What recompense can you be given other than the consequence of what you kept earning?”
They ask, “Is what you say really true?” Say, “Yes, by my Lord, it is absolutely true, and you do not have the power to stop it from happening.”
Notes
Note 49. In other words, there is no need for pointless quarrels and perverse arguments. If I am inventing lies, I alone am responsible for my deeds, and none of that responsibility falls on you. And if you are denying the truth, you do me no harm; you harm only yourselves.
Note 50. One kind of hearing is the way even animals hear a sound. Another kind involves attention to meaning and a readiness to accept what is said if it is reasonable. Some people are gripped by prejudice and have decided in advance never to accept anything, however reasonable, that goes against their inherited beliefs and customs or against their desires and interests. They hear everything and still do not hear.
The same is true of people who live in the world heedlessly like animals, caring for nothing beyond grazing and feeding. It is also true of those so intoxicated with pleasures and desires that they never ask whether what they are doing is even right. Such people are not deaf in their ears, but they are deaf in their hearts.
Note 51. The same point is made here as in the previous sentence. Having the eyes in one’s head open is of no use by itself; after all, even an animal sees with those. What really matters is that the eyes of the heart be open. A person who lacks this sees everything and still sees nothing.
In these two verses, the Prophet (peace be upon him) is addressed, but the reproach is aimed at the people he was striving to reform. Even this reproach is not meant merely to reproach. The sharp barb of sarcasm is driven in so that its sting might awaken their dormant humanity a little, and open the path from their eyes and ears to their hearts, so that reasonable words and heartfelt counsel can reach them.
This style of speech is like the following situation. A good man lives among corrupt people with the highest moral character. With complete sincerity and concern, he tries to make them aware of the degraded state they have fallen into. With great reason and seriousness, he tries to explain what is wrong with their way of life and what the right way of life is. Yet no one learns from his pure life, and no one pays attention to his well-meaning advice.
Then, at the very moment he is busy explaining things to them and they are ignoring every word, a friend of his comes up and says: “My friend, what deaf people are you trying to make hear, and what blind people are you trying to show the way? The ears of their hearts are shut, and the eyes of their hearts are put out.” In saying this, the friend does not mean that the righteous man should give up his efforts at reform. His real aim is that perhaps this very sarcasm and reproach might bring these sleepers to their senses a little.
Note 52. In other words, Allah has given them ears, eyes and hearts. He has not been stingy in giving them anything needed to see and understand the difference between truth and falsehood. But people, enslaved to their desires and infatuated with the world, have put out their own eyes and deafened their own ears. They have so disfigured their hearts that no trace remains in them of the ability to tell good from bad, of the understanding of right and wrong, or of a living conscience.
Note 53. That is, on one side the boundless life of the Hereafter will be before them, and on the other they will look back on their worldly life. Compared with that future, their past will seem utterly insignificant. At that moment they will realize how great a folly they committed by ruining their eternal future for the sake of a few pleasures and gains in their earlier life.
Note 54. That is, the fact that one day they must appear before Allah.
Note 55. The word ummah here does not simply mean a nation. After a messenger comes, everyone his message reaches is his ummah. It is also not necessary for the messenger to be alive among them. Even after the messenger is gone, as long as his teaching survives and anyone can find out what he actually taught, all the people of the world count as his ummah, and the ruling stated next applies to them.
In this sense, since the coming of Muhammad (peace be upon him), all of humanity is his ummah, and it will remain so as long as the Quran continues to be available in its pure form. That is why the verse does not say “every nation has a messenger,” but rather “every ummah has a messenger.”
Note 56. The point is that when a messenger’s call reaches any group of people, Allah’s proof against that group is complete. After that, only the judgement remains; no further completion of proof is needed. That judgement is made with the utmost justice. Those who accept the messenger’s message and correct their conduct are counted worthy of Allah’s mercy. Those who reject it become deserving of punishment, whether that punishment is given in both this world and the Hereafter, or only in the Hereafter.
Note 57. In other words, when did I ever say that I would pass this judgement and punish those who refuse to believe? So why ask me when the threatened judgement will be carried out? The threat was made by Allah. He will pass the judgement, and it is up to Him when to decide and in what form to bring it before you.
Note 58. The point is that Allah is not hasty. It is not His way to treat whoever believes the moment a messenger’s call reaches a person or group as deserving mercy, and at once enforce a judgement of punishment on anyone who rejects it or hesitates to accept it.
Allah’s rule is this: after delivering His message, He gives ample time to think, understand and reform. He gives it to each individual according to his individual position, and to each group and nation according to its collective position. This period of respite sometimes stretches over centuries, and Allah alone knows best how much respite each should receive.
Then, when that respite, set with complete justice, has run out and the person or group still has not turned back from their rebellious course, Allah enforces His judgement upon them. That moment of judgement cannot come even an hour before the term Allah has fixed, and once the time has arrived, it cannot be put off for even a moment.
[End of Section 5]
Section 6 (Verses 54–60)
Arabic Text
وَلَوْ أَنَّ لِكُلِّ نَفْسٍۢ ظَلَمَتْ مَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ لَٱفْتَدَتْ بِهِۦ ۗ وَأَسَرُّوا۟ ٱلنَّدَامَةَ لَمَّا رَأَوُا۟ ٱلْعَذَابَ ۖ وَقُضِىَ بَيْنَهُم بِٱلْقِسْطِ ۚ وَهُمْ لَا يُظْلَمُونَ ﴿٥٤﴾ أَلَآ إِنَّ لِلَّهِ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۗ أَلَآ إِنَّ وَعْدَ ٱللَّهِ حَقٌّۭ وَلَٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ ﴿٥٥﴾ هُوَ يُحْىِۦ وَيُمِيتُ وَإِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ ﴿٥٦﴾ يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ قَدْ جَآءَتْكُم مَّوْعِظَةٌۭ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ وَشِفَآءٌۭ لِّمَا فِى ٱلصُّدُورِ وَهُدًۭى وَرَحْمَةٌۭ لِّلْمُؤْمِنِينَ ﴿٥٧﴾ قُلْ بِفَضْلِ ٱللَّهِ وَبِرَحْمَتِهِۦ فَبِذَٰلِكَ فَلْيَفْرَحُوا۟ هُوَ خَيْرٌۭ مِّمَّا يَجْمَعُونَ ﴿٥٨﴾ قُلْ أَرَءَيْتُم مَّآ أَنزَلَ ٱللَّهُ لَكُم مِّن رِّزْقٍۢ فَجَعَلْتُم مِّنْهُ حَرَامًۭا وَحَلَٰلًۭا قُلْ ءَآللَّهُ أَذِنَ لَكُمْ ۖ أَمْ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ تَفْتَرُونَ ﴿٥٩﴾ وَمَا ظَنُّ ٱلَّذِينَ يَفْتَرُونَ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ ٱلْكَذِبَ يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَٰمَةِ ۗ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَذُو فَضْلٍ عَلَى ٱلنَّاسِ وَلَٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَهُمْ لَا يَشْكُرُونَ ﴿٦٠﴾
Translation
If every person who has done wrong owned all the wealth on earth, he would readily offer it as ransom to escape that punishment. When they see the punishment, they will regret it in their hearts.⁵⁹ But judgement will be passed between them with complete justice, and they will not be wronged.
Listen! Everything in the heavens and the earth belongs to Allah. Know well that Allah’s promise is true, but most people do not know. He gives life and He causes death, and to Him you will all return.
People, admonition has come to you from your Lord. It is a cure for the diseases of the heart, and guidance and mercy for those who accept it. O Prophet, say: “It is by Allah’s grace and mercy that He has sent this. It is this that people should rejoice over. It is better than all the things they are hoarding.”
O Prophet, say to them: “Have you ever considered the provision⁶⁰ Allah sent down for you, from which you yourselves declared some unlawful and some lawful?”⁶¹ Ask them, “Did Allah give you permission for this, or are you inventing lies against Allah?”⁶²
What do those who invent lies against Allah think will happen to them on the Day of Resurrection? Allah looks upon people with kindness, but most of them are not grateful.⁶³
Notes
Note 59. They denied it all their lives and spent their whole lives on wrong deeds, treating it as a lie. They hurled all kinds of accusations at the prophets who warned them of it. When that very thing suddenly stands before them, completely contrary to their expectations, the ground will slip from under their feet. Their own consciences will tell them what must now be the outcome of everything they did in the world, given that this was the reality all along.
As the Persian saying goes, khud karda ra ilaje nist: there is no remedy for harm one has brought on oneself. Their tongues will be silent, and their hearts will sink within them from remorse and regret. Someone who staked his entire capital on a deal built on conjecture and guesswork, and refused to listen to anyone who wished him well, has no one to blame but himself once he is bankrupt.
Note 60. In Urdu, the word rizq is applied only to food and drink. That is why people assume the reproach here targets only the rules people have made, out of religious superstition or custom, within the small world of the dining table. Not only the ignorant and the general public but even scholars share this misunderstanding.
In Arabic, however, rizq is not limited to food. It broadly means a gift, a bestowal, one’s allotted portion. Everything Allah has given a person in this world is his rizq; even children are rizq. The biographical dictionaries of hadith narrators contain many narrators named Rizq, Ruzayq and Rizqullah, which mean roughly what the Urdu name “Allah Diye” means (God-given).
A well-known prayer says, اللَّهُمَّ أَرِنَا الْحَقَّ حَقًّا وَارْزُقْنَا اتِّبَاعَهُ: “O Allah, show us the truth as truth, and grant us (urzuqna) the ability to follow it.” In common usage one says ruziqa ‘ilman, “so-and-so was granted knowledge.” A hadith says that Allah sends an angel into the womb of every pregnant woman, and the angel writes down the child’s rizq, lifespan and deeds. Clearly, rizq here does not mean only the food the child will later receive, but everything he will be given in the world. The Quran itself says, وَمِمَّا رَزَقْنَاهُمْ يُنفِقُونَ, “and they spend out of what We have given them.”
So it is a serious mistake to confine rizq to the borders of the dining table and to think Allah objects only to the restrictions and freedoms people have adopted on their own regarding food and drink. Nor is it a minor mistake. Because of it, a major foundational teaching of God’s religion has been lost from people’s sight.
This very mistake is why the lawfulness or unlawfulness of food and drink is treated as a religious matter, while the broader affairs of civilization are not. Suppose it is established there that human beings have the right to set their own limits, and on that basis laws are made without regard to God and His Book. Not only ordinary people but even religious scholars, muftis, Quran commentators and hadith masters fail to sense the problem. This too clashes with religion, exactly as setting one’s own limits of lawful and unlawful in food and drink does, without regard to divine law.
Note 61. In other words, do you have any sense of how grave an act of rebellion you are committing? The provision belongs to Allah, and you yourselves belong to Allah. Where, then, did you get the right to set your own limits for how you handle, use and benefit from Allah’s property?
What would you think of a servant who claimed the right to set the limits of his own control and authority over his master’s property, and said the master had no need to say anything at all in the matter? If your own employee claimed this kind of freedom and independence to act as he liked in your house and with everything in it, how would you deal with him?
The case of a servant who does not even accept that he is anyone’s servant, that he has a master, or that the property in his hands belongs to someone else, is a different matter altogether. The position of that villainous usurper is not under discussion here. The question here concerns a servant who admits that he is someone’s servant and that the property belongs to the one he serves, yet still says, “I have the right to set the limits of my own control over this property myself, and there is no need to ask the master.”
Note 62. In other words, your position could be valid only if the master himself had authorized you: “Handle my property however you like. I have handed you every right to make all the limits, laws and rules for your own conduct and use.” Now the question is: do you really have any proof that the master gave you these powers? Or are you claiming without any proof that he has handed all those rights to you? If it is the former, kindly show us the proof. Otherwise, it is plain that you are adding the further crime of lying and fabrication to your rebellion.
Note 63. In other words, it is the master’s supreme kindness that he himself tells the servant which conduct, in his house, with his property and with the servant’s own self, will earn his pleasure, reward and promotion, and which course will bring on his anger, punishment and demotion. But many foolish servants do not give thanks for this favour.
It is as if, in their view, the master should simply have brought them into his house and left them there, handed all his property over to them, and then watched in secret to see what each servant did. Then, whenever anyone did something against his wishes, wishes no servant knew anything about, he would punish him. Yet had the master put his servants through so harsh a test, not one of them could have escaped punishment.
[End of Section 6]
Section 7 (Verses 61–70)
Arabic Text
وَمَا تَكُونُ فِى شَأْنٍۢ وَمَا تَتْلُوا۟ مِنْهُ مِن قُرْءَانٍۢ وَلَا تَعْمَلُونَ مِنْ عَمَلٍ إِلَّا كُنَّا عَلَيْكُمْ شُهُودًا إِذْ تُفِيضُونَ فِيهِ ۚ وَمَا يَعْزُبُ عَن رَّبِّكَ مِن مِّثْقَالِ ذَرَّةٍۢ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَلَا فِى ٱلسَّمَآءِ وَلَآ أَصْغَرَ مِن ذَٰلِكَ وَلَآ أَكْبَرَ إِلَّا فِى كِتَٰبٍۢ مُّبِينٍ ﴿٦١﴾ أَلَآ إِنَّ أَوْلِيَآءَ ٱللَّهِ لَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ ﴿٦٢﴾ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَكَانُوا۟ يَتَّقُونَ ﴿٦٣﴾ لَهُمُ ٱلْبُشْرَىٰ فِى ٱلْحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا وَفِى ٱلْءَاخِرَةِ ۚ لَا تَبْدِيلَ لِكَلِمَٰتِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ هُوَ ٱلْفَوْزُ ٱلْعَظِيمُ ﴿٦٤﴾ وَلَا يَحْزُنكَ قَوْلُهُمْ ۘ إِنَّ ٱلْعِزَّةَ لِلَّهِ جَمِيعًا ۚ هُوَ ٱلسَّمِيعُ ٱلْعَلِيمُ ﴿٦٥﴾ أَلَآ إِنَّ لِلَّهِ مَن فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَمَن فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ ۗ وَمَا يَتَّبِعُ ٱلَّذِينَ يَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ شُرَكَآءَ ۚ إِن يَتَّبِعُونَ إِلَّا ٱلظَّنَّ وَإِنْ هُمْ إِلَّا يَخْرُصُونَ ﴿٦٦﴾ هُوَ ٱلَّذِى جَعَلَ لَكُمُ ٱلَّيْلَ لِتَسْكُنُوا۟ فِيهِ وَٱلنَّهَارَ مُبْصِرًا ۚ إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَءَايَٰتٍۢ لِّقَوْمٍۢ يَسْمَعُونَ ﴿٦٧﴾ قَالُوا۟ ٱتَّخَذَ ٱللَّهُ وَلَدًۭا ۗ سُبْحَٰنَهُۥ ۖ هُوَ ٱلْغَنِىُّ ۖ لَهُۥ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ ۚ إِنْ عِندَكُم مِّن سُلْطَٰنٍۭ بِهَٰذَآ ۚ أَتَقُولُونَ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴿٦٨﴾ قُلْ إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ يَفْتَرُونَ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ ٱلْكَذِبَ لَا يُفْلِحُونَ ﴿٦٩﴾ مَتَٰعٌۭ فِى ٱلدُّنْيَا ثُمَّ إِلَيْنَا مَرْجِعُهُمْ ثُمَّ نُذِيقُهُمُ ٱلْعَذَابَ ٱلشَّدِيدَ بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَكْفُرُونَ ﴿٧٠﴾
Translation
O Prophet, whatever state you are in, and whatever you recite from the Quran, and, people, whatever you do, We are watching you throughout. Not even the weight of a particle in the heavens or the earth, whether smaller or larger, is hidden from your Lord, and none of it is left unrecorded in a clear register.⁶⁴
Listen! Those who are Allah’s friends, who believed and adopted the way of taqwa, have no cause for fear or grief. For them there is nothing but good news, in the life of this world and in the Hereafter. Allah’s words cannot change. This is the great success.
O Prophet, do not let what these people say about you grieve you. All honour is entirely in God’s control, and He hears and knows everything.
Be aware! Whether they dwell in the heavens or on the earth, all belong to Allah. Those who call on [self-made] partners besides Allah follow nothing but fancy and guesswork, and they only speculate. It is Allah who made the night for you to rest in and made the day bright. In this there are signs for people who listen [with open ears to the Prophet’s call].⁶⁵
People have said that Allah has taken a son.⁶⁶ Glory be to Allah!⁶⁷ He is free of all need. Everything in the heavens and the earth belongs to Him.⁶⁸ What proof do you have for this claim? Do you say things about Allah that you do not know?
O Muhammad, say: “Those who invent lies against Allah will never succeed.” Let them enjoy themselves for a few days of worldly life. Then they must return to Us, and We will make them taste a severe punishment for the disbelief they kept committing.
Notes
Note 64. The purpose of mentioning this here is to comfort the Prophet and to warn his opponents.
On one side, the Prophet is told that We see the diligence, self-sacrifice, patience and forbearance with which you are working to convey the message of truth and reform God’s creatures. It is not as though We assigned you this dangerous task and then left you to fend for yourself. We see what you are doing, and We are not unaware of what is being done to you.
On the other side, the Prophet’s opponents are warned: while you obstruct the reforming efforts of a caller to truth who wishes his fellow creatures well, do not imagine that no one sees what you are doing, or that you will never be called to account for your deeds. Be warned that everything you are doing is being recorded in God’s register.
Note 65. This point needs explanation, since it is stated very briefly. Philosophical inquiry asks whether some reality lies hidden behind what we outwardly see and sense in this universe, and if so, what it is. For everyone in the world who does not receive direct knowledge of reality through revelation and inspiration, such inquiry is the only means of forming an opinion about religion.
No one, whether he adopts atheism, polytheism or belief in God, can reach any conclusion about religion without some kind of philosophical inquiry. The religion the prophets presented can also be tested only in this way. A person must reflect philosophically, as far as he is able, and try to satisfy himself whether the reality the prophets say lies hidden behind the phenomena of the universe rings true to the heart.
Whether this inquiry is right or wrong depends entirely on its method. A wrong method produces a wrong opinion, and a right method produces a right one. Now consider the methods different groups in the world have adopted for this inquiry:
• Polytheists have based their search on pure fancy.
• Illuminationists and yogis have made a show of meditation and claim that they look behind the outward and observe the inner reality. In fact, they have based their detective work on guesswork. What they meditate on is really their own guess. What they claim to see is nothing but an idea they formed by guessing: they fix their imagination on it and press their minds upon it until that very idea seems to move about before their eyes.
• Philosophers, in the technical sense, have made qiyas(speculative reasoning) the basis of their inquiry. It is really just guesswork, but sensing its lameness, they tried to make it walk on the crutches of formal logic and artificial rationalism, and named it qiyas.
• Scientists have used a scholarly method for research within the domain of science. But as soon as they step into the realm of metaphysics, they too abandon that method and follow speculation, guesswork, estimates and conjecture.
On top of this, the fancies and guesses of all these groups have caught the disease of prejudice in one way or another. It has forced them to refuse to listen to anyone else, to turn onto their own favourite path, and, once turned, to stay on it.
The Quran declares this method of inquiry fundamentally wrong. It says that the real cause of your going astray is that you base your search for truth on guesswork and speculation, and then, because of prejudice, you are not even willing to hear anything reasonable. The result of this double error is that finding the reality by yourselves was impossible to begin with, and now it has also become impossible for you to examine the religion presented by the prophets and reach a correct opinion.
Against this, the Quran lays out the correct scholarly and rational method of philosophical inquiry. First, listen with open ears and without prejudice to the account of reality given by those who say: “We are telling you what reality is, not on the basis of speculation, guesswork, meditation or mystical practice, but on the basis of knowledge.” Then reflect on the traces in the universe that come within your observation and experience, which the Quran calls “signs.” Arrange their evidence and examine it. Keep searching to see whether, within this outward world itself, you find indications pointing to the reality these people say lies behind it.
If you see such indications, and their pointers are clear, there is no reason to needlessly deny those whose account turns out to match the evidence of the signs. This very method is the foundation of Islamic philosophy. Sadly, even Muslim philosophers abandoned it and followed in the footsteps of Plato and Aristotle.
In many places the Quran not only urges this method but, by presenting the signs of the universe one after another, gives what amounts to regular training in drawing conclusions from them and reaching reality. The aim is for this way of thinking and searching to become firmly rooted in people’s minds.
So in this verse too, attention is drawn to just two signs as examples: night and day. The alternation of night and day actually arises from a perfectly regular change in the relative positions of the sun and the earth. This is a clear sign of the existence of a universal Organizer and a Ruler with sovereign power over the whole universe.
It also shows clear wisdom and purpose, since countless interests of all the beings on earth are bound up with this cycle of night and day. It contains clear signs of lordship, mercy and nurturing as well, because it proves that the One who created these beings on earth also provides what they need to exist. It shows too that this universal Organizer is one, and that He is not playful but wise and acts with purpose. As Benefactor and Nurturer, He alone deserves worship. And whoever is subject to the cycle of night and day is not a lord but one who is nurtured, not a master but a servant.
Against this evidence from the signs, how can the religions the polytheists invented out of guesswork and speculation possibly be right?
Note 66. The preceding verses rebuked people for the ignorance of basing their religion on speculation and guesswork instead of knowledge, and for not even trying to investigate, by any scholarly method, whether the religion they follow has any proof. Continuing the same theme, this verse rebukes the folly of the Christians and some followers of other religions, who on mere guesswork declared someone to be the son of God.
Note 67. Subhan Allah is sometimes said as an exclamation of astonishment, and sometimes in its literal meaning: “Allah is free of every defect.” Here it carries both meanings. It expresses astonishment at what these people say, and it also answers them: Allah is free of every defect, so how can a son be attributed to Him?
Note 68. Three points are made here to refute their claim: first, Allah is free of all defects; second, He is free of all need; and third, everything in the heavens and the earth is His property. These brief answers are easy to understand with a little explanation.
Obviously, a son can be either a biological son or an adopted one.
If these people call someone God’s son in the biological sense, they are comparing God to an animal. An animal is mortal as an individual, and its existence can continue only if it belongs to some species, has a mate from that species, and has offspring through their sexual union. Those offspring then carry on its species and its work.
If they call someone God’s son in the sense that He adopted him, there are only two possibilities. Either they have compared God to a childless man who adopts someone of his own kind to be his heir, and so to make up, even if only nominally, for the loss he suffers by remaining childless. Or they imagine that God, like a human being, has emotional inclinations, and has come to love one of His countless servants so much that He has made him His son.
Whichever of these three it is, the basic ideas of this belief accuse God of many defects, weaknesses, imperfections and needs.
That is why the first phrase says that Allah is free of all the defects, imperfections and weaknesses you attribute to Him. The second says that He is also free of the needs that lead mortal human beings to want children or to adopt a son. The third states plainly that everything in the earth and the heavens consists of Allah’s servants and His property. He has no special personal relationship with any one of them that would lead Him to set all the others aside and declare that one His son, His only-begotten or His heir.
Allah certainly loves some servants more than others because of their qualities. But this love does not mean that any servant is raised from the position of servanthood to a share in divinity. At most, this love requires what was stated in an earlier verse: “Those who believed and adopted the way of taqwa have no cause for fear or grief; for them there is nothing but good news, in this world and in the Hereafter.”
[End of Section 7]
Section 8 (Verses 71–82)
Arabic Text
۞ وَٱتْلُ عَلَيْهِمْ نَبَأَ نُوحٍ إِذْ قَالَ لِقَوْمِهِۦ يَٰقَوْمِ إِن كَانَ كَبُرَ عَلَيْكُم مَّقَامِى وَتَذْكِيرِى بِـَٔايَٰتِ ٱللَّهِ فَعَلَى ٱللَّهِ تَوَكَّلْتُ فَأَجْمِعُوٓا۟ أَمْرَكُمْ وَشُرَكَآءَكُمْ ثُمَّ لَا يَكُنْ أَمْرُكُمْ عَلَيْكُمْ غُمَّةًۭ ثُمَّ ٱقْضُوٓا۟ إِلَىَّ وَلَا تُنظِرُونِ ﴿٧١﴾ فَإِن تَوَلَّيْتُمْ فَمَا سَأَلْتُكُم مِّنْ أَجْرٍ ۖ إِنْ أَجْرِىَ إِلَّا عَلَى ٱللَّهِ ۖ وَأُمِرْتُ أَنْ أَكُونَ مِنَ ٱلْمُسْلِمِينَ ﴿٧٢﴾ فَكَذَّبُوهُ فَنَجَّيْنَٰهُ وَمَن مَّعَهُۥ فِى ٱلْفُلْكِ وَجَعَلْنَٰهُمْ خَلَٰٓئِفَ وَأَغْرَقْنَا ٱلَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا۟ بِـَٔايَٰتِنَا ۖ فَٱنظُرْ كَيْفَ كَانَ عَٰقِبَةُ ٱلْمُنذَرِينَ ﴿٧٣﴾ ثُمَّ بَعَثْنَا مِنۢ بَعْدِهِۦ رُسُلًا إِلَىٰ قَوْمِهِمْ فَجَآءُوهُم بِٱلْبَيِّنَٰتِ فَمَا كَانُوا۟ لِيُؤْمِنُوا۟ بِمَا كَذَّبُوا۟ بِهِۦ مِن قَبْلُ ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ نَطْبَعُ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِ ٱلْمُعْتَدِينَ ﴿٧٤﴾ ثُمَّ بَعَثْنَا مِنۢ بَعْدِهِم مُّوسَىٰ وَهَٰرُونَ إِلَىٰ فِرْعَوْنَ وَمَلَإِي۟هِۦ بِـَٔايَٰتِنَا فَٱسْتَكْبَرُوا۟ وَكَانُوا۟ قَوْمًۭا مُّجْرِمِينَ ﴿٧٥﴾ فَلَمَّا جَآءَهُمُ ٱلْحَقُّ مِنْ عِندِنَا قَالُوٓا۟ إِنَّ هَٰذَا لَسِحْرٌۭ مُّبِينٌۭ ﴿٧٦﴾ قَالَ مُوسَىٰٓ أَتَقُولُونَ لِلْحَقِّ لَمَّا جَآءَكُمْ ۖ أَسِحْرٌ هَٰذَا وَلَا يُفْلِحُ ٱلسَّٰحِرُونَ ﴿٧٧﴾ قَالُوٓا۟ أَجِئْتَنَا لِتَلْفِتَنَا عَمَّا وَجَدْنَا عَلَيْهِ ءَابَآءَنَا وَتَكُونَ لَكُمَا ٱلْكِبْرِيَآءُ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَمَا نَحْنُ لَكُمَا بِمُؤْمِنِينَ ﴿٧٨﴾ وَقَالَ فِرْعَوْنُ ٱئْتُونِى بِكُلِّ سَٰحِرٍ عَلِيمٍۢ ﴿٧٩﴾ فَلَمَّا جَآءَ ٱلسَّحَرَةُ قَالَ لَهُم مُّوسَىٰٓ أَلْقُوا۟ مَآ أَنتُم مُّلْقُونَ ﴿٨٠﴾ فَلَمَّآ أَلْقَوْا۟ قَالَ مُوسَىٰ مَا جِئْتُم بِهِ ٱلسِّحْرُ ۖ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ سَيُبْطِلُهُۥٓ ۖ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يُصْلِحُ عَمَلَ ٱلْمُفْسِدِينَ ﴿٨١﴾ وَيُحِقُّ ٱللَّهُ ٱلْحَقَّ بِكَلِمَٰتِهِۦ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ ٱلْمُجْرِمُونَ ﴿٨٢﴾
Translation
Tell them the story of Nuh,⁶⁹ of the time he said to his people: “My brothers, if my living among you and rousing you from heedlessness by reciting Allah’s verses to you has become unbearable to you, then my trust is in Allah. Gather your partners and reach a united decision. Think through whatever plan you have in mind so thoroughly that no part of it escapes you. Then carry it out against me, and give me no respite at all.⁷⁰ If you have turned away from my advice, [what harm have you done me?] I asked no reward from you; my reward rests with Allah alone. And I have been commanded to remain a Muslim myself [whether anyone else accepts or not].”
They denied him, and the result was that We saved him and those with him in the Ark, made them the successors on the earth, and drowned all who had denied Our verses. So see what became of those who had been warned [and still refused to believe].
After Nuh We sent various messengers to their peoples, and they came to them with clear signs. But those people would not accept what they had already denied before. This is how We seal the hearts of those who go beyond all limits.⁷¹
⁷²Then after them We sent Musa and Harun with Our signs to Pharaoh and his chiefs. But they were arrogant about their own greatness,⁷³ and they were a criminal people. So when the truth came to them from Us, they said, “This is plain sorcery.”⁷⁴
Musa said, “Is this what you say about the truth when it has come to you? Is this sorcery? Sorcerers never succeed.”⁷⁵
They replied, “Have you come to turn us away from the way we found our forefathers following, so that the two of you can have greatness in the land?⁷⁶ We are not going to believe you.”
Pharaoh said [to his men], “Bring me every skilled sorcerer.” When the sorcerers came, Musa said to them, “Throw whatever you have to throw.” When they had thrown down their spells, Musa said, “What you have thrown is sorcery.⁷⁷ Allah will now bring it to nothing. Allah does not let the work of corrupters prosper. Allah proves the truth true by His commands, however much the criminals may hate it.”
Notes
Note 69. Up to this point, these people were shown, through reasonable arguments and heartfelt advice, what was wrong with their beliefs, ideas and ways and why, and what the right path was and why it was right. Now attention turns to the attitude they were adopting in response to this plain and straightforward explanation and exhortation.
For ten or eleven years their course had been this. Instead of reflecting on this reasonable criticism and sound guidance and reconsidering their errors, they had become deadly enemies of the man presenting these things. He was presenting them not for any personal gain but for their own good. They answered arguments with stones and advice with abuse. The presence in their town of a man who called wrong wrong and tried to point out what was right had become deeply offensive to them, and even unbearable.
Their demand was this: the one person among us blind people who has eyes should close his own eyes instead of opening ours. Otherwise we will put out his eyes by force, so that nothing like sight will be found in our land.
Instead of saying anything further about this attitude of theirs, Allah commands His Prophet to tell them the story of Nuh. In that story they will find the answer to their case and to yours.
Note 70. This was a challenge: “I will not give up my work. Do whatever you want to do against me; my trust is in Allah.” (For comparison, see Hud, verse 55.)
Note 71. “Those who go beyond all limits” are people who, having once made a mistake, cling to it out of stubbornness, obstinacy and a refusal to back down from what they have said. Once they have refused to accept something, they will not accept it through any explanation, any exhortation, or even the most reasonable argument. Such people are finally struck by such a curse that they are never again granted the ability to come to the right path.
Note 72. At this point, keep in mind the notes I wrote on the story of Musa and Pharaoh in Surah Al-A’raf (Sections 13–21). Matters already explained there will not be repeated here.
Note 73. In other words, intoxicated by their wealth, power, grandeur and splendour, they considered themselves above the position of servanthood. Instead of bowing their heads in obedience, they displayed arrogance.
Note 74. In other words, on hearing Musa’s message, they said exactly what the disbelievers of Makkah said on hearing the message of Muhammad (peace be upon him): “This man is plainly a sorcerer.” (See verse 2 of this same surah.)
Keeping the flow of the discourse in view here makes one thing plainly clear. Musa and Harun (peace be upon them) were appointed to the very same mission as Nuh and all the prophets after him, up to our master Muhammad (peace be upon him).
From its beginning, this surah has carried a single theme: accept only Allah, the Lord of the worlds, as your Lord and God, and acknowledge that after this life you must appear before Allah in a second life and give an account of your deeds. Those who refused to accept the Prophet’s call are being made to understand something. Not only their own success, but the success of all human beings at all times, has depended on this one thing: accepting the call to belief in Tawhid and the Hereafter that God’s prophets have presented in every age, and building one’s whole way of life on that foundation. Only those who did this succeeded, and every nation that rejected it was ultimately destroyed.
This is the central theme of the surah. In this context, when other prophets are mentioned as historical precedents, it necessarily means that the call given in this surah was the call of all those prophets, and that Musa and Harun also went to Pharaoh and his chiefs with this same call.
Some people have supposed that the mission of Musa and Harun was to free one particular nation from slavery to another. If that were so, presenting this episode as a historical precedent in this context would make no sense at all.
Admittedly, one part of their mission was also to deliver the Children of Israel, a Muslim nation, from the domination of a disbelieving nation, if that nation persisted in its disbelief. But this was a secondary aim, not the real purpose of their being sent. The real purpose was the same one that, according to the Quran, all prophets were sent for. Surah An-Nazi’at states it plainly: اذْهَبْ إِلَىٰ فِرْعَوْنَ إِنَّهُ طَغَىٰ فَقُلْ هَل لَّكَ إِلَىٰ أَن تَزَكَّىٰ وَأَهْدِيَكَ إِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ فَتَخْشَىٰ: “Go to Pharaoh, for he has transgressed the bounds of servitude, and say to him: Are you willing to reform yourself, so that I may guide you to your Lord and you may fear Him?”
However, Pharaoh and the leading men of his kingdom did not accept this call, and in the end Musa had no choice but to lead his Muslim people out from under their rule. So this part of his mission became prominent in history, and the Quran also presents it with the same prominence it actually has in history.
Some people make the mistake of looking at the Quran’s details in isolation from its general principles. Anyone who avoids that mistake, and always sees and understands the details in light of those principles, can never fall into the misconception that freeing a nation could be the real purpose of a prophet’s mission, and calling people to the true religion merely a secondary aim. (For further explanation, see Ta Ha, verses 44–82; Az-Zukhruf, 46–56; Al-Muzzammil, 15–16.)
Note 75. The point is that because a miracle and sorcery look alike on the surface, you readily declared this to be sorcery. But, you fools, you did not stop to consider what kind of character and morals sorcerers have, and for what purposes they practise sorcery.
Is it a sorcerer’s way to come, fearless and wanting nothing, into the court of a tyrannical ruler, rebuke him for his misguidance, and call him to worship God and purify himself? If a sorcerer had come to you, he would first have gone around flattering the courtiers: “Please get me a chance to show my skills before His Majesty.” Then, once he gained access to the court, he would have bowed and saluted with even more servility than the ordinary flatterers. He would have shouted prayers for long life and good fortune, and begged with great humility, “Would Your Majesty kindly observe some of this humble servant’s accomplishments too?” And once you had watched his show, he would have held out his hand: “Your Honour, a little reward, please.”
This whole idea has been compressed into a single sentence: sorcerers never succeed.
Note 76. Obviously, if Musa and Harun’s real demand had been the release of the Children of Israel, Pharaoh and his courtiers would have had no reason to fear that the spread of these two men’s call would change the religion of Egypt and establish their greatness in the land instead of their own.
The reason for this fear was that Musa was calling the people of Egypt to servitude to the true God. That endangered the polytheistic system on which Pharaoh’s kingship, his chiefs’ leadership and the religious leaders’ authority all rested. (For further explanation, see Al-A’raf, Note 66; Al-Mu’min, Note 43.)
Note 77. In other words, what I showed you was not sorcery; what you are showing is sorcery.
[End of Section 8]
Section 9 (Verses 83–92)
Arabic Text
فَمَآ ءَامَنَ لِمُوسَىٰٓ إِلَّا ذُرِّيَّةٌۭ مِّن قَوْمِهِۦ عَلَىٰ خَوْفٍۢ مِّن فِرْعَوْنَ وَمَلَإِي۟هِمْ أَن يَفْتِنَهُمْ ۚ وَإِنَّ فِرْعَوْنَ لَعَالٍۢ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَإِنَّهُۥ لَمِنَ ٱلْمُسْرِفِينَ ﴿٨٣﴾ وَقَالَ مُوسَىٰ يَٰقَوْمِ إِن كُنتُمْ ءَامَنتُم بِٱللَّهِ فَعَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلُوٓا۟ إِن كُنتُم مُّسْلِمِينَ ﴿٨٤﴾ فَقَالُوا۟ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ تَوَكَّلْنَا رَبَّنَا لَا تَجْعَلْنَا فِتْنَةًۭ لِّلْقَوْمِ ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ ﴿٨٥﴾ وَنَجِّنَا بِرَحْمَتِكَ مِنَ ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلْكَٰفِرِينَ ﴿٨٦﴾ وَأَوْحَيْنَآ إِلَىٰ مُوسَىٰ وَأَخِيهِ أَن تَبَوَّءَا لِقَوْمِكُمَا بِمِصْرَ بُيُوتًۭا وَٱجْعَلُوا۟ بُيُوتَكُمْ قِبْلَةًۭ وَأَقِيمُوا۟ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ ۗ وَبَشِّرِ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ ﴿٨٧﴾ وَقَالَ مُوسَىٰ رَبَّنَآ إِنَّكَ ءَاتَيْتَ فِرْعَوْنَ وَمَلَأَهُۥ زِينَةًۭ وَأَمْوَٰلًۭا فِى ٱلْحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا رَبَّنَا لِيُضِلُّوا۟ عَن سَبِيلِكَ ۖ رَبَّنَا ٱطْمِسْ عَلَىٰٓ أَمْوَٰلِهِمْ وَٱشْدُدْ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِمْ فَلَا يُؤْمِنُوا۟ حَتَّىٰ يَرَوُا۟ ٱلْعَذَابَ ٱلْأَلِيمَ ﴿٨٨﴾ قَالَ قَدْ أُجِيبَت دَّعْوَتُكُمَا فَٱسْتَقِيمَا وَلَا تَتَّبِعَآنِّ سَبِيلَ ٱلَّذِينَ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ ﴿٨٩﴾ ۞ وَجَٰوَزْنَا بِبَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ ٱلْبَحْرَ فَأَتْبَعَهُمْ فِرْعَوْنُ وَجُنُودُهُۥ بَغْيًۭا وَعَدْوًا ۖ حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَآ أَدْرَكَهُ ٱلْغَرَقُ قَالَ ءَامَنتُ أَنَّهُۥ لَآ إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱلَّذِىٓ ءَامَنَتْ بِهِۦ بَنُوٓا۟ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ وَأَنَا۠ مِنَ ٱلْمُسْلِمِينَ ﴿٩٠﴾ ءَآلْـَٰٔنَ وَقَدْ عَصَيْتَ قَبْلُ وَكُنتَ مِنَ ٱلْمُفْسِدِينَ ﴿٩١﴾ فَٱلْيَوْمَ نُنَجِّيكَ بِبَدَنِكَ لِتَكُونَ لِمَنْ خَلْفَكَ ءَايَةًۭ ۚ وَإِنَّ كَثِيرًۭا مِّنَ ٱلنَّاسِ عَنْ ءَايَٰتِنَا لَغَٰفِلُونَ ﴿٩٢﴾
Translation
[Then see how] none believed in Musa except a few young people⁷⁸ from his nation,⁷⁹ out of fear of Pharaoh and of the leading men of their own people [who feared that] Pharaoh would subject them to torment. The fact is that Pharaoh held sway in the land and was one of those who stop at no limit.⁸⁰
Musa said to his people, “My people, if you truly believe in Allah, then put your trust in Him, if you are Muslims.”⁸¹ They replied,⁸² “In Allah alone we have put our trust. Our Lord, do not make us a trial for the wrongdoing people,⁸³ and by Your mercy deliver us from the disbelieving people.”
We instructed Musa and his brother: “Provide some houses in Egypt for your people, make those houses of yours a qiblah, establish prayer,⁸⁴ and give good news to the believers.”⁸⁵
Musa prayed:⁸⁶ “Our Lord, You have granted Pharaoh and his chiefs splendour⁸⁷ and wealth⁸⁸ in the life of this world. Our Lord, is it so that they may lead people astray from Your path? Our Lord, destroy their wealth and harden their hearts, so that they do not believe until they see the painful punishment.”⁸⁹ Allah replied, “The prayer of you both has been accepted. Stand firm, and never follow the way of those who do not know.”⁹⁰
We brought the Children of Israel across the sea. Pharaoh and his armies pursued them out of oppression and aggression. When Pharaoh began to drown, he cried out, “I believe that there is no true God except the One in whom the Children of Israel believe, and I am one of those who submit.”⁹¹
[He was answered:] “Now you believe! Yet until now you were disobedient and were one of the corrupters. Today We will save only your body, so that you may be a lesson for those who come after you,⁹² although many people are heedless of Our signs.”⁹³
Notes
Note 78. The original text uses the word dhurriyyah, which means offspring. I have translated it as “young people.” What the Quran really wants to convey by using this particular word is this: in that dangerous time, a few young men and women found the courage to side with the truth and accept its standard-bearer as their leader. The mothers, fathers and elders of the nation, however, did not.
They were so dominated by expediency, servitude to worldly interests and the desire for safety that they would not side with a truth whose path looked full of danger to them. On the contrary, they kept holding the young people back: “Don’t go near Musa, or you will bring Pharaoh’s wrath on yourselves and disaster on us as well.”
The Quran highlights this point specifically because, among the people of Makkah too, those who came forward to side with Muhammad (peace be upon him) were not the nation’s elders and old men, but a handful of courageous young people. The early Muslims who were championing the truth of Islam against the fierce opposition of the whole nation when these verses were revealed, and whose chests served as shields for Islam in that storm of oppression, included no calculating old man. All of them were young.
• Under 20 when they accepted Islam: Ali ibn Abi Talib, Ja’far al-Tayyar, al-Zubayr, Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas, Mus’ab ibn Umayr and Abdullah ibn Mas’ud.
• Between 20 and 30: Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf, Bilal and Suhayb.
• Between 30 and 35: Abu Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah, Zayd ibn Harithah, Uthman ibn Affan and Umar al-Faruq.
• Older than all of these: Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, who was still no more than 38 when he believed.
Among the early Muslims, we find the name of only one Companion older than the Prophet (peace be upon him): Ubaydah ibn al-Harith al-Muttalibi. And probably only one Companion in the whole group was the Prophet’s age: Ammar ibn Yasir.
Note 79. The original text has the words فَمَا آمَنَ لِمُوسَىٰ (fa-ma amana li-Musa). This has led some people to suspect that the Children of Israel were all disbelievers and that at first only a few of them believed. However, when iman is followed by the preposition lam, it usually means obedience and submission: accepting someone’s word and following what he says.
So these words really mean this: apart from a few young people, no one in the entire nation of the Children of Israel was willing to accept Musa as their leader, follow him, and support him in the work of this Islamic call.
The following sentence then makes clear the real reason for their behaviour. It was not that they doubted Musa’s truthfulness or the truth of his call. The only reason was that they, and especially their elders and nobles, were not prepared to expose themselves to Pharaoh’s harshness by siding with Musa.
By both descent and religion, these people were the ummah of Ibrahim, Ishaq, Ya’qub and Yusuf (peace be upon them), and so they were obviously all Muslims. But long moral decline, and the faint-heartedness that subjugation had produced, had left them without the strength to rise themselves with the banner of faith and guidance against the rule of disbelief and misguidance, or to support the one who had risen.
The Bible gives an idea of how ordinary Israelites behaved in this struggle between Musa and Pharaoh. It relates that as they came out from Pharaoh, they found Musa and Harun standing in the road to meet them, and said to them: “May the Lord look upon you and judge you. You have made us so loathsome in the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants that you have put a sword in their hand to kill us.” (Exodus 5:20–21)
The Talmud records that the Children of Israel used to say to Musa and Harun (peace be upon them): “We are like a goat seized by a wolf. The shepherd came and tried to save it, and in the struggle between the two the goat was torn to pieces. In the same way, we will be finished off in the tug-of-war between you and Pharaoh.”
Surah Al-A’raf also alludes to this, where the Children of Israel said to Musa: أُوذِينَا مِن قَبْلِ أَن تَأْتِيَنَا وَمِن بَعْدِ مَا جِئْتَنَا, “We were persecuted before you came to us and after you came to us” (verse 129).
Note 80. The original text uses the word musrifin, meaning those who exceed limits. But this literal translation does not bring out its real spirit. Musrifin really means people who do not hesitate to adopt even the worst methods for their own ends. They stop short of no oppression, immorality, savagery or barbarity. They can go to any extreme in pursuit of their desires, and there is no limit at which they will stop.
Notes 81–93. [Not yet translated. The source text for these notes was not supplied.]
[End of Section 9]
Section 10 (Verses 93–103)
Arabic Text
وَلَقَدْ بَوَّأْنَا بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ مُبَوَّأَ صِدْقٍۢ وَرَزَقْنَٰهُم مِّنَ ٱلطَّيِّبَٰتِ فَمَا ٱخْتَلَفُوا۟ حَتَّىٰ جَآءَهُمُ ٱلْعِلْمُ ۚ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ يَقْضِى بَيْنَهُمْ يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَٰمَةِ فِيمَا كَانُوا۟ فِيهِ يَخْتَلِفُونَ ﴿٩٣﴾ فَإِن كُنتَ فِى شَكٍّۢ مِّمَّآ أَنزَلْنَآ إِلَيْكَ فَسْـَٔلِ ٱلَّذِينَ يَقْرَءُونَ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ مِن قَبْلِكَ ۚ لَقَدْ جَآءَكَ ٱلْحَقُّ مِن رَّبِّكَ فَلَا تَكُونَنَّ مِنَ ٱلْمُمْتَرِينَ ﴿٩٤﴾ وَلَا تَكُونَنَّ مِنَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا۟ بِـَٔايَٰتِ ٱللَّهِ فَتَكُونَ مِنَ ٱلْخَٰسِرِينَ ﴿٩٥﴾ إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ حَقَّتْ عَلَيْهِمْ كَلِمَتُ رَبِّكَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ ﴿٩٦﴾ وَلَوْ جَآءَتْهُمْ كُلُّ ءَايَةٍ حَتَّىٰ يَرَوُا۟ ٱلْعَذَابَ ٱلْأَلِيمَ ﴿٩٧﴾ فَلَوْلَا كَانَتْ قَرْيَةٌ ءَامَنَتْ فَنَفَعَهَآ إِيمَٰنُهَآ إِلَّا قَوْمَ يُونُسَ لَمَّآ ءَامَنُوا۟ كَشَفْنَا عَنْهُمْ عَذَابَ ٱلْخِزْىِ فِى ٱلْحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا وَمَتَّعْنَٰهُمْ إِلَىٰ حِينٍۢ ﴿٩٨﴾ وَلَوْ شَآءَ رَبُّكَ لَءَامَنَ مَن فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ كُلُّهُمْ جَمِيعًا ۚ أَفَأَنتَ تُكْرِهُ ٱلنَّاسَ حَتَّىٰ يَكُونُوا۟ مُؤْمِنِينَ ﴿٩٩﴾ وَمَا كَانَ لِنَفْسٍ أَن تُؤْمِنَ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ وَيَجْعَلُ ٱلرِّجْسَ عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ لَا يَعْقِلُونَ ﴿١٠٠﴾ قُلِ ٱنظُرُوا۟ مَاذَا فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۚ وَمَا تُغْنِى ٱلْءَايَٰتُ وَٱلنُّذُرُ عَن قَوْمٍۢ لَّا يُؤْمِنُونَ ﴿١٠١﴾ فَهَلْ يَنتَظِرُونَ إِلَّا مِثْلَ أَيَّامِ ٱلَّذِينَ خَلَوْا۟ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ ۚ قُلْ فَٱنتَظِرُوٓا۟ إِنِّى مَعَكُم مِّنَ ٱلْمُنتَظِرِينَ ﴿١٠٢﴾ ثُمَّ نُنَجِّى رُسُلَنَا وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ حَقًّا عَلَيْنَا نُنجِ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ ﴿١٠٣﴾
Translation
We settled the Children of Israel in an excellent place⁹⁴ and provided them with the finest means of life. They did not fall into disagreement until after knowledge had come to them.⁹⁵ Your Lord will surely judge between them on the Day of Resurrection concerning what they used to differ over.
Now, if you have any doubt about the guidance We have sent down to you, ask those who have been reading the Book before you. The truth has indeed come to you from your Lord, so do not be among those who doubt, and do not join those who denied Allah’s verses, or you will be among the losers.⁹⁶
The truth is that those against whom your Lord’s word has been fulfilled⁹⁷ will not believe, whatever sign comes to them, until they see the painful punishment coming. Is there any example of a town that believed on seeing the punishment and found its faith of benefit? [There is none,] except the people of Yunus.⁹⁸ When that people believed, We removed from them the punishment of disgrace in the life of this world⁹⁹ and let them enjoy life for a while.¹⁰⁰
Had your Lord willed [that everyone on earth be believing and obedient], all the people of the earth would have believed.¹⁰¹ Will you, then, force people to become believers?¹⁰² No soul can believe except by Allah’s leave,¹⁰³ and Allah’s way is to cast filth upon those who do not use their reason.¹⁰⁴
Say to them, “Open your eyes and look at what is in the heavens and the earth.” But what use are signs and warnings to people who simply do not want to believe?¹⁰⁵ What are they waiting for now, if not to see the same evil days that those before them saw? Say to them, “Very well, wait. I too am waiting with you.”
Then [when such a time comes,] We save Our messengers and those who have believed. This is Our way. It is a duty upon Us to save the believers.
Notes
Note 94. That is, “in Palestine after their exodus from Egypt”
Note 95. This refers to the dissensions the Israelites had caused in the Divine Way and the new religions they had invented. This verse accuses them of falling into variances, even though they possessed the Divine Knowledge, which had provided them with the criterion of judging between the Right Way and the wrong ways. They did this because of mischiefs of their hearts in spite of the fact that the Right Way had been made clear to them, and its fundamental principles had been imparted to them and instructions had been given about its implications and demands and its boundaries had been distinctly demarcated from those of the ways of unbelief. Besides, they had been admonished to follow the path of obedience and guard against the paths of disobedience, and establish their lives entirely in accordance with the rules and regulations based on that Knowledge, for they shall have to render an account of all they did in this life. But in spite of all the instructions that were given to them, they divided one original Religion into many divergent sects and built different ways on foundations other than those laid down by Allah.
Note 96. Though these words were addressed to the Holy Prophet, they were meant for those who expressed doubts about his Message. As regards the reference to the people of the Book, it is because they possessed the Knowledge of the Scriptures, whereas the common people of Arabia lacked this, and were, therefore, strangers to the voice of the Quran. It was also expected that their just and pious scholars would testify that its Message was the same as that of the Scriptures of the former Prophets.
Note 97. Allah’s decree that had become applicable to them was this: Allah does not thrust the Faith on those who do not seek after the Truth: who obstinately and obdurately shut their hearts against it with prejudice: who are so lost in the love of this world that they do not care at all about the Hereafter.
Note 94. Though Prophet Jonah (860-784 B.C.) was an Israelite Prophet, he was sent to ‘Iraq for the guidance of the Assyrians, who have been called the people of Jonah for this reason. At that time, Nineveh, a very ancient and famous city, was their capital. Its vast remains are scattered on the left bank of the Tigris, opposite to the city of Mosul, and one of the mounds bears the name of ‘Prophet Jonah’ . In order to form an estimate of the glory of these people, suffice it to say that the circumference of their capital Nineveh was 60 miles or so.
Note 99. As regards the question why the threatened torment was warded off from the people of Jonah as an exception to the Divine principle, “After the decision of the torment, the profession of faith by any community does not benefit it,” the Qur’an does not give any details of this, but merely refers to the story at three places. (See XXI: 87, 88; XXXII: 139-148; LXVIII: 48-50). Though the story contained in the Book of Jonah gives some details, these cannot be depended upon because it was neither composed by Prophet Jonah nor it is a Revealed Book but was written by some unknown person and then inserted in the Bible. Besides this, it contains some apparently absurd things which cannot be accepted as true. Nevertheless if we consider this deeply in the light of the allusions made in the Qur’an and details in the Book of Jonah, the explanation given by various commentators of the Qur’an seems to be correct.-Prophet Jonah left the place of his Mission without Divine permission after warning the people of the torment. Therefore Allah forgave the Assyrians, when they repented after seeing some Signs of the coming torment. This was in accordance with the Divine principles as stated in the Qur’an. For, according to one of these, Allah does not inflict any torment on any people, till He has the Message fully demonstrated to them. As the Prophet did not continue his admonition in accordance with the appointed term and left the place of his Mission of his own accord, Allah’s justice did not inflict the chastisement because the legal argument against his people had not been fulfilled. (For further explanation see E.N. 85 of XXXVI).
Note 100. When the Assyrians believed in the Message, they were given a new lease of life. But after some time, they adopted the wrong ways of thought and deed. Prophet Nahum (720-698 B.C.) warned and admonished them but without any effect. Then Prophet Zephaniah (640-609 B.C.) gave them the last warning that “he …. will destroy Assyria and will make Nineveh a desolation” but it also proved in vain. At last in about 612 B.C., Allah made the Medes dominant over them.
The Median king, with the help of the Babylonians, invaded Assyria, and their army was defeated and was besieged within the walls of Nineveh. They put up a stiff resistance for some time but then the floods in the Tigris swept away the city wall and the invaders swarmed into the city and burnt it to ashes along with the surrounding countryside. The Assyrian king set fire to his palace and was himself burnt to death. Thus the Assyrian Empire and its culture came to an end for ever. The recent archaeological excavations reveal widespread effects of the fire.
Note 101. This refers to the freedom that Allah has granted to mankind to believe or not to believe in Him. Otherwise He could have very easily created all the people as born believers and obedient servants and there would have been no disbelief and disobedience at all on the earth. Or He could have very easily inspired them to turn towards belief and obedience. But these methods would have defeated the wisdom that underlies the creation of mankind.
Note 102. This does not at all mean that the Holy Prophet desired to force people to become believers, and that Allah was forbidding him to do this. In fact, the Qur’an has here adopted the same method of admonishing the people that it has adopted at many other places, that is, though the words have apparently been addressed to the person of the Holy Prophet, in fact, these have been addressed to the people. The implication is this: “O people! Our Messenger has made the distinction between the Guidance and deviation quite clear and plain by argument and pleading. Now, therefore, it is for you to believe or not to believe in the Guidance. If you accept that some one should force you to adopt the Right Way, you should know that this `duty’ has not been assigned to Our Prophet. Had Allah willed this, He could have done it Himself: then there would have been no need of sending any Prophet to you.”
Note 103. This is to emphasize the principle that the bestowal of all these blessings is in the power of Allah alone: therefore none can acquire or bestow on anyone any blessing without the permission of Allah. As faith and guidance also are blessings, they, too, can be acquired only with Allah’s permission; and no one can acquire these without His permission nor bestow these on anyone else even though one should desire to do so. That is why, even if the Prophet had sincerely desired to make people believers forcibly, he could not have done this, for this could be done only with Allah’s permission and help.
Note 104. This points out clearly that the above principle is not applied blindly and irrationally so as to bestow the blessing of faith on or withhold it from anyone without any rhyme or reason, but it works according to a system which is based on wisdom. Allah bestows this on anyone who uses his common sense properly in starch of the Truth, for Allah provides for such a one the means of attaining it in proportion to the sincerity of his intention and the extent of his exertion and grants him its correct knowledge required for faith. But He throws the filth of ignorance, deviation, wrong thinking and wrong doing on the one who is not a seeker after the Truth and does not seek the Truth and does not use his common-sense properly because of his prejudices, or does not use it at all in search of the Truth. And this is what such people deserve.
Note 105. This is the answer to the condition that they would believe him to be a true Prophet, if a Sign would be shown to them. The Holy Prophet has been asked to say to them, “There are countless Signs in the heaven and the earth, which confirm and testify the Message I am giving you. You could have easily recognized them, had you observed and considered them with open eyes and open hearts. But if you lack this urge and desire for the Truth, you will not accept and acknowledge it, however wonderful, miraculous and supernatural the sign may be, for you will declare that it was a piece of sorcery like Pharaoh and his chiefs. The fact is that the people, who suffer from this malady, see the Truth only when the torment with all its horrors overtakes them, just as Pharaoh came to believe only when he was drowning. But you should note it well that the repentance at the time of punishment is of no avail.
[End of Section 10]
Section 11 (Verses 104–109)
Arabic Text
قُلْ يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ إِن كُنتُمْ فِى شَكٍّۢ مِّن دِينِى فَلَآ أَعْبُدُ ٱلَّذِينَ تَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ وَلَٰكِنْ أَعْبُدُ ٱللَّهَ ٱلَّذِى يَتَوَفَّىٰكُمْ ۖ وَأُمِرْتُ أَنْ أَكُونَ مِنَ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ ﴿١٠٤﴾ وَأَنْ أَقِمْ وَجْهَكَ لِلدِّينِ حَنِيفًۭا وَلَا تَكُونَنَّ مِنَ ٱلْمُشْرِكِينَ ﴿١٠٥﴾ وَلَا تَدْعُ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ مَا لَا يَنفَعُكَ وَلَا يَضُرُّكَ ۖ فَإِن فَعَلْتَ فَإِنَّكَ إِذًۭا مِّنَ ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ ﴿١٠٦﴾ وَإِن يَمْسَسْكَ ٱللَّهُ بِضُرٍّۢ فَلَا كَاشِفَ لَهُۥٓ إِلَّا هُوَ ۖ وَإِن يُرِدْكَ بِخَيْرٍۢ فَلَا رَآدَّ لِفَضْلِهِۦ ۚ يُصِيبُ بِهِۦ مَن يَشَآءُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِۦ ۚ وَهُوَ ٱلْغَفُورُ ٱلرَّحِيمُ ﴿١٠٧﴾ قُلْ يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ قَدْ جَآءَكُمُ ٱلْحَقُّ مِن رَّبِّكُمْ ۖ فَمَنِ ٱهْتَدَىٰ فَإِنَّمَا يَهْتَدِى لِنَفْسِهِۦ ۖ وَمَن ضَلَّ فَإِنَّمَا يَضِلُّ عَلَيْهَا ۖ وَمَآ أَنَا۠ عَلَيْكُم بِوَكِيلٍۢ ﴿١٠٨﴾ وَٱتَّبِعْ مَا يُوحَىٰٓ إِلَيْكَ وَٱصْبِرْ حَتَّىٰ يَحْكُمَ ٱللَّهُ ۚ وَهُوَ خَيْرُ ٱلْحَٰكِمِينَ ﴿١٠٩﴾
Translation
O Prophet,¹⁰⁶ say: “People, if you are still in any doubt about my religion, then hear this. I do not serve those you serve besides Allah. I serve only the God in whose hands your death lies.¹⁰⁷ I have been commanded to be one of the believers. And I have been told: ‘Set yourself firmly and wholeheartedly upon this religion,¹⁰⁸ and never be one of the polytheists.¹⁰⁹ Do not call on anyone besides Allah who can neither benefit nor harm you. If you do, you will be one of the wrongdoers. If Allah afflicts you with some hardship, no one but He can remove it, and if He intends some good for you, no one can turn back His grace. He bestows His grace on whichever of His servants He wills, and He is Forgiving and Merciful.'”
O Muhammad, say: “People, the truth has come to you from your Lord. Whoever now takes the right path, his right conduct benefits only himself, and whoever stays astray, his misguidance ruins only himself. I am not your keeper.”
And O Prophet, keep following the guidance being sent to you through revelation, and be patient until Allah gives His judgement. He is the best of judges.
Notes
Note 106. In this concluding portion, the same thing that was stated at the beginning of the discourse, has been reiterated. Therefore it will be worthwhile to keep in view the introductory passage (vv. 1-10).
Note 107. The Arabic word literally means “gives you death”, but it has been purposely translated into “who has power to cause your death” in order to convey its real spirit in the content it occurs. It implies this: “I worship only that One, who has full power over your life: He has complete authority and power to let you live as long as He wills and cause you to die at any moment He wills. That is why I am fully convinced that I should submit and surrender, worship, serve and obey Him alone.”
Now let us consider why of all His characteristics, this quality of Allah was specifically cited here. This was to bring home to the mushriks of Makkah that the doctrine of shirk was absolutely false. For they also believed (and all the mushriks have always believed) that death is entirely in the hands of Allah, the Lord of the universe, and none else has any power over it; so much so that they confessed that even those beings, whom they believed to be partners with God in other qualities and powers of, His, could not avert death even from themselves. Thus the mention of this quality of Allah along with the statement of the Doctrine of Tauhid has been made to serve as a proof of that creed. That is, “I serve Him only for He alone has the full power over life and death. Why should, then, I serve others who have no power at all over their own lives and deaths, not to mention the lives and deaths of others?” The eloquence and force of the statement has been enhanced manifold by saying, “…….Who gives you life and death” instead of “…..Who gives me life and death”. For this contains the statement of the Doctrine, its proof and invitation to it, all the three combined in one concise sentence. Had it been said, “…I serve that one Who gives me death,” then it would have implied, “I alone should serve Him”. But by saying. “……Who gives you death” the implication is: “It is not only I, who should serve Him, but you also should serve Him. For it is absolutely wrong to serve any other than Allah, Who alone has such powers.”
Note 108. The force of the Arabic words of the text “Dedicate yourself sincerely, exclusively and steadfastly to this Faith”, is worth deep consideration. The purpose might have been served by the use of such words as “Adopt this Faith” or “Follow this Faith”. But Allah considered such expressions as weak and incapable of serving the real purpose, which is implied in the wording of the Text. For the literal meaning is “Set your face steadfastly”, which implies, “You should steadfastly turn your face in one direction only, without turning it even slightly to right or left, or backward, and go on marching in the same direction.” Though these words were in themselves quite sufficient, the addition of the word made it all the more forceful. For (Hanif) is one who turns away from all others and exclusively turns to one direction. Thus what Allah demands is this: “Adopt this Faith, this Way of the worship of Allah and this way of life in such a manner that your worship, subjection, submission, servitude and obedience should be dedicated exclusively to Allah, the Lord of the universe, so that you do not deviate in the least after adopting this Way, you should have nothing to do with those ways that you have discarded and that you should not even have a look at the crooked paths that erroneous people follow.”
Note 109. This negative way of forbidding shirk has been purposely adopted. It implies this: “You should not at all be one of those, who set up in any way whatsoever other gods as partners with Allah in His essence, His attributes, His rights and His powers, whether that god be one’s own self or another man or a group of men or some spirit or Jinn or angel or some material or imaginary being.” The demand of Tauhid has been made both in the positive form, “Dedicate…. Faith”, and in the negative form, “and be not….other gods with Allah. ” Thus it forbids shirk both in creed and in deed, in individual and in collective life, in places of worship and in education, in courts and in legislative assemblies in political and in economic activities. Therefore it demands from the worshiper of Tauhid to adopt a different way in every aspect of life from the way of those who adulterate God-worship with ungodly worships, for the former can never be a fellow traveler with those who practice shirk. As such things can never be expected from him, it can never be imagined that he would follow them.
Thus it is clear that it cuts at the very root of shirk, both (Jali) open and (khafi) hidden. As a matter of fact, shirk in its latter form is even more dangerous and should therefore be avoided most scrupulously. This warning is necessary, as some foolish people consider it to be almost harmless just because it is hidden. The fact is that open shirk is like an avowed enemy who makes an attack in the open and hidden shirk is like an enemy in the guise of a friend. Or the former is like a disease of which the symptoms arc quite apparent and the latter like the hidden disease that gradually undermines one’s health. Thus it is obvious that when the ‘open’ shirk comes into conflict with the Faith of Tauhid, it may be cured. But the one who suffers from the `hidden’ shirk does not realize the threat posed by it and slowly and gradually succumbs to it, while the victim remains quite unaware that his Faith is being devoured by the deadly secret enemy.
[End of Section 11]
Editor’s Notes
The Arabic text above each section is the Uthmani script as published by Tanzil.net (via the AlQuran Cloud API), used with attribution.
