-->
See surah {20}, note [99].
All these beautiful and well-articulated pageants of life and nature point to the Reality behind them i.e., Allah. They will perish, but He is eternal.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
For "Book of Enlightenment" see iii. 184 and n. 490. I understand "knowledge" to mean here their human knowledge or intelligence, "guidance" to mean divine guidance, such as comes from Allah or prophets of Allah or a revelation from Allah, and the "Book of Enlightenment" to mean the fundamental guide to good conduct, the clear rules laid down in all Dispensations to help men to lead good lives. The "Book of Enlightenment" may mean a revealed Book in which case "Guidance" would refer to divine guidance through a prophet of Allah.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
Since many unrighteous people apparently "prosper" in this world, it is clear that the disgrace of which the above verse speaks is of a moral nature - namely, a gradual coarsening of all moral perceptions and. thus. a degradation of the spirit.
Some Commentators think this refers to Abu Jahl, but the words are perfectly general, and this type of man is common in all ages. The same may be said about verse 3 above: Commentators give the immediate reference to one Nadhar ibn Harith.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
'What you suffer is the consequence of your own sinful deeds; Allah is just; He is not unjust in the least to any of His creatures'.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
I.e., wavering between belief and disbelief, and not really committed to either.
Lit., "he turns about on his face" - the "face" (wajh) of man signifying metonymically his whole being.
Lit., "the [most] obvious loss".
lit., they tumble on their faces.
They are men whose minds are not firm: they will have faith, if all goes well with them, but as soon as they are tried, they are found wanting. They are a different kind from hypocrites. It is not fraud or double dealing that is their sin: it is a weak mind, petty standards of judging right by success, a selfishness that gives nothing but asks for all, a narrow-mindedness that does not go beyond petty mundane calculations-a "nicely calculated less or more" of the good things of this world. They fail in both worlds, and their failure in this world is patent for every on-looker.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
By failing to commit himself unreservedly to the faith which he professes, man is often inclined to attribute to all manner of extraneous forces, be they real or imaginary, a decisive "influence" on his own destiny, and thus invests them, as it were, with divine qualities.
Lit., "this, this (dhalika huwa) is the straying far-away". For an explanation of my paraphrase, see note [25] on the last sentence of 14:18 .
To such minds religion does not mean high endeavour, self-sacrifice for noble ends, the recognition of Allah's infinite world, but just a small concession to formalism, perhaps a present to an idol (literal or figurative), perhaps attendance at worship if it can be done without trouble! It is false gods they worship, and the more they worship, the more they stray.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
The interpolation of "another human being" in the opening clause of this verse is necessitated by the relative pronoun man ("one that" or "who"), which almost always relates to an animate person - in this case, a human being who, by allowing himself to be idolized by those who "worship God on the border-line of faith", causes infinite spiritual harm to himself and to his followers.
Such false worship is not always neutral, bringing neither harm nor good. Perhaps the harm comes first, and there is no help from Allah. Such minds are themselves demoralised, and render themselves unfit for help!
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
Allah is both true to His promise, and He has power to give full effect to His Will and Plan.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
I.e., that God is not enough to succour him: obviously an allusion to the type of man who "worships God on the border-line of faith" (verse {11} above) and therefore doubts His power to guide men towards happiness in this world and in the hereafter. The assumption of the majority of the commentators that the personal pronoun "him" relates to the Prophet Muhammad is, to my mind, very far-fetched and certainly not warranted by the context.
The rendering of la-yaqta' as "let him [try to] make headway" is based on the accepted, tropical use of the verb qata'a (lit., "he cut") in the sense of "traversing a distance": and this is the interpretation of yaqtac by Abu Muslim (as quoted by Razi). The expression "by any [other] means" (bi-sabab) relates to what has been said in verses {12-13} above.
Lit., "that which causes anger" or "exasperation", i.e., anguish at finding himself helpless and abandoned.
Meaning, no matter what the deniers do, Allah will never stop supporting His Prophet (ﷺ).
There is some difference of opinion as to the interpretation of this verse. Most Commentators are agreed that the pronoun "him" in the second line ("will not help him") refers to the holy Prophet, and that the "any" in the first line refers to his enemies, who wished to see him destroyed and removed from the scene of his labours. Ibn 'Abbas, whom I have followed here, and whom a great number of Commentators follow, construes the later clauses in the sense given in the text. Freely paraphrased, it means: if the enemies of Allah's Messenger are enraged at his successes, let them fix a rope to their ceiling and hang themselves. Samaa is thus rendered by the word "ceiling". If Samaa is rendered by the word "heaven" (the usual meaning), the paraphrase would be : if the enemies of Allah's Messenger are enraged at the help he gets from heavens, let them stretch a rope to heavens, and see if they can cut off the help in that way!-in other words, they are fools if they think they can intercept Allah's help by their petty devices!
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
Or: "God guides aright whomever He wills". For an explanation of the rendering adopted by me, see note [4] on 14:4 .
Instead of plotting against Allah's Messenger, the unbelievers should observe the Clear Signs which he has brought, and obey and follow the Guidance which comes from Allah according to the Laws which He has fixed by His holy Will and Plan.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
See surah [2]. note {49}.
Al-majus: the followers of Zoroaster or Zarathustra (Zardusht), the Iranian prophet who lived about the middle of the last millenium B.C. and whose teachings are laid down in the Zend-Avesta. They are represented today by the Gabrs of Iran and, more prominently, by the Parsis of India and Pakistan. Their religion. though dualistic in philosophy, is based on belief in God as the Creator of the universe.
The Christians and the Magians (Zoroastrians) are included in the first category, for although they do ascribe divine qualities to other beings beside God, they regard those beings, fundamentally, as no more than manifestations - or incarnations - of the One God, thus persuading themselves that they are worshipping Him alone; whereas "those who are bent on ascribing divinity to beings other than God" (alladhina ashraku) by obvious implication reject the principle of His oneness and uniqueness.
See footnote for 2:62.
Magi (singular: magus): Zoroastrians; fire-worshippers.
For Sabians, see n. 76 to ii. 62. They are also referred to in v. 72. In both those passages the Muslims are mentioned with the Jews, Christians, and Sabians, as receiving Allah's protection and mercy. Here, besides the four religions, there is further mention of Magians and Polytheists: it is not said that they would receive Allah's Mercy, but only that Allah will judge between the various forms of faith.
This is the only place where the Magians (Majas) are mentioned in the Qur-an. 'Their cult is a very ancient one. They consider Fire as the purest and noblest element, and worship it as a fit emblem of Allah. Their location was the Persian and Median uplands and the Mesopotamian valleys, their religion was reformed by Zardusht (date uncertain, about B.C. 600?). Their scripture is the Zend-Avesta, the bible of the Parsis. They were "the Wise men of the East" mentioned in the Gospels.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
For the meaning of this "prostration", see 13:15 and {16:48-49}, and the corresponding notes. My rendering of the relative pronoun man, in this context, as "all [things and beingsl that..." is explained in note [33] on 13:15 .
According to Zamakhshari and Razi, this interpolated phrase - with its stress on "consciously"-is an elliptically implied predicate (khabar) linked with the preceding nominal subject (mabtada'): the purport being that although everything in creation "prostrates itself" before God, willingly or unwillingly (cf. 13:15 ), not all human beings do so consciously.
Lit., "whereas upon many a one the suffering [in the li75 This is apparently an allusion to the fleets of sailing ships which brought untold riches to Palestine ("the land which We had blessed") and made Solomon's wealth proverbial.
lit., prostrate. Meaning, all beings submit to His Will.
Cf. xxi. 79, and n. 2733. All created things, animate and inanimate, depend on Allah for their existence, and this dependence can be construed as their Sajda or bowing down in worship. Their very existence proclaims their dependence. How can they be objects of worship? For haqqa in this verse. Cf. xv. 64, n. 1990.
Cf. xxii, 16. There the argument was that those who work in harmony with Allah's Law and Will will get their reward, for Allah always carries out His Plan. Here is the Parallel argument: those who defy Allah's Will must suffer pain and disgrace, for Allah is well able to carry out His Will.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
Lit., "these two adversaries" or "antagonists", i.e., those who believe in God's oneness and uniqueness, and those who ascribe divine qualities to beings other than Him, or even deny His existence altogether.
I.e., in distinction from those who err out of ignorance.
For this rendering of hamim, see note [62] on the concluding sentence of 6:70 , as well as note [65] on 14:50 and note [7] on {73:12-13}, which mention Razi’s interpretations of similar allegorical descriptions of the suffering that will befall the sinners in the hereafter.
Two antagonists: i.e., parties of antagonists, viz., Men of Faith, who confess their Lord and seek to carry out His Will, and Men who deny their Lord and defy His Will.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
I.e., causing their inner and outer personality utterly to disintegrate.
The punishment, will be all-pervading, not merely superficial.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
No comments posted for Surah 22