Surah 23. Al-Muminun

Far-fetched, far-fetched indeed is what you are promised!

  - Mohammad Asad

Impossible! Just impossible is that with which you are being threatened with!

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Begone, begone, with that which ye are promised!

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

There is no life beyond our life in this world: we die and we live [but once], and we shall never be raised from the dead!

  - Mohammad Asad

There is no other life but our life of this world: we live here and die here, and shall never be raised to life again.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

There is naught but our life of the world; we die and we live, and we shall not be raised (again).

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

He is nothing but a man who attributes his own lying inventions to God, and we are not going to believe him!"

  - Mohammad Asad

This man is but an impostor, forging a lie against Allah, and we are not going to believe him."

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

He is only a man who hath invented a lie about Allah. We are not going to put faith in him.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

[Whereupon the prophet] would say: "O my Sustainer! Succour me against their accusation of lying!

  - Mohammad Asad

At this the Rasool prayed: "O my Rabb! Help me against their calling me a liar."

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

He said: My Lord! Help me because they deny me,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

[And God] would say: "After a little while they will surely be smitten with remorse!"¹⁹

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "they will surely become of those who feel remorse".

Allah responded: "After a short time they will surely be sorry."

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

He said: In a little while they surely will become repentant.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And then the blast [of Our punishment] over-took them, justly and unavoidably,²⁰ and We caused them to become as the flotsam of dead leaves and the scum borne on the surface of a torrent: and so - away with those evildoing folk!

  - Mohammad Asad

The expression bi'l-haqq (lit., "in accordance with truth" or "with justice") combines in this instance the concepts of justice, wisdom, reality, inescapability, and consonance with the exigencies of the case under consideration (Raghib), and can be only approximately rendered in translation.

So the Blast overtook them in all justice and We swept them away like the rubbish of dead leaves - so gone is the nation of wrongdoers.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

So the (Awful) Cry overtook them rightfully, and We made them like as wreckage (that a torrent hurleth). A far removal for wrongdoing folk!

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

AND AFTER them We gave rise to new genera-tions:²¹

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "generations of others", i.e., new civilizations.

After them We raised other generations

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Then after them We brought forth other generations.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

[for,] no community can ever forestall [the end of] its term - and neither can they delay [its coming].²²

  - Mohammad Asad

See note [5] on the identical phrase in 15:5 .

- no people can hasten their term nor can they postpone it

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

No nation can outstrip its term, nor yet postpone it.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And We sent forth Our apostles, one after another: [and] every time their apostle came to a community, they gave him the lie: and so We caused them to follow one another [into the grave], and let them become [mere] tales: and so - away with the folk who, would not believe!

  - Mohammad Asad

- and sent forth Our Rasools one after another: every time a Rasool came to his people, they disbelieved him, so We punished them one by one and made them a history; so gone is the nation of disbelievers.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Then We sent our messengers one after another. Whenever its messenger came unto a nation they denied him; so We caused them to follow one another (to disaster) and We made them bywords. A far removal for folk who believe not!

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

AND THEN We sent forth Moses and his brother Aaron with Our messages and a manifest authority [from Us]

  - Mohammad Asad

Then We sent Musa (Moses) and his brother Haroon (Aaron) with Our signs and clear authority,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Then We sent Moses and his brother Aaron with Our tokens and a clear warrant

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

unto Pharaoh and his great ones;²³ but these behaved with arrogance, for they were people wont to glorify [only] themselves.

  - Mohammad Asad

Moses and Aaron are mentioned here by name because their case was different from that of all other prophets: they were rejected not by their own community but by their community's oppressors.

to Fir'on (Pharaoh) and his chiefs: but they received them with arrogance for they were very haughty people.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Unto Pharaoh and his chiefs, but they scorned (them) and they were despotic folk.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And so they said: "Shall we believe [them-] two mortals like ourselves - although their people are our slaves?"

  - Mohammad Asad

They said: "What! Should we believe in two human beings like ourselves, and whose people are our slaves?"

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And they said: Shall we put faith in two mortals like ourselves, and whose folk are servile unto us?

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Thus, they gave the lie to those two, and earned [thereby] their place among the doomed:²⁴

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "became of those who were destroyed".

So they disbelieved both of them and became among those who were destroyed.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

So they denied them, and became of those who were destroyed.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

for. indeed. We had vouchsafed revelation unto Moses in order that they might find the right way.

  - Mohammad Asad

And We gave Musa the Book, so that his people might be rightly guided.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And we verily gave Moses the Scripture, that haply they might go aright.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And [as We exalted Moses, so, too,] We made the son of Mary and his mother a symbol [of Our grace],²⁵ and provided for both an abode in a lofty mace of lasting restfulness and unsullied springs,²⁶

  - Mohammad Asad

For my rendering of the ayah, in this instance, as "symbol", see surah {19}, note [16]. Jesus and his mother Mary are mentioned here specifically because they, too, had to suffer persecution and slander at the hands of "those who were bent on denying the truth".

I.e., in paradise. The expression ma'in signifies "unsullied springs" or "running waters" (Ibn 'Abbas, as quoted by Tabari; also Lisan al-'Arab and Taj al-'Arus), and thus symbolizes the spiritual purity associated with the concept of paradise, the "gardens through which running waters flow".

And We made the son of Maryam (Jesus) and his mother a sign for mankind, and gave them a shelter on a peaceful lofty ground, furnished with a fresh spring.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And We made the son of Mary and his mother a portent, and We gave them refuge on a height, a place of flocks and water springs.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall