Surah 30. Ar-Rum

'This is' the promise of Allah. 'And' Allah never fails in His promise. But most people do not know.

  - Mustafa Khattab

(It is) the promise of Allah. Never does Allah depart from His promise: but most men understand not. ³⁵¹⁰

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The promise refers to the Decision of all things by the Command of Allah, Who will remove all troubles and difficulties from the path of His righteous Believers, and help them to rejoice over the success of their righteous Cause. This refers to all times and all situations. The righteous should not despair in their darkest moments, for Allah's help will come. Ordinarily men are puffed up if they score a seeming temporary success against the righteous, and do not realize that Allah's Will can never be thwarted.

They 'only' know the worldly affairs of this life, but are 'totally' oblivious to the Hereafter.

  - Mustafa Khattab

They know but the outer (things) in the life of this world: but of the End of things they are heedless. ^{3511 3512}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Men are misled by the outward show of things, though the inner reality may be quite different. Many seeming disasters are really godsends if we only understood.

AKhirat: may refer to the End of things or enterprises in history as well as the Hereafter in the technical theological sense.

Have they not reflected upon their own being? Allah only created the heavens and the earth and everything in between for a purpose and an appointed term. Yet most people are truly in denial of the meeting with their Lord!

  - Mustafa Khattab

Do they not reflect in their own minds? Not but for just ends and for a term appointed did Allah create the heavens and the earth and all between them: yet are there truly many among men who deny the meeting with their Lord (at the Resurrection)! ^{3513 3514}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

f. xv. 85. Here the argument is about the ebb and flow of worldly power, and the next clause is appropriately added, "and for a term appointed". Let not any one who is granted worldly power or advantage run away with the notion that it is permanent. It is definitely limited in the high Purpose of Allah, which is just and true. And an account will have to be given of it afterwards on basis of strict personal responsibility.

It is therefore all the more strange that there should be men who not only forget themselves but even deny that there is a return to Allah or an End or Hereafter, when a full reckoning will be due for this period of probation. They are asked to study past history, as in the next verse.

Have they not travelled throughout the land to see what was the end of those 'destroyed' before them? They were far superior in might; they cultivated the land and developed it more than these 'Meccans' ever have. Their messengers came to them with clear proofs. Allah would have never wronged them, but it was they who wronged themselves.

  - Mustafa Khattab

Do they not travel through the earth and see what was the End of those before them? They were superior to them in strength: they tilled the soil and populated it in greater numbers than these have done: there came to them their apostles with Clear (Signs) (which they rejected to their own destruction): it was not Allah Who wronged them but they wronged their own souls. ³⁵¹⁵

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Let not any generation think that it is superior to all that went before it. We may be "heirs to all the ages, in the foremost files of times." That is no reason for arrogance, but on the contrary adds to our responsibility. When we realize what flourishing cities and kingdoms existed before, how they flourished in numbers and prosperity, what chances they were given, and how they perished when they disobeyed the law of Allah, we shall feel a sense of humility, and see that it was rebellion and self-will that brought them down. Allah was more than just. He was also merciful. But they brought about their own ruin.

Then most evil was the end of the evildoers for denying and mocking the signs of Allah.

  - Mustafa Khattab

In the long run evil in the extreme will be the End of those who do evil; for that they rejected the Signs of Allah and held them up to ridicule. ³⁵¹⁶

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The Arabic superlative feminine, referring to the feminine noun Aqibat, I have translated by "Evil". In this life good and evil may seem to be mixed up, and it may be that some things or persons that are evil get what seem to be good rewards or blessings, while the opposite happens to the good. But this is only a temporary appearance. In the long run Evil will have its own evil consequences, multiplied cumulatively. And this, because evil not only rejected Allah's Message of Good but laughed at Good and misled others.

It is Allah Who originates the creation, and will resurrect it. And then to Him you will 'all' be returned.

  - Mustafa Khattab

It is Allah Who begins (the process of) creation; then repeats it; then shall ye be brought back to Him. ³⁵¹⁷

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Nothing exists of its own accord or fortuitously. It is Allah Who originates all creation. What appears to be death may be only transformation: for Allah can and does recreate. And His creative activity is continuous. Our death is but a phenomenal event. What we become after death is the result of a process of recreation by Allah, Who is both the source and the goal of all things. When we are brought back to him, it will be as conscious and responsible beings, to receive the consequences of our brief life on this earth.

On the Day the Hour will arrive, the wicked will be dumbstruck.

  - Mustafa Khattab

On the Day that the Hour will be established the guilty will be struck dumb with despair. ³⁵¹⁸

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The Hour will be established: in due time the Hour will come when Judgment will be established, and the seeming disturbance of balance in this world will be redressed. Then the Good will rejoice, and the Guilty, faced with the Realities, will lose all their illusions and be struck dumb with despair.

There will be no intercessors for them from among their associate-gods, and they will 'totally' deny their associate-gods.

  - Mustafa Khattab

No intercessor will they have among their "Partners" and they will (themselves) reject their "Partners." ³⁵¹⁹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

False worship will then appear in its true colors. Anything to which we offered the worship due to Allah alone, will vanish instead of being of any help. Indeed the deluded false worshipers, whose eyes will now be opened, will themselves reject their falsehoods, as the Truth will now shine with unquestioned splendor.

And on the Day the Hour will arrive, the people will then be split 'into two groups'.

  - Mustafa Khattab

On the Day that the Hour will be established that Day shall (all men) be sorted out. ³⁵²⁰

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

In the fullness of time good and evil will all be sorted out and separated. The good will reach their destination of felicity in rich and luscious, well-watered meadows, which stand as the type of all that is fair to see and pleasant to feel. The evil will no longer imagine that they are enjoying good fortune, for the testing time will be over, and the grim reality will stare them in the face. They will receive their just Punishment.

As for those who believed and did good, they will be rejoicing in a Garden.

  - Mustafa Khattab

Then those who have believed and worked righteous deeds shall be made happy in a Mead of Delight.

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

And as for those who disbelieved, and denied Our signs and the meeting 'with Allah' in the Hereafter, they will be confined in punishment.

  - Mustafa Khattab

And those who have rejected Faith and falsely denied Our Signs and the meeting of the Hereafter such shall be brought forth to Punishment.

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

So glorify Allah in the evening and in the morning-

  - Mustafa Khattab

So (give) glory to Allah when ye reach eventide and when ye rise in the morning; ³⁵²¹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The special times for Allah's remembrance are so described as to include all our activities in life,-when we rise early in the morning, and when we go to rest in the evening; when we are in the midst of our work, at the decline of the sun, and in the late afternoon. It may be noted that these are all striking stages in the passage of the sun through our terrestrial day, as well as stages in our daily working lives. On this are based the hours of the five canonical prayers afterwards prescribed in Madinah; viz. (1) early morning before sunrise (Fajr); (2) when the day begins to decline, just after noon (Zuhr); (3) in the late afternoon, say midway between noon and sunset ('Asr); and (4) and (5) the two evening prayers, one just after sunset (Maghrib); and the other after the evening twilight has all faded from the horizon, the hour indicated for rest and sleep ('Isha). Cf. xi. 114 nn. 1616-17; xvii. 78-79, n. 2275; xx. 130. n. 2655.

all praise is for Him in the heavens and the earth- as well as in the afternoon, and at noon.¹

  - Mustafa Khattab

 This verse outlines the times of the five daily prayers. The evening refers to Maghrib and ’Ishâ' prayers, the morning refers to Fajr, the afternoon refers to ’Aṣr, and noon refers to Ẓuhr.

Yea To Him be praise in the heavens and on earth; and in the late afternoon and when the day begins to decline.

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

He brings forth the living from the dead and the dead from the living. And He gives life to the earth after its death. And so will you be brought forth 'from the grave'.

  - Mustafa Khattab

It is He Who brings out the living from the dead and brings out the dead from the living and Who gives life to the earth after it is dead: and thus shall ye be brought out (from the dead). ^{3522 3523}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Cf. x. 31. From dead matter Allah's creative act produces life and living matter, and even science has not yet been able to explain the mystery of life. Life and living matter again seem to reach maturity and again die, as we see every day. No material thing seems to have perpetual life. But again we see the creative process of Allah constantly at work, and the cycle of life and death seems to go on.

Cf. ii. 164. The earth itself, seemingly so inert, produces vegetable life at once from a single shower of rain, and in various ways sustains animal life. Normally it seems to die in the winter in northern climates, and in a drought everywhere, and the spring revives it in all its glory. Metaphorically many movements, institutions, organizations, seem to die and then to live again, all under the wonderful dispensation of Allah. So will our personality be revived when we die on this earth, in order to reap the fruit of this our probationary life.

One of His signs is that He created you from dust, then- behold!- you are human beings spreading over 'the earth'.

  - Mustafa Khattab

Among His Signs is this that He created you from dust; and then Behold ye are men scattered (far and wide)! ³⁵²⁴

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Cf. xviii. 37 and n. 2379. In spite of the lowly origin of man's body, Allah has given him a mind and soul by which he can almost compass the farthest reaches of Time and Space. Is this not enough for a miracle or Sign? From a physical point of view, see how man, a creature of dust, scatters himself over the farthest corners of the earth!