Surah 74. Al-Muddaththir

Nay, verily, it is against Our messages that he knowingly, stubbornly sets himself⁷ -

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "he is wont (kana) to set himself". The noun 'anid, derived from the verb 'anada, denotes "one who opposes or rejects something that is true, knowing it to be true" (Lisan al-'Arab). The element of human contrariness and stubbornness is implied in the use of the auxiliary verb kana, which indicates here a permanently recurring phenomenon despite its past-tense formulation. I am, therefore, of the opinion that verses {18-25}, although ostensibly formulated in the past tense, must also be rendered in the present tense.

By no means! Because he has stubbornly denied Our revelations.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Nay! For lo! he hath been stubborn to Our revelations.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

[and so] I shall constrain him to endure a painful uphill climb!⁸

  - Mohammad Asad

In combination with the verb urhiquhu ("I shall constrain him to endure") the term sa'ud (lit., "ascent" or "climb") has the tropical connotation of something extremely difficult, painful or distressing. In the above context, it is an allusion to the loss of all instinctive innocence - and, hence, to the individual and social suffering - which unavoidably follows upon man's wilful neglect of moral and spiritual truths ("God's messages") in this world and bars his spiritual development in the life to come.

Soon I shall make him suffer mounting calamities,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

On him I shall impose a fearful doom.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Behold, [when Our messages are conveyed to one who is bent on denying the truth,] he reflects and meditates [as to how to disprove them] -

  - Mohammad Asad

surely he pondered and devised a plot.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

For lo! he did consider; then he planned

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

and thus he destroys himself,⁹ the way he meditates:

  - Mohammad Asad

The expression qutila reads, literally, "he has been killed" or, as an imprecation, "may he be killed". Since a literal rendering of this expression - whether conceived as a statement of fact or an imprecation - would be meaningless here, many commentators (Tabari among them) understand it as signifying "he is rejected from Gods grace" (lu'ina) i.e., "killed" spiritually by his own action or attitude; hence my rendering, "he destroys himself".

May he perish, how he plotted!

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

(Self) destroyed is he, how he planned!

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

yea, he destroys himself, the way he meditates!

  - Mohammad Asad

Again, may he perish, how he plotted!

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Again (self) destroyed is he, how he planned!

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

and then he looks [around for new arguments],

  - Mohammad Asad

He looked around,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Then looked he,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

and then he frowns and glares,¹⁰

  - Mohammad Asad

I.e., he becomes emotionally involved because he suspects in his heart that his arguments are weak (Razi).

frowned and scowled,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Then frowned he and showed displeasure.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

and in the end he turns his back [on Our message], and glories in his arrogance,

  - Mohammad Asad

then he turned his back in scornful pride

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Then turned he away in pride

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

and says, "All this is mere spellbinding eloquence handed down [from olden times]!¹²

  - Mohammad Asad

The term sihr, which usually denotes "sorcery" or "magic", primarily signifies "the turning of something from its proper [or "natural"] state of being into another state"; hence, it is often applied to the fascination or enchantment caused by exceptional, "spellbinding" eloquence (Taj al-'Arus). In its pejorative sense - as used by deniers of the truth to describe a divine message - it has also the connotation of "wilful deception" or "delusion".

and said: "This is nothing but counterfeited magic,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And said: This is naught else than magic from of old;

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

This is nothing but the word of mortal man!"

  - Mohammad Asad

this is nothing but the word of a human being."

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

This naught else than speech of mortal man.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

[Hence,] I shall cause him to endure hell-fire [in the life to come]!¹³

  - Mohammad Asad

This is unquestionably the earliest instance of the term saqar ("hell-fire"), one of the seven metaphorical names given in the Qur'an to the concept of the suffering in the hereafter which man brings upon himself by sinning and deliberately remaining blind and deaf, in this world, to spiritual truths (cf. surah {15}, note [33]). The allegorical character of this and all other Qur'anic descriptions of man's condition and destiny in the hereafter is clearly alluded to in the subsequent verse as well as in verse {28} ff.

Soon I shall cast him into Saqar.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Him shall I fling unto the burning.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And what could make thee conceive what hell-fire is?

  - Mohammad Asad

What will make you understand, what Saqar is?

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

--Ah, what will convey unto thee what that burning is!--

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

It does not allow to live, and neither leaves [to die],

  - Mohammad Asad

It is burning fire which leaves nothing and spares none.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

I leaveth naught; it spareth naught

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

making [all truth] visible to mortal man.¹⁴

  - Mohammad Asad

Most of the commentators interpret the above elliptic phrase in the sense of "changing the appearance of man" or "scorching the skin of man". The rendering adopted by me, on the other hand, is based on the primary significance of the verb laha - "it appeared", "it shone forth" or "it became visible". Hence, the primary meaning of the intensive participial noun lawwah is "that which makes [something] visible". In the above context, it relates to the sinner's belated cognition of the truth, as well as to his distressing insight into his own nature, his past failings and deliberate wrongdoings, and the realisation of his own responsibility for the suffering that is now in store for him: a state neither of life nor of death (cf.{87:12-13}).

It shrivels human flesh.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

It shrivelleth the man.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Over it are nineteen [powers].¹⁵

  - Mohammad Asad

Whereas most of the classical commentators are of the opinion that the "nineteen" are the angels that act as keepers or guardians of hell, Razi advances the view that we may have here a reference to the physical, intellectual and emotional powers within man himself: powers which raise man potentially far above any other creature, but which, if used wrongly, bring about a deterioration of his whole personality and, hence, intense suffering in the life to come. According to Razi, the philosophers (arbab al-hikmah) identify these powers or faculties with, firstly, the seven organic functions of the animal - and therefore also human-body (gravitation, cohesion, repulsion of noxious foreign matter, absorption of beneficent external matter, assimilation of nutrients, growth, and reproduction); secondly, the five "external" or physical senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste); thirdly, the five "internal" or intellectual senses, defined by Ibn Sina - on whom Razi apparently relies - as (1)perception of isolated sence-images, (2)conscious apperceptions of ideas, (3)memory of sense-images, (4)memory of conscious apperceptions; and, lastly, the emotions of desire or aversion (resp. fear or anger), which have their roots in both the "external" and "internal" sense-categories - thus bringing the total of the powers and faculties which preside over man's spiritual fate to nineteen. In their aggregate, it is these powers that confer upon man the ability to think conceptually, and place him, in this respect, even above the angels (cf. 2:30 ff. and the corresponding notes; see also the following note).

It is guarded by nineteen guards.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Above it are nineteen.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall