Surah 84. Al-Inshiqaq

BUT NAY! I call to witness the sunset's [fleeting] afterglow,

  - Mohammad Asad

I swear by the glow of sunset;

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

So, I do swear by the twilight!

  - Mustafa Khattab

Oh, I swear by the afterglow of sunset,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

So I do call to witness the ruddy glow of Sunset; ^{6043 6044}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The same form of adjuration as in lxix. 37. The substantive statement is in verse 19 below: 'Ye shall surely travel from stage to stage". Nothing in this life is fixed, or will last. Three things are mentioned which on the one hand have remained from age to age for as far back as the memory of man can go, and yet each of them is but a short phase, gone as it were in the twinkling of an eye. See the following notes. So our life here is but a fleeting show. Its completion is to be looked for elsewhere.

(1) The sun seems such a great reality that people worshipped him as a divinity. The beautiful glow it leaves when it sets is but momentary: it changes every moment and vanishes with the twilight.

and the night, and what it [step by step] unfolds,

  - Mohammad Asad

by the night and all that it gathers together;

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And by the night and whatever it envelops!

  - Mustafa Khattab

And by the night and all that it enshroudeth,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

The Night and its Homing; ⁶⁰⁴⁵

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

(2) The Night is a phenomenon you see during almost half every twenty-four hours in ordinary latitudes. At nightfall, all the wandering flocks and herds come home. The men scattered abroad for their livehood return home to rest and sleep. The Night collects them in their homes, and yet this phase of Homing lasts but a little while. Presently all is silent and still. So will it be with our souls when this life is ended with our death. We shall be collected in a newer and larger Homing.

and the moon, as it grows to its fullness:⁹

  - Mohammad Asad

Thus God "calls to witness" the fact that nothing in His creation is ever at a standstill, since everything moves unceasingly from one state of being into another, at every moment changing its aspect and its condition: a phenomenon aptly described by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus by the phrase panta rhei ("everything is in flux").

by the moon, when she grows full:

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And by the moon when it waxes full!

  - Mustafa Khattab

And by the moon when she is at the full,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And the Moon in her Fullness; ⁶⁰⁴⁶

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

(3) The astronomical Full Moon does not last a moment. The moment the moon is full, she begins to decline, and the moment she is in her "inter-lunar swoon", she begins her career anew as a growing New Moon. So is man's life here below. It is not fixed or permanent, either in its physical phases, or even more strikingly, in its finer phases, intellectual, emotional, or spiritual.

[even thus, O men,] are you bound to move onward from stage to stage.¹⁰

  - Mohammad Asad

Or: "from one state to another state" (Zamakhshari): i.e., in an unceasing progression - conception, birth, growth, decline, death and, finally, resurrection.

that you shall gradually pass from one stage to another.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

You will certainly pass from one state to another.¹

  - Mustafa Khattab

 You will pass from life to death and from death to resurrection, from well-being to sickness and from sickness to well-being, from poverty to richness and from richness to poverty, etc.

That ye shall journey on from plane to plane.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Ye shall surely travel from stage to stage. ⁶⁰⁴⁷

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Man travels and ascends stage by stage. In lxvii. 3 the same word in the form tibaqan was used of the heavens, as if they were in layers one above another. Man's spiritual life may similarly be compared to an ascent from one heaven to another.

What, then, is amiss with them that they will not believe [in a life to come]?¹¹ -

  - Mohammad Asad

Since the inexorable movement of all that exists from stage to stage or from one condition into another corresponds to a fundamental law evident in all creation, it is unreasonable to assume that man alone should be an exception, and that his onward movement should cease at the moment of his bodily death, not to be followed by a change-over into another state of being.

What is the matter with the people that they do not believe,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

So what is the matter with them that they do not believe,

  - Mustafa Khattab

What aileth them, then, that they believe not

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

What then is the matter with them that they believe not? ⁶⁰⁴⁸

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Considering man's high destiny, and the fact that this life is but a stage or a sojourn for him, it might be expected that he would cagerly embrace every opportunity of welcoming Allah's Revelation and ascending by Faith to heights of spiritual wisdom. There is something wrong with his will if he does not do so. Notice the transition from the second person in verse 19, where there is a direct appeal to Allah's votaries, to the third person in verses 20-21, where men who are rebels against Allah's Kingdom are spoken of as if they were aliens.

and [that], when the Qur'an is read unto them, they do not fall down in prostration?¹²

  - Mohammad Asad

I.e., seeing how consistently it stresses the divine law of unceasing change and progression in all that exists.

and when the Qur'an is recited to them, they do not prostrate?

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

and when the Quran is recited to them, they do not bow down 'in submission'?¹

  - Mustafa Khattab

 lit., they do not prostrate.

And, when the Qur'an is recited unto them, worship not (Allah)?

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And when the Qur'an is read to them they fall not prostrate. ⁶⁰⁴⁹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Prostrate. out of respect and humble gratitude to Allah.

Nay, but they who are bent on denying the truth give the lie [to this divine writ]!

  - Mohammad Asad

Nay! The unbelievers will deny;

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

In fact, the disbelievers persist in denial.

  - Mustafa Khattab

Nay, but those who disbelieve will deny;

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

But on the contrary the Unbelievers reject (it).

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Yet God has full knowledge of what they conceal [in their hearts].¹³

  - Mohammad Asad

Namely, their unwillingness to admit their responsibility to a Supreme Being.

and Allah knows what they are hiding in their hearts.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

But Allah knows best whatever they hide.

  - Mustafa Khattab

And Allah knoweth best what they are hiding.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

But Allah has full Knowledge of what they secrete (in their breasts).

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Hence, give them the tiding of grievous suffering [in the life to come] -

  - Mohammad Asad

Therefore, proclaim to them a painful punishment,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

So give them good news of a painful punishment.

  - Mustafa Khattab

So give them tidings of a painful doom,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

So announce to them a Penalty Grievous

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

unless it be such [of them] as [repent, and] attain to faith, and do good works: for theirs shall be a reward unending!

  - Mohammad Asad

except those who embrace the true faith and do good deeds; for them there will be a never ending reward.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

But those who believe and do good will have a never-ending reward.

  - Mustafa Khattab

Save those who believe and do good works, for theirs is a reward unfailing.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Except to those who believe and work righteous deeds: for them is a Reward that will never fail. ⁶⁰⁵⁰

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Cf. xli. 8.