Surah 100. Al-Adiyat

Oh,¹ the chargers that run panting,

  - Mohammad Asad

Since the subsequent clauses refer to a parabolic, imaginary situation, the adjurative particle wa is more suitably rendered here as "Oh", instead of the rendering "Consider" usually adopted by me, or the adjuration "By" appearing in most other translations.

By the snorting steeds (horses that are used in wars),

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

' By the galloping, panting horses,

  - Mustafa Khattab

By the snorting coursers,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

By the (Steeds) that run with panting (breath) ⁶²⁴¹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The substantive proposition is in verses 6-8 below, and the metaphors enforcing the lesson are in verses 1-5 here. They have at least three layers of meaning: (1) Look at the chargers (mares or swift camels) panting for war on behalf of their masters. Off they go, striking fire with their hoofs by night at the behest of their riders; they push home the charge in the moming, chivalrously giving the enemy the benefit of daylight; and regardless of flashing steel or the weapons of their enemies they boldly penetrate into the midst of their foe, risking their lives for the Cause. Does unregenerate man show that fidelity to his Lord Allah? On the contrary he is ungrateful to Allah; he shows that by his deeds; he is violently in love with wealth and gain and things that perish. (2) By the figure of metonymy the brave fidelity of the war-horse may stand for that of the brave men and true who rally to the standard of Allah and carry it to victory, contrasted with the poltroonery and pettiness of unregenerate man. (3) The whole conflict, fighting, and victory, may be applied to spiritual warfare against those who are caught and overwhelmed in the camp of Evil.

sparks of fire striking,

  - Mohammad Asad

dashing off sparks by the strike of their hoofs,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

striking sparks of fire 'with their hoofs',

  - Mustafa Khattab

Striking sparks of fire

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And strike sparks of Fire ⁶²⁴²

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

With their hoofs. If we suppose the march to be in the dead of night, the sparks of fire would be still more conspicuous.

rushing to assault at morn,

  - Mohammad Asad

making raids in the morning,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

launching raids at dawn,

  - Mustafa Khattab

And scouring to the raid at dawn,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And push home the charge in the morning ⁶²⁴³

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

We may suppose a surprise attack, but yet a chivalrous attack by daylight. The foe is punished through his own lethargy and unpreparedness, apart from the strength, fire, and spirit of the forces of righteousness.

thereby raising clouds of dust,

  - Mohammad Asad

and leaving a trail of dust

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

stirring up 'clouds of' dust,

  - Mustafa Khattab

Then, therewith, with their trail of dust,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And raise the dust in clouds the while ⁶²⁴⁴

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The clouds of dust typify the ignorance and confusion in the minds of those who oppose Truth.

thereby storming [blindly] into any host!²

  - Mohammad Asad

I.e., blinded by clouds of dust and not knowing whether their assault aims at friend or foe. The metaphoric image developed in the above five verses is closely connected with the sequence, although this connection has never been brought out by the classical commentators. The term al-'adiyat undoubtedly denotes the war-horses, or chargers, employed by the Arabs from time immemorial down to the Middle Ages (the feminine gender of this term being due to the fact that, as a rule, they preferred mares to stallions). But whereas the conventional explanation is based on the assumption that "the chargers" symbolize here the believers' fight in God's cause (jihad) and, therefore, represent something highly commendable, it takes no account whatever of the discrepancy between so positive an imagery and the condemnation expressed in verses {6} ff., not to speak of the fact that such a conventional interpretation does not provide any logical link between the two parts of the surah. But since such a link must exist, and since verses {6-11} are undoubtedly condemnatory, we must conclude that the first five verses, too, have the same - or, at least, a similar - character. This character becomes at once obvious if we dissociate ourselves from the preconceived notion that the imagery of "the chargers" is used here in a laudatory sense. In fact, the opposite is the case. Beyond any doubt, "the chargers" symbolize the erring human soul or self - a soul devoid of all spiritual direction, obsessed and ridden by all manner of wrong, selfish desires, madly, unseeingly rushing onwards, unchecked by conscience or reason, blinded by the dust-clouds of confused and confusing appetites, storming into insoluble situations and, thus, into its own spiritual destruction.

as they dash into the middle of the enemy troops!

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

and penetrating into the heart of enemy lines!

  - Mustafa Khattab

Cleaving, as one, the center (of the foe),

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And penetrate forthwith into the midst (of the foe) en masse ⁶²⁴⁵

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The forces of evil mass themselves for strength, but their massing itself may become a means of their speedy undoing.