032- AL-SAJDAH

PROSTRATION 

IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE COMPASSIONATE, THE MERCIFUL

# Alif. Lām. Mīm. # The revelation of the Book in which there is no doubt, from the Lord of the worlds. # Or do they say, “He has fabricated it”? Nay, it is the truth from thy Lord, that thou mayest warn a people to whom no warner has come before thee, that haply they may be guided. # God it is Who created the heavens and the earth and whatsoever is between them in six days. Then He mounted the Throne. Apart from Him you have neither protector, nor intercessor. Will you not, then, remember? # He directs the affair from Heaven unto earth; then it ascends unto Him in a day whose measure is as a thousand years of that which you reckon. # Such is the Knower of the Unseen and the seen, the Mighty, the Merciful, # Who made beautiful all that He created, and Who began the creation of man from clay. # Then He made his seed from a draught of base fluid. # Then He fashioned him, and breathed into him of His Spirit, and endowed you with hearing, sight, and hearts. Little do you give thanks! # And they say, “What, when we have become lost in the earth, shall we indeed be created anew?” Nay, they believe not in the meeting with their Lord. # Say, “The Angel of death, who has been entrusted with you, will take you; then unto your Lord shall you be returned.” # Couldst thou but see when the guilty bend their heads low before their Lord: “Our Lord! We have seen and we have heard; so send us back that we may work righteousness. Truly we are certain.” # And had We willed, We would have given every soul its guidance. But the Word from Me comes due: “I shall surely fill Hell with jinn and men all together!” # So taste [the punishment] for having forgotten the meeting with this your Day! Verily, We have forgotten you! And taste the punishment everlasting for that which you used to do. # Truly they believe in Our signs who when reminded of them fall prostrate and hymn the praise of their Lord and do not wax arrogant, # whose sides shun [their] beds, calling upon their Lord out of fear and hope, and who spend from that which We have provided them. # No soul knows what comfort is kept hidden for it as a recompense for that which they used to do. # Is one who believes like one who is iniquitous? They are not equal. # As for those who believe and perform righteous deeds, theirs shall be Gardens of refuge, as a welcome for that which they used to do. # And as for those who are iniquitous, their refuge is the Fire. Whenever they desire to go forth therefrom, they are returned unto it, and it is said unto them, “Taste the punishment of the Fire that you used to deny!” # And We make them taste the lesser punishment before the greater punishment, that they might turn back. # And who does greater wrong than one who has been reminded of the signs of his Lord, then turns away from them? Truly We shall take vengeance upon the guilty. # And indeed We gave unto Moses the Book; so be not in doubt regarding the meeting with Him. And We made him a guide for the Children of Israel. # And We appointed leaders from among them who guided by Our Command when they were patient and were certain of Our signs. # Truly thy Lord will distinguish between them on the Day of Resurrection regarding that wherein they used to differ. # Does it not serve as guidance for them, how many generations We destroyed before them, amidst whose dwellings they walk? Truly in that are signs. Will they not listen? # Have they not considered how We drive the water to the barren earth and bring forth crops thereby, whereof they and their cattle eat? Will they not see? # And they say, “When is this victory, if you are truthful?” # Say, “On the Day of Victory, faith will not benefit those who disbelieved; nor shall they be granted respite.” # Then turn away from them and wait; they, too, are waiting.

Commentary

# Alif. Lām. Mīm.

1 The Arabic letters alif, lām, and mīm, which also appear in 2:1; 3:1; 29:1; 30:1; and 31:1, are among the separated letters (al-muqaṭṭaʿāt) found at the beginning of twenty-nine sūrahs and whose meaning is considered by most commentators to be ultimately known only to God; see 2:1c. In an allusive commentary upon this verse, al-Maybudī writes, “Alif alludes to God; lām alludes to Gabriel; and mīm alludes to Muhammad. He is saying, ‘It is by My Divinity, by Gabriel’s holiness, and by thy splendor, O Muhammad, that this revelation, which is the Quran that We promised unto thee, would be thy level of prophethood and thy ruling power.”

***

# The revelation of the Book in which there is no doubt, from the Lord of the worlds.

  1. This is the first of five sūrahs to begin with the revelation of the Book (cf. 39:1; 40:2; 45:2; 46:2). In each of these instances, revelation translates tanzīl, which literally means “descending” or “descent.” From one perspective, “Although the Quran is a single reality, it has many levels of descent and is called by various names corresponding to each particular level of descent” (MṢ). The Book refers to the Quran (JJ). In which there is no doubt may refer to either the Book itself (IK), meaning its contents, or to the revelation of the Book, meaning that there is no doubt regarding its Divine provenance (IK, Ṭ, Z).

***

# Or do they say, “He has fabricated it”? Nay, it is the truth from thy Lord, that thou mayest warn a people to whom no warner has come before thee, that haply they may be guided.

  1. The beginning question asks whether people attest to the Book or claim the Prophet has fabricated it (cf. 10:38c; 11:13, 35; 46:8). Or translates the particle am, which can be read as an interrogative particle or as particle for continuing the previous discussion, in which case the verse would read, “Yet they say . . . ” or “Nay, but they say . . . ,” a reading preferred by several commentators (Ṭ, Z). To whom no warner has come before thee indicates that the Arabs of the Prophet’s generation had not received a revelation (R, Ṭ, Z), though earlier Arabs, such as the tribes of ʿĀd and Thamūd, had received revelations. In this sense, this verse is similar to 34:44, which says of the Arabs, We have not given them any books that they study; nor have We sent them a warner before thee; and 36:6, which states that the Quran was sent that thou mayest warn a people whose fathers were not warned; so they were heedless. Similar to 36:6, the present verse could also be read to mean “that thou mayest warn a people of that which came to them by a warner before thee,” in which case it refers to the fact that their ancestors were warned in earlier epochs, but these revelations were forgotten over time.

***

# God it is Who created the heavens and the earth and whatsoever is between them in six days. Then He mounted the Throne. Apart from Him you have neither protector, nor intercessor. Will you not, then, remember?

4 Regarding the creation of the heavens and the earth . . . in six days (cf. 10:3; 11:7; 25:59; 50:38; 57:4), after which God mounted the Throne on the seventh day (IK, Ṭ), an allusion to God’s Sovereignty (R), see 7:54c. Some maintain that then, here rendering thumma, can be understood to mean “and” (Q), which would appear to contest the interpretation that God mounted the Throne on the seventh day. That people have neither protector, nor intercessor other than God means that none may intercede or help without God’s Permission (IK, Z), as in 10:3: There is no intercessor, save by His Leave (see also 19:87; 20:109; 39:44; 43:86; 53:26; 74:48; 2:48c; 2:255c), which is another means of confirming

God’s absolute sovereignty (see 2:107). Will you not, then, remember (cf. 6:80; 45:23) can be understood as a reference to remembering the pretemporal covenant made between God and all human beings in 7:172 (K) or to remembering the Reality of God. The phrase can also be rendered, “Will you not, then, be admonished?” meaning, “Will you not take heed of this warning?”

***

# He directs the affair from Heaven unto earth; then it ascends unto Him in a day whose measure is as a thousand years of that which you reckon.

5 After mounting the Throne, God directs the affair (cf. 10:3, 31; 13:2), making it descend from the highest heaven to the lowest level of the earth (IK), which refers to His control over all affairs (Ṭ) and the carrying out of His Decree (IJ) for the duration of the world (JJ) or to the descent of revelation (IJ). What ascends to God are the angels (IJ) or the Command, meaning that everything that was created by the Command ascends unto Him on the Day of Resurrection (IJ, Z). That its measure is as a thousand years of that which you reckon (cf. 22:47) indicates the severity of the terrors of that Day for the disbelievers and is elsewhere likened to fifty thousand years (70:4; JJ). Such disparity also indicates the difference between duration in the spiritual world and that in the world of form and matter; see 22:47c; 70:4c.

Regarding the importance of understanding the manner in which God directs the affair, al-Tustarī is reported to have said, “He reveals to His servants from His Knowledge that which is a means of guidance and salvation for them. The person who is content with the decreed provision resulting from God’s directing for him will have the evil of his own directing disposed of and removed from him. Thus [God] will have returned him to a state of contentment with the Divine Decree and rectitude in the face of the unfolding of what is destined for him. [Such people] are among those who are brought nigh [unto God (al-muqarrabūn; see 56:11–12c)]. Truly, God created people without any veil, and then made their directing [for themselves] their veil.”

***

# Such is the Knower of the Unseen and the seen, the Mighty, the Merciful,

6 Regarding God as Knower of the Unseen and the seen (cf. 6:73; 9:94, 105; 13:9; 23:92; 39:46; 59:22; 62:8; 64:18), see 59:22c.

***

# Who made beautiful all that He created, and Who began the creation of man from clay.

  1. Made beautiful translates aḥsana, which can also be understood to mean “perfected” or “completed with precision,” although in this context some understand it to mean “determined” (aḥkama; Ṭ). Regarding the creation of human beings, God is also said to have made beautiful their forms (40:64). This verse implies that the quality of “making beautiful” is something in which human beings can partake by beautifying the world around them and by beautifying their character. In this vein, the Prophet is reported to have said, “Verily God has enjoined making beautiful (iḥsān) for everything. So, when you kill, kill in a

beautiful manner; when you sacrifice, sacrifice in a beautiful manner.”

The clay from which Adam and, by extension, all human beings were created is variously described as being like potter’s clay (55:14); dried clay, made of molded mud (15:26); a draught of clay (23:12); and viscous clay (37:11). These different forms of clay can be seen as describing stages of human creation: from dust (3:59), to viscous clay, to molded mud, to dried clay, like earthen vessels (55:14), at which point it is ready for the spirit to be blown into it, as in v. 9.

***

# Then He made his seed from a draught of base fluid.

  1. His seed, meaning human progeny (R, Ṭ), hence all human beings, is from an extract of clear liquid (Iṣ, Ṭ). Base fluid (cf. 77:20), like the gushing fluid in 86:6, refers to semen. Draught renders sulālah, which implies something drawn forth or gently flowing forth; the semen is referred to as such because it flows gently from the loins (Ṭs). It is mentioned in part as a reminder for human beings of their humble origins. God’s Ability to create human beings out of such lowly materials can also be seen as testimony to God’s Ability to resurrect human beings from mere dust and bones.

***

# Then He fashioned him, and breathed into him of His Spirit, and endowed you with hearing, sight, and hearts. Little do you give thanks!

  1. A similar account of the creation of Adam is phrased as an address from God to the angels: When I have proportioned him and breathed into him of My

Spirit, fall down before him prostrating (38:72; cf. 15:29). Breathed into him of His Spirit indicates that God made Adam, who had been inanimate, into a living conscious being (JJ). The Spirit can also be understood to represent the bestowal or activation of the intellect by which human beings control hearing, sight, and hearts. The order in which these three terms are mentioned can be understood as an allusion to the path by which one acquires knowledge, first hearing of things from others, then seeing them and attaining to them for oneself, then perceiving their true nature and coming to a more direct and complete understanding of them (R). Those who do not give thanks for these faculties are those whose hearing, sight, and hearts availed them naught, since they rejected God’s signs (46:26), meaning that they do not use these faculties to act in accord with God’s teachings, but simply to follow their own desires and caprices.

***

# And they say, “What, when we have become lost in the earth, shall we indeed be created anew?” Nay, they believe not in the meeting with their Lord.

  1. The question in this verse may be seen as meaning, “When our bodies have decomposed, are we to be reconstituted?” (IJ, JJ). This is similar to the more common objection voiced by disbelievers, What! When we are dead and have become dust and bones, are we to be resurrected? (56:47; cf. 17:49, 98; 23:82–83; 36:78; 37:16–17, 53; 50:3; 79:11). Regarding those who deny resurrection and the meeting with their Lord (cf. 6:31), see 30:8c.

***

# Say, “The Angel of death, who has been entrusted with you, will take you; then unto your Lord shall you be returned.”

  1. In Islamic angelology, the Angel of death is understood to be Azrael (IK, Q), who is in charge of removing spirits from bodies at the moment of death, for which he is said to have helpers among the angels (IK, Ṭ; see 4:97c; 8:50; 16:32), though it is also said that God takes souls at the moment of their death (39:42). Al-Qurṭubī reconciles these verses by saying that the Angel of Death seizes them, the helping angels, referred to as guardians and as Our messengers in 6:61, attend to them, and God brings about their end; see also 6:61–62c; 7:37; and the essay “Death, Dying, and the Afterlife in the Quran.”

***

# Couldst thou but see when the guilty bend their heads low before their Lord: “Our Lord! We have seen and we have heard; so send us back that we may work righteousness. Truly we are certain.”

  1. Couldst thou but see is an address directly to the Prophet or a general address (R). In either case, it refers to the amazement one would experience upon witnessing the state of the disbelievers in the Hereafter (R). Now that the souls of disbelievers have been taken by the Angel of Death, seen the realities of Resurrection and Judgment that they had denied (cf. 19:38), and been made to admit their sin (67:11; cf. 40:11), they say, We are certain, meaning they believe with certainty or that they are simply claiming to believe in order to avoid the punishment, as in 6:23: Then their contention will be but to say, “By God, our Lord, we were not idolaters” (R). In another verse, God responds to the same request that they be sent back, in their words, so that they may work righteousness, saying, Did We not give you long life, enough for whosoever would reflect to reflect therein? And the warner came unto you; so taste [the punishment]! (35:37). In 23:100, when the same request is made by one person, the evaluation is Nay, indeed these are words that he speaks. God thus denies all such requests, because even if they were sent back, they would return to the very thing they had been forbidden (6:28). For the manner in which this and other verses can be seen as part of an extended discourse between God and the denizens of Hell, see 40:11–12c.

***

# And had We willed, We would have given every soul its guidance. But the Word from Me comes due: “I shall surely fill Hell with jinn and men all together!”

  1. This verse is an address to those who despair over the attitude of the disbelievers, as the Prophet did, letting them know that it is God’s Decree that some turn away, as in 10:99: And had thy Lord willed, all those who are on the earth would have believed all together. Wouldst thou compel men till they become believers? That God will fill Hell with jinn and men all together (cf. 11:119; 38:85) then speaks to the fact that the Prophet can only call people to guidance, but must leave their final end in the Hands of God.

***

# So taste [the punishment] for having forgotten the meeting with this your Day! Verily, We have forgotten you! And taste the punishment everlasting for that which you used to do.

  1. These words are spoken by God or by the angels who serve as the keepers of Hell to the disbelievers as the latter enter Hell (JJ). In other verses, God or the keepers say, Taste the punishment for having disbelieved (3:106; 6:30; 8:35; 46:34; cf. 7:39). This is one of several verses that speak of the disbelievers being forgotten by God, as in 45:34: And it will be said, “Today We forget you just as you forgot the meeting with this your Day; your refuge is the Fire and you have no helpers” (see also 7:51; 9:67; 20:126; 59:19). Such verses mean that they are cast out of God’s Mercy or into the state of punishment (Bḍ), since God does not “forget” (IK). Many understand such verses to mean that disbelievers are left to wallow in the punishment of the Fire (JJ), but it also speaks to the importance for one’s spiritual life of remembering the meeting with God and thus death. In this regard, the Prophet is reported to have said, “The intelligent person is one who knows his soul and works for what follows death.” And when asked, “Who is the most intelligent of believers?” he replied, “The most frequent in remembering death, and the best prepared for what follows it, they are the most intelligent.”

***

# Truly they believe in Our signs who when reminded of them fall prostrate and hymn the praise of their Lord and do not wax arrogant,

  1. Our signs refers to the verses of the Quran (Aj, JJ), to all revelations, to prophetic miracles, or to all of the signs of God in the created world. According to a ḥadīth, “The closest that a servant can be to his Lord is when he is prostrating” (IK, Q). Nonetheless, this verse cautions that for such prostration to be efficacious it must not be mixed with arrogance. According to the Islamic tradition, this is one of fifteen verses after which one prostrates when reciting the Quran; see 19:58c.

***

Ū whose sides shun [their] beds, calling upon their Lord out of fear and hope, and who spend from that which We have provided them.

  1. This verse was reportedly revealed with regard to some Companions of the Prophet who would stand in prayer from after the sunset prayer (maghrib) until the time of the night prayer (ʿishāʾ; W), while others say it refers to those who pray the night vigil (tahajjud; W). Given that they shun [their] beds, the second interpretation is more plausible. In this context, fear is understood to mean fear of punishment and hope is understood to mean hope for mercy (JJ). From a spiritual perspective, it can be understood to mean the fear of being separated from God and the hope of meeting Him (Qu, ST). Al-Maybudī writes,

“Sleeplessness and wakefulness at night are the cause of nearness to the Truth and evidence of the perfection of love, for the first degree of love is seeking conformity, and the attribute of the Truth is that neither slumber overtakes Him nor sleep [2:255].” In this vein, the Prophet is reported to have said, “My eyes sleep, but my heart waketh” (My).

As the reference to prayer is understood by most to mean the supererogatory night vigil, the reference to spending is understood to mean charity (ṣadaqah) beyond the required alms tax (zakāh). Spending of what God has provided is extolled alongside prayer and belief in several verses (e.g., 2:3; 8:3; 4:39; 35:29), and human beings are called upon to spend of that which We have provided you before death comes upon one of you and he says, “My Lord, wouldst that Thou grant me reprieve until a term nigh, that I might give charity and be among the righteous!” (63:10; cf. 2:254; 14:44).

***

# No soul knows what comfort is kept hidden for it as a recompense for that which they used to do.

17 Comfort translates qurrat aʿyūn, which literally means “coolness of the eyes” and conveys ease, comfort, and joy. In the Quran, some understand it as an allusion to the vision of God (Aj), because “the eye is only cooled by the vision of the one it loves” (Qu). In relation to this verse, it is reported that the Prophet said, “God says, ‘I have prepared for My righteous servants what no eye has seen and no ear has heard and what has not occurred to the heart of any human being.’” Then the Prophet recited, No soul knows what comfort is kept hidden for it (Q).

One of the Prophet’s Companions, Muʿādh ibn Jabal, reported that the Prophet cited this verse and the previous one when teaching him the practice of Islam: “I said, ‘O Messenger of God, tell me of an act that will take me into the Garden and will keep me away from the Fire.’ He replied, ‘You have asked me about a significant matter; yet it is easy for him for whom God Almighty makes it easy. You should worship God, associating nothing with Him, perform the prayers, pay alms (zakāh), fast during Ramadan, and make the pilgrimage to the House.’ Then he said, ‘Shall I not show you the gates of goodness? Fasting, which is a shield; charity, which extinguishes sin as water extinguishes fire; and the prayer of a man in the depths of night.’” Then the Prophet recited vv. 16–17.

Interpreting the comfort or cooling of the eyes as an allusion to the joy one finds in the attainment of spiritual realities, al-Tustarī is reported to have said, “Their eyes [are cooled] at the outward and inward realities that they witness, which are disclosed to them by way of unveiling. Then they behold them and adhere to them, so that their eyes are cooled and their hearts repose in them” (ST). 

***

# Is one who believes like one who is iniquitous? They are not equal.

# As for those who believe and perform righteous deeds, theirs shall be Gardens of refuge, as a welcome for that which they used to do.

18–19 V. 18 is one of several verses to ask a rhetorical question aimed at indicating the utter disparity between believers and disbelievers. Elsewhere, their disparity is likened to that between the blind and the seeing (see 11:24; 13:19; 35:19; 40:58), the living and the dead (35:22), or those who know and those who do not know (39:9; see also 3:162; 5:100; 38:28; 39:9; 47:14–15; 59:20; 68:5). These two verses, along with the following two, can be read as part of the continuing response to the disbelievers who in v. 12 asked to be sent back in order to perform righteous deeds. In these four verses, it is made clear that the stark difference between believers and disbelievers in this world portends an even starker contrast in their final ends, since the declaration of faith with the tongue is believed to have little efficacy if it is not put into practice with the limbs and manifest in the heart.

***

# And as for those who are iniquitous, their refuge is the Fire. Whenever they desire to go forth therefrom, they are returned unto it, and it is said unto them, “Taste the punishment of the Fire that you used to deny!”

  1. The desire of the disbelievers to leave the punishment can be understood as evidence of the continuing inability of some of them to realize that they have in fact earned their punishment through their own actions. Having failed to grasp the true nature of their iniquity, as evidenced by their request to be returned to this world to work righteousness (see v. 12c), they are condemned to be cast in the Fire over and again. Also see 22:22: Whensoever they desire, in their grief, to leave it, they shall be returned unto it, while [being told], “Taste the punishment of the burning!”

***

# And We make them taste the lesser punishment before the greater punishment, that they might turn back.

  1. The lesser punishment is punishment in this world (IK, JJ), which can come through the humiliation of defeat, through illness, or by natural disaster (JJ), among other afflictions. Others say it refers to the legal punishments brought against the disbelievers in this world or to the punishment in the grave that comes before the eternal punishment (IK). The greater punishment is that of the Hereafter (JJ). From one perspective, they are afflicted with the lesser punishment as a mercy from God, as it might make them reflect and thus turn back to belief (JJ), which is considered the natural state of human beings (see 7:172c; 30:30c).

***

# And who does greater wrong than one who has been reminded of the signs of his Lord, then turns away from them? Truly We shall take vengeance upon the guilty.

  1. The first sentence of this verse is repeated in 18:57, followed by Surely We have placed coverings over their hearts, such that they understand not, and in their ears a deafness. Even if thou callest them to guidance, they will never be rightly guided. It is not that such people cannot see the signs if left to themselves, but that God veils the signs from them due to their arrogance and disbelief, as in 7:146: I shall turn away from My signs those who wax arrogant upon the earth without right. Even if they were to see every sign, they would not believe in them. A subtle theme throughout the Quran is that miracles by themselves do not convince people of religious truth if their souls are set against it, as in 6:25, which says of the disbelievers, Were they to see every sign, they would not believe in it, so that when they come to thee, they dispute with thee (see also 2:145; 7:146; 10:96–97). With regard to the present verse, Qatādah is reported to have said, “Whosoever turns away from the remembrance of God has been beguiled by the greatest delusion, rendered destitute by most severe penury, and oppressed by the greatest of sins” (IK), and that is the most severe form of vengeance. Regarding the manner in which God takes vengeance, see also 44:16c.

***

# And indeed We gave unto Moses the Book; so be not in doubt regarding the meeting with Him. And We made him a guide for the Children of Israel.

  1. This sudden change of subject to a discussion of Moses may suggest that the revelation given to him was among those signs from which one should not turn away (v. 22). As translated, the meeting with Him refers either to Moses’ meeting with God when he received revelation or to the meeting with God that awaits every soul. Many commentators understand the pronoun Him in this phrase as a reference to the Prophet Muhammad’s meeting with Moses on his ascent from Jerusalem to the Throne of God (see 17:1c; 53:1–18), in which case it would be translated “with him” (IK, R, Ṭ); or to the Prophet Muhammad’s receiving revelation (Bḍ, R); or to Moses’ receiving revelation, in which case it would be rendered “with it.” Such interpretations are possible, but would not be consistent with the common Quranic use of “meet” (laqiya) and “meeting” (liqāʾ) to indicate the meeting with God (see 2:4, 223, 249; 6:31, 154; 8:46; 9:77; 10:7, 11, 15, 45; 11:29; 13:2; 18:105, 110; 29:5; 30:8; 32:10; 33:44; 41:54c); the meeting with death (see, e.g., 3:143; 62:8); or the meeting of the Day of Judgment (see, e.g., 6:130; 23:14; 39:71; 45:34). “Meeting” is, however, never used as a direct reference to receiving revelation. The most consistent interpretation of this verse would thus be to see it as a reference to the meeting with God. In this context, it would then mean that any who have received a revelation, like the people of Moses, should not be in doubt about the meeting with God. We made him a guide could also be rendered “We made it a guide,” referring to the Torah (IK, JJ, Ṭ).

***

# And We appointed leaders from among them who guided by Our Command when they were patient and were certain of Our signs.

  1. The leaders in this verse likely refers to the scribes, priests, Pharisees, and rabbis. The verse indicates that so long as the religious leaders patiently adhered to God’s commands, confirming God’s messengers and following them, they were guided. But when they altered the scriptures or the correct interpretation of the scriptures (see 4:46; 5:15, 41), they were deprived of that station and their hearts hardened (IK). Their being patient can also be seen as a reference to enduring the attractions of this world and not succumbing to them (IK, Ṭ). Thus some see this verse as evidence that one cannot be a religious leader unless one has attained the virtue of patience (IK). The last phrase could also be read as a new sentence, “And they were certain of Our signs.”

***

# Truly thy Lord will distinguish between them on the Day of Resurrection regarding that wherein they used to differ.

  1. This verse is either specific, referring to the Children of Israel, or general, referring to all of humanity. On the Day of Judgment, God distinguishes between them regarding the different understandings of religious matters, resurrection, reward, and punishment and then sends them to the Garden or the Fire (Ṭ); see also 2:113; 10:93; 16:124c; 39:3; 45:17.

***

# Does it not serve as guidance for them, how many generations We destroyed before them, amidst whose dwellings they walk? Truly in that are signs. Will they not listen?

  1. This is one of several verses to allude to the towns (6:6; 7:4; 21:11; 22:45, 48; 47:13) and whole generations (17:17; 19:74; 20:128; 36:31; 38:3; 50:36) that were destroyed for their iniquities and for their refusal to accept the messengers whom God had sent to them. Amidst whose dwellings they walk refers to the remains of bygone towns and settlements that the Arabs would pass on their travels.

***

# Have they not considered how We drive the water to the barren earth and bring forth crops thereby, whereof they and their cattle eat? Will they not see?

  1. They is most likely a reference to disbelievers among the Quraysh. The discussion of God’s reviving barren earth indicates that they fail both to be thankful for the manner in which He provides for them, as in 56:68–70, and to understand the manner in which God can resurrect human beings after they have died. All such verses that refer to the revival of the earth can also be understood as a reference to spiritual revivification, with the dead land serving as a metonym for the dead heart (see, e.g., 25:48–49; 30:19; 36:33; 50:9–11).

***

# And they say, “When is this victory, if you are truthful?”

  1. The disbelievers ask the believers, When is this victory, if you are truthful? meaning, “When is the Day of Resurrection?” Victory translates fatḥ, which can also mean a decisive arbitration between parties. Fatḥ is thus understood by some commentators as a reference to God’s Decree and to His distinguishing between the believers and disbelievers (IK), as in 34:26: Say, “Our Lord will gather us together; then He will decide between us with truth; and He is the Arbiter, the Knower.”

***

# Say, “On the Day of Victory, faith will not benefit those who disbelieved; nor shall they be granted respite.”

  1. When the Day of Judgment comes, even though the disbelievers say, Our Lord! We have seen and we have heard. . . . Truly we are certain (v. 12), their acknowledgment of the truth will be of no benefit. They will not be granted respite to make amends, because they had already been warned and been shown God’s signs in this life, but they turned away in arrogance.

***

# Then turn away from them and wait; they, too, are waiting.

  1. Believers are counseled to wait for the punishment to be sent down upon the disbelievers (JJ). They, too, are waiting means that the disbelievers are expecting and awaiting the believers’ destruction as well (JJ). They, too, are waiting can also be read with a sense of irony, meaning that the disbelievers are waiting for their own destruction, though they do not know that this is what they are awaiting. For other instances of this ironic statement with slight variations, see 6:158c; 7:71; 9:52; 10:20, 102; 11:122; 20:135; 52:31.

Source: The Study Quran, by Sayyed Hossein Nasr and 4 Others

Share with a friend

Comments

John Doe
23/3/2019

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

  • Reply
    • John Doe
    23/3/2019

    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

  • Reply
    • John Doe
    23/3/2019

    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

  • Reply

    • Comment