Surah 102. Al-Takathur

YOU ARE OBSESSED by greed for more and more

  - Mohammad Asad

O mankind, you have been distracted by the rivalry of piling up worldly gains against one another.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Competition for more 'gains' diverts you 'from Allah',

  - Mustafa Khattab

Rivalry in worldly increase distracteth you

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

The mutual rivalry for piling up (the good things of this world) diverts you (from the more serious things) ⁶²⁵⁷

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Acquisitiveness, that is, the passion for seeking an increase in wealth, position, the number of adherents or followers or supporters, mass production and mass organisation, may affect an individual as such, or it may affect whole societies or nations. Other people's example or rivalry in such things may aggravate the situation. Up to a certain point it may be good and necessary. But when it becomes inordinate and monopolises attention, it leaves no time for higher things in life, and a clear warning is here sounded from a moral point of view. Man may be engrossed in these things till death approaches, and he looks back on a wasted life, as far as the higher things are concerned.

until you go down to your graves.¹

  - Mohammad Asad

The term takathur bears the connotation of "greedily striving for an increase," i.e., in benefits, be they tangible or intangible, real or illusory. In the above context it denotes man's obsessive striving for more and more comforts, more material goods, greater power over his fellow-men or over nature, and unceasing technological progress. A passionate pursuit of such endeavours, to the exclusion of everything else, bars man from all spiritual insight and, hence, from the acceptance of any restrictions and inhibitions based on purely moral values - with the result that not only individuals but whole societies gradually lose all inner stability and, thus, all chance of happiness.

You will never be satisfied until you get into the grave.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

until you end up in 'your' graves.¹

  - Mustafa Khattab

 lit., visited the graves, since the stay in the grave is brief, followed by eternal life either in Paradise or Hell.

Until ye come to the graves.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Until ye visit the graves. ⁶²⁵⁸

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

That is, until the time comes when you must lie down in the graves and leave and pomp and circumstance of an empty life. The true Reality will then appear before you. Why not try to strive for a little understanding of that Reality in this very life?

Nay, in time you will come to understand!

  - Mohammad Asad

Nevertheless, soon you shall come to know.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

But no! You will soon come to know.

  - Mustafa Khattab

Nay, but ye will come to know!

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

But nay ye soon shall know (the reality).

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

And once again:² Nay, in time you will come to understand!

  - Mohammad Asad

See surah {6}, note [31].

Again, nevertheless, soon you shall come to know.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Again, no! You will soon come to know.

  - Mustafa Khattab

Nay, but ye will come to know!

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Again, ye soon shall know!

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Nay, if you could but understand [it] with an understanding [born] of certainty,

  - Mohammad Asad

Nay! Would that you knew through the real knowledge provided to you in this Qur'an and care about your life in the Hereafter.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Indeed, if you were to know 'your fate' with certainty, 'you would have acted differently'.

  - Mustafa Khattab

Nay, would that ye knew (now) with a sure knowledge!

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Nay were ye to know with certainty of mind (Ye would beware!) ⁶²⁵⁹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Three kinds of yaqin (certainty of knowledge) are described in n. 5673 to lxix. 51. The first is certainty of mind or inference mentioned here: we hear from someone, or we infer from something we know: this refers to our own state of mind. If we instruct our minds in this way, we should value the deeper things of life better, and not waste all our time in ephemeral things. But if we do not use our reasoning faculties now, we shall yet see with our own eyes, the Penalty for our sins. It will be certainty of sight. We shall see Hell. See next verse. But the absolute certainty of assured Truth is that described in lxix. 51. That is not liable to any human error or psychological defects.

you would indeed, most surely, behold the blazing fire [of hell]!³

  - Mohammad Asad

Sc., "in which you find yourselves now" - i.e., the "hell on earth" brought about by a fundamentally wrong mode of life: an allusion to the gradual destruction of man's natural environment, as well as to the frustration, unhappiness and confusion which an overriding, unrestrained pursuit of "economic growth" is bound to bring - and has, indeed, brought in our time - upon a mankind that is about to lose the remnants of all spiritual, religious orientation.

Because on the Day of Judgement when you shall see the hell,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

'But' you will surely see the Hellfire.

  - Mustafa Khattab

For ye will behold hell fire

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Ye shall certainly see Hell Fire! ⁶²⁶⁰

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

See xix. 71-72, and n. 2518.

In the end you will indeed, most surely, behold it with the eye of certainty:⁴

  - Mohammad Asad

I.e., in the hereafter, through a direct, unequivocal insight into the real nature of one's past doings, and into the inescapability of the suffering which man brings upon himself by a wrong, wasteful use of the boon of life (an-na'im).

and see it with the certainty of your own eyes

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Again, you will surely see it with the eye of certainty.

  - Mustafa Khattab

Aye, ye will behold it with sure vision.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Again ye shall see it with certainty of sight!

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

and on that Day you will most surely be called to account for [what you did with] the boon of life!

  - Mohammad Asad

- you shall believe it, but that belief is going to do you no good because - on that Day, you shall be questioned about the blessings (faculties and resources that you were given in the worldly life - as to how you used them?)

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Then, on that Day, you will definitely be questioned about 'your worldly' pleasures.

  - Mustafa Khattab

Then, on that day, ye will be asked concerning pleasure.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Then shall ye be Questioned that Day about the joy (ye indulged in)! ⁶²⁶¹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

We shall be questioned, i.e., we shall be held responsible for every kind of joy we indulge in-whether it was false pride or delight in things of no value, or things evil, or the enjoyment of things legitimate,-the last, to see whether we kept this within reasonable bounds.