Surah 23. Al-Muminun

O YOU APOSTLES! Partake of the good things of life,²⁷ and do righteous deeds: verily, I have full knowledge of all that you do.

  - Mohammad Asad

This rhetorical apostrophe to all of God's apostles is meant to stress their humanness and mortality, and thus to refute the argument of the unbelievers that God could not have chosen "a mortal like ourselves" to be His message-bearer: an argument which overlooks the fact that only human beings who themselves "partake of the good things of life" are able to understand the needs and motives of their fellow-men and, thus, to guide them in their spiritual and social concerns.

O Rasools! Eat of pure things and do good deeds, certainly I have knowledge of all your actions.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

O ye messengers! Eat of the good thing, and do right. Lo! I am Aware of what ye do.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And, verily, this community of yours is one single community, since I am the Sustainer of you all: remain, then, conscious of Me!²⁸

  - Mohammad Asad

As in 21:92 , the above verse is addressed to all who truly believe in God, whatever their historical denomination. By the preceding reference to all of God's apostles the Qur'an clearly implies that all of them were inspired by, and preached, the same fundamental truths, notwithstanding all the differences in the ritual or the specific laws which they propounded in accordance with the exigencies of the time and the social development of their followers. (See notes [66-68] on the second paragraph of 5:48 .)

In fact, your religion is one religion, and I am your only Rabb: so fear Me Alone.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And lo! this your religion is one religion and I am your Lord, so keep your duty unto Me.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

But they [who claim to follow you] have torn their unity wide asunder,²⁹ piece by piece, each group delighting in [but] what they themselves possess [by way of tenets].³⁰

  - Mohammad Asad

Cf. 21:93 .

Lit.; "in what they have [themselves]". In the first instance, this verse refers to the various religious groups as such: that is to say, to the followers of one or another of the earlier revelations who, in the course of time, consolidated themselves within different "denominations", each of them jealously guarding its own set of tenets, dogmas and rituals and intensely intolerant of all other ways of worship (manasik, see 22:67 ). In the second instance, however, the above condemnation applies to the breach of unity within each of the established religious groups; and since it applies to the followers of all the prophets, it includes the latter-day followers of Muhammad as well, and thus constitutes a prediction and condemnation of the doctrinal disunity prevailing in the world of Islam in our times -cf. the well-authenticated saying of the Prophet quoted by Ibn Hanbal, Abu Da'ud, Tirmidhi, and Darimi: "The Jews have been split up into seventy-one sects, the Christians into seventy-two sects, whereas my community will be split up into seventy-three sects." (It should be remembered that in classical Arabic usage the number "seventy" often stands for "many" - just as "seven" stands for "several" or "various" - and does not necessarily denote an actual figure; hence, what the Prophet meant to say was that the sects and divisions among the Muslims of later days would become many, and even more numerous than those among the Jews and the Christians.

Yet people have divided themselves into factions and each faction rejoices in its own doctrines

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

But they (mankind) have broken their religion among them into sects, each sect rejoicing in its tenets.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

But leave them alone, lost in their ignorance, until a [future] time.³¹

  - Mohammad Asad

I.e., until they themselves realize their error. This sentence is evidently addressed to the last of the apostles, Muhammad, and thus to all who truly follow him.

- well! Leave them in their heedlessness for an appointed time.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

So leave them in their error till a time.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Do they think that by all the wealth and offspring with which We provide them

  - Mohammad Asad

Do they think that, in giving them wealth and children,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Think they that in the wealth and sons wherewith We provide them

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

We [but want to] make them vie with one another in doing [what they consider] good works?³² Nay, but they do not perceive [their error]!

  - Mohammad Asad

I.e., "Do they think that by bestowing on them worldly prosperity God but wants them to vie with one another in their race after material goods and comforts, which they mistakenly identify with 'doing good works'?" Another - linguistically permissible - rendering of the above two verses would be: "Do they think that by all the wealth and offspring with which We provide them We [but] hasten on [the coming] to them of all that is good?" Either of these two renderings implies, firstly, that worldly prosperity is not the ultimate good, and, secondly, that the breach of the unity spoken of in the preceding passage was, more often than not, an outcome of mere worldly greed and of factional striving after power.

We are eager for their welfare? By no means! They do not understand the reality of the matter.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

We hasten unto them with good things? Nay, but they perceive not.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Verily, [only] they who stand in reverent awe of their Sustainer,

  - Mohammad Asad

Surely those who live cautiously for fear of their Rabb,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Lo! those who go in awe for fear of their Lord,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

and who believe in their Sustainer's messages,

  - Mohammad Asad

who believe in the revelations of their Rabb;

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And those who believe in the revelations of their Lord,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

and who do not ascribe divinity to aught but their Sustainer,

  - Mohammad Asad

who do not commit shirk with their Rabb,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And those who ascribe not partners unto their Lord,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

and who give whatever they [have to] give³³ with their hearts trembling at the

  - Mohammad Asad

This is an allusion to the giving of what one is morally obliged to give, whether it be in charity or in satisfaction of rightful claims on the part of one's fellow-men, including such intangible "gifts" as the dispensing of justice.

who give to charity whatever they can give, and their hearts are full of fear by the very idea that they shall have to return to their Rabb,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And those who give that which they give with hearts afraid because they are about to return unto their Lord,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

it is they who vie with one another in doing good works, and it is they who outrun [all others] in attaining to them!

  - Mohammad Asad

it is they who rush in doing good deeds and try to be the first in attaining them.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

These race for the good things, and they shall win them in the race.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And [withal,] We do not burden any human being with more than he is well able to bear: for with Us is a record that speaks the truth [about what men do and can dol; and none shall be wronged.

  - Mohammad Asad

We charge no soul with more than it can bear; We have a Book of record which shall clearly tell the truth, and they shall not be treated unjustly.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And We task not any soul beyond its scope, and with Us is a Record which speaketh the truth, and they will not be wronged.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

NAY, [as for those who have torn asunder the unity of faith-] their hearts are lost in ignorance of all this!³⁴ But apart from that [breach of unity] they have [on their conscience even worse] deeds;³⁵ and they will [continue to] commit them

  - Mohammad Asad

This passage obviously connects with the last sentence of verse {56} - "Nay, but they do not perceive [their error!''-and. hence, refers to the people spoken of in verse {54} as being "lost in their ignorance" (fi ghamratihim ).

Namely, actions and dogmatic assertions which utterly contradict the teachings of the very apostles whom they claim to follow, like ascribing divine qualities to beings other than God, worshipping saints, or rejecting divine revelations which do not accord with their own likes and dislikes or with their customary mode of thinking.

But their hearts are blind to all this; and their deeds are also different from the believers. They will continue doing their misdeeds

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Nay, but their hearts are in ignorance of this (Qur'an), and they have other works, besides, which they are doing;

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

until - after We shall have taken to task, through suffering, those from among them who [now] are lost in the pursuit of pleasures³⁶ - they cry out in [belated] supplication.

  - Mohammad Asad

See surah {17}, note [22]. The particular reference, in this context, to people "who [at present] are lost in the pursuit of pleasures" contains an allusion to verse {55} above (see my explanation in note [32], especially the last sentence). The "taking to task through suffering" spoken of here may refer to the Day of Judgment or - as in 17:16 - to the inevitable social ruin which, in the long run, wrong beliefs and actions bring with themselves in this world.

until when We seize those of them who live in comfort with punishment; lo! Then they start crying for help in supplication.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Till when We grasp their luxurious ones with the punishment, behold! they supplicate.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

[But they will be told:] "Cry not in supplication today: for, behold, you shall not be succoured by Us!

  - Mohammad Asad

We shall say: "Do not cry for help this Day, for surely from Us you shall receive no help.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Supplicate not this day! Assuredly ye will not be helped by Us.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall