Surah 26. Ash-Shuara

for thou art nothing but a mortal like ourselves! And. behold. we think that thou art a consummate liar!⁷⁷

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "that thou art indeed one of the liars".

You are no more than a human being like us and we think that you are lying.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Thou art but a mortal like us, and lo! we deem thee of the liars.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Cause, then, fragments of the sky to fall down upon us, if thou art a man of truth!"

  - Mohammad Asad

Let a fragment fall out of the sky on us if you are telling the Truth".

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Then make fragments of the heaven fall upon us, if thou art of the truthful.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Answered [Shu'ayb]: "My Sustainer knows fully well what you are doing."

  - Mohammad Asad

Shu'aib said: "My Rabb has full knowledge of all your actions".

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

He said: My Lord is best aware of what ye do.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

But they gave him the lie. And thereupon suffering overtook them on a day dark with shadows:⁷⁸ and, verily, it was the suffering of an awesome day!

  - Mohammad Asad

This may refer either to the physical darkness which often accompanies volcanic eruptions and earthquakes (which, as shown in 7:91 , overtook the people of Madyan), or to the spiritual darkness and gloom which comes in the wake of belated regrets.

So they disbelieved him, and the torment of the day of darkness (dark clouds carrying Allah's scourge) seized them, and indeed it was the torment of an extremely dreadful day.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

But they denied him, so there came on them the retribution of the day of gloom. Lo! it was the retribution of an awful day.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

In this [story], behold, there is a message [unto men], even though most of them will not believe [in it].

  - Mohammad Asad

Surely in this story there is a great lesson, but most of these people do not learn a lesson and become believers.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Lo! herein is indeed a portent; yet most of them are not believers.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

But, verily, thy Sustainer - He alone - is almighty, a dispenser of grace!⁷⁹

  - Mohammad Asad

With this refrain ends the cycle of seven stories showing that spiritual truth in all its manifestations - whether it relates to an intellectual realization of God’s existence, to a refusal to regard power, wealth or fame as real values, or to the virtues of compassion and kindness towards all that lives on earth - has at all times been unacceptable to the overwhelming majority of mankind, and has always been submerged under the average man’s blindness and deafness of heart. The very repetition of phrases, sentences and situations in all of the above stories - or, rather, in the above versions of these oft-narrated stories - tends to bring home to us the fact that the human situation as such never really changes, and that, in consequence, those who preach the truth must always struggle against human greed, power-hunger and proneness to self-adulation.

The fact is that your Rabb is the Mighty as well as the Merciful.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And lo! thy Lord! He is indeed the Mighty, the Merciful.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

NOW, BEHOLD, this [divine writ] has indeed been bestowed from on high by the Sustainer of all the worlds:⁸⁰

  - Mohammad Asad

Thus the discourse returns to the theme enunciated at the beginning of this surah, namely, the phenomenon of divine revelation as exemplified in the Qur’an, and men’s reactions to it.

Surely this Qur'an is a revelation from the Rabb of the Worlds.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And lo! it is a revelation of the Lord of the Worlds,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

trustworthy divine inspiration has alighted with it from on high

  - Mohammad Asad

The trustworthy Spirit (Angel Gabriel) brought it down

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Which the True Spirit hath brought down

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

upon thy heart, [O Muhammad,]⁸¹ so that thou mayest be among those who preach

  - Mohammad Asad

According to almost all the classical commentators, the expression ar-ruh al-amin (lit., "the faithful [or "trustworthy"] spirit") is a designation of Gabriel, the Angel of Revelation, who, by virtue of his purely spiritual, functional nature, is incapable of sinning and cannot, therefore, be other than utterly faithful to the trust reposed in him by God (cf. 16:50 ). On the other hand, since the term ruh is often used in the Qur'an in the sense of "divine inspiration" (see surah {2}, note [71], and surah {16}, note [2]), it may have this latter meaning in the above context as well, especially in view of the statement that it had "alighted from on high upon the heart" of the Prophet.

upon your heart so that you may become one of those who are appointed by Allah to warn the people

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Upon thy heart, that thou mayest be (one) of the warners,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

in the clear Arabic tongue.⁸²

  - Mohammad Asad

See 14:4 - "never have We sent forth any apostle otherwise than [with a message] in his own people’s tongue" - and the corresponding note [3]. That the message of the Qur'an is, nevertheless, universal has been stressed in many of its verses (e.g., in 7:158 or 25:1 ). The other prophets mentioned in the Qur'an who "preached in the Arabic tongue" were Ishmael, Hud, Salih and Shu'ayb, all of them Arabians. In addition, if we bear in mind that Hebrew and Aramaic are but ancient Arabic dialects, all the Hebrew prophets may be included among "those who preached in the Arabic tongue".

in a plain Arabic language.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

In plain Arabic speech.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And, verily, [the essence of] this [revelation] is indeed found in the ancient books of divine wisdom [as well].⁸³

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "in the scriptures (zubur, sing. zabur) of the ancients" (see surah {21}, note [101]). This interpretation of the above verse - advanced among others by Zamakhshari and Baydawi (and, according to the former, attributed to Imam Abu Hanifah as well) - is in full consonance with the oft-repeated Qur'anic doctrine that the basic teachings revealed to Muhammad are in their purport (ma'ani) identical with those preached by the earlier prophets. Another, more popular interpretation is, "...this [Qur'an] has been mentioned [or "foretold"] in the earlier scriptures" (see in this connection note [33] on 2:42 and - with particular reference to a prediction made by Jesus - note [6] on 61:6 ).

This fact was foretold in the scriptures of the former people.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And lo, it is in the Scriptures of the men of old.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Is it not evidence enough for them⁸⁴ that [so many] learned men from among the children of Israel have recognized this [as true]?⁸⁵

  - Mohammad Asad

I.e., for those who disbelieve in the prophethood of Muhammad.

Sc., "and in consequence have become Muslims": for instance, 'Abd Allah ibn Salam, Ka'b ibn Malik and other learned Jews of Medina in the lifetime of the Prophet, Ka'b al-Ahbar the Yemenite and a number of his compatriots during the reign of 'Umar, and countless others throughout the world who embraced Islam in the course of centuries. The reason why only learned Jews and not learned Christians as well are spoken of in this context lies in the fact that - contrary to the Torah, which still exists, albeit in a corrupted form - the original revelation granted to Jesus has been lost (see surah {3}, note [4]) and cannot, therefore, be cited in evidence of the basic identity of his teachings with those of the Qur'an.

Is it not sufficient proof for the people that the learned men of the children of Israel knew about it?

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Is it not a token for them that the doctors of the Children of Israel know it?

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

But [even] had We bestowed it from on high upon any of the non-Arabs,

  - Mohammad Asad

Even so that if We had revealed it to a non-Arab,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And if We had revealed it unto one of any other nation than the Arabs,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

and had he recited it unto them [in his own tongue], they would not have believed in it.⁸⁶

  - Mohammad Asad

As the Qur'an points out in many places, most of the Meccan contemporaries of Muhammad refused in the beginning to believe in his prophethood on the ground that God could not have entrusted "a man from among themselves" with His message: and this in spite of the fact that the Qur'an was expressed "in the clear Arabic tongue", which they could fully understand: but (so the argument goes) if the Prophet had been a foreigner, and his message expressed in a non-Arabic tongue, they would have been even less prepared to accept it- for then they would have had the legitimate excuse that they were unable to understand it (cf. 41:44 ).

and he had recited it to them in fluent Arabic, they would still not have believed in it.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And he had read it unto them, they would not have believed in it.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Thus have We caused this [message] to pass [unheeded] through the hearts of those who are lost in sin:⁸⁷

  - Mohammad Asad

I.e., not to take root in their hearts, but to "go into one ear and out of the other". As regards Clod's "causing" this to happen, see surah {2}, note [7], and surah {14}, note [4].

We have thus caused unbelief in the hearts of the guilty.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Thus do We make it traverse the hearts of the guilty.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall