Surah 37. As-Saffat

So ask them 'O Prophet', which is harder to create: them or other marvels of Our creation?¹ Indeed, We created them from a sticky clay.²

  - Mustafa Khattab

 i.e., the angels, the sun, the moon, the stars, and the mountains.

 Their father Adam (ﷺ).

Just ask their opinion: are they the more difficult to create or the (other) beings We have created? Them have We created out of a sticky clay! ^{4040 4041}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

"Their": "they" are the doubters, the evil ones, the deniers of Allah's grace and mercy, who laugh at Revelation and disbelieve in a Hereafter. Are they more important or more difficult to create than the wonderful variety of beings in Allah's spacious Creation? Do they forget their own lowly state, as having been created from muddy clay?

Cf. vi. 2; vii. 12; xxxii. 7; etc.

In fact, you are astonished 'by their denial', while they ridicule 'you'.

  - Mustafa Khattab

Truly dost thou marvel while they ridicule ⁴⁰⁴²

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

It is indeed strange that unregenerate man should forget, on the one hand, his lowly-origin, and on the other hand, his high Destiny, as conferred upon him by the grace and mercy of Allah. The indictment of him here comprises four counts: (1) they ridicule the teaching of Truth; (2) instead of profiting by admonition, they pay no heed; (3) when Allah's Signs are brought home to them, they ridicule them as much as they ridiculed the teaching of Truth: and (4) when they have to acknowledge incontestable facts, they give them false names like "sorcery", which imply fraud or something which has no relation to their life, although the facts touch the inner springs of their life intimately.

When they are reminded, they are never mindful.

  - Mustafa Khattab

And when they are admonished pay no heed

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

And whenever they see a sign, they make fun of it,

  - Mustafa Khattab

And when they see a Sign turn it to mockery

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

saying, 'This is nothing but pure magic.

  - Mustafa Khattab

And say "This is nothing but evident sorcery!

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

When we are dead and reduced to dust and bones, will we really be resurrected?

  - Mustafa Khattab

"What! when we die and become dust and bones shall we (then) be raised up (again)?

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

And our forefathers as well?'

  - Mustafa Khattab

"And also our fathers of old?" ⁴⁰⁴³

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Although the Hereafter, is the most solid facts in our intelligent existence, materialists deny them. They cannot believe that they could have any existence beyond the grave-still less their ancestors who died ages and ages ago: how could they ever come to life again?

Say, 'Yes! And you will be fully humbled.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

Say thou: "Yea and ye shall then be humiliated (on account of your evil)." ⁴⁰⁴⁴

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

They are assured that the future life is a solid fact, but that it will be in very different conditions from those they know now. All their present arrogance will have been humbled in the dust. There will be another plane, in which souls will have experiences quite different from those in their probationary life here. In that life the virtues they lacked will count, and the arrogance they hugged will be brought low.

It will only take one Blast,¹ then at once they will see 'it all'.

  - Mustafa Khattab

 This is when the Trumpet will be blown the second time.

Then it will be a single (compelling) cry; and behold they will begin to see! ^{4045 4056}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Cf. xxxvi. 29, 49, and 53.

Selfish arrogance was the seed of sin and rebellion: ii. 34 (of Satan): xxviii. 39 (of Pharaoh); etc. It is that kind of arrogance which prevents man from mending his life and conduct. When he speaks of ancestral ways, or public opinion, or national honour, he is usually thinking of himself or of a small clique which thrives on injustice. The recognition of Allah, the one true God, as the only standard of life and conduct, the Eternal Reality, cuts out Self, and is therefore disagreeable to Sin. If false gods are imagined, who themselves would have weaknesses that fit in with sin, they give countenance to evils, and it becomes difficult to give them up, unless Allah's grace comes to our assistance.

They will cry, 'Oh, woe to us! This is the Day of Judgment!'

  - Mustafa Khattab

They will say "Ah! woe to us! This is the Day of Judgement!"

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

'They will be told,' 'This is the Day of 'Final' Decision which you used to deny.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

(A voice will say) "This is the Day of Sorting Out whose truth ye (once) denied!" ⁴⁰⁴⁷

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The Day of Judgment is the day of sorting out. Cf. xxxvi. 59. Good and evil will finally be separated, unlike the apparently inexplicable conditions in the present probationary life, when they seem to be mixed together.

'Allah will say to the angels,' 'Gather 'all' the wrongdoers along with their peers, and whatever they used to worship

  - Mustafa Khattab

-Bring ye up" it shall be said "The wrongdoers and their wives and the things they worshipped ⁴⁰⁴⁸

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

That is, if their wives were also wrong-doers. They are separately mentioned, because the Arabic phrase for "wrong-doers" is of the masculine gender. All the associates in wrong-doing will be marshalled together. There will be personal responsibility: neither husband nor wife can lay the blame on the other.

instead of Allah, then lead them 'all' to the path of Hell.

  - Mustafa Khattab

"Besides Allah and lead them to the Way to the (Fierce) Fire!

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

And detain them, for they must be questioned.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

"But stop them for they must be asked: ⁴⁰⁴⁹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The scene here is after judgment. As, in an earthly tribunal, the prisoner or his advocate is asked why sentence should not be pronounced upon him, so here those who are proved to have been guilty of wrong are allowed to consider if anything or any one can help them. Then comes the exposure of the misleaders.

'Then they will be asked,' 'What is the matter with you that you can no longer help each other?'

  - Mustafa Khattab

" `What is the matter with you that ye help not each other?' " ⁴⁰⁵⁰

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Obviously no one can stand and intercede, for it is a question of personal responsibility for each soul. No one can help another.

In fact, on that Day they will be 'fully' submissive.

  - Mustafa Khattab

Nay but that day they shall submit (to Judgment); ⁴⁰⁵¹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

All the previous arrogance of this life will be gone, but they will face each other, and those who were given a false lead, as in the story of Pharaoh (Cf xx. 79), will question their misleaders as in the following verses.

They will turn on each other, throwing blame.

  - Mustafa Khattab

And they will turn to one another and question one another.

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The misled will say, 'It was you who deluded us away from what is right.'¹

  - Mustafa Khattab

 Other possible translations: 1. “It was you who used to pressure us.” 2. “It was you who tricked us in the name of the truth.” 3. “It was you who dissuaded us from doing good.” 4. “It was you who deceived us with false oaths.”

They will say: "It was ye who used to come to us from the right hand (of power and authority)!" ⁴⁰⁵²

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

This is the mutual recrimination of the sinners-those who sinned, against those whose instigation or evil example led them into sin. The misleaders in the life here below often used their power and influence to spread evil. The "right hand" is the hand of power and authority. Instead of using it for righteous purposes, they used it for evil-selfishly for their own advantage, and mischievously for the degradation of others.

The misleaders will reply, 'No! You disbelieved on your own.

  - Mustafa Khattab

They will reply: "Nay ye yourselves had no faith! ⁴⁰⁵³

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

But the fact that others mislead, or that their evil example is before us, does not justify us in falling from right conduct. Faith should save us from the fall. But if we have ourselves no Faith-in righteousness, or a future life, or the reality of Allah's Law, how can we blame others? The misleaders can well say, "You will be judged according to your misdeeds!" The responsibility is personal, and cannot be shifted on to others. The others may get a double punishment,-for their own evil, and for misleading their weaker brethren. But the weaker brethren cannot go free from responsibility for their own deeds; for evil means a personal rebellion against Allah, if we believe in a personal God. Evil has no authority over us, except in so far as we deliberately choose it.

We had no authority over you. In fact, you yourselves were a transgressing people.

  - Mustafa Khattab

"Nor had we any authority over you. Nay it was ye who were a people in obstinate rebellion!

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali