Surah 38. Sad

Sad.¹ CONSIDER² this Qur'an, endowed with all that one ought to remember!³

  - Mohammad Asad

See Appendix II.

For an explanation of this rendering of the adjurative particle wa, see first half of note [23] on 74:32 .

Or: "endowed with eminence" (Zamakhshari), since the term dhikr (lit., "reminder" or "remembrance") has also the connotation of "that which is remembered", i.e., "renown", "fame" and, tropically, "eminence". As regards the rendering preferred by me, see i 1:10 , where the phrase fihi dhikrukum (relating, as above, to the Qur'an) has been translated as "wherein is found all that you ought to bear in mind", i.e., in order to attain to dignity and happiness.

Suad.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Sad. By the renowned Quran,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

But nay - they who are bent on denying the truth are lost in [false] pride, and [hence] deeply in the wrong.⁴

  - Mohammad Asad

I.e., they refuse to acknowledge the fact of divine revelation because such an acknowledgment would imply an admission of man's responsibility to God - and this their false pride, manifested in their arrogant belief in man's "self-sufficiency", does not allow them to do. The same idea is expressed in 16:22 and, in a more general way, in 2:206 . Cf. also {96:6-7}.

And by the Qur'an which is full of admonition! Surely the unbelievers are in sheer arrogance and perverseness.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Nay, but those who disbelieve are in false pride and schism.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

How many a generation⁵ have We destroyed before their time [for this very sin]! And [how] they called [unto Us] when it was too late to escape!⁶

  - Mohammad Asad

It is to be noted that the term qarn signifies not merely a "generation" but also - and quite frequently in the Qur'an - "people belonging to a particular period and environment", i.e., a "civilization" in the historical connotation of this word.

Lit., "while there was no time for escaping".

How many generations have We destroyed before them? When their doom approached, they all cried out for mercy, but it was no longer the time to be saved.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

How many a generation We destroyed before them, and they cried out when it was no longer the time for escape!

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Now these [people] deem it strange that a warner should have come unto them from their own midst - and [so] the deniers of the truth are saying: "A [mere] spellbinder is he, a liar!⁷

  - Mohammad Asad

Although this passage describes, in the first instance, the attitude of the pagan Quraysh towards the Prophet, it touches upon the reluctance of most people, at all times, to recognize "a man from their own midst" - i.e., a human being like themselves - as God-inspired. (See note [2] on 50:2 .)

They wonder that a Warner has come to them from among themselves, and the disbelievers say: "He is a sorcerer telling lies!

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And they marvel that a warner from among themselves hath come unto them, and the disbelievers say: This is a wizard, a charlatan.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Does he claim that all the deities are [but] one God? Verily, a most strange thing is this!"⁸

  - Mohammad Asad

Divorced from its purely historical background, this criticism acquires a timeless significance, and may be thus paraphrased: "Does he claim that all creative powers and qualities are inherent exclusively in what he conceives as 'one God'?" - a paraphrase which illustrates the tendency of many people to attribute a decisive influence on human life - and, hence, a quasi-divine status - to a variety of fortuitous phenomena or circumstances (like wealth, "luck", social position, etc.) rather than to acknowledge the overwhelming evidence, in all observable nature, of God's unique existence.

Does he claim that there is only One God in place of all other gods? Surely this is a strange thing."

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Maketh he the gods One God? Lo! that is an astounding thing.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall