Surah 38. Sad

hell will they have to endure - and how vile a resting-place!

  - Mohammad Asad

- hell, that is! In which they will burn - the worst abode.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Hell, where they will burn, an evil resting place.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

This, [then, for them-] so let them taste it: burning despair and ice-cold darkness

  - Mohammad Asad

Such will it be the reward for the wrongdoers. So they will taste scalding water, festering blood (pus)

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Here is a boiling and an ice cold draught, so let them taste it,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

and coupled with it, further [suffering] of a similar nature.⁴⁷

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "of its kind": i.e., corresponding in intensity to what the Qur'an describes as hamim and ghassaq. For my rendering of hamim as "burning despair", see surah {6}, note [62]. The term ghassaq, on the other hand, is derived from the verb ghasaqa, "it became dark" or "intensely dark" (Taj al-'Arus); thus, al-ghasiq denotes "black darkness" and, tropically, "the night" or, rather, "the black night". According to some authorities, the form ghassaq signifies "intense [or "icy"] cold". A combination of these two meanings gives us the concept of the "ice-cold darkness" of the spirit which, together with "burning despair" (hamim), will characterize the suffering of inveterate sinners in the life to come. All other interpretations of the term ghasseq are purely speculative and, therefore, irrelevant.

and other things of the same sort.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And other (torment) of the kind in pairs (the two extremes)!

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

[And they will say to one another: "Do you see] this crowd of people who rushed headlong [into sin] with you?⁴⁸ No welcome to them! Verily, they [too] shall have to endure the fire!⁴⁹

  - Mohammad Asad

I.e., "people whom you had seduced, and who thereupon blindly followed you": an apostrophe stressing the double responsibility of the seducers.

In Arabic usage, the phrase "no welcome to them" or "to you" (la marhaban bihim, resp. bikum) is equivalent to a curse. In this context - carried on into the next verse - it expresses a mutual disavowal of the seducers and the seduced.

It will be said to the ringleaders; "Here are your troops being thrown headlong with you. They are not welcomed here; for they are going to burn in the hellfire.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Here is an army rushing blindly with you. (Those who are already in the fire say): No word of welcome for them. Lo! they will roast at the Fire.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

[And] they [who had been seduced] will exclaim: "Nay, but it is you! No welcome to you! It is you who have prepared this for us: and how vile a state to abide in!"

  - Mohammad Asad

The followers shall say to their miss guided leaders: "But you! There is no welcome for you either! It was you who have brought us to this end. Such an evil abode."

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

They say: Nay, but you (misleaders), for you there is no word of welcome. Ye prepared this for us (by your misleading). Now hapless is the plight.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

[And] they will pray: "O our Sustainer! Whoever has prepared this for us. double Thou his suffering in the fire!"⁵⁰

  - Mohammad Asad

Cf. 7:38 (and the corresponding notes [28] and [29]) as well as {33:67-68}.

Then they will pray: "Our Rabb, inflict on those who brought this fate upon us double punishment in the fire."

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

They say: Our Lord! Whoever did prepare this for Us, oh, give him double portion of the Fire!

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And they will add: "How is it that we do not see [here any of the] men whom we were wont to count among the wicked,

  - Mohammad Asad

Then they will say to one another: "But why do we not see those whom we deemed wicked

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And they say: What aileth us that we behold not men whom we were wont to count among the wicked?

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

[and] whom we made the target of our derision?⁵¹ Or is it that [they are here, and] our eyes have missed them?"

  - Mohammad Asad

I.e., the prophets and the righteous, who - as the Qur'an points out in many places - have always been derided by people enamoured of the life of this world and, therefore, averse to all moral exhortation.

and whom we use to ridicule? Or have our eyesight failed to notice them?"

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Did we take them (wrongly) for a laughing-stock, or have our eyes missed them?

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Such, behold, will in truth be the [confusion and] mutual wrangling of the people of the fire!

  - Mohammad Asad

Surely, this is the very truth: the people in the hellfire will argue just like that.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Lo! that is very truth: the wrangling of the dwellers in the Fire.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

SAY [O Muhammad]: "I am only a warner; and there is no deity whatever save God, the One, who holds absolute sway over all that exists,

  - Mohammad Asad

O Prophet, tell them: "My mission is only as a Warner; there is no divinity except Allah, the One, the Irresistible,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Say (unto them, O Muhammad): I am only a warner, and there is no God save Allah, the One, the Absolute,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

the Sustainer of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them, the Almighty, the All-Forgiving!"

  - Mohammad Asad

the Rabb of the heavens and the earth and all that lies between them, the Almighty, the Forgiver."

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Lord of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them, the Mighty, the Pardoning.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Say: "This is a message tremendous:

  - Mohammad Asad

Say: "This is a supreme message:

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Say: It is tremendous tidings

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

[how can] you turn away from it?"

  - Mohammad Asad

yet you pay no heed to it."

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Whence ye turn away!

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

[Say, O Muhammad:] "No knowledge would I have had of [what passed among] the host on high when they argued [against the creation of man],⁵²

  - Mohammad Asad

For the allegorical contention of the angels ("the host on high") against the creation of man, see 2:30 ff. and the corresponding notes [22-24]. The allegory of man's creation, of God's command to the angels to "prostrate themselves" before the new creature, and of lblis' refusal to do so appears in the Qur'an six times ({2:30-34}, 7:11 ff., {15:28-44}, {17:61-65}, 18:50 , and {38:69-85}) each time with an accent on a different aspect of this allegory. In the present instance (which is undoubtedly the earliest in the chronology of revelation) it is connected with the statement, in 2:31 , that God "imparted unto Adam the names of all things", i.e., endowed man with the faculty of conceptual thinking (see note [23] on 2:31 ) and, thus, with the ability to discern between what is true and what false. Since he possesses this faculty, man has no excuse for not realizing God's existence and oneness - the "message tremendous" referred to in the preceding passage.

Also say: "I have no knowledge of that time when the exalted chiefs disputed among themselves.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

I had no knowledge of the Highest Chiefs when they disputed;

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

had it not been revealed unto me [by God] - to no other end than that l might convey [unto you] a plain warning"⁵³

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "otherwise than that I be (illa annama ana) a plain warner" - i.e., of the prospect of spiritual self-destruction inherent in a wilful disregard of the fact of God's existence and oneness, which is the core of all religious cognition and, hence, of all true prophethood.

I am informed about all this through a revelation because I am assigned the mission of a plain Warner."

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

It is revealed unto me only that I may be a plain warner.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall