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All objects of worship besides Allah are mere delusions. To any one who sees this clearly, through Allah's Self-revelations, the only possible course is to give up everything else, which his own inner experience as well as outer Revelation tell him is false or of a temporary nature, and to bring his own will and actions into complete unison with Allah's Will: for that is the meaning of Islam, bowing to the Will of Allah. When we bow to the Real and Everlasting, we are automatically saved from falling victims to the False and Evanescent.
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See note [4] on 23:12 .
Or: "a term known [only to Him]" - cf. 6:2 and the corresponding note [2].
Your father, Adam.
Nuṭfah refers to the union of male and female gametes (sperm and egg) which results in the zygote after fertilization.
’Alaqah, meaning the embryo resembles a leech.
Cf. this passage with xxii. 5 and notes 2773 and 2774. The various stages of man's physical life are: (1) first, simple matter (dust); (2) the sperm-drop in the father; (3) the fertilised ovum in the mother's womb; (4) out into the light, as a human child; (5) youth and full maturity; (6) decay; and (7) death. In some cases the later stages are curtailed or cut off; but in any case, a Term appointed is reached, so that the higher purpose of Allah's Will and Plan may be fulfilled in each given case, that man "may understand."
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The keys of life and death are in Allah's hands. But He is not dependent on time or place or instruments or materials. All that He has to do is to say "Be", and it comes into existence. Cf. xvi. 40, and n. 2066; xxxvi. 82, and n. 4029. Conversely, His Will or Command is sufficient to annihilate Existence into Non-Existence (Life into Death) or determine the limits or conditions of Existence or Non-Existence.
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Lit., "how they are turned away" - i.e., from the truth: in this case, from all the observable evidence of God's almightiness and creative activity.
Those who dispute about the Signs of Allah which are clear to all who care to see, are merely in the mists of Unreality: Cf. x. 32.
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Since, as the Qur'an so often points out, the fundamental truths set forth in all divine revelations are the same, a rejection of the last of them amounts to a rejection of all the preceding ones.
"The Book" may refer to the Holy Qur-an or to the fundamental, Revelation the "Mother of the Book" (xiii. 39), while the Books revealed to the messengers are the definite Revelations that came down to men from time to time.
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For an explanation of the allegory of "shackles" and "chains", see note [13] on 13:5 , note [44] on the last but one sentence of 34:33 , and notes [6] and [7] on 36:8 .
The rejection of Allah's Message, however brought, carries its own penalty. The yoke of slavery to Sin and Evil is fastened more and more firmly round the rejecter's neck, because there is no one to safeguard his freedom, and the chains of superstitions and the ugly consequences of evil restrict his freedom and the limited faculty of choice which was given by Allah to man. This process receives its climax at the Hour of Judgment.
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Thus Mujahid (as quoted by Tabari) explains the verb yusjarun. As regards my rendering of hamim as "burning despair", see surah {6}, note [62].
The sinner gets dragged further and further in the disgusting consequences of his evil actions, until the fire of destruction closes in upon him.
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Lit., "we have not been invoking aforetime any [real] thing": thus realizing, belatedly, the intrinsic nothingness of all those imaginary powers and values - including the belief in man's alleged self-sufficiency and greatness - to which they paid homage in life.
I.e., by allowing them to pursue illusions and foolish fancies in consequence of their unwillingness to acknowledge the self-evident truth of God's existence and uniqueness and of man's utter dependence on Him. For a discussion of the problem of God's "letting" a sinner go astray, see note [4] on 14:4 .
All falsehoods will vanish: Cf. vii. 36. The only Reality will be fully manifest even to those to whom Evil was made to seem alluring in the lower life. They will feel in their inmost souls that they had been pursuing mere shadows, things of no real existence. This was the result of their rejecting the Light and the Grace of Allah: they got entangled in the mazes of error.
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Allah does not withdraw His grace from any unless (1) they actively and deliberately take a delight in things that are vain or false, and (2) they insolently reject the things that are truer-in other words, unless men are deliberately false to their own lights, as illuminated by the Light of Allah.
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Cf. xxxix. 72.
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See the almost identical passage in 10:46 , as well as the corresponding notes [66] and [67].
Cf. x. 46, and n. 1438. As the eventual justice and readjustment of values must take place, when every soul retums to the Judgment-Seat of Allah, it makes no difference if good and evil meet their deserts in this very life or not. Cf. also xiii. 40.
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I.e., in the Qur'an.
See 6:109 - "Miracles are in the power of God alone" - and the corresponding note [94]. Both passages (6:109 and the present one) relate to the futile demand of Muhammad's opponents to be shown a miracle in proof of the divine origin of the Qur'an - the implication being that it is not God's will to convince the deniers of the truth by means of what is commonly regarded as miracles ".
Lit., "when God's command comes", i.e., whether it be in this world or on the Day of Judgment: a reference to the retribution spoken of in verse {77} above.
I.e., in this case, divine revelation as such. For the above rendering of al-mubtilun, see note [47] on the last sentence of 29:48 .
Cf. iv. 164. Allah sent Messengers of His Truth to every people. There are some whose names are known to us through the holy Qur-an, but there are a large number whose names are not made known to us through that medium. We must recognise the Truth wherever we find it.
The Signs of Allah are everywhere, and can be seen by the discerning eye at all times. But if any extraordinary Signs are demanded by cynics or Unbelievers, they will not be granted merely because they are demanded. It is Allah's Will that issues them, not merely the desire of human beings, even if he be a Messenger of Allah. But when an extraordinary Sign does issue by the Command of Allah, it means that the cup of the iniquitous is full; that their case is decided, and their time of respite is past; and that Justice takes the place of Mercy, and evil is blotted out.
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I.e., by providing in a wondrous manner the means of man's subsistence, and by endowing him with the miracle of a creative intellect which enables him to make fruitful use of so many natural phenomena. (This passage connects with the statement implied in verse {78} that "miracles are in the power of God alone": see note [58].)
Cf. xvi. 5-8. The fact that beasts, which in their wild state are so noxious, are, when domesticated, so useful to man, is itself one of the great and standing Signs of Allah's care for man. The great usefulness of cattle is very instructive. They serve for riding, and many of them for food; further, they are used for the plough, and they produce milk, or wool, or hair; and from their carcases man derives bones and horns for many industrial uses; but passing on to higher aspects of life, they further social, moral, and spiritual uses as draught-animals, in that transport serves one of the fundamental purposes of civilisation, being in this respect like ships for international commerce: xxx. 46, and n. 3565. It is by means of human intercourse through transport that we can carry out the highest needs of our culture, "any need there may be in our hearts", i.e., in our inner being.
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The "other benefits" are both concrete and abstract in their nature: concrete benefits like wool, skins, etc., and abstract ones like beauty (cf. {16:6-8}, as well as Solomon's reverence for the God-created beauty of horses expressed in {38:31-33}) or the all-time companionship of man and dog symbolized in the legend of the Men of the Cave ( 18:18 and {22}).
Lit., "a need in your bosoms" [or "hearts"]: i.e., a genuine need.
i.e., milk, wool, and hide.
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