Surah 85. Al-Buruj

CONSIDER the sky full of great constellations,

  - Mohammad Asad

By the heaven and its constellations!

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

By the sky full of constellations,

  - Mustafa Khattab

By the heaven, holding mansions of the stars,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

By the Sky (displaying) the Zodiacal Signs; ^{6051 6052}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Here is an appeal to three Signs in verses 1-3, and the substantive proposition is in verses 4-8, a denunciation of wicked persecutors of the votaries of Allah, persecutors who burnt righteous men for their Faith. The three Signs are: (1) the Glorious Sky, with the broad belt of the Constellations marking the twelve Signs of the Zodiac; (2) the Day of Judgment, when all evil will be punished; and (3) certain Persons that will be witnesses, and certain Persons or things that will be the subjects of the witness. See the notes following.

See n. 1950 to xv. 16. The Stars of the Zodiac as well as of other Constellations are like the eyes of the Night. It may be that crimes are committed in the darkness of the night. But countless eyes are watching all the time, and every author of evil will be brought to book.

and [then bethink thyself of] the promised Day,¹

  - Mohammad Asad

I.e., the Day of Resurrection.

By the promised Day of Judgment!

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

and the promised Day 'of Judgment',

  - Mustafa Khattab

And by the Promised Day.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

By the promised Day (of Judgment); ⁶⁰⁵³

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The Day of Judgment, when the Sinner will have to give an account of every deed, open or hidden, is not merely a matter of speculation. It is definitely promised in revelation, and will inevitably come to pass. Woe then to the Sinners for their crimes.

and [of] Him who witnesses [all], and [of] that unto which witness is borne [by Him]!²

  - Mohammad Asad

By creating the universe, God "bears witness", as it were, to His Own almightiness and uniqueness: cf. 3:18 - "God [Himself] bears witness that there is no deity save Him" - and the corresponding note [11].

By the witnesses and that which is being witnessed!

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

and the witness and what is witnessed!¹

  - Mustafa Khattab

 The witness can be Allah, the angels, or the prophets, and the witnessed can be the people standing for judgment or the overwhelming events of Judgment Day.

And by the witness and that whereunto he beareth testimony,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

By one that witnesses and the subject of the witness ⁶⁰⁵⁴

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The literal meaning is clear, but its metaphorical application has been explained in a variety of ways by different Commentators. The words are fairly comprehensive, and should, I think, be understood in connection with Judgment. There the Witnesses may be: (1) the Prophets (iii. 81); Allah Himself (iii. 81, and x. 61); the Recording Angels (I. 21); the Sinner's own misused limbs (xxiv. 24); his record of deeds (xvii. 14); or the Sinner himself (xvii. 14). The subject of the witness may be the deed or crime, or the Sinner against whom the testimony cries out. The appeal to these things means that the Sinner cannot possibly escape the consequences of his crime. He should repent, seek Allah's Mercy, and amend his life.

THEY DESTROY [but] themselves,³ they who would ready a pit

  - Mohammad Asad

For an explanation of this rendering of qutila, see note [9] on {74:19-20}.

Doomed be the makers of the ditch,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Condemned are the makers of the ditch-

  - Mustafa Khattab

(Self) destroyed were the owners of the ditch

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Woe to the makers of the pit (of Fire) ⁶⁰⁵⁵

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Who were the makers of the pit of fire in which they burn people for their Faith? The words are perfectly general, and we need not search for particular names, except by way of illustration. In ancient history, and in Medieval Europe, many lives were sacrificed at the stake because the victims did not conform to the established religion. In Arab tradition there is the story of Abraham: Nimrud tries to burn him to death, but on account of Abraham's Faith, the fire became "a means of safety for Abraham": xxi. 69, and n. 2725. Another case cited is that of Zu-Nuwas, the last Himyarite King of Yemen, by religion a Jew, who persecuted the Christians of Najran and is said to have burnt them to death. He seems to have lived in the latter half of the sixth Christian century, in the generation immediately preceding the Prophet's birth in 570 A.D. While the words are perfectly general, a reference is suggested to the persecution to which the early Muslims were subjected by the Pagan Quraish. Among other cruelties, they were stripped, and their skins were exposed to the burning rays of the Arabian summer sun.

of fire fiercely burning [for all who have attained to faith]!⁴

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "those responsible (ashab) for the pit of fire abounding in fuel". In order to explain this parabolic passage, the commentators interpret it - quite unnecessarily - in the past tense, and advance the most contradictory legends meant to "identify", those evildoers in historical terms. The result is a medley of stories ranging from Abraham's experiences with his idolatrous contemporaries (cf. {21:68-70}) to the Biblical legend of Nebuchadnezzar's attempt to burn three pious Israelites in a fiery furnace (The Book of Daniel iii, 19 ff.), or the persecution, in the sixth century, of the Christians of Najran by the King of Yemen, Dhu Nawas (who was a Jew by religion), or the entirely apocryphal story of a Zoroastrian king who burnt to death those of his subjects who refused to accept his dictum that a marriage of brother and sister was "permitted by God"; and so forth. None of these legends needs, of course, to be seriously considered in this context. As a matter of fact, the very anonymity of the evildoers referred to in the above Qur'anic passage shows that we have here a parable and not an allusion to "historical" or even legendary events. The persecutors are people who having no faith whatsoever, hate to see faith in others (see verse {8} below); the "pit of fire" is a metaphor for the persecution of the latter by the former a phenomenon not restricted to any particular time or to a particular people but recurring in many forms and in varying degrees of intensity throughout recorded history.

who lit the fuel-fed fire

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

the fire 'pit', filled with fuel-

  - Mustafa Khattab

Of the fuel-fed fire,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Fire supplied (abundantly) with Fuel:

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali