Surah 33. Al-Ahzab

Verily, God and His angels bless the Prophet: [hence,] O you who have attained to faith, bless him and give yourselves up [to his guidance] in utter self-surrender!

  - Mohammad Asad

Indeed Allah and His angels send blessings on the Prophet. O believers, call for Allah's blessings on him and salute him with all respect.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Lo! Allah and His angels shower blessings on the Prophet. O ye who believe! Ask blessings on him and salute him with a worthy salutation.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Verily, as for those who [knowingly] affront God and His Apostle - God will reject them⁷³ in this world and in the life to come; and shameful suffering will He ready for them.

  - Mohammad Asad

In classical Arabic, the term la'nah is more or less synonymous with ib'ad ("removal into distance" or "banishment"); hence, God's la'nah denotes "His rejection of a sinner from all that is good" (Lisan al-'Arab) or "exclusion from His grace" (Manar II, 50). The term mal'un which occurs in verse {61} below signifies, therefore, "one who is bereft of God's grace".

Surely those who annoy Allah and His Rasool, are cursed by Allah in this world and in the hereafter. He has prepared for them a humiliating punishment.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Lo! those who malign Allah and His messenger, Allah hath cursed them in the world and the Hereafter, and hath prepared for them the doom of the disdained.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And as for those who malign believing men and believing women without their having done any wrong - they surely burden themselves with the guilt of calumny, and [thus] with a flagrant sin!

  - Mohammad Asad

And those who annoy believing men and believing women, for no fault of theirs, shall bear the guilt of slander and an evident sin.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And those who malign believing men and believing women undeservedly, they bear the guilt of slander and manifest sin.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

O Prophet! Tell thy wives and thy daughters, as well as all [other] believing women, that they should draw over themselves some of their outer garments [when in public]: this will be more con-ducive to their being recognized [as decent women] and not annoyed.⁷⁴ But [withal,] God is indeed much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace!⁷⁵

  - Mohammad Asad

Cf. the first two sentences of 24:31 and the corresponding notes [37] and [38].

The specific, time-bound formulation of the above verse (evident in the reference to the wives and daughters of the Prophet), as well as the deliberate vagueness of the recommendation that women "should draw upon themselves some of their outer garments (min jalabibihinna)" when in public, makes it clear that this verse was not meant to be an injunction (hukm) in the general, timeless sense of this term but, rather, a moral guideline to be observed against the ever-changing background of time and social environment. This finding is reinforced by the concluding reference to God's forgiveness and grace.

O Prophet! Enjoin your wives, daughters and the believing women that they should draw their outer garments over their persons. That is more proper, so that they may be recognized and not bothered. Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

O Prophet! Tell thy wives and thy daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks close round them (when they go abroad). That will be better, that so they may be recognized and not annoyed. Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

THUS IT IS: if ⁷⁶ the hypocrites, and they in whose hearts is disease,⁷⁷ and they who, by spreading false rumours, would cause disturbances⁷⁸ in the City [of the Prophet] desist not [from their hostile doings], We shall indeed give thee mastery over them, [O Muhammad] - and then they will not remain thy neighbours in this [city] for more than a little while:⁷⁹

  - Mohammad Asad

For my above rendering of la'in, see surah {30}, note [45]. With this passage, the discourse returns to the theme touched upon in verse {1} and more fully dealt with in verses {9-27}: namely, the opposition with which the Prophet and his followers were faced in their early years at Yathrib (which by that time had come to be known as Madinat an-Nabi, "the City of the Prophet").

See note [16] above.

Thus Zamakhshari, explaining the term al-murjifun in the above context.

I.e., "there will be open warfare between thee and them", which will result in their expulsion from Medina: a prediction which was fulfilled in the course of time.

If the hypocrites, those in whose hearts is malice and the scandal mongers of Madinah do not desist; We shall rouse you against them, and their days in the city - as your neighbors - will be numbered.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

If the hypocrites, and those in whose hearts is a disease, and the alarmists in the city do not cease, We verify shall urge thee on against them, then they will be your neighbors in it but a little while.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

bereft of God's grace, they shall be seized wherever they may be found, and slain one and all.⁸⁰

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "slain with [a great] slaying". See in this connection note [168] on 2:191 . For my rendering of mal'unin as "bereft of God's grace", see note [73] above.

They shall be cursed wherever they are found and they shall be seized and killed mercilessly.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Accursed, they will be seized wherever found and slain with a (fierce) slaughter.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Such has been God's way with those who [sinned in like manner and] passed away aforetime - and never wilt thou find any change in God's way!⁸¹

  - Mohammad Asad

Cf. {35:42-44}, and particularly the last paragraph of verse {43}.

This has been the Way of Allah regarding such people among those who lived before you, and you will never find any change in the Way of Allah.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

That was the way of Allah in the case of those who passed away of old; thou wilt not find for the way of Allah aught of power to change.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

PEOPLE will ask thee about the Last Hour. Say: "Knowledge thereof rests with God alone; yet for all thou knowest, the Last Hour may well be near!"⁸²

  - Mohammad Asad

See 7:187 .

People ask you about the Hour of Doom. Tell them: "Allah Alone has the knowledge of it. Who knows? It may be that the Hour is near at hand."

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Men ask you of the Hour. Say: The knowledge of it is with Allah only. What can convey (the knowledge) unto thee? It may be that the Hour is nigh.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Verily, God has rejected the deniers of the truth, and has readied for them a blazing fire,

  - Mohammad Asad

Surely Allah has laid a curse on the unbelievers and has prepared for them a blazing fire;

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Lo! Allah hath cursed the disbelievers, and hath prepared for them a flaming fire,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

therein to abide heyond the count of time: no protec-tor will they find, and none to bring them succour.

  - Mohammad Asad

to live therein forever and they shall find no protector or helper.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Wherein they will abide for ever. They will find (then) no protecting friend nor helper.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

On the Day when their faces shall be tossed about in the fire,⁸³ they will exclaim, "Oh, would that we had paid heed unto God, and paid heed unto the Apostle!"

  - Mohammad Asad

As in several other instances in the Qur'an, the "face", being the noblest and most expressive part of a human person, represents here man's "personality" in its entirety; and its being "tossed about in the fire" is symbolic of the annihilation of the sinner's will and his reduction to utter passivity.

That Day, when their faces will roll about in the fire, they will say: "Woe to us! Would that we had obeyed Allah and obeyed the Rasool."

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

On the day when their faces are turned over in the fire, they say: Oh, would that we had obeyed Allah and had obeyed His messenger!

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And they will say: O our Sustainer! Behold, we paid heed unto our leaders and our great men, and it is they who have led us astray from the right path!

  - Mohammad Asad

They will further say: "Our Rabb! We obeyed our chiefs and our great ones and they misled us from the Right Way.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And they say: Our Lord! Lo! we obeyed our princes and great men, and they misled us from the Way.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

O our Sustainer! Give them double suffering, and banish them utterly from Thy 9race!"⁸⁴

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "reject them (il'anhum) with a great rejection" , i.e., "from Thy grace".

Our Rabb! Give them double punishment and lay on them a mighty curse."

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Our Lord! Oh, give them double torment and curse them with a mighty curse.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

O YOU who have attained to faith! Be not like those [children of Israel] who gave offence to Moses, and [remember that] God showed him to be innocent of whatever they alleged [against him or demanded of him j:⁸⁵ for of great honour was he in the sight of God.

  - Mohammad Asad

This is an allusion to the aspersions occasionally cast upon Moses by some of his followers and mentioned in the Oid Testament (e.g., Numbers xii, 1-13), as well as to the blasphemous demands of which the Qur'an speaks - e.g., "O Moses, indeed we shall not believe thee until we see God face to face" ( 2:55 ) or, "Go forth, thou and thy Sustainer, and fight, both of you!" ( 5:24 ). These instances are paralleled here with the frequently cited accusations that Muhammad had "invented" the Qur'an and then falsely attributed it to God, that he was a madman, and so forth, as well as with frivolous demands to prove his prophethood by bringing about miracles or - as is re-stated in verse {63} of this surah - by predicting the date of the Last Hour.

O believers! Be not like those who slandered Musa, but Allah cleared him of what they said - for he was honorable in the sight of Allah.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

O ye who believe! Be not as those who slandered Moses, but Allah proved his innocence of that which they alleged, and he was well esteemed in Allah's sight.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

O you who have attained to faith! Remain conscious of God, and [always] speak with a will to bring out [only] what is just and true⁸⁶

  - Mohammad Asad

The expression qawl sadid signifies, literally, "a saying that hits the mark", i.e., is truthful, relevant and to the point. In the only other instance where this expression is used in the Qur'an (at the end of 4:9 ) it may be appropriately rendered as "speaking in a just manner"; in the present instance, however, it obviously relates to speaking of others in a manner devoid of all hidden meanings, insinuations and frivolous suspicions, aiming at no more and no less than the truth.

O believers! Fear Allah and always say the right thing;

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

O ye who believe! Guard your duty to Allah, and speak words straight to the point;

  - Marmaduke Pickthall