Surah 37. As-Saffat

Then he 'stealthily' advanced towards their gods, and said 'mockingly', 'Will you not eat 'your offerings'?

  - Mustafa Khattab

Then did he turn to their gods and said "Will ye not eat (of the offerings before you)?...

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

What is wrong with you that you cannot speak?'

  - Mustafa Khattab

"What is the matter with you that ye speak not (intelligently)?"

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Then he swiftly turned on them, striking 'them' with his right hand.

  - Mustafa Khattab

Then did he turn upon them striking (them) with the right hand. ^{4090 4091}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

See the reference in the last note.

With the right hand: as the right hand is the hand of power, the phrase means that he struck them with might and main and broke them.

Later, his people came rushing towards him 'furiously'.

  - Mustafa Khattab

Then came (the worshippers) with hurried steps and faced (him).

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

He argued, 'How can you worship what you carve 'with your own hands',

  - Mustafa Khattab

He said: "Worship ye that which ye have (yourselves) carved? ⁴⁰⁹²

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

His action was a challenge, and he drives home the challenge now with argument. 'Do you worship your own handiwork? Surely worship is due to Him Who made you and made possible your handiwork!'

when it is Allah Who created you and whatever you do?'

  - Mustafa Khattab

"But Allah has created you and your handiwork!"

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

They said 'to one another', 'Build him a furnace and cast him into the blazing fire.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

They said: "Build him a furnace and throw him into the blazing fire!" ⁴⁰⁹³

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The argument of Abraham was so sound that it could not be met by argument. In such cases Evil resorts to violence, or secret plotting. Here there was both violence and secret plotting. The violence consisted in throwing him into a blazing Furnace. But by the mercy of Allah the fire did not harm him (xxi. 69), and so they resorted to plotting. But the plotting, as the next verse (xxxvii. 98) shows, was a boomerang that recoiled on their own heads.

And so they sought to harm him, but We made them inferior.

  - Mustafa Khattab

(This failing) they then sought a stratagem against him but We made them the ones most humiliated! ⁴⁰⁹⁴

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Cf. xxi. 71. Their plot against the righteous Abraham failed. Abraham migrated from the country (Chaldea, Babylon, and Assyria) and prospered in Syria and Palestine. It was his persecutors that suffered humiliation.

He later said, 'I am leaving 'in obedience' to my Lord. He will guide me.

  - Mustafa Khattab

He said: "I will go to my Lord! He will surely guide me! ⁴⁰⁹⁵

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

This was the Hijrat of Abraham. He left his people and his land, because the Truth was dearer to him than the ancestral falsehoods of his people. He trusted himself to Allah, and under Allah's guidance he laid the foundations of great peoples. See n. 2725 to xxi. 69.

My Lord! Bless me with righteous offspring.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

"O my Lord! grant me a righteous (son)!"

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

So We gave him good news of a forbearing son.

  - Mustafa Khattab

So We gave him the good news of a boy ready to suffer and forbear. ^{4096 4097}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

This was in the fertile land of Syria and Palestine. The boy thus born was, according to Muslim tradition, the first-born son of Abraham, viz., Isma'il. The name itself is from the root Samia, to hear, because Allah had heard Abraham's prayer (verse 100). Abraham's age when Isma'il was born was 86 (Gen xvi. 16).

The boy's character was to be Halim, "forbearing". This title is also applied to Abraham (in ix. 114 and xi. 75). It refers to the patient way in which both father and son cheerfully offered to suffer any self-sacrifice in order to obey the Command of Allah. See next verse.

Then when the boy reached the age to work with him, Abraham said, 'O my dear son! I have seen in a dream that I 'must' sacrifice you. So tell me what you think.' He replied, 'O my dear father! Do as you are commanded. Allah willing, you will find me steadfast.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

Then when (the son) reached (the age of) (serious) work with him he said: "O my son! I see in vision that I offer thee in sacrifice: now see what is thy view!" (The son) said: "O my father! do as thou art commanded: thou will find me if Allah so wills one practicing Patience and Constancy!" ^{4098 4099}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Where did this vision occur? The Muslim view is that it was in or near Makkah. Some would identify it with the valley of Mina, six miles north of Makkah, where a commemoration sacrifice is annually celebrated as a rite of the Hajj on the tenth of Zul-Hijjah, the 'Id of Sacrifice, in Memory of this Sacrifice of Abraham and Isma'il (see' n.2l7 to ii. 197). Others say that the original place of sacrifice was near the hill of Marwa (the companion hill to Safa, ii. 158), which is associated with the infancy of Isma'il.

At what stage in Abraham's history did this occur? See n. 2725 to xxi. 69. It was obviously after his arrival in the land of Cannan and after Isma'il had grown up to years of discretion. Was it before or after the building of the Ka'ba (ii. 127)? There are no data on which this question can be answered. But we may suppose it was before that event, and that event may itself have been commemorative.

Then when they submitted 'to Allah's Will', and Abraham laid him on his forehead 'for sacrifice',

  - Mustafa Khattab

So when they had both submitted their wills (to Allah) and He had laid Him prostrate on his forehead (for sacrifice) ^{4100 4101}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Note that the sacrifice was demanded of both Abraham and Isma'il. It was a trial of the will of the father and the son. By way of trial the father had the command conveyed to him in a vision. He consulted the son. The son readily consented, and offered to stand true to his promise if his self-sacrifice was really required. The whole thing is symbolical. Allah does not require the flesh and blood of animals (xxii. 37), much less of human beings. But he does require the giving of our whole being to Allah, the symbol of which is that we should give up something very dear to us, if Duty requires that sacrifice.

Our version may be compared with the Jewish-Christian version of the present Old Testament. The Jewish tradition, in order to glorify the younger branch of the family, descended from Isaac, ancestor of the Jews, as against the elder branch, descended from Isma'il, ancestor of the Arabs, refers this sacrifice to Isaac (Gen. xxii. 1-18). Now Isaac was born when Abraham was 100 years old (Gen. xxi. 5), while Isma'il was born to Abraham when Abraham was 86 years old (Gen. xvi. 16). Isma'il was therefore 14 years older than Isaac. During his first 14 years Isma'il was the only son of Abraham; at no time was Isaac the only son of Abraham. Yet, in speaking of the sacrifice, the Old Testament says (Gen. xxii. 2): "And He said, Take now thy son, thine only son Issac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah: and offer him there for a burnt offering..." This slip shows at any rate which was the older version, and how it was overlaid, like the present Jewish records, in the interests of a tribal religion. The "land of Moriah" is not clear: it was three days' journey from Abraham's place (Gen. xxii. 4). There is less warrant for identifying it with the hill of Moriah on which Jerusalem was afterwards built than with the hill of Marwa which is identified with the Arab tradition about Isma'il.

We called out to him, 'O Abraham!

  - Mustafa Khattab

We called out to him "O Abraham! ⁴¹⁰²

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

In the Biblical version Isaac's consent is not taken; in fact Isaac asks, 'where is the lamb for sacrifice?' and is told that 'God would provide it'. It is a complete human sacrifice like those to Moloch. In our version it is as much a sacrifice by the will of Isma'il as by that of Abraham.

You have already fulfilled the vision.' Indeed, this is how We reward the good-doers.

  - Mustafa Khattab

"Thou hast already fulfilled the vision!" thus indeed do We reward those who do right.

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali