Surah 39. Az-Zumar

Clouds of fire will they have above them, and [similar] clouds beneath them...." In this way does God imbue His servants with fear.¹⁹ O you servants of Mine! Be, then, conscious of Me

  - Mohammad Asad

As in many other instances, the Qur'an alludes in this phrase to the allegorical nature as well as to the real purpose of all descriptions of the suffering which awaits the sinners in the hereafter; cf. {74:35-36}- "that [hell-fire] is indeed one of the great [forewarnings]: a warning to mortal man".

There shall be layers of fire above them and layers of fire beneath them. Such is the doom about which Allah wants His servants to fear, and says: "O My servants, avoid My wrath."

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

They have an awning of fire above them and beneath them a dais (of fire). With this doth Allah appall His bondmen. O My bondmen, therefor fear Me!

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

seeing that for those who shun the powers of evil lest they [be tempted to] worship them,²⁰ and turn unto God instead, there is the glad tiding [of happiness in the life to come].²¹ Give, then, this glad tiding to [those of] My servants

  - Mohammad Asad

For my rendering of at-taghut as "powers of evil", see surah {2}, note [250]. In the present context, this term apparently circumscribes the seductive force of certain evil ambitions or desires - like striving after power for its own sake, acquisition of wealth by exploiting one's fellow-beings, social advancement by all manner of immoral means, and so forth - any of which may cause man to lose all spiritual orientation, and to be enslaved by his passions.

Cf. {10:62-64}.

As for those who refrain from worshipping Taghut (Satanic forces) and turn to Allah in repentance, there is good news. So O Prophet, give good news to My servants

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And those who put away false gods lest they should worship them and turn to Allah in repentance, for them there are glad tidings. Therefor give good tidings (O Muhammad) to my bondmen

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

who listen [closely] to all that is said, and follow the best of it:²² [for] it is they whom God has graced with His guidance, and it is they who are [truly] endowed with insight!

  - Mohammad Asad

According to Razi, this describes people who examine every religious proposition (in the widest sense of this term) in the light of their own reason, accepting that which their mind finds to be valid or possible, and rejecting all that does not measure up to the test of reason. In Raz~'s words, the above verse expresses "a praise and commendation of following the evidence supplied by one's reason (hujjat al-'aql), and of reaching one's conclusions in accordance with [the results of] critical examination (nazar) and logical inference (istidlal)." A somewhat similar view is advanced, albeit in simpler terms, by Tabari.

who listen to the Word and follow the best meaning of it. Such are the ones whom Allah has guided and such are the ones who are endowed with understanding.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Who hear advice and follow the best thereof. Such are those whom Allah guideth, and such are men of understanding.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

On the other hand,²³ could one on whom [God's] sentence of suffering has been passed [be rescued by man]? Couldst thou, perchance, save one who is [already, as it were,] in the fire?²⁴

  - Mohammad Asad

This, to my mind, is the meaning of the prefix fa in fa-man - stressing, by implication, the contrast between the glad tiding given to those who have attained to faith and the suffering which awaits those "who shall have lost their own selves" through sinning (verses {15-16}).

In view of the repeated Qur'anic statements that God always accepts a sinner's sincere repentance, provided it is proffered before the hour of death, His ineluctable "sentence of suffering" obviously relates to such as die without repentance, and hence find themselves, as it were, "already in the fire".

Is the one against whom the sentence of punishment has been decreed equal to the one who refrains from evil? Can you rescue the one who is in the fire? Of course not.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Is he on whom the word of doom is fulfilled (to be helped), and canst thou (O Muhammad) rescue him who is in the Fire?

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

As against this,²⁵ they who of their Sustainer are conscious shall [in the life to come] have mansions raised upon mansions high, beneath which running waters flow: [this is] God's promise - [and] never does God fail to fulfil His promise.

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "But" (lakin), indicating a return to the theme of verses {17-18}.

As for those who truly fear their Rabb, they shall be lodged in lofty mansions, built with one story upon another, beneath which the rivers flow; this is the promise of Allah; Allah does not fail in His promise.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

But those who keep their duty to their Lord, for them are lofty halls with lofty halls above them, built (for them), beneath which rivers flow. (It is) a promise of Allah. Allah faileth not His promise.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

ART THOU NOT aware that it is God who sends down water from the skies, and then causes it to travel through the earth in the shape of springs? And then He brings forth thereby herbage of various hues; and then it withers, and thou canst see it turn yellow; and in the end He causes it to crumble to dust.²⁶ Verily, in [all] this there is indeed a reminder to those who are endowed with insight!

  - Mohammad Asad

As in many other instances, the above Qur'anic reference to the endless transformations and the miraculous cycle of life and death in all nature serves to emphasize God's almightiness and, specifically, His power to resurrect the dead - thus alluding, indirectly, to the statement at the end of the preceding verse that "never does God fail to fulfil His promise".

Do you not see how Allah sends down water from the sky which penetrates the earth and come out through springs? With it He brings forth a variety of crops with different colors, then they wither and you see them turning yellow, and then finally He crumbles them to dust. Surely, in this example, there is a lesson for the people of understanding.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Hast thou not seen how Allah hath sent down water from the sky and hath caused it to penetrate the earth as water springs, and afterward thereby produceth crops of divers hues; and afterward they wither and thou seest them turn yellow; then He maketh them chaff. Lo! herein verily is a reminder for men of understanding.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Could, then, one whose bosom God has opened wide with willingness towards self-surrender unto Him, so that he is illumined by a light [that flows] from his Sustainer, [be likened to the blind and deaf of heart]? Woe, then, unto those whose hearts are hardened against all remembrance of God! They are most obviously lost in error!

  - Mohammad Asad

Is the one whose heart Allah has opened to Islam and is walking in the light from his Rabb like the one who has learned no lesson and is still a non-Muslim. So woe to those whose hearts are hardened against the remembrance of Allah! They are clearly in error.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Is he whose bosom Allah hath expanded for the Surrender (unto Him), so that he followeth a light from His Lord, (as he who disbelieveth)? Then woe unto those whose hearts are hardened against remembrance of Allah. Such are in plain error.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

God bestows from on high²⁷ the best of all teachings in the shape of a divine writ fully consistent within itself, repeating each statement [of the truth] in manifold forms²⁸ - [a divine writ] whereat shiver the skins of all who of their Sustainer stand in awe: [but] in the end their skins and their hearts do soften at the remembrance of [the grace of] God.... Such is God's guidance: He guides therewith him that wills [to be guided]²⁹ - whereas he whom God lets go astray can never find any guide.³⁰

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "has been bestowing from on high", i.e., step by step. The verbal form nazzala indicates both gradualness and continuity in the process of divine revelation and may, therefore, be appropriately rendered by the use of the present tense.

This is the most acceptable meaning, in this context, of the term mathani (pl. of mathna), as explained by Zamakhshari in his commentary on the above verse. Another possible meaning, preferred by Razi, is "pairing its statements", i.e., referring to the polarity stressed in all Qur'anic teachings (e.g., command and prohibition, duties and rights, reward and punishment, paradise and hell, light and darkness, the general and the specific, and so forth). As regards the inner consistency of the Qur'an, see also 4:82 and 25:32 , as well as the corresponding notes.

Or: "He guides therewith whomever He wills", either of these two formulations being syntactically correct.

See note [4] on 14:4 .

Allah has revealed the most beautiful message, a Book consistent in its verses yet repeating its teachings in different ways. Those who fear their Rabb are filled with awe when they hear it, their skins and their hearts become pliant to the remembrance of Allah. Such is the guidance of Allah: He guides with it whom He pleases. But he to whom He confounds shall have none to guide him.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Allah hath (now) revealed the fairest of statements, a Scripture consistent, (wherein promises of reward are) paired (with threats of punishment), whereat doth creep the flesh of those who fear their Lord, so that their flesh and their hearts soften to Allah's reminder. Such is Allah's guidance, where with He guideth whom He will. And him whom Allah sendeth astray, for him there is no guide.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Could, then, one who shall have nothing but his [bare] face to protect him³¹ from the awful suffering [that will befall him] on Resurrection Day [be likened to the God-conscious]? [On that Day,] the evildoers will be told: "Taste [now] what you have earned [in life]!"

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "who will protect himself with his face": an idiomatic phrase implying that the person concerned has nothing whatever with which to protect himself.

Is the one who shall face the terrors of the Day of Resurrection be like the one who shall enter paradise? To such wrongdoers it will be said: "Now taste the fruits of your labor."

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Is he then, who will strike his face against the awful doom upon the Day of Resurrection (as he who doeth right)? And it will be said unto the wrong doers: Taste what ye used to earn.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Those who lived before them did [too] give the lie to the truth - whereupon suffering befell them without their having perceived whence it came:

  - Mohammad Asad

Those who have gone before them also disbelieved, consequently, the punishment overtook them from the directions they least expected.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Those before them denied, and so the doom came on them whence they knew not.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

and thus God let them taste ignominy [even] in the life of this world.³² Yet [how] much greater will be the [sinners'] suffering in the life to come - if they [who now deny the truthl but knew it!

  - Mohammad Asad

Cf. 16:26 , which contains the additional sentence, "God visited with destruction all that they had ever built ...", etc., which explains the present reference to their suffering and ignominy "in the life of this world".

So Allah made them taste humiliation in this worldly life, and the punishment in the life to come shall be even more terrible, if they but knew it.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Thus Allah made them taste humiliation in the life of the world, and verily the doom of the Hereafter will be greater if they did but know.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

THUS, INDEED, have We propounded unto men all kinds of parables in this Qur'an,³³ so that they might bethink themselves; [and We have revealed it]

  - Mohammad Asad

As in many other passages of the Qur'an, the use of the term "parable" (mathal) immediately or shortly after a description of men's condition - whether good or bad - in the hereafter is meant to remind us that all such descriptions relate to something that is "beyond the reach of a created being's perception" (al-ghayb), and cannot, therefore, be conveyed to man otherwise than by means of allegories or parables expressed in terms of human experience and therefore accessible, in a general sense, to human imagination.

We have cited for mankind every kind of parable in this Qur'an, so that they may learn a lesson.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And verily We have coined for mankind in this Qur'an all kinds of similitudes, that haply they may reflect;

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

as a discourse in the Arabic tongue, free of all deviousness,³⁴ so that they might become conscious of God.

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "without any deviousness ('iwaj) , i.e., which could obscure its meaning: see note [1] on 18:1 , where this term occurs in a slightly different phrasing. As regards the stress on the formulation of this divine writ "in the Arabic tongue", see 12:2 , 13:37 , 14:4 and 41:44 , as well as the corresponding notes.

This Qur'an is revealed in Arabic, which is free from any flaw, so that they may learn to be righteous.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

A Lecture in Arabic, containing no crookedness, that haply they may ward off (evil).

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

[To this end,] God sets forth a parable: A man who has for his masters several partners,³⁵ [all of them] at variance with one another, and a man depending wholly on one person: can these two be deemed equal as regards their condition?³⁶ [Nay,] all praise is due to God [alone]: but most of them do not understand this.

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "with regard to whom there are [several] partners (shuraka')", i.e., as masters: a metaphor for belief in a plurality of divine powers.

The term mathal, which is usually rendered by me as "parable" (e.g., at the beginning of this verse as well as in verse {27}), primarily denotes a "likeness", i.e., of one thing to another; but sometimes it is used tropically as a synonym for sifah (the "quality", "intrinsic attribute" or "nature" of a thing) or halah (its "state" or "condition"). In the present instance, the last mentioned of these meanings is most appropriate, inasmuch as it alludes to man's condition arising from either of two contrasting attitudes: a belief in God's transcendental oneness and uniqueness on the one hand, and a readiness to ascribe divine powers and qualities to a variety of created beings or supposed "incarnations" of God, on the other.

Allah cites you a parable - there is a slave man who is shared by many masters, each pulling this man to himself (like the man who worship other deities along with Allah), and there is another slave man who entirely belongs to one master (like the man who worship Allah Alone)- are the two alike in comparison? Praise be to Allah! But most of them do not know.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Allah coineth a similitude: A man in relation to whom are several part owners, quarrelling, and a man belonging wholly to one man. Are the two equal in similitude? Praise be to Allah! But most of them know not.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Yet, verily, thou art bound to die, [O Muhammad,] and, verily, they, too, are bound to die:

  - Mohammad Asad

O Prophet, you shall die and they too shall die.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Lo! thou wilt die, and lo! they will die;

  - Marmaduke Pickthall