Surah 55. Ar-Rahman

Which, then, of your Sustainer's powers can you disavow?

  - Mohammad Asad

Then, O jinn and men, which of your Rabb’s favors will both of you deny?

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Which is it, of the favors of your Lord, that ye deny?

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And when the sky is rent asunder and becomes red like [burning] oil¹⁸ -

  - Mohammad Asad

This is one of several legitimate interpretations of the term dihan (see Tabari); another is "freshly tanned [or "red"] leather" synonymous with adim (Zamakhshari); and yet another, "dregs of olive-oil" (Raghib). All these interpretations have one idea in common - namely, the sudden and surprising change (or changes) of colour to which the sky will be subject at the Last Hour.

When the heaven will burst and will become red like red hide.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And when the heaven splitteth asunder and becometh rosy like red hide

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

which, then, of your Sustainer's powers can you disavow?

  - Mohammad Asad

Then, O jinn and men, which of your Rabb’s favors will both of you deny?

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Which is it, of the favors of your Lord, that ye deny?

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

For on that Day neither man nor invisible being will be asked about his sins.¹⁹

  - Mohammad Asad

I.e., the sinners "will find all that they ever wrought [now] facing them" ( 18:49 ), and "their own tongues and hands and feet will bear witness against them by [recalling] all that they did" ( 24:24 ).

On that Day neither man nor jinn will need be asked about his sins.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

On that day neither man nor jinn will be questioned of his sin.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Which, then, of your Sustainer's powers can you disavow?

  - Mohammad Asad

Then, O jinn and men, which of your Rabb’s favors will both of you deny?

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Which is it, of the favors of your Lord, that ye deny?

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

All who were lost in sin shall by their marks be known, and shall by their forelocks and their feet be seized!²⁰

  - Mohammad Asad

This is an allusion to their utter humiliation and disgrace. When the ancient Arabs wanted to stress someone's subjection to another person, they would say, "His forelock is in the hand of so-and-so." (See also {96:15-16} and the corresponding note [8].)

Because the sinners will be recognized by their faces and they shall be seized by their forelocks and their feet.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

The guilty will be known by their marks, and will he taken by the forelocks and the feet.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Which, then, of your Sustainer's powers can you disavow?

  - Mohammad Asad

Then, O jinn and men, which of your Rabb’s favors will both of you deny?

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Which is it, of the favors of your Lord, that ye deny?

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

This will be the hell which those who are lost in sin [now] call a lie:

  - Mohammad Asad

It will be said to them: "This is the hell which the culprits denied."

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

This is Hell which the guilty deny.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

between it and [their own] burning-hot despair will they wander to and fro!²¹

  - Mohammad Asad

For my rendering of hamim as "burning despair", see note [62] on the last sentence of 6:70 . The allegorical nature of all Qur'anic descriptions of "rewards" and "punishments" in the hereafter is clearly hinted at in the phrasing of the above verse, which speaks of the sinners' "wandering to and fro" between hell and burning despair (baynaha wa-bayna hamim) - i.e., tossed between factual suffering and the despair of vain regrets.

They shall wander to and fro between fire and hot boiling water.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

They go circling round between it and fierce, boiling water.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Which, then, of your Sustainer's powers can you disavow?

  - Mohammad Asad

Then, O jinn and men, which of your Rabb’s warnings will both of you deny?

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Which is it, of the favors of your Lord, that ye deny?

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

BUT FOR THOSE who of their Sustainer's Presence stand in fear, two gardens [of paradise are readied]²²

  - Mohammad Asad

I.e., two kinds of paradise, to be experienced simultaneously. Various interpretations are advanced on this score by the classical commentators: e.g., "a paradise for their doing of good deeds, and another paradise for their avoidance of sins" (Zamakhshari); or a paradise that "will comprise both spiritual and physical joys, [so that it will seem] as if it were two paradises" (Razi). Finally, one might conclude that the pointed reference to the "two gardens" of paradise contains - like the preceding reference to the sinners' "wandering between hell and burning despair" - a pointed allusion to the allegorical character of all descriptions of the life to come, as well as to the inexpressible intensity (or multiplication) of all imaginable and unimaginable sensations in that afterlife. The subsequent descriptions of the joys of paradise must be understood in the same symbolic light.

For those who fear the time when they will have to stand before their Rabb there are two gardens.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

But for him who feareth the standing before his Lord there are two gardens.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

which, then, of your Sustainer's powers can you disavow?

  - Mohammad Asad

Then, O jinn and men, which of your Rabb’s favors will both of you deny?

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Which is it, of the favors of your Lord, that ye deny?

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

[two gardens] of many wondrous hues.²³

  - Mohammad Asad

According to Tabari, the noun fann (lit., "mode" or "manner") is in this case synonymous with lawn ("colour" or "hue"). Afnan is a double plural, and hence denotes "many hues"; and since - as pointed out in the Taj al-'Arus - one of the several accepted meanings of fann is "a wonderful thing", afnan can also be understood as "many wonderful things". The rendering adopted by me combines both these interpretations. - As regards the indescribable nature of what is termed "paradise", see 32:17 and the corresponding note [15].

Having shady trees with lush green branches.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Of spreading branches.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Which, then, of your Sustainer's powers can you disavow?

  - Mohammad Asad

Then, O jinn and men, which of your Rabb’s favors will of you deny?

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Which is it, of the favors of your Lord, that ye deny?

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

In [each of] these two [gardens] two springs will flow.²⁴

  - Mohammad Asad

The "two springs" of paradise call to mind the "two seas" spoken of in {18:60-61}, which, according to Baydawi, symbolize the two sources or streams of knowledge accessible to man: the one obtained through the observation and intellectual analysis of external phenomena ('ilm az-zahir), and the other through inward, mystic insight ('ilm al-batin).

Each of them will be watered by two flowing springs.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Wherein are two fountains flowing.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall