Surah 69. Al-Haqqah

and neither known this my account!

  - Mohammad Asad

nor known what my account was!

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And knew not what my reckoning!

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Oh, would that this [death of mine] had been the end of me!

  - Mohammad Asad

Would that my death had ended all!

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Oh, would that it had been death!

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Of no avail to me is all that I have [ever] possessed,

  - Mohammad Asad

My wealth had availed me nothing,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

My wealth hath not availed me,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

[and] all my power of argument has died away from me!"¹⁵

  - Mohammad Asad

The term sultan, which primarily signifies "power" or "authority", has here - as in many other places in the Qur'an - evidently the meaning of "argument", synonymous with hujjah (Ibn 'Abbas, 'Ikrimah, Mujahid, Ad-Dahhak, all of them quoted by Tabari): in this case, an argument or arguments against the idea of life after death and, hence, of divine judgment.

and my authority has gone away from me."

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

My power hath gone from me.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

[Thereupon the command will go forth:] "Lay hold of him, and shackle him,¹⁶

  - Mohammad Asad

For an explanation of the allegory of "shackles", see note [13] on 13:5 , note [44] on the last but one sentence of 34:33 , and notes [6] and [7] on 36:8 .

We shall say: "Seize him and put a chain around his neck,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

(It will be said): Take him and fetter him

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

and then let him enter hell,

  - Mohammad Asad

then cast him in the blazing fire,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And then expose him to hell fire

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

and then thrust him into a chain [of other sinners like him¹⁷ - a chain] the length whereof is seventy cubits:¹⁸

  - Mohammad Asad

See 14:49 - "on that Day thou wilt see all who were lost in sin (al-mujrimin) linked together in fetters" - and the corresponding note [64], which explains my above interpolation of the phrase, "of other sinners like him".

I.e., a chain exceedingly long - the number "seventy" being used here metonymically, as is often done in classical Arabic, in the sense of "very many" (Zamakhshari); hence "of a measure the length whereof is known only to God" (Tabari; also Al-Hasan, as quoted by Razi).

then fasten him with a chain seventy cubits long.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And then insert him in a chain whereof the length is seventy cubits.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

for, behold, he did not believe in God, the Tremendous,

  - Mohammad Asad

For he did not believe in Allah, the Most High,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Lo! he used not to believe in Allah the Tremendous,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

and did not feel any urge¹⁹ to feed the needy:

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "did not urge", i.e., himself.

nor did he care to feed the poor.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And urged not on the feeding of the wretched,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

and so, no friend has he here today,

  - Mohammad Asad

Today he neither has a true friend here,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Therefor hath he no lover here this day,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

nor any food save the filth

  - Mohammad Asad

nor any food except the pus from the washing of wounds,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Nor any food save filth

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

which none but the sinners eat!"²⁰

  - Mohammad Asad

The noun ghislin, which appears in the Qur'an only in this one instance, has been variously - and very contradictorily - explained by the early commentators. Ibn 'Abbas, when asked about it, frankly answered, "I do not know what grisly denotes" (Razi). The term "filth" used by me contains an allusion to the "devouring" of all that is abominable in the spiritual sense: cf. its characterisation in the next verse as "[that] which none but the sinners eat" - i.e., (metaphorically) in this world and, consequently, in the hereafter as well.

which none but the wrongdoers eat."

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Which none but sinners eat.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

BUT NAY! I call to witness all that you can see,

  - Mohammad Asad

Nay! I swear by all that you can see,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

But nay! I swear by all that ye see

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

as well as all that you cannot see!²¹

  - Mohammad Asad

The phrase "all that you can see" comprises all the observable phenomena of nature - including man himself and the organic conditions of his own existence - as well as the configuration of human society and the perceptible rules of its growth and decay in the historical sense; whereas "that which you cannot see" relates to the intangible spiritual verities accessible to man's intuition and instinct, including the voice of his own conscience: all of which "bears witness", as it were, to the fact that the light which the divine writ (spoken of in the sequence) casts on the innermost realities and interrelations of all that exists objectively - or, as the case may be, manifests itself subjectively in man's own psyche - must be an outcome of genuine revelation, inasmuch as it goes far beyond anything that unaided human intellect could ever acheive.

and all that you cannot see,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And all that ye see not

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Behold, this [Qur'an] is indeed the [inspired] word of a noble apostle,

  - Mohammad Asad

that this is the word of a noble Rasool.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

That it is indeed the speech of an illustrious messenger.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall