The Thirty-Fourth Surah
Saba-(Sheba) Mecca 58 [54 verses]
Asad’s Version:
34:7 [[Asad]] As against this, they who are bent on denying the truth say [unto all who are of like mind] : "Shall we point out to you a man who will tell you that [after your death,] when you will have been scattered in countless fragments, you shall - lo and behold! - be [restored to life] in a new act of creation?
(34:8) Does he [knowingly] attribute his own lying inventions to God - or is he a madman?" Nay, [there is no madness in this Prophet -] but they who will not believe in the life to come are [bound to lose themselves] in suffering and in a profound aberration. 5
[[Asad’s note - 5 Lit., "remote aberration". (For the Qur'anic use of the term dalal - lit., "error" or "going astray" -in the sense of "aberration", see 12:8 and 95.) The construction of this phrase points definitely to suffering in this world (in contrast with the suffering in the hereafter spoken of in verse 5 above): for whereas the concept of "aberration" is meaningless in the context of the life to come, it has an obvious meaning in the context of the moral and social confusion - and, hence, of the individual and social suffering - which is the unavoidable consequence of people's loss of belief in the existence of absolute moral values and, thus, in an ultimate divine judgment on the basis of those values. ]]
34:9 Are they, then, not aware of how little of the sky and the earth lies open before them, and how much is hidden from them? 6 - [or that,] if We so willed, We could cause the earth to swallow them, 7 or cause fragments of the sky to fall down upon them? 8 In all this, behold, there is a message indeed for every servant [of God] who is wont to turn unto Him [in repentance].'
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
وَقَالَ
الَّذِينَ
كَفَرُوا هَلْ
نَدُلُّكُمْ
عَلَى رَجُلٍ
يُنَبِّئُكُمْ
إِذَا
مُزِّقْتُمْ
كُلَّ مُمَزَّقٍ...
34: 7. The Unbelievers say (in ridicule):
"Shall we point out to you a man that will tell you, when ye are all scattered to pieces in disintegration,
C3794. This is a taunt against the holy Prophet, and it is applicable to all who preach the doctrine of a Future Life. How is it possible, say the Unbelievers, that when a man's body is reduced to dust and scattered about, the man should rise again and become a new Creation?
They add that such a preacher is inventing a deliberate falsehood or is demented.
... إِنَّكُمْ لَفِي خَلْقٍ جَدِيدٍ ﴿٧﴾
that ye shall (then be raised) in a New Creation?
أَفْتَرَى
عَلَى اللَّهِ
كَذِبًا أَم
بِهِ جِنَّةٌ...
34: 8. "Has he invented a falsehood against Allah, or has a spirit (seized) him?" --
C3795. The answer is:
the Future Life is the truest of all Truths; so far is the man who teaches it from being demented, that it is those who deny it, that lack knowledge and are in real jeopardy for their souls; for they persecute Truth and must not only suffer defeat, but go farther and farther from Realities and thus suffer the worst hallucination about the next world.
... بَلِ الَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْآخِرَةِ فِي الْعَذَابِ وَالضَّلَالِ الْبَعِيدِ ﴿٨﴾
Nay,
it is those who believe not in the Hereafter, that are in (real) Penalty, and in farthest Error.
أَفَلَمْ
يَرَوْا إِلَى
مَا بَيْنَ
أَيْدِيهِمْ
وَمَا خَلْفَهُم
مِّنَ السَّمَاء
وَالْأَرْضِ...
34:9 See they not what is before them and behind them, of the sky and the earth?
C3796. The men who walk in spiritual darkness and laugh at a Hereafter have but to observe the Power of Allah in the nature around them.
He Who created the heavens and the earth and sustains them can surely make a new Creation! And the cosmic Laws which are so just and inevitable should surely give them an idea of the inexorable Justice that must redress all balance.
... إِن نَّشَأْ نَخْسِفْ بِهِمُ الْأَرْضَ أَوْ نُسْقِطْ عَلَيْهِمْ ...
If We wished, We could cause the earth to swallow them up,
C3797. Cf. 16:45, and n. 2071.
Who are these puny creatures-skeptics that question the might and majesty of Allah?
... كِسَفًا مِّنَ السَّمَاء...
or cause a piece of the sky to fall upon them.
C3798. Cf. 26:187.
This was actually a challenge hurled at Shu'aib and a shower of ashes and cinders came from above and overwhelmed the challengers!
... إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لَآيَةً لِّكُلِّ عَبْدٍ مُّنِيبٍ ﴿٩﴾
Verily in this is a Sign for every devotee that turns to Allah (in repentance).
[[ Asad’s notes - 6 Lit., "... not aware of what of the sky and the earth is between their hands, and what is behind them": an idiomatic phrase explained in surah 2, note 247. In the present context - as well as in 2:255 - the above phrase stresses the insignificance of the knowledge attained to by man, or accessible to him; hence, so the argument goes, how can anyone be so presumptuous as to deny the reality of resurrection and life after death, seeing that it is a phenomenon beyond maris experience, while, on the other hand, everything within the universe points to God's unlimited creative power"
7 I.e., in an earthquake. ]]