41 Fussilat (Clearly Spelled Out/Expounded)
Mecca Period 61 [54 ayats]
Asad’s Version:
41:26 NOW THOSE who are bent on denying the truth say [unto one another]: "Do not listen to this Qur'an, but rather talk frivolously about it, so that you might gain the upper hand!" 27
(41:27) But We shall most certainly give those who are [thus] bent on denying the truth a taste of suffering severe, and We shall most certainly requite them according to the worst of their deeds!
(41:28) That requital of God's enemies will be the fire [of the hereafter]: in it will they have an abode of unmeasurable duration as an outcome of their having knowingly rejected Our messages. 28
41:29 And they who [in their life on earth] were bent on denying the truth will [thereupon] exclaim: "O our Sustainer! Show us those of the invisible beings and humans that have led us astray: 2 ' we shall trample them underfoot, so that they shall be the lowest of all!" 30
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
وَقَالَ
الَّذِينَ
كَفَرُوا
لَا
تَسْمَعُوا
لِهَذَا
الْقُرْآنِ
وَالْغَوْا
فِيهِ
لَعَلَّكُمْ
تَغْلِبُونَ
﴿٢٦﴾
41:26. The Unbelievers say:
"Listen not to this Qur'án, but talk at random in the midst of its (reading), that ye may gain the upper hand!"
C4496. A favourite trick of those who wish to dishonour Revelation is, not only not to listen to it themselves, but to talk loudly and insolently when it is being read, so that even the true listeners may not be able to perform their devotions. They think that they are drowning the voice of Allah: in fact they are piling up misery for themselves in the future. For Allah's voice can never be silenced.
فَلَنُذِيقَنَّ
الَّذِينَ
كَفَرُوا
عَذَابًا
شَدِيدًا...
41:27. But We will certainly give the Unbelievers a taste of a severe Penalty,
...وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَسْوَأَ الَّذِي كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ ﴿٢٧﴾
and We will requite them for the worst of their deeds.
C4497. Nothing that they can do, however outrageous, will escape its fit punishment. And to reject Allah's Signs is to shut the very door to His Grace and Mercy.
ذَلِكَ
جَزَاء
أَعْدَاء
اللَّهِ
النَّارُ
لَهُمْ
فِيهَا
دَارُ
الْخُلْدِ...
41:28. Such is the requital of the enemies of Allah -- the Fire:
therein will be for them the Eternal Home:
...جَزَاء بِمَا كَانُوا بِآيَاتِنَا يَجْحَدُونَ ﴿٢٨﴾
a (fit) requital, for that they were wont to reject Our Signs.
وَقَالَ
الَّذِينَ
كَفَرُوا
رَبَّنَا
أَرِنَا
الَّذَيْنِ
أَضَلَّانَا
مِنَ
الْجِنِّ
وَالْإِنسِ...
41:29. And the Unbelievers will say:
"Our Lord!
show us those, among Jinns and men, who misled us:
C4498. It is one of the qualities of sin and all evil, that it wishes to drag down others in its own camp, and rejoices to see them humiliated and disgraced, just as, in the opposite case, the good rejoice to help and honour others and make them happy wherever they can.
Cf. 6:112-113.
...نَجْعَلْهُمَا تَحْتَ أَقْدَامِنَا لِيَكُونَا مِنَ الْأَسْفَلِينَ ﴿٢٩﴾
we shall crush them beneath our feet, so that they become the vilest (before all)."
[[Asad’s notes - 27 This is an allusion to efforts aimed at discrediting the Qur'an by describing it as "invented" by Muhammad for his own - personal and political - ends, as a series of "misunderstood quotations" from earlier scriptures, as the result of "hallucinations", and so forth: all of which implies that the opponents of the Qur'anic message instinctively feel its force, realizing at the same time that it endangers their self-complacent, materialistic outlook on life and ought, therefore, to be combatted. This explains the statement, at the end of verse 28, that they "knowingly reject" God's messages.
28 For the above rendering of the verb jahada, see surah 29, note 45.
29 See 6:112- "against every prophet We have set up as enemies the evil forces (shayatin) from among humans as well as from among invisible beings" - and the corresponding note 98.
30 Cf. 7:38. ]]