36.Surah Ya Sin (O Thou Human Being) Mecca 41

Asad’s Version:

36:59 "But stand aside today, O you who were lost in sin!

(36:60) Did I not enjoin on you, O you children of Adam, that you should not worship Satan - since, verily, he is your open foe 30 -

(36:61) and that you should worship Me [alone]? This would have been a straight way!

(36:62) And [as for Satan-] he had already led astray a great many of you: could you not, then, use your reason?

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

وَامْتَازُوا الْيَوْمَ أَيُّهَا الْمُجْرِمُونَ ﴿٥٩﴾

36: 59.  And O ye in sin! get ye apart this Day!

C4005. Notice how this finely balanced passage, after reaching the summit of sublimity in describing the state of the Blessed, in the word Salam, gradually takes us down to contemplate the state of the Sinners in a graduated descent.

In the first place, it refers to their negative state, their state of isolation. From this Day of Judgment, they will no longer have the chance of being with the Blessed and perhaps of profiting spiritually by that proximity.

The first feature of the Day of Judgment is that it is a Day of Separation-of sorting out. Each soul now finds its own true level, as the period of probation is over.

أَلَمْ أَعْهَدْ إِلَيْكُمْ يَا بَنِي آدَمَ أَن لَّا تَعْبُدُوا الشَّيْطَانَ...   

36: 60.  "Did I not enjoin on you, O ye children of Adam, that ye should not worship Satan;

C4006. Secondly, there is a gentle reproach to the wrong-doers, more in sorrow than in anger. They are addressed as "children of Adam", to emphasize two facts,

1.     that they have disgraced their ancestry, for Adam after his Fall repented and was forgiven, and the high Destiny of mankind has been the prize open to all his descendants, and

2.     that Allah Most Merciful has throughout the ages continued to warn mankind against the snares laid by Satan, the avowed enemy of man, and that Allah's Grace was ever on the watch to help all to freedom from those snares.

... إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ مُّبِينٌ ﴿٦٠﴾

for that he was to you an enemy avowed? --

وَأَنْ اعْبُدُونِي هَذَا صِرَاطٌ مُّسْتَقِيمٌ ﴿٦١﴾

36: 61.  "And that ye should worship Me, (for that) this was the Straight Way?

C4007. Thirdly, besides the negative warning, a positive Way was shown to them-the Straight Way,the Way of those who receive Allah's Grace and attain to Bliss, the Rope which would save them from shipwreck, the Shield which would save them from assault, the key to the door of proximity to Allah.

وَلَقَدْ أَضَلَّ مِنكُمْ جِبِلًّا كَثِيرًا...   

36: 62.  "But he did lead astray a great multitude of you.

... أَفَلَمْ تَكُونُوا تَعْقِلُونَ ﴿٦٢﴾

Did ye not, then, understand?

C4008. Fourthly, it is pointed out that they were given Understanding ('aql), so that by their own faculties they could have judged their own best interests, and yet they betrayed or misused those faculties, and deliberately threw away their chance! And not only a few, but so many! They went gregariously to ruin in spite of the individual care which their Lord and Cherisher bestowed on them!

هَذِهِ جَهَنَّمُ الَّتِي كُنتُمْ تُوعَدُونَ ﴿٦٣﴾

36: 63.  "This is the Hell of which ye were (repeatedly) warned!

C4009. Fifthly, the naked fact is now placed before them,-the Hell,-the state of damnation, which they could so easily have avoided!