51 Adh-Dhariyat (The Dust-Scattering Winds)
Mecca Period 67
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
كَذَلِكَ
مَا أَتَى الَّذِينَ
مِن قَبْلِهِم
مِّن رَّسُولٍ
إِلَّا قَالُوا
سَاحِرٌ أَوْ
مَجْنُونٌ
﴿٥٢﴾
51: 52. Similarly, no messenger came to the Peoples before them, but they said (of him) in like manner,
"A sorcerer, or one possessed"
C5029. They said this of Moses: 51:39.
And they said this of the holy Prophet: 38:4; 44:14.
51: 53. Is this the legacy they have transmitted, one to another?
... بَلْ هُمْ قَوْمٌ طَاغُونَ ﴿٥٣﴾
Nay, they are themselves a people transgressing beyond bounds!
C5030. There is a tradition of Evil as there is a tradition of Good. The ways of Evil in dealing with the teachers of Truth are similar in all ages, But such evil traditions would have no effect, were it not that the generation following them is itself ungodly, "transgressing beyond bounds."
Asad’s Version:
51:52 [But] thus it is: never yet came any apostle to those who lived before their time but they said, "A spellbinder 38 [is he], or a madman!"
(51:53) Have they, perchance, handed down this [way of thinking] as a legacy unto one another? Nay, they are people filled with overweening arrogance!
[[Asad’s note - 38 Thus, the innermost purpose of the creation of all rational beings is their cognition (ma'rifah) of the existence of God and, hence, their consciousness to conform their own existence to whatever they may perceive of His will and plan: and it is this twofold concept of cognition and willingness that gives the deepest meaning to what the Qnr'an describes as "worship" ('ibadah). As the next verse shows, this spiritual call does not arise from any supposed "need' - on the part of the Creator,
who is self-sufficient and infinite in His power, but is designed as an instrument for the inner development of the worshipper, who, by the act of his conscious self-surrender to the all-pervading Creative Will, may hope to come closer to an understanding of that Will and, thus, closer to God Himself. ]]