52 At-Tur (Mount Sinai)

Mecca Period 76

Asad’s version:

(4) Consider the long-enduring house [of worship]! 3 (5) Consider the vault [of heaven] raised high! (6) Consider the surf-swollen sea! 4

52:7 VERILY, [O man,] the suffering decreed by thy Sustainer [for the sinners] will indeed come to pass: (8) there is none who could avert it. (9) [It will come to pass] on the Day when the skies will be convulsed in [a great] convulsion, (10) and the mountains will move with [an awesome] movement.

(11) Woe, then, on that Day to all who give the lie to the truth - (12) all those who [throughout their lives] but idly played with things vain –

(13) on the Day when they shall be thrust into the fire with [an irresistible] thrust, [and will be told:] (14) "This is the fire which you were wont to call a lie! (15) Was it, then, a delusion 5 - or is it that you failed to see [its truth]? (16) Endure it [now]! But [whether you] bear yourselves with patience or

without patience, it will be the same to you: you are but being requited for what you were wont to do." 6

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

وَالْبَيْتِ الْمَعْمُورِ ﴿٤﴾

52: 4.    By the much-frequented Fane;

C5039. See the last two notes.

• "The much-frequented Fane" (or House) is usually understood to mean the Ka'bah, which the holy Prophet purified and re-dedicated to true worship.

وَالسَّقْفِ الْمَرْفُوعِ ﴿٥﴾

52: 5.    By the Canopy Raised High;

C5040.

• "The Canopy Raised High" is the canopy of heaven, to whose height or sublimity no limit can be assigned by the mind of man. It is Nature's Temple in which all Creation worships Allah - the Symbol in which the material and the visible merges into the the spiritual and the intuitional.

وَالْبَحْرِ ...

52: 6.     And by the Ocean...

C5041.

• The Ocean-the vast, limitless, all encircling Ocean. It is expressed to be masjur, full of a mighty swell, boiling over, poured forth all over the earth, as if overwhelming all landmarks; Cf. 81:6:-

a fitting description of the final disappearance of our temporal world in the supreme establishment of the Reality behind it.

... الْمَسْجُورِ ﴿٦﴾

... filled with Swell --

C5042. This completes the five Signs by which man may know for certain of the Judgment to come.

Note that they are in a descending order; -

-         the highest, or most remote from man's consciousness, being mentioned first,

-         and that nearest to man's consciousness being mentioned last.

-         The truth of Revelation; its embodiment in a Prophet's Message given in human language;

-         the universal appeal of divine worship;

-         the starry world above; and the encircling Ocean, full of life and motion below,-

all are evidences that the Day of Allah will finally come, and nothing can avert it. (R).

إِنَّ عَذَابَ رَبِّكَ لَوَاقِعٌ ﴿٧﴾

52: 7.    Verily, the Doom of thy Lord will indeed come to pass --

مَا لَهُ مِن دَافِعٍ ﴿٨﴾

52: 8.    There is none can avert it --

يَوْمَ تَمُورُ السَّمَاء مَوْرًا ﴿٩﴾

52: 9.    On the day when the firmament will be in dreadful commotion.

C5043. The Day of Judgment is typified by two figures.

• "The firmament will be in dreadful commotion." The heavens as we see them suggest to us peace and tranquility, and the power of fixed laws which all the heavenly bodies obey. This will all be shaken in the rise of the new world.

Cf. Matt. 24:29: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days ... the powers of the heavens shall be shaken."

For (2) see next note.

وَتَسِيرُ الْجِبَالُ سَيْرًا ﴿١٠﴾

52: 10.  And the mountain will fly hither and thither.

C5044.

• The mountains are a type of firmness and stability. But things that we think of as firm and stable in this material life will be shaken to pieces, and will be no more substantial than a mirage in a desert. Cf. 78:20.

فَوَيْلٌ يَوْمَئِذٍ لِلْمُكَذِّبِينَ ﴿١١﴾

52: 11.  Then woe that Day to those that treat (truth) as Falsehood --

C5045. That Day will be a Day of Woe to the wrong doers described in two aspects, the rebels against Allah and Allah's Truth, just as it will be a Day of Joy and Thanksgiving to the Righteous, who are described in three aspects in verses 17 to 28.

The rebels are here described as being those who openly defied Truth and plunged into wrong-doing, or who trifled with truth, who jested with serious matters, who had not the courage to plunge openly into wrong-doing but who secretly took profit out of it, who wasted their life in doubts and petty quibbles.

It is difficult to say which attitude did more harm to themselves and to others. Both are aspects of deep-seated rebellion. But the mercy of Allah was open to all if they had repented and amended their lives.

الَّذِينَ هُمْ فِي خَوْضٍ يَلْعَبُونَ ﴿١٢﴾

52: 12.  That play (and paddle) in shallow trifles.

يَوْمَ يُدَعُّونَ إِلَى نَارِ جَهَنَّمَ دَعًّا ﴿١٣﴾

52: 13.  That Day shall they be thrust down to the Fire of Hell, irresistibly.

هَذِهِ النَّارُ الَّتِي كُنتُم بِهَا تُكَذِّبُونَ ﴿١٤﴾

52: 14.  "This," it will be said, "is the Fire -- which ye were wont to deny!

C5046. In face of the Realities, it will be borne in on them how wrong it was for them in this life to deny or forget that every wicked thought or deed had its own retributive chain of consequences.

أَفَسِحْرٌ هَذَا ...

52: 15.  "Is this then a fake,

C5047. Perhaps they had said that the Hereafter was a fake, mere old wives' tales! If they had given serious thought to the Signs of Allah, they would have been saved from that serious spiritual blindness: then they will see that the fault was their own, and that the warnings of the messengers of Truth were nothing but pure Truth.

... أَمْ أَنتُمْ لَا تُبْصِرُونَ ﴿١٥﴾

or is it ye that do not see?

اصْلَوْهَا فَاصْبِرُوا أَوْ لَا تَصْبِرُوا سَوَاء عَلَيْكُمْ...

52: 16.  "Burn ye therein: the same is it to you whether ye bear it with patience, or not:

C5048. At that stage they will have no justification for anger or impatience; for their whole position will have been due to their own conduct and their rejection of Allah's Grace. Nor will there be time then for patience or repentance, for their period of probation will then have been over.

Yuksel’s version

52:4 The frequented/built sanctuary.

52:5 The ceiling which is elevated.

52:6 The sea that is set aflame.

52:7 Your Lord's retribution is unavoidable.

52:8 Nothing can stop it.

52:9 The day when the sky will violently thunder.

52:10 The mountains will be wiped out.

52:11 Woe on that day to the deniers.

52:12 Who are in their recklessness, playing.

52:13 The day they will be called into hell, forcibly:

52:14 "This is the fire which you used to deny!"

52:15 "Is this magic, or do you not see?"

52:16 "Enter it, whether you are patient or impatient, it will be the same for you. You are only being requited for what you used to do."

[[ Asad’s notes - 3 This is a me tonym for the fact that ever since the dawn of human consciousness men have persistently - although often but dimly - realized the existence of God and have tried, spurred on by the continuous, direct revelation granted to His prophets, to come closer to Him through worship. Hence, Baydawi regards the expression al-bayt al-ma'mur as a metaphor for the heart of the believer.

4 I.e., "Consider the immensity and wonderful configuration of the visible universe as an evidence of a conscious Creator. "

5 This is obviously the meaning of the term sihr in the present context (see surah 74, note 12).

6 I.e., "you will have to endure it in either case, for it is but a consequence of your own doings and attitudes" : a subtle allusion to the fact that the "punishments" and "rewards" in the life to come are but allegories of the logical consequences of the manner in which one acts or behaves in this life. ]]