20: [Taha, Mecca 45]
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
قَالَ
رَبِّ لِمَ
حَشَرْتَنِي
أَعْمَى وَقَدْ
كُنتُ بَصِيرًا ﴿١٢٥﴾
20: 125. He will say: "O my Lord! why hast thou raised me up blind, while I had sight (before)?"
C2649. Because Allah gave him physical sight in this life for trial, he thinks he should be favoured in the real world, the world that matters! He misused his physical sight and made himself blind for the other world.
قَالَ كَذَلِكَ أَتَتْكَ آيَاتُنَا فَنَسِيتَهَا...
20: 126. (Allah) will say:
"Thus didst thou, when Our Signs came unto thee, disregard them:
...وَكَذَلِكَ الْيَوْمَ تُنسَى ﴿١٢٦﴾
so wilt thou, this day, be disregarded."
C2650. 'You were deliberately blind to Allah's Signs: now you will not see Allah's favours, and will be excluded from His Grace.
وَكَذَلِكَ نَجْزِي
مَنْ أَسْرَفَ
وَلَمْ يُؤْمِن
بِآيَاتِ
رَبِّهِ...
20: 127. And thus do We recompense him who transgresses beyond bounds and believes not in the Signs of his Lord:
...وَلَعَذَابُ الْآخِرَةِ أَشَدُّ وَأَبْقَى ﴿١٢٧﴾
and the Penalty of the Hereafter is far more grievous and more enduring.
C2651. Blindness in the world of enduring Reality is far worse than physical blindness in the world of probation.
أَفَلَمْ
يَهْدِ لَهُمْ
كَمْ أَهْلَكْنَا
قَبْلَهُم مِّنَ
الْقُرُونِ...
20: 128. It is not a warning to such men (to call to mind) how many generations before them We destroyed,
...يَمْشُونَ فِي مَسَاكِنِهِمْ...
in whose haunts they (now) move?
...إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِّأُوْلِي النُّهَى ﴿١٢٨﴾
Verily, in this are Signs for men endued with understanding.
C2652. Cf. 20:54.
This phrase concluded the argument of Moses with Pharaoh about Pharaoh's blindness to Allah and the Signs of Allah.
Now it concludes the more general argument about men, concerning whom the saying arose: 'none are so blind as those who will not see.'
Asad’s Version:
20:125
[And so, on Resurrection Day, the sinner] will ask: "O my Sustainer! Why hast Thou raised
me up blind, whereas [on earth] I was endowed with sight?"
(20:126) [God] will reply: "Thus
it is: there came unto thee Our messages, but thou wert oblivious of them; and thus shalt thou
be today consigned to oblivion!"
20:127
For, thus shall We recompense him who wastes his own self... and does not believe in his Sustainer's messages: and, indeed, the suffering [of such sinners] in the life to come shall be most severe and most enduring!
20:128
CAN, THEN, they [who reject the truth] learn no lesson by recalling how many a generation We have destroyed before their time? 111 " - [people] in whose dwelling-places they [themselves now] walk about? In this, behold, there are messages indeed for those who are endowed with
reason!
=====================================
21.[an-Anabya, Mecca]
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
اقْتَرَبَ
لِلنَّاسِ
حِسَابُهُمْ
...
21: 1. Closer and closer to mankind comes their Reckoning:
C2662. Every minute sees them nearer to their doom, and yet they are sadly heedless, and even actively turn away from the Message that would save them.
... وَهُمْ فِي غَفْلَةٍ مَّعْرِضُونَ ﴿١﴾
yet they heed not and they turn away.
مَا
يَأْتِيهِم
مِّن
ذِكْرٍ مَّن
رَّبِّهِم
مُّحْدَثٍ
إِلَّا اسْتَمَعُوهُ
وَهُمْ يَلْعَبُونَ
﴿٢﴾
21: 2. Never comes (aught) to them of a renewed Message from their Lord, but they listen to it as in jest --
C2663. In each age, when the Message of Allah is renewed, the very people who should have known better and welcomed the renewal and the sweeping away of human cobwebs, either receive it with amused self-superiority, which later turns to active hostility, or with careless indifference.
لَاهِيَةً
قُلُوبُهُمْ...
21: 3. Their hearts toying as with trifles.
...وَأَسَرُّواْ النَّجْوَى الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُواْ ...
The wrongdoers conceal their private counsels, (saying),
C2664. Allah's Message is free and open, in the full light of day. His enemies plot against it in secrecy, lest their own false motives be exposed. Their jealousy prevents them from accepting a "man like themselves" as a teacher or warner or guide.
... هَلْ هَذَا إِلَّا بَشَرٌ مِّثْلُكُمْ...
"Is this (one) more than a man like yourselves?
...أَفَتَأْتُونَ السِّحْرَ وَأَنتُمْ تُبْصِرُونَ ﴿٣﴾
Will ye go to witchcraft with your eyes open?"
C2665. Literally, "in a state in which you (actually) see (that it is witchcraft)".
When Allah's Messenger is proved to be above them in moral worth, in true insight, in earnestness and power of eloquence, they accuse him of witchcraft, a word which may mean nothing, or perhaps some mysterious deceitful arts.
Asad’s Version:
21:1
CLOSER DRAWS unto men their reckoning: and yet they remain stubbornly heedless [of its approach]. 1
(21:2) Whenever there comes unto them any new reminder from their Sustainer, they but listen to it with playful amusement, 2
(21:3) their hearts set on passing delights; yet they who are [thus] bent on wrongdoing conceal their innermost thoughts 3 [when they say to one another], "Is this [Muhammad] anything but a mortal like yourselves? Will you, then, yield to [his] spellbinding eloquence with your eyes open?" 4
[[1 Lit., "and yet in [their] heedlessness they are obstinate (mu'ridun)".
2 Lit., "while they are playing".
3 See next note.
4 As regards my occasional rendering of sihr (lit., "sorcery" or "magic") as "spellbinding eloquence", see 74:24, where this term occurs for the first time in the chronology of Qur'anic revelation. By rejecting the message of the Qur'an on the specious plea that Muhammad is but a human being endowed with "spellbinding eloquence", the opponents of the Qur'anic doctrine in reality "conceal their
innermost thoughts": for, their rejection is due not so much to any pertinent criticism of this doctrine as, rather, to their instinctive, deep- set unwillingness to submit to the moral and spiritual
discipline which an acceptance of the Prophet's call would entail. ]]