51 Adh-Dhariyat (The Dust-Scattering Winds)
Mecca Period 67
Asad’s Version:
(51:8) Verily, [O men,] you are deeply at variance as to what to believe: 4
(51:9) perverted in his views thereon is he who would deceive himself! 5
(51:10) They but destroy themselves, 6 they who are given to guessing at what they
cannot ascertain 7 - (51:11) they who blunder along, in ignorance lost
(51:12) they who [mockingly] ask, "When is that Day of Judgment to be?"
51:13 [It will be] a Day when they will be sorely tried by the fire, 8
(51:14) [and will be told:] "Taste this your trial! It is this that you were so hastily asking for! '"
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
إِنَّكُمْ
لَفِي قَوْلٍ
مُّخْتَلِفٍ
﴿٨﴾
51: 8. Truly ye are in a doctrine discordant,
C4994. Qaul = saying, word, theory, doctrine.
Mukhtalif = differing, various, inconsistent with itself, discordant.
No theory or doctrine based on a denial of a Hereafter can be consistent with spiritual facts as we know them, or with Allah's Goodness, Justice, and Mercy.
يُؤْفَكُ
عَنْهُ مَنْ
أُفِكَ
﴿٩﴾
51: 9. Through which are deluded (away from the Truth) such as would be deluded.
C4995. Some Commentators draw from this a rigid doctrine of Calvinistic Predestination or Determinism, which I do not think is fairly deducible from the words. "Ufika" should I think be translated "will be or would be deluded", meaning "have the wish or desire to be", and not "must necessarily be deluded by eternal predestination".
The word occurs in many places in the Quran: e.g. Cf. 5:78, or 9:30.
51: 10. Woe to the falsehood-mongers --
الَّذِينَ
هُمْ فِي غَمْرَةٍ
سَاهُونَ
﴿١١﴾
51: 11. Those who (flounder) heedless in a flood of confusion:
C4996. They are in great spiritual danger: yet they care not.
يَسْأَلُونَ
أَيَّانَ يَوْمُ
الدِّينِ
﴿١٢﴾
51:12. They ask,
"when will be the Day of Judgment and Justice?"
يَوْمَ
هُمْ عَلَى
النَّارِ يُفْتَنُونَ
﴿١٣﴾
51: 13. (It will be) a Day when they will be tried (and tested) over the Fire!
ذُوقُوا
فِتْنَتَكُمْ
هَذَا الَّذِي
كُنتُم بِهِ
تَسْتَعْجِلُونَ
﴿١٤﴾
51: 14. "Taste ye your trial! this is what ye used to ask to be hastened!"
C4997. They used to say scoffingly, "if there is to be punishment for our sins, let it come at once!"
When it comes, they will know what a terrible thing it is! Cf. 26:204, n. 3230.
51:8 You are in verbal discord.
51:9 Misled by it is the deviant.
51:10 Woe to the deceitful.
51:11 Who are in mischief, unaware.
51:12 They ask: "When is the day of Judgment?"
51:13 The day they are tested upon the fire.
51:14 "Taste this trial of yours; this is what you asked to be hastened."
[[Asad’s notes -
4 Lit., "you are indeed in a discordant opinion (qawl)", i.e., as to whether or not there is life after death, whether God exists, whether there is any truth in divine revelation, and so forth.
5 Lit., "perversely turned away from this [truth] is he who is made to lie" - or, according to the Taj al-'Arus, "he who is perverted in his reason and opinion", i.e., who is a priori disposed to deceive himself: implying that belief in God and, hence, in life after death is inherent in maris mind and feeling, and that, therefore, a departure from this belief is but an outcome of intellectual perversion.
6 For this rendering of the expression qutila, see note 9 on 74:19.
7 Thus the Taj al-'Arus, explaining the deeper meaning of al-kharrasun. "That which they cannot ascertain" is, in this context, synonymous with al-ghayb, "the reality which is beyond the reach of human perception".]]