57. Sura al-Hadid [Iraon]
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
اعْلَمُوا
أَنَّمَا الْحَيَاةُ
الدُّنْيَا
لَعِبٌ وَلَهْوٌ
وَزِينَةٌ ...
57: 20. Know ye (all), that the life of this world is but play and amusement,
In the present passage the idea is further amplified. In this life people not only play and amuse themselves and each other, but they show off, and boast, and pile up riches and man-power and influence, in rivalry with each other.
...وَتَفَاخُرٌ بَيْنَكُمْ وَتَكَاثُرٌ فِي الْأَمْوَالِ وَالْأَوْلَادِ...
pomp and mutual boasting and multiplying, (in rivalry) among yourselves, riches and children:
...كَمَثَلِ ...
Here is a similitude:
C5303. Cf. 39:21, and n. 4273.
Here the Parable is meant to teach a slightly different lesson. Allah's mercies are free and open to all, like His rain. But how do men make use of them? The good men take the real spiritual harvest and store the Spiritual grain. The men who are in love with the ephemeral are delighted with the green of the tares and the grass; but such things give no real nourishment; they soon wither, become dry, and crumble to pieces, like the worldly pleasures and pomps, boasting and tumults, possessions and friends.
...غَيْثٍ أَعْجَبَ الْكُفَّارَ نَبَاتُهُ ثُمَّ يَهِيجُ...
How rain and the growth which it brings forth, delight (the hearts of) the tillers;
C5304. Kuffar is here used in the unusual sense of 'tillers or husbandmen', because they sow the seed and cover it up with soil.
But the ordinary meaning, 'Rejecters of Truth', is not absent. The allegory refers to such men.
...فَتَرَاهُ مُصْفَرًّا ثُمَّ يَكُونُ حُطَامًا...
soon it withers; thou wilt see it grow yellow; then it becomes dry and crumbles away.
...وَفِي الْآخِرَةِ عَذَابٌ شَدِيدٌ وَمَغْفِرَةٌ مِّنَ اللَّهِ وَرِضْوَانٌ...
But in the Hereafter is a Penalty severe (for the devotees of wrong), and Forgiveness from Allah and (His) Good Pleasure (for the devotees of Allah).
...وَمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا إِلَّا مَتَاعُ الْغُرُور ﴿٢٠﴾ِ
And what is the life of this world, but goods and chattels of deception?
Many of the attractive vanities of this world are but nets set by Satan to deceive man. The only thing real and lasting is the Good Life lived in the Light of Allah.
Pickthall’s Version:
57: 20 Know that the life of this world is only play, and idle talk, and pageantry, and boasting among you, and rivalry in respect of wealth and children as the likeness of vegetation after rain, whereof the growth is pleasing to husbandman, but afterward it drieth up and thou seest it turning yellow, then it becomes straw.
Asad’s Version:
57: 20 …..But (the abiding truth of man's condition will become fully apparent)
in the life to come: (either) suffering severe, or God's forgiveness and His goodly acceptance : for the life of this world is nothing but an enjoyment of self-delusion. (Asad)