37. As-Saffat (Those Ranged In Ranks)

Mecca 56 [182 verses]

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا إِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ يَسْتَكْبِرُونَ ﴿٣٥﴾

37:35. For they, when they were told that there is no god except Allah, would puff themselves up with Pride.

C4056. Selfish arrogance was the seed of sin and rebellion: 2:34 (of Satan): 28:39 (of Pharaoh); etc.

It is that kind of arrogance which prevents man from mending his life and conduct. When he speaks of ancestral ways, or public opinion, or national honour, he is usually thinking of himself or of a small clique which thrives on injustice.

The recognition of Allah, the one true God, as the only standard of life and conduct, the Eternal Reality, cuts out Self, and is therefore disagreeable to Sin. If false gods are imagined, who themselves would have weaknesses that fit in with sin, they give countenance to evils, and it becomes difficult to give them up, unless Allah's grace comes to our assistance. (R).

وَيَقُولُونَ أَئِنَّا لَتَارِكُوا آلِهَتِنَا لِشَاعِرٍ مَّجْنُونٍ ﴿٣٦﴾

37:36. And say: "What! shall we give up our gods for the sake of a Poet possessed?"

C4057. Possessed of an evil spirit, or mad. Such was the charge which the Unbelievers sometimes leveled at the holy Prophet in the early stages of his preaching.

بَلْ جَاء بِالْحَقِّ وَصَدَّقَ الْمُرْسَلِينَ ﴿٣٧﴾

37:37. Nay!

He has come with the (very) Truth, and he confirms (the Message of) the messengers (before Him).

C4058. The message of Islam, so far from being "mad" or in any way peculiar, is eminently conformable to reason and the true facts of nature as created by Allah. It is the Truth in the purest sense of the term, and confirms the Message of all true Messengers that ever lived.

Asad’s Version:

(37:35) for, behold, whenever they were told, "There is no deity save God," they would glory in their arrogance

(37:36) and would say, "Shall we, then, give up our deities at the bidding of a mad poet?" 14

37:37 Nay, but he [whom you call a mad poet] has brought the truth; and he confirms the truth of [what the earlier of God's] message-bearers [have taught]. 15

[[Asad’s note - 14 Lit., "for [or "for the sake of") a mad poet" - thus alluding to the allegation that the Qur'an is a product of Muhammad's mind (see note 38 on 36:69). The reference to "deities" comprises, in this context, everything that man may "worship" in both the literal and the metaphorical senses of this word.]]