27. An-Naml (The Ants)

Mecca Period 48

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

إِنَّ هَذَا الْقُرْآنَ يَقُصُّ عَلَى بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ أَكْثَرَ الَّذِي هُمْ فِيهِ يَخْتَلِفُونَ ﴿٧٦﴾

27: 76. Verily this Qur'án doth explain to the Children of Israel most of the matters in which they disagree.

C3309. The Jews had numerous sects. Some were altogether out of the pale, e.g., the Samaritans, who had a separate Tawrah of their own: they hated the other Jews and were hated by them. But even in the orthodox body, there were several sects, of which the following may be mentioned:

1. the Pharisees, who were literalists, formalists, and fatalists, and had a large body of traditional literature, with which they overlaid the Law of Moses;

2. the Sadducees, who were rationalists, and seemed to have doubted the doctrine of the Resurrection or of a Hereafter;

3. the Essenes, who practised a sort of Communism and Asceticism and prohibited marriage.

About many of their doctrines they had bitter disputes, which were settled by the Quran, which supplemented and perfected the Law of Moses. It also explained clearly the attributes of Allah and the nature of Revelation, and the doctrine of the Hereafter.

وَإِنَّهُ لَهُدًى وَرَحْمَةٌ لِّلْمُؤْمِنِينَ ﴿٧٧﴾

27: 77. And it certainly is a Guide and Mercy to those who believe.

Asad’s Version:

27:76 BEHOLD, this Qur'an explains 6 ' to the children of Israel most [of that] whereon they hold divergent views; 70

(27:77) and, verily, it is a guidance and a grace unto all who believe [in it].