28. Surah Al-Qasas
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
إِنَّ
الَّذِي
فَرَضَ
عَلَيْكَ الْقُرْآنَ
...
28:85. Verily He Who ordained the Qur'án for thee,
C3415. That is:
- order in His wisdom and mercy that the Quran should be revealed, containing guidance for conduct in this life and
- the next, and further ordered that it should be read out and taught and its principles observed in practice.
It is because of this teaching and preaching that the holy Prophet was persecuted, but as Allah sent the Quran, He will see that those who follow it will not eventually suffer, but be restored to happiness in the Place of Return, for which see next note.
... لَرَادُّكَ إِلَى مَعَادٍ...
will bring thee back to the Place of Return.
C3416. Place of Return:
1. a title of Makkah;
2. the occasion when we shall be restored to the Presence of our Lord.
It is said that this verse was revealed at Juhfa, on the road from Makkah to Madinah, a short distance from Makkah on the Hijrah journey.
The Prophet was sad at heart, and this was given as consolation to him. If this was the particular occasion, the general meaning would refer the Place of Return to the occasion of the Resurrection, when all true values will be restored, however they may be disturbed by the temporary interference of evil in this life.
...قُل رَّبِّي أَعْلَمُ مَن جَاء بِالْهُدَى وَمَنْ هُوَ فِي ضَلَالٍ مُّبِينٍ ﴿٨٥﴾
Say: "My Lord knows best who it is that brings true guidance, and who is in manifest error."
C3417. Allah knows the true from the false, and if we are persecuted for our Faith and attacked or spoken ill of because we dare to do right, our surest refuge is an appeal to Allah rather than to men.
Asad’s Version:
28:85 VERILY, [O believer,] He who has laid down this Qur'an in plain terms, making it binding on thee,' 5 will assuredly bring thee back [from death] to a life renewed.' 5 Say [unto those who reject the truth]: "My Sustainer knows best as to who is right-guided' 7 and who is obviously lost in error!"
[[ Asad’s notes –
92 This last clause makes it clear that, in order to have spiritual value, man's "not seeking" worldly grandeur or self-indulgence in things depraved must be an outcome, not of indifference or of a lack of opportunity, but solely of a conscious moral choice.
93 See note 79 on the identical phrase in 27:89.
94 Cf. 6:160 and the corresponding note 162.
95 According to Mujahid (as quoted by Tabari), the phrase farada 'alayka is almost synonymous with a'taka, "He gave [it] to thee". This, however, elucidates only one part of the above complex expression, which, I believe, has here a meaning similar to that of faradnaha ("We laid it down in plain terms") occurring in the first verse of surah 24 (An-Nur) and explained in the corresponding note 1 . In the present context, the particle 'alayka ("upon thee"), with its pronominal suffix, gives to the above clause
the additional meaning of a moral obligation on the part of the recipient of the Qur'anic message to conform his or her way of life to its teachings; hence my compound rendering of the phrase.
96 The term ma'ad denotes, literally, "a place [or "a state"] to which one returns", and, tropically,
one's "ultimate destination" or "ultimate condition"; in the present context, it is obviously
synonymous with "life in the hereafter". This is how most of the classical authorities interpret the above phrase. But on the vague assumption that this passage is addressed exclusively to the ]]
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44. Ad-Dukhan (the Smoke)
59 verses, Mecca 64
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
حم
﴿١﴾
44: 1. Ha Mim.
وَالْكِتَابِ
الْمُبِينِ
﴿٢﴾
44: 2. By the Book that makes things clear --
C4689. The Quran is its own evidence. In the last Surah (43:3) stress was laid on the fact that everyone could understand it.
Here the stress is on the fact that it is a Message of Mercy from Allah in that it warns mankind against evil.
إِنَّا
أَنزَلْنَاهُ
فِي لَيْلَةٍ
مُّبَارَكَةٍ
...
44: 3. We sent it down during a blessed night:
C4690. Usually taken to be a night in the month of Ramadhan, say the 23rd, 25th, or 27th night of that month. It is referred to as the Night of Power in 97:1-2.
See also 2:185.
But perhaps we need not fix it literally by the calendar. The night that a Message descends from Allah is indeed a blessed night like a day of rain for a parched land.
... إِنَّا كُنَّا مُنذِرِينَ ﴿٣﴾
for We (ever) wish to warn (against Evil).
فِيهَا
يُفْرَقُ
كُلُّ أَمْرٍ
حَكِيمٍ ﴿٤﴾
44: 4. In that (night) is made distinct every affair of wisdom,
C4691. Such an occasion is one on which divine Wisdom places before us, through Revelation, the solution of spiritual problems of the highest import to mankind.
أَمْرًا
مِّنْ عِندِنَا
إِنَّا كُنَّا
مُرْسِلِينَ
﴿٥﴾
44: 5. By command, from Our presence.
For We (ever) send (revelations),
رَحْمَةً
مِّن رَّبِّكَ
إِنَّهُ هُوَ
السَّمِيعُ
الْعَلِيمُ
﴿٦﴾
44: 6. As a Mercy from thy Lord:
for He hears and knows (all things);
C4692. It is because Allah is the friend of the friendless and the help of the helpless that He hears all sincere prayers, and as His knowledge embraces all things, He grants to us whatever is best for us, not as we see it, but as He knows it in His perfect knowledge.
Asad’s Version:
44:1 Ha. Mim. 1 CONSIDER this divine writ, clear in itself and clearly showing the truth! 2
44:3 Behold, from on high have We bestowed it on a blessed night: 3 for, verily, We have always been warning [man]. 4
(44:4) On that [night] was made clear, in wisdom, the distinction between all things [good and evil] 5
(44:5) at a behest from Ourselves: for, verily, We have always been sending [Our messages of guidance]
(44:6) in pursuance of thy Sustainer's grace [unto man]. Verily, He alone is all-hearing, all-knowing,
[[Asad’s notes - 1 See Appendix II.
2 See note 2 on 12:1.
3 I.e., the night on which the revelation of the Qur'an began: see surah 97.
4 The revelation of the Qur'an is but a continuation and, indeed, the climax of all divine revelation which has been going on since the very dawn of human consciousness. Its innermost purpose has always been the warning extended by God to man not to abandon himself to mere material ambitions and pursuits and, thus, to lose sight of spiritual values.
5 Lit., "was made distinct everything wise", i.e., "wisely" or "in wisdom": a metonymical attribution of the adjective "wise" - which in reality relates to God, the maker of that distinction - to what has thus been made distinct (Zamakhshari and Razi). The meaning is that the revelation of the Qur'an, symbolized by that "blessed night" of its beginning, provides man with a standard whereby to discern between good and evil, or between all that leads to spiritual growth through an ever-deepening realization
(ma'rifah) of God's existence, on the one hand, and all that results in spiritual blindness and self-destruction, on the other.]]