23. Sura Muminun [late Mecca 74]

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

وَلَوِ اتَّبَعَ الْحَقُّ أَهْوَاءهُمْ لَفَسَدَتِ السَّمَاوَاتُ وَالْأَرْضُ وَمَن فِيهِنَّ...

23:71. If the Truth had been in accord with their desires, truly the heavens and the earth, and all beings therein would have been in confusion and corruption!

C2919. Allah is All-Wise and All-Good, and His architecture of the universe is on a perfect Plan. If these poor, low, selfish, ignorant creatures were to plan it according to their hearts' desires, it would be a dreadful world, full of confusion and corruption.

...بَلْ أَتَيْنَاهُم بِذِكْرِهِمْ فَهُمْ عَن ذِكْرِهِم مُّعْرِضُونَ ﴿٧١﴾

Nay, We have sent them their admonition, but they turn away from their admonition.

Asad’s Version:

23:71 But if the truth 41 were in accord with their own likes and dislikes, the heavens and the earth would surely have fallen into ruin, and all that lives in them [would long ago have perished] ! " Nay, [in this divine writ] We have conveyed unto them all that they ought to bear in mind:

[[ Asad’s notes –

43 and from this their reminder they [heedlessly] turn away!

43 For this rendering of the term dhikr; see note 13 on21:10.

44 The terms kharj and kharaj which occur in the above verse are more or less synonymous, both of them denoting "recompense". According to Zamakhshari, however, there is a slight difference between these two expressions, kharj being more restricted in its meaning than kharaj : hence, the first has been rendered as "worldly recompense" and the second as "recompense" without any restrictive definition, implying that a recompense from God is unlimited, relating both to this world and the hereafter.