31. Surah Luqman

Mecca Period [57]

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

وَلَوْ أَنَّمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ مِن شَجَرَةٍ أَقْلَامٌ وَالْبَحْرُ يَمُدُّهُ مِن بَعْدِهِ سَبْعَةُ أَبْحُرٍ مَّا نَفِدَتْ كَلِمَاتُ اللَّهِ...

31: 27. And if all the trees on earth were pens and the Ocean (were ink), with seven Oceans behind it to add to its (supply), yet would not the Words of Allah be exhausted (in the writing):

C3616. "Words of Allah": his wonderful Signs and Commandments are infinite and cannot be expressed if all the trees were made into pens, and all the wide Ocean, multiplied seven times, were made into ink.

Any Book of His Revelation would deal with matters which man can understand and use in his life: there are things that man can never fathom. Nor would any praise that we could write with infinite resources be adequate to describe His power, glory, and wisdom.

...إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمٌ ﴿٢٧﴾

for Allah is Exalted in power, Full of Wisdom.

مَّا خَلْقُكُمْ وَلَا بَعْثُكُمْ إِلَّا كَنَفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ...

31: 28. And your creation or your resurrection is in no wise but as an individual soul:

C3617. Allah's greatness and infinitude are such that He can create and cherish not only a whole mass, but each individual soul, and He can follow its history and doings until the final Judgment.

This shows not only Allah's glory and Omniscience and Omnipotence: it also shows the value of each individual soul in His eyes, and lifts individual responsibility right up into relations with Him.

...إِنَّ اللَّهَ سَمِيعٌ بَصِيرٌ ﴿٢٨﴾

for Allah is He Who hears and sees (all things).

Asad’s Version:

31:27

And if all the trees on earth were pens, and the sea [were] ink, with seven [more] seas yet 24 added to it, the words of God would not be exhausted: for, verily, God is almighty, wise. 25

(31:28) [For Him,] the creation of you all and the resurrection of you all is but like [the creation and resurrection of] a single soul: 26 for, verily, God is all-hearing, all-seeing.

[[Asad’s notes –

24 Lit., "after that". 25 Cf. a similar passage in 18:109.

26 I.e., in view of His almightiness, there is no difference between the creation and resurrection of many and of one, just as every single soul is as much within His ken as is all mankind.

27 See note 5 on 13:2.

28 See su~rah 20, note 99. ]]