51. Adh-Dhariyat
Mecca Period 67
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
وَالسَّمَاء
بَنَيْنَاهَا
بِأَيْدٍ وَإِنَّا
لَمُوسِعُونَ
﴿٤٧﴾
51: 47. With the power and skill did We construct the Firmament: for it is We Who create the vastness of Space.
C5025. If you do not wish to go back to the wonderful things in the past, which show the power and goodness of Allah, and His justice supreme over all wrong-doing, look at the wonderful things unfolding themselves before your very eyes!
1. The space in the heavens above! Who can comprehend it but He Who made it and sustains it?
2. The globe of the earth under your feet! How great its expanse seems over sea and land, and spread out for you like a wonderful carpet or bed of rest!
- sex in plants and animals, by which one individual is complementary to another;
- in the subtle forces of nature, Day and Night, positive and negative electricity, forces of attraction and repulsion: and numerous other opposites, each fulfilling its purpose, and contribution to the working of Allah's Universe:
- and in the moral and spiritual world,
Love and Aversion,
Mercy and Justice,
Striving and Rest, and so on;
-all fulfilling their functions according to the Artistry and wonderful Purpose of Allah. Everything has its counterpart, or pair, or complement. Allah alone is One, with none like Him, or needed to complement Him. These are noble things to contemplate. And they lead us to a true understanding of Allah's Purpose and Message.
وَالْأَرْضَ
فَرَشْنَاهَا
فَنِعْمَ
الْمَاهِدُونَ
﴿٤٨﴾
51: 48. And We have spread out the (spacious) earth: how excellently We do spread out!
وَمِن
كُلِّ شَيْءٍ
خَلَقْنَا
زَوْجَيْنِ
...
51: 49. And of everything We have created pairs:
C5026. See 3 in the last note.
... لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَكَّرُونَ ﴿٤٩﴾
that ye may receive instruction.
Asad’s Version:
51:47 AND IT IS We who have built the universe 30 with [Our creative] power; and, verily, it is We who are steadily expanding it."
(5 1:48) And the earth have We spread out wide - and how well have We ordered it!"
(51:49) And in everything have We created opposites, 33 so that you might bear in mind [that God alone is One] 34
Yuksel’s Version:
Expanding Universe
51:47 We constructed the universe with might, and We are expanding it.*
51:48 The earth We furnished; We are fine Providers.
51:49 From everything We created a pair, perhaps you may remember.
51:50 So turn towards God. I am to you from Him a clear warner.
[[Asad’s notes - 30 Lit., "the sky" or "the heaven", which in the Qur'an often has the connotation of "universe" or, in the plural ("the heavens"), of "cosmic systems".
3 1 See note 38 on the first part of 21 :30. The phrase inna la-musi'un clearly foreshadows the modern notion of the "expanding universe" - that is, the fact that the cosmos, though finite in extent, is continuously expanding in space.
32 I.e., in accordance with the requirements of the living organisms that were to - and did develop on it.
33 Lit., "of every thing have We created pairs" - a phrase which is explained in note 18 on 36: 36.
34 Cf. 89:3 and the corresponding note 2. ]]