27 An-Naml (The Ants)
Mecca Period 48
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
قُلِ
الْحَمْدُ
لِلَّهِ وَسَلَامٌ
عَلَى عِبَادِهِ
الَّذِينَ
اصْطَفَى...
27: 59. Say:
Praise be to Allah, and Peace on His servants whom He has chosen (for his Message).
C3292. Allah's revelation having been described as Light, Guidance, and Mercy, we ought all to be grateful to Allah for vouchsafing His revelation.
We ought also to appreciate the services of Allah's Messengers, who are chosen to deliver Ms Message: we ought to send salutations of Peace on them, instead of plotting, as the wicked do, for their removal or persecution, or banishment or death. For these Prophets of Allah undergo every kind of hardship and forego every kind of advantage or pleasure in life for serving mankind.
And Allah is truth and goodness, and all our fancies of false worship are falsehoods and evils. Shall we prefer falsehood and evil to truth and goodness? (R).
...آللَّهُ خَيْرٌ أَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ ﴿٥٩﴾
(Who) is better? --
Allah or the false gods they associate with Him?
أَمَّنْ
خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ
وَالْأَرْضَ...
27: 60. Or, who has created the heaven and the earth,
C3293. The order, beauty, and grandeur of the Universe are appealed to. They show unity of design and purpose.
How can unjust, ignorant, foolish, heedless, false men think of a multiplicity of gods, or of any god, besides the One True God?
...وَأَنزَلَ لَكُم مِّنَ السَّمَاء مَاء...
and who sends you down rain from the sky?
...فَأَنبَتْنَا بِهِ حَدَائِقَ ذَاتَ بَهْجَةٍ...
Yea, with it We cause to grow well-planted orchards full of beauty and delight:
...مَّا كَانَ لَكُمْ أَن تُنبِتُوا شَجَرَهَا...
it is not in your power to cause the growth of the trees in them.
C3294. To make a single seed germinate and grow into a tree is beyond man's power. When it comes to a great well-laid-out garden of beauty and delight, no one would think it grew up of itself without a Gardener's consummate art.
And the orchard is more than the trees in it: there is design and beauty in their arrangement: proper spaces have to be left between them for the growth of their roots, for the aeration of the soil beneath them, and for the penetration of air and sunlight between their branches.
How can any one then think of the wonderful Universe as a whole, without thinking of the far higher Unity of Design, the evidence of the One True Allah? (R).
...أَإِلَهٌ مَّعَ اللَّهِ ...
(Can there be another) god besides Allah?
...بَلْ هُمْ قَوْمٌ يَعْدِلُونَ ﴿٦٠﴾
Nay, they are a people who swerve from justice.
أَمَّن
جَعَلَ
الْأَرْضَ
قَرَارًا...
27: 61. Or, who has made the earth firm to live in;
...وَجَعَلَ خِلَالَهَا أَنْهَارًا وَجَعَلَ لَهَا رَوَاسِيَ ...
made rivers in its midst; set thereon mountains immovable;
C3295. Cf. 16:15 and notes 2038 and 2039.
The terra firma, the flowing water, and the cycle of water circulation-sea, vapour, clouds, rain, rivers, and sea again,-all one and yet all distinct, with a sort of wonderful barrier between salt water and fresh water: can man see all this and yet be ignorant of Allah?
... وَجَعَلَ بَيْنَ الْبَحْرَيْنِ حَاجِزًا...
and made a separating bar between the two bodies of flowing water?
C3296. Cf. 25:53 and n. 3111 and n. 3112.
...أَإِلَهٌ مَّعَ اللَّهِ...
(Can there be another) god besides Allah?
...بَلْ أَكْثَرُهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ ﴿٦١﴾
Nay, most of them know not.
أَمَّن
يُجِيبُ
الْمُضْطَرَّ
إِذَا دَعَاهُ...
27: 62. Or, who listens to the (soul) distressed when it calls on Him,
...وَيَكْشِفُ السُّوءَ ...
and who relieves its suffering,
C3297. Besides the evidence of external nature, there is the still more intimate evidence in man's inner conscience and heart.
Allah listens to man's cry of agony and relieves his suffering, and He has given him superiority over other creation on this earth, through his mind and soul. Is man then going to run after inferior beings and forget Allah?
... وَيَجْعَلُكُمْ خُلَفَاء الْأَرْضِ...
and makes you (mankind) inheritors of the earth?
...أَإِلَهٌ مَّعَ اللَّهِ...
(Can there be another) god besides Allah?
...قَلِيلًا مَّا تَذَكَّرُونَ ﴿٦٢﴾
Little it is that ye heed!
أَمَّن
يَهْدِيكُمْ
فِي ظُلُمَاتِ
الْبَرِّ
وَالْبَحْرِ...
27: 63. Or, who guides you through the depths of darkness on land and sea,
...وَمَن يُرْسِلُ الرِّيَاحَ بُشْرًا بَيْنَ يَدَيْ رَحْمَتِهِ...
and who sends the winds as heralds of glad tidings, going before His mercy?
After external nature, our attention was drawn to our inner consciousness; after that, it is drawn here to our social and collective life, in which we use the forces of nature for international intercourse, trade, agriculture, production, and economic well-being generally.
In the next verse, we are asked to contemplate creation from its primeval stages, through its intermediate processes, to the final Destiny in a new Creation-a new heaven and a new earth.
...أَإِلَهٌ مَّعَ اللَّهِ...
(Can there be another) god besides Allah? --
...تَعَالَى اللَّهُ عَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ ﴿٦٣﴾
high is Allah above what they associate with Him!
Asad’s Version:
27:59 SAY: "All praise is due to God, and peace be upon those servants of His whom He chose [to be His message-bearers]!" Is not God far better than anything to which men [falsely] ascribe a share in His divinity? 54
27:60 Nay - who is it that has created the heavens and the earth, and sends down for you [life-giving] water from the skies? For it is by this means that We cause gardens of shining beauty to grow - [whereas] it is not in your power to cause [even one single of] its trees to grow! Could there be any divine power besides God? Nay, they [who think so] are people who swerve [from the path of reason] !
27:61 Nay - who is it that has made the earth a fitting abode 55 [for living things], and has caused running waters [to flow] in its midst, and has set upon it mountains firm, and has placed a barrier between the two great bodies of water? 54 Could there be any divine power besides God? Nay, most of those [who think so] do not know
[what they are saying] !
27:62 Nay - who is it that responds to the distressed when he calls out to Him, and who removes the ill [that caused the distress], and has made you inherit the earth? 57
Could there be any divine power besides God? How seldom do you keep this in mind!
27:63 Nay - who is it that guides you in the midst of the deep darkness of land and sea, 58 and sends forth the winds as a glad tiding of His coming grace?" Could there be any divine power besides God? Sublimely exalted is God above anything to which men may ascribe a share in His divinity!
[[ Asad’s notes-
51 See note 65 on 7:82.
52 See note 66 on 7 : 83 ; also 11:81 and 66 : 1 0, and the corresponding notes.
53 Cf. 26:173 and the corresponding note 73.
54 Lit., "Is God better, or that to which they ascribe...", etc.: thus including, by implication, not only deified beings or forces of nature, but also false social and moral values to which custom and ancestral tradition have lent an almost "religious" sanction.
55 Lit., "place of rest" (qarar). But see also 77:25-26 and the corresponding note 9.
56 See 25:53 and the corresponding notes 41 and 42.
57 Cf. 2:30 and the corresponding note 22. In the present instance the accent is on God's having caused man to "inherit the earth" by endowing him with specific faculties and abilities an implicit denial of man's claim that he is independent and "master of his fate". ]]