29. Al-'Ankabut (The Spider)

Period Uncertain

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

وَمَا كُنتَ تَتْلُو مِن قَبْلِهِ مِن كِتَابٍ وَلَا تَخُطُّهُ بِيَمِينِكَ...

29: 48 And thou wast not (able) to recite a Book, before this (Book came), nor art thou (able) to transcribe it with thy right hand:

C3478. The holy Prophet was not a learned man. Before the Quran was revealed to him, he never claimed to proclaim a Message from Allah. He was not in the habit of preaching eloquent truths as from a Book, before he received his Revelation, nor was he able to write or transcribe with his own hand.

If he had had these worldly gifts, there would have been some plausibility in the charge of the talkers of vanities that he spoke not from inspiration but from other people's books, or that he composed the beautiful verses of the Quran himself and committed them to memory in order to recite them to people.

The circumstances in which the Quran came bear their own testimony to its truth as from Allah.

...إِذًا لَّارْتَابَ الْمُبْطِلُونَ ﴿٤٨﴾

in that case, indeed, would the talkers of vanities have doubted.

بَلْ هُوَ آيَاتٌ بَيِّنَاتٌ فِي صُدُورِ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ...

29: 49. Nay, here are Signs self-evident in the hearts of those endowed with knowledge:

C3479. "Knowledge" ('ilm) means both power of judgment in discerning the value of truth and acquaintance with previous revelations. It implies both literal and spiritual insight.

sadr, "breast".

...وَمَا يَجْحَدُ بِآيَاتِنَا إِلَّا الظَّالِمُونَ ﴿٤٩﴾

and none but the unjust reject Our Signs.

C3480. Cf. the last clause of verse 47 above. There the argument was that the rejection of the Quran was a mark of Unbelief.

Now the argument is carried a stage farther. Such rejection is also a mark of injustice, a deliberate perversity in going against obvious Signs, which should convince all honest men.

Asad’s Version:

(29:48) for, [O Muhammad,] thou hast never been able to recite any divine writ ere this one [was revealed], nor didst thou ever transcribe one with thine own hand 44 - or else, they who try to disprove the truth [of thy revelation] 47 might indeed have had cause to doubt [it].

29:49 Nay, but this [divine writ] consists of messages clear to the hearts of all who are gifted with [innate] knowledge 48 - and none could knowingly reject Our messages unless it be such as would do wrong [to themselves].

[[ Asad’s note - 47 The participial noun mubtil is derived from the verb abt ala, "he made a false [or "vain"] claim", or "tried to disprove the truth [of something]", or "to reduce [something] to nothing", or "to prove [it] to be of no account", or "null and Void", or "unfounded", "false", "spurious", etc.; irrespective of whether the object is true or false, authentic or spurious, valid or unfounded (Lisan al-'Arab and Taj al-'Arus). ]]