46. Al-Ahqaf (The Sand-Dunes)

Mecca Period 66

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

وَلَقَدْ أَهْلَكْنَا مَا حَوْلَكُم مِّنَ الْقُرَى ...

46:27. We destroyed aforetime populations round about you;

C4807. In Arabian history and tradition alone, to say nothing of Allah's Signs elsewhere, sin inevitably suffered its Punishment, and in various ways. Would not the later people take warning?

... وَصَرَّفْنَا الْآيَاتِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ ﴿٢٧﴾

and We have shown the Signs in various ways, that they may turn (to Us).

فَلَوْلَا نَصَرَهُمُ الَّذِينَ اتَّخَذُوا مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ قُرْبَانًا آلِهَةً...

46:28. Why then was no help forthcoming to them from those whom they worshipped as gods, besides Allah, as a means of access (to Allah)?

...بَلْ ضَلُّوا عَنْهُمْ...

Nay, they left them in the lurch:

...وَذَلِكَ إِفْكُهُمْ وَمَا كَانُوا يَفْتَرُونَ ﴿٢٨﴾

but that was their Falsehood and their invention.

C4808. The false things that they worshipped were figments of their imagination. If they had had any existence in fact, it was not of the kind they imagined.

Asad’s Version:

46:27 Thus have We destroyed many a [sinful] community living round about you; 32 and yet, [before destroying them,] We had given many facets to [Our warning] messages, so that they might turn back [from their evil ways].

(46:28) But, then, did those [beings) whom they had chosen to worship as deities beside God, hoping that they would bring them nearer [to Him], 33 help them [in the end]? Nay, they forsook them: for that [alleged divinity] was but an outcome of

their self-delusion and all their false imagery. 34

[[Asad’s notes -

32 I.e., "close to you in space as well as in time". In its wider sense, this phrase denotes "all the rest of the world".

33 This clause gives the meaning of the expression qurbanan, which contains an allusion not merely to false deities but also to the deification of saints, living or dead, who allegedly act as mediators between man and the transcendental Supreme Being.

34 Lit., "that was their lie and all that they were wont to invent". ]]