25. [al-Furqan, Mecca 42]

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

وَيَوْمَ يَحْشُرُهُمْ وَمَا يَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ...

25: 17. The Day He will gather them together as well as those whom they worship besides Allah,

... فَيَقُولُ ...

He will ask:

C3072. The question is as in a Court of Justice, to convince those who stand arraigned.

... أَأَنتُمْ أَضْلَلْتُمْ عِبَادِي هَؤُلَاء أَمْ هُمْ ضَلُّوا السَّبِيلَ ﴿١٧﴾

"Was it ye who led these my servants astray,

or did they stray from the Path themselves?"

قَالُوا سُبْحَانَكَ مَا كَانَ يَنبَغِي لَنَا أَن نَّتَّخِذَ مِن دُونِكَ مِنْ أَوْلِيَاء...

25: 18. They will say:

"Glory to Thee! not meet was it for us that we should take for protectors others besides Thee:

C3073. The creatures of Allah who were worshipped will prove that they never asked for worship: on the contrary they themselves worshipped Allah and sought the protection of Allah and of none but Allah. Cf. 46:5-6.

They will go further and show that the false worshippers added ingratitude to their other sins: for Allah bestowed abundance on them, and they blasphemed against Allah. They were indeed "worthless and destroyed", for the word bar bears both significations.

Asad’s Version:

25:17

BUT [as for people who are oblivious of thy Sustainer's oneness 12 -] one Day He will gather them together with all that they [now) worship instead of God, and will ask [those to whom divinity was falsely ascribed 13 ]: "Was it you who led these My creatures astray, or did they by themselves stray from the right path?"

25:18

They will answer: "Limitless art Thou in Thy glory! It was inconceivable for us to take for our masters anyone but Thyself! " But [as for them - ] Thou didst allow them and their forefathers to enjoy [the pleasures of] life to such an extent that 15 they forgot all remembrance [of Thee]: for they were people devoid of all good."

[[Asad’s notes -12 This passage connects elliptically with verse 3 above.

13 The rhetorical "question" which follows is obviously addressed to wrongfully deified rational beings - i.e., prophets or saints - and not, as some commentators assume, to lifeless idols which, as it were, "will be made to speak".

14 So., "and so it would have been morally impossible for us to ask others to worship us". On the other hand, Ibn Kathir understands the expression "for us" (lana) as denoting "us human beings" in general, and not merely the speakers - in which case the sentence could be rendered thus: "It is not right for us [human beings] to take...', etc. In either case, the above allegorical "question~and~answer" - repeated in many variations throughout the Qur'an - is meant to stress, in a dramatic manner, the moral odiousness and intellectual futility of attributing divine qualities to any being other than God.

15 This is the meaning of harta (lit., "till" or "until") in the present context. ]]