47. Muhammad [38 verses]

Medina 95

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

إِنَّمَا الحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا لَعِبٌ وَلَهْوٌ...

47: 36. The life of this world is but play and amusement:

C4860. Cf. 6:32, and n. 855; and 29:64, and n. 3497 .

Amusement and play are not bad things in themselves. As preparations for the more serious life, they have their value. But if we concentrate on them, and neglect the business of life, we cannot prosper. So we must use our life in this world as a preparation for the next life.

...وَإِن تُؤْمِنُوا وَتَتَّقُوا يُؤْتِكُمْ أُجُورَكُمْ وَلَا يَسْأَلْكُمْ أَمْوَالَكُمْ ﴿٣٦﴾

and if ye believe land guard against evil, He will grant you your recompense, and will not ask you (to give up) your possessions.

C4861. Complete self-sacrifice, if voluntarily offered, has a meaning:

it means that the persons devotion is exclusively and completely for the Cause. But no law or rule can demand it. And a mere offer to kill yourself has no meaning. You should be ready to take risks to your life in fighting for the Cause, but you should aim at life, not death.

If you live, you should be ready to place your substance and your acquisitions at the disposal of the Cause. But it is not reasonable to pauperise yourself and become a hanger- on for the Cause.

Moreover, the inborn tendency to self-preservation in an average man would lead to concealment and niggardliness if all were asked for the Cause, by Law, and there would further be a feeling of bitterness and rebellion.

إِن يَسْأَلْكُمُوهَا فَيُحْفِكُمْ تَبْخَلُوا ...

47: 37. If He were to ask you for all of them, and press you, ye would covetously withhold,

C4862. Cf. 3:180.

... وَيُخْرِجْ أَضْغَانَكُمْ ﴿٣٧﴾

and He would bring out all your ill-feeling.

C4863. Cf. above, verse 29.

Rancour or ill-feeling, or any desire but that of devotion, should never be given a handle in a wise Law.

هَاأَنتُمْ هَؤُلَاء تُدْعَوْنَ لِتُنفِقُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ...

47: 38. Behold, ye are those invited to spend (of your substance) in the way of Allah:

C4864. Here the case of the special devotee and of the average man with his human foibles are distinguished.

Stinginess is not a virtue: it hurts more the finer-nature of the individual practicing it that it hurts the Cause.

Allah is free of all wants and independent of any need that we can meet. His Cause is similarly independent of human aid. But it uses human agency for our own human advancement. The need to be able to serve Allah's cause is ours. We are the needy beggars who should claim the privilege before the Lord of Bounties unbounded. (R).

...فَمِنكُم مَّن يَبْخَلُ وَمَن يَبْخَلْ فَإِنَّمَا يَبْخَلُ عَن نَّفْسِهِ...

but among you are some that are niggardly.

But any who are niggardly are so at the expense of their own souls.

...وَاللَّهُ الْغَنِيُّ وَأَنتُمُ الْفُقَرَاء...

But Allah is free of all wants, and it is ye that are needy.

... وَإِن تَتَوَلَّوْا يَسْتَبْدِلْ قَوْمًا غَيْرَكُمْ ثُمَّ لَا يَكُونُوا أَمْثَالَكُمْ ﴿٣٨﴾

If ye turn back (from the Path), He will substitute in your stead another people;

then they would not be like you!

C4865. If we desert the Cause, the Cause will not fail. Better men than we will uphold the flag. But we should fall, and others will take our place, who are not so timid, half- hearted, or stingy. In Wordsworth's words, "High Heaven rejects the lore of nicely calculated less or more."

Asad’s Version:

(47:36) The life of this world is but a play and a passing delight: but if you believe [in God] and are conscious of Him, He will grant you your deserts. And withal, He does not demand of you (to sacrifice in His cause all of) your possessions: 41

(47:37) [for,] if He were to demand of you all of them, and urge you, 42 you would niggardly cling [to them], and so He would [but] bring out your moral failings. 43

47:38 Behold, [O believers,] it is you who are called upon to spend freely in God's cause: but [even] among you are such as turn out to be niggardly! And yet, he who acts niggardly [in God's cause] is but niggardly towards his own self: for God is indeed self-sufficient, whereas you stand in need [of Him]; and if you turn away [from Him], He will cause other people to take your place, and they will not be the likes of you!

Yuksel’s Version:

47:36 This worldly life is no more than play and vanity. But if you acknowledge and lead a righteous life, He will reward you, and He will not ask you for your wealth.

47:37 If He were to ask you for it, to the extent of creating a hardship for you, you would become stingy, and your hidden evil might be exposed.

47:38 Here you are being invited to spend in the cause of God, but some among you turn stingy. Whoever is stingy is only being stingy on himself. God is the Rich, while you are the poor. If you turn away, He will substitute another people instead of you, then they will not be like you.

[[Asad’s note - 41 Although the life of this world is "but a play and a passing delight", God does not want to deprive the believers of its rightful enjoyment: and so He expects them to sacrifice only a small part of their possessions in His cause. This passage evidently foreshadows the imposition of the obligatory annual tax called zakah ("the purifying dues"), amounting to about 2.5 percent of a Muslims's income and property, as pointed out by most of the classical commentators in connection with the above verse (hence my interpolation). The proceeds of this tax are to be utilized in what the Qur'an escribes as "the cause [lit., "way"] of God", i.e., for the defense and propagation of the Faith and the welfare of the community; and its spiritual purpose is the "purification" of a Muslim's possessions from the blemish of greed and selfishness. (It is to be noted that the payment of zakah was made obligatory at the very beginning of the Medina period, that is, at approximately the same time as the revelation of the present surah.)

42 Sc, "to divest yourselves of all your possessions".

43 For my rendering of adghan as "moral failings", see note 37. In the present context, this term has more or less the same meaning as the term fujur in 91 8. The implication is that since man has been created weak" (4:28), the imposition of too great a burden on the believers would be self- defeating inasmuch as it might result not in an increase of faith but, rather, in its diminution. This passage illustrates the supreme realism of the Qur'an, which takes into account human nature as it is, with all its God-willed complexity and its inner contradictions, and does not, therefore, postulate a priori an impossible ideal as a norm of human behaviour, (Cf 91:8, which speaks of maris personality as "imbued with moral failings as well as consciousness of God" - a phrase which is explained in the corresponding note 6.) ]]