44. Surah Ad-Dukhan
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
فَارْتَقِبْ
يَوْمَ ...
44: 10. Then watch thou for the Day,
C4695. What Day is this?
It obviously refers to great calamity, and from the wording it is to be a great calamity in the future, seen with the prophetic eye.
The word yagsha in verse 11 may be compared to gashiya in 88:1, which obviously refers to the final Day of Judgment.
But verse 15 below ("We shall remove the Penalty for a while") shows that it is not the final Judgment referred to here, but some calamity that was to happen soon afterwards, Perhaps it was a famine, about which see the next note.
... تَأْتِي السَّمَاء بِدُخَانٍ مُّبِينٍ ﴿١٠﴾
that the sky will bring forth a kind of smoke (or mist) plainly visible.
C4696. The "smoke" or "mist" is interpreted on good authority to refer to a severe famine in Makkah, in which men were so pinched with hunger that they saw mist before their eyes when they looked at the sky.
Ibn Kathir in his Tarikh mentions two famines in Makkah, one in the 8th year of the Mission, say the fourth year before the Hijrah, and another about the 8th year after the Hijrah. But as either or both of these famines lasted as many as seven years, the dates are to be taken very roughly. It is even possible that the two famines were continuous, of varying severity from year to year.
Bukhari mentions only the post-Hijrah famine, which was apparently so severe that men began to eat bones and carrion. Abu Sufyan (about 8 A.H.) approached the holy Prophet to intercede and pray for the removal of the famine, as the Pagans attributed it to the curse of the Prophet. Surah 23., which is also Makkan, but of later date than the present Surah, also refers to a famine:
As Surahs were not all revealed entire, but many came piecemeal, it is possible that particular verses in a given Surah may be of different dates from the Surah as a whole.
يَغْشَى
النَّاسَ هَذَا
عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ
﴿١١﴾
44: 11. Enveloping the people:
this will be a Penalty Grievous.
رَبَّنَا
اكْشِفْ عَنَّا
الْعَذَابَ
إِنَّا مُؤْمِنُونَ
﴿١٢﴾
44: 12. (They will say:)
"Our Lord! remove the Penalty from us for We do really believe!"
أَنَّى
لَهُمُ الذِّكْرَى
...
44: 13. How shall the Message be (effectual) for them,
C4697. The Quraish had before them a prophet whose purity of life was openly known to them; they themselves called him al-Amin (worthy of all trust); he preached in their own language in words of burning eloquence and transparent clearness; yet they turned away from him and called him a madman, or one whose Message was not inspired by Allah, but written by some hidden hand (see next note)!
How will the teaching of spiritual Truth make way among such unreasonable people?
... وَقَدْ جَاءهُمْ رَسُولٌ مُّبِينٌ ﴿١٣﴾
seeing that a Messenger explaining things clearly has (already) come to them --
ثُمَّ
تَوَلَّوْا
عَنْهُ وَقَالُوا
مُعَلَّمٌ
مَّجْنُونٌ
﴿١٤﴾
44: 14. Yet they turn away from him and say:
"Tutored (by others), a man possessed!"
C4698.
Tutored.- see 16:103, and n. 2143.
Possessed: see 15:6, and n. 1940.
Asad’s Version:
44:10 WAIT, THEN, for the Day when the skies shall bring forth a pall of smoke which will make obvious [the approach of the Last Hour],
(44:11) enveloping all mankind, [and causing the sinners to exclaim:] "Grievous is this suffering!
(44:12) O our Sustainer, relieve us of suffering, for, verily, we [now] believe [in Thee] ! "
44:13 [But] how shall this remembrance avail them [at the Last Hour], seeing that an apostle had previously come unto them, clearly expounding the truth,
(44: 14) whereupon they turned their backs on him and said, "Taught [by others] is he, 8 a madman"?