21. Surah Al Anbiya'

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

قَالُوا يَا وَيْلَنَا إِنَّا كُنَّا ظَالِمِينَ ﴿١٤﴾

21: 14. They said: "Ah! woe to us! We were indeed wrongdoers!"

فَمَا زَالَت تِّلْكَ دَعْوَاهُمْ حَتَّى جَعَلْنَاهُمْ حَصِيدًا خَامِدِينَ ﴿١٥﴾

21: 15. And that cry of theirs ceased not, till We made them as a field that is mown, as ashes silent and quenched.

C2675. The two similes present two different aspects of the lamentation of the ungodly.

When they really see the Wrath to come, there is a stampede, but where can they go to?

Their lamentation is now the only mark of their life. But it dies away, as corn vanishes from a field that is being mown, or as a dying fire is slowly extinguished! They do not die. They wish they were dead! (78:40).

Others version:

21:14

And they could only cry: 17 "Oh, woe unto us! Verily, we were wrongdoers!"

(21:15} And that

cry of theirs did not cease until We caused them to become [like] a field mown down, still and

silent as ashes.

Fama zalat tilka daAAwahum hatta jaAAalnahum haseedan khamideena

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Generally Accepted Translations of the Meaning
Muhammad Asad	And that cry of theirs did not cease until We caused them to become [like] a field mown down, still and silent as ashes.	&#x21E8
M. M. Pickthall	And this their crying ceased not till We made them as reaped corn, extinct.	&#x21E8
Shakir	And this ceased not to be their cry till We made them cut off, extinct.	&#x21E8
Yusuf Ali	And that cry of theirs ceased not, till We made them as a field that is mown, as ashes silent and quenched.	&#x21E8
Wahiduddin Khan	and this they kept repeating until We caused them to become like a field mowed down, and reduced to ashes.	&#x21E8
[Al-Muntakhab]	They kept bewailing their misfortune until We reduced them to a useless form like reaped field of corn.	&#x21E8
[Progressive Muslims]	So that remained as their cry until We took them all, and they became still.

[[Asad’s note -

15 For an explanation of the phrase ma utriftum fihi, see surah 11, note 147.

16 The Qur'an does not say whose words these are, but the tenor of this passage indicates, I believe, that it is the scornful, self-accusing voice of the sinners' own conscience: hence my interpolation, between brackets, at the beginning of this verse.

17 Lit, "They said". ]]