34.Surah Saba'
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
وَلَوْ
تَرَى إِذْ
فَزِعُوا فَلَا
فَوْتَ وَأُخِذُوا
مِن مَّكَانٍ
قَرِيبٍ ﴿٥١﴾
34: 51. If thou couldst but see when they will quake with terror:
but then there will be no escape (for them), and they will be seized from a position (quite) near.
C3863. After the arguments for the reality and triumph of Truth, we are asked to contemplate the position of the opposers of Truth when Truth is established. They will be struck with terror: for Truth is all-compelling. They will wish they could get away from that position, but that would be impossible.
They will not be able to move far; they will be held fast to the consequences of their own earlier conduct. They will be caught quite close to the point of their departure from Truth.
وَقَالُوا
آمَنَّا
بِهِ...
34: 52. And they will say, "We do believe (now) in the (truth)":
... وَأَنَّى لَهُمُ التَّنَاوُشُ مِن مَكَانٍ بَعِيدٍ ﴿٥٢﴾
but how could they receive (faith) from a position (so) far off --
C3864. They will now profess their faith in Truth, but of what value will such profession be?
Faith is a belief in things unseen: now everything is plain and open before them. The position in which they could have received Faith is left far off behind them, when Truth was struggling and asked for help or asylum, and they cruelly, arrogantly, insultingly repudiated Truth.
وَقَدْ
كَفَرُوا
بِهِ مِن قَبْلُ...
34: 53. Seeing that they did reject faith (entirely) before,
... وَيَقْذِفُونَ بِالْغَيْبِ مِن مَّكَانٍ بَعِيدٍ ﴿٥٣﴾
and that they (continually) cast (slanders) on the Unseen from a position far off?
C3865. Not only did they reject the Truth of the Unseen (the true Reality), but they spread all sorts of false and malicious insinuations at the preachers of Truth, calling them dishonest men, liars, hypocrites, and so on.
They did it like a coward taking up a sneaking position far from the fight and speeding arrows at a distant target.
وَحِيلَ
بَيْنَهُمْ
وَبَيْنَ مَا
يَشْتَهُونَ
...
34: 54. And between them and their desires, is placed a barrier,
C3866. What they desire is to suppress Truth and to indulge in the satisfaction of their own evil, selfish motives.
They will be baulked in both, and that itself will be their anguish and punishment. That has always been the law in the eternal struggle between Right and Wrong. All partisans of such narrow cliques have always suffered the same fate.
... كَمَا فُعِلَ بِأَشْيَاعِهِم مِّن قَبْلُ...
as was done in the past with their partisans:
C3867. Note that verses 51-54 are a powerful description of the conflict between right and wrong, and may be understood in many meanings.
1. The description applies to the position in the final Hereafter, as compared with the position in this life.
2. It applies to the position of triumphant Islam in Madinah and later as compared with the position of persecuted Islam in its early days in Makkah.
3. It applies to the reversal of the position of right and wrong at various phases of the world's history,
4. or of individual history.
... إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا فِي شَكٍّ مُّرِيبٍ ﴿٥٤﴾
for they were indeed in suspicious (disquieting) doubt.
C3868. Cf. 14:9, and see n. 1884.
Asad’s Version:
34:51 IF THOU couldst but see [how the deniers of the truth will fare on Resurrection Day,] when they will shrink in terror, with nowhere to escape since they will have been seized from so close nearby 63 –
(34:52) and will cry, "We do (now] believe in it!" But how can they [hope to] attain [to salvation] from so far away, 64
(34:53) seeing that aforetime they had been bent on denying the truth, and had been wont to cast scorn, from far away, on something that was beyond the reach of human perception? 65
34:54
And so, a barrier will be set between them and all that they had [ever] desired," as will be done to such of their kind as lived before their time: for, behold, they [too were lost in doubt amounting to suspicion. 67
[[ Asad’s notes - 58 I.e., no reward of a material nature: cf. 25:57 "no reward other than that he who so wills may unto his Sustainer find a way".
59 Cf. 21:18.
60 Cf. 17:81.
61 I.e., in contrast to the creativeness inherent in every true idea, falsehood - being in itself an illusion - cannot really create anything or revive any values that may have been alive in the past.
62 According to Zamakhshari, the idea expressed by the interpolated words "due to my own self" is implied in the above, inasmuch as "everything that goes against [the spiritual interests of] oneself is caused by oneself". (See note 4 on 14:4.)
63 Lit., "from a place nearby" - i.e., from within their own selves: cf. 17:13 ("every human being's destiny have We tied to his neck") and the corresponding note 17. The same idea is expressed in 13:5 ("it is they who carry the shackles [of their own making] around their necks"), as well as in the second part of verse 33 of the present surah ("We shall have put shackles around the necks of those who had been bent on denying the truth"). See also 50:41 and the corresponding note 33.
64 Lit., "from a place far-away" -i.e., from their utterly different past life on earth.
65 The obvious implication is that man's fate in the hereafter will be a consequence of, and invariably conditioned by, his spiritual attitude and the manner of his life during the first, earthly stage of his existence. In this instance, the expression "from far away" is apparently used in a sense similar to sayings like "far off the mark" or "without rhyme or reason", and is meant to qualify as groundless and futile all negative speculations about what the Qur'an describes as al-ghayb ("that which is beyond the reach of human [or "a created being's"] perception"): in this case,
life after death.
66 Thus, the impossibility of attaining to the fulfilment of any of their desires - whether positive or negative - sums up, as it were, the suffering of the damned in the life to come.
67 I.e., a suspicion that all moral postulates were but meant to deprive them of what they considered to be the "legitimate advantages" of life in this world. ]]