[[In the following expressions lay extreme arrogance and obstinacy]]

The Thirty-Fourth Surah

Saba-(Sheba) Mecca 58 [54 verses]

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

وَقَالَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَن نُّؤْمِنَ بِهَذَا الْقُرْآنِ وَلَا بِالَّذِي بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ...

34:31. The Unbelievers say: "We shall neither believe in this scripture nor in (any) that (came) before it."

C3834. To the Pagans all scriptures are taboo, whether it be the Quran or any Revelation that came before it.

The people of the Book despised the Pagans, but in their arrogant assumption of superiority, prevented them, by their example, from accepting the latest and most universal Scripture when it came in the form of the Quran. This relative position, of men who fancy themselves on their knowledge, and men whom they despise but exploit and mislead, always exists on this earth.

I have mentioned the people of the Book and the Pagan Arabs merely by way of illustration.

... وَلَوْ تَرَى إِذِ الظَّالِمُونَ مَوْقُوفُونَ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ ...

Couldst thou but see when the wrongdoers will be made to stand before their Lord,

... يَرْجِعُ بَعْضُهُمْ إِلَى بَعْضٍ الْقَوْلَ...

throwing back the word (of blame) on one another!

C3835. One disbelief is as bad as another. There is little to choose between them. But when the final account will be taken, there will be mutual recriminations between the one and the other.

... يَقُولُ الَّذِينَ اسْتُضْعِفُوا لِلَّذِينَ اسْتَكْبَرُوا ...

Those who had been despised will say to the arrogant ones:

C3836. The Pagans will naturally say to the people of the Book:

"You misled us; you had previous Revelations, and you should have known how Allah sent His Messengers; had it not been for your bad example, we should have received Allah's Revelation and become Believers."

Or the humble followers will say this to their leaders, or those less gifted will say to those by whom they were misled and exploited.

The dichotomy is between such as pretentiously held their heads high in the world and such as they profited by but held in contempt.

... لَوْلَا أَنتُمْ لَكُنَّا مُؤْمِنِينَ ﴿٣١﴾

"Had it not been for you, we should certainly have been believers!"

قَالَ الَّذِينَ اسْتَكْبَرُوا لِلَّذِينَ اسْتُضْعِفُوا...

34: 32. The arrogant ones will say to those who had been despised:

... أَنَحْنُ صَدَدْنَاكُمْ عَنِ الْهُدَى بَعْدَ إِذْ جَاءكُم...

"Was it we who kept you back from Guidance after it reached you?

... بَلْ كُنتُم مُّجْرِمِينَ ﴿٣٢﴾

Nay, rather, it was ye who transgressed."

C3837. In the mutual reproaches between the misleaders and the misled ones, there will be a grain of truth on both sides, and yet both were guilty in not realising their own personal responsibility.

وَقَالَ الَّذِينَ اسْتُضْعِفُوا لِلَّذِينَ اسْتَكْبَرُوا...

34: 33. Those who had been despised will say to the arrogant ones:

... بَلْ مَكْرُ اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ ...

"Nay! it was a plot (of yours) by day and by night.

C3838. The more intelligent ones who exploit the weaker ones are constantly plotting night and day to keep the latter ignorant and under their thumb. They show them the ways of Evil, because by that means they are more in their power.

... إِذْ تَأْمُرُونَنَا أَن نَّكْفُرَ بِاللَّهِ وَنَجْعَلَ لَهُ أَندَادًا ...

Behold! ye (constantly) ordered us to be ungrateful to Allah and to attribute equals to Him!"

C3839. If all men worshipped the true God, and none but Him, they could not on the one hand be trampled upon, and on the other hand they could not be unjust. It is in the worship of false ideals or false gods that alluring structures of fraud and injustice ate built up.

... وَأَسَرُّوا النَّدَامَةَ لَمَّا رَأَوُا الْعَذَابَ...

They will declare (their) repentance when they see the Penalty:

C3840. Cf. 10:54, and n. 1445.

All these mutual recriminations would be swallowed up in the general realisation of the Truth by both sides in the Hereafter. They would be prepared openly to declare their repentance, but it would be too late. The yoke of slavery to Evil will be on their necks.

Allah's justice put it there, but what else could it do?

Their own sins will cry out against them and hold them under their yokes.

... وَجَعَلْنَا الْأَغْلَالَ فِي أَعْنَاقِ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا...

We shall put yokes on the necks of the Unbelievers:

... هَلْ يُجْزَوْنَ إِلَّا مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ ﴿٣٣﴾

it would only be a requital for their (ill) deeds.

Asad’s Version:

(34:31) And [yet,] those who are bent on denying the truth do say, "We shall never believe in this Qur'an, and neither in whatever there still remains of earlier revelations But if thou couldst only see [how it will be on Judgment Day,] when these evildoers shall be made to stand before their Sustainer, hurling reproaches back and forth at one another! Those [of them] who had been weak [on earth] will say unto those who had gloried in their arrogance: 38 "Had it not been for you, we would certainly have been believers!"

35 See note 49 on the first sentence of 10:31.

36 The Qur'anic answer to this ironic question is found in 7:187.

37 For my rendering of sa'ah (lit., "hour") as "a single moment", see surah 7, note 26.

38 For the rendering of ma bayna yadayhi, in relation to the Qur'an, as "whatever there still remains of earlier revelations", see surah 3, note 3. As is evident from the preceding and subsequent verses, the rejection by "those who are bent on denying the truth" of all revelation is motivated by their refusal to believe in resurrection and God's judgment, and, hence, to admit the validity of absolute moral standards as postulated by every higher religion.

34:32

[And] those who were wont to glory in their arrogance will say unto those who had been

weak: "Why - did we keep you [forcibly] from following the right path after it had become obvious to you?" Nay, it was but you [yourselves] who were guilty! "

34:33 But those who had been weak will say unto those who had gloried in their arrogance: "Nay, [what kept us away was your] devising of false arguments, night and day," [against God's messages as you did] when you persuaded us to blaspheme against God and to claim that there are powers that could rival Him" 42

And when they see the suffering [that awaits them], they will [all] be unable to express [the full depth of] their remorse: 43 for We shall have put shackles around the necks of those who had been bent on denying the truth: 44 (and] will this be aught but a [just] requital for what they were doing?

[[Asad’s notes - 39 I.e., as the "intellectual leaders" of their community.

40 Lit., "did we keep you away from guidance after it had come to you?"

41 I.e., always. The term makr (lit., "a scheme" or "scheming") has here the connotation of "devising false arguments" against something that is true: in this case, as is shown in the first paragraph of verse 31 above, against God's messages (cf. a similar use of this term in 10:21 and 35:43; see also 86: 15).

42 Lit., "[that we should] give God compeers (andad)". For an explanation of this phrase and my rendering of it, see surah 2, note 13.

43 For a justification of this rendering of the phrase asarru 'n-nadamah, see surah 10, note 77.

44 As pointed out by several of the classical commentators (e.g., Zamakhshari, Razi and Baydawi) in their explanations of similar phrases occurring in 13:5 and 36:8, the "shackles" (aghlal)which these sinners carry, as it were, "around their necks" in life, and will carry on Judgment Day, are a metaphor of the enslavement of their souls to the false values to which they had surrendered, and of the suffering which will be caused by that surrender.]]