42. Sura ash-Shura

(Consultation)

Mecca Period 53

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ الْجَوَارِ فِي الْبَحْرِ كَالْأَعْلَامِ ﴿٣٢﴾

42: 32. And among His Signs are the ships, smooth-running through the ocean, (tall) as mountains.

C4572. The great and stately ships are appealed to again and again as being among the Signs of Allah, from many aspects.

The aspect referred to here is how the great sailing ship runs prosperously as long as "the breath of heaven fill the sail", and what a miserable helpless creature she becomes when she once becomes becalmed.

Students of English literature will remember the striking picture which Coleridge draws in his "Rime of the Ancient Mariner."

The becalmed ship is as it were in the grip of Death because of the crime which the sailor had committed, and his mind feels psychologically the full force of the Sign.

By analogy we can apply this to other craft: the steamer is not free from other dangers of the sea, nor air-craft from numerous dangers of the air.

إِن يَشَأْ يُسْكِنِ الرِّيحَ فَيَظْلَلْنَ رَوَاكِدَ عَلَى ظَهْرِهِ...

42: 33. If it be His Will, He can still the Wind: then would they become motionless on the back of the (ocean).

...إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِّكُلِّ صَبَّارٍ شَكُورٍ ﴿٣٣﴾

Verily in this are Signs for everyone who patiently perseveres and is grateful.

C4573. If we study such Signs in the right spirit, we learn the highest lessons for out spiritual life: on the one hand, patient perseverance with reliance on Allah, and on the other a feeling or attitude of grateful thanks to Allah, that He enables us to achieve so much in spite of our shortcomings, and forgives in us so much that deserves punishment and disaster.

أَوْ يُوبِقْهُنَّ بِمَا كَسَبُوا وَيَعْفُ عَن كَثِيرٍ ﴿٣٤﴾

42: 34. Or He can cause them to perish because of the (evil) which (the men) have earned:

but much doth He forgive.

Asad’s Version:

42:32 And among His signs 35 are the ships that sail like [floating] mountains through the seas:

(42:33) if He so wills, He stills the wind, and then they lie motionless on the sea's surface [and] herein, behold, there are messages indeed for all who are wholly patient in adversity and deeply grateful [to God];

(42:34) or else He may cause them to perish because of what they have wrought; 34 and [withal,] He pardons much.