51. Surah Adh-Dhariyat (The Dust-Scattering Winds)
Mecca Period 67
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
وَفِي
الْأَرْضِ
آيَاتٌ لِّلْمُوقِنِينَ
﴿٢٠﴾
51: 20. On the earth are Signs for those of assured Faith,
وَفِي
أَنفُسِكُمْ
أَفَلَا تُبْصِرُونَ
﴿٢١﴾
51: 21. As also in your own selves: will ye not then see?
C5002. The Signs and Evidence of Allah are in all nature and within the body and soul of man, if man has but the spiritual eyes to see.
Cf. 41:53.
وَفِي
السَّمَاء
رِزْقُكُمْ
وَمَا تُوعَدُونَ
﴿٢٢﴾
51: 22. And in heaven is your Sustenance, as ((also) that which ye are promised.
C5003. "Sustenance", here as elsewhere, includes physical sustenance, as well as spiritual sustenance. Similarly heaven or sky has both the physical and the spiritual meaning.
The physical sustenance grows from rain from the sky; the spiritual sustenance comes from divine aid, grace, and mercy, and includes the Good News and the Warning which come from Revelation about the Hereafter.
فَوَرَبِّ
السَّمَاء
وَالْأَرْضِ
إِنَّهُ لَحَقٌّ
مِّثْلَ مَا
أَنَّكُمْ
تَنطِقُونَ
﴿٢٣﴾
51: 23. Then, by the Lord of heaven and earth, this is the very Truth, as much as the fact that ye can speak intelligently to each other.
C5004. Attention having been called to the Signs or Evidences of Allah's working on the earth, within ourselves, and in the heavens, in verses 20-22, an appeal is made to our own inner conscience, in the name of the Lord of heaven and earth, to acknowledge and act up to the truth of Revelation, and turn to the spiritual Realities. For they are as real as our own conscious and self-intelligent existence, on which is based all our knowledge.
As a philosopher (Descartes) has said: "I think; therefore I am."
Asad’s Version:
51:20 AND ON EARTH there are signs [of God's existence, visible] to all who are endowed with inner certainly,
(51:21) just as [there are signs thereof] within your own selves: 13 can you not, then, see?
(51:22) And in heaven is [the source of] your sustenance [on earth] 11 and [of] all that you are promised [for your life after death]:
(51:23) for, by the Sustainer of heaven and earth, this [life after death] is the very truth - as true as that you are endowed with speech! 15
Yuksel’s version –
51:20 In the earth are signs for those who reason.
51:21 Within yourselves; do you not see?
51:22 In the heaven is your provision, and what you are promised.
51:23 By the Lord of the heaven and the earth, this is truth just as the fact that you speak.
[[Asad’s notes - 13 See note 3 on 45:4.
14 I.e., both physical (rain) and spiritual (truth and guidance).
15 Lit., "even as you speak" or "are able to speak": an allusion to man's ability to think conceptually and to express himself- that is, to something of which man is absolutely, axiomatically conscious. ]]