3. Sura al-Imran, Medina 89 [3H, 10H]

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ ...

3: 200. O ye who believe!

...اصْبِرُواْ وَصَابِرُواْ ...

persevere in patience and constancy:

vie in such perseverance;

C502. The full meaning of Sabr is to be understood here, viz.: Patience, perseverance, constancy, self-restraint, refusing to be cowed down.

These virtues we are to exercise for ourselves and in relation to others; we are to set an example, so that others may vie with us, and we are to vie with them, lest we fall short; in this way we strengthen each other and bind our mutual relations closer, in our common service to Allah.

... وَرَابِطُواْ وَاتَّقُواْ اللّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ ﴿٢٠٠﴾

strengthen each other;

and fear Allah; that ye may prosper.

C503. Prosperity (falah) here and in other passages is to be understood in a wide sense, including prosperity in our mundane affairs as well as in spiritual progress.

In both cases it implies happiness and the attainment of our wishes, purified by the love of Allah.

Asad’s Version:

3: 200 O you who have attained to faith! Be patient in adversity, and vie in patience with one another, and be ever ready [to do what is right], and remain conscious of God, so that you might attain to a happy state!