24. Surah An Nur

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

24: 54. Say:

قُلْ أَطِيعُوا اللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُوا الرَّسُولَ...

Obey Allah, and obey the Messenger:

...فَإِن تَوَلَّوا فَإِنَّمَا عَلَيْهِ مَا حُمِّلَ وَعَلَيْكُم مَّا حُمِّلْتُمْ...

but if ye turn away, he is only responsible for the duty placed on him and ye for that placed on you.

...وَإِن تُطِيعُوهُ تَهْتَدُوا...

If ye obey him, ye shall be on right guidance.

...وَمَا عَلَى الرَّسُولِ إِلَّا الْبَلَاغُ الْمُبِينُ ﴿٥٤﴾

The Messenger's duty is only to preach the clear (Message)."

C3030. 'If you disobey Allah's commands as explained by His Prophet, you are not going to be forced.

The Prophet's mission is to train your will and explain clearly all the implications of your conduct. The responsibility for your conduct rests entirely on yourselves.

وَعَدَ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مِنكُمْ وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ...

55. Allah has promised, to those among you who believe and work righteous deeds,

...لَيَسْتَخْلِفَنَّهُم فِي الْأَرْضِ كَمَا اسْتَخْلَفَ الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ...

that He will, of a surety, grant them in the land, inheritance (of power), as He granted it to those before them;

C3031. Three things are promised here, to those who have Faith and obey Allah's Law:

1. that they will inherit power and authority in the land, not for any selfish purposes of theirs nor by way of favouritism, but in order that they may maintain Allah's Law;

2. that the Religion of Right, which Allah has chosen for them, will be openly established, and will suppress all wrong and oppression;

3. that the righteous will live in peace and security, instead of having to suffer persecution,

or leave their hearths and homes for the cause of Allah,

or practise the rites of their Faith in secret.

...وَلَيُمَكِّنَنَّ لَهُمْ دِينَهُمُ الَّذِي ارْتَضَى لَهُمْ ...

that He will establish in authority their religion -- the one which He has chosen for them;

... وَلَيُبَدِّلَنَّهُم مِّن بَعْدِ خَوْفِهِمْ أَمْنًا...

and that He will change (their state), after the fear in which they (lived), to one of security and peace:

C3032. If this verse was revealed about the time of the Battle of the Ditch (Khandaq), also called the Battle of the Confederates (Ahzab), A.H. 4-5, we can imagine the comfort it gave to the Muslims who were besieged in Madinah by a force ten times their number.

The Muslims then lived in a state of great suspense and danger, and under arms for days on end. (See 23:9-20).

The security and authority they were promised came to them subsequently in abundant measures.

...يَعْبُدُونَنِي لَا يُشْرِكُونَ بِي شَيْئًا...

'They will worship Me (alone) and not associate aught with Me.'

Asad’s Version:

24:54 [Asad] Say: "Pay heed unto God, and pay heed unto the Apostle."

And if you turn away [from the Apostle, know that] he will have to answer only for whatever he has been charged with, and you, for what you have been charged with; but if you pay heed unto him, you will be on the right way. Withal, the Apostle is not bound to do more than clearly deliver the message [entrusted to him] .

24:55 God has promised those of you who have attained to faith and do righteous deeds that, of a certainty, He will cause them to accede to power on earth, 71 even as He caused [some of] those who lived before them to accede to it; and that, of a certainty, He will firmly establish for' them the religion which He has been pleased to bestow on them; 72 and that, of a certainly, He will cause their erstwhile state of fear to be replaced by a sense of security 73 - [seeing that] they worship Me (alone], not ascribing divine powers to aught beside Me. 74 But all who, after [having understood] this, choose to deny the truth - it is they, they who are truly iniquitous!

[[Asad’s notes:-

71 Lit., "cause them to be successors on earth" - i.e., enable them to achieve, in their turn, power and security and, thus, the capability to satisfy their worldly needs. This Qur'anic reference to God's "promise" contains an oblique allusion to the God-willed natural law which invariably makes the rise and fall of nations dependent on their moral qualities.

72 Cf. 5:3 - "I have willed that self-surrender unto Me (al- islam) shall be your religion". Its "firm establishment" (tamkin) relates to the strengthening of the believers' faith as well as to the growth of its moral influence in the world.

73 Lit., "exchange for them, after their fear [or "danger"], security". It is to be noted that the term amn signifies not merely outward, physical security but also - and, indeed, originally - "freedom from fear" (Taj al-'Arus). Hence, the above clause implies not only a promise of communal security after an initial period of weakness and danger (which, as history tells us, overshadows the beginnings of every genuine religious movement), but also the promise of an individual sense of inner security - that absence of all fear of the Unknown which characterizes a true believer. (See next note.)

74 I.e., the believer's freedom from fear is a direct outcome of his intellectual and emotional refusal to attribute to anyone or anything but God the power to shape his destiny.

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