37. Surah As-Saffat
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
لِمِثْلِ
هَذَا فَلْيَعْمَلْ
الْعَامِلُونَ
﴿٦١﴾
37: 61. For the like of this let all strive, who wish to strive.
أَذَلِكَ
خَيْرٌ نُّزُلًا
أَمْ شَجَرَةُ
الزَّقُّومِ
﴿٦٢﴾
37: 62. Is that the better entertainment or the Tree of Zaqqum?
This bitter tree of Hell is in contrast with the beautiful Garden of heaven with its delicious fruits.
إِنَّا
جَعَلْنَاهَا
فِتْنَةً
لِّلظَّالِمِينَ
﴿٦٣﴾
37: 63. For We have truly made it (as) a trial for the wrongdoers.
C4073. This dreadful bitter Tree of Hell is truly a trial to the wrong-doers.
- It grows at the bottom of Hell;
- even its fruit-stalks, which should have been tender, are like the heads of devils:
- its produce is eaten voraciously;
- on top of it is a boiling mixture to cut up their entrails (see next note); and
- every time they complete this round of orgies they return to the same game.
A truly lurid picture, but more lurid in reality are the stages of Evil.
- It takes its rise in the lowest depths of corrupted human nature;
- its tenderest affections are degraded to envy and hate;
- the appetite for Evil grows with what it feeds on;
- its "cures" serve but to aggravate the disease; and
- the chain of evil is unending; one round is followed by another in interminable succession.
إِنَّهَا
شَجَرَةٌ تَخْرُجُ
فِي أَصْلِ
الْجَحِيمِ
﴿٦٤﴾
37: 64. For it is a tree that springs out of the bottom of Hell-fire:
طَلْعُهَا
كَأَنَّهُ
رُؤُوسُ الشَّيَاطِينِ
﴿٦٥﴾
37: 65. The shoots of its fruit-stalks are like the heads of devils:
فَإِنَّهُمْ
لَآكِلُونَ
مِنْهَا فَمَالِؤُونَ
مِنْهَا الْبُطُونَ
﴿٦٦﴾
37: 66. Truly they will eat thereof and fill their bellies therewith.
C4074. The parable of fruits and drinks in the contrasted fortunes of the Good and the Evil is further elaborated in 47:15, where the boiling water given to the evil ones cuts up their entrails.
ثُمَّ
إِنَّ لَهُمْ
عَلَيْهَا
لَشَوْبًا مِّنْ
حَمِيمٍ ﴿٦٧﴾
37: 67. Then on top of that they will be given a mixture made of boiling water.
ثُمَّ
إِنَّ مَرْجِعَهُمْ
لَإِلَى الْجَحِيمِ
﴿٦٨﴾
37: 68. Then shall their return be to the (Blazing) Fire.
C4075. When they eat of the zaqqum in the lowest depths of hell, they are apparently brought up to drink of the mixture as a further punishment, after which they go back to repeat the round.
إِنَّهُمْ
أَلْفَوْا
آبَاءهُمْ
ضَالِّينَ ﴿٦٩﴾
37: 69. Truly they found their fathers on the wrong Path;
فَهُمْ
عَلَى آثَارِهِمْ
يُهْرَعُونَ
﴿٧٠﴾
37: 70. So they (too) were rushed down on their footsteps!
C4076. A grim reproach. 'You found your fathers doing wrong; and you must rush headlong in their footsteps to perdition!'
وَلَقَدْ
ضَلَّ قَبْلَهُمْ
أَكْثَرُ
الْأَوَّلِينَ
﴿٧١﴾
37: 71. And truly before them, many of the ancients went astray --
وَلَقَدْ
أَرْسَلْنَا
فِيهِم مُّنذِرِينَ
﴿٧٢﴾
37: 72. But We sent aforetime, among them, (messengers) to admonish them --
C4077. It is human to err. The error is forgiven if there is repentance and amendment. The point is that Allah in His mercy at all times in history sent messengers and teachers to give His Message, and men deliberately rejected that Message.
فَانظُرْ
كَيْفَ كَانَ
عَاقِبَةُ
الْمُنذَرِينَ
﴿٧٣﴾
37: 73. Then see what was the end of those who were admonished (but heeded not) --
C4078. It is on the reception or rejection of Allah's teachings and guidance that judgment will come. In this world itself, see what is the teaching of history. Unrighteousness and wrong-doing never prosper in the long run.
إِلَّا
عِبَادَ اللَّهِ
الْمُخْلَصِينَ
﴿٧٤﴾
37: 74. Except the sincere (and devoted) servants of Allah.
C4079. But there is always a band of sincere and devoted men who serve Allah, and the highest form of life is open to them.
Note that this verse occurs at 37:40 above, where the argument of the difference between the fates of the righteous and the unrighteous was begun. Here it is rounded off with the same phrase, and now we proceed to take illustrations from the early Prophets.
Asad’s Version:
37:61 For the like of this, then, let them labour, those who labour [in God's way]! (37:62) Is such [a paradise] the better welcome - or the [hellish] tree of deadly fruit? 22
(37:63) Verily, We have caused it to be a trial for evildoers: 25
(37:64) for, behold, it is a tree that grows in the very heart of the blazing fire [of hell],
(37:65) its fruit [as repulsive] as satans' heads; 24
(37:66) and they [who are lost in evil] are indeed bound to eat thereof, and to fill their bellies therewith.
(37:67) And, behold, above all this they will be confounded with burning despair. 25
37:68 And once again: 24 Verily, the blazing fire is their ultimate goal –
(37:69) for, behold, they found their forebears on a wrong way,
(37:70) and [now] they make haste to follow in their footsteps'. 27
(37:71) Thus, indeed, most of the people of old went astray before them,
(37:72) although, verily, We had sent warners unto them:
(37:73)and behold what happened in the end to those that had been warned[to no avail]!
37:74 EXCEPT for God's true servants, [most people are apt to go astray.] 28
22 According to the lexicographers, the noun zaqqam (which occurs, apart from the present instance, in 44:43 and in 56:52 as well) denotes any "deadly food"; hence, the expression shajarat az- zaqqum, a symbol of hell, may be appropriately rendered as "the tree of deadly fruit" (undoubtedly identical with "the tree cursed in this Qur'an", mentioned in 17:60), symbolizing the fact that the otherworldly sufferings which the Qur'an describes as "hell" are but the fruit - i.e., organic consequence - of one's evil deeds done on earth.
23 It cannot be often enough repeated that all Qur'anic references to hell and paradise - and, for that matter, all descriptions of men's conditions in the hereafter - are, of necessity, highly allegorical (see Appendix I) and therefore liable to be grossly misunderstood if one takes them in their literal sense or, conversely, interprets them in an arbitrary manner (cf. 3:7 and the corresponding notes 5, 7 and 8): and this, to my mind, explains why the symbol of the "tree of deadly fruit" - one of the metonyms for the suffering of the sinners in the hereafter - has become "a trial (fitnah) for evildoers" (or "for men" in 17:60). See in this connection 74:31, which is the earliest
Qur'anic instance of this concept of "trial".
24 According to Zamakhshari, "this purely verbal metaphor (isti'arah lafziyyah) is meant to express the ultimate in repulsiveness and ugliness ... inasmuch as Satan is considered to be the epitome of all that is evil".
25 Lit., "and upon it, behold, they will have an admixture [or "confusion"] of hamim". (For my rendering of the last term as "burning despair", see surah 6, note 62.)
26 See surah 6, note 3 1 .
27 I.e., blind imitation (taqlid) of the - obviously absurd - beliefs, valuations and customs of one's erring predecessors, and disregard of all evidence of the truth supplied by both reason and divine revelation, is here shown to be the principal cause of the suffering referred to in the preceding passage (Zamakhshari).
28 Sc, "and are, therefore, in need of prophetic guidance" : which explains the subsequent mention of stories relating to several of the prophets. The story of Noah, which is briefly referred to here, appears in greater detail in 1 1 :25-48.