41. Surha Fussilat
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
وَيَوْمَ
يُحْشَرُ
أَعْدَاء
اللَّهِ
إِلَى
النَّارِ
فَهُمْ
يُوزَعُونَ
﴿١٩﴾
41:19. On the Day that the enemies of Allah will be gathered together to the Fire, they will be marched in ranks.
C4486. "Marched in ranks": to show their further humiliation: for they will be like prisoners going to Punishment
حَتَّى
إِذَا
مَا
جَاؤُوهَا
شَهِدَ
عَلَيْهِمْ
سَمْعُهُمْ
وَأَبْصَارُهُمْ
وَجُلُودُهُمْ...
41: 20. At length, when they reach the (Fire), their hearing, their sight, and their skins will bear witness against them,
C4487. All the members of their bodies and the faculties of their minds, which they misused, will bear witness against them.
Similarly, in 36:65, their hands and their feet bear witness against them.
The "skin" not only includes the sense of touch (which is so often misused in sex), but also the sense of taste and the sense of smell, which are specialized forms of the organ of touch. All the sensory organs, and all their intellectual and emotional counterparts advance us by their use and pull us down by their misuse. They become tell-tale witnesses against us if abused.
...بِمَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ ﴿٢٠﴾
as to (all) their deeds.
وَقَالُوا
لِجُلُودِهِمْ
لِمَ
شَهِدتُّمْ
عَلَيْنَا...
41: 21. They will say to their skins: "Why bear ye witness against us?"
C4488. A new phase of their existence will now dawn on them.
They used to think that if they concealed their evil deeds from the rest of the world, nothing would happen to them! But Allah can give "tongues to trees", and can make every fact in life, known and unknown to the world, contribute to the elucidation of truth and justice. When we succumb to evil, our limbs and faculties themselves betray us.
...قَالُوا أَنطَقَنَا اللَّهُ الَّذِي أَنطَقَ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ...
They will say:
"Allah hath given us speech, (He) Who giveth speech to everything:
...وَهُوَ خَلَقَكُمْ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ وَإِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ ﴿٢١﴾
He created you for the first time, and unto Him were ye to return.
وَمَا
كُنتُمْ
تَسْتَتِرُونَ
أَنْ
يَشْهَدَ
عَلَيْكُمْ
سَمْعُكُمْ
وَلَا
أَبْصَارُكُمْ
وَلَا
جُلُودُكُمْ...
41: 22. "Ye did not seek to hide yourselves, lest your hearing, your sight, and your skins should bear witness against you!
C4489. The limbs and faculties will say:
"You did not seek to hide your evil from us: in fact you used us for your evil, because we were in your power.
Did you not know that Allah knew everything and that our knowledge would be evidence against you?"
...وَلَكِن ظَنَنتُمْ أَنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَعْلَمُ كَثِيرًا مِّمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ ﴿٢٢﴾
But ye did think that Allah knew not many of the things that ye used to do!
وَذَلِكُمْ
ظَنُّكُمُ
الَّذِي
ظَنَنتُم
بِرَبِّكُمْ
أَرْدَاكُمْ...
41: 23. "But this thought of yours which ye did entertain concerning your Lord, hath brought you to destruction,
C4490. "You now see the situation! We were given for your use and service. You misused us, to your own utter and irretrievable destruction!"
...فَأَصْبَحْتُم مِّنْ الْخَاسِرِينَ ﴿٢٣﴾
and (now) have ye become of those utterly lost!"
وَقَالَ
الَّذِينَ
كَفَرُوا
لَا
تَسْمَعُوا
لِهَذَا
الْقُرْآنِ
وَالْغَوْا
فِيهِ
لَعَلَّكُمْ
تَغْلِبُونَ
﴿٢٦﴾
41:26. The Unbelievers say:
"Listen not to this Qur'án, but talk at random in the midst of its (reading), that ye may gain the upper hand!"
C4496. A favourite trick of those who wish to dishonour Revelation is, not only not to listen to it themselves, but to talk loudly and insolently when it is being read, so that even the true listeners may not be able to perform their devotions. They think that they are drowning the voice of Allah: in fact they are piling up misery for themselves in the future. For Allah's voice can never be silenced.
فَلَنُذِيقَنَّ
الَّذِينَ
كَفَرُوا
عَذَابًا
شَدِيدًا...
41: 27. But We will certainly give the Unbelievers a taste of a severe Penalty,
...وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَسْوَأَ الَّذِي كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ ﴿٢٧﴾
and We will requite them for the worst of their deeds.
C4497. Nothing that they can do, however outrageous, will escape its fit punishment. And to reject Allah's Signs is to shut the very door to His Grace and Mercy.
ذَلِكَ
جَزَاء
أَعْدَاء
اللَّهِ
النَّارُ
لَهُمْ
فِيهَا
دَارُ
الْخُلْدِ...
41: 28. Such is the requital of the enemies of Allah -- the Fire:
therein will be for them the Eternal Home:
...جَزَاء بِمَا كَانُوا بِآيَاتِنَا يَجْحَدُونَ ﴿٢٨﴾
a (fit) requital, for that they were wont to reject Our Signs.
وَقَالَ
الَّذِينَ
كَفَرُوا
رَبَّنَا
أَرِنَا
الَّذَيْنِ
أَضَلَّانَا
مِنَ
الْجِنِّ
وَالْإِنسِ...
41: 29. And the Unbelievers will say:
"Our Lord!
show us those, among Jinns and men, who misled us:
C4498. It is one of the qualities of sin and all evil, that it wishes to drag down others in its own camp, and rejoices to see them humiliated and disgraced, just as, in the opposite case, the good rejoice to help and honour others and make them happy wherever they can.
Cf. 6:112-113.
...نَجْعَلْهُمَا تَحْتَ أَقْدَامِنَا لِيَكُونَا مِنَ الْأَسْفَلِينَ ﴿٢٩﴾
we shall crush them beneath our feet, so that they become the vilest (before all)."
Asad’s Version:
41:19
Hence, [warn all men of] the Day when the enemies of God shall be gathered together before the fire, and then shall be driven onward,
(41:20) till, when they come close to it, their hearing and their sight and their [very] skins will bear witness against them, speaking of what they were doing [on earth].
41:21 And they will ask their skins, "Why did you bear witness against us?" [and] these will reply: "God, who gives speech to all things, has given speech to us [as well]: for He [it is who] has created you in the first instance - and unto Him you are [now] brought back.
(41:22) And you did not try to hide [your sins] lest your hearing or your sight or your skins bear witness against you: nay, but you thought that God did not know much of what you were doing
(41:23) and that very thought which you thought about your Sustainer has brought you to perdition, and so now you find yourselves among the lost!"
t
41:26 NOW THOSE who are bent on denying the truth say [unto one another]: "Do not listen to this Qur'an, but rather talk frivolously about it, so that you might gain the upper hand!" 27
(41:27) But We shall most certainly give those who are [thus] bent on denying the truth a taste of suffering severe, and We shall most certainly requite them according to the worst of their deeds!
(41:28) That requital of God's enemies will be the fire [of the hereafter]: in it will they have an abode of unmeasurable duration as an outcome of their having knowingly rejected Our messages. 28
41:29 And they who [in their life on earth] were bent on denying the truth will [thereupon] exclaim: "O our Sustainer! Show us those of the invisible beings and humans that have led us astray: 2 ' we shall trample them underfoot, so that they shall be the lowest of all!" 30
[[Asad’s notes - 27 This is an allusion to efforts aimed at discrediting the Qur'an by describing it as "invented" by Muhammad for his own - personal and political - ends, as a series of "misunderstood quotations" from earlier scriptures, as the result of "hallucinations", and so forth: all of which implies that the opponents of the Qur'anic message instinctively feel its force, realizing at the same time that it endangers their self-complacent, materialistic outlook on life and ought, therefore, to be combatted. This explains the statement, at the end of verse 28, that they "knowingly reject" God's messages.
28 For the above rendering of the verb jahada, see surah 29, note 45.
29 See 6:112- "against every prophet We have set up as enemies the evil forces (shayatin) from among humans as well as from among invisible beings" - and the corresponding note 98.
30 Cf. 7:38. ]]