41. Sura Fussilat

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

وَأَمَّا ثَمُودُ فَهَدَيْنَاهُمْ فَاسْتَحَبُّوا الْعَمَى عَلَى الْهُدَى...

41: 17. As to the Thamud, We gave them guidance, but they preferred blindness (of heart) to Guidance;

C4484. The story of the Thamud usually goes with that of the '-Ad.

Cf. 26:141-158; also 7:73-79, and n. 1043.

...فَأَخَذَتْهُمْ صَاعِقَةُ الْعَذَابِ الْهُونِ بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ ﴿١٧﴾

so the stunning Punishment of humiliation seized them, because of what they had earned.

C4485. "The stunning Punishment" i.e., deafening noises like those of thunder and lightning; or the rumbling of a terrible earthquake.

In 7:78, an earthquake is suggested: see n. 1047 to that verse.

Cf. also above. 41:13.

وَنَجَّيْنَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَكَانُوا يَتَّقُونَ ﴿١٨﴾

41: 18. But We delivered those who believed and practiced righteousness.

Asad’s Version:

41:17

And as for [the tribe of] Thamud, We offered them guidance, but they chose blindness in

preference to guidance: and so the thunderbolt of shameful suffering fell upon them as an outcome of all [the evil] that they had wrought;

(41:18) and We saved [only] those who had attained to faith and were conscious of Us.