21. Surah Al Anbiya'
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
بَلْ
قَالُواْ أَضْغَاثُ
أَحْلاَمٍ...
21: 5. "Nay,"
they say, "(these are) medleys of dreams! --
...بَلِ افْتَرَاهُ بَلْ هُوَ شَاعِرٌ...
nay, he forged it! --
nay, he is (but) a poet!
C2668. The charges against Allah's inspired Messenger are heaped up,
"Magic!" says one: that means, "We don't understand it!" Says another, "Oh! but we know! he is a mere dreamer of confused dreams!" If the "dreams" fit in with real things and vital experiences, another will suggest, "Oh yes! why drag in supernatural agencies? he is clever enough to forge it himself!" Or another suggests, "He is a poet! Poets can invent things and say them in beautiful words!" Another interposes, "What we should like to see is miracles, like those we read of in stories of the Prophets of old!"
...فَلْيَأْتِنَا بِآيَةٍ كَمَا أُرْسِلَ الأَوَّلُونَ ﴿٥﴾
Let him then bring us a Sign like the ones that were sent to (prophets) of old!"
مَا
آمَنَتْ قَبْلَهُم
مِّن قَرْيَةٍ
أَهْلَكْنَاهَا...
21: 6. (As to those) before them, not one of the populations which We destroyed believed:
...أَفَهُمْ يُؤْمِنُونَ ﴿٦﴾
will these believe?
C2669. 'If such miracles as you read of failed to convince Unbelievers of old, what chance is there that these Unbelievers will believe?
Miracles may come, but they are no cures for Unbelief.
وَمَا
أَرْسَلْنَا
قَبْلَكَ إِلاَّ
رِجَالاً نُّوحِي
إِلَيْهِمْ...
21: 7. Before thee, also, the Messengers we sent were but men, to whom We granted inspiration:
...فَاسْأَلُواْ أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لاَ تَعْلَمُونَ ﴿٧﴾
if ye realize this not, ask of those who possess the Message.
This answers the Unbelievers' taunt, "he is just a man like ourselves!"
True, but all messengers sent by Allah were men, not angels or another kind of beings, who could not understand men or whom men could not understand.
Asad’s Version:
21:5 [al-Anbiya, Mecca 73]
"Nay," they say, "[Muhammad propounds] the most involved and confusing of dreams!" 6 -
"Nay, but he has invented [all] this!" - "Nay, but he is [only] a poet!" - [and,] "Let him, then,
come unto us with a miracle, just as those [prophets] of old were sent [with miracles]!"
21:6
Not one of the communities that We destroyed in bygone times 7 would ever believe [their
prophets]: wilt these, then, [be more willing to] believe? 8
21:7
For [even] before thy time, [O Muhammad,] We never sent [as Our apostles] any but [mortal] men, whom We inspired - hence, [tell the deniers of the truth,] "If you do not know this, ask the followers of earlier revelation'" (21:8) and neither did We endow them with bodies that could dispense with food, 10 nor were they immortal.
[[ Asad’s notes -
6 Lit., "confusing medleys (ad, ghath) of dreams".
7 Lit., "before them".
8 The downfall of those communities of old - frequently referred to in the Qur'an - was invariably due to the fact that they had been resolved to ignore all spiritual truths which militated against their own, materialistic concept of life: is it, then (so the Qur'anic argument goes), reasonable to expect that the opponents of the Prophet Muhammad, who are similarly motivated, would be more willing to consider his message on its merits?
9 Lit., "followers of the reminder" - i.e., of the Bible, which in its original, uncorrupted form represented one of God's "reminders" to man.
10 Lit., "neither did We fashion them [i.e., those apostles] as bodies that ate no food", implying a denial of any supernatural quality in the prophets entrusted with God's message (cf 5:75, 13:38 and 25:20, as well as the corresponding notes). The above is an answer to the unbelievers' objection to Muhammad's prophethood expressed inverse 3 of this surah. ]]