22. Sura al-Hajj

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

فَكَأَيِّن مِّن قَرْيَةٍ أَهْلَكْنَاهَا وَهِيَ ظَالِمَةٌ...

22: 45. How many populations have We destroyed, which were given to wrongdoing!

...فَهِيَ خَاوِيَةٌ عَلَى عُرُوشِهَا...

They tumbled down on their roofs.

C2823. The roofs fell in first, and the whole structure, walls and all, came tumbling after, as happens in ruins. The place was turned upside down.

...وَبِئْرٍ مُّعَطَّلَةٍ وَقَصْرٍ مَّشِيدٍ ﴿٤٥﴾

And how many wells are lying idle and neglected, and castles lofty and well-built!

C2824. In a dry country like Arabia, a well stands as a symbol for a living, flourishing population, and many place-names mean "the well of so-and-so" e.g., Bir 'Ali, a village just south of Madinah the quality of whose drinking water is famous, or Abyar Ibn Hassan, a noted stopping place on the road from Makkah to Madinah about 92 miles from Madinah.

أَفَلَمْ يَسِيرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ...

22: 46. Do they not travel through the land,

...فَتَكُونَ لَهُمْ قُلُوبٌ يَعْقِلُونَ بِهَا أَوْ آذَانٌ يَسْمَعُونَ بِهَا...

so that their hearts (and mind) may thus learn wisdom and their ears may thus learn to hear?

C2825. The word for "heart" in Arabic speech imports both the seat of intelligent faculties and understanding as well as the seat of affections and emotions.

Those who reject Allah's Message may have their physical eyes and ears, but their hearts are blind and deaf. If their faculties of understanding were active, would they not see the Signs of Allah's Providence and Allah's Wrath in nature around them and in the cities and ruins if they travel intelligently?

...فَإِنَّهَا لَا تَعْمَى الْأَبْصَارُ وَلَكِن تَعْمَى الْقُلُوبُ الَّتِي فِي الصُّدُورِ ﴿٤٦﴾

Truly it is not their eyes that are blind but their hearts which are in their breasts.

وَيَسْتَعْجِلُونَكَ بِالْعَذَابِ وَلَن يُخْلِفَ اللَّهُ وَعْدَهُ...

22: 47. Yet they ask thee to hasten on the Punishment!

But Allah will not fail in His promise.

C2826. If Allah gives respite, those to whom it is given have a real chance of repentance and amendment. He will not curtail His promise of respite.

But on the other hand He has promised to call everyone to account for his deeds, and this involves justice and punishment for sin.

Hiis promise will also come true. It is foolish to try to hasten it. Time with Him is nothing. We keep count of time for our relative calculations. His existence is absolute, and not conditioned by Time or Place. What we call a thousand years may be nothing more than a day or a minute to Him.

...وَإِنَّ يَوْمًا عِندَ رَبِّكَ كَأَلْفِ سَنَةٍ مِّمَّا تَعُدُّونَ ﴿٤٧﴾

Verily a day in the sight of thy Lord is like a thousand years of your reckoning.

وَكَأَيِّن مِّن قَرْيَةٍ أَمْلَيْتُ لَهَا وَهِيَ ظَالِمَةٌ ...

22: 48. And to how many populations did I give respite, which were given to wrongdoing?

C2827. The argument begun in 22:45 is now rounded off and closed.

... ثُمَّ أَخَذْتُهَا...

In the end I punished them.

...وَإِلَيَّ الْمَصِيرُ ﴿٤٨﴾

To Me is the destination (of all).

Asad’s Version:

22:45

And how many a township have We destroyed because it had been immersed in evildoing -

and now they [all] lie deserted, with their roofs caved in! And how many a well lies

abandoned, and how many a castle that [once] stood high!

22:46

Have they, then, never journeyed about the earth, letting their hearts gain wisdom, and causing

their ears to hear?" Yet, verily, it is not their eyes that have become blind - but blind have

become the hearts that are in their breasts!

22:47 [al-Hajj, Medina 103]

And [so, O Muhammad,] they challenge thee to hasten the coming upon them of [God's] chastisement:" but God never fails to fulfil His promise - and, behold, in thy Sustainer's sight a day is like a thousand years of your reckoning."

(22:48) And to how many a community that was immersed in evildoing have I given rein for a while! But then I took it to task: for with Me is all journeys' end!

27. Surah Al-naml

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

وَكَانَ فِي الْمَدِينَةِ تِسْعَةُ رَهْطٍ ...

27: 48. There were in the City nine men of a family

...يُفْسِدُونَ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَلَا يُصْلِحُونَ ﴿٤٨﴾

who made mischief in the land, and would not reform.

C3286. They had made up their minds to wage a relentless war against justice. They did not destroy justice, but justice destroyed them.

قَالُوا تَقَاسَمُوا بِاللَّهِ لَنُبَيِّتَنَّهُ وَأَهْلَهُ...

27: 49. They said:

"Swear a mutual oath by Allah that we shall make a secret night attack on him and his people,

C3287. A most dastardly plot, because

- it was to be secret,

- by night,

- taking their victims unawares,

- and because careful provision was made that they should all tell lies together, saying that they knew nothing about it, in order to evade the vengeance which Salih's heirs (if any were left) or his tribe might want to exact!

And yet such were exactly the plots laid against the holy Prophet himself.

...ثُمَّ لَنَقُولَنَّ لِوَلِيِّهِ مَا شَهِدْنَا مَهْلِكَ أَهْلِهِ...

and that we shall then say to his heir (when he seeks vengeance): 'We were not present at the slaughter of his people,

...وَإِنَّا لَصَادِقُونَ ﴿٤٩﴾

and we are positively telling the truth.'"

وَمَكَرُوا مَكْرًا وَمَكَرْنَا مَكْرًا وَهُمْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ ﴿٥٠﴾

27: 50. They plotted and planned, but We too planned, even while they perceived it not.

C3288. Cf. 3:54.

Their secret plotting is all known to Allah, but of Allah's just and beneficent plans they know nothing. And the wicked must come to an evil end.

فَانظُرْ كَيْفَ كَانَ عَاقِبَةُ مَكْرِهِمْ...

27: 51. Then see what was the end of their plot! --

...أَنَّا دَمَّرْنَاهُمْ وَقَوْمَهُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ ﴿٥١﴾

this, that we destroyed them and their people, all (of them).

Asad’s Version:

(27:48) Now there were in the city nine men 47 who were wont to commit deeds of depravity all over the land, and would not reform; (27:49) [and] after having bound one another by an oath in God's name, 48 they said: "Indeed, we shall suddenly fall upon him and his household by night [and slay them all]; and then we shall boldly say to his next of kin, 'We did not witness the destruction of his household - and, behold, we are indeed men of truth!'"

27:50 And so they devised an evil scheme; but We devised a subtle scheme [of Our own], and they perceived it not

(27:51) Behold, then, what all their scheming came to in the end: We utterly destroyed them and their people, all of them;