Sura 53, an-Anjm, Mecca 23

The Quranic text and Ali’s version

أَلَّا تَزِرُ وَازِرَةٌ وِزْرَ أُخْرَى ﴿٣٨﴾

53:38.  Namely, that no bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another;

C5113. Here follows a series of eleven aphorisms.

• The first is that a man's spiritual burden-the responsibility for his sin must be borne by himself and not by another: Cf. 6:164.

There can be no vicarious atonement.

وَأَن لَّيْسَ لِلْإِنسَانِ إِلَّا مَا سَعَى ﴿٣٩﴾

53:39.  That man can have nothing but what he strives for;

53: 38 THAT NO BEARER OF BURDENS SHALL BE MADE TO BEAR ANOTHER’S BURDEN; see Asad note 31 ( similar verses 5 places in Quran:

6:164, 17:15, 35:18, 39:7)

53: 39 and that nought shall be accounted unto man but what he is striving for;

see Asad note 32

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[[ Asad’s note - 32 Cf. the basic, extremely well-authenticated saying of the Prophet, "Actions will be [judged] only according to the conscious intentions [which prompted them] ; and unto everyone will be accounted only what he consciously intended", i.e., while doing whatever he did. This Tradition is quoted by Bukhari in seven places the first one as a kind of introduction to his Sahi~ - as well as by Muslim, Tirmidhi, Abn Da'ud, Nasa'i (in four places), Ibn Majah, Ibn Hanbal, and several other compilations.

In this connection it is to be noted that in the ethics of the Qur'an, the term "action" ('amal) comprises also a deliberate omission of actions, whether good or bad, as well as a deliberate voicing of beliefs, both righteous and sinful: in short, everything that man consciously aims at and expresses by word or deed. ]]