19. Surah Maryam, Mecca 44
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
إِنَّا
نَحْنُ نَرِثُ
الْأَرْضَ
وَمَنْ عَلَيْهَا ...
19: 40. It is We Who will inherit the earth, and all beings thereon:
C2492. Cf. 3:180. n. 485; 15:23, n. 1964,
Material property passes from one to another: when one dies, another inherits it. Allah gives life and death, and all that survives after physical death goes back to Allah, the original source of all things.
... وَإِلَيْنَا يُرْجَعُونَ ﴿٤٠﴾
to Us will they all be returned.
19: 40
Asad Behold, We alone shall remain after the earth and all who live on it have passed away, and [when] unto Us all will have been brought back.
Pickthall Lo! We inherit the earth and all who are thereon, and unto Us they are returned.
Transliteration In na_ nahnu naritsul ardha wa man alaiha_ wa ilaina_ yurja'u_n
[ Asad’s note 30: Lit., “WE alone shall the earth and all who are on it”………………see 15:23 note 22………on the use of the term “inheritor” or “heir” in the sense of “one who remains after his predecessor has passed away” – in this case, after all creation has perished. (Cf the expression “the heritage of the heaven and the earth” used with reference to God, in d:180 and 57:10)]
[ Ruby’s note: This is a profound revelation regarding the nature of things we see in reality and the nature of God. What essentially conveyed here is that God is the ultimate reality on which all other transitory realities are based. When the physical base of the Universe is destroyed or recapitulated, what remains is the Essential Being, the source OR CAUSE of all existence, He is the ONLY eternal EXISTENCE. In science the concept of Big Bang gives the implication of this profound truth of our existence and this reality. May be one day science -- by understanding how energy transformed into matter and what happened in the millionth second after the Big Bang—could shed more light into this idea of the Ultimate Existence. ]
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28. Al-Qasas, (The Story)
Mecca Period 49
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
وَكَمْ
أَهْلَكْنَا
مِن قَرْيَةٍ
بَطِرَتْ
مَعِيشَتَهَا...
28: 58. And how many populations We destroyed, which exulted in their life (of ease and plenty)!
...فَتِلْكَ مَسَاكِنُهُمْ لَمْ تُسْكَن مِّن بَعْدِهِمْ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا...
Now those habitations of theirs, after them, are deserted -- all but a (miserable) few!
...وَكُنَّا نَحْنُ الْوَارِثِينَ ﴿٥٨﴾
and We are their heirs!
C3390. A life of ease and plenty is nothing to boast of. Yet peoples or cities or civilisations grow insolently proud of such things.
There were many such in the past, which are now mere names! Their very sites are deserted in most cases, or buried in the debris of ages.
India is full of such sites nearly everywhere. The sites of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro are the most ancient hitherto unearthed in India, and they are themselves in layers covering centuries of time! And how many more there may be, of which we do not know even names! Fatehpur-Sikri was a magnificent ruin within a single generation. And there are thousands of Qasbas once flourishing and now reduced to small villages or altogether deserted.
But God is merciful and just. He does not destroy or degrade a people until they have had full opportunities of turning in repentance to Him and they have deliberately rejected His Law and continued in the practice of iniquity.
Asad’s Version:
28:58
And how many a community that [once] exulted in its wanton wealth and ease of life have We destroyed, so that those dwelling-places of theirs - all but a few have never been dwelt-in after them: for it is indeed We alone who shall remain when all else will have passed away! 5 '
(28:59) Yet, withal, thy Sustainer would never destroy a community without having [first] raised in its midst an apostle who would convey unto them Our messages; 60 and never would We destroy a community unless its people are wont to do wrong [to one another]."
[[Asad’s note - 59 Lit., "We are indeed (kunna) the inheritors". For an explanation of my rendering of this phrase, see note 22 on 15:23. The above passage stresses the insignificance and brittleness of all worldly "advantages" as compared with the imperishable good of divine guidance. ]]