33. Surah Al-Ahzab

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

مَّا كَانَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ مِنْ حَرَجٍ فِيمَا فَرَضَ اللَّهُ لَهُ...

33:38 There can be no difficulty to the Prophet in what Allah has indicated to him as a duty.

C3727. See n. 3724 above.

...سُنَّةَ اللَّهِ فِي الَّذِينَ خَلَوْا مِن قَبْلُ ...

It was the practice (approved) of Allah amongst those of old that have passed away,

C3728. The next clause is parenthetical. These words then connect on with verse 39.

Among the people of the Book there was no taboo about adopted sons, as there was in Pagan Arabia.

...وَكَانَ أَمْرُ اللَّهِ قَدَرًا مَّقْدُورًا ﴿٣٨﴾

and the command of Allah is a decree determined.

C3729. Allah's ordering of the world is always full of wisdom. Even our unhappiness and misery may actually have a great meaning for ourselves or others or both. If our first Plan seems to fail, we must not murmur and repine, but retrieve the position by adopting a course which appears to be the best possible in the light of our duties as indicated by Allah. For Allah's Plan is framed on universal principles that cannot be altered by human action.

Asad’s Version:

33:38 (Hence,] no blame whatever attaches to the Prophet for [having done] what God has ordained for him. 48 [Indeed, such was] God's way with those that have passed away aforetime" - and [remember that] God's will is always destiny absolute -;

[[ 49 I.e., the prophets who preceded Muhammad -; in all of whom, as in him, all personal desires coincided with their willingness to surrender themselves lo - God: an inborn, harmonious disposition of the spirit which characterizes God's elect and - as the subsequent, parenthetic clause declares - is their "destiny absolute" (qadar maqdur). ]]