Sura 21, al-Anbiyaa, Mecca 73
The Quranic text and Ali’s version
إِنَّ
هَذِهِ
أُمَّتُكُمْ
أُمَّةً
وَاحِدَةً
...
21:92. Verily, this Brotherhood of yours is a single Brotherhood,
C2749. Ummah: this is best translated by Brotherhood here.
"Community", "race", and "nation." and "people" are words which import other ideas and do not quite correspond to "Ummah".
"Religion" and "Way of Life" are derived meanings, which could be used in other passages, but are less appropriate here.
Our attention has been drawn to people of very different temperaments and virtues, widely different in time, race, language, surroundings, history, and work to be performed, but forming the closest brotherhood as being men and women united in the highest service of Allah. They prefigure the final and perfected Brotherhood of Islam.
... وَأَنَا رَبُّكُمْ فَاعْبُدُونِ ﴿٩٢﴾
and I am your Lord and Cherisher: therefore serve Me (and no other).
وَتَقَطَّعُوا
أَمْرَهُم
بَيْنَهُمْ...
21:93. But (later generations) cut off their affair (of unity), one from another:
C2750. Allah's Message was and ever is one; and His Messengers treated it as one. It is people of narrower views who come later and trade on the earlier names, that break up the Message and the Brotherhood into jarring camps and sects.
...كُلٌّ إِلَيْنَا رَاجِعُونَ ﴿٩٣﴾
(yet) will they all return to Us.
21:92
Other versions
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Other versions of 21:93
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[[ Asad’s notes - 89 After calling to mind, inverses 48-91, some of the earlier prophets, all of whom stressed the oneness and uniqueness of God, the discourse returns to that principle of oneness as it ought to be reflected in the unity of all who believe in Him. (See 23:51 ff.)
90 This is the meaning of the idiomatic phrase, taqatta'u amrahum baynahum. As Zamakhshari points out, the sudden turn of the discourse from the second person plural to the third person is indicative of God's severe disapproval - His "turning away", as it were, from those who are or were guilty of breaking the believers' unity. (See also 23:53 and the corresponding note 30.) ]]
[[ Ruby’s notes – I disagree with Asad in his interpretation that what is meant here is disunity among believers. I believe the way these few verses are laid down the meaning of creating disunity here is among humanity. There is One God and one humanity, there should be unity in the fundamental ideas of life and living. God has given all human beings “fitratulla” or God given true nature consisting of the faculty of reason, conscience and spiritual power that can sense Truth and discern right from wrong . By virtue of this enormous endowment to all it is then expected or a natural covenant with God that there should be unity in the diversity of humanity. Instead violence and bloodshed have taken place down through time over differences that are often trivial compare to the fundamental ideals. The divisions and dissensions took place as indicated in the Quran because of arrogance, ignorance, vested interests, petty concerns, jealousy or contumacy of different groups. Therefore these verses express God’s severe disapproval of this human tendency.]]
