42 Ash-Shura (Consultation)

Mecca Period 53

42:19

GOD is most kind unto His creatures: He provides sustenance for whomever He wills - for He alone is powerful, almighty!

(42:20) To him who desires a harvest in the life to come, We shall grant an increase in his harvest; whereas to him who desires [but] a harvest in this world, We [may] give something thereof - but he will have no share in [the blessings of] the life to come. 24

42:21

Is it that they [who care for no more than this world] believe in forces supposed to have a share in God's divinity,- which enjoin upon them as a moral law something that God has never allowed? 28 Now were it not for [God's) decree dn the final judgment, 27 all would indeed have been decided between them [in this world]: 27 but, verily, grievous suffering awaits the evildoers [in the life to come].

42:22 [In that life to come,] thou wilt see the evildoers full of fear at [the thought of] what they have earned: for [now] it is bound to fall back upon them. And in the flowering meadows of the gardens [of paradise thou wilt see] those who have

attained to faith and done righteous deeds: all that they might desire shall they have with their Sustainer: [and] this, this is the great bounty –

[[ Asad’s note - 24 I.e., whereas those who live righteously and turn their endeavours towards spiritual ends are sure to receive in the hereafter more than they are hoping for, those who strive exclusively after worldly rewards may - but not necessarily will - achieve something, and not necessarily all, of their aims, without having any reason to expect "a share in the blessings" that await the righteous in the hereafter. 27 Lit., "word of decision"; i.e., that His final judgment shall be postponed until the Day of Resurrection (see next note).

28 I.e., God would have made a clear-cut distinction, in this world, between those who look forward to the hereafter and those who care for no more than worldly success, by granting unlimited happiness to the former and causing the latter to suffer: but since it is only in the hereafter that maris life is to be truly fulfilled, God has willed to postpone this distinction until then.

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