47 Muhammad [38 verses]

Medina 95

Asad’s version

(47:36) The life of this world is but a play and a passing delight: but if you believe [in God] and are conscious of Him, He will grant you your deserts. And withal, He does not demand of you (to sacrifice in His cause all of) your possessions: 41

(47:37) [for,] if He were to demand of you all of them, and urge you, 42 you would niggardly cling [to them], and so He would [but] bring out your moral failings. 43

Ali’s version

إِنَّمَا الحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا لَعِبٌ وَلَهْوٌ...

36. The life of this world is but play and amusement:

C4860. Cf. 6:32, and n. 855; and 29:64, and n. 3497 .

Amusement and play are not bad things in themselves. As preparations for the more serious life, they have their value. But if we concentrate on them, and neglect the business of life, we cannot prosper. So we must use our life in this world as a preparation for the next life.

...وَإِن تُؤْمِنُوا وَتَتَّقُوا يُؤْتِكُمْ أُجُورَكُمْ وَلَا يَسْأَلْكُمْ أَمْوَالَكُمْ ﴿٣٦﴾

and if ye believe land guard against evil, He will grant you your recompense, and will not ask you (to give up) your possessions.

C4861. Complete self-sacrifice, if voluntarily offered, has a meaning:

it means that the persons devotion is exclusively and completely for the Cause. But no law or rule can demand it. And a mere offer to kill yourself has no meaning. You should be ready to take risks to your life in fighting for the Cause, but you should aim at life, not death.

If you live, you should be ready to place your substance and your acquisitions at the disposal of the Cause. But it is not reasonable to pauperise yourself and become a hanger- on for the Cause.

Moreover, the inborn tendency to self-preservation in an average man would lead to concealment and niggardliness if all were asked for the Cause, by Law, and there would further be a feeling of bitterness and rebellion.

إِن يَسْأَلْكُمُوهَا فَيُحْفِكُمْ تَبْخَلُوا ...

37. If He were to ask you for all of them, and press you, ye would covetously withhold,

C4862. Cf. 3:180.

... وَيُخْرِجْ أَضْغَانَكُمْ ﴿٣٧﴾

and He would bring out all your ill-feeling.

C4863. Cf. above, verse 29.

Rancour or ill-feeling, or any desire but that of devotion, should never be given a handle in a wise Law.

Yuksel’s version

47:36 This worldly life is no more than play and vanity. But if you acknowledge and lead a righteous life, He will reward you, and He will not ask you for your wealth.

47:37 If He were to ask you for it, to the extent of creating a hardship for you, you would become stingy, and your hidden evil might be exposed.

[[Asad’s note - 41 Although the life of this world is "but a play and a passing delight", God does not want to deprive the believers of its rightful enjoyment: and so He expects them to sacrifice only a small part of their possessions in His cause. This passage evidently foreshadows the imposition of the obligatory annual tax called zakah ("the purifying dues"), amounting to about 2.5 percent of a Muslims's income and property, as pointed out by most of the classical commentators in connection with the above verse (hence my interpolation). The proceeds of this tax are to be utilized in what the Qur'an escribes

as "the cause [lit., "way"] of God", i.e., for the defence and propagation of the Faith and the welfare of the community; and its spiritual purpose is the "purification" of a Muslim's possessions from the blemish of greed and selfishness. (It is to be noted that the payment of zakah was made obligatory at the very beginning of the Medina period, that is, at approximately the same time as the revelation of the present surah.)

42 Sc, "to divest yourselves of all your possessions".

43 For my rendering of adghan as "moral failings", see note 37. In the present context, this term has more or less the same meaning as the term fujur in 91 8. The implication is that since man has been created weak" (4:28), the imposition of too great a burden on the believers would be self- defeating inasmuch as it might result not in an increase of faith but, rather, in its diminution. This passage illustrates the supreme realism of the Qur'an, which takes into account human nature as it is, with all its God-willed complexity and its inner contradictions, and does not, therefore, postulate a priori an impossible ideal as a norm of human behaviour, (Cf 91:8, which speaks of maris personality as "imbued with moral failings as well as consciousness of God" - a phrase which is explained in the corresponding note 6.) ]]