43. Zukhruf(Gold)

Mecca 63 [89 verses]

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

وَمَن يَعْشُ عَن ذِكْرِ الرَّحْمَنِ نُقَيِّضْ لَهُ شَيْطَانًا فَهُوَ لَهُ قَرِينٌ ﴿٣٦﴾

43: 36. If anyone withdraws himself from remembrance of (Allah) Most Gracious, We appoint for him an evil one, to be an intimate companion to him.

C4638. If men deliberately put away the remembrance of Allah from their minds, the natural consequence, under Allah's decree, is that they join on with evil. Like consorts with like. We can generalize evil in the abstract, but it takes concrete shape in our life- companions.

وَإِنَّهُمْ لَيَصُدُّونَهُمْ عَنِ السَّبِيلِ وَيَحْسَبُونَ أَنَّهُم مُّهْتَدُونَ ﴿٣٧﴾

43: 37. Such (evil ones) really hinder them from the Path, but they think that they are being guided aright!

C4639. The downward course in evil is rapid. But the most tragic consequence is that evil persuades its victims to believe that they are pursuing good. They think evil to be their good. They go deeper and deeper into the mire, and become more and more callous.

"Them" and "they" represent the generic plural of anyone who "withdraws himself from ... Allah" (see last verse).

حَتَّى إِذَا جَاءنَا قَالَ ...

43: 38. At length, when (such a one) comes to Us, he says (to his evil companion):

C4640. If ever the presence of Allah is felt, or at the time of Judgment, a glimmering of truth comes to the deceived soul, and it cries to its evil companion in its agony, "Would that I had never come across thee! Would that we were separated poles apart!" But it cannot shake off evil. By deliberate choice it had put itself in its snare.

... يَا لَيْتَ بَيْنِي وَبَيْنَكَ بُعْدَ الْمَشْرِقَيْنِ ...

"Would that between me and thee were the distance of East and West!"

C4641. Distance of East and West: literally, 'distance of the two Easts'.

Most Commentators understand in this sense, but some construe the phrase as meaning the distance of the extreme points of the rising of the sun, between the summer solstice and the winter solstice. Cf. n. 4034 to 37:5.

A good equivalent idiom in English would be "poles apart", for they could never meet.

... فَبِئْسَ الْقَرِينُ ﴿٣٨﴾

Ah! Evil is the companion (indeed)!

وَلَن يَنفَعَكُمُ الْيَوْمَ إِذ ظَّلَمْتُمْ أَنَّكُمْ فِي الْعَذَابِ مُشْتَرِكُونَ ﴿٣٩﴾

43: 39. When ye have done wrong, it will avail you nothing, that day, that ye shall be partners in punishment!

C4642. All partners in evil will certainly share in the punishment, but that is no consolation to any individual soul. Evil desires the evil of others, but that does not diminish its own torment, or get rid of the personal responsibility of each individual soul.

Asad’s Version:

43:36 But as for anyone who chooses to remain blind to the remembrance of the Most Gracious, to him We assign an [enduring] evil impulse, to become his other self: 31 (43:37) whereupon, behold, these [evil impulses] bar all such from the path [of truth], making them think that they are guided aright!

43:38 But in the end, 32 when he [who has thus sinned] appears before us [on Judgment Day], he will say [to his other self], "Would that between me and thee there had been the distance of east and west!" 33 - for, evil indeed [has proved] that other self!

(43:39) On that Day it will not profit you in the least [to know] that, since you have sinned [together], you are now to share your suffering [as well]. 34

Yuksel’s Version:

43:36 Whosoever turns away from the remembrance of the Gracious, We appoint a devil to be his constant companion.

43:37 They hinder from the path, but they think they are guided!

43:38 Until he comes to Us, he will say, "Oh, I wish that between you and me were the distance of the two easts. What a miserable companion!"

43:39 It would not benefit you this day, for you have transgressed; you are partners in the retribution.

[[ Asad’s Notes - 3 1 Lit., "to him We assign a satan, and he becomes his other self (qarin)" : see note 24 on 41 :25. For the psychological connotation of the term shaytan as "evil impulse", see first half of note 16 on 15:17 as well as note 31 on 14:22.

32 Lit, "until".

33 Thus do most of the commentators interpret the above phrase which, literally, reads "the two easts" (al-mashriqayn). This interpretation is based on the idiomatic usage, not infrequent in classical Arabic, of referring to two opposites - or two conceptually connected entities - by giving them the designation of one of them in the dual form: e.g., "the two moons", denoting "sun and moon"; "the two Basrahs", i.e., Kufah and Basrah; and so forth.

34 I.e., "you will not be consoled, as would have been the case in earthly suffering, by the knowledge that you are not to suffer alone" (Zamakhshari, Razi, Baydawi). Since this address is formulated in the plural and not in the dual, it evidently relates to all sinners who, in their lifetime, were impelled by their own evil impulses - their "other selves", as it were - to "remain blind to the remembrance of God". In its wider meaning, the above verse implies that all evil deeds, whenever and wherever committed, are but links of one chain, one evil ineluctably leading to another: cf. 14:49 - "on that Day thou wilt see those who were lost in sin linked together (muqarranin) in fetters" - a phrase which has been explained in my corresponding note 64. It is noteworthy that the participle muqarran is derived from the same verbal root (qarana) as the term qarin (rendered by me in verses 36 and 38 of this surah and in 41 :25 as "other self): and this, I believe, is a further indication, alluded to in the present verse, to the "togetherness" of all evil deeds. ]]