54 Al-Qamar (The Moon)

Mecca Period 37



54:49 BEHOLD, everything have We created in due measure and proportion;

(54:50) and Our ordaining [a thing and its coming into being] is but one [act], like the twinkling of an eye. 30

(54:51) Thus, indeed, did We destroy people like you [in the past]: who, then, is willing to take it to heart?

(54:52) [They were truly guilty] because all [the evil] that they ever did had

been [revealed to them as such] in the [ancient] books of [divine] wisdom;"

(54:53) and everthing [that man does], be it small or great, is recorded [with God].



The Quranic text and Ali’s version



إِنَّا كُلَّ شَيْءٍ خَلَقْنَاهُ بِقَدَرٍ ﴿٤٩﴾

54:49.  Verily, all things have We created in proportion and measure.

C5163. Allah's Creation is not haphazard.

وَمَا أَمْرُنَا إِلَّا وَاحِدَةٌ كَلَمْحٍ بِالْبَصَرِ ﴿٥٠﴾

54:50.  And Our command is but a single (Act), - like the twinkling of an eye.

C5164. While in the life of created things there is "proportion and measure", and a lag of time or distance or circumstance, in Allah's Command, the Design, the Word, the Execution, and the Consequences are but a single Act.

The simile given is that of the twinkling of an eye, which is the shortest time that a simple man can think of: the cause which occasions the twinkling, the movement of the muscles connected with it, the closing of the eyelids, and their reopening, are all almost like a simultaneous act.

By way of contrast take an illustration like that of a man writing a book. He must form the design in his mind; he must prepare himself by research, collection of knowledge, or of personal experience; he must use or acquire the art of writing; he must collect the materials for writing, viz., paper, ink, pen, etc., and this will connect with a chain of manufacturing processes in which he is dependent upon other people's work and experience; then his book may have to be printed or lithographed or bound, and sold, or taken to a library, or presented to a friend, which will bring into play numerous other chains of processes, and dependence upon other people's work or skill; and the lag of Time, Space, and Circumstance will occur at numerous stages.

In Allah's Command, the word "Be" (kun) includes everything, without the intervention, of or dependence upon any other being or thing whatever. And this is also another phase of the philosophy of Unity.

وَلَقَدْ أَهْلَكْنَا أَشْيَاعَكُمْ ...

54:51.  And (oft) in the past, have We destroyed gangs like unto you:

C5165. Ashyaakum: 'gangs or parties or collection of men like you.'-

addressed to wicked men who arrogantly rely upon their own strength or combination, neither of which can stand for a moment against the Will of Allah.

... فَهَلْ مِن مُّدَّكِرٍ ﴿٥١﴾

Then is there any that will receive admonition?

C5166. The cases of Pharaoh's men of old and the Pagan Quraish are considered as parallel, and an appeal is addressed to the latter from the experience of the former: 'will ye not learn and repent?'

وَكُلُّ شَيْءٍ فَعَلُوهُ فِي الزُّبُرِ ﴿٥٢﴾

54:52.  All that they do is noted in (their) Books (of Deeds):

C5167. The point is that nothing which men do is lost-good or evil. Everything gives rise to an inevitable chain of consequences, from which a release is only obtained by the intervention of Allah's Grace acting on an act, a striving of the human will to repent and turn to Allah. (R).

وَكُلُّ صَغِيرٍ وَكَبِيرٍ مُسْتَطَرٌ ﴿٥٣﴾

54:53.  Every matter, small and great, is on record.

Yuksel’s version


54:49 Everything We have created in measure.

54:50 Our commands are done at once with the blink of an eye.

54:51 We have destroyed your counterparts. Do any of you wish to learn?

54:52 Everything they did is in the records.

54:53 Everything, small or large, is written down.

54:54 The righteous will be in paradises and rivers.

54:55 In a position of honor, at an Omnipotent King.


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[[ Asad’s note - 30 I.e., there is no time lag and no conceptual difference between God's "willing" the creation of a thing and His "creating" it, for "when He wills a thing to be, He but says unto it, 'Be' - and it is" (2:117, 3:47, 16:40, 19:35, 36:82 and 40:68). The comparison with the "twinkling of an eye" is, of course, merely idiomatic, i.e., based on the human concept of something instantaneous. In the present context this is - as the sequence shows - an allusion to the rapidity with which God can, if He so wills, destroy a sinful community. ]]