53 An-Najm (The Unfolding)
Mecca Period [23]
Asad’s version
(53:26) For, however many angels there be in the heavens, their intercession can be of no least avail [to anyone] - except after God has given leave [to intercede] for whomever He wills and with whom He is well-pleased. 19
53:27 Behold, it is [only] such as do not [really] believe in the life to come that regard the angels as female beings; 20
(53:28) and [since] they have no knowledge whatever thereof, 21 they follow
nothing but surmise: yet, behold, never can surmise take the place of truth.
Ali’s version and the Arabic text
وَكَم
مِّن مَّلَكٍ
فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ
...
53:26. How many so ever be the angels in the heavens,
C5100. We are apt to imagine the angelic host of heaven as beings of immense power. But their power is all derived from Allah.
Men, when they attain to the highest spiritual dignities, may have even more power and position than angels in the sight of Allah, as in typified by angels being hidden to bow down to Adam: 2:34.
The Quraish superstition about angels being intermediaries and intercessors for man with Allah is condemned.
... لَا تُغْنِي شَفَاعَتُهُمْ شَيْئًا...
their intercession will avail nothing
...إِلَّا مِن بَعْدِ أَن يَأْذَنَ اللَّهُ لِمَن يَشَاء وَيَرْضَى ﴿٢٦﴾
except after Allah has given leave for whom He pleases and that he is acceptable to Him.
No one can intercede except with the permission of Allah, and that permission will only be given for one who is acceptable to Allah.
For a possible different shade of meaning. See n. 2634 to 20:109.
إِنَّ
الَّذِينَ لَا
يُؤْمِنُونَ
بِالْآخِرَةِ
لَيُسَمُّونَ
الْمَلَائِكَةَ
تَسْمِيَةَ
الْأُنثَى
﴿٢٧﴾
27. Those who believe not in the Hereafter, name the angels with female names.
C5102. Cf. 53:21, above, and n. 5096.
The Pagan Quraish had no firm belief in the Hereafter. Their prayers for intercession to angels and deities was on account of their worldly affairs.
وَمَا
لَهُم بِهِ مِنْ
عِلْمٍ إِن
يَتَّبِعُونَ
إِلَّا الظَّنَّ
وَإِنَّ الظَّنَّ...
28. But they have no knowledge therein.
They follow nothing but conjecture;
...لَا يُغْنِي مِنَ الْحَقِّ شَيْئًا ﴿٢٨﴾
and conjecture avails nothing against Truth.
C5103. Cf. 53:23 above, and n. 5098.
[[Asad’s version - 19 For an explanation of the Qur'anic concept of "intercession", see note 7 on 10:3, as well as notes 26 and 27 on 10:18.
20 Lit., "that name the angels with a female name" - i.e., think of them as being endowed with sex and/or as being "God's daughters" . As the Qur'an points out in many places, the people spoken of in this context do believe in life after death, inasmuch as they express the hope that the angels and the imaginary deities which they worship will "mediate" between them and God, and wil~ "intercede" for them. However, their belief is far too vague to make them realize that the quality of maris life in the hereafter does not depend on such outside factors but is causally, and directly, connected with the manner of his life in this world: and so the Qur'an declares that their attitude is, for all practical purposes, not much different from the attitude of people who reject the idea of a hereafter altogether.
2 1 Namely, of the real nature and function of the category of beings spoken of in the Qur'an as angels, inasmuch as they belong to the realm of al-ghayb, "that which is beyond the reach of human perception" . Alternatively, the pronoun in bihi may relate to God, in which case the phrase could be rendered as "they have no knowledge whatever of Him" - implying that both the attribution of "progeny" to Him and the belief that His judgment depends on, or could be influenced by, "mediation" or "intercession" is the result of an anthropomorphic concept of God and, therefore, far removed from the truth.]]