Sura-26 [Al Shu'ara'mecca 47]

The Quranic Text & Ali’s version:

لَعَلَّكَ بَاخِعٌ نَّفْسَكَ أَلَّا يَكُونُوا مُؤْمِنِينَ ﴿٣﴾

26:3. It may be thou frettest thy soul with grief, that they do not become Believers.

C3139. "They" are the Pagans of Makkah.

From a human point of view it was a great disappointment to Allah's Messenger in the middle period of his Makkan ministry that the Makkan could not be brought to believe in the Truth.

إِن نَّشَأْ نُنَزِّلْ عَلَيْهِم مِّن السَّمَاء آيَةً...

26:4. If (such) were Our Will, We could send down to them from the sky a Sign,

C3140. If it had been Allah's Will and Plan to force people's will, He could quite easily have forced the Makkans.

But His Will and Plan work differently. His revelation is meant to train man's own will so that it conforms to Allah's beneficent purpose.

...فَظَلَّتْ أَعْنَاقُهُمْ لَهَا خَاضِعِينَ ﴿٤﴾

to which they would bend their necks in humility.

وَمَا يَأْتِيهِم مِّن ذِكْرٍ مِّنَ الرَّحْمَنِ مُحْدَثٍ إِلَّا كَانُوا عَنْهُ مُعْرِضِينَ ﴿٥﴾

26:5. But there comes not to them a newly-revealed message from (Allah) Most Gracious, but they turn away therefrom.

فَقَدْ كَذَّبُوا...

26:6. They have indeed rejected (the Message):

...فَسَيَأْتِيهِمْ أَنبَاء مَا كَانُوا بِهِ يَسْتَهْزِئُون ﴿٦﴾

so they will know soon (enough) the truth of what they mocked at!

C3141. They may laugh at Allah's Message of righteousness, but they will soon see the power of Truth and realise the real significance of the movement which they opposed.

Where were the Pagans of Makkah after Badr, and still more, after the bloodless surrender of Makkah?

And the meaning may be applied universally in all history.

Asad’s Version:

26:3) Wouldst thou, perhaps, torment thyself to death [with grief] because they [who live around thee] refuse to believe [in it)? 5

(26:4) Had We so willed, We could have sent down unto them a message from the skies, so that their necks would [be forced to] bown down

before it in humility. "

26:5

[But We have not willed it:] and so, whenever there comes unto them any fresh reminder from the Most Gracious, they [who are blind of heart] always turn their backs upon it:

(26:6) thus, indeed, have they given the lie [to this message as well]. But [in time] they will come to understand what it was that they were wont to deride! 5

[[ Asad’s notes - 4 Inasmuch as the spiritual value of man's faith depends on its being an outcome of free choice and not of compulsion, the visible or audible appearance of a "message from the skies" would, by its very obviousness, nullify the element of free choice and, therefore, deprive man's faith in that message of all its moral significance.

5 See 6:4-5 and the corresponding note 4. ]]