6. Sura al-Anam

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

وَلَقَدِ اسْتُهْزِىءَ بِرُسُلٍ مِّن قَبْلِكَ...

6: 10. Mocked were (many) Messengers before thee;

...فَحَاقَ بِالَّذِينَ سَخِرُواْ مِنْهُم مَّا كَانُواْ بِهِ يَسْتَهْزِؤُونَ ﴿١٠﴾

but the scoffers were hemmed in by the thing that they mocked.

C843. "The scoffers were mocked by the thing that they mocked" would express epigrammatically part of the sense, but not the whole.

"Hemmed in" implies that the logic of events turned the tables, and as a man might be besieged and surrounded by an enemy in war, and would be forced to surrender, so these mockers will find that events would justify Truth, not them.

The mockers of Jesus, - where were they when Titus destroyed Jerusalem?

The mockers who drove out Muhammad from Makkah, - what was their plight when Muhammad came back in triumph and they sued for mercy, - and he gave it to them!

According to the Latin proverb, Great is Truth, and must prevail.

Asad’s Version:

6: 10 And, indeed, (even) before your time have apostles been derided – but those who scoffed at them were [in the end] overwhelmed by the very thing which they were wont to deride. See Asad note