Maintaining Status Quo, Jealousy-Envy, Arrogance, Ignorance, Refusing Truth from one with worldly lower class, etc.
23 . Sura Al-Muminun
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
ثُمَّ
أَنشَأْنَا
مِن بَعْدِهِمْ
قَرْنًا آخَرِينَ
﴿٣١﴾
23: 31. Then We raised after them another generation;
فَأَرْسَلْنَا
فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا
مِنْهُمْ...
23: 32. And We sent to them a Messenger from among themselves, (saying),
C2894. If this refers to any particular prophet, it must be Hud whose mission was to the 'Ad people, or to Salih, whose mission was to the Thamud people. That is the sequence after Noah in S. 11:50-60 and 61-68.
But I think that as the name is not mentioned, we are to understand in general the type of the post -Flood prophets until we come later on to Moses and Jesus. The object here is not to recount the stories, but to show that the resistance of the wicked made no difference to the triumph of Allah's holy Truth.
...أَنِ اعْبُدُوا اللَّهَ مَا لَكُم مِّنْ إِلَهٍ غَيْرُهُ...
"Worship Allah!
ye have no other god but Him.
...أَفَلَا تَتَّقُونَ ﴿٣٢﴾
Will ye not fear (Him)?"
وَقَالَ
الْمَلَأُ
مِن قَوْمِهِ
الَّذِينَ
كَفَرُوا وَكَذَّبُوا
بِلِقَاء
الْآخِرَةِ...
23: 33. And the chiefs of his people, who disbelieved and denied the Meeting in the Hereafter,
...وَأَتْرَفْنَاهُمْ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا...
and on whom We had bestowed the good things of this life, said:
...مَا هَذَا إِلَّا بَشَرٌ مِّثْلُكُمْ...
"He is no more than a man like yourselves;
...يَأْكُلُ مِمَّا تَأْكُلُونَ مِنْهُ وَيَشْرَبُ مِمَّا تَشْرَبُونَ ﴿٣٣﴾
he eats of that of which ye eat, and drinks of what ye drink.
وَلَئِنْ
أَطَعْتُم
بَشَرًا مِثْلَكُمْ
إِنَّكُمْ إِذًا
لَّخَاسِرُونَ
﴿٣٤﴾
23: 34. "If ye obey a man like yourselves, behold, it is certain ye will be lost.
C2895. The type of the narrow Sybarite, who enjoys the good things of this life, denies a future life, and is jealous of any one who presumes to widen his horizon, is here described in a few masterly strokes. He is bored by any mention of the serious things beyond his ken.
What good is it, he says, to talk about the future?
Enjoy the present. The gain is all in the present: the loss is all in the future.
أَيَعِدُكُمْ
أَنَّكُمْ
إِذَا مِتُّمْ
وَكُنتُمْ
تُرَابًا وَعِظَامًا
أَنَّكُم مُّخْرَجُونَ
﴿٣٥﴾
23: 35. "Does he promise that when ye die and become dust and bones, ye shall be brought forth (again)?
هَيْهَاتَ
هَيْهَاتَ
لِمَا تُوعَدُونَ
﴿٣٦﴾
23: 36. "Far, very far is that which ye are promised!
إِنْ
هِيَ
إِلَّا
حَيَاتُنَا
الدُّنْيَا
نَمُوتُ وَنَحْيَا...
23: 37. "There is nothing but our life in this world! We shall die and we live!
C2896. They seem to say;
"There is no future life: that we shall die is certain; that we have this life is certain: some die, some are born, some live: and so the cycle continues: but how can dead men be raised to life?"
...وَمَا نَحْنُ بِمَبْعُوثِينَ ﴿٣٧﴾
But we shall never be raised up again!
إِنْ
هُوَ
إِلَّا رَجُلٌ
افْتَرَى عَلَى
اللَّهِ كَذِبًا...
23: 38. "He is only a man who invents a lie against Allah,
...وَمَا نَحْنُ لَهُ بِمُؤْمِنِينَ ﴿٣٨﴾
but we are not the ones to believe in him!"
C2897. "He is only a fool, and invents things, and attributes them to Allah's inspiration! We are too wise to believe such things!"
Asad’s Version:
23:31
AND AFTER those [people of old] We gave rise to new generations;
(23:32) and [every time]
We sent unto them an apostle from among themselves, [he told them:] "Worship God [alone): you have no deity other than Him. Will you not, then, become conscious of Him?" 17 And [every time] the great ones among his people, who refused to acknowledge the truth and gave the lie to the announcement of a life to come - [simply] because We had granted them ease and plenty in [their) worldly life, and they had become corrupted by it 18 - [every time) they would say: "This [man] is nothing but a mortal like yourselves, eating of what you eat, and drinking of what you drink:
(23:34) and, indeed, if you pay heed to a mortal like yourselves, you will surely be the losers!
(23:35) Does he promise you that, after you have
died and become [mere] dust and bones, you shall be brought forth [to a new life]?
(23:36) Far-fetched, far-fetched indeed is what you are promised!
(23:37) There is no life beyond our life in this world: we die and we live [but once], and we shall never be raised from the dead!
(23:38) He is nothing but a man who attributes his own lying inventions to God, and we are not going to believe him!"
[[Asad’s notes - 17 Most of the classical commentators assume that the apostle referred to inverses 32-41 is Hud, the prophet of the tribe of Ad (see surah 7, note 48). Since, however, this passage contains elements appearing in the stories of many prophets - including that of the Prophet Muhammad -
I am of the opinion that it has a general import: namely, an allusion to all of God's apostles
and to the ever-recurring similarity of their experiences.
1 8 Thus Tabari interprets the concise but meaningful phrase atrafnahum fi '1-hayati 'd-dunya.
For a fuller explanation of the verb tarifa, see note 1 47 on 1 1 : 1 1 6. [Whereupon the prophet) would say: "O my Sustainer! Succour me against their accusation of lying!"]]
23:31 [al-Muminun, Mecca 74 – Ali]
﴿٣١﴾
31. Then We raised after them another generation;
فَأَرْسَلْنَا
فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا
مِنْهُمْ...
32. And We sent to them a Messenger from among themselves, (saying),
C2894. If this refers to any particular prophet, it must be Hud whose mission was to the 'Ad people, or to Salih, whose mission was to the Thamud people. That is the sequence after Noah in S. 11:50-60 and 61-68.
But I think that as the name is not mentioned, we are to understand in general the type of the post -Flood prophets until we come later on to Moses and Jesus. The object here is not to recount the stories, but to show that the resistance of the wicked made no difference to the triumph of Allah's holy Truth.
...أَنِ اعْبُدُوا اللَّهَ مَا لَكُم مِّنْ إِلَهٍ غَيْرُهُ...
"Worship Allah!
ye have no other god but Him.
...أَفَلَا تَتَّقُونَ ﴿٣٢﴾
Will ye not fear (Him)?"
Section 3
وَقَالَ
الْمَلَأُ
مِن قَوْمِهِ
الَّذِينَ
كَفَرُوا وَكَذَّبُوا
بِلِقَاء
الْآخِرَةِ...
33. And the chiefs of his people, who disbelieved and denied the Meeting in the Hereafter,
...وَأَتْرَفْنَاهُمْ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا...
and on whom We had bestowed the good things of this life, said:
...مَا هَذَا إِلَّا بَشَرٌ مِّثْلُكُمْ...
"He is no more than a man like yourselves;
...يَأْكُلُ مِمَّا تَأْكُلُونَ مِنْهُ وَيَشْرَبُ مِمَّا تَشْرَبُونَ ﴿٣٣﴾
he eats of that of which ye eat, and drinks of what ye drink.
وَلَئِنْ
أَطَعْتُم
بَشَرًا مِثْلَكُمْ
إِنَّكُمْ إِذًا
لَّخَاسِرُونَ
﴿٣٤﴾
34. "If ye obey a man like yourselves, behold, it is certain ye will be lost.
C2895. The type of the narrow Sybarite, who enjoys the good things of this life, denies a future life, and is jealous of any one who presumes to widen his horizon, is here described in a few masterly strokes. He is bored by any mention of the serious things beyond his ken.
What good is it, he says, to talk about the future?
Enjoy the present. The gain is all in the present: the loss is all in the future.
أَيَعِدُكُمْ
أَنَّكُمْ
إِذَا مِتُّمْ
وَكُنتُمْ
تُرَابًا وَعِظَامًا
أَنَّكُم مُّخْرَجُونَ
﴿٣٥﴾
35. "Does he promise that when ye die and become dust and bones, ye shall be brought forth (again)?
هَيْهَاتَ
هَيْهَاتَ
لِمَا تُوعَدُونَ
﴿٣٦﴾
36. "Far, very far is that which ye are promised!
إِنْ
هِيَ
إِلَّا
حَيَاتُنَا
الدُّنْيَا
نَمُوتُ وَنَحْيَا...
37. "There is nothing but our life in this world! We shall die and we live!
C2896. They seem to say;
"There is no future life: that we shall die is certain; that we have this life is certain: some die, some are born, some live: and so the cycle continues: but how can dead men be raised to life?"
...وَمَا نَحْنُ بِمَبْعُوثِينَ ﴿٣٧﴾
But we shall never be raised up again!
إِنْ
هُوَ
إِلَّا رَجُلٌ
افْتَرَى عَلَى
اللَّهِ كَذِبًا...
38. "He is only a man who invents a lie against Allah,
...وَمَا نَحْنُ لَهُ بِمُؤْمِنِينَ ﴿٣٨﴾
but we are not the ones to believe in him!"
C2897. "He is only a fool, and invents things, and attributes them to Allah's inspiration! We are too wise to believe such things!"
قَالَ
رَبِّ انصُرْنِي
بِمَا كَذَّبُونِ
﴿٣٩﴾
39. (The prophet) said: "O my Lord! help me: for that they accuse me of falsehood."
Every prophet is maligned and persecuted: it is always the same story with them, told in different ways.
23:45 [al-Muminun, Mecca 74 – Ali]
45. Then We sent Moses and his brother Aaron, with Our Signs and authority manifest,
C2903. Moses and Aaron had a twofold mission:
1. to Pharaoh and his Court, which failed because of Egyptian arrogance;
2. to the Israelites, for whom the Law was received on Mount Sinai, but they repeatedly rebelled against Allah.
In both cases there were miracles ("Clear Signs") and other proofs which showed that they came at Allah's command and were inspired by His authority.
إِلَى
فِرْعَوْنَ
وَمَلَئِهِ...
46. To Pharaoh and his Chiefs:
...فَاسْتَكْبَرُوا وَكَانُوا قَوْمًا عَالِينَ ﴿٤٦﴾
but these behaved insolently: they were arrogant people.
فَقَالُوا
أَنُؤْمِنُ
لِبَشَرَيْنِ
مِثْلِنَا
وَقَوْمُهُمَا
لَنَا عَابِدُونَ
﴿٤٧﴾
47. They said:
"Shall we believe in two men like ourselves?
And their people are subject to us!"
C2904. Racial arrogance made the Egyptians say, 'These men belong to a race which we hold in subjection as our slaves: how can we accept them as messengers of Allah?'