21. Surah Al Anbiya'
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
وَتَاللَّهِ
لَأَكِيدَنَّ
أَصْنَامَكُم
بَعْدَ أَن
تُوَلُّوا
مُدْبِرِينَ
﴿٥٧﴾
21: 57. And by Allah, I have a plan for your idols after ye go away and turn your backs"...
C2717. He wants to convince them of the powerlessness of their idols. But he does not do it underhand. He tells them that he is going to do something when once they are gone and their backs are turned to the idols,-as much as to say that the idols are dependent on their care and attention. Apparently the people are amused and want to see what he does. So they leave him to his own devices.
فَجَعَلَهُمْ
جُذَاذًا إِلَّا
كَبِيرًا لَّهُمْ
لَعَلَّهُمْ
إِلَيْهِ يَرْجِعُونَ
﴿٥٨﴾
21: 58. So he broke them to pieces, (all) but the biggest of them, that they might turn (and address themselves) to it.
C2718. He was enacting a scene, to make the people ashamed of worshipping senseless stocks and stones. He left the biggest idol untouched and broke the others to pieces, as if a fight had taken place between the idols, and the biggest had smashed the others. Would they turn to the surviving idol and ask him how it all happened?
قَالُوا
مَن فَعَلَ
هَذَا بِآلِهَتِنَا
إِنَّهُ لَمِنَ
الظَّالِمِينَ
﴿٥٩﴾
21: 59. They said,
"Who has done this to our gods?
He must indeed be some man of impiety!"
قَالُوا
سَمِعْنَا فَتًى
يَذْكُرُهُمْ
يُقَالُ لَهُ
إِبْرَاهِيمُ
﴿٦٠﴾
21: 60. They said,
"We heard a youth talk of them: he is called Abraham."
C2719. Different groups of people are speaking. Those who were not present at Abraham's speech in verse 57 ask, "who has done this?"
Those who were, at once name him, whereupon a formal council of the people was held, and Abraham was arraigned.
قَالُوا
فَأْتُوا بِهِ
عَلَى أَعْيُنِ
النَّاسِ لَعَلَّهُمْ
يَشْهَدُونَ
﴿٦١﴾
21: 61. They said,
"Then bring him before the eyes of the people, that they may bear witness:"
قَالُوا
أَأَنتَ فَعَلْتَ
هَذَا بِآلِهَتِنَا
يَا إِبْرَاهِيمُ
﴿٦٢﴾
21: 62. They said, "Art thou the one that did this with our gods, O Abraham?"
C2720. They asked him the formal question. There was no mystery about it. He had already openly threatened to do something to the idols, and people who had heard his threats were there. He now continues his ironic taunt to the idol-worshippers.
'You ask me! Why don't you ask the idols?
Doesn't it look as if this big fellow has smashed the smaller ones in a quarrel?'
If they do not ask the idols, they confess that the idols have not intelligence enough to answer! This argument is developed in verses 64-67.
Note that while the false worshippers laughed at his earnestness, he pays them out by a grim practical joke, which at the same time advances the cause of Truth.
قَالَ
بَلْ فَعَلَهُ
كَبِيرُهُمْ
هَذَا فَاسْأَلُوهُمْ
إِن كَانُوا
يَنطِقُونَ
﴿٦٣﴾
21: 63. He said:
"Nay, this was done by -- this is their biggest one! Ask them, if they can speak intelligently!"
فَرَجَعُوا
إِلَى أَنفُسِهِمْ
فَقَالُوا
إِنَّكُمْ
أَنتُمُ الظَّالِمُونَ
﴿٦٤﴾
21: 64. So they turned to themselves and said, "Surely ye are the ones in the wrong!"
C2721. Abraham's biting irony cut them to the quick.
What could they say?
They turned to each other. Some among them thought he had the best of the argument. They were not keen on idolatry, and they told their fellows that it was useless arguing with Abraham. They all hung their heads in shame. But presently they thought they would face out Abraham, and take his words literally.
They said, "You know quite well that idols do not speak!"
This was precisely what Abraham wanted them to say, and he delivered his final blow!
See n. 2723 below.
ثُمَّ
نُكِسُوا عَلَى
رُؤُوسِهِمْ
...
21: 65. Then were they confounded with shame: (they said),
C2722. Literally, "they were turned down on their heads" which may suggest a metaphorical somersault, i.e., they recovered from their dawning shame for idolatry and were prepared to argue it out with the youth Abraham.
But I think there is better authority for the interpretation I have adopted.
... لَقَدْ عَلِمْتَ مَا هَؤُلَاء يَنطِقُونَ ﴿٦٥﴾
"Thou knowest full well that these (idols) do not speak!"
قَالَ
أَفَتَعْبُدُونَ
مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ
مَا لَا يَنفَعُكُمْ
شَيْئًا وَلَا
يَضُرُّكُمْ
﴿٦٦﴾
21: 66. (Abraham) said,
"Do ye then worship, besides Allah, things that can neither be of any good to you nor do you harm?
أُفٍّ
لَّكُمْ وَلِمَا
تَعْبُدُونَ
مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ...
21: 67. "Fie upon you, and upon the things that ye worship besides Allah!
C2723. As soon as they admitted in so many words that the idols could not speak, Abraham delivered his final attack:
'Then why do you worship useless impotent creatures?'
After that, there remains nothing but the argument of violence, which they proceed to exercise, being the party in power. 'Burn him at the stake' is an easy cry!
But it was not Abraham that suffered: it was his persecutors (21:70).
...أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ ﴿٦٧﴾
have ye no sense?"...
قَالُوا
حَرِّقُوهُ
وَانصُرُوا
آلِهَتَكُمْ
إِن كُنتُمْ
فَاعِلِينَ
﴿٦٨﴾
21: 68. They said, "Burn him and protect your gods, if ye do (anything at all)!"
قُلْنَا
يَا نَارُ كُونِي
بَرْدًا ...
21: 69. We said, "O fire! be thou cool,
C2724. The nature of fire, by all the physical laws of matter, is to be hot. The supremacy of mind over matter is a phrase much used, but the supremacy of the spiritual over the material is not so commonly understood. And yet it is the greatest factor in the estimate of Reality. The material is ephemeral and relative. The spiritual is eternal and absolute. Through all the fire of persecution and hatred Abraham remained unhurt. The fire became cool, and a means of safety for Abraham.
... وَسَلَامًا عَلَى إِبْرَاهِيمَ ﴿٦٩﴾
and (a means of)) safety for Abraham!"
C2725. Can we form any idea of the place where he passed through the furnace, and the stage in his career at which this happened?
He was born in Ur of the Chaldees, a place on the lower reaches of the Euphrates, not a hundred miles from the Persian Gulf. This was the cradle, or one of the cradles, of human civilisation. Astronomy was studied here in very ancient times, and the worship of the sun, moon, and stars was the prevailing form of religion.
Abraham revolted against this quite early in life, and his argument is referred to in 6:74-82.
They also had idols in their temples, probably idols representing heavenly bodies and celestial winged creatures. He was still a youth (21:60) when he broke the idols. This was stage No. 2.
After this he was marked down as a rebel and persecuted. Perhaps some years passed before the incident of his being thrown into the Fire (21:68-69) took place.
Traditionally the Fire incident is referred to a king called Nimrud, about whom see n. 1565 to 11:69. If Nimrud's capital was in Assyria, near Nineveh (site near modern Mosul), we may suppose either that the king's rule extended over the whole of Mesopotamia, or that Abraham wandered north through Babylonia to Assyria.
Various stratagems were devised to get rid of him (21:70), but he was saved by the mercy of Allah.
The final break came when he was probably a man of mature age and could speak to his father with some authority. This incident is referred to in 19:41-48.
He now left his ancestral lands, and avoiding the Syrian desert, came to the fertile lands of Aram or Syria, and so south to Canaan, when the incident of 11:69-76 took place.
It is some years after this that we may suppose he built the Ka'bah with Isma'il (2:124-29), and his prayer in 14:35-41 may be referred to the same time.
His visit to Egypt (Gen. 12:10) is not referred to in the Quran
وَأَرَادُوا
بِهِ كَيْدًا
فَجَعَلْنَاهُمُ
الْأَخْسَرِينَ
﴿٧٠﴾
21: 70. Then they sought a stratagem against him:
but We made them the ones that lost most!
C2726. As they could not get rid of him by open punishment, they tried secret plans, but were foiled throughout. It was not he that lost, but they.
On the contrary he left them and prospered and became the progenitor of great peoples.
Asad’s Version:
21:57 [al-Anbiyaa, Mecca 73]
And [he added to himself,] "By God, I shall most certainly bring about the downfall of your
idols as soon as you have turned your backs and gone away!"
(21:58} And then he broke those
[idols] to pieces, [all save the biggest of them, so that they might [be able to] turn to it."™
21:59
[When they saw what had happened,] they said: "Who has done this to our gods? Verily, one
of the worst wrongdoers is he!"
(21:60} Said some [of them]: "We heard a youth speak of
these [gods with scorn]: he is called Abraham."
21:61
[The others said: "Then bring him before the people's eyes, so that they might bear witness
[against him]!"
(21:62} [And when he came,] they asked: "Hast thou done this to our gods, O
Abraham?"
(21:63} He answered: "Nay, it was this one, the biggest of them, that did it: but
ask them [yourselves] - provided they can speak!"
21:64
And so they turned upon one another," saying, "Behold, it is you who are doing wrong." 62
(21:65} But then they relapsed into their former way of thinking 63 and said: "Thou knowest
very well that these [idols] cannot speak!"
21:66
Said [Abraham]: "Do you then worship, instead of God, something that cannot benefit you in
any way, nor harm you?
(21:67) Fie upon you and upon all that you worship instead of God!
Will you not, then, use your reason?"
21:67 [al-Anbiyaa, Mecca 73]
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21:68
They exclaimed: "Burn him, and [thereby] succour your gods, if you are going to do [anything]!"
(21:69} [But] We said: "0 fire! Be thou cool, and [a source of] inner peace for
Abraham !" 64 –
(21:70) and whereas they sought to do evil unto him, We caused them to suffer the greatest loss:"
(21:71) for We saved him and Lot, [his brother's son, by guiding them] to the land which We have blessed for all times to come."
[[Asad’s notes -
60 Sc., "for an explanation of what had happened".
61 Lit., "they turned to [or "upon"] themselves", i.e., blaming one another.
62 I.e., "you are doing wrong to Abraham by rashly suspecting him" (TabarT).
63 Lit., "they were turned upside down upon their heads" : an idiomatic phrase denoting a "mental somersault" - in this case, a sudden reversal of their readiness to exonerate Abraham and a return to their former suspicion.
64 Nowhere does the Qur'an state that Abraham was actually, bodily thrown into the fire and miraculously kept alive in it: on the contrary, the phrase "God saved him from the fire" occurring in 29:24 points, rather, to the fact of his not having been thrown into it. On the other hand, the many elaborate (and conflicting) stories with which the classical commentators have embroidered their interpretation of the above verse can invariably be traced back to Talmudic legends and may, therefore, be disregarded. What the Qur'an gives us here, as well as in 29:24 and 37:97, is apparently an allegorical allusion to the fire of persecution which Abraham had to suffer and which, by dint of its intensity, was to become in his later life a source of spiritual strength and inner peace (salam). Regarding the deeper implications of the term salam, see note 29 on 5:16. ]]
