37. Surah As-Saffat (Those Ranged In Ranks)
Mecca 56 [182 verses]
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
وَإِنَّ
مِن شِيعَتِهِ
لَإِبْرَاهِيمَ
﴿٨٣﴾
37: 83. Verily among those who followed his Way was Abraham.
C4085. The main story will be found in 16:51-73; but the episode about his readiness and that of his son to submit to the most extreme form of self-sacrifice under trial (in verses 102-107 below) is told here for the first time, as this Surah deals with the theme, "Not my will, but Thine be done!"
In "followed his way", the pronoun "his" refers to Noah, "he", of verse 81 above.
إِذْ
جَاء رَبَّهُ
بِقَلْبٍ سَلِيمٍ
﴿٨٤﴾
37: 84. Behold, He approached his Lord with a sound heart.
C4086. A sound heart: qalb salim: a heart that is pure, and unaffected by the diseases that afflict others.
As the heart in Arabic is taken to be not only the seat of feelings and affections, but also of intelligence and resulting action, it implies the whole character.
Cf. Abraham's title of Hanif (the True): 2:135 and n. 134.
Cf. also 26:89: "only he will prosper who brings to Allah a sound heart."
إِذْ
قَالَ لِأَبِيهِ
وَقَوْمِهِ
مَاذَا تَعْبُدُونَ
﴿٨٥﴾
37: 85. Behold, he said to his father and to his people,
"What is that which ye worship?
أَئِفْكًا
آلِهَةً دُونَ
اللَّهِ تُرِيدُونَ
﴿٨٦﴾
37: 86. "Is it a Falsehood -- gods other than Allah -- that ye desire?
C4087. False worship-worship of idols or stars or symbols, or Mammon or Self-is due either to false and degrading conceptions of Allah, or to a sort of make-believe, where practice is inconsistent with knowledge or ignores the inner promptings of Conscience. Abraham's challenge to his people is: 'Are you fools or hypocrites?'
فَمَا
ظَنُّكُم بِرَبِّ
الْعَالَمِينَ
﴿٨٧﴾
37: 87. "Then what is your idea about the Lord of the Worlds?"
C4088. 'Do you not realise that the real Creator is One-above all the forms and superstitions that you associate with Him?'
فَنَظَرَ
نَظْرَةً فِي
النُّجُومِ
﴿٨٨﴾
37: 88. Then did he cast a glance at the stars.
فَقَالَ
إِنِّي سَقِيمٌ
﴿٨٩﴾
89. And he said, "I am indeed sick (at heart)!"
C4089. The grief was really preying on his mind and soul, that he should be associated with such falsehoods.
His father himself was among the chief supporters of such falsehoods, and his people were given up wholly to them. He could not possibly share in their mummeries, and they left him in disgust. Then he made his practical protest in the manner narrated in 21:56-64.
فَتَوَلَّوْا
عَنْهُ مُدْبِرِينَ
﴿٩٠﴾
37: 90. So they turned away from him, and departed.
فَرَاغَ إِلَى آلِهَتِهِمْ فَقَالَ...
37: 91. Then did he turn to their gods and said,
...أَلَا
تَأْكُلُونَ
﴿٩١﴾
"Will ye not eat (of the offerings before you)?...
مَا
لَكُمْ لَا
تَنطِقُونَ
﴿٩٢﴾
37: 92. "What is the matter with you that ye speak not (intelligently)?"
فَرَاغَ
عَلَيْهِمْ
...
37: 93. Then did he turn upon them,
C4090. See the reference in the last note.
... ضَرْبًا بِالْيَمِينِ ﴿٩٣﴾
striking (them) with the right hand.
C4091. With the right hand: as the right hand is the hand of power, the phrase means that he struck them with might and main and broke them.
فَأَقْبَلُوا
إِلَيْهِ يَزِفُّونَ
﴿٩٤﴾
37: 94. Then came (the worshippers) with hurried steps and faced (him).
قَالَ
أَتَعْبُدُونَ
مَا تَنْحِتُونَ
﴿٩٥﴾
37: 95. He said:
"Worship ye that which ye have (yourselves) carved?
C4092. His action was a challenge, and he drives home the challenge now with argument. 'Do you worship your own handiwork?
Surely worship is due to Him Who made you and made possible your handiwork!'
وَاللَّهُ
خَلَقَكُمْ
وَمَا تَعْمَلُونَ
﴿٩٦﴾
37: 96. "But Allah has created you and your handiwork!"
قَالُوا ابْنُوا لَهُ بُنْيَانًا...
37: 97. They said:
"Build him a furnace,
فَأَلْقُوهُ
فِي الْجَحِيمِ
﴿٩٧﴾
and throw him into the blazing fire!"
C4093. The argument of Abraham was so sound that it could not be met by argument. In such cases Evil resorts to violence, or secret plotting. Here there was both violence and secret plotting.
The violence consisted in throwing him into a blazing Furnace. But by the mercy of Allah the fire did not harm him (21:69), and so they resorted to plotting. But the plotting, as the next verse (37:98) shows, was a boomerang that recoiled on their own heads.
فَأَرَادُوا بِهِ كَيْدًا...
37: 98. (This failing), they then sought a stratagem against him,
C4094. Cf. 21:71.
Their plot against the righteous Abraham failed. Abraham migrated from the country (Chaldea, Babylon, and Assyria) and prospered in Syria and Palestine. It was his persecutors that suffered humiliation.
...فَجَعَلْنَاهُمُ
الْأَسْفَلِينَ
﴿٩٨﴾
but We made them the ones most humiliated!
Asad’s Version:
37:83 AND, BEHOLD, of his was Abraham, too,
(37:84) when he turned to his Sustainer with a heart free of evil,
(37:85) and [thus] spoke to his father and his people: "What is it that you worship?
(37:86) Do you want [to bow down before] a lie - [before] deities other than God?
(37:87) What, then, do you think of the Sustainer of all the worlds?" 31
37:88 Then he cast a glance at the stars,"
(37:89) and said, "Verily, I am sick [at heart]!" 35
(37:90) and at that they turned their backs on him and went away.
(37:91) Thereupon he approached their gods stealthily and said, "What!
You do not eat [of the offerings placed before you]?
(37:92) What is amiss with you that you do not speak?"
(37:93) And then he fell upon them, smiting them with his right hand. 34
37:94 [But] then the others came towards him hurriedly [and accused him of his deed].
(37:95) He answered: "Do you worship something that you [yourselves] have carved,
(37:96) the while it is God who has created you and all your handiwork?"
(37:97) They exclaimed: "Build a pyre 35 for him, and cast him into the blazing fire!"
37:98 (98) But whereas they sought to do evil unto him, We (frustrated their designs, and thus] brought them low. 36
29 I.e., the Deluge.
30 Lit., "and We left upon him", sc., "this praise or "remembrance", expressed in the salutation which follows.
31 Abraham's argument goes thus: "Do you believe in the existence of a Creator and Lord of the universe?" - a question which his people were bound to answer in the affirmative, since belief in a Supreme Deity was an integral part of their religion. The next stage of the argument would be: "How, then, can you worship idols - the work of your own hands - side by side with the idea of a Creator of the universe?"
32 Obviously an allusion to his early, futile attempts at identifying God with the stars, the sun or the moon (see 6:76-78).
33 Sc, "at your worshipping idols instead of God" (IbnKathir; cf also Lane IV, 1384).
34 A metonym for "with all his strength". For what happened afterwards, see 21 :58 ff
35 Lit., "a building" or "a structure".