46. Surah Al-Ahqaf (The Sand-Dunes)
Mecca Period 66
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
وَاذْكُرْ
أَخَا
عَادٍ
...
46: 21. Mention (Hud) one of 'Ad's (own) brethren:
The point is that the Warner who was raised among the 'Ad people-as among other peoples-was not a stranger, but one of their own brethren, even as the holy Prophet began his preaching with a call to his own brethren the Quraysh.
... إِذْ أَنذَرَ قَوْمَهُ بِالْأَحْقَافِ...
behold, he warned his people about the winding Sand-tracts:
C4799. Winding Sand-tracts: Ahqaf: see Introduction to this Surah.
The very things, which, under irrigation and with Allah's Grace, gave them prosperity and power, were to be their undoing when they broke Allah's Law and defied His Grace.
See verses 24-26 below.
...وَقَدْ خَلَتْ النُّذُرُ مِن بَيْنِ يَدَيْهِ وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِ أَلَّا تَعْبُدُوا إِلَّا اللَّهَ...
but there have been Warners before him and after him:
"Worship ye none other than Allah:
...إِنِّي أَخَافُ عَلَيْكُمْ عَذَابَ يَوْمٍ عَظِيمٍ ﴿٢١﴾
truly I fear for you the Penalty of a Mighty Day."
قَالُوا
أَجِئْتَنَا
لِتَأْفِكَنَا
عَنْ
آلِهَتِنَا...
46: 22. They said:
"Hast thou come in order to turn us aside from Our gods?
C4800. They were too much wedded to their evil ways-to the false gods that they worshipped-to appreciate the sincere advice of the prophet of Allah. They defied him and defied Allah Who had sent him. Mockingly they challenged him to bring on the threatened punishment! For they did not believe a word of what he said.
...فَأْتِنَا بِمَا تَعِدُنَا إِن كُنتَ مِنَ الصَّادِقِينَ ﴿٢٢﴾
Then bring upon us the (calamity) with which thou dost threaten us, if thou art telling the truth!"
قَالَ
إِنَّمَا
الْعِلْمُ
عِندَ
اللَّهِ...
46: 23. He said:
"The Knowledge (of when it will come) is only with Allah:
C4801. The coming of the Punishment for evil was (and is always) certain. At what particular time it would come he could not tell. It is not for the prophet, but for Allah, to bring on the Penalty. But he saw that it was useless to appeal to them on account of the ignorance in which they were content to dwell.
...وَأُبَلِّغُكُم مَّا أُرْسِلْتُ بِهِ وَلَكِنِّي أَرَاكُمْ قَوْمًا تَجْهَلُونَ ﴿٢٣﴾
I proclaim to you the mission on which I have been sent: but I see that ye are a people in ignorance!"...
فَلَمَّا
رَأَوْهُ
عَارِضًا
مُّسْتَقْبِلَ
أَوْدِيَتِهِمْ
...
46: 24. Then, when they saw the (Penalty in the shape of) a cloud traversing the sky, coming to meet their valleys,
C4802. The Punishment came suddenly, and when they least expected it. They wanted rain, and they saw a cloud and rejoiced. Behold, it was coming towards their own tracts, winding through the hills. Their irrigation channels would be full, their fields would be green, and their season would be fruitful.
But no!
What is this?
It is a tremendous hurricane, carrying destruction on its wings! A violent blast, with dust and sand! Its fury destroys everything in its wake! Lives lost! Fields covered with sand-hills!
The morning dawns on a scene of desolation! Where were the men who boasted and defied their Lord! There are only the ruins of their houses to witness to the past!
... قَالُوا هَذَا عَارِضٌ مُّمْطِرُنَا...
they said,
"This cloud will give us rain!"
...بَلْ هُوَ مَا اسْتَعْجَلْتُم بِهِ رِيحٌ فِيهَا عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ ﴿٢٤﴾
"Nay,
it is the (calamity) ye were asking to be hastened! --
a wind wherein is a Grievous Penalty!
تُدَمِّرُ
كُلَّ
شَيْءٍ
بِأَمْرِ
رَبِّهَا
...
46: 25. "Everything will it destroy by the command of its Lord!"
... فَأَصْبَحُوا لَا يُرَى إِلَّا مَسَاكِنُهُمْ...
Then by the morning they -- nothing was to be seen but (the ruins of) their houses!
C4803. Here is the figure of speech known in rhetoric as aposiopesis, to heighten the effect of the suddenness and completeness of the calamity.
In the Arabic text, the verb asbahu, in the third person plural, leads us to expect that we shall be told what they were doing in the morning. But no! They had been wiped out, and any small remnant had fled (see n. 1040 to 7:65). Nothing was to be seen but the ruins of their houses.
...كَذَلِكَ نَجْزِي الْقَوْمَ الْمُجْرِمِينَ ﴿٢٥﴾
Thus do We recompense those given to sin!
وَلَقَدْ
مَكَّنَّاهُمْ
فِيمَا
إِن
مَّكَّنَّاكُمْ
فِيهِ
وَجَعَلْنَا
لَهُمْ
سَمْعًا
وَأَبْصَارًا
وَأَفْئِدَةً...
46: 26. And We had firmly established them in a (prosperity and) power which We have not given to you (ye Quraish!) and We had endowed them with (faculties of) hearing, seeing, heart and intellect:
C4804. The 'Ad and their successors the Thamud were more richly endowed with the faculties of the arts, sciences, and culture than ever were the Quraish before Islam.
"Hearing and seeing" refer to the experimental faculties;
the word "heart" in Arabic includes intellect, or the rational faculties, as well as the instruments of feeling and emotion, the aesthetic faculties.
The Second 'Ad, or Thamud, have left interesting traces of their architecture in the country round the Hijr: see n. 1043 to 7:73, and notes 2002-3 to 15:80-82.
...فَمَا أَغْنَى عَنْهُمْ سَمْعُهُمْ وَلَا أَبْصَارُهُمْ وَلَا أَفْئِدَتُهُم مِّن شَيْءٍ...
but of no profit to them were their (faculties of) hearing, sight, and heart and intellect,
...إِذْ كَانُوا يَجْحَدُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ ...
when they went on rejecting the Signs of Allah;
C4805. The highest talents and faculties of this world are useless in the next world if we reject the laws of Allah and thus become outlaws there.
... وَحَاقَ بِهِم مَّا كَانُوا بِهِ يَسْتَهْزِؤُون ﴿٢٦﴾
and they were (completely) encircled by that which they used to mock at!
C4806. See n. 4770 to 45:33.
They used to mock at Allah's Signs, but those were the very things which hemmed them in, and showed that they had more power and effectiveness than anything else.
Asad’s Version:
46:21 AND REMEMBER that brother of [the tribe of] Ad, 25 how - seeing that [other] warnings had already come and gone within his own knowledge as well as in times beyond his ken 26 - he warned his people [who lived] among those sand-dunes: "Worship none but God! Verily, I fear lest suffering befall you on an awesome day!"
[[Asad’s notes -
25 I.e., the Prophet Hud (see surah 7, note 48). The mention of Hud and the tribe of 'Ad connects with the last sentence of the preceding verse, inasmuch as this tribe "transgressed all bounds of equity all over their lands" (89:11).
26 Lit., "from between his hands and from behind him". This idiomatic phrase (explained in note 247 on 2:255) is evidently an allusion to the many warning messages, in Hud's own time as well as in the almost forgotten past, which ought to have made - but did not make - the tribe of 'Ad conscious of how far astray they had gone. We have here a subtle, parenthetic reminder that, apart from the revelations which He bestows upon His prophets, God offers His guidance to man through the many signs and warnings apparent in all nature as well as in the changing conditions of human society. ]]
46:22 They answered: "Hast thou come to seduce us away from our gods? Bring, then, upon us that [doom] with which thou threatenest us, if thou art a man of truth!"
46:23 Said he: "Knowledge [of when it is to befall you] rests with God alone: I but convey unto you the message with which I have been entrusted; but I see that you are people ignorant [of right and wrong]!"
(46:24) And so, when they beheld it 27 in the shape of a dense cloud approaching
their valleys, they exclaimed, "This is but a heavy cloud which will bring us [welcome] rain! " [But Hud said:] "Nay, but it is the very thing which you [so contemptuously] sought to hasten - a wind bearing grievous suffering,
(46:25) bound to destroy everything at its Sustainer's behest!"
And then they were so utterly wiped out, that nothing could be seen save their [empty] dwellings: thus do We requite people lost in sin.
46:26 And yet, We had established them securely in a manner in which We have never established you, [people of later times;] 29 and We had endowed them with hearing, and sight, and [knowledgeable] hearts: 30 but neither their hearing, nor their sight, nor their hearts were of the least avail to them, seeing that they went on rejecting God's messages; and [in the end] they were overwhelmed 31 by the very thing which they had been wont to deride.
[[Asad’s notes -
27 I.e., when they beheld, without recognizing it as such, the approach of their doom.
28 Lit., "then they became so that ...", etc. See 69:6-8, describing the sandstorm which destroyed the tribe of Ad without leaving any trace of them.
29 This relates in the first instance to the pagan contemporaries of the Prophet, but applies to later generations as well. - The tribe of Ad were the unchallenged lords in the vast region in which they lived (cf 89:8 - "the like of whom has never been reared in all the land"). Moreover, the social conditions of their time were so simple and so free of the many uncertainties and dangers which beset people of higher civilizations that they could be regarded as more "securely established" on earth than people of later, more complex times.
30 I.e., intellect and feeling, both of which are comprised in the noun fu'ad.
31 Lit., "enfolded". ]]
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