54. Surah Al-Qamar (The Moon)
Mecca Period 37
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
وَلَقَدْ
جَاء آلَ فِرْعَوْنَ
النُّذُرُ
﴿٤١﴾
54: 41. To the people of Pharaoh, too, aforetime, came Warners (from Allah).
C5158. The Egyptian people of old are the last people mentioned in this Surah as an example of iniquity meeting with punishment. And the moral is driven home to the Pagan Quraish, to warn them of their fate if they persisted in their evil lives.
The Egyptians had many Signs given them. They were a gifted people and had made much progress in the sciences and the arts. They could have learnt from history that when the highest virtues disappear, the nation must fall. Moses was brought up among them and commissioned to give Allah's Message to them. But they were arrogant; they were unjust to Allah's creatures; they followed debasing forms of worship; they mocked at Truth; and were at last punished with destruction in the Red Sea for their arrogant leaders and army.
See 10:75-90 for a narrative.
كَذَّبُوا
بِآيَاتِنَا
كُلِّهَا
فَأَخَذْنَاهُمْ
أَخْذَ عَزِيزٍ
مُّقْتَدِرٍ
﴿٤٢﴾
54: 42. The (people) rejected all Our Signs;
but We seized them with such Penalty (as comes) from One Exalted in Power, able to carry out His Will.
أَكُفَّارُكُمْ
خَيْرٌ مِّنْ
أُوْلَئِكُمْ
...
54: 43. Are your Unbelievers, (O Quraish), better than they?
C5159. If the Egyptians with all their power and science were unable to resist the punishment of their sins, the Pagan Quraish are asked: how will you fare when you come to a trial of strength against Allah's Truth?
You are not specially favoured so as to be immune from Allah's Law. And if you rely on your numbers, they will be a broken reed when the trial comes, as indeed happened at the Battle of Badr.
...أَمْ لَكُم بَرَاءةٌ فِي الزُّبُرِ ﴿٤٣﴾
or have ye an immunity in the Sacred Books?
Asad’s Version:
54:41 Now surely, unto Pharaoh's folk [too] came such warnings;
(54:42) they, too, gave the lie to all Our messages: and thereupon We took them to task as only the Almighty, who determines all things, can take to task. 22
54:43 ARE, THEN, those of you who [now] deny the truth 23 better than those others - or have you, perchance, [been promised] immunity in the [ancient] books of [divine] wisdom? 24
[[Asad’s notes - 22 Lit., "We gripped them with the grip of an almighty...", etc. The special - and concluding - mention of "Pharaoh's folk" is due to the fact that the Egyptians were the most highly developed and powerful nation in the antiquity to which this and the preceding passages refer.
23 Lit., "your deniers of the truth".
24 See surah 21, note 101. ]]