Sura-53 [An-Najm Mecca 23]


The Quranic Text & Ali’s version:




مَا كَذَبَ الْفُؤَادُ مَا رَأَى ﴿١١﴾

53:11.  The (Prophet's) (mind and) heart in no way falsified that which he saw.

C5091. "Heart" in Arabic includes the faculty of intelligence as well as the faculty of feeling.

The impression conveyed was pure truth; there was no illusion in it.

أَفَتُمَارُونَهُ عَلَى مَا يَرَى ﴿١٢﴾

53:12.  Will ye then dispute with him concerning what he saw?

وَلَقَدْ رَآهُ نَزْلَةً أُخْرَى ﴿١٣﴾

53:13.  For indeed he saw him at a second descent.

C5092. The first occasion when Gabriel appeared in a visible form was at the Mountain of Light, when he brought his first revelation beginning with Iqra';

The second was at the Prophet's Miraj or Ascension: see Introduction to Surah 17.

These were the only two occasions when Gabriel appeared in visible form. (R).

عِندَ سِدْرَةِ الْمُنْتَهَى ﴿١٤﴾

53:14.  Near the Lote-tree beyond which none may pass:

C5093. For the Lote-tree in its literal meaning, see n. 3814 to 34:16.

The wild Lote is thorny; under cultivation it yields good fruit and shade, and is symbolic of heavenly bliss, as here and in 56:28.

عِندَهَا جَنَّةُ الْمَأْوَى ﴿١٥﴾

53:15.  Near it is the Garden of Abode.

C5094. The "Garden of Abode" (Jannat al-Mawa) lies close to the Lote-Tree and, in the opinion of some authorities, is so called because the souls of believers will find their abode therein. [Eds.].

إِذْ يَغْشَى السِّدْرَةَ مَا يَغْشَى ﴿١٦﴾

53:16.  Behold, the Lote-tree was shrouded (in mystery unspeakable!)

مَا زَاغَ الْبَصَرُ وَمَا طَغَى ﴿١٧﴾

53:17.  (His) sight never swerved, nor did it go wrong!

لَقَدْ رَأَى مِنْ آيَاتِ رَبِّهِ الْكُبْرَى ﴿١٨﴾

53:18.  For truly did he see, of the Signs of his Lord, the Greatest!

 

أَفَرَأَيْتُمُ اللَّاتَ وَالْعُزَّى ﴿١٩﴾

53:19.  Have ye seen Lat, and Uzza,

C5095. From the heights of divine Glory, we come back again to this sorry earth, with its base idolatries. We are asked to "look at this picture, and at that!"

The three principal idols of Pagan Arab Idolatry were the goddesses

Opinions differ as to their exact forms: one version is that

وَمَنَاةَ الثَّالِثَةَ الْأُخْرَى ﴿٢٠﴾

53:20.  And another, the third (goddess), Manat?

Asad’s Version:



53:10 And thus did [God] reveal unto His servant whatever He deemed right to reveal, 6 (53:1 1) The [servant's] heart did not give the lie to what he saw: 7

(53:12) will you, then, contend with him as to what he saw? 8

(53:13) And, indeed, he saw him 9 a second time (53:14) by the lote-tree of the farthest limit, 10

(53:15) near unto the garden of promise,

(53:16) with the lote-tree veiled in a veil of nameless splendour...."

(53:17) [And withal,] the eye did not waver, nor yet did it stray:

(53:18) truly did he see some of the most profound of his Sustainer's symbols. 12


53:19 HAVE YOU, then, ever considered [what you are worshipping in] Al-Lat and Al-'Uzza,

53:20 as well as [in] Manat, the third and last [of this triad]? 13



[[Asad’s notes -

6 Lit., "whatever He revealed": an allusion to the exceptional manifestation of the angel "in his true shape and nature" as well as to the contents of divine revelation as such. In its deeper sense the above phrase implies that even to His chosen prophets God does not entirely unveil the ultimate mysteries of existence, of life and death, of the purpose for which He has created the universe, or of the nature of the universe itself.


7 Inasmuch as the Prophet was fully aware of the spiritual character of his experience, there was no conflict between his conscious mind and his intuitive perception (the "vision of the heart") of what is normally not perceptible.


8 Thus the Qur'an makes it clear that the Prophet's vision of the angel was not a delusion but a true spiritual experience: but precisely because it was purely spiritual in nature, it could be conveyed to others only by means of symbols and allegories, which sceptics all too readily dismiss as fancies, "contending with him as to what he saw".


9 I.e., he saw the angel "manifested in his true shape and nature" .


10 I.e., on the occasion of his mystic experience of the "Ascension" (mi'raj). Explaining the vision conveyed in the expression sidrat al-muntaha, Raghib suggests that owing to the abundance of its leafy shade, the sidr or sidrah (the Arabian lote-tree) appears in the Qur'an as well as in the Traditions relating to the Ascension as a symbol of the "shade" - i.e., the spiritual peace and fulfilment - of paradise. One may assume that the qualifying term al-muntaha ("of the utmost [or "farthest"] limit") is indicative of the fact that God has set a definite limit to all knowledge accessible to created beings, as pointed out in the Nihayah: implying, in particular, that human knowledge, though potentially vast and penetrating, can never - not even in paradise (the "garden of promise" mentioned in the next verse) - attain to an understanding of the ultimate reality, which the Creator has reserved for Himself (cf. note 6 above).


1 1 Lit., "when the lote-tree was veiled with whatever veiled [it] " : a phrase deliberately vague (mubham), indicative of the inconceivable majesty and splendour attaching to this symbol of paradise "which no description can picture and no definition can embrace" (Zamakhshari).


12 Lit., "[some] of the greatest of his Sustainer's symbols (ayat)". For this specific rendering of the term ayah, see note 2 on 17:1, which refers to the same mystic experience, namely, the Ascension. In both these Qur'anic allusions the Prophet is said to have been "made to see" (i.e., given to understand) some, but not all, of the ultimate truths (cf. also 7:187-188); and this, too, seives to explain the idea expressed in verse 10 above.


13 After pointing out that the Prophet was granted true insight into some of the most profound verities, the Qur'an draws our attention to the "false symbols" which men so often choose to invest with divine qualities or powers: in this instance by way of example - to the blasphemous imagery of the Prophet's pagan contemporaries epitomized in the triad of Al-Lat, Manat and Al-'Uzza, These three goddesses - regarded by the pagan Arabs as "God's daughters" side by side with the angels (who, too, were conceived of as females) - were worshipped in most of pre-Islamic Arabia, and had several shrines in the Hijaz and in Najd. The worship of Al-Lat was particularly ancient and almost certainly of South- Arabian origin; she may have been the prototype of the Greek semi-goddess Leto, one of the wives of Zeus and mother of Apollo and Artemis.