3. Sura al-Imran, Medina 89 [3H, 10H]

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

مَّا كَانَ اللّهُ لِيَذَرَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ عَلَى مَآ أَنتُمْ عَلَيْهِ حَتَّىَ يَمِيزَ الْخَبِيثَ مِنَ الطَّيِّبِ...

3: 179. Allah will not leave the believers in the state in which ye are now, until He separates what is evil from what is good.

C481. The testing of good men by calamities and evil men by leaving them in the enjoyment of good things is part of the trials of Allah, in which some freedom of choice is left to man.

The psychological and subjective test is unfailing, and the separation is effected partly by the operation of the human wills, to which some freedom is allowed. But it must be effected, if only in the interests of the good.

...وَمَا كَانَ اللّهُ لِيُطْلِعَكُمْ عَلَى الْغَيْبِ ...

Nor will He disclose to you the secrets of the Unseen.

C482. Man in his weak state would be most miserable if he could see the secrets of the Future or the secrets of the Unseen. But things are revealed to him from time to time as may be expedient for him, by Messengers chosen for the purpose.

Our duty is to hold fast by faith and lead a good life.

... وَلَكِنَّ اللّهَ يَجْتَبِي مِن رُّسُلِهِ مَن يَشَاء...

But He chooses of His Messengers (for the purpose) whom He pleases.

...فَآمِنُواْ بِاللّهِ وَرُسُلِهِ ...

So believe in Allah and His Messengers:

...وَإِن تُؤْمِنُواْ وَتَتَّقُواْ فَلَكُمْ أَجْرٌ عَظِيمٌ ﴿١٧٩﴾

and if ye believe and do right, ye have a reward without measure.

Asad’s version

3:179 It is not God's will [O you who deny the truth] to abandon the believers to your way of life: 136 [and] to that end He will set apart the bad from the good. And it is not God's will to give you insight into that which is beyond the reach of human perception: but [to that end] God elects whomsoever He wills from among His apostles. 137 Believe, then, in God and His apostles; for if you believe and are conscious of Him, a magnificent requital awaits you.

[[ Asad’s notes - 136 Some commentators (e.g., Razi) assume that the expression ma antum 'alayhi (lit., "that upon which you are") denotes here "the condition in which you are" - i.e., the state of weakness and confusion in which the Muslim community found itself after the battle of Uhud - and that, therefore, this passage is addressed to the believers. This interpretation, however, is not plausible. Apart from the fact that the believers are here referred to in the third person, while ma antum 'alayhi is in the second person plural, the latter expression denotes almost invariably, both in the Qur'an and in the Traditions, people's mode of life and beliefs. Moreover, we have reliable reports to the effect that Ibn 'Abbas, Qatadah, Ad-Dahhak, Muqatil and Al-Kalbi unhesitatingly declared that the people addressed here are "those who deny the truth" to whom the preceding passages refer (see Tabari's and Baghawi's commentaries on this verse). Read in this sense, the above passage implies that the believers would, in time, differ from the unbelievers not only in their convictions but also in their social aims and their manner of living.

137 I.e., it is through these apostles that God vouchsafes to man a partial glimpse of the reality of which He alone has full knowledge. ]]