23. Surah Al-Muminun

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

وَإِنَّ هَذِهِ أُمَّتُكُمْ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً...

23: 52. And verily this Brotherhood of yours is a single Brotherhood,

C2909. Cf. 21:92-93.

All prophets form one Brotherhood: their message is one, and their religion and teaching are one; they serve the One True God, Who loves and cherishes them; and they owe their duty to Him and Him alone.

...وَأَنَا رَبُّكُمْ فَاتَّقُونِ ﴿٥٢﴾

and I am your Lord and Cherisher: therefore fear Me (and no other).

فَتَقَطَّعُوا أَمْرَهُم بَيْنَهُمْ زُبُرًا...

23: 53. But people have cut off their affair (of unity), between them, into sects:

...كُلُّ حِزْبٍ بِمَا لَدَيْهِمْ فَرِحُونَ ﴿٥٣﴾

each party rejoices in that which is with itself.

C2910. The people who began to trade on the names of the prophets cut off that unity and made sects; and each sect rejoices in its own narrow doctrine, instead of taking the universal teaching of Unity from Allah. But this sectarian confusion is of man's making. It will last for a time, but the rays of Truth and Unity will finally dissipate it.

فَذَرْهُمْ فِي غَمْرَتِهِمْ حَتَّى حِينٍ ﴿٥٤﴾

23:54. But leave them in their confused ignorance for a time.

Asad’s Version:

(23:52) And, verily, this community of yours is one single community, since I am the Sustainer of you all: remain, then, conscious of Me! 28

23:53 But they [who claim to follow you] have torn their unity wide asunder, 29 piece by piece, each group delighting in [but] what they themselves possess [by way of tenets]. 30

(23:54) But leave them alone, lost in their ignorance, until a [future] time. 31

[[ Asad’s notes –

28 As in 21 :92, the above verse is addressed to all who truly believe in God, whatever their historical denomination. By the preceding reference to all of God's apostles the Qur'an clearly implies that all of them were inspired by, and preached, the same fundamental truths, notwithstanding all the differences in the ritual or the specific laws which they propounded in accordance with the exigencies of the time and the social development of their followers. (See notes 66-68 on the second paragraph of 5:48.)

29 Cf. 21:93.

30 Lit.; "in what they have [themselves]". In the first instance, this verse refers to the various religious groups as such: that is to say, to the followers of one or another of the earlier revelations who, in the course of time, consolidated themselves within different "denominations", each of them jealously guarding its own set of tenets, dogmas and rituals and intensely intolerant of all other ways of worship (manasik, see 22:67). In the second instance, however, the above condemnation applies to the breach of unity within each of the established religious groups; and since it applies to the followers of all the prophets, it includes the latter-day followers of Muhammad as well, and thus constitutes a prediction and condemnation of the doctrinal disunity prevailing in the world of Islam in our times - cf. the well- authenticated saying of the Prophet quoted by Ibn Hanbal, Abu Da'ud, Tirmidhi and Darimi: "The Jews have been split up into seventy-one sects, the Christians into seventy-two sects, whereas my community will be split up into seventy-three sects. " (It should be remembered that in classical Arabic usage the number seventy" often stands for "many" -just as "seven" stands for "several" or "various" - and does not necessarily denote an actual figure; hence, what the Prophet meant to say was that the sects and divisions among the Muslims of later days would become many, and even more numerous than those among the Jews and the Christians.)

31 I.e., until they themselves realize their error. This sentence is evidently addressed to the last of the apostles, Muhammad, and thus to all who truly follow him. ]]