2 Sura, al-Baqarah [ the cow], Medina 87
The Quranic text and Ali’s version
ذَلِكَ
الْكِتَابُ
لاَ رَيْبَ
فِيهِ هُدًى
لِّلْمُتَّقِينَ
﴿٢﴾
2:2. This is the Book; in it is guidance sure, without doubt, to those who fear Allah.
الَّذِينَ
يُؤْمِنُونَ
بِالْغَيْبِ
وَيُقِيمُونَ
الصَّلاةَ ...
2:3. Who believe in the Unseen, are steadfast in prayer,
... وَمِمَّا رَزَقْنَاهُمْ يُنفِقُونَ ﴿٣﴾
and spend out of what We have provided for them.
Asad’s version
2:2 HIS DIVINE WRIT - let there be no doubt about it is [meant to be] a guidance for all the God- conscious 2
(2:3) who believe in [the existence of] that which is beyond the reach of human perception, 3 and are constant in prayer, and spend on others out of what We provide for them as sustenance; 4
[[ Asad’s explanation: Al-ghayb (commonly, and erroneously, translated as "the Unseen") is used in the Qur'an to denote all those sectors or phases of reality which lie beyond the range of human perception and cannot, therefore, be proved or disproved by scientific observation or even adequately comprised within the accepted categories of speculative thought: as, for instance, the existence of God and of a definite purpose underlying the universe ………..See more below in notes]]
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[Ali’s notes:
C26. Taqwa and the verbs and nouns connected with the root, signify:
1. the fear of Allah which according to the writer of Proverbs (1:7) in the Old Testament is the beginning of Wisdom;
2. restraint, or guarding one's tongue, hand, and heart from evil;
3. hence righteousness, piety good conduct.
All these ideas are implied; in the translation, only one or other of these ideas can be indicated according to the context.
See also 47:17; and 74:56, n.5808.
C27. All bounties proceed from Allah.
- They may be physical gifts, e.g., food, clothing, houses, gardens, wealth, etc. or
- intangible gifts, e.g., influence, power, birth and the opportunities flowing from it, health talents, etc. or
- spiritual gifts, e.g., insight into good and evil, understanding of men, the capacity for love, etc.
We are to use all in humility and moderation. But we are also to give out of every one of them something that contributes to the well-being of others.
We are to be neither ascetics nor luxurious sybarites, neither selfish misers nor thoughtless prodigals.]
[Asad’s notes:
2 The conventional translation of muttaqi as "God-fearing" does not adequately render
the positive content of this expression - namely, the awareness of His all-presence
and the desire to mould one's existence in the light of this awareness; while the
interpretation adopted by some translators, "one who guards himself against evil" or
"one who is careful of his duty", does not give more than one particular aspect of
the concept of God-consciousness.
3 Al-ghayb (commonly, and erroneously, translated as "the Unseen") is used in the Qur'an to denote all those sectors or phases of reality which lie beyond the range of human perception and cannot, therefore, be proved or disproved by scientific observation or even adequately comprised within the accepted categories of speculative thought: as, for instance, the existence of God and of a definite purpose underlying the universe, life after death, the real nature of time, the existence of spiritual forces and their interaction, and so forth. Only a person who is convinced that the ultimate reality comprises far more than our observable environment can attain to belief in God and, thus, to a belief that life has meaning and purpose. By pointing out that it is "a guidance for those who believe in the existence of that which is beyond human perception" , the Qur'an says, in effect, that it will - of necessity - remain a closed book to all whose
minds cannot accept this fundamental premise. ]
[ Amatulla’s note:
I fully concur with Muhammad Asad’s explanation of ‘Al-ghayb’. The Quran is not asking a person to believe in something that is provable or knowable. There are many things that are unseen but we know that they exist because of their provable and measureable effects. In those cases there is no need of ‘faith’. The central idea of Islam and other religions is to have faith in God, the Cause of all causes, that is not provable. The Arabic word ‘al-ghayb’ used in the Quran should mean those things that can never be provable or knowable. As soon as a phenomenon is known it does not require ‘faith’ to accept it.
In physics the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle acknowledges that certain things – positions of very small matters such as an atom or yet smaller things, at a time - are never humanly knowable. Science accepts the ‘string theory’ – the most advanced theory of the universe - even though knowing that this theory is never provable because of the smallness of strings. However the theory is well accepted on grounds of reason that it explains the workings of the universe coherently taking everything into account. Using the same analytical reasoning, then, it should not be very difficult to accept the existence of a Supreme Being, the Cause of all causes, that creates and sustains this reality in which billions of factors are synchronizing with each other in precise manner to render these seen and unseen universes. However, the stand that science accepts one idea and ignores the other when both stand on the same ground of reasoning defies reason. ]