Surha 62 Al-Jumu'ah (The Congregation), Medina Period [110]
The Quranic Text & Ali’s translaiton:
مَثَلُ
الَّذِينَ
حُمِّلُوا
التَّوْرَاةَ
ثُمَّ لَمْ
يَحْمِلُوهَا
كَمَثَلِ الْحِمَارِ
يَحْمِلُ
أَسْفَارًا ...
62: 5. The similitude of those who were charged with the (obligations of the) Mosaic Law, but who subsequently failed in those(obligations), is that of a donkey which carries huge tomes (but understands them not).
... بِئْسَ مَثَلُ الْقَوْمِ الَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ ...
Evil is the similitude of people who falsify the Signs of God:
وَاللَّهُ لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ ﴿٥﴾
and God guides not people who do wrong.
Asad’s Version:
62:5
THE PARABLE of those who were graced with the burden of the Torah, and thereafter failed to bear this burden, 4 is that of an ass that carries a load of books [but cannot benefit from them]. Calamitous is the parable of people who are bent on giving the lie to God's messages - for God does not bestow His guidance upon such evildoing folk!
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Ali’s comments:
5457. The Children of Israel were chosen as special vehicles for God's Message early in history. When their descendants corrupted the Message and became guilty of all the abominations against which prophets like Isaiah inveighed with such zeal and fire, they merely became like beasts of burden that carry learning and wisdom on their backs but do not understand or profit by it.
Asad’s comments:
4 Connecting with the idea - implied in the preceding passage - that God's revelation is a sacred trust as well as a bounty, the discourse turns now to the problem of man's betrayal of this trust, exemplified by the Jews of post-Biblical times. They had been entrusted by God with the task of carrying the message of His oneness and uniqueness to all the world: but they failed in this task inasmuch as they came to believe that they were "God's chosen people" because of their descent from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and that, therefore, the divine message was meant for them alone and not for people of other nations. Hence, too, they came to deny the possibility of prophethood being bestowed on anyone who did not belong to the children of Israel (cf 2:90 and 94, and the corresponding notes 75 and 79), and so they summarily rejected the idea of Muhammad's prophethood despite the clear predictions of his advent in the Torah itself (see note 33 on 2:42). By thus corrupting the innermost purport of the divine writ bestowed on Moses, they themselves became unable to derive any real spiritual benefit from it, and to live up to its teachings.
[[ Asad’s note 33 [to 2-42] By "overlaying the truth with falsehood" is meant the corrupting of the Biblical text, of which the Qur'an frequently accuses the Jews (and which has since been established by objective textual criticism), while the "suppression of the truth" refers to their disregard or deliberately false interpretation of the words of Moses in the Biblical passage, "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken" (Deuteronomy xviii, 1 5), and the words attributed to God Himself, "I will raise them up a prophet from among thy brethren, like unto thee, and will put My words in his mouth" (Deuteronomy xviii, 18). The "brethren" of the children of Israel are obviously the Arabs, and particularly the musta'ribah ("Arabianized") group among them, which traces its descent to Ishmael and Abraham: and since it is to this group that the Arabian Prophet's own tribe, the Quraysh, belonged, the above Biblical passages
must be taken as referring to his advent.]]