Sura-26, ash Shuaraa (The Poets), Mecca 47
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Translation:
كَذَّبَتْ
عَادٌ الْمُرْسَلِينَ
﴿١٢٣﴾
123. The 'Ad (people) rejected the messengers.
إِذْ
قَالَ لَهُمْ
أَخُوهُمْ هُودٌ
أَلَا تَتَّقُونَ
﴿١٢٤﴾
124. Behold, their brother Hud said to them:
"Will ye not fear (God)?
إِنِّي
لَكُمْ رَسُولٌ
أَمِينٌ ﴿١٢٥﴾
125. "I am to you a messenger worthy of all trust.
فَاتَّقُوا
اللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُونِ
﴿١٢٦﴾
126. "So fear God and obey me.
وَمَا
أَسْأَلُكُمْ
عَلَيْهِ مِنْ
أَجْرٍ...
127. "No reward do I ask of you for it:
...إِنْ أَجْرِيَ إِلَّا عَلَى رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ ﴿١٢٧﴾
my reward is only from the Lord of the Worlds.
أَتَبْنُونَ
بِكُلِّ رِيعٍ
آيَةً تَعْبَثُونَ
﴿١٢٨﴾
128. "Do ye build a landmark on every high place to amuse yourselves?
وَتَتَّخِذُونَ
مَصَانِعَ
لَعَلَّكُمْ
تَخْلُدُونَ
﴿١٢٩﴾
129. "And do ye get for yourselves fine buildings in the hope of living therein (forever)?
وَإِذَا
بَطَشْتُم
بَطَشْتُمْ
جَبَّارِينَ
﴿١٣٠﴾
130. "And when ye exert your strong hand, do ye do it like men of absolute power?
فَاتَّقُوا
اللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُونِ
﴿١٣١﴾
131. "Now fear God, and obey me.
وَاتَّقُوا
الَّذِي أَمَدَّكُم
بِمَا تَعْلَمُونَ
﴿١٣٢﴾
132. "Yea, fear Him Who has bestowed on you freely all that ye know.
أَمَدَّكُم
بِأَنْعَامٍ
وَبَنِينَ ﴿١٣٣﴾
133. "Freely has He bestowed on you cattle and sons --
وَجَنَّاتٍ
وَعُيُونٍ ﴿١٣٤﴾
134. And Gardens and Springs.
إِنِّي
أَخَافُ عَلَيْكُمْ
عَذَابَ يَوْمٍ
عَظِيمٍ ﴿١٣٥﴾
135. "Truly I fear for you the Penalty of a Great Day."
قَالُوا
سَوَاء عَلَيْنَا
أَوَعَظْتَ
أَمْ لَمْ تَكُن
مِّنَ الْوَاعِظِينَ
﴿١٣٦﴾
136. They said:
"It is the same to us whether thou admonish us or be not among (our) Admonishers!
إِنْ
هَذَا إِلَّا
خُلُقُ الْأَوَّلِينَ
﴿١٣٧﴾
137. "This is no other than a customary device of the ancients,
Asad’s Translation
26:123 [AND the tribe of] Ad gave the lie to [one of God's] message-bearers
(26:124) when their brother Hud 55 said unto them: "Will you not be conscious of God?
(26:125) Behold, I am an apostle [sent by Him] to you, [and therefore] worthy of your trust:
(26:126) be, then, conscious of God, and pay heed unto me!
26:127 "And no reward whatever do I ask of you for it: my reward rests with none but the Sustainer of all the worlds.
(26:128) "Will you, in your wanton folly, build [idolatrous] altars on every height, 56
(26:129) and make for yourselves mighty castles, [hoping] that you might become immortal? 57
(26: 130) And will you [always], whenever you lay hand [on others], lay hand [on them) cruelly, without any restraint? 58
26:131 "Be, then, conscious of God and pay heed unto me: (26:132) and [thus] be conscious of Him who has [so] amply provided you with all [the good] that you might think of 59 - (26:133) amply provided you with flocks, and children, (26:134) and gardens, and springs -: 26:135for, verily,I fear lest suffering befall you on an awesome day!"
26:136 [But] they answered: "It is all one to us whether thou preachest [something new] or art not of those who [like to] preach.
(26: 137) This [religion of ours) is none other than that to which our forebears clung, 60
(26: 138) and we are not going to be chastised [for adhering to it] ! "
************************
Ali’s Comments:
3194. [26:123] See n. 1040 to 7:65 for the 'Ad people and their location.
Here the emphasis is on the fact that they were materialists believing in brute force, and felt secure in their fortresses and resources, but were found quite helpless when God's Message came and they rejected it.
3195. [26:125] See n. 3187 to 26:107 above.
3196. [26:128] Any merely material civilisation prides itself on show and parade. Its votaries scatter monuments for all sorts of things in conspicuous places-monuments which commemorate deeds and events which are forgotten in a few generations!
Cf. Shelley's poem on Ozymandias:
"I am Ozymandias, King of Kings!
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair! ....
Boundless and bare the lonely and level sands stretch far away!"
3197. [26:130] "Without any responsibility or consideration for those who come within your power?"
3198. [26:131] See n. 3188 above.
3199. [26:132] The gifts are described generally, immaterial and material.
"All that ye know" includes not only material things, but knowledge and the faculties by which knowledge may be used for human well-being, all that makes life beautiful and refined.
"Cattle" means wealth generally, and "sons" means population and manpower. "Gardens and Springs" are things that contribute to the delight and pleasure of man.
3200. [26:135] "But you have misused all those gifts, and you will suffer the inevitable penalties for your misuse and or your ingratitude."
3201. [26:136] "We are not going to attend to you whether you preach to us or not."
The construction of the second clause, "or be not among our admonishers" is a rapier cut at Hud, as if they had said:
"Oh yes! we have heard plenty of admonishers like you!"
See the next verse.
3202. [26:137] They said, as many of our modern enemies of religion say, "you are only reviving an ancient superstition, a dope of the crowd; there is no such thing as a Hereafter, or the sort of punishments you announce!"
Asad’s Comments:
55 See 7:65 and the corresponding note 48.
56 The noun ayah, which primarily denotes "a sign" or "a token", evidently refers here to the ancient Semitic custom of worshipping the tribal gods on hilltops, which were crowned to this end by sacrificial altars or monuments, each of them devoted to a particular deity: hence my rendering of ayah, in this particular context, as "altars" (in the plural).
57 The meaning could be either "hoping that you might live in them forever", or "that you might gain immortal renown for having built them" .
58 The term jabbar, when applied to man, as a rule denotes one who is haughty, overbearing, exorbitant and cruel, and does not submit to any moral restraints in his dealings with those who are weaker than himself. Sometimes (as, e.g., in 11:59 or 14:15) this term is used to describe a person's negative ethical attitude, and in that case it may be rendered as "enemy of the truth". In the present instance, however, stress is laid on the tyrannical behaviour of the tribe of 'Ad, evidently relating to their warlike conflicts with other people: and in this sense it expresses a Qur'anic prohibition, valid for all times, of all unnecessary cruelty in warfare, coupled with the positive, clearly- implied injunction to subordinate every act of war - as well as the decision to wage war as such - to moral considerations and restraints.
59 Lit., "with all that you know" or "that you are [or "might be"] aware of" . ]]
60 Lit., "the innate habit of the earlier people (al-awwalin)". The noun khuluq denotes one's "nature" in the sense of "innate disposition" (tabi'ah) or "moral character" (Taj al-'Arus); hence the use of this term to describe "that to which one clings", i.e., one's "innate habit" or "custom", and, in a specific sense, one's religion (ibid.).