Surah Yunus 10:21-30 - Quran Translation Commentary

21. And when We cause mankind to taste of some mercy after adversity has touched them, they indulge in plotting against our signs³⁸. Say: “Allah is more swift in planning³⁹.” Verily, Our messengers record all that you are plotting⁴⁰.

22. It is He who enables you to travel by land and by sea⁴¹, till, when you are in the ships and they sail with them with a favourable wind and they rejoice thereat; (suddenly) a stormy wind blows and waves come to them from all sides and they think they are encompassed by them; (then) they invoke to Allah, in humility making their faith pure for Him alone⁴², saying: “If you deliver us from this, we will truly be grateful.”

23. But when He delivers them, they transgress in the earth unjustly43.O Mankind! Your transgression is against yourselves only. Enjoy the life of the world! Then to Us is your return, then We will show you what you have been doing.²⁴.

24. The example of the life of the world is as the rain which We sent down from the skies, by its mingling with it (earth) grows the produce of the earth, which men and cattle eat, till the earth took her ornaments and was embellished⁴⁴; and its people thought that they are her master; then (suddenly) Our (Command came by night or by day⁴⁵ and made it like a harvest clean-mown, as if it had not flourished yesterday⁴⁶, Thus do We explain Our signs in detail for those who reflect⁴⁷.

25. And Allah invites to the Home of Peace⁴⁸ and guides whom He will to the straight path⁴⁹.

26. For those who do good is the best (reward) and more⁵⁰; and neither blackness nor ignominy shall cover their faces; they are the people of the Paradise, they will abide therein forever.

27. And those who have earned evil, their reward will be evil like it: and ignominy will cover them. For them there will be no protector from Allah, as if their faces had been covered with the veils of the night’s black darkness⁵¹; they are the people of the Hell-fire, they will abide therein forever.

28. And the Day when We will gather them all together, then We will say to those who ascribed partners to Us: “Keep to your place, you and your (imagined) partners (of Allah).” Then We will cause separation between thems52, and their (imagined) partner” will say: “It was not us that you worshipped.

29. Allah is sufficient as witness between us and you that we were unaware of your worships⁵³.

30. There will every soul experience that which it did before, and everyone will be returned to his Rightful, Lord ⁵⁴, and that which they had invented will fail them.

Commentary

38. The catastrophic happenings and the disastrous events that take place in the world on the social and national levels possess in themselves such warnings and signs that have the quality of awakening men’s conscience, of guiding them to the reality of this world and of driving men’s attention towards God, but those who are hell-bent on not heeding God and His guidance interpret these events and happenings in such a way that human mind is not attracted towards God. If they had remembered God in adverse circumstances. then they try to suppress that remembrance in better days, so that no responsibility should fall on them in relation to God and the Hereafter. Such reprehensible and guilty activities have been termed here as indulging in plotting.

39. That Is: He is successfully counteracting against all the scheming, plotting and intrigues being indulged into by them, but His planning and scheming is hidden, which leads people to think that Allah is not taking any notice of their doings.

40. That is: All your activities are being written down by the angels so that on the Day of Judgment prosecution may be launched against you.

For those who do good is the best (reward) and more; and neither blackness nor ignominy shall cover their faces; they are the people of the Paradise, they will abide therein forever. (Al-Quran)

41. It is only Allah who enabled you or caused you to undertake journeys by sea or by land. In modern times, air travel is also the result of the qualities and capabilities given by God.

42. That is: In such a condition they pray to God in all humility and forget their false, invented gods. The idolaters of Makkah behaved in this manner. And calling or invoking God or crying to God in the circumstances of extreme adversity is the proof of the fact that man’s nature recognizes God.

43. This is an example of the fact that in adversity man remembers God and on passing away of the adverse circumstances forgets Him.

44. When the corn is ready to be harvested and the bushes dance in the lightly blowing breeze, the scene creates unspeakable. joy in the heart of the farmer. He eyes his produce with great expectations.

45. Means some disastrous happening that takes place with the will of Allah

46. That is: Suddenly in no time, the farm is swept away by stormy winds in such a way that it becomes non-existent. Such accidents or tragedies take place every now and then. Sometimes these devastations take place through flooding, sometimes through storms, and sometimes through other natural disasters. The idea in presenting this example is to show that as the joy or beauty of the ready-to-harvest farm is temporary so also the joy and beauty of this colourful and resplendent world is also temporary, and as the farm is made to disappear as soon as the command is given by God, so also this world will one day become extinct when God’s command will come. And when this world is destined to meet this fate, then wisdom demands that making the next world (Hereafter) as his goal and ideal. Man should live his life within the lawful religious limits, so that he may become worthy of the eternal blessings.

47. After presenting the reality of this world, Qur’an invites men to reflect and contemplate, in other words its approach in this matter is rational and argumentative and not dogmatic. And it is this basic fact which distinguishes Islam from other religions.

48. Means Paradise. It is called the Home of Peace because in Paradise man will be safe from all kinds of troubles, adversities, pains, etc. Furthermore, there will neither be any kind of dispute nor any fighting. There the society will be a peace-loving society and peace will reign supreme therein.

49. That is: So far as the invitation to the Home of Peace is concerned it is general, but to follow the path which directly and straightway leads to Paradise is available to only those who are rightly guided by Allah.

50. That is: They will get their reward for their virtuous acts as their recompense, but in addition Allah will further bless them with His favours. At another place in Qur’an it is stated: “So that He may reward them for their virtuous acts, and may bestow on them more of His blessings.” -(Fatir-30).

51. Face is the mirror of man’s actions. Virtue makes a man’s face glow beautifully, while evil makes it dull and unattractive. For this reason a sort of blackness appears on the faces of the sinners and criminals. In the world only a glimpse of the effect of virtue or evil can be seen on the face of a man, but on the Day of Judgment a man’s face will reflect his inner self and his acts.

52. Polytheists regard their gods as their supporters, helpers and intercessors with God, but in the gathering on the Day of Judgment they will declare their aversion to their worshippers. Thus the relationship of devotion that they had established with their imaginary gods would be broken, and they will find themselves in a totally helpless condition.

53. From this reply it appears that here by partners is meant those persons, who, on account of the excess devotion of their followers, had been held as partners with God. They had passed away from the world, but their devotees called them as if they could hear their calls and could help them. Under this false impression they worshipped them; they took pledges in their name for wish fulfillment, and gave presents and offerings in their names. But in the Gathering of Hashr they will proclaim in the presence of their worshippers their total ignorance of all these activities, which will be the proof of the fact that they were unable to hear the calls of their followers, that they had no say in the affairs managed by God, and neither the worship which their worshippers offered reached them nor their offerings and presents. They were totally ignorant of these things;

some commentators have taken partners to mean idols, but this interpretation does not seem to be correct for these reasons:

First, this statement of the partners that –“Allah is sufficient as witness between us and you that we were unaware of your worship,” can be true of persons and not of the idols.

Secondly, it is not correct to say that the polytheists of Makkah worshipped only idols: they worshipped jinns, angels and dead persons also, and as such they worshipped the idol of a man, named” Asyaf” and of a woman, named “Nailah”.

“Thirdly, in the Qur’an it is further stated (in Ayah No.35) that they cannot guide but are themselves in need of guidance, which proves that the reference is to persons, for only persons are in need of guidance and not idols.

Fourthly, Qur’an strikes at every kind of polytheism, at some place at idol-worship and at other places at angel-worship. At some places it refutes jinn-worship at other places it criticises personality- worship, therefore, there is no reason why everywhere it should be taken to mean only idolworship, and polytheism should be confined to mean only worshipping of idols.

In view of this wide sense of the verse. the saint-worship of the uneducated section of the present day Muslims tantamount to polytheism in the same way as the personality-worship of polytheists of Makkah.

54. That is: All these will have to appear before Allah. who alone is the Master of all.