Surah Yunus 10:41-53 - Quran Translation Commentary

41. And if they belie you, say: “To me my work, and to you your work. You are free from responsibility for what I do and I am free from responsibility for what you do “.

42. And some of them listen to you. But can you make the deaf hear you, even though they understand not⁷¹?

43. And some of them look at you. But can you show the way to the blind, even though they see not⁷²?

44. In fact, Allah does not in any way wrong mankind, but they wrong themselves⁷³.

45. And on the day when He will gather them together, (it will be) as if they had stayed (in the world) but an hour of the day, recognizing one another⁷⁴. (Then they will realize that). Assuredly losers are those who belied the meeting with Allah and did not follow the right path.

46. Whether We let you witness some part of what We promised them, or (before it) cause your time to be terminated⁷⁵: anyway to Us they will return, and Allah is witness over what they do.

47. And for every nation there is a messenger⁷⁶. When their messenger comes to them, justice is done among them and they are not wronged⁷⁷.

48. And they say: “When will this promise⁷⁸ be fulfilled, if you are truthful?”

49. Say: “I have no power to hurt or benefit myself, except as Allah wills⁷⁹. For every nation there is a fixed time. When their time comes, then they cannot stay an hour, behind nor they can advance it.”⁸⁰

50. Say: “Have you thought: when His punishment comes to you (suddenly) by night or by day, (where is the escape?), then why the guilty desire to hasten it⁸¹?”

51. “Will you believe it when it occurs? Now (you believe)⁸²! and before this you were asking for hastening it!”

52. Then the wrong-doers⁸³ will be told: Taste the punishment of eternity! Are you rewarded anything else except what you have earned?

53. And they ask you: “Is it true⁸⁴?” say: “Yes, by my Lord⁸⁵, verily it is true, and you cannot escape.”

Commentary

71. That is: They try to listen to what the Prophet says, not because they want to follow his teachings but in order to pick holes in what he says.

72. They do not look at the Prophet with the eye of a truth-finder. If their eye had been in search of truth, they could have readily realised that he was the true Prophet.

73. This deprivation of their sight and understanding was the result of their own wrong acts and wrong attitude, otherwise they all had ordinarily healthy and normal faculties of hearing, seeing and understanding.

74. That is: At this time, they feel that the life span in the world is substantially long, but on the Day of Reckoning, when the life in the Hereafter would begin, they will realise that compared to that life the life span of the world was only that of an hour, and that their social relationships with other humans were not of a long duration but of a very short time. (See Surah Nazi’at, Note No.32).

75. The promise of punishment that has been made with the infidels will essentially be kept. As to when this promise would be fulfilled, it depends on the will of Allah; an installment of the punishment may possibly be inflicted on them during the life of the Prophet, or if God so wills it, even after his death. However, in the Hereafter they will taste it in full.

From this ayah this fact is made clear that in the beginning the task of the Prophet was to communicate the Divine Message, and what was that message has been clearly shown in this Surah. Here it has neither been stated that the Prophet has been charged with the task of establishing the social system of Islam, nor the aspect of the supremacy of the religion has been made prominent. with the exposition of the main message, but it has been stated that it is possible that Allah may terminate his life-span before the adverse end of the infidels.

In other words until the revelation of Surah Yunus Allah had not revealed, even to the Prophet (Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) himself, that He will cause Islam to outshine all other religions through this Prophet, unlike what is stated in Surah Saf, Ayah No.9 and Surah Taubah, Ayah No.33. This was done after the Prophet’s historic hijrat (migration) when the conflict between Islam and unbelief entered the stage of jihad; then it was declared that Allah will cause the religion to be victorious over all other false religions. It means that for the religion, supremacy and power are desired, but they pertain to the stage of jihad or to the stage when it is possible to establish and enforce the Islamic system in the society. As for the stage of Dawah (message), the main emphasis should be on the basic points, and not on efforts to achieve supremacy and power, otherwise the right religious ideology would not be developed, nor the way for the supremacy of the religion would be cleared.

76. That is: There was no nation or community that has lived in the past in which Allah had not sent a prophet. In Surah Fatir, it is stated:

“And there is not a nation but a Warner has passed among them.” -(Fatir.24).

The series of prophets continued from Prophet Nooh (Noah) onwards till finally Prophet Muhammad (Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) was sent to the world as the Last Prophet:

77. Whenever a Messenger was sent among a nation, the judgment about the fate of that nation was given in the world itself. And it never happened that the people had turned down the guidance offered by the Prophet. and no punishment from Allah was meted out to them. It is another matter if Allah gives a reprieve to some nation for a little longer time.

78. Means the promise of inflicting punishment.

79. That is: When did I say that I would cause the punishment to be visited on you, but had said that if you transgress there is a fear that Allah’s punishment would surely overtake you. To fix a date for such a punishment is not my task, but it depends on the divine tradition. In this ayah the words of the Prophet: “I have no power to hurt or benefit myself” refute the claim of the bid’atis (innovators) that the Prophet can benefit or hurt someone in an unseen way. When even the Prophet is powerless in this regard, how do people attribute the power to the saints?

80. Here those nations are meant among whom Allah’s messengers were sent directly. Each of these nations was given an opportunity to understand the divine message and to reform itself, but when it belied the messenger and his message and rebelled against God and as soon as ‘the reprieve granted to reform ended, Allah gave the judgment of its destruction in the world itself.

81. That is: Have they made any provision to escape from the punishment that on its strength they are calling for hastening it.

82. That is: After seeing the punishment.

83. Here by ‘Zalim’ (wrong-doers) are meant those persons who have been unheeding the warnings of the Prophet and have been refusing to plan their activities in the world on the basis of their being accountable in the Hereafter.

84. That is: Will such an eventuality really come to pass that Allah will punish men for their evil acts?

85. The oath is to express the event’s certainty and definiteness.