Surah Ar-Ra'd 13:32-37 - Quran Translation Commentary

32. And verily messengers (of Allah) were mocked before you, but I granted respite to those who disbelieved, then ultimately I seized them. And how (terrible) was My punishment!

33. Is then He who stands (watching) over every soul as to what it has earned (will leave it unscathed? They have denied this reality) and ascribed partners to Allah,⁷⁰ Say: “Name them.⁷¹ Is it that you are informing Him of something which He knows not in the earth? ⁷² Or is it merely a superficial talk ?⁷³” Nay, to the disbelievers their trickery has been made to appear fair,⁷⁴ and they have been kept away from the (right) path.⁷⁵ And He whom Allah lets go stray, for him there is no guide.⁷⁶

34. For them is the punishment in the life of the world,⁷⁷ and verily the punishment of the Hereafter is more hard. And they have no defender (to save them) from (the punishment of) Allah.

35. The description of the Paradise which has been promised to the God-fearing. Underneath it rivers flow, its provision (fruits) are everlasting, so also its shades.⁷⁸ This is the end (final destination) of those who fear Allah, ⁷⁹ and the end of the disbelievers is Fire.

36. Those to whom We had given the Scripture rejoice at what has been sent down to you.⁸⁰ And among the groups there are some who deny some part of it.⁸¹ Say: “I have been commanded to only worship Allah, and ascribe to Him no partners. I call towards Him and to Him is my return.”

37. And thus have We sent it down, a Decree in Arabic.⁸² And if you followed their desires after what has come to you of knowledge,⁸³,⁸⁴ then you will not have any protector and any defender against Allah.

Commentary

70. That is: The God who is watching over every action of theirs, how is it possible that He would not question them about their misdeeds! But by ascribing partners to Him, they have apparently secured deliverance from the final reckoning, because they think that these protectors and supporters would be their safeguard everywhere; if any difficulty arises after death, these deities would be their means of deliverance in the next world too.

71. This is a taunt on the unreality of their invented partners of God. They are being told that Allah is that great Being who watches the acts and behaviour of every person, therefore, worshipping Him is justifiable and proper, so also is justifiable our being afraid of His reckoning. But which of your gods has such an absolute power? Can you name your gods and goddesses, with appropriate details that such and such of them have such unparalleled attributes and power?

72. If such is your claim, then it means that you are informing Allah about the existence of various gods, when Allah does not know there is any other god beside Him, and what is not known by Allah has no existence at all.

73. To make a claim about a thing which has no reality is a thoughtless and nonsensical proposition, but you do not realize that how senseless and absurd your propositions are. People should be most serious when thinking about God, but the fact is that many of them are casual and irresponsible in this matter and they utter any nonsense that comes to their lips.

74. That is: People are not prepared to give up their polytheism even after its falsehood and unreality are exposed, because giving up would result in adversely affecting their interests, the position which they enjoy in society would be lost, and their power and authority would be endangered. They try to prove that their polytheistic religion is right in order to veil their improper and illegal personal interests. These are all their tricks.

75. That is: Allah’s law of misguidance or letting men to go astray has been made applicable to them.

76. The law of nature is: that whoever closes his eyes is unable to see the path of guidance, nor is it in anybody’s power to show him light.

77. The punishment that visits the disbelievers, atheists and polytheists in this world appears in different forms and it, also varies according to degrees. The punishment that comes after a Prophet has convincingly conveyed the Divine message is a decisive punishment, but besides this, punishments of big and small kinds do appear in the world every now and then. And the fact is that a disbeliever receives such punishment from God in this world that he is in great mental anguish and spiritual distress, however luxurious life he may be leading. As against this the suffering through which a sincere Momin has to pass is as a test for him and bearing it gives him spiritual reward, therefore, this suffering does not cause any lessening or reduction in his spiritual equilibrium, on the contrary it only increases his spiritual pleasure. Such sufferings for a Momin are, therefore, not the cause of distress but the means of comfort and tranquility:

78. That is: It is an ever green garden, whose fruits are not seasonal but everlasting, and whose shades also remain unaltered.

It shows how different the world of Paradise will be from the earthly world and of what superior quality and excellence everything in the Paradise will be!

79. Here the word ‘taqwa’ (fear of God) has been used as against disbelief and polytheism, which shows that the basic sense of ‘taqwa’ is that men should keep away from disbelief and polytheism, while in its wider sense it means keeping away from all kinds of sins.

Those to whom We had given the Scripture rejoice at what has been sent down to you. And among the groups there are some who deny some part of it. Say: “I have been commanded to only worship Allah, and ascribe to Him no partners. I call towards Him and to Him is my return.” (Al-Quran)

80. Refers to those sincere persons from amongst the people of the Book who sincerely believed in Allah, and were not victims of groupism and religious prejudice. When Qur’an came before them, they were happy that an arrangement has been made by God for their guidance. Probably it refers to the Christian king of Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) to which country the Muslims had first migrated, and the king had embraced Islam.

81. Refers to those sects of the people of the Book who had some reservations in the matter of accepting some parts of Qur’an, particularly its teachings of pure monotheism.

82.That is: As We have sent you as a messenger to the Arab nation-which has been mentioned in the foregoing ayah No. 30 -- in the same way We have sent down in their own tongue which is Arabic Qur’an in the form of a Decree, so that they may understand it, and since the Divine Messenger has been directly sent to that nation, it was necessary that the communication of Allah’s message to it should have been perfectly accomplished.

83. Knowledge means the right knowledge of religion, which has been sent down in the form of Quran.

84. By desire is meant those beliefs and customs and rituals which are not based on the knowledge of truth but are based on the personal desires, likes and dislikes of individuals. This principle also applies to those innovations which some Muslims have wrongfully adopted and which has disfigured the shape of the original religion.