Surah Al-Haj 22:1-10 - Quran Translation Commentary

2. On the day when you will see it, every nursing mother will forget her nursing and every pregnant will be delivered of her burden and you will see mankind as drunken, yet they will not be drunken, but the punishment of Allah will be severe.⁴

3. Among men there are some who dispute ⁵ about Allah without knowledge and follow every rebellious satan; ⁶

4. It is decreed for him that whoever takes him for friend, he will surely mislead him and will guide him to the punishment of the Flame.

5. O Mankind! If you are in doubt about the Resurrection, then (remember) We surely first created you from dust,⁷ then from a drop of water,⁸ then from a clot,⁹ and then from a lump of flesh,¹⁰ formed and unformed.¹¹ so that We may manifest to you (Our might).¹² And We cause to remain in the womb whatever We will for an appointed term, and then We bring you forth as infants,¹³ (then nourish you) that you may grow up and reach your prime. And there are among you some who die (young) and some live on to abject old age, when all that they knew once will know no more.¹⁴ And you see the earth barren, but when We send down water thereon, it does stir and swell and put forth every kind of radiant bloom.¹⁵

6. That is because Allah is the Truth.¹⁶ He gives life¹⁷ to the dead and has power over all things.¹⁸

7. And the Hour of Doom is sure to come-in this there is no doubt. And Allah will raise up those who are in the graves.¹⁹

8. Among men there are some who dispute concerning Allah without knowledge, or guidance or an illuminating (divine) book. ²⁰

9. Turning away in pride in order to lead others astray from the path of Allah.²¹ For them in this world is ignominy,²² and on the Day of Resurrection We will make him taste the punishment of burning.

10. ’This is for that which your two hands had sent before,’²³ and (because) Allah is no oppressor of His slaves.

Commentary

1.The address is to the general people, mankind, and this generality of the address is the proof that this Surah is Medinite, revealed in Madina. It is addressed to all people up to the Day of Resurrection.

2. The first lesson of this surah is that man should fear his Creator and Master. The existence of the one and only God is an obvious fact, and His might demands that man should not dare challenge His authority, should not establish worshipful relation with any other creature except his own Creator, and should fearfully desist from disobeying His commands, for the punishment by Him for such a behaviour is very severe and on the Day of Resurrection everyone will have to account for his every action before Him.

3.The earthquake of the Doomsday will be so severe that it will affect the entire world, and man will not find any shelter from it.

4. This is a picture of the terrible happening of the Doomsday. The earth will be shaking with tremors in such a way that the entire mankind will be shocked, wondering what is going on. Everyone will be frightened for his life, so much so that mothers holding their suckling babies in their arms will forget them, and pregnant women will abort. People will be so much terrified that they would appear to be in a drunken state. They will be dazed. In other words this will be the last punishment of Allah on the face of the earth, that will appear in the form of the Doomsday. This will be the condition at the time when the trumpet will be sounded for the first time. And it also shows that time the world will be inhabited by bad people. In the hadith also it is stated that the Doomsday will occur when there will be evil people: “The Doomsday will not occur except when there will be the most evil people.” -(Muslim - Kitabul Fitan).

5. That is: They form an opinion about God and indulge into discussions thereon on the basis of mere conjectures, presumptions, theo- (COMMENTARY) ries, etc., while actually it is such a delicate issue that to open one’s mouth without having any knowledge is to prove one’s irresponsibility; and by knowledge is meant to know a thing as it actually is. The primary means of recognizing God is human nature only, then those signs which are spread over the whole of the universe, and thereafter it is that knowledge, in clear and perfect form which is revealed to the prophets (peace be upon them).

6. It is learnt that by every rebel satan is meant Iblees and his army.

Although devils are also found among men, but their leader is Satan or Iblees only. Therefore, people are warned about the evil of that being who is the leader of all evils.

7. People doubt about the information that Qur’an is imparting regarding the revival of the dead because men’s physical body is totally destroyed, and to raise it again, alive is mentioning a thing which was never observed before. To remove this doubt, here people are invited to reflect on certain phenomena which are hard realities. Accordingly it is a fact that man is created from dust. Adam was created from dust only. This statement of Qur’an is supported by the common observation: our food is created from dust and man keeps himself alive by eating food. Besides, everything tends to turn to its original ingredients, and man after death mixes with dust. Therefore, for the Being for whom it was possible to put life in a lifeless thing for the first time it would not be difficult to raise alive the dead man mixed in the dust. Now when we get the information through the most reliable source that the Creator of man has decided to revive the dead man on the Day of Resurrection, why should we not believe in that?

8. The way in which man’s race is being continuously created, after first creating man from dust, is being presented as an important argument. It is a known fact that man is created by sperm called ‘Nutfa’ drop of water, and the Quranic argument is based on this general known fact. However, in the modern times the discoveries made by the Science of Embryology are such realities as invite men to ponder over the miraculous might of the Almighty, Allah. Accordingly the amount of semen that is discharged at one time contains two hundred million sperms, while only one single sperm is sufficient to fertilise an ovum secreted by a woman. Only one ovum is expelled from the female ovary every month, which travels slowly from the womb through the Fallopian tube attached to the womb. If the sperm combines with this female ovum, fertilization takes place, which is the beginning of the pregnancy.

9. The ovum after fertilization takes the shape of a blood clot.

10. Then this clot of blood becomes a lump of flesh in a few days. This action takes place in the fourth week of conception.

11. That is: This lump of flesh which was without a shape enters a new stage when it acquires a definite shape, and sometimes miscarriage takes place even before this stage.

In view of the discoveries of the Science of Embryology, the realities presented by The Qur’an and the hadith are dealt with in a very clear way by Dr. Mohammad Ali Albar, who has highlighted the Qur’an’s greatness in the realms of scientific knowledge. in his Arabic book:

‘Khalqal Insan Bainit Tibb wal Qur’an’:

“Now we know that many time miscarriage takes place before the foetus takes shape, and in Embryology this process is known as Organo Genesis. It begins in the fourth week of conception and continues up to the eighth week” (pages 407).

12. As if the mother’s womb is a natural factory, in which man is formed into shape and it is done in such a way that the hand of the worker is not seen. But the process through which a drop of fluid passes and attains shape is a very amazing process, which invites a serious thinker to contemplate and it creates belief in their hearts that behind all these processes there surely is an All-knowing and All-Powerful Being, and man’s being born is a clear proof of the miracle of His might.

13. That is: Embryo. A child is born after completion of the period of pregnancy. This is the beginning of his infancy. It is a hint of the fact that the world of the embryo was a narrow and dark one, from which it has entered a vast and bright world. Now if its Creator is informing him that after this world he has to pass on to another more vast world (Hereafter), what is the reason to doubt it? Does man want to confine himself to this cocoon only ?

14. That is: After coming into this world, man has to pass through different stages: from childhood to adulthood and from that to old age, that is: from the highest to the lowest point, from knowledge to ignorance (forgetfulness). Then if the intimation about post-death happenings is being given, why is it not acceptable to man ?

15. This is the second argument to remove the doubt. In this world changes always take place, The earth was dry just now, but no sooner had it received rainfall, it became green and productive, and it gave forth treasure troves of its produce, as if the dead earth received life. Does not this observation produce belief in the human heart about the existence of an Almighty Lord, and if the divine revelation intimates man about the revival of the dead on the Day of Resurrection, what prevents man to believe in that? If the world presents a scene of ever changing, then is not another great change possible in the world ? And if the earth expels its treasures outwards, why is it not possible for it to expel out the dead bodies on the Day of Resurrection ?

16. That is: Creation of a higher kind of creature like man (Adam) from dust, and thereafter the continuous creation of the human species from a drop of fluid, then its reaching to adolescence from childhood, and after reaching this perfection to become old; similarly the process of the dry land becoming green and productive-all these processes cannot take place without there being a Creator. If this world were an unplanned accident, then these stages in the creation and development of the human being, the changes in his circumstances, and man’s existence on this earth without a chart and planning were not possible. Therefore Allah’s existence is an undeniable fact, and the denial of His existence or His oneness is nothing but obstinacy.

17. The examples given above also show that Allah puts life in lifeless matters.

18.These happenings which are observeable in everyday life, which have been mentioned above, manifest this reality that Allah is a Mighty Being, All Powerful, and there is nothing that He cannot do.

19. The creative acts of Allah which were mentioned above also support the fact that the occurrence of the Day of Resurrection and the revival of the dead is true and definite.

By ‘who are in the graves’ are meant dead bodies, whether they have been buried in the graves or not.

In fact the mystery about human life can be solved only after accepting as right the belief in the Day of Resurrection and the life in the next world, otherwise it is not possible for any thinker or philosopher to solve this mystery. Without such a belief it has not been possible to present a serious purpose nor a chart of planning that is behind human creation could be prepared. For example the theory of Reincarnation is absolutely helpless in the matter of answering these basic questions. It is unable to solve any problem of human life, on the contrary it creates new problems and the life becomes more confusing.

20. Knowledge has been explained in Note No.5. Guidance means that argument which common sense may readily accept, and by the Illuminating book is meant the divine scriptures. Knowledge includes both these things, but in view of their importance they have been particularly mentioned here.

21. This is the description of those leaders who lead the people astray about God. Their attitude is haughty.

22. Those who adopt a haughty attitude in relation to God, have to face disgrace in this world itself. It means that ignominy at the level of morality can be felt only by those who have a sharp sense of morality, even if the disgraced person may be very respectable in the eyes of the world.

23. Every act of man produces a result in future, and it will be man’s acts only which will make him liable to receive the punishment of Hell in the Hereafter.