Surah Al-Furqan 25:10-20 - Quran Translation Commentary

15. Say: “Which is better, this or the Paradise of Immortality that the God-fearing have been promised?¹⁸ It will be their reward and their destination.¹⁹

16. Abiding there for ever, they will find in it all that they desire. It is a promise from your Lord, which can be asked for to he fulfilled.”²⁰

17. And on the Day when He will assemble them and that which they worship beside Allah, and will say: “Was it you who misled these my slaves or did they themselves go astray?²¹

18. They will say: “Immaculate you are! We dared not choose for us any protecting friends besides You,²² but You gave them and their fathers the enjoyment of life, till they forgot Your remembrance and became the lost people.”²³

19. (Then Allah will say :) “So they have belied you in that which you said.²⁴ You cannot avert (your doom) nor can get help. And whoever among you does wrong,²⁵ We will make him taste great punishment.”

20. We did not send any messengers before you who did not eat or walk about in the markets.²⁶ We test you by means of one another. Will you keep patience?²⁷ And your Lord observes all.

Commentary

14. That is: There is nothing wanting in the treasures of Allah. If He will, He can create, not one but many gardens for His messenger and He can provide for him not one but many palaces. But since this world is not the place for receiving real rewards, but it is a place for examination, a testing ground, therefore, the Prophet has also to pass through the tests and trials set for him by Allah.

15. These are their objections for the sake of objections. Otherwise the reality is that they do not want to accept the reality of the Day of Judgment, because by accepting this reality they will have to live a responsible life; by accepting the prophethood, they have to accept the truth about that Day of Resurrection. Therefore they think that safety for them lies in not accepting prophethood.

16. It has become clear that the denier of the Day of Resurrection is a disbeliever and liable to get the punishment of Hell, even though he may claim to believe in God, because denying of the Day of Resurrection is denying the attribute of justice of God. After such a denial, the claim to believing in God has no meaning.

17. What will be the modality of the Hell’s seeing the disbelievers from far off will be known only on the Day of Judgment. However, when it would see them, its wrath will be so fierce that the disbelievers will be able to hear the sounds of raging and roaring from a very long distance.

18. It has become clear that the promise of Paradise has been to the God- fearing people, that is those people who plan and lead their lives, fearing Allah, and avoid sins and all things forbidden by Him. This promise has not been made to the so called Muslims. Therefore, no person should be a victim to his wishful thinking that because he is the ‘mureed’ (disciple) of a certain ‘peer’ or he is a devotee of a certain saint, he is bound to go to Paradise, nor should any person be under the wrong impression that because he performs ‘niaz’ of his favourite saint, he deserves to get Paradise.

19. Paradise will be their last destination.

20. That is: It is a promise, the responsibility of fulfilling which has been taken by God on Himself, and he has given this right to the slaves that they should demand it in their prayer.

21. Here the address is not to the idols which were also being worshipped, but to the prophets and the saints, with whom their devotees behaved as they should have behaved with Allah. The example of such a case is Prophet Eesa, whom the Christians made a god. In this connection the repudiating statement which Prophet Eesa will give in the Court of Allah is narrated in ayah No. 116, Surah Maidah. The polytheists of Makkah had also kept the Statue or the idol of Prophet Ibrahim in the House of Ka’ba.

22. That is: We had made Allah as our protecting friend and guardian, then how it is possible that we would have told the people to make us their protecting friend and guardian and worship us considering us as their reliever of sufferings.

This ayah is sufficient to open the eyes of not only the polytheists but also of those Muslims who in their devotion to the others associate them with Allah, think that making pledges to them and by making offering at their mausoleum they are pleased with them, though on the Day of Judgment the saints will dissociate themselves from all these polytheistic acts, and it would be a very hard slap in the faces of devotees.

23. The wealth and pleasures that they got in this world intoxicated them so much that they forgot Allah, which resulted in their polytheism and they fell down in the pit of destruction. It is elicited that a person is involved in polytheism when he forgets God. A person who remembers God in the real sense of the word cannot be involved in polytheism.

24. Your claim Was about these personalities and you held formed a highly exaggerated concept about them which was proved to be false, and it became obvious that they have no power or authority to harm or help anyone, nor did they ever claim to have such a power. Nay, but they themselves considered Allah to be their protecting friend and guardian.

25. Here the word ‘zulm’ used in the text means polytheism.

26. This is an answer to their objection which has been narrated in ayah No. 7.

27. That is: The divine messenger’s eating, drinking and his walking in the market places has become a means of trial for both the groups, the disbelievers got the chance of hurling taunts at the Prophet and his companions, and a trial for the people of faith whether they keep patience in such trying circumstances. This provides a guidance that the objections that are raised by the disbelievers on the personality of the Prophet should be received calmly by the people of faith and they should keep patience. But these days Muslims behave very strangely; if there is some criticism of the Prophet in some quarters, Muslims get excited and make it subject of protests. And this is what the disbelievers want that Muslims should be provoked and be ready for clashes. But if the Muslims instead or getting excited, act positively and try to explain the real position of the Prophet, then there would be many people who would appreciate his greatness.