Surah Al-Furqan 25:1-9 - Quran Translation Commentary

2.He to whom belongs the sovereignty⁵ of the heaven and the earth; He has taken no son, nor has He any partner⁶ in the sovereignty. He has created everything, then planned its schedule.⁷

3.Yet people have chosen beside Him other gods who created nothing but are created themselves, and who posses no power either to harm or profit themselves, and have no power over life and death, nor power to raise the dead.

4. Those who disbelieve say: “This is nothing but a lie that he has invented, and other people have helped him with it.” So verily it is great injustice and falsehood that they have committed.⁸

5.And they say: “(These are) fables of the ancients that he has written and they are read out to him morning and evening.”⁹

6. Say: “It was sent down by Him who knows the secret of the heavens and the earth.¹⁰ He is Forgiving, Merciful.”¹¹

7. And they say: “What kind of messenger is this that eats food and walks in the markets! Why is not an angel sent down to him, to be a warner with him?

8.”Or (why) has not treasure been sent down for him, or a garden provided from where he would have eaten?”And the wrong-doers say: “You are but following a man bewitched.”¹²

9. See how they coin examples for you, they are all astray and cannot find a path.¹³

Commentary

2. That is: To His chosen slave, Muhammad, Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam.

3. The real meaning of Furqan is the thing which distinguishes and differentiates, and the meaning of Qur’an being Furqan is that this book distinguishes the True from the false, and highlights guidance as opposed to misguidance. This is the touchstone on which the real and artificial can be differentiated, and in all problems of life this Book is the standard of judgment.

Seeing the plethora of religions and their contradictory claims, man is at a loss to known what should be his choice. To help him out of this tangle and to show him the clear straight path, the Criterion has been revealed. On this Criterion the claim of every religion can be examined, and it can be ascertained whether it is really as pure as gold. People are aware of the criterion which helps them find out pure gold from artificial, but what a pity that they are unaware of this criterion which is sent down by God, and that is why they have formed wrong opinions about religions and they are victims of tangles and complications.

4. This ayah clarifies that the prophet Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam was sent down not for Arabs only, but for the entire mankind, to warn them, and for this purpose the holy Qur’an was revealed to him. In other words his prophethood is for the whole world, and the task of warning them till the last day will be done by this Book only.

From this statement it also becomes clear that the mission of the Prophet was to warn the negligent humanity about adverse consequences of the Hereafter, and from this a guiding principle is revealed that the dawah workers of Islam should present their dawah in this fashion only. In the present day new methods have been adopted for presenting the Islamic dawah. Accordingly, the dawah is presented in such a way that the aspect of solution of the problems of social life comes out prominently, but the aspect of the devastating consequences of the Day of Judgment is totally ignored, with the result that people are not made alert about their final salvation: they should pay heed to their fate in the Hereafter.

5. That is: The sender of this Book is the Ruler of this universe; therefore, you should understand its importance and greatness.

6. For explanation, please see Surah Bani Israil, Note No. 149.

7. That is: After creating the world and the things in it, Allah has not left it uncared for, that whatever is done by them or happens to them is merely accidental, but that He has already decided for each and everything what task is to be performed by it, what is the period of its functioning and the purpose of its task. For example, at what temperature the sun has to function, where should it throw its rays, what type of heat it has to emit, at what speed it has to revolve, and when its role will be ended. Similar planning in respect of each and every thing has been done, and the whole universe is active and busy in following the dictates of its Creator. In the Quranic terminology this planning is called ‘Taqdeer’, which literally means fixing its measure, schedule.

8. That is: The deniers say that Quran’s being ascribed to Allah is false. It is not the word of God, but of the person who claims to be a Prophet, and some people have assisted him in inventing it. They might be hinting at those people of the Book who had embraced Islam. But since this allegation was totally baseless, and its being unreal was obvious to the people, therefore, to repudiate it only saying that it is great injustice and falsehood was considered sufficient. Later on history also proved it that this allegation was false and Qur’an is absolutely true in its claim, for if there would have been any other author of Qur’an besides Allah, this thing would not have remained concealed from the world. The Prophet does not (COMMENTARY) 567 S.25 S.25 568 claim to be its author, and if other persons had assisted him in this task they would have stated so. But nobody had ever claimed that Qur’an has been authored by him, or that he had been associated in compiling or editing it.

9. This was the second allegation which some other people were levelling. In the Qur’an some chronicles of certain ancient nations have been narrated. They termed them as fables of the ancient and they alleged that the Prophet arranged for these stories to be dictated to him, and he narrated them as the verses of the Qur’an, and his companions read out these very stories to him day and night. They explain away the recitation and reading of the Qur’an in prayers morning and evening in this way.

10. That is: The topics of the Qur’an themselves are witnesses of the fact that these are the words of the Being to whom every secret of the universe is manifest, for this Book lifts the veil from the mysteries and secrets of the universe.

11. This is a persuasion to repent and to turn to Him and to accept faith, so that the sins committed by you will be forgiven by Him and He will show mercy to you.

12. They thought that by the influence of magic man loses his common sense and intelligence. The meaning of their calling the Prophet a bewitched person was that his talk about the divine revelation and the occurrence of the Hereafter, etc. was something insensible, and this lack of sense has resulted from somebody’s having thrown a spell of magic over the Prophet. So far as this allegation is concerned it is totally false. As for the question whether by the influence of magic a person can lose his common sense, this proposition is also wrong, Qur’an does not support such a view at all. The influence of magic works only momentarily to the extent of deceiving the eyesight as is mentioned in Surah A’raf, verse No.¹¹⁶ : “......... they cast a spell upon the people’s eyes.” But many people are under some misunderstanding about the influence of magic and for this reason they are a prey to superstitions.

13. When a man does not behave realistically in relation to a prophet, and tries to give wrong interpretation to his claim of prophethood, he goes astray and is unable to find the right path thereafter.