Surah An-Naml 27:83-93 - Quran Translation Commentary

84. Till, when they come, He will say: “Did you deny My revelations when you could not compass¹²² them in knowledge, or what was it that you were doing?

85. And Our decree will be imposed on them¹²³ because they have done wrong, and they will not (be able to) speak.¹²⁴

86. Do they not see that We have made the night for them to rest in and the day to give them light? Surely there are signs in this for those who believe.¹²⁵

87. And the Day when the Trumpet will be blown, and all who are in heavens and earth will be seized with fear, except him whom Allah will be pleased ¹²⁶ (to exempt). And all will come to Him, humbled.¹²⁷

88. And you see the mountains, you think they are firm, (but) they will be flying like clouds:¹²⁸ the doing of Allah who has perfected all things.¹²⁹ Verily He is aware of what you do.¹³⁰

89. Whoever brings a good deed ¹³¹ will have better (recompense) them its worth; and such are safe from fear that Day.¹³²

90. And whoever comes with an evil deed.¹³³ such will be flung down on their faces in the Fire. Are you not being rewarded except for what you did?¹³⁴

91. (Say):’I have been commanded to worship the Lord of this City which He has Blade holy,¹³⁵ and to whom all things belong. And I have been commanded to be of Muslims.¹³⁶

92.’And to recite the Qur’an.¹³⁷ And whoever takes the right path, does the right thing for the good of his soul.’ And whoever goes astray, say (to him): ‘Verily, I am only a warner.’

93. And say: “Praise be to Allah.¹³⁸ He will show you His signs and you will recognise¹³⁹ them. And your Lord is not unaware of what you do.”

Commentary

121. That is: On the Day of Judgment those groups of people from the followers of every prophet will be gathered, who had denied Allah’s signs and His revelations. They will be arrayed in rows as armies, and they will be divided in different divisions.

122. That is: On what basis you had denied My revelation. Do you know for certain as to whether there is no sign in the universe and in your own self which creates a belief in the existence of Allah, His unity, His might, His greatness, recompenses of the acts and certain belief in the Hereafter, and that the revelations from Allah which any messenger from Allah might have presented are not really Allah’s revelations. If you had not reached this conclusion after a research, and it is a fact that your denial was not the result of any research, then did you deny them without any research and without any knowledge?

Today the condition of the highly educated people is that being impressed by Darwin’s theory of Evolution and Marx’s dialectic materialism and this many other such theories they have become deniers of God. They are proving themselves to be ignorant in the name of being educated. if they had observed the signs in the universe and ‘would have pondered over the revelations from Allah which are before them in the form of Qur’an, then they could have attained the knowledge of truth, but their prejudice and pride have kept them away from truth.

123. That is: The decree of punishment would be imposed on them.

124. On the Day of Resurrection the guilty will have to pass through various stages. One stage will be when Allah will show them the wrong that they had done to themselves, and they will have no answer.

125. If these people had contemplated this fact that Allah had created night for their comfort and peace, and the day to enable them to be active and working, is it not an argument of His being the Lord of the universe, and does it no show that the life of man is not without purpose, and does not this observation remind that after death the morning of Day of Resurrection is surely to dawn.

126. When the Trumpet for Doomsday will be sounded for the first time, the entire universe will be so much terrified that not only the denizens of the earth but also those of the skies will be horror stricken. Only those persons will be spared this horror, whom Allah will be pleased to spare.

127. When the Trumpet will be sounded for the second time, all the people will assemble before Allah in the most humble way, nobody will dare show pride and arrogance. The pride of the haughtiest of men would have disappeared.

128. Today the mountains appear to be fixed and firm on the ground but on the Doomsday they will be flying in the air like clouds.

129. This will be a miraculous manifestation of Allah’s might, which has so firmly fixed everything in such strong laws that it has perforce to remain in its place or in its circle. For example, Allah has placed such a gravitational Force in the earth that everything is attracted towards it, and nothing goes out of the limits of the earth, except when some thing goes out of its force of Gravity under some other law of physics. But if the earth loses its Force of Gravity then the mountains could also float in the air losing their weight, as things lose their weight in the outer space.

130. Allah is aware of your acts. Therefore, when the Day of Resurrection will occur, He will give you appropriate recompense for your good or bad acts.

131. Means virtue or goodness of the belief and practice, that is: whoever will come with having done virtuous deeds.

132. When the Trumpet of the Doomsday will be sounded for the second time and all the people will be revived and gathered at one place, the righteous people will not be terrified inspite of the devastating effect of that day, because they will be hopeful of happy ending.

133. Means wickedness of belief and act.

134. That is: the recompense will depend on the act. As you sow, so shall you reap. They used to turn away from Allah’s revelations. In this way when they had turned towards punishment, they had deserved to be thrown into the Hellfire on their faces.

135. That is the city of Makkah, which was declared as Haram (holy) from the time of Prophet Ibrahim (Alaihis salam),and from this aspect of its being the centre of monotheism. Therefore, the point that Allah is the Lord of this city is a well known reality’ and He has commanded me to worship Him only.

136. That is: I should surrender myself to Allah only and should live as an obedient slave to Him.

137. The command of reciting Qur’an is very important from the viewpoint of dawah. The Prophet (Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) was not given the command only to admonish people and to convey the divine message, but he was also commanded to recite the Qur’an to people. It was because there is nothing more effective than Allah’s word to influence the people, and also because through Allah’s word His message is convincingly conveyed to His slaves. The point that the Qur’an is in Arabic and it cannot be presented to Non-Arabs does not prevent it from being presented to them. Accordingly the Prophet had written a letter to the Roman emperor, inviting him to embrace Islam, and in that letter he had quoted the ayat of the Qur’an and the Caeser had learnt their meaning through the interpreter.

In modern times facilities for translation and printing in every language are available, therefore, it is for consideration, why should it not be made a means of spreading dawah and understanding of faith? And why should arrangements for Quran’s translation on wider scale be not made?

138. The surah is ending on a note of praise for Allah, for that Being is really worthy of all praises that He has revealed such a magnificent Qur’an from which have ensued rivers of knowledge for the people.

It may be noted that in this Surah mention of knowledge has occurred a number of times, which has highlighted its various aspects.

In other words this is a distinguishing aspect of this surah.

139.It is a hint at the signs of the Doomsday that will appear in the world when the Doomsday would be close to occur. And seeing them its deniers will also realise that the Doomsday is about to occur as a real thing. Thus the truthfulness of the Prophet and the Qur’an will appear in this very world before the people of the world, e.g. emergence of the beast of the earth, letting loose of Gog and Magog (Al-Anbia-96).Similarly in the hadith also some signs of the Doomsday have been mentioned, e.g. return of Prophet Eesa (Jesus), and rising of the sun from the west (Bukhari Kitabur Riqaq). etc.

For further explanation, see Surah Al-An’am Note No.293. “In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. From Muhammad, who is a slave of Allah and His messenger, this letter is addressed to Hercules, Head of Rome. Peace be on him who follows the right guidance. I invite you to accept Islam. If you will accept Islam, you will live peacefully, and Allah will reward you doubly, but if you would refuse, then the sin of Arissi(countrymen) will be on your head. O people of the Book! Come to a thing which is common between you and us, that is: we do not worship any being other than Allah, nor should we associate any other with Him, and none of us should make anyone else his lord, except Allah. If they do not agree, then say clearly: Be a witness that we are Muslims.”