Surah Ar-Rum 30:54-60 - Quran Translation Commentary

54. ( It is ) Allah who created you in weakness, after weakness He gave you strength, then after strength caused you to be weak and old. He creates what He will⁸⁷. He is the Knower, the Mighty.

55. And on the day when the hour (of Doom) will strike, the guilty will swear that they had stayed but one hour. Thus they were ever deceived⁸⁸.

56. And those to whom knowledge and faith have been given will say: “You have stayed by Allah’s book till the Day of Resurrection⁸⁹. This is the Day of Resurrection, but you did not know”.

57. On that day the excuses will not profit the wrongdoers, nor will they be asked to make amends⁹⁰.

58. Verily in this Quran We have stated for mankind all manner of examples. And indeed if you come to them with a sign (miracle) those who disbelieve will say: You are but liars⁹¹:

59. Thus does Allah seal the hearts of those who know not⁹²

60. So have patience. Allah’s promise is true. Let not those who have no conviction take you to be a man of no importance⁹³.

Commentary

87. When a man is born, he is in a very weak state. Then gradually he gathers strength and reaches youth. He becomes strong and powerful. Then this strength is gradually taken away from him, therefore, in old age he again becomes weak. This change of man from one state to another, and his helplessness in his own case is the clear proof of the fact that it is His Lord who creates as He will, and passes him through whatever stages He will. Then how does it become a man that he should feel proud after getting strength and forget his Lord?

88. That is: The time which they spent after their death was not of the duration of more than an hour, although they have had spent a very long period. As they will be making wrong estimates about the duration between their death and the Day of Resurrection, in the same way they were making wrong estimate in the world about themselves, and they have been reckoning their life in the world, which was very short, as very long. Had they compared their life in the world with the life in the Hereafter, they would have felt their worldly life to be very short, and they would have considered the life in the next world as the real life and would have made preparation for that life. But in their deception and in ignorance, they have lost this opportunity.

Here the question arises that in the graves the disbelievers would have spent a lot of time receiving punishment, then how would they reckon this period to be of one hour. In fact the state in which they would pass their stay in the world of ‘Barzakh’ (grave) would be a state like sleep. In the Surah Yasin it is stated that when they would rise on the Day of Resurrection, they will say:

(Who woke us up from our sleeping places.)

And the fact is that whatever happens to a man in the state of slumber is not all remembered by him generally, then after getting up from sleep he feels that he had just now slept and has risen immediately. Therefore, if the disbelievers are unable to feel whatever has happened to their souls after the death till the Day of Resurrection, and they feel that they have risen after an hour, then what is strange about it? For not keeping the nature of this condition of the world of Barzakh in their view people deny the punishment that is meted out during the stay in that world, although the punishment in the world of Barzakh is proved by the Quran and in the hadith it is termed as the punishment of the grave, and it relates to soul as the body is rotten and mixed with the dust, and in the case of a lot of disbelievers no graves are made as their bodies are cremated. However on the Day of Resurrection man will be raised with his physical body intact, and in such a case the disbeliever will feel the pain of the punishment fully.

89. That is: you have spent the period between the death and Doomsday in the world of ‘Barzakh’. What was the duration of this period only Allah knows, and in His record it has been written.

90. The time for test have had passed, and it would be the time of the reward and punishment. Therefore, those who had wronged their souls by practising polytheism and disbelief, neither their excuses will be accepted nor will they be given a chance to seek Allah’s forgiveness by repenting. The time for this was in the world which they had lost.

91. Those who want to understand, for them Quran is sufficient. But those who do not want to give up their disbelief, for such the biggest perceptible miracle from a prophet would not deter them from denying the prophet.

92. That is: Those who have no interest in the knowledge guidance and want to keep away from such knowledge, they gradually lose the ability to accept the truth, then no talk or suggestion of good counsel would reach their heart. This psychological state has been described as the sealing of the heart.

93. This is an advice to the prophet and through him to the people of faith, that they should not get disheartened by adverse circumstances, but they should have patience and be firm on their stand of truth and should fulfill their responsibilities with courage and firmness, so that the disbelievers in the Hereafter may not consider them inconsequential or of no importance and may not think that they can be overcome easily. But that this position of theirs should be clear to them that they are a hard nut to crack.