Surah Luqman 31:31-34 - Quran Translation Commentary

31. Do you not see that the ships sail upon the ocean by Allah’s grace, that He may show you of His signs? Surely, there are signs in this for every steadfast, thankful man.⁵³

32. And if a wave enshrouds them like awnings, they cry to Allah, making their faith⁵⁴ (submission) pure for Him. Then when He brings them safe to land, some of them lose their balance.⁵⁵ None denies Our signs except the treacherous⁵⁶ and the ungrateful.

33. Mankind ! Fear your Lord, and fear the Day ⁵⁷ when the parent shall not avail his child nor any child his parent.⁵⁸ Verily, Allah’s promise is the very truth. Let not the life of the world deceive you, nor let any deceiver ⁵⁹ beguile you concerning Allah.

34. Allah ! He has the knowledge of the Hour (of Doomsday).⁶⁰ He sends down the rain⁶¹ and knows what is in the womb⁶². No person knows what he will earn tomorrow⁶³, and no person knows in what land he will die⁶⁴. Verily, Allah is Knower, Aware.

Commentary

53. When a man sails in ship he is surrounded by dangers and in the event of a storm, the dangers enhance manifold. This is a pointer that life is full of dangers, and it is Allah only who brings out men from dangers. But this guideline is received by those persons only who keep their cool and patience in dangers and sufferings, that is those who have the courage to be firm after finding the truth. From another aspect it will be realised that ship or boat is a great blessing from Allah, because man gets lots of benefits from it. Similarly when the boat or ship gets out of storm safely, it is really Allah’s great favour, but only those people are attentive to this favour who recognise it and are grateful to Him.

54. For explanation, please see Surah Yunus, Note No.42.

55.That is: Only a few persons stick to this point that they should invoke Allah with a sense of submission and humility, making their faith pure for Him, but many people break their covenant.

56.’Khattar’i.e. treacherous or traitor that is one who breaks his covenant with Allah. The hint of the ayah is at the fact that when there was storm, they invoked Allah, and by calling Him and praying to Him submissively they had confirmed their slavery of Allah, but when Allah brought them out safely from the storm, they broke their covenant and denied His signs and revelations.

57. That is : Fear the day when you will be presented before Allah in the Hereafter, and when you will have to account for your acts.

58. Neither the son will be of any use to his parents nor the parents for their children. Every one should care for his own salvation. He should think by accepting which faith he can save his future life in the Hereafter and can save himself from the ultimate punishment. But the situation is very amazing. Children remain on the same religion which their parents give them, although this religion being false will take the parents to Hell, and the children too.

59. Means Satan, who is the greatest deceiver of men concerning Allah.

60. Nobody knows when the Hour of Doomsday will strike. Only Allah knows it. His wisdom desired that He need not disclose this hour to anyone. Therefore, it is useless to ask the Prophet or to enter into any discussion about it. Instead of wasting time in this discussion, man should try to make preparation for this hour, because Doomsday will surely occur at its appointed time.

61. Allah sends rain according to His own plans. Therefore, the knowledge of the fact as to where, when and how much rain would fall, is known to Allah only. Whatever estimates man may form on the basis of his experiences about the rainfall may be correct or wrong, In the present times the forecasts of the Meteorological department are also not always correct, besides its area of forecast is also limited. It is unable to forecast whether in the coming year there will be any floods or the coming year would be dry .All these things are known to Allah only.

62. The full knowledge of the foetus that is growing in the womb of a mother is with Allah, only. Only He knows whether it will go waste by abortion or it will grow to be a child, what will be its temperament and physical attributes, what will be its capabilities and its strength for activities, etc. All this and other similar details about foetus and Genes are known to Allah only. Nobody knows whether in the womb of a particular woman a personality like Plato is taking shape or whether a particular child will grow to be Allama Iqbal, nor does anybody know whether this child will do righteous acts in his life or would be a menace to the society. Allah who creates him also makes a plan (destiny) for him and only He has knowledge as to what kind of personality is taking shape in the womb of a particular mother, and what will be its future life. In the present age, by the progress of science it has become possible to know whether a particular foetus in a woman’s womb is male or female, but this partial knowledge does not clarify what is stated in this ayah and which we have clarified in the above lines. There is no reason to limit the meaning of this verse to cover only knowledge of the sex of the foetus. When man does not know the sex of the foetus in the earlier period of the pregnancy, but it is known after four or five months of pregnancy after a fluid test of Amniocentesis or by sonography.

63. By earning is meant not only the earning for livelihood but also good or evil acts. Nobody knows what is going to happen tomorrow, in what things he will be tested, and whether he will earn good or evil. In short, it may either be his livelihood or the earning of good or evil, man’s ignorance is such that he does not know what is going to happen with him tomorrow. But Allah knows it fully.

64. It is not necessary that a man may die where he lives. There have been innumerable cases where a man has gone to far off places for some work and breathed his last in a foreign land. Earlier he had never imagined that he would go to such a distant place and would die there. It is only Allah who knows the time of everyone’s death and where he would die. The purpose of the ayah is to show that there are a number of near and known things but man does not know what would happen next, but inspite of his ignorance, the things do take place at the appointed time. Then if the time of the Doomsday has not been made known to man, then it does not negate the occurrence of the Doomsday. it will occur at the appointed time inspite of man’s ignorance about it as all other things occur at the appointed time in spite of man’s ignorance. In the hadith these five things mentioned in the ayah have been termed as ‘Mafateehul Ghaib’ (keys of the unseen) -(Bukhari -Kitabut Tafseer).That is: These are the gates of the knowledge of the Unseen whose keys are with Allah alone.