Surah Saba 34:1-11 - Quran Translation Commentary

1. Praise ¹ be to Allah, to Whom belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth. His is the praise ² in the Hereafter, and He is the Wise, the Aware.³

2. He knows what goes down into the earth and what comes forth from it,⁴ and what descends from the heaven and what ascends into it.⁵ He is the Merciful, the Forgiving.⁶

3. He knows what goes down into the earth and what comes forth from it,⁴ and what descends from the heaven and what ascends into it.⁵ He is the Merciful, the Forgiving.⁶ Those who disbelieve say: “The Hour will never come to us.⁷ ” Say: “Nay , by my Lord, but it is coming to you surely.⁸ (He is) the Knower of the Unseen. Not an atom’s weight or less than that or greater escapes Him in the heavens or in the earth, but it is in a clear book.⁹”

4. (The Hour will come) so that He may reward those who believed and performed good deeds. For them is pardon and respectful provision.¹⁰

5. And those who strive to make ineffective Our revelations,¹¹ for them will be the torment of harrowing punishment.

6. Those to whom knowledge has been given see that what is revealed to you from your Lord is the truth,¹² and leads to the path of the Mighty, Worthy of Praise.

7. And those who disbelieve say: “Shall we show you the man who informs that when you have become completely dispersed in dust, (even then), you will be created anew?” ¹³

8. “ Has he invented a lie about Allah or is he mad?”¹⁴ Nay, but those who disbelieve in the Hereafter are in torment and in far error.¹⁵

9. Did they not observe what is before them and what is behind them of the sky and the earth? If We will, We can cave in the earth under their feet or let a part of the sky fall upon them.¹⁶ Surely there is sign in this for every penitent man.¹⁷

10. And certainly We bestowed on Dawood Our favour ¹⁸ (saying): “Mountains and birds ¹⁹ echo his psalms of praise.” And We made the iron soft for him. ²⁰

11. (Saying): ‘Make full coats of mail and measure their links with care. ²¹ And act righteously, ²² verily, I see what you do.’

Commentary

1. For the explanation of ‘Hamd’ (Praise) please see Surah Fatiha, Note No.2.

2. There will be greater manifestations of Allah’s wonderful and perfect might in the Hereafter than what it was in this world, therefore, there also He only will be worthy of praises, and only His paeans will be sung. The people of faith will be offering their thanks to Him alone for being blessed with His rewards, and in the Paradise, only the sounds of His hymns will be heard.

3. Whatever plan He has made for this and the other world is based on perfect knowledge and wisdom. None of His act is devoid of knowledge and wisdom, therefore, for all His acts He is worthy of receiving our praises and thanks. If man does not understand the wisdom of any of His acts, then it is the defect of man’s own understanding, or it is because man’s understanding cannot reach it on account of its limitations.

4. Anything that enters the crust of the earth, apparently it disappears, but it exists in the knowledge of Allah. That is why we see that after the absorption of water into the earth, sprouts are seen coming out after some time. It is the proof of the fact that the water was in the knowledge of Allah and He caused the plants to come out of the earth. Similarly man also goes down under the earth after death, but Allah has all his parts in His knowledge, therefore on the Day of Resurrection His instilling life into the bodies of the dead persons and bringing them out alive is not at all difficult.

5. From the heaven water comes down to the ground, rays from stars fall on the earth, lightning also strikes on earth, etc. Similarly vapours rise from the oceans and rivers and fall down on the earth in the form of raindrops. It is also the proof of the fact that the vapours were in the knowledge of Allah and He caused them to fall down on earth in the form of raindrops. Angels also come down to earth from the heaven and again ascend back into heaven. In the same way the spirits of the virtuous people fly to the heaven.

6. In these ayah, providing recognition of Allah, His attributes of being Merciful and Forgiving have been mentioned, as if this is an invitation to His slaves to rush towards Allah’s Mercy and Forgiveness.

7. Today also there is no dearth of those who deny the Doomsday but they have no proof or any argument against it.

8. For those who were denying the occurrence of the Doomsday, the Prophet is directed by Allah that he should refute their claim with force and total belief by taking the oath of the Almighty, Who is the Knower of the Unseen because Doomsday is an inevitable reality and its knowledge has been given by the Divine Revelation as a complete certainty.

In view of this statement of Quran, it is the responsibility of the Islamic missionaries to present the occurrence of the Day of Resurrection before its deniers with full force and perfect confidence. The direction to take the oath of Allah’s being the Knower of the Unseen is given because the Day of Resurrection belongs to the world of Unseen and Allah knows the Unseen, therefore, the information given by Him must be true. The deniers have not peeped into the Unseen, then how can they claim that there will be no Doomsday?

9. That is: The record of everything is certainly with Allah.

10. This is the positive aspect of the Day of Resurrection, that the people of faith who are virtuous should be rewarded handsomely, their sins may be forgiven, and they should be given such excellent provision, as will be a means of respect for them.

11. The meaning of striving to make ineffective the revelations of Allah is to rise against Allah’s directives, e.g. he tries to spend his energy in propagating against the principles of monotheism, Hereafter, and Prophethood, so that people may not believe in them.

12. By knowledge is meant that knowledge which gives correct recognition of Allah and lights his path. Man gets this knowledge from his own nature and common sense to certain extent. Before the revelation of Quran there were among the polytheists of Makkah a few persons who used to worship the one and only God and their religion was sincerely for Allah only. But the full light of knowledge is gained through the revelation from God.

Those who do not live in ignorance and reflect on God and religion in the light of knowledge, they come to realise the truth and realism of Quran.

13. These are the foolish acts of those who wander in the darkness of ignorance that they ridicule the statement of the Prophet who has informed them of the coming of the Day of Resurrection

14. To accuse the Prophet of inventing a lie or to suspect him to be a mad man is the proof of the fact that the deniers were saying these things out of doubt or superstition. If they were certain about anything, they would not have said both the things at the same time.

15. Such talk of the deniers was like shutting the eyes from the sun and then denying its existence. Therefore, instead of answering them, their guilt has been pointed out that they do not want to believe in the Hereafter and for this reason they are making such absurd statements about the Prophet. But by denying the Hereafter they have made themselves liable for punishment and they have gone very far in their misguidance and transgression.

16. That is: Day and night they see the heavens and the earth before and after them, but they are not prepared to reflect over the point that if their Creator wanted He could have caused the earth to swallow them or to let fall a portion of the sky over them. Had they considered this, fear of God would have been created in their hearts. Then they would not have denied the Hereafter, nor would they have become guilty for receiving punishment.

17. In the greatness and vastness of the earth and the sky a great sign of Allah’s might is hidden. If He will, He can send down a gigantic catastrophe, but towards this sign only those slaves of Allah turn their attention who tend to lean towards Him.

The word used “Muneeb” means one who turns towards a thing with sincerity. This sincerity opens the path for right guidance.

18. That is: Prophet Dawood (David) was blessed with special favour from Allah. The details of this favour have been mentioned further on, which gives the idea that the Being worthy of thanks and praise is Allah alone, who blesses His selected slaves with special favours, i.e. Prophets.

19. For explanation, please see Surah Anbiya Note No.106.

20. The iron’s becoming soft in the hands of Prophet Dawood was a sort of a miracle, as is clear from the wordings and the style of the sentence. It will be wrong to consider it on the lines of the usual softening of the iron as is done by other people or by other methods, as in the case of applying heat to the iron, which makes it soft, then it is moulded into different shapes, etc. If it were a technology or civilised progress which resulted from the usual practice, then Quran would not have mentioned it in such a lofty way which attracts attention, nor would it have mentioned it along with the miracles.

21. Coat of mail is a thing of necessity in wars, and in the olden days it was considered very important. Before Prophet Dawood the coats of mail which were prepared were flat and very heavy. But Allah favoured Prophet Dawood and made iron soft in his hands like wax, so that he could make links from that and prepare light coats of mail. These light coats of mail were easy to be used. This was a very important addition to the defensive power of Prophet Dawood, and since other nations were unaware of this technique, their armies could not stand before his armies. This was great benefit which Bani Israil received through Prophet Dawood because of this miracle. For further explanation, please see Surah Anbia Note No.8.

22. The address is to the people of Dawood, that is Bani Israil, that on being blessed with this favour they should become virtuous because that is the real thanksgiving.