Surah 35. Fatir

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Verses [Section]: 1-7[1], 8-14 [2], 15-26 [3], 27-37 [4], 38-45 [5]

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Quran Text of Verse 27-37اَلَمْDo notتَرَyou seeاَنَّthatاللّٰهَAllahاَنْزَلَsends downمِنَfromالسَّمَآءِthe skyمَآءً ۚwaterفَاَخْرَجْنَاthen We bring forthبِهٖtherewithثَمَرٰتٍfruitsمُّخْتَلِفًا(of) variousاَلْوَانُهَا ؕ[their] colorsوَ مِنَAnd inالْجِبَالِthe mountainsجُدَدٌۢ(are) tractsبِیْضٌwhiteوَّ حُمْرٌand redمُّخْتَلِفٌ(of) variousاَلْوَانُهَا[their] colorsوَ غَرَابِیْبُand intensely blackسُوْدٌ and intensely black وَ مِنَAnd amongالنَّاسِmenوَ الدَّوَآبِّand moving creaturesوَ الْاَنْعَامِand the cattleمُخْتَلِفٌ(are) variousاَلْوَانُهٗ[their] colorsكَذٰلِكَ ؕlikewiseاِنَّمَاOnlyیَخْشَیfearاللّٰهَAllahمِنْamongعِبَادِهِHis slavesالْعُلَمٰٓؤُا ؕthose who have knowledgeاِنَّIndeedاللّٰهَAllahعَزِیْزٌ(is) All-Mightyغَفُوْرٌ Oft-Forgiving اِنَّIndeedالَّذِیْنَthose whoیَتْلُوْنَreciteكِتٰبَ(the) Bookاللّٰهِ(of) Allahوَ اَقَامُواand establishالصَّلٰوةَthe prayerوَ اَنْفَقُوْاand spendمِمَّاout of whatرَزَقْنٰهُمْWe have provided themسِرًّاsecretlyوَّ عَلَانِیَةًand openlyیَّرْجُوْنَhopeتِجَارَةً(for) a commerceلَّنْneverتَبُوْرَۙit will perish لِیُوَفِّیَهُمْThat He may give them in fullاُجُوْرَهُمْtheir rewardsوَ یَزِیْدَهُمْand increase for themمِّنْofفَضْلِهٖ ؕHis BountyاِنَّهٗIndeed Heغَفُوْرٌ(is) Oft-Forgivingشَكُوْرٌ Most Appreciative 35. Fatir Page 438وَ الَّذِیْۤAnd (that) whichاَوْحَیْنَاۤWe have revealedاِلَیْكَto youمِنَofالْكِتٰبِthe Bookهُوَitالْحَقُّ(is) the truthمُصَدِّقًاconfirmingلِّمَاwhat (was)بَیْنَbefore itیَدَیْهِ ؕbefore itاِنَّIndeedاللّٰهَAllahبِعِبَادِهٖof His slavesلَخَبِیْرٌۢsurely, (is) All-Awareبَصِیْرٌ All-Seer ثُمَّThenاَوْرَثْنَاWe caused to inheritالْكِتٰبَthe Bookالَّذِیْنَthose whomاصْطَفَیْنَاWe have chosenمِنْofعِبَادِنَا ۚOur slavesفَمِنْهُمْand among themظَالِمٌ(is he) who wrongsلِّنَفْسِهٖ ۚhimselfوَ مِنْهُمْand among themمُّقْتَصِدٌ ۚ(is he who is) moderateوَ مِنْهُمْand among themسَابِقٌۢ(is he who is) foremostبِالْخَیْرٰتِin good deedsبِاِذْنِby permissionاللّٰهِ ؕ(of) AllahذٰلِكَThatهُوَisالْفَضْلُthe Bountyالْكَبِیْرُؕthe great جَنّٰتُGardensعَدْنٍ(of) Eternityیَّدْخُلُوْنَهَاthey will enter themیُحَلَّوْنَThey will be adornedفِیْهَاthereinمِنْwithاَسَاوِرَbraceletsمِنْofذَهَبٍgoldوَّ لُؤْلُؤًا ۚand pearlsوَ لِبَاسُهُمْand their garmentsفِیْهَاthereinحَرِیْرٌ (will be of) silk وَ قَالُواAnd they (will) sayالْحَمْدُAll praisesلِلّٰهِ(be) to Allahالَّذِیْۤthe One Whoاَذْهَبَ(has) removedعَنَّاfrom usالْحَزَنَ ؕthe sorrowاِنَّIndeedرَبَّنَاour Lordلَغَفُوْرٌ(is) surely Oft-ForgivingشَكُوْرُۙMost Appreciative ِ۟الَّذِیْۤThe One Whoاَحَلَّنَاhas settled usدَارَ(in) a Homeالْمُقَامَةِ(of) Eternityمِنْ(out) ofفَضْلِهٖ ۚHis BountyلَاNotیَمَسُّنَاtouches usفِیْهَاthereinنَصَبٌany fatigueوَّ لَاand notیَمَسُّنَاtouchesفِیْهَاthereinلُغُوْبٌ weariness وَ الَّذِیْنَAnd those whoكَفَرُوْاdisbelieveلَهُمْfor themنَارُ(will be the) Fireجَهَنَّمَ ۚ(of) HellلَاNotیُقْضٰیis decreedعَلَیْهِمْfor themفَیَمُوْتُوْاthat they dieوَ لَاand notیُخَفَّفُwill be lightenedعَنْهُمْfor themمِّنْofعَذَابِهَا ؕits tormentكَذٰلِكَThusنَجْزِیْWe recompenseكُلَّeveryكَفُوْرٍۚungrateful one وَ هُمْAnd theyیَصْطَرِخُوْنَwill cryفِیْهَا ۚthereinرَبَّنَاۤOur Lord!اَخْرِجْنَاBring us outنَعْمَلْwe will doصَالِحًاrighteous (deeds)غَیْرَother thanالَّذِیْ(that) whichكُنَّاwe usedنَعْمَلُ ؕ(to) doاَوَ لَمْDid notنُعَمِّرْكُمْWe give you life long enoughمَّاthatیَتَذَكَّرُ(would) receive admonitionفِیْهِthereinمَنْwhoeverتَذَكَّرَreceives admonitionوَ جَآءَكُمُAnd came to youالنَّذِیْرُ ؕthe warnerفَذُوْقُوْاSo tasteفَمَاthen notلِلظّٰلِمِیْنَ(is) for the wrongdoersمِنْanyنَّصِیْرٍ۠helper

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Translation of Verse 27-37

27. Do you not see that Allah causes water to fall from the sky, ⁴⁵ and We produce there with fruits of different colours; and in the mountains there are streaks⁴⁶ of various shades of red and white, and jet black.

28. And in like manner men, beasts and cattle are of different colours ⁴⁷. In fact only those of His slaves who have knowledge fear Allah⁴⁸. Verily, Allah is Mighty, Forgiving⁴⁹.

29. Verily, those who recite the Book of Allah ⁵⁰, and establish salat ⁵¹, and spend, (in charity) of what We have bestowed on them, secretly and openly⁵², they look forward to a trade in which there cannot be any loss ⁵³,

30. That He may pay them their full recompense and increase it by His grace. Verily, He is Forgiving and Appreciative ⁵⁴.

31. And (O Prophet !) the Book that We have revealed to you is the Truth ⁵⁵, confirming those which were revealed before ⁵⁶. Indeed, Allah is Aware and Observer of His slaves ⁵⁷.

32. Then We gave the Book as inheritance to those of Our slaves whom We have chosen. Some of them wrong their souls, some follow a middle course, and some, by Allah’s leave, vie with each other in virtuous acts ⁵⁸. That is the great favour ! ⁵⁹

33. Gardens of Eden! They will enter them, ⁶⁰ where they will be decked with bracelets of gold and pearls and arrayed in silk ⁶¹.

34. They will say: “Praise be to Allah, who has removed all sorrow from us ⁶². Verily, our Lord is Forgiving, Appreciative,⁶³

35. Who, by His grace, has admitted us in the mansion of eternity, where toil does not touch us, nor can weariness affect us ⁶⁴.”

36. And those who disbelieve ⁶⁵, for them is fire of Hell; it will not completely affect them so that they can die ⁶⁶, nor will its torments be lightened for them. Thus every thankless person will be repaid.⁶⁷

37. There they will cry out: “Our Lord! Take us out from here. We will do then good, and not as we have done ⁶⁸. “ (He will answer): “Did We not grant you a life long enough for him having a desire to reflect, to reflect therein ⁶⁹? And the warner did come to you⁷⁰; taste then the torment. The wrong-doers have no helpers.”

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Commentary

45. Water from the sky means water from above.

46. There are streaks of white as of marble, and of red stone as hills of red stones are found in Rajasthan. Jama Masjid and Lal Quila of Delhi are built from red stones.

47. This difference in colours shows Allah’s extreme power that whatever He has created, He has presented various samples so that seeing them man’s mind may turn towards Allah. If this universe were Godless, then there would not have been such variations and beauty in it, and if His power were limited, then there would not have been such diversities in creation.

48. Learned or people with knowledge means those who have recognition of Allah. They realise how great He is, and from that very concept they shiver. When they look around themselves, they see His signs spread out all over the globe, and having the right knowledge of His attributes, they fear Him. This is the right knowledge. The more a man progresses in this knowledge, the more he fears Allah. It is this fear of Allah which breathes the spirit of faith and righteous practice. As against this a person who has no recognition of Allah, he is an absolute ignoramus, though he may be an expert in worldly knowledge and academics.

49. Hints at the fact that those slaves who would adopt the life with fear of Allah, He will forgive their guilt’s even of severe nature.

50. For the explanation of reciting please see Surah Ankaboot, Note No.83.

51. Establishing salat does not merely mean making external arrangement for offering prayers but that it is to be offered with regularity and in a correct way. This Surah is Makkan and in Makkah the emphasis was on the establishment of the internal aspect of the salat, because there were less opportunities for establishing prayer externally. However, when these opportunities were there in Madina, mosques were built there and arrangements for Azan (Call) and jamaat (congregation) were made.

In the dictionary establishment of salat (Iqamah) is shown to mean permanence and safeguarding.

In the Lisan-ul- Arab it is stated:

“To establish a thing means to arrange it permanently and to safeguard it.” (Vol. 12, page 498).

And in the Mufarridat-i-Raghib it is stated:

“Establish salat means that they do this act permanently and they safeguard it.” (page 428).

It has become clear that in establishing prayer the basic importance is of performing it permanently and in correct way.

52. It is better to spend secretly for the sake of Allah, but wherever necessary one can spend openly also.

53. That is: They hope to get gains in the next world by spending in the way of Allah.

Then We gave the Book as inheritance to those of Our slaves whom We have chosen. Some of them wrong their souls, some follow a middle course, and some, by Allah’s leave, vie with each other in virtuous acts. That is the great favour ! (AL-Quran)

54. Allah is appreciative, therefore, whatever is spent with sincerity for His sake will be appreciated by Him, and whatever sacrifices will be offered in His way will also be appreciated by Him.

55. That is: This Book is nothing but Truth. There is no mixture of falsehood with it, therefore, following it is following the truth.

56. Means the Torah and Injeel. Quran confirms them in the sense that Quran confirms that initially they were revealed by God, and that their teaching is the same as that of the Quran. And it also confirms that the prophecies that have been made in these two divine Books about the coming Prophet pertain to the Arabian Prophet, Muhammad, Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam. In other words by his prophethood the prophecies of the Torah and Injeel are confirmed, and this is the proof of the genuineness of these Books.

It may be noted that Quran confirms the original Torah and Injeel, and not of the modifications and alterations made therein by the Jews and the Christians.

57. Therefore, He will now see what His slaves do with this Book of Truth.

58. By revealing this Book to the Prophet his ummah has been made the inheritors of this Book. By the Book is meant the Quran, and by inheritors is meant its holders or followers. Chosen from His slaves means the Muslim Ummah, who has been chosen to give witness to the truth of the Religion of Truth:

“And thus We have made you ‘Ummat-e- Vasat’ (a balanced community) so that you may be witness to all the communities of the world...”- (Surah Bagarah - 143)

“He has chosen you “-(Surah AL-Hajj - 78).

This choosing or selection is as a group, and this group has been chosen so that the Book may be given to it, and that it is its holder. Although this honour has been bestowed on this group, but the condition of the individual members of this group is quite different. There are some in this group who are treading the wrong path and are doing wrong to their own souls. They have neither appreciated this Book, nor did they recognise the honour bestowed on them as members of the Muslim Ummah. Such persons are called by Quran as ‘Zalim’ wrongdoers. Therefore, in reality they are not worthy of this honour that has been bestowed on the Muslim Ummah. In this community there are other kinds of persons also who are following the middle course. It means those people who have faith and perform virtuous acts. In Surah Maidah, Ayah No. 66, the people following the middle course are shown to be those who are not evil persons or doing evil acts. And in the Muslim Ummah the third kind of people are those who vie with one another in performing virtuous acts and they are very active in serving their religion. These are of higher rank than the common righteous people and are people of top rank.

59. That is: To be the holder or follower of the Divine Book is a thing of very good fortune, and those who are lucky enough to be so endowed, on them a great favour of Allah has been bestowed.

60. The eternal gardens of Paradise: this reward, as is clear from the tenor of the speech and from other explanations of Quran is for the latter two groups- righteous and the first rankers. As for the first group, it deserves to be punished on the basis of its belief and acts, which has been clarified by Quran at other places e.g. To kill a Muslim willfully attracts punishment of Hell, as stated in “Surah Nisa, ayah No.92. Similarly, the punishment for disobeying Allah and His messenger makes one liable to be punished in Hell.

“And whoever who disobeys Allah and His messenger, and transgresses His limits, He will cast him in the Fire, wherein he will abide and shall have a humiliating punishment.” (Surah An-Nisa 14)

Besides among those who do wrong to their souls can also be those who are evil doers and hypocrites. Therefore, the glad tidings about the Paradise which Quran is giving here cannot be said to pertain to them, but various commentators have wrongfully included these wrong-doing (zalim) People among those who will be benefited by this glad tidings. The reward of Paradise mentioned here, almost in the same words it is stated in Surah Hajj, and with this clarification that this is the reward for those who believed and did good acts:

“Verily, Allah will cause those who believe and do good acts to enter Gardens underneath which rivers flow, wherein they will be adorned with bracelets of gold and pearls and their raiment’s will be of silk.” -(Al-Hajj: 23).

And those hadith, which are presented in support of this contention that the wrong-doing group is also included in the groups of people for Whom the glad tidings of Paradise has been given, are not authentic, e.g. Tirmizi’s hadith of Abu Khudri two of its narrators are most unreliable, i.e. their names are not even mentioned as the source of this hadith. It has been considered sufficient to state that it was heard from the person from Thaqif and that it was narrated by a man from Kananah.

-(Tirmizi Abwabut Tafseer. Tafseer Surah Malaikah).(Fatir)

It is obvious that when the narrator is not known, how can the narrative be considered authentic? Similarly the hadith narrated by Ahmed bin Hanbal from Abu Durda, one of the narrators of this hadith is Ishaq bin Eesa and the second narrator is Ali bin Abdullah Al-Azdi, and about both these Two Hafiz Ibn Hajr has testified that they are truthful, but commit errors in narrating hadith. -(Taqreebut Tahzeeb, pages 37, 373).

It may be noted that at present there is a majority of people in the ummah who are evildoers and inactive, and also there is no dearth of hypocrites. To declare them or to consider them worthy of Paradise merely on the basis of their being a part of the Muslim Ummah is to leave them to their present condition that they may continue to live in their life of sinning. We do not know whom out of them Allah will forgive and when He will do it, therefore, we should not talk in such a way as to give a chance to the wrong doing people to feel satisfied and contented.

61. for explanation, please see Surah Hajj Note No.35.

62. Sorrow means sorrow of every kind. The life in Paradise will be completely free from sorrow, and will be a life of perfect happiness. Man’s nature demands such a life, but this demand will not be met in this world, but in Paradise. If man realizes this reality then all his sorrows will be over.

63. Hints at the fact that all our guilt’s have been forgiven by our Lord and He has appreciated and rewarded us for our good acts.

64. That is: Our Lord has arranged our stay in such mansions which are eternal abode, and we will stay there for ever. Then the characteristic of this house (Paradise) is that here it would not be necessary to work or put in any labour, nor any tiredness or fatigue will be felt.

When a man does any work, he feels tired. But the ambience of Paradise will be much superior and excellent than that of the world, and it would not be necessary for the residents to do any work for getting anything in Paradise. Therefore, there will be no weariness there.

65. Means particularly those people who refused to accept Quran to be a revealed Book from Allah.

66. That is: Death is not going to finish their troubles. They will always be in trouble and pain.

67. Such a severe punishment will be in accordance with Allah’s Law of Justice, in which grateful people are rewarded with the Garden of Eden, Eternal Paradise, and the ungrateful people are punished by being thrown into eternal Hell.

A person, who inflicts injuries to his own eyes, does not get his eyes again. Similarly a person who spurns Allah’s blessings, his being deprived of eternal bliss and bounties, is a logical fate.

It is He who has made you (Khalifa) authoritative in the earth. So he who disbelieves, his disbelief will be on his own head. Their disbelief increases for the disbelievers in their Lord’s sight nothing but abhorrence. Their disbelief increases for the disbelievers nothing but loss. (Al-Quran)

68. How heart rending is this scene of the Hell which has been presented here, in which the disbelievers are crying, shouting and feeling helpless. It has been shown so that those who deny Quran should see their painful fate. It is not unlikely that this glimpse may prompt them to reform themselves.

69. Means that age in which a man becomes able to distinguish between truth and falsehood and to learn lessons from the events taking place around him. At another place Quran has termed the age of youth as the age of understanding and thinking.

(Hatta Yablugha Ashud-dahu. Bani Israil - 34). Whoever reaches the age of understanding and thinking on him this responsibility falls that he should act carefully while deciding the stance he should take in connection with his future life and he should take a lesson from whatever points of divine reminders come to his knowledge.

70. That is: In addition there came to you from Allah a messenger who conveyed to you Allah’s message convincingly.