Surah Sad 38:1-14 - Quran Translation Commentary

8. “Was the word of Allah revealed to him alone among us?”⁸ Nay, but they are in doubt about My reminder; nay, but they have not yet tasted My punishment.⁹

9. Or have they the treasures of mercy of your Lord, the Mighty, the Munificent One? ¹⁰

10. Or is theirs the Sovereignty of the heavens and the earth and what is between them? Then let them climb up to the sky by ropes! ¹¹

11. (Nothing but) a defeated army of the (disbelieving) factions is there.¹²

12. Before them, the people of Nooh, and the tribe of A’d, and Firaun of the armies had denied (the messengers),

13. And the tribe of Thamud, and the people of Loot and the dwellers of Aikah ¹³ (Forest) also : these were the factions.

14. Not one of them but did deny the messengers, so My punishment justly overtook them.

Commentary

1. This is an abbreviation a single letter of alphabet. For explanation, please see Surah Baqarah Note No.1, Surah Yunus Note No.1, and Surah Ankaboot, Note No.1.

In this Surah, Saad points to the word ‘Saafinat’ (horses) occurring in ayah No.31, it refers to Prophet Sulaiman’s horses. Thus it is a significant word. These letters, wherever they have occurred in the beginning of the surahs, they have a bearing with them and are also harmonious from the viewpoint of their sound-effect; these letters therefore lend considerable effectiveness to the words of the surahs. These letters are so appropriate that any attempt to change them would affect its sound effects. For example: if in place of Saad, the letter ‘Qaf’ is used in the beginning of this Surah and in the other surah where Qaf occurs in the beginning, if Saad is used, the effects will be missing and they would sound very unimpressive. This proves that Quran is the miraculous word of Allah. Not a single word of the Quran can be interchanged or distorted. If somebody tries to drop the word Saad and begins reciting the surah without it, the gap or the missing word will be at once striking. It shows that these letters have not been used in the Quran aimlessly, but they express its miraculous nature.

2. An important characteristic of the Quran is that it is full of reminders. Reminder of the fact that Allah is the Lord of man, reminder of the fact that recompense of man’s acts is a reality, that deniers of the prophets met with adverse consequences, and also of the fact that the teaching of all the divine scriptures taught worship of a single God and a life of righteousness. It also reminds man that Satan is the enemy of man, who should not be allowed to mislead by his deceiving talk.

These teachings and reminding of Quran is based on truth and rightness and has extreme effectiveness, and this quality of the Quran is the proof of its being the word of Allah.

3. Allah has revealed this Book full of reminders so that people may be reminded of what they have to do. But these deniers are not taking any lessons from it, because they are steeped in false pride and obduracy. On the one hand personal vanity prevents them from accepting the truth, on the other their prejudice does the same thing. Same is the case of the present day deniers of the Quran. Being aware of the rightness of the teachings of the Quran, they are unaffected by it because they consider that it would be beneath their dignity to accept its teachings. Religious prejudice also comes in the way of accepting a religion which is not the religion of their own group or land.

4. That is: The condition of the destroyed nations was such that in the beginning they did not care for what was conveyed to them by the messengers, but when the punishment descended, they started crying and appealing, but after the time for reprieve had expired, how could they be saved from punishment ?

5. That is: Declared all the gods false and only Allah as the real and one and only God. The polytheists wonder how God can be only one, there should be many gods, they should be at least three and at the most thousands, although the concept of many gods is an idea which the common sense cannot accept.

6. This is the picture of the leaders and nobles of the community getting away from the presence of the Prophet, asking their followers to go away from there and stick to their own false religion, for the present this man is propagating that there is one God, but his designs might be something more than that, perhaps he wants be become your leader .

7. That is: Our religion which is being followed from the days of our forefathers is the same polytheistic religion, from them we did not hear anything about a single god. This was a false statement of the polytheists. The clear proof of monotheism was the House of Ka’ba, built by Prophets Ibrahim and Ismail, and the Quraish were from that very race, and before the declaration of the Arabian Prophet’s prophethood, there were a few believers in one God in Makkah.

8. That is: If Allah had to reveal the Book, why did He choose this man from amongst them instead of big leaders of men?

9. This is Allah’s statement that actually these, people are not ready to believe that a Reminder (Book) can be revealed by Allah and when they are in doubt even after clear evidence and arguments, then their doubt will be removed only when they will be subjected to divine punishment.

10. This is the reply of their objection as to why this particular person was selected for prophethood from amongst them, stating: Are the treasures of Allah’s mercy with them that Allah should select a person for the office of His messenger according to their advice. If it is not so, and Allah’s treasures of mercy are with Him only, then what right they have to object to Allah’s blessing anybody with making him as his messenger whom he pleases? He is Mighty, so His every decision is essentially enforced, and none dare interfere with it, And He is Munificent, therefore, He may select any of His slaves to bless him with His favours and prophethood.

11. If they have power and authority in the heaven, then why do not they climb up into the sky? Why do not they stop the revelation that comes to the Prophet from there? If these things are not within their power, and it is obvious that they are not, then what is the meaning of their pride and tall talk about Allah’s grant of prophethood?

12. Today they are proud and vain against Allah’s messenger, but very soon the time will come when the battle of truth and falsehood will take place, at that time the army of the deniers will be disgraced and will taste defeat at that very place. Accordingly at the time of Victory of Makkah the army of the disbelievers was totally disgraced that it could not even offer any resistance. Finally the prophecy of the Quran came to be true that the army of the disbelievers will be defeated, in the same manner in which other groups of disbeliever tasted defeat against other prophets.

13. Means the nation of Prophet Shuaib. For explanation see Surah Hijr, Note No.77.