Surah Az-Zumar 39:53-63 - Quran Translation Commentary

53. ( O Prophet !) Say: (Allah says:)” O My slaves ⁹⁷! who have committed excesses against your own selves,⁹⁸ do not despair of Allah’s mercy, Allah will forgive all sins⁹⁹. Verily, He is the Forgiving One, Merciful.

54.“Turn to your Lord and surrender yourselves to Him, before His punishment comes to you, thereafter you will not be helped. ¹⁰⁰

55.“Follow the best of what is revealed to you from your Lord,¹⁰¹ before His punishment overtakes you suddenly and you will be unaware

56.“Lest any soul should say: ‘Alas for my negligence concerning Allah! and I was among the scoffers!’ ¹⁰²

57.“Or should say: ‘If Allah had guided me, I would have been one of the righteous.’¹⁰³

58.“Or when it sees the punishment, should say: ‘Were there for me a return I would be of the righteous could I but live again, I would lead a righteous life.’¹⁰⁴

59.“(But Allah will say:)”My revelations had certainly come to you, but you denied them. You were arrogant and one of the disbelievers.”¹⁰⁵

60.And on the Day of Resurrection you will see those who uttered falsehood about Allah with their faces blackened¹⁰⁶. Is not the home of the arrogant in Hell? ¹⁰⁷

61.And Allah will deliver them¹⁰⁸ who feared Him because of their success (in the test); no harm will touch them, nor will they ever grieve.

62.Allah is the Creator of all things, and of all things He is the Guardian.¹⁰⁹

63.His are the keys of the heavens and the earth.¹¹⁰ And those that deny His revelation¹¹¹—they will be the losers.

Commentary

97. ‘O My slaves’ refers to the slaves of Allah and not to the slaves of the messenger and it is also clear from the context, and also from other places in the Quran where Allah has addressed His slaves as My slaves. And it is so because it is the fundamental tenet of Islam that all men are the slaves of Allah and not of anybody else’s. And what is the idea of taking the mankind to be the slaves of the messenger? But in the commentaries of the innovators (Bidati) such absurd things have been mentioned, and with great audacity that all Muslims are the slaves (Ibad) of the Prophet, when in none of the reliable Tafseer (commentaries) of Arabic this meaning has been taken.

In fact the style of Quran is of brevity, Therefore, it omits those words which clinch the subject (argument). But those who want to prove their innovations by Quran, they get entangled in the wordings. They are concerned with the shell and not with the pearl.

The meaning of Allah’s saying is quite clear, and it is this that Allah addresses the Prophet and says that His sinful slaves should be intimated that those slaves of Allah who have committed excesses against their selves i.e. sinned, they should not get despaired from the mercy of Allah.

98. That is: have sinned.

99. This is a very hopeful message for the sinners. However major the sins may be, there is no reason to be hopeless of Allah’s mercy. The gate of repentance is open and the opportunity for reform is there. If after repenting you correct your way of living, then Allah will forgive you all your sins which you might have committed. Therefore change your way of living and be worthy of Allah’s mercy and forgiveness. This sense of the ayah is in accordance with the meaning of the ayat coming hereafter, in which direction is given to turn to Allah, to be obedient to Him and to follow the Quran, and on not doing so warning of punishment is given.

Therefore from the context this ayah cannot mean that man may commit as many sins as he can, Allah will forgive them all. The purpose of the ayah is not to give license to the sinners to sin more, but it is to persuade them to turn to repentance and reform, particularly polytheists and disbelievers, whose lives are full of sins. Allama Ibn Katheer has explained it nicely:

“This holy ayah invites disbelievers and all other sinners towards righteousness and repentance, and informs that Allah will forgive all sins of those who will repent for their sins and will turn away from them, however major they may be, even more than the foam of the sea. But it would not be correct to consider this ayah applicable to those who do not repent, because polytheism will not be forgiven without repentance.” -(Tafseer Ibn Katheer-V.4.P.58)

100. From the topic of the ayah it appears that their foremost addressees were polytheists and disbelievers. They have been invited to embrace Islam after repenting (i.e. to be obedient to Allah).

101. Means Quran.

102. If you did not follow Quran, then you will have to be sorry on the Day of Resurrection. Whoever might have neglected his duty towards Allah, he will rue it and at that time he will realise that what an error it was to treat Islam and Quran as a joke.

103. Allah has arranged through Quran guidance of all mankind, so that nobody should say on the Day of Resurrection that if Allah had guided me, I would have become righteous.

104. After seeing the punishment, there will be no opportunity for test, and the desire for returning to the world will no be fulfilled. Therefore, everybody should realise his responsibility concerning Allah and should not hesitate in accepting the truth and following it.

105. On the Day of Resurrection the regretful people will be asked why they did not accept the guidance and why they did not turn righteous, when Allah’s signs (revelations) had reached them; what prevented them from accepting it? They denied them and were arrogant and persisted with denial till the last minute. Therefore, they were responsible for their own acts and they will have to undergo the punishment.

106. Falsehood and that too concerning Allah, it takes away the glowing colour of the face, and on the Day of Resurrection the blackness of this sin will cause the face to become utterly black.

107. Those who instead of obeying the command of Allah insist on following their own desires, they are full of vanity and arrogance, and the home of such people is properly in the Hell, for justice and fairplay demand that the punishment for rebelling against Allah should be Hell only.

108.That is: On the day of Resurrection, He will save them from punishment.

109. That is: Allah has not left the world uncared for after creating it, but that He is guarding over each and every thing, He is keeping an eye on everyone.

110. He is the owner of the treasures of heavens and the earth, and only He has the right and power to use them as He likes. Besides Him there is none who can have any authority over these treasures, neither idols, nor deities nor saints.

111. By ‘ayat’ (revelations) is meant signs of monotheism, and also Allah’s commands and Quran’s verses.