Surah Az-Zumar 39:22-31 - Quran Translation Commentary

22.Is he whose bosom Allah has opened for Islam so that he receives light from his Lord (like him who wanders in darkness) ⁵⁰ ? Then woe to them whose hearts are hardened ⁵¹ against remembrance of Allah! They are in manifest misguidance.

23.Allah has sent down the best Word ⁵²: a Book uniform ⁵³ (and its ayat) deserving repetition ⁵⁴; the skin of those who fears their Lord trembles (for fear)⁵⁵ of it; then their skins and hearts soften to Allah’s remebrance.⁵⁶ It is Allah’s guidance ⁵⁷, He bestows it on whom He will. And whom Allah leaves in error will have none to guide him.

24. Is he who will guard himself with his own face against the awful punishment of the Day of Judgment ⁵⁸ (can be compared with the blessed believer)? And the wrongdoers will be told: “Taste the punishment ⁵⁹ which you have been earning.”

25.Those who have gone before them also denied (their messengers), so the punishment overtook them they knew not from where.

26.So Allah made them taste disgrace ⁶⁰ in the life of the world, but the punishment of the Hereafter will be much greater, if they but knew.

27. And We have given in this Quran all kinds of examples ⁶¹ so that they may be reminded;

28. Arabic Quran,⁶² containing no crookedness ⁶³, so that they may fear Allah.

29. Allah presents an example: there is a man (slave) who has many masters, quarrelling among themselves, and another man, who has only one master. Can these two be considered alike?⁶⁴ Praise be to Allah! But most of them know not.⁶⁵

30. Verily (O Prophet!) You will die, and verily, they will die.⁶⁶

31.Then verily on the Day of Resurrection, before your Lord you will dispute.⁶⁷

Commentary

50. Opening the bosom means convincing the addressee. It signifies that whosoever is convinced about the truth of the Islamic faith, and by the guidance of Allah there is no doubt and misgiving in his heart about it, he gets the light of guidance and he traverses his life’s journey by that light. Can such a person be like a person whose heart has become hard on account of prejudice and bigotry against Islam, and who is wandering in darknesses having been deprived of this light of guidance, who does not even recognise his Lord, nor does he know what is the purpose of his life nor is he conscious of his responsibilities, and what would be the effects and results of his acts. If these two different types of persons cannot be said to be equal and alike on account of their different characteristics and opposing attitudes, then how can their fate and ends be the same or alike?

51. Persistence with disbelief and sinning hardens hearts, and then they have no interest in the remembrance of Allah, nor does any sane counsel influences them in any way. They have lost the natural capability of accepting the truth. As water has no effect on the stony ground, similarly the remembrance of Allah has no effect on their stony hearts.

52. Quran is the best composition, for it has the internal and external beauty, it has the beauty of words and of meaning, in it the best thing has been stated in the best style. Its style is so effective that it creates tenderness in heart. Its recitation strengthens determination and belief in the heart, and its simplicity and fluency makes it easy for committing it to memory. The greatest merit of the Quran is that a believer does not get tired by reading it again and again. In the hadith it is stated that the Prophet, Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam stated that:

“The best word is the Book of Allah.”— (Riyazus Saliheen with reference to Muslim).

Therefore, more and more arrangements for the study of this Book should be made, and it should be very well understood that no other book of this world can be its equal.

53. That is: This Word Allah has revealed in the form of such a book that all its parts are identical and well coordinated. Its topics are perfectly harmonious among themselves. The topics of this Book are multi-cornered. Inspite of all this there is no contradiction in its topics and statements, not is its one part un-related to its other part. From anywhere it may be read, the spirit of the saying will be one, and its beauty will be manifest everywhere.

54. An important characteristic of this Book is that its ayah are worth repeating. They may be recited any number of times, the reader does not get satisfied, he wants to recite them more and more, and his keenness to recite these verses increases further. These verses are recited in the salat repeatedly, and every time very pleasant effects are created in the heart and mind.

55. When those who fear Allah recite or hear the Word of Allah, then by the concept of the grandeur and greatness of Allah they are seized by such a state that they feel a sort of trembling in their bodies. This is the great effect of the divine word which creates a fear of God in the heart, and it is this fear of God that makes a man righteous and pious. Fear or awe is created by mere recitation of Quran, but the state of trembling is created when the Quran is read with understanding its meaning and sense. People are frightened by the mention of Allah’s punishment in the Quran and the condition of people receiving punishment for their transgression in it is such that it really creates a state of trembling. But how can this state be experienced by a person who does not read these ayah with understanding them? Contemplate: what great deprivation is caused by the disregard for understanding the meaning of Quran!

This point is clear from the ayah that the high quality of fear of God is a feeling of trembling (goose-flesh), and this is the desired state. As for the state of ‘Wajd’(semi-conscious dance),it is out and out artificial and invention of the sufis. Quran is without its mention, as also the life of the Prophet. The companions of the Prophet, who were so much attached to the Quran, were also unaware of the state of ‘Wajd’. About the recitation and hearing of Quran by the companions of the Prophet, Allama Ibn Katheer says:

“They did not use to shout, nor did they in imitation used any artificial manner of manifesting some state, nay but they were so distinguished in consistency, peacefulness, good manners and fear of God that no other group of people could reach their high place.” -(Tafseer Ibn Katheer, Vol. 4, P. 51).

56. In the Quran where there is a mention of Allah’s being Great and Majestic, there His attributes of being Pardoner and Most Merciful have also been mentioned. Therefore, the state of trembling converts into a state of peace. When the reader comes across the beautiful or kind attributes of Allah, his heart becomes tender and he becomes hopeful towards Allah, and a state of peace takes possession of his body. With this peace and satisfaction, he turns to the remembrance of Allah and does so often. In other words a turning to remembrance of Allah is created by a relationship with Quran, and it continues to grow.

57. This effect of the Divine Word has been termed as guidance. Whoever is influenced by this effect, for him the path of right guidance has been opened up.

And We have given in this Quran all kinds of examples so that they may be reminded; (AL-Quran)

58. The disbeliever, to save himself from the onslaught of punishment on the Day of Resurrection, finding his hands tied in chains will try to make his face as his shield, but he will not be able to save himself from the punishment. In this ayah the helplessness of the disbeliever has been mentioned.

59. Every act of a man has its effect and its result. That is why acts have been termed as earning. On the Day of Judgment everyone will feel that whatever good or bad act he had done, it had been his earning, which he is receiving today.

60. Allah punishes disbelievers and evildoers in the world also. In this connection some people have some doubts as to how they can be punished before the Day of Judgment, which is fixed for reckoning and award of reward or punishment according to good or bad acts? The fact is that the question of giving punishment does not merely depend on reckoning of the good or bad acts. Such an arrangement is for the reason that before giving him the final punishment, Allah wants to convey to him convincingly His law of reward and punishment in the Hereafter, so that it should be made sufficiently clear to him that no injustice has been done to him, and whatever punishment he is getting is the fruit of whatever he has earned. But it does not mean that before the court of the Day of Judgment is held he would not get or the criminal will not get punishment. As Allah fully knows that they are disbelievers and guilty, He has been making them taste His punishment in the world itself, which is merely an instalment of their punishment. Similarly their souls are kept under punishment in the world of Barzakh, whose other name is grave. But without insight some people deny the punishment of the grave. They say: how can there be punishment before actual reckoning? For the refutation of their doubt this fact is sufficient that Allah subjects evildoers to punishment in this world also, and this instalment of punishment is received by them before any reckoning and accounting.

61. Giving examples does not merely mean quoting of similar things, but also means narration of those events in which there is lesson for the discerning eyes, e.g. describing the condition of those communities who were given punishment because of their transgression and disbelief.

62. For explanation please see Surah Yusuf. Note No.3.

63. For explanation please see Surah Kahf, Note No.1.

64. This example is of a monotheist and a polytheist. If a slave has many masters and there is a dispute among them, then what will be the condition of that slave? Out of so many whom will he serve and whom will he try to please? As against this if there is a slave who has only one master, then he will have to serve only that master and will have to please him alone. When the condition of these two cannot be alike, then for the person who holds the faith of several gods it would be necessary to worship everyone of them and to please everyone of them, which is a very worrying task, for it is not possible to please every god, especially ,when the imagined power is of various nature, i.e. if one is the goddess of war then another is the goddess of Peace, if one is a destroying god then the other is a creating one, if a goddess brings in sickness the other goddess brings in comfort, if one is a god of fire, then the other is the god of rain. Whom should a man worship and should try to please? In the polytheistic religion of India there are innumerable deities. The people of this religion may worship as many deities, but quite a few will still remain un-worshipped by them. They cannot worship all of them nor can they please all of them. Then how can they have internal peace and satisfaction? As against this for a believer in one God, he has to worship only one God and he has to become the seeker of His pleasure only. Therefore, he is spared the trouble of mental worries, and he gets help in concentration, internal peace and satisfaction.

65. That is: Worthy of praise is Allah alone, who is of blissful attributes, but many people do not know this clear fact, and have belief in other gods and sing their praises.

66. It means that after this clear-cut argument if people are not prepared to accept the message of monotheism presented by the Prophet, then let them go. Everyone has to die, then where will Dawatul Quran 271 S. 39 they go after death? They will have to return to Allah only.

In the ayah, the Prophet is addressed and told that he is to die one day, which shows that even the personality of the prophet is not exempted from death. The Prophet was to die one day and subsequently he died, and death is the name of the separation of the spirit from the body. Therefore, the spirit did not remain in his body. However, in the world of Barzakh his spirit is alive and a very exalted type of life is available for his spirit. When about the martyrs the Quran says that they are alive and living, but others do not have the perception of their life, then a prophet whose rank is much higher then the martyrs, is undoubtedly living in the world of Barzakh. But this life cannot be considered on the line of the life in this world, nor can it be concluded that the Prophet is present everywhere and is seeing everything.

67. That is: On the Day of Resurrection, everyone will present his case before Allah. Monotheists will place their case against the polytheists and disbelievers and the polytheists and disbelievers will try to defend their cases unsuccessfully.

If you ask them who created the heavens and the earth, they will say: “Allah”. Say: “Do you think then that if Allah be pleased to afflict me, would those you call beside Allah relieve me of my affliction, or that if He be pleased to show me mercy, would they withhold His mercy?” Say: “Allah is All-Sufficient for me. In Him trusting people put their trust.”(AL-Quran)