Surah Al-Hadid 57:11-19 - Quran Translation Commentary

12. The Day you will see the believing men and the believing women with their light advancing ahead of them and on their right side²² Today is the good tidings for you of the gardens beneath which flow rivers. You will dwell therein forever. This is the ground achievement.

13. On that Day the hypocrite men and women will say to the believers: Wait a little so that we may benefit from your light ²³ They will be told: Go back and seek light there.²⁴ Then a wall will be set as a barrier between them.²⁵ It will have a door. In its interior will be Mercy and out of it will be torment.²⁶

14. They will call out to them: Were we not with you? They will reply: Yes, but you put yourselves in temptation.²⁷ You kept on awaiting (a bad end for us)²⁸ indulged in doubts²⁹ and vain desires deceived you³⁰ until Allah’s decree arrived ³¹ and the deceiver ³² kept you in deceit regarding Allah.

15. So today no ransom will be accepted from you ³³ (hypocrites) nor from those who disbelieved.³⁴ Your abode is Hell. It is your companion,³⁵ and it is a very bad abode.

16. Is it not high time for the believers that their hearts may bow down before the remembrance of Allah and the truth sent down by Him!³⁶ and they may not become like those who were given the Book, before this, then a long period of time passed over them where after their hearts hardened and many of them are evil-doers.

17. ³⁷ Know that Allah enlivens the earth after its becoming dead.³⁸ WE have made the signs clear for you that you may act with wisdom.

18. Verily, the alm-giving men and women and those who gave a goodly loan to Allah will be repaid be manyfold.³⁹ And for them is the best reward.

19. And those who believed in Allah and His messenger are the truthful and the testifiers in the sight of their Lord.⁴⁰ For them will be their reward as well as the light. And those who disbelieved and who falsified our ayaat are the people of Hell.

Commentary

21. By ‘good loan’ is meant that spending (infaq) which may be made from one’s lawful earning purely for the purpose of winning Allah’s pleasure, There may not be any element of show in it nor there may be anything to suggest a boast of favour or anything painful. Such infaq is expressly desired for jihad. Hence it has been demanded in an effectively appealing manner, It is Allah’s Graceful Mercy that HE terms this spending as a loan to Him which HE will repay in multiple in the HERE AFTER and for which HE will give a very big Reward.

22. This light will be that of Faith and righteousness. Hadith has termed Salaat as light:

(Salaat is light). (Muslim, Kitabut Taharat).

This light will enlighten the path to paradise for the Faithful on the day of Resurrection. This good fortune will be available to both the believing men and the believing women.

23.’Munafiq’(hypocrite)means those people who had apparently embraced Islam and become Muslims but who were not sincere in their faith. Later on ayah 14 has clarified this point. As these people had entered the group of Muslims, they will follow the Muslims also on the day of Resurrection. But since their lives were devoid of faith and righteousness they will be kept deprived of the Divine light. Seeing themselves in darkness they will cry out to the Momins and ask them to wait for a while so that they too my benefit from their light. But they will not be heard.

24. The world which you have left behind was the place to earn light. Now if you are able to return, go back to that place and seek light. But this is not possible by any means. In the Hereafter the light will accompany only those who had brought the light of faith and good deeds from his or her earlier worldly life.

25. A wall will be raised as a barrier between the Faithful and the hypocrites. Thus both the groups will become separated to reach their respective destinations.

26. From the gate in this wall the Faithful will inter the paradise, which will be full of Allah’s Mercy. Thus this door will indeed be the gate way of mercy. And out of this door will be God’s wrath which will grip the hypocrites.

27. When the hypocrites will see that the Faithful are departing from them along with their light, they will ask them loudly as to why were they leaving them alone. They will ask them whether they were not with them in the world? The Faithful will reply: you were indeed with us in the Muslim society but you put yourselves to a big test by adopting a doublefaced policy. On the one hand you claimed to be Muslims and on the other you conspired with the disbelievers. It was this, worst kind of evil of being overtly Muslim and covertly kafir that had entangled you.

28. Waited for the moment when Muslims are so crushed that they may not be able to rise again.

“They wait for some misfortune to befall you (but the fact is that) misfortune has befallen them.” (Taubah:98)

29. You believed neither in the prophet hood of the prophet nor in the Hereafter. You always doubted these things.

30. You remained in a wishful thought that your policy was successful; that thereby your interests would be served best; and that if at all the Resurrection occurred you would be pardoned away along with the Muslims.

31. ‘Allah’s decree’ means death. You remained hypocrite till the time of your death.

32. Means satan who instigates people to indulge in disbelief and sins, thus fooling those who obey him.

33. If you possess an earth full of wealth and if you want to give it all as ransom for your salvation it will not be accepted. Had you spent some portion of the wealth which was given to you in the world, in Allah’s way it would have become a means of your relief today definitely. But now there is no way out.

34. No ransom will be accepted either from the open disbelievers.

35. Now if you have any companion at all, it is this Hell. Now see how it treats you!

36. This is an address to those believers whose hearts were devoid of ‘Khushoo’ (lowliness of heart).’Khushoo’ is a condition of heart which is created by the thought of Allah’s Might and of standing before Him to account for our deeds. It includes the felling of our lowliness, weakness and humbleness. This condition is the speciality of true belief. This ayah shakes those people whose claim to be faithful was merely verbal, whose hearts were not yet penetrated by Faith. They had observed the tug of war between Islam and disbelief for several years during which they had seen the oppression meted out to Muslims as well as observed the signs of the truthfulness of the holy prophet and of Islam. Yet their hearts did not melt. They do not become lowly and humble by the remembrance of Allah. Even after seeing the Truth in the form of the holy Quran their hearts do not develop a sense of responsibility toward Allah to make them humble!

37. When a long time passed since the revelation of the divine scripture on the people of the book and after the departure of God’s Messengers, their relation with the Book became weak. Consequently their hearts became hard due to the absence of humility. Then their lives became sinful. Here they are being admonished by pointing out these things to them. What is meant to be conveyed is that the holy Quran continues to descend and the holy prophet is living among you. Hence you should not act like the aforesaid People of the Book.

The current condition of modern day Muslims too, barring a few exceptions, is like that of the said People of the Book as described above. Fourteen centuries have passed since the departure of the holy Prophet (peace be upon him). During this long period their relation with Quran has weakened mostly because of their interest in ‘bidaat’ (innovations) and their trust in the false idea of ‘Vaastaa Vaseelah’ (intercession) which have made them entertain false hopes. Therefore, despite their lives being sinful they are full of hopes about their salvation. Admonition does not work upon them as their hearts have hardened due to constant sinning.

38. This is both an argument ill favour of resurrection after death (about which the hypocrites were doubtful) and also a hint toward the truth that Allah can enliven the dead hearts too. They can get guidance provided they think over Allah’s signs. One of the biggest signs is the life (becoming green) of the dead (dry) earth.

39. ‘Sadqah’ (spending) means common almsgiving to the needy.

‘Qarz-e- Hasan’ (Good loan) means the wealth spent to meet the needs of Jihad (war of Islam) wherein there is no iota of show etc. Since this was ill the form of a demand resulting from a necessity, it has been termed a loan. Allah has promised that it will be repaid manifold. Similarly Allah will bestow more to the givers of ‘Sadqah’ also.

40. In the sight of Allah only sincere and honest believers will reach the rank of the ‘truthful’ and the ‘testifier’. Those who were Muslims ill name only and who were hiding disbelief in their hearts will have no position in the Hereafter. This meaning of the ayah is being clarified by its last part wherein it is explicitly stated that the abode of the disbelievers is Hell. ‘Siddiq’ means totally true who always lives by truth and ‘Shaheed’ means witness, who testifies to the truth of Islam. Surah Baqarah says:

“Thus WE have made you ‘Ummate Vasat’ (a balanced community’) so that you may be witness to all the communities of the would. (Baqarah: 143).

In this way every faithful person who testifies to the truthfulness of the True Religion (Islam) is a ‘shaheed’. A Momin reaches the highest rank of ‘Shahaadat (Martyrdom)’ when he or she sacrifices his or her life ill the way of Allah.