Surah Al-Buruj 85:1-22 - Quran Translation Commentary

10.Those who persecute the believers, men and women, and do not repent, will surely get the punishment of Hell: they will have the penalty of the burning fire.¹¹

11.Verily, those who believed¹² and performed righteous deeds, for them will be Gardens, beneath which rivers flow. That is the great success.¹³

12.Truly, the grip of your Lord is strong.¹⁴

13.It is He who creates in the beginning, and He Who will give life again.¹⁵

14.And He is the Forgiving,¹⁶ the Loving,¹⁷

15.Lord ¹⁸ of the Throne,¹⁹ the Exalted,

16.Doer of what He intends ²⁰.

17.Has the information about the armies reached you?

18.Of Firaun ²¹ and Thamud?²²

19.But those who disbelieve are engaged in denial.

20.And Allah is surrounding them from the front and the behind,²³

21.Nay (this is not untrue), this is a glorious Quran,

22.(Inscribed)in a preserved tablet. ²⁴

Commentary

1. For the explanation of the swearing, please see Notes on Surah Takveer, Note No. 14.

2. What is meant by ‘Burooj’ here are not the imaginary twelve Zodiacal signs or the twelve mansions of the sun that are the special technical terms of the old astrological science, but by this word is meant the constellations of the stars which beautify the sky and whose brightness invites man to look at them again and again.

The literal meaning of the word” Burj” is display, exhibition, fortification or place. The constellations of the stars in the sky appear so bright and shining as if they are high palaces beautifully decorated. They have been fortified in such a way that when the satanic forces fly towards the heavens, shots of meteors are fired from these fortifications. For this reason the constellations of stars are called Burooj.

Here the idea of swearing by the sky of starry constellation is to point out that these bright constellations of stars are clear evidence that the Being who has decorated this universe has no mismanagement or negligence in his rule, but that He is ruling over this world with full authority and planning. Therefore, it is impossible that those who are oppressing his loyal slaves will not ‘be made to account for their actions, and those loyal and oppressed slaves who have been subjected to all kinds of tortures and tribulations for His sake will not be rewarded with His blessings and bounties.

To prevent the flight of the satanic forces to the skies, meteors are shot towards them. This shows that under God’s rule there is a law of retribution. Then how come the transgressors will not be punished? In other words by contemplating over the sky of the starry constellations the idea of reward and punishment for our good or bad deeds comes to our minds, and it supports and confirms the occurrence of the Day of Judgment, about which Quran is giving us information.

3. Means the Day of judgment. Allah has promised that it will definitely occur so that He may establish a Court where He may deliver justice in the case of the believer and the unbeliever, the righteous and the wicked, the oppressor and the oppressed.

4. Means every person who will be present on the Day of the Judgment.

5. Means those things which he caused to be present on the Day of the Judgment, and those scenes which everybody will see. Here the oaths of the Promised Day, of Shahid (one who is present) and of Mashhood (things which will be caused to be present or the scenes which will be presented), have been taken to emphasise the statement and to promote a belief in them.

6. ‘Ashabul Ukhdud’(fellows of the ditch) refers to a particular incident, which in short is like this: the believers, just because’ they believed in Allah, were thrown in a fire-filled ditch, and their torturers sat by the ditch and witnessed the scene of their sufferings. The details as to when and where this incident took place are not given by the Quran, because for learning a lesson from this incident only this short narrative is sufficient. As regards the historical proof of this incident --history is full of such incidents when the faithful were thrown into fire. The first historical incident of this nature is the throwing into the fire of Hazrat Ibrahim by the order of king Namrud (Nimrod), and this practice of subjecting Muslims to this kind of torture by burning is rampant even today. Accordingly merely because a particular group of citizens have Islam as their religion, the entire group is thrown into the fire or they are locked in their houses and the buildings are set on fire. Yes, there is some difference. Now it does not become necessary to dig ditches and to collect wood for burning Muslims, petrol and other explosive materials serve the purpose.

So for as the traditions are concerned, this incident seems to be true: that probably in the year 523 (A.D.), a Jewish king of Yemen, Zunuwas, attacked Najran and ordered the population, which had embraced the religion taught by Hazrat Eesa (Christ), to convert to the jewish religion, and on their refusal to comply, ordered them to be thrown into the ditches full of fire. --(Seerat Ibn Hisham Vol. I, P.35. The Standard Jewish Encyclopedia p.554, has also account of this incident).

As Najran is near to Makkah, this incident must have been well known to the Arabs, and no wonder that Quran might have hinted at this very incident by calling it the incident of the fellows of the ditch. But in the traditions the story of the slave and the monk appears to be rather unacceptable.

In this story some such strange things have mentioned concerning the slave as surpass even miracles of a prophet. A reference of his narration, towards the Prophet is not correct. Ibn-e- kathir states:

“Our Shaikh Hafiz Abul Hajjaj states that there is a possibility that this story may be the part of the sayings of Suhaib Rumi, because he had knowledge of stories of the Christians.”

(Tafseer Ibn-e- Kathir Vol. 4. P. 494)

And Qaffal says:-

“In connection with the makers of ditch, the commentators have narrated different stories, but none of them is correct, except that all are agreed that a group of the faithful had opposed the infidel king who was ruling over them, and for this reason they were thrown in a ditch.”

—(At-Tafseerul Kabeer Lir-Razi, published in Tehran, Vol. 31, p.117)

It is a pity that such baseless stories have found place in big commentaries.

7. That is: It was the very limit of being thickskinned and cruel-hearted that they did not the slightest pinch and their moral insensitivity had grown to such an extent that they witnessed the scene of their victims burning without flinching.

8. The only fault of the believers was that they had accepted the faith of Allah with sincerity. In other words, the biggest virtue was a crime in the eyes of these tyrants.

9. The attributes of Allah in these verses have been mentioned with a view to explaining that it is He who alone deserves to be believed in and to have relationship with.

10. There is a warning for the oppressors and the tyrants that when Allah is seeing all that you are doing, then how long will you carry on your depredations? One day you will be caught and you will have to stand before Allah in His Court.

Those who persecute the believers, men and women, and do not repent, will surely get the punishment of Hell: they will have the penalty of the burning fire. Verily, those who believed and performed righteous deeds, for them will be Gardens, beneath which rivers flow. That is the great success.(Al-Quran)

11.This harsh warning ,is for those who subject Muslim men and women to torture only for the purpose of turning them away from Islam. The punishment by burning is purposely mentioned, since the torturers had subjected the Muslims to burning. These cruel people, along with suffering other punishments, will also be subjected to burn in a specially ferocious kind of fire in the Hell. Incidentally, this verse also shows that he who commits such a serious crime, can also achieve final salvation if he repents and reforms himself.

12. That is: Inspite of such harsh and cruel tortures, these people were steadfast in their belief.

13. That is: Great success is not to achieve world or material goods and comfort, but to achieve Paradise.

14. The oppressors and the tyrants should not remain under the false impression that they will escape the grip of Allah.

15. That is: For giving reward or punishment man will be revived after death. and to give life a second time is not at all difficult for the Being who had created man in the beginning.

16. Allah is Forgiving. Therefore, if you repent and reform your conduct, then you will deserve to be forgiven by Him.

17. That is: He does not hate His slaves, but He loves them, provided they remain as His loyal slaves.

18.”Arsh” means throne. It is the throne of Allah, the details about which we do not know. By referring to Him as the Lord of the Throne, the idea is to clarify that the entire universe is under His power and that He alone rules over the world and the universe, and therefore the transgressors and oppressors who subject his loyal slaves to tortures will not escape His grip.

19. Greatness, being Exalted and Majesty etc. etc. are His attributes and none is His partner in His greatness. The slaves should always keep His fear in their hearts.

20. There is no power in the world which can prevent Him from doing what He wills.

21. See Surah Nazia’t, Note No.13.

22. Thamood is the name of a nation which lived in the area known as ‘Hijr’ (between Madina and Tabuk). It existed before the time of Prophet Ibrahim. Allah had sent Prophet Saleh among them, but they rejected his teachings and in consequence were subjected to severe punishment by Allah. Its destroyed ruins can be seen even today in the area of ‘Hijr’. They provide a lesson for the eye that can see.

The Pharaoh and Thamood had worldly glory and power. In the intoxication of power they turned towards oppressing their subjects. When Allah caught them, they had to face a very sorry fate. By pointing out these historical events Quran asks its addressees whether they would also like to face the same fate by following the path of transgression and rebellion?

23. If they want to deny and reject, they may do so, but it would not change the reality. They are fully in the grip of Allah. They cannot escape anywhere from this grip.

24. “Lauhe Mahfuz” means the preserved tablet. It refers to that holy tablet which is in the celestial domain, on which Allah has inscribed His words. Whatever is written on this tablet is incontrovertible, unalterable and infallible. No man or jinn can approach it. Quran is not an imaginary or a mere ideological book, nor is it a collection of some soothsayer’s words, but its source is that pure and clean spring which is called “Lauhe Mahfuz.” Therefore; every statement in it is true and destined to occur as stated in it.