Surah Al-Mu'minun 23:33-50 - Quran Translation Commentary

(23:33) But said those of the chiefs who had disbelieved and denied the Meeting of the Hereafter, and whom We had luxuriated in the life of the world,⁴⁰ ‘This is naught but a man like yourselves (who) eats of what you eat, and drinks of what drink.

(23:34) If you obeyed a man like yourselves, in that case, surely you will be the losers.⁴¹

(23:35) Does he promise you that when you are dead, and have become dust and bones,⁴² that you will be brought forth (again)?

(23:36) Far-fetched, far-fetched indeed is what you are being promised.

(23:37) It is none other but this our present life: (in which) we die and live,⁴³ and we shall never be raised up (again).

(23:38) He is no more but a man who has fastened a lie on Allah; and surely, we are not going to believe in him.’

(23:39) He said, ‘My Lord! Help me for that they cry me lies.’

(23:40) He (Allah) said, ‘In but a little while they are sure to turn regretful.’

(23:41) So a Cry seized them justly and We reduced them to scum. So, away with a wrongdoing people.

(23:42) Thereafter We brought forth after them other generations.⁴⁴

(23:43) No nation can hasten its term, nor delay (it).

(23:44) Thereafter We sent Our Messengers in succession. Every time its Messenger came to a people, they cried him lies. So, we made some of them follow others,⁴⁵ and made them as but tales.⁴⁶ So away with a people who would not believe.⁴⁷

(23:45) Then We sent Musa and his brother Harun with Our signs and a manifest Authority.⁴⁸

(23:46) To Fir`awn and his chiefs. But they waxed proud, in fact, they were a people high-and-mighty.

(23:47) So they said, ‘Should we believe in two men like ourselves, while their people are subject to us?’⁴⁹

(23:48) Thus they rejected the two, and thus were of those destroyed.

(23:49) Indeed, We gave Musa the Book haply that they would be guided.⁵⁰

(23:50) And We made Maryam’s son and his mother a sign⁵¹ and We sheltered the two on high ground:⁵² a place of rest and furnished with a flowing spring.⁵³

Commentary

40. Mawdudi analyses the minds and the situation: “This characterization of the opponents is significant. The ringleaders opposing the Prophet (peace be on him) were those who held the leadership of their people. The error into which all of them had fallen was their denial of Life after Death. Hence, they had no notion of being accountable or answerable to God. This, in turn, was because of their excessive infatuation with worldly life and their refusal to believe in any value above material well-being. The fact that at that time they enjoyed a considerable degree of prosperity totally swamped them in this erroneous belief. They were so deeply engrossed in worldliness that they considered themselves to be right merely because they thrived materially. They were, thus, in no mood to accept their beliefs, morality and way of life, which they thought to be the main cause of their success in this world, could be mistaken. Human history has repeatedly provided evidence of the fact that the opponents of the truth have always held these three features common. Little wonder, then, that the same scenario obtained in Makkah at the time when the Prophet (peace be on him) embarked on his reform movement.”

Never before were the evils of luxury as evident as in today’s contemporary world: pornography, nudism, homosexuality, lesbianism, pedophilia, incest, group sex, exchange of wives, sex with animals, drug and alcohol consumption, gambling, lottery, obscene music, individualism, break up of the families, et al .. humans have crossed all bounds of decency because of a single factor: affluence. As every lamp flares up before going off, the decline after which there will be no recovery, as say the experts, specialists and thinkers, has begun. A huge struggle is about to begin for the remaining resources of the world, especially in the Middle-east. Western powers are prowling around like hungry wolves (Au.).

41. “I.e., you will be following a very foolish course indeed if you were to obey a mere mortal” (Majid).

Yusuf Ali has a slightly different comment, “The type of narrow Syberite, who enjoys the good things of this life, denies a future life, and is jealous of any one who presumes to widen his horizon, is here described in a few masterly strokes. He is bored by any mention of the serious things beyond his ken. What good is it, he says, to talk about the future? Enjoy the present. The gain is all in the present: the loss is all in the future.”

42. Their allusion was to the bones that are left after the flesh and muscle turn dust (Tabari).

43. That is, one generation dies while another takes birth, one goes, another comes, just like crops, one is harvested while another begins to appear in the field (Tabari).

In Yusuf Ali’s words: “They seem to say, ‘There is no future life: that we shall die is certain; that we have this life is certain: some die, some are born, some live; and so the cycle continues; but how can dead men be raised to life?’”

44. “Qarn” is literally an epoch or a phase in the history of a people (Au.).

45. That is, We made some of them succeed others in destruction (Tabari).

46. Another possible connotation is that they became subjects of talk (Tabari) or topics that evoked wonder (Razi).

Yusuf Ali comments: “Their habitations and their organizations have been wiped out. What remains is merely a vague story of their existence, a tale that is told. Where their name remains, which is not always the case, it is only a by-word, suggesting all that is unstable and ephemeral,- ‘to point a moral and adorn a tale.’”

47. It was our Lord’s kindness that He did away with the unbelieving, corrupt, and incorrigible nations of the past. Even without there being any trace of that scum today, life is almost unlivable because of the overwhelming filth of unbelief and moral depravity prevalent among those who followed them. One can imagine what today’s life would be like if Allah had allowed every new generation inherit collective perversions of the past (Au.).

48. “Sultan” of the text is difficult to render in English. Primarily it denotes might, force, power, authority, etc. No interpretation of the word is reported of the Salaf at this point. The one nearest to being satisfactory has been advanced by Zamakhshari who said that the allusion is perhaps to Musa’s staff, which was the greatest and most manifest of signs. It turned into a snake on command and swallowed all the snakes of the charmers. It was the same staff that was used to strike a rock that gave out water in the form of gushing springs. It was the same staff that Musa had used to part the sea.

49. “I.e., how can we acknowledge their spiritual greatness when they belong to a subject nation of which we are the rulers” (Majid).

50. The obvious reference is to the Israelites, who received their two most important Messengers in half belief, half rejection. And hence too, the mention of `Isa ibn Maryam later in the passage (Au.).

In Yusuf Ali’s words: “Moses and Aaron had a twofold mission: (1) to Pharaoh and his Court, which failed because of Egyptian arrogance; (2) to the Israelites, for whom the Law was received on Mount Sinai, but they repeatedly rebelled against Allah. In both cases there were miracles (‘clear signs’) and other proofs which showed that they came at Allah’s command, and were inspired by His Authority.”

51. Maryam was born to a barren mother and a father far past child producing age, while Jesus Christ was created entirely without a father. Thus both were great signs of Allah (Au.).

52. Some of the classical interpreters, such as Abu Hurayrah, have said that the textual “rabwah” alludes to the whole of Palestine. Egypt, Dimashq, are other explanations (Tabari). But Ibn `Abbas thought it meant “a high ground” (Ibn Kathir).

A few modern commentators are inclined to believe that the allusion is to Egypt to which Maryam fled with her child to escape from Herod, “an oppressive and despotic tetrarch of Palestine.” Majid quotes, “Egypt was the only place of refuge easily reached from Bethlehem. It was outside the dominion of Herod, under Roman government, and contained a population of at least a million Jews, who were more wealthy and enlightened than those of Palestine.”

Alusi and Thanwi are also inclined to this opinion. But Yusuf Ali thinks we do not need to look far. It has already been mentioned (in 19: 22-24):

فَحَمَلَتْهُ فَانْتَبَذَتْ بِهِ مَكَانًا قَصِيًّا (22) فَأَجَاءَهَا الْمَخَاضُ إِلَى جِذْعِ النَّخْلَةِ قَالَتْ يَا لَيْتَنِي مِتُّ قَبْلَ هَذَا وَكُنْتُ نَسْيًا مَنْسِيًّا (23) فَنَادَاهَا مِنْ تَحْتِهَا أَلَّا تَحْزَنِي قَدْ جَعَلَ رَبُّكِ تَحْتَكِ سَرِيًّا [مريم : 22 – 24[

“So she conceived him and retired with him to a remote place. And the birth pangs drove her to the trunk of (date) palm-tree. She cried, ‘O that I had died before this and become forgotten, lost in oblivion.’ He called her from below her, ‘Grieve not. Your Lord has set below thee a rivulet.” However, this does not seem to be the most plausible explanation because of the usage of the word “aawayna-huma” in this present verse, which suggests providing a shelter to a mother afraid on account of her child. The two, who according to historical accounts, mysteriously disappeared from Palestine, were once again reported seen in Jerusalem only when Jesus Christ was twelve. A fair guess is that they had gone to Egypt. The present day Gospels also supports this. Ref. Matt. 2: 13-15 (Au.).

53. The translation of “ma`een” reflects the understanding of Ibn `Abbas as in Tabari.