Surah Ya-Sin 36:33-50 - Quran Translation Commentary

(36:47) And when they are told, ‘Expend out of what Allah has provided you,’ those who have disbelieved say to those who have believed, ‘Should we feed him whom Allah would have fed if He (so) willed?⁴² Surely, you are in a manifest error.’

(36:48) And they ask, ‘When will the promise be, if you are true?’

(36:49) They are not waiting but for a single Cry that will seize them while they are disputing.

(36:50) Then they will not have the power of testament, nor to their folks will they return.⁴³

Commentary

30. The allusion could be to ancient times billions of years ago when the earth lay waste, a mere ball of rocks and minerals, with no water, revolving around the sun, with no enveloping atmosphere, subject to its deadly bombardment of ultraviolet and other destructive rays that would not allow for existence of any kind of life – human or biological (Au.).

31. Another possible rendition can be, as posted by Ibn Jarir, although not very enthusiastically, “and that which was not wrought by their hands.” Zamakhshari also sees the possibility as does Qurtubi who traces the opinion to Ibn `Abbas, Dahhak and Muqatil.

32. “Date-palms and vines stand as symbols for fruit-trees of all kinds, these being the characteristic fruits of Arabia. Grain was mentioned in the last verse; fruit is mentioned now. All that is necessary for food and the satisfaction of the choicest palate is produced from what looks like inert soil, fertilized by rain and springs. Here is wonderful evidence of the artistry and providence of Allah”

(Yusuf Ali).

33. The usage of “subhana” at this point is to express wonder and amazement. It is as if to say, “How amazing of these unbelievers that they should see all these signs, yet do not come to believe?!” (Qurtubi).

34. The rendition is literal. Qatadah believed the allusion is to male and female. Ibn Jarir however understands “azwaj” as meaning “kinds.”

If it is assumed that this Qur’ān is the handiwork of the Prophet, then how to explain the phenomenon fully brought to light by scientific research just about a century ago that everything comes in pairs: positive and negative electrical charges, protons with anti-protons, quarks with antiquarks, bacteria as male and female that exchange DNA, that stars are binary (our sun’s companion is said to be on the other side of the galaxy) and even galaxies seem to exist in pairs, the companion of our galaxy, Milky Way, is Andromeda?! Would the Orientalists who filled tens of thousands of pages of Encyclopedia of Islam say that the Prophet took it from the Bible? (Au.)

35. The text in all Qur’ānic Scriptures appears as it is here: But, Ibn Mas`ud and Ibn `Abbas read it as, “The sun runs (its course) without a resting place.” That is, ceaselessly (Tabari, Kashshaf, Qurtubi and others).

At all events, granted the varying opinion its place, there are about a dozen explanations attached to the word “mustaqarr” – as speculated by the earlier and later commentators - with none more convincing than another, except perhaps the one which says that the sun’s “mustaqarr” is the Day of Judgment, (when it will come to halt over the heads of the people in the Field of Resurrection). This opinion is attributed to Qatadah (Au).

Most commentators, however, despite mentioning various possible meanings, also quote a related hadīth which is in Bukhari: Abu Dharr said, “I entered the mosque while the Prophet was there. When the sun had gone down he said, ‘O Abu Dharr. Do you know where does the sun go?’ I said, ‘Allah and His Messenger know best.’ He said, ‘It goes and seeks permission to prostrate itself. It is allowed. But as if it will be told, “Return from where you came from.” It will appear from where it sets.’ Then he recited, ‘That is its place of rest.’”

Qurtubi quotes another longer version of the hadīth which happens to be in Muslim. It says, Abu Dharr said, “Once the Prophet asked, ‘Do you know where does the sun go?’ I answered, ‘Allah and His Messenger know best.’ He said, ‘It goes on until it reaches its resting place under the `Arsh. It remains in prostration there until it is told, “Rise. Go back to where you came from.” It returns appearing from the east.

Then it goes on until it reaches its resting place under the `Arsh.

It remains in prostration there until it is told, “Rise. Go back to where you came from.” It returns appearing from the east. Then it goes on until it reaches its resting place under the `Arsh. It remains in prostration there until it is told, “Rise. Go back to where you came from.” It returns appearing from the east. It will go on and the people will find nothing unusual about it. But it will (so happen that it will) go until it reaches its resting place under the `Arsh.

(It will prostrate itself) but will be told, “Rise from where you set.”

It will appear from the west. Then the Prophet asked, ‘Do you know when will that happen? Well, that will be on, “The day some of His signs appear, of no profit will then be the belief of him who did not believe earlier, or did not earn good (deeds) in his belief.’”

Discussing the above hadīth, Imām Nawawi expresses the opinion that it might be best to leave it at its face value, (instead of trying to fix any meaning), since the sun’s prostration, its resting place, and other details are uncertain of meaning. This is the line taken by Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir and others, who would rather leave the passage unexplained because of ambiguities surrounding it. As for the sun’s “mustaqarr” as explained in the hadīth, he says that since the entire universe is under the `Arsh, the sun’s position is under the `Arsh anyway – of course, not a very satisfactory explanation, although not without logic.

Shabbir’s explanation (as in a treatise he wrote from which Mufti Shafi` quotes) of the ahadīth quoted above is that, firstly, they are allegorical which help drive home the truth through imagery. They are not dealing with cosmological truths nor stating an astronomical fact. (These are things left to man to discover).

Secondly, to fix the meaning of “mustaqarr” we might as well refer to another verse of the Qur’ān (39: 5),

“(He) coils the day upon the night and the night upon the day. And He has subjugated the sun and the moon, each running to a determined term.”

Therefore, Shabbir argues, “mustaqarr”

here should be understood in a way that does not contradict with the meaning that the last quoted verse lends. It must also be understood that “mustaqarr” carries two meanings: one related to time, and the other related to space. When the Prophet explained sun’s “mustaqarr”

as under the sun, he was referring to its spatial position, while the Qur’ān could be referring to its position in time.

Qatadah had this “time-dimension” in mind when he said that the sun’s “mustaqarr” is the Day of Judgment.

Thus, the hadīth is emphasizing the sun’s complete submission to Allah’s command. Its prostration is of the same nature as in the verse (22: 18),

“Do you not see that to Allah prostrate themselves all who are in the heavens and all who are in the earth, the sun and the moon, the stars and the mountains, the trees and the animals, and a great many of the people?”

On the other hand, at this point the Qur’ān is drawing our attention to the governing of the celestial bodies and cosmological phenomena, leading a man of right mind to the Power that brought the organization into being. As for the sun rising from the West, this is predicted in many ahadīth, and, all it would require is the earth’s gradual halt because of the gravitational pull of a passing massive comet while the sun is on the same side as the comet. Then, as the comet passes on, it gradually reverses the present anti-clock wise rotation of the earth to clock wise. The humans might not be able to feel the halt and reversal because of the gradualness and because of darkness, the continents being on the other side of the sun. This is one of the possibilities.

There can be several others (Au.).

36. Zamakhshari writes that the allusion is to twenty-eight phases of the moon, i.e., a new phase every new night (according to its position in the Zodiac). To highlight the pathetic state of ignorance of the contemporary Muslims and their backwardness in all fields of science, including astronomy, in which they were the pioneers: a pathetic state not only when compared with modern scientific knowledge, but also when compared with the knowledge of their predecessors and their interest in the world surrounding them, we present here the names allotted to the twenty-eight phases of the moon with reference to its position in the heaven among the stars and planets, as recorded by Zamakhshari. After the completion of these twenty-eight phases, the moon disappears from sight, to reappear a day or two later as “an old palm-bough”:

Qurtubi and the Sufi Commentator Alusi describe the position of stars indicating the numbers involved and the shapes they take, (during each of these twentyeight phases) in relation to the position of the moon in the sky.

Far from matching their predecessors in piety, can the present day loquacious Muslims, drowned in this world, match them in astronomical observations? Perhaps in our times, many Muslims, men and women, have never seen the moon, except accidentally - so much time they spend on the television, open-mouthedly, empty headedly, following flashing absurd scenes. A true Muslim can only sHūdder at the heavenly response that these tens of millions can invoke (Au.).

37. “Falak” is any round or spherical body (Shawkani); the orbit of a celestial body (Penrice); “fallaka”: to have round breasts (Hans Wehr).

This is the clearest indication in the Qur’ān that the earth is spherical.

Similarly, the going around the earth of the day and night, is only possible if the earth is round. Another Qur’ānic verse throws a stronger hint that the earth could be round. It says (39: 35),

“(He) coils the day upon the night and the night upon the day.”

The word “yukawwiru” has its root in “kawwara” which means to coil, or wind. For example, كَوَّرَ عِمامَتَه “kawwara `Imāmatahu” means, “he wound his turban (around his head).” It was perhaps not this reasoning that was missing on the part of early Muslim scholars, but the explanation of how, if earth is spherical, the people on the other side do not fall off was difficult to reconcile.

Newton’s gravitational discovery made it easier for people to accept the sphericity of the earth (Au.).

Strangely, however, when Imām Abu Haneefa was asked, as a report goes, about where the centre of the earth was, he gave a perfectly scientific answer when he said that it was right where he stood! (Au.).

Sphericity of the earth apart, the ayah in question raised difficulties for most Muslims of recent times.

It says that the sun is swimming in an orbit of its own. This was alright so long as Pythagorean cosmological notions prevailed. In this system the earth was stationary. The sun went around it. But Muslim scholars were at their wit’s end trying to reconcile modern finding that the sun was stationary. It is the earth that went around it. Many scholars held to their guns and said they believed in the Qur’ān. Let science and scientists say what they will. The Qur’ān could not be wrong. The scholars carried the masses in their sway. But the Western educated Muslim class was in doldrums. For many, their faith in the Qur’ān as a Revelation was at risk. Actually, for a while the Qur’ān was opposing everyone’s notion:

those of the Muslim scholars who thought the earth was stationary, and those of the scientists who said the sun was stationary with the earth going round it. It was only in the early years of the 20th century that it was discovered that the sun indeed was on the move, not going round the earth, but going round the centre of the Milky Way galaxy along with billions of other stars similarly orbiting the center. The sun orbits the center of galaxy at a speed of about 200 km a second, and completes a round in 250 million years. As it swims in its orbit through empty space around it, it carries with it its family of planets and their satellites (moons) bound to it by the gravitational force. The Qur’ān proved true. No human could have predicted this 1400 years ago (Au.).

38. The Salaf generally agreed that the allusion is to the boat of Nuh (asws). But how to explain use of the word progeny? Zamakhshari answers that the meaning is, “We carried your forefathers, who carried you in their backs, in fact, also your own progeny who are in your backs, in Nuh’s boat.”

Asad remarks: “The term ‘offspring’ denotes here the human race as a whole (cf. the recurring expression ‘children of Adam’).”

39. Since the camel is often referred to as the ship of the desert, some of the oldest authorities have thought that the allusion by “the like of it” is to this beast. Further, the words imply that the first ship ever made was by Nuh under the direct guidance of Allah. Later human fabricators followed that prototype (Au.).

The human race would have perished at the time of the Flood, adds, Mawdudi, if not for Allah’s instruction.

All later modifications, improvements, and perfections owe their existence to the first model. Yet, it might be remembered, that despite great strides in navigational equipments and techniques, man is far from able to subdue the seas. Allah’s Power has its sway and can drown the ships any moment He wishes.

40. Mujahid explained it as meaning, the sins that have already been forwarded, and the sins that will be committed in time (Tabari).

41. “Man should consider and beware of the consequences of his past, and guard against the consequences in his future. The present is only a fleeting moment poised between the past and the future, and gone even while it is being mentioned or thought about. Man should review his whole life and prepare for the Hereafter. If he does so, Allah is Merciful: He will forgive, and give strength for a better and higher life in the future. But this kind of teaching does not suit those steeped in this ephemeral life, they are bored, and turn away from it, to their own loss” (Yusuf Ali).

42. This demonstrates that disbelief had not only blinded the intellects of the adversaries of this Message, but also destroyed their moral sense.

They followed a pervert philosophy to escape from moral bindings (Mawdudi).

Yusuf Ali has a deeper note: “They are too full of themselves to have a corner in their hearts for others. ‘If ’ they say, ‘Allah gave them nothing, why should we?’ There is arrogance in this as well as blasphemy: arrogance in thinking that they are favoured because of their merits, and blasphemy in laying the blame of other people’s misfortunes on Allah.

They further try to turn the tables on the Believers by pretending that the Believers are entirely on a wrong track. They forget that all men are on probation and trial: they hold their gifts on trust: those apparently less favoured, in that they have fewer of this world’s goods, may be really more fortunate, because they are teaming patience, self-reliance, and the true value of things ephemeral which is apt to be very much exaggerated in men’s eyes. ”

43. The allusion is to the day, write Tabari, Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir and others, when the Trumpet will be blown.

Tabari quotes a long hadīth which could not be traced by this author.

But a shorter version is in Bukhari, as reported by Abu Hurayrah. It says, “Surely, the Hour will strike while two men would have stretched open a piece of cloth but will not finalize the deal nor will be able to fold it back. Surely, the Hour will strike when a man would have milked his beast but will not be able to drink it. Surely, the Hour will strike when he would have just placed the stones together for his water trough but will not be able to water (his animals).

And surely, the Hour will strike while one of you would have raised a morsel of food to the mouth but will not be able to take it in.”