Surah Az-Zumar 39:10-21 - Quran Translation Commentary

(39:10) Say, ‘My servants who have come to believe, fear Allah.²² For those who do well in this world, is good.²³ And Allah’s earth is spacious.²⁴ Surely, those who endure in patience²⁵ will be given their reward without measure.’²⁶

(39:11) Say, ‘I have been ordered that I should worship Allah making religion purely for Him.²⁷

(39:12) And I have been ordered (this) so that I should be the first of those who surrender.’²⁸

(39:13) Say, ‘I fear the punishment of a great Day²⁹ if I disobeyed my Lord.’

(39:14) Say, ‘I worship Allah making my religion purely for Him.

(39:15) Therefore, worship what you will, apart from Him.’ Say, ‘Surely, losers are those who lost themselves and their families on the Day of Standing.³⁰ Lo! That is the clear loss.’

(39:16) Above them will be overshadowings of the Fire and from below them overshadowings.³¹ That is what Allah frightens His slaves with. Fear Me then, O My slaves.

(39:17) As for those who avoided the Devils lest they worship them,³² and turned penitent to Allah, for them is the good tiding. So give glad tiding to My servants.

(39:18) Those who listen to the word and follow the best of it.³³ They are the ones whom Allah has guided; and they are the people endowed with understanding.

(39:19) Is he then, against whom the word of Chastisement has realized³⁴ – can you then rescue him who is in the Fire?

(39:20) But those who feared their Lord, for them are chambers over which are built chambers, underneath which flow rivers: Allah’s promise; and Allah does not fail in the promise.³⁵

(39:21) Have you not observed that Allah sent down water out of heaven, then He threaded it as springs in the land, then He brings out therewith crops of diverse hues, then it withers, and you see it turning yellow. Then He reduces it to broken stubble. In that surely is a reminder for men of understanding.³⁶

Commentary

22. The textual word is “ittaquAllah” meaning, fear Allah, acquire taqwa, and so on.

“That Allah addressed the believers in Him as the faithful, and then demanded that they acquire taqwa leads us to believe that a ‘fasiq’ (one without any taqwa) is still a believer. In short, ‘fisq’ does not preclude ‘iman’” (Razi).

23. The allusion could either be to peace and tranquility during this life, as Suddi said, or to Paradise as others have said (Tabari).

24. The indication is concealed, says Mujahid, that it is time the (persecuted) Muslims (at Makkah) should migrate to the lands of peace (Ibn Jarir).

Indeed, adds Qurtubi, there is indication in it that one may migrate from an expensive place to a cheaper one. Sufyan Thawri has said, “Live in a place where you can fill a bag with bread for a Dirham.”

25. That is, show patience and persistence in the face of difficulties you will encounter during emigration and settling into a foreign land (Razi).

26. “Bi-ghayri hisab” has two connotations. One, the reward will be of unimaginable magnitude and second, it will be ever-lasting (Razi).

It might be noted that “sabr” is the only quality that has been promised in the Qur’an as whose reward will be “without measure,” as fasting is the only deed whose reward has been promised in the hadith as “without measure” (Au.).

27. Or, to put it differently, making the religion exclusively for Him (Au.).

That is, making my obedience for Him alone, and declaring Him as the only true One Lord (Ibn Jarir).

28. That is, I do not behave in the manner of kings and rulers who command and order but fail to live by what they command and order (Razi).

29. A Great Day because its hardships will be of great magnitude (Tabari).

30. That is, those are true losers who will stand alone on Judgment Day and in Hell, without anyone of the large family they lived amongst in this world. Although Ibn `Abbas did not support this, this was the understanding of Mujahid and Ibn Zayd (Ibn Jarir).

Another understanding is that they did not bother to put their families on the right track and so they perished, as they themselves perished (Shawkani).

Ibn `Abbas however said that Allah (swt) has prepared spouses, servants and others in Paradise for every one of the humankind. But when a man enters into the Fire, he loses them all (Razi). The confirmation of this may be sought in another verse which says (23: 10), “They are the inheritors” (Qurtubi). That is, the believers will inherit what the unbeliever loses of his share in Paradise.

31. Or, layers of fire from above and below (Tabari). This has the same meaning as another verse (7: 41),“Jahannum shall be a cradle for them, and from above them (several folds of) covering of fire)” - Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir.

32. As explained earlier, the term “taghut” carries several connotations. At this point however, the allusion, as Ibn Zayd said, is to Shaytan. The word yields both singular as well as plural meanings (Ibn Jarir).

33. Ibn Marduwayh has recorded Ibn `Umar as saying that Sa` id b. Zayd, Abu Dharr and Salman (al-F arsi) were of those in the pre-Islamic time who followed the best of speech viz., “God can only be One.”

(I.e., the words, God can only be One" is the “best of speech”: Au.).

Ibn Marduwayh has another report which says that when this ayah was revealed, the Prophet (saws) sent across a caller announcing, “He who died without associating partners with Allah will enter Paradise.” When `Umar came to know he turned the caller back explaining to the Prophet that he feared people would begin to depend on this single statement. The Prophet remarked, “If the people knew the extent of Allah’s mercy they would never be without hope and if they knew the extent of His anger they would look down upon their deeds as worthless” (Shawkani remarks that the ending part of the above text is found in Sahih works).

(But, in addition to reports from Sa` id b. Zayd and others), there are others who said that the ayah applies very well to `Uthman, `Abdul Rahman ibn `Awf, Sa`d (ibn abi al-Waqq as), Sa` id (b. Zayd), Talha and Zubayr following the good word (Qurtubi). [They all embraced Islam through Abu Bakr, right at the start of the Prophetic mission: Au.].

Yet another aspect of the meaning, as worded by Ibn `Abbas, is that those are meant who hear both good and evil things. But they suppress the evil, mentioning them to no one, but talk about the good things and put them to practice (Qurtubi: reworded).

In sum, the commentators have explained with regard to the best of the word, that the allusion is to words of all kinds that the people in question listen: good and bad, true and false, tawhid and Association, originating from the pious and the fraudulent, the believers and unbelievers, but follow only the good ones of them. Hence the ending remarks: “they are the ones guided and they are people of understanding.” This is why it has been said that the verse applies to the earliest Muslims who, apart from other reasons, listened to all kinds of words from the pagans, Jews and Christians, but followed the good of them (Shafi` from Qurtubi).

34. Because of his consistent denial and refusal to accept the call (Ibn Jarir from Qat adah) – can such a one be rescued from the Fire?

35. This is in contrast with the Fire of ayah 16 that will be above the inhabitants of the Fire and below them (Qurtubi).

Ibn Kathir quotes the following to explain the verse. The first is in the Sahihayn as well as in Tirmidhi who declared it Hasan Sahih:Abu Sa` id al-Khudri reported the Prophet (saws) as having said, “The inhabitants of Paradise will see the people of the upper chambers from above them, as you see the shining star about to set in the horizon, in the east or the west – because of the differences in ranks between them.” They asked, “Messenger of Allah. Those must be places for Prophets that other than them will not get!” He answered, “Not at all. By Him in whose hands is my life, they would be people who believed in Allah and testified to the Messengers.”

Ahmad, Tirmidhi (in parts) and Ibn Majah carry a trustworthy hadith which says that the Companions once said to the Prophet, “Messenger of Allah, when we see you, our hearts soften up and we become (as if) people of the other world. But when we leave you, the world seems enchanting and we smell our women and children!” He said, “If you remained all the time in the state in which you are with me, angels would shake hands with you with their palms and would visit you in your homes. The fact is, if you were not to sin, Allah would bring another set of people who would sin so that He might forgive them.” They asked, “Messenger of Allah, tell us something about Paradise and what it is made of.” He replied, “A brick of gold over a brick of silver, plastered with fragrant musk, its gravel is of pearls and gems, and its soil saffron. Whoever entered it, will be in blessings and never suffer, will stay therein forever and never die. His clothes will not get worn and he will not lose his youth. (Then he added), there are three whose supplication is not rejected: A just leader, a fasting person until he breaks his fast, and the supplication of a wronged person which is carried on through the clouds, for which doors of the heavens are opened and the Lord says, ‘By My Power. I shall surely help you, even if after a while.’”

(In view of the above two, the following report can also be brought in from Ibn Kathir, although it has not been declared free of defects: Au.). It is in Ahmad:`Ali reported that the Prophet said, “Surely, in Paradise are chambers whose inside can be seen from outside and outside from inside.” At that a Bedouin said, “Messenger of Allah, for whom are they?” He replied, “For him who spoke well, fed the food and Prayed for Allah in the night while the people are asleep.”

36. Asad writes: “As in many other instances, the above Qur’anic reference to the endless transformation and the miraculous cycle of life and death in all nature serves to emphasize God’s almightiness and, specifically, His power to resurrect the dead – thus alluding, indirectly, to the statement at the end of the preceding verse that ‘never does God fail to fulfill His promise.’”

Yusuf Ali writes from another, but equally useful perspective: “The circuit of water, by which the rain falls from the clouds, is absorbed through the earth, and flows through rivers or underground streams to the sea, where it again rises as vapour and forms clouds, was explained in notes 3111-12 to xxv ##53. Here our attention is drawn to one portion of the process. The rain fructifies the soil and the seeds. Produce of various kinds is raised. The harvest ripens and is gathered in. The plants wither, dry up, and crumble away. Men and animals are fed. And the circuit starts again in another season. Here is a Sign of the Grace and Goodness of Allah, clear to those who understand.”