Surah Fussilat 41:33-44 - Quran Translation Commentary

(41:34) Not equal are the good and the evil. Repel (therefore) with that which is better, and thereupon, he between whom and you is enmity, is, as if a warm friend.

(41:35) An none is granted this but those who exercise patience, and none is granted this but one of great fortune.

(41:36) And when Satan provokes you with a provocation, seek Allah’s refuge. Surely, He is the All-hearing, the All-knowing.

(41:37) And among His signs are the night and the day, the sun and the moon. Do not prostrate yourselves to the sun³⁷ nor to the moon,³⁸ but prostrate yourselves to Allah who created them,³⁹ if it is Him you (wish to) worship.⁴⁰

(41:38) But if they wax proud, then those that are near your Lord glorify Him by night and day, and grow not weary.

(41:39) And among His signs is that you see the earth withered. Then, when We send down water upon it, it quivers and swells. Surely, He who quickens it will quicken the dead, surely, He has power over all things.⁴¹

(41:40) Verily, those who seek deviation⁴² in Our verses, they are not hidden from Us.⁴³ Is he then who will be cast into the Fire (better) or he who will come secure on the Day of Standing? Do as you like. Surely, He is Seeing of all that you do

(41:41) Surely, those who denied the Admonition after it had come to them .. although it is a Mighty Book.⁴⁴.

(41:42) No falsehood can approach it from before it or from behind it:⁴⁵ a sending down by One full of wisdom, worthy of Praise.

(41:43) Nothing will be said to you but what was said to Messengers before you. Surely, your Lord is the Master of Forgiveness, and the Master of a painful chastisement.⁴⁶

(41:44) And, had We made it a non-Arabic recitation,⁴⁷ they would have surely said, ‘Why have its verses not explained clearly?⁴⁸ Is it (in) non-Arabic (tongue)⁴⁹ while (the Messenger is) an Arab?’ Say, ‘It is a guide and a cure⁵⁰ unto the believers. As for those who do not believe, they have deafness in their ears and it is a blindness upon them. They are being called from a distant place‘.⁵¹

Commentary

36. Although some scholars have interpreted that the allusion is to the “Prayer-caller” (muadhdhin), the application is general, applicable to everyone who invited to good and himself led a righteous life (Ibn Kathir).

37. Majid comments: “(The sun has been) one of the most popular of all deities. ‘Rivaling in power and glory, the all-encompassing Heaven, the Sun moves eminent among the deities of nature .. It is no exaggeration to say with Sir William James, that one great fountain of all idolatry in the four quarters of the globe was the veneration paid by men to the sun.’ (PC.II, p.286) ‘To men who could look on the sky, earth and sea as animated intelligent beings, the Sun, the giver of light and life to the world, rising and crossing the sky and descending at night in the under-world whence he arose, has a clearest divine personality… As far back as ancient history reaches, the Sun-god appears .. (as a deity among the people: Au.)’ - (Taylor, opp.cit. p.360). According to a modern writer, if one were to merely list the people who have been votaries of the Sun, the list would include almost all nations, old and new, from Akkadians and Aztecs to Lapps and Zulus. ‘As one of the most conspicuous and powerful objects in the physical world the un has naturally attracted the attention and obtained the homage of many races, who have personified and worshiped it as a god… Whatever the reasons maybe a solar religion appears to flourish best among nations which have attained to a certain degree of civilization, such as the ancient Egyptians and the Indians of Mexico and Peru at the time they were discovered by the Spaniards.’ (FWN pp. 441-442). Proceeding further, Frazer gives accurate and minute details of Sun-worship in India (both ancient and modern), Persia, Greece, Rome, Egypt, Babylon, Arabia, Japan, and other countries.”

This is the reason why, Shafi` points out at ayah 78 of Surah 19, that the Prayer timings in Islam have all been disassociated with the hours when the sun was or is worshiped. Fajr Prayers are held before sunrise; Zuhr only after it has begun to decline; `Asr when it begins to lose its shine; Maghrib when it has set and `Isha only when its light has completely disappeared.

38. Majid again, “’Nearly every place in early times would have a sun god or a moon god or both, and in the political development of the country the moon, god of the conquering city, displaced or absorbed the moon god of the conquered.’ (Rogers, Religion of Babylonia, pp. 78, 79) ‘Moon worship naturally ranking below Sun-worship in importance ranges through nearly the same district of culture. There are remarkable cases in which the Moon is recognized as a great deity by tribes who take less account, or none at all, of the Sun.’ (PC. II p.299) ‘The Moon-god or goddess marks the festival of rude forest tribes who dance by the light of the moon. It is not uncommon for the Moon to rank above the Sun, as perhaps for astronomical reasons was the case in ancient Babylonia; but more usually the Sun stands first, as seems to us more natural; and commonly Sun and Moon are locked on as a pair, brother and sister, or husband and wife.’ (Taylor, op. cited p. 361).”

39. Ibn Khuwayzmandad has said that this ayah is the basis for the Salah al-Kusuf as instituted by the Prophet (Qurtubi).

40. The pagans who paid tributes to these celestial objects contended that it is not these very objects that they worshiped, but rather, they aimed at the One Supreme God through them. They are told here that there is no need to use them as intermediaries, you could directly worship Allah, if it is Him you wish to serve. (Au.).

Sayyid comments: “These signs are open to sights that eyes cannot miss to see: whether of the educated as well as the uneducated. They touch upon the hearts of men directly, even if a man is quite ignorant of the (cosmological) knowledge concerning them. There is a deep relationship between them and the humans which is deeper than that it should depend on a scientific knowledge of them. Between man and them, there exists a profound association: in their respective emergence, in their natures, and in their make-up. He is of them and they are of him. His make-up is their make-up and their make-up is his make-up. His material of creation is their material of creation. His laws are their laws. His Lord is their Lord. Accordingly, he embraces the knowledge of their reality with a deep feeling of harmony. It is for this reason that the Qur’an simply draws attention to them, awakens his heedlessness towards them .. to reinvigorate the old relationship with these forgotten companions of his, and to make him recall the old affiliations deeply rooted in his being.”

41. “Although the allusion to the reviving earth often occurs in the Qur’an as a parable of man’s ultimate resurrection, in the present context (and in tune with the entire passage comprising verses 33-39) it appears to be an illustration of God’s power to bestow spiritual life upon hearts that have hitherto remained closed to the truth of His existence and omnipotence. Hence it implies a call to the believer never to abandon the hope that ‘those who deny the truth’ may one day grasp the truth of the Qur’anic message” (Asad).

Yusuf Ali is on the same line of thought: “Evil makes of the souls of men what drought makes of land: it kills life, beauty, and fruitfulness. Allah’s Word in the spiritual world has the same wonderful effect as rain has on barren land: it gives life, beauty, and fruitfulness. And the effect of Allah’s Word is also seen through the lives of men who repel evil with what is better. They also convert dead souls (which harbour spite and hatred) into living souls, which come into the main current of spiritual life, and help in carrying out Allah’s beneficent Purpose.”

42. “Lahada” is for the act of turning to a side while digging a hole, hence the derived meaning of turning away from the truth, in this instance, from the Qur’an (Zamakhshari, Razi, Qurtubi).To distort, deny, corrupt the meaning, etc., are other connotations of the original “yulhidun” without one receiving preference over another, but rather, demanding a combination of all (Ibn Jarir).

In Yusuf Ali’s words, “Pervert the Truth in Our Signs; either by corrupting the scriptures or turning them to false and selfish uses; or by neglecting the Signs of Allah in nature around them, or silencing His voice in their own conscience. Everything is known to Allah. Why not work for true salvation at the final Judgment?

43. The implied threat is, in time such criminals will be taken care of. They will not escape the consequences of their crimes.

44. That is, “those who reject the Qur’an, do so for their own want of understanding and not on account of any defect or deficiency in the Qur’an itself” (Majid).

45. By the words, “from before it” the allusion is to any reduction, distortion in meaning or perversion of the text and its message, while by the words, “from behind it” the allusion is to the introduction of anything into it that does not belong to it (Ibn Jarir).

An extended meaning is that no interpretation that disagrees with the plain Qur’anic texts, in meaning and implications, will be accepted as true by a seeker of the Qur’anic truth (Au.).

46. The two parts of the verse are connected in the following manner: It was said, “Nothing will be said to you (O Muhammad) but what was said to the Messengers before you.” In response it could be asked, “Then what? What happened?” The answer is, “Surely, your Lord is the Master of Forgiveness” towards His pious slaves, “while “Master of a painful chastisement,” for His enemies (Alusi).

47. One of the contentions of the Quraysh was that since the Prophet is an Arab, his bringing of a message in Arabic leaves them open to doubt that he might have made it himself. Had it been in a non-Arab language, that doubt could be removed (Mawdudi).

48. “.. since the Prophet was an Arab and lived in an Arabic environment, his message had to be expressed in the Arabic language, which the people to whom it was addressed in the first instance could understand.. (Allah said elsewhere, 14:4) ‘Never have We sent forth any apostle otherwise than [with a Message] in his own people’s tongue, so that he might make [the truth] clear unto them.’ Had the message of the Qur’an been formulated in a language other than Arabic, the opponents of the Prophet would have been justified in saying, ‘between us and thee is a barrier’” (Asad).

Majid draws our attention to the implied meaning that has been ignored by many. What the Makkans meant by saying, “And, had We made it a non-Arabic recitation, they would have surely said, ‘Why have its verses not explained clearly,’ is that had the Qur’an been revealed in any other language, the intents and purposes of the Qur’anic texts would never have been met fully, but rather, would have been vague, unclear and subject to several interpretations, contradictory, but of equal strength. It is the clarity of the Arabic language, that no other language could have matched, had another language been chosen for revelation (Au.).

Majid quotes: “’The Arabic language – in which the Arabs themselves took particular delight, for its copious vocabulary, its wealth of forms and its inherent capability of cultivation – was peculiarly fitted to take a leading position in the world. If it is compared, for example, with the unwieldy Latin, or even with the turgid Persian, it is found to be specially distinguished by the possession of short abstract forms – a property of great service in scientific expression. It is capable of indicating the finest shades of meaning…’ (De Boers, History of Philosophy in Islam, pp. 31-32). ‘Classical Arabic is characterized by an extraordinary richness of vocabulary and the logical, systematic character of its grammatical structure.’ (EBr. II p. 192).”

49. Etymologically, the word “a`jamiyy” is the antithesis of “fasih” (eloquent), in other words, a language which does not help in attaining clarity of meaning. Applied to a person or people, a`jamiyy is someone, no matter of what ethnic origin, including an Arab, who is unable to express himself properly, like the animals (Zamakhshari, Qurtubi).

50. It is a cure for the diseases of the heart (Zamakhshari).

51. That is, although near, but because they hear it with disbelief and attitude of rejection, the Qur’anic call comes to them from a distance. They hear a vague distant voice saying something they are unable to comprehend.

“They pretended that it was too deep for them, when they meant that they were superior to it! The fact was that by putting themselves in an artificially false position, they rendered themselves impervious to the Message. The voice of Revelation or the voice of conscience sounded to them as if it came from a far-off place! They themselves made themselves strangers to it” (Yusuf Ali).