Surah Fussilat 41:45-54 - Quran Translation Commentary

(41:45) Indeed, We gave Musa the Book, but it was differed with.⁵² Had it not been for a Word preceding from your Lord, (the matter) would have been judged between them.⁵³ Surely they are in suspicion concerning it, (in) a disquieting doubt thereof.

(41:46) Whoever works righteousness, it is for his own self, and whoever does evil, it is against itself. Your Lord is not unjust (in the least)⁵⁴ to the slaves.

(41:47) To Him is referred the knowledge of the Hour. And no fruit emerges out of its sheath, and not a female conceives, nor gives birth save with His knowledge. And, the day He shall call to them, ‘Where now are the associates (attributed) to Me?’ They will answer, ‘We proclaim to You, there is none among us to testify.’

(41:48) Lost from them are what they used to invoke earlier and they will come to realize that they have no place of escape.

(41:49) Man wearies not of praying for the good. But if an evil touches him, lo, he loses all hope and is in despair.

(41:50) And if We make him taste mercy from Us, after an affliction had touched him, he will surely say, ‘This is my due.⁵⁵ I do not believe the Hour will be struck. And, if I am brought back to my Lord, then, surely, there shall be good for me with Him.'⁵⁶ We shall surely show the unbelievers (te truth of) what they used to do, and We shall surely give them the taste of a severe chastisement.

(41:51) And when We bestow favors upon man, he turns away and withdraws aside. But when evil touches him, lo, he is full of lengthy supplications.⁵⁷

(41:52) Say, ‘Have you considered, if it is from Allah, yet you rejected it, then who can be in greater wrong than he who is in a far-fetched schism?’

(41:53) We shall show them Our signs in the horizons and in their own selves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth.⁵⁸ Is it not sufficient for your Lord that He is over all things a Witness?

(41:54) Lo! They are surely in a doubt concerning the meeting with their Lord. Lo! He is, of all things, encompassing.

Commentary

52. That is, some saying, it is the truth, others differing with them and saying, it is not the truth (Zamakhshari).

53. The word was to the effect that they will not be punished but after a while, which will take place in the Hereafter (Razi).

In Mawdudi’s words, “It has two meanings: (1) If Allah had not already decreed that the people would be given enough respite for consideration, the disputants would have long been destroyed; (2) if Allah had not already decreed that the disputes would finally be decided on the Day of Judgment, the reality would have been made plain as to who is in the right and who is in the wrong.”

54. The hyperbolic expression (zallam) denies the least possible occurrence of oppression (Qurtubi).

Another possible meaning, as pointed out by Zarkashi is that, had “zulm” been one of Allah’s Attributes, it would have been in exaggerated form and, thus, He would not have been a mere “zalim” but a “zallam” (Au.).

55. “Being fully convinced of his own merit (as expressed in his own words, ‘this is but my due’), he is confident that – in case there should really be a life after death – his own flattering view of himself will be confirmed by God” (Asad).

56. “When men entertain false ideas of values in life, there are two or three possible attitudes they may adopt in reaction to their experiences. In the first place, their desire may be inordinate for the good things of this life, and any little check brings them into a mood of despair.. In the second place, if their desire is granted, they are puffed up, and think that everything is due to their own cleverness or merit, and they forget Allah. Not only that, but they go a step further, and begin to doubt a Hereafter at all! If by chance they have a faint glimmering of the Hereafter, which they cannot help recognizing, they think themselves ‘favoured of Heaven’, because of some small favours given to them in this life by way of trial. Thus they turn all things, good or evil, away from their real purpose, because they are devoted to falsehood” (Yusuf Ali).

57. Yusuf Ali again, “The last verse and note dealt with men’s distortion of the values of life. Here we come to men’s ingratitude and hypocrisy. If they receive good, they go farther away from Allah, instead of coming nearer to him. If they suffer ill, they call on Allah and offer prolonged prayers, but it is not sincere devotion and therefore worthless.”

58. “I.e., through progressive deepening and widening of their insight into the wonders of the universe as well as through a deeper understanding of man’s own psyche – all of which points to a conscious Creator” (Asad).

Mawdudi offers another perspective: “One of the two interpretations of the major commentaries has been that the allusion of signs in the horizon is to the prediction that Islam will prevail over large tracts of land in and beyond Arabia. It is then that the sign referred to in this verse will be fully perceived and recognized. The objection that can be raised is that political dominance does not prove the veracity of a Message or its carriers. The answer is, the triumph of Islam was not a military or political triumph. It was not the kind of triumph which results in a conqueror ending up owning the life and property of the conquered nation, in consequence, the land filled with tyranny and injustice. (At this point, and at this time of writing, one might be reminded that – by the accounts of a British newspaper and other sources – five years of American occupation of Iraq has resulted in transformation of a vast area into the stone-age: no power, no water, no fuel and no food. To obtain a few liters of petrol in this oil-rich country, people sleep at the petrol stations to queue up in the morning. So far, close to a million of Iraqis have died, several times more injured and maimed, and several millions have become refugees. This is the “conquer” that Mawdudi is alluding to. And, to continue with Mawdudi: Au.): “Contrary to this, the Islamic conquest brought with it a great religious, moral, intellectual, cultural, political, economic and social change whose influences elicited what was best in man and suppressed what was worst in him. The revolution brought by this phenomenon nurtured the moral excellence that the world could hope to see in the hermit and meditative recluses: in the politics of the rulers, in the wars and conquest, in the work of the tax-collectors or commerce of the big business, everywhere a huge moral upliftment, unseen anytime in human history, was achieved. The influence was so great and deep, that within a short time, in morality, character and behavior, cleanliness and purity, the common man was raised above the selected few of other societies. The Muslim conquests brought about in the conquered lands order in place of chaos, peace in place of anarchy, piety in place of wickedness, justice in place of tyranny, purity in place of obscenity and brotherhood in place of sanctioned inequality.

“These were the signs that the Makkan Arabs were told they will see in the horizons. And it has not stopped there. People of all ages have been witness to the signs foretold in this Qur’anic passage. The Muslims – even during their decline - have displayed such moral order as has not been attained by their antagonist contemporaries. No precedents can be found from any period of Muslim history of the tyrannical treatment that has been meted out by the Western nations to the subdued nations of Africa, America, Asia and, in fact, of Europe itself. Anyone can check through history books how the Muslims treated Christians in Spain and how the Christians treated Muslims there; how the Muslims behaved towards Hindus during their long rule in India and how the Hindus have begun to treat the Muslims once in power, how the Muslims treated the Jews during 1300 years and how the Jews are treating the Muslims since the deceptive occupation of Palestine.”

“The other meaning given by the commentators is that the unbelievers will be shown physical signs in the material world, as well as those found in their own physical existence. These signs will never end. In every new generation new signs will be discovered that will lead to the recognition that the world is not an accident but a well-designed creation” (With minor modifications).

Majid has a short comment on this aspect, “The words are also of general application. If we only care to reflect on the marvelous structure of the atom and on the still more marvelous nature of the human mind, we are inevitably, inescapably, led to the truth of an All-Designing, Omnipotent, Omnipresent Being.”

Following the same theme as above, one could add that by the words “within their own selves”, the allusion could be to the unbelievers of all ages who, once antagonists and opposed to Islam, undergo mighty changes in their own selves, to become, with the acceptance of Islam, entirely new – and laudable – personalities endowed with exemplary character (Au.).

Yusuf Ali puts it in a more sublime manner: "Allah’s Truth always spreads, in its own good time, across to the uttermost ends of the earth, as it did in the case of Islam. But its intensive spread in the hearts and souls of people is even more remarkable than its extensive spread over large areas. Men like the four Companions of the Prophet - and many more - became leaders of men and arbiters of the world’s fate. Madinah from being a focus of jarring tribes and factions that hated each other, became the seat of heroic actions and plans and the nursery of great and noble heroic deeds that resounded throughout the world. It makes no difference what men may say or do. Allah’s Truth must prevail, and He knows who obstruct and who help.”