Surah Al-Hadid 57:20-25 - Quran Translation Commentary

(57:20) Know that that the life of the world is but a sport and diversion, an adornment and a cause of boasting among you, and a rivalry in wealth and children;⁴¹ like a rain⁴² whose (resulting) vegetation delights the tillers;⁴³ then it withers, and you see it turn yellow and then it becomes chaff. And in the Hereafter there is severe chastisement, and⁴⁴ forgiveness from Allah and Good Pleasure;⁴⁵ and the life of the world is no more than a delusive joy.⁴⁶

(57:21) Race to forgiveness from your Lord and a Paradise whose width is the width of heaven and earth:⁴⁷ prepared for those who believe in Allah and His Messengers. That indeed is Allah’s favor which He bestows upon whom He will; and Allah is the possessor of great bounty.

(57:22) No affliction strikes the earth, nor within yourselves but is in a Book, before We bring it into existence;⁴⁸ that indeed is easy for Allah.

(57:23) That you may not despair over what missed you, nor exult over what He granted you;⁴⁹ Allah does not approve of any self-conceited boaster.⁵⁰

(57:24) Those who are miserly and enjoin the people miserliness.⁵¹ Yet, whoever turned away, then surely, Allah is the Self-sufficient, the All-laudable.

(57:25) We surely sent Our messengers⁵² with clear signs and sent down with them the Book and the balance so that the people may establish justice. And We sent down iron⁵³ wherein is great military might,⁵⁴ and (other) benefits for the people,⁵⁵ so that Allah may know who helps Him and His Messengers⁵⁶ in the Unseen.⁵⁷ Surely, Allah is Strong, Mighty.⁵⁸

Commentary

41. The order should be noticeable. Life is a play (in childhood), diversion (in early youth), adornment (in early manhood), a cause of boasting (in more mature years), and a rivalry in wealth and children (middle-age onward) - Au.

Mufti Shafi` writes: It is noteworthy that what a man possesses in each stage of his life is extremely dear to him. But once that stage is crossed, those very things become laughingly unimportant. A child, for instance, mourns and weeps at the loss of a doll. But when he grows up, it becomes worthless. That goes on in every stage: the previous phase turns insignificant. When he enters old age, all the possessions of his yesteryears lose their meaning and worth. From this vantage point he realizes that the gains and losses of the previous phases would not have mattered much either way: whether he got them or missed them. The Qur’an reminds us of the selfsame reality that rules this ephemeral life (reworded).

42. The expression “a rain” ha been employed (i.e., with “a”) because there are rains that are not beneficent to the tiller (Au.).

The difference between “matar” and “ghayth” is that the latter is used when the rain arrives after the people are in despair:

“It is He who sends down rain after they were in despair.” (Ibn Kathir).

43. “Kafara” is to conceal, hence a tiller is “kafir”, one who conceals his seeds, and hence too an unbeliever is a “kafir” because he consciously conceals the truth planted in his heart that there is a Lord God to the universe and that He can only be one (Au.).

44. Ibn Jarir understands the “wa” of the text as meaning “or.” However, seeing that a great majority will perhaps undergo chastisement in the Fire before proceeding to Paradise, “and” seems to be better suited (Au.).

45. (In comparison, the Hereafter is so much better that no words can describe it). Says a hadith,

“The space whereat you could hang your whip in Paradise is better than the world and all that it contains” (Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir).

46. Sa`eed ibn Jubayr has said that the world is deceptive possession if it diverts away from the Hereafter. But, if it is employed to obtain the Hereafter, then it is a wonderful means. (Razi, Alusi).

47. Ibn Kathir points out that the word “sama’” has been used as a generic noun. That is, all heavens are inclusive. The Qur’an used the word in plural elsewhere, e.g.,

“And hasten to the forgiveness from your Lord, and to a Paradise whose width is that of the heavens and the earth – prepared for the godfearing.”

Suddi has pointed out that everything has a width and a length where width is normally less than the length. Now, if the heavens and the earth are contained in the width of Paradise, one can imagine its length. (Zamakhshari).

48. There are two opinions about the pronoun “it” as to what is the reference? Hasan’s opinion was that it is attached to the “soul.” That is, the affliction strikes the soul. So, the meaning would be, “No affliction strikes the earth, nor within yourselves but is in a Book, before We bring the soul into existence.” That is, all that is to happen to a person has already been recorded in the Book. This is the preferred opinion. A second opinion is that it is attached to the affliction, meaning, “No affliction strikes the earth, nor within yourselves but is recorded in a Book, before We bring that affliction into existence.” (Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir). Zamakhshari leaves the possibility of both open while Razi feels that the reference to afflictions is closer; that is, “before Allah creates the afflictions.”

The Prophet said, as in Sahih reports of Tirmidhi and others,

“Allah determined the destinies fifty thousand years before the creation of the heavens and the earth.” (Ibn Kathir).

49. Therefore, a believer’s equanimity should not be disturbed in either case: whether the world comes or goes. A believer knows that there is no escape from afflictions, or, contrarily, good happenings. He may aggrieve at one and feel happy with another. But in either case he maintains his self-composure. In practical terms, if good comes his way, he thanks Allah, if it is otherwise, he observes patience. (Zamakhshari, Ibn Kathir, reworded).

50. It is said that “mukhtal” is someone who looks at himself with self-aggrandizing eyes, while “fakhur” is one who looks at others with belittling eyes (Qurtubi).

Only a self-conceited person or nation can boast over Allah’s blessings sent their way. Do they create the fortuitous conditions that help them achieve what others, better qualified, and more hard-working than them, fail to achieve? (Au.)

51. Misers and miserliness arise from the failure to recognize that if one happens to be wealthy, it is because he happens to be located on the path by which wealth passes. He could not have obtained it, if wealth had taken another route (Au.).

Qurtubi writes: A miser and a generous person primarily differ in two ways: a miser draws pleasure from withholding money while a generous person draws pleasure from giving it away, and a miser gives only when asked, whereas a generous person gives without asking.

52. The allusion by “messengers” is to angels. (Zamakhshari). But Alusi disagrees and says it is to human Messengers.

53. Some commentators have conjectured that perhaps iron was sent down from the heaven. The use of the words, “We sent down”, could have influenced them. But it happens to be a scientific fact established in the twentieth century. Formation of heavy metals including iron requires chemical reactions at temperatures 5x109 K. But the earth has never experienced this temperature. That is, at no time in the history of the earth its temperature was as high as this, or even a fraction of it. This kind of temperature obtains in the center of massive stars alone which, after their hydrogen burning phase is over, change, in various steps, into a Nova. It is at this stage that heavier elements are formed, including iron. At this stage, internal combustion results in immense amount of pressure and the Nova explodes into a Supernova shattering its heavy elements - primarily iron. The flakes, chunks and meteorites containing iron fly about in space to be ultimately attracted by other cosmic bodies. That is how the earth must have obtained its iron; i.e., through the iron-nickel meteorites. However, since the earth’s core (measuring 7600 km. dia., accounting for 32% of its mass, while the earth’s outer dia. is 12,700 km.), is entirely iron (with nickel as a trace element) it is a mystery where it got this quantity of iron from? The Supernova that exploded, should have been away by several light years. How did its shattered material arrive at the tiny earth in such massive quantities? This remains a mystery, but the origin of iron is no mystery. Scientists are quick to point out that since iron is from exploded stars, and since our bodies contain iron as one of the 24 elements from which we are made, we all carry fragments of a star (or stars) in our bodies (Au.).

54. Allah created iron (for the believers) to confront those who deny Allah’s revelation after its truth becomes evident to them. Our Prophet spent 13 years in Makkah trying to convince the Quraysh of the truth of his Message. But when all efforts failed, and no hope was left of they ever being cured of their intransigence and opposition to the Truth, he was ordered to emigrate and then take up iron against them. Accordingly, the Prophet said, as in a report of Ahmad (with, as Haythami said, an isnad not entirely untrustworthy: Au.),

“I have been sent with the sword until Allah alone – who has no partners - is worshipped. My providence is placed under the shadow of my spear; and humiliation and abasement is written for him who opposes my affair. And, whoever imitated a people, is one of them.” (Ibn Kathir).

Mufti Shafi` writes: It might be noted that Allah sent down the Qur’an with the teachings that organize life. He also sent down the balance – which can be anything from a weighing machine to an electronic meter – to help establish measures of things and, thus, establish justice. But sometimes instructions and examples are not enough. There are some people who remain defiant. So Allah sent down iron which carries awesome power for the authorities to enforce the system of justice. Thus, primarily Man needs two things. One: the Book, and two: the balance to weigh the worth of things. Iron is used as a last resort only when admonitions, instructions and injunctions fail. Although it must be hastily added that iron by itself (power) is not enough to enforce a system. It is education and training which must be resorted to in the first place.

55. Asad offers the following comment: “Side by side with enabling man to discriminate between right and wrong (which is the innermost purpose of all divine revelation), God has endowed him with the ability to convert to his use the natural resources of his earthly environment. An outstanding symbol of this ability is man’s skill, unique among all animal beings, in making tools; and the primary material for all tool-making – and indeed, for all human technology – is iron; the one metal which is found abundantly on earth, and which can be utilized for beneficial as well as destructive ends. The ‘awesome power’ (ba’s shadid) inherent in iron manifests itself not merely in the manufacture of weapons of war but also, more subtly, in man’s ever-growing tendency to foster the development of an increasingly complicated technology which places the machine on the foreground of all human existence and which, by its inherent – almost irresistible – dynamism gradually estranges man from all inner connection with nature. The process of growing mechanization, so evident in our modern life, jeopardizes the very structure of human society and, thus, contributes to a gradual dissolution of all moral and spiritual perception optimized in the concept of ‘divine guidance.’ It is to warn man of this danger that the Qur’an stresses – symbolically and metonymically – the potential evil (ba’s) of ‘iron’ if it is put to wrong use: in other words, the danger of man’s allowing his technological ingenuity to run wild and thus to overwhelm his spiritual consciousness and, ultimately, to destroy all possibility of individual and social happiness.”

56. The connection between iron and Jihad is established. Iron was sent down so that Jihad could be undertaken. And justice can only be established with the help of the power that iron affords (based on Zamakhshari’s note).

57. Ibn `Abbas said: they help in Allah’s causes without having seen Him (Zamakhshari); which tells us, writes Qurtubi, something about their sincerity.

58. Allah is Strong and Mighty. He can execute His plan without human help. He only invites them to enlist themselves for His causes in order to reward them. He does the rest Himself (Au.).