Surah 25. Al-Furqan

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Verses [Section]: 1-9[1], 10-20 [2], 21-34 [3], 35-44 [4], 45-60 [5], 61-77 [6]

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Quran Text of Verse 10-20تَبٰرَكَBlessed is HeالَّذِیْۤWhoاِنْifشَآءَHe willedجَعَلَ(could have) madeلَكَfor youخَیْرًاbetterمِّنْthanذٰلِكَthatجَنّٰتٍgardensتَجْرِیْflowمِنْfromتَحْتِهَاunderneath itالْاَنْهٰرُ ۙthe riversوَ یَجْعَلْand He (could) makeلَّكَfor youقُصُوْرًا palaces بَلْNayكَذَّبُوْاthey denyبِالسَّاعَةِ ۫the Hourوَ اَعْتَدْنَاand We have preparedلِمَنْfor (those) whoكَذَّبَdenyبِالسَّاعَةِthe Hourسَعِیْرًاۚa Blazing Fire 25. Al-Furqan Page 361اِذَاWhenرَاَتْهُمْit sees themمِّنْfromمَّكَانٍۭa placeبَعِیْدٍfarسَمِعُوْاthey will hearلَهَاitsتَغَیُّظًاragingوَّ زَفِیْرًا and roaring وَ اِذَاۤAnd whenاُلْقُوْاthey are thrownمِنْهَاthereofمَكَانًا(in) a placeضَیِّقًاnarrowمُّقَرَّنِیْنَbound in chainsدَعَوْاthey will callهُنَالِكَthereثُبُوْرًاؕ(for) destruction لَا(Do) notتَدْعُواcallالْیَوْمَthis dayثُبُوْرًا(for) destructionوَّاحِدًاoneوَّ ادْعُوْاbut callثُبُوْرًا(for) destructionsكَثِیْرًا many قُلْSayاَذٰلِكَIs thatخَیْرٌbetterاَمْorجَنَّةُGardenالْخُلْدِ(of) Eternityالَّتِیْwhichوُعِدَis promisedالْمُتَّقُوْنَ ؕ(to) the righteousكَانَتْIt will beلَهُمْfor themجَزَآءًa rewardوَّ مَصِیْرًا and destination لَهُمْFor themفِیْهَاthereinمَا(is) whateverیَشَآءُوْنَthey wishخٰلِدِیْنَ ؕthey will abide foreverكَانَIt isعَلٰیonرَبِّكَyour Lordوَعْدًاa promiseمَّسْـُٔوْلًا requested وَ یَوْمَAnd (the) DayیَحْشُرُهُمْHe will gather themوَ مَاand whatیَعْبُدُوْنَthey worshipمِنْbesides Allahدُوْنِbesides Allahاللّٰهِbesides Allahفَیَقُوْلُand He will sayءَاَنْتُمْDid youاَضْلَلْتُمْ[you] misleadعِبَادِیْMy slavesهٰۤؤُلَآءِtheseاَمْorهُمْtheyضَلُّواwent astrayالسَّبِیْلَؕ(from) the way قَالُوْاThey sayسُبْحٰنَكَGlory be to YouمَاNotكَانَit was properیَنْۢبَغِیْit was properلَنَاۤfor usاَنْthatنَّتَّخِذَwe takeمِنْbesides Youدُوْنِكَbesides Youمِنْanyاَوْلِیَآءَprotectorsوَ لٰكِنْButمَّتَّعْتَهُمْYou gave them comfortsوَ اٰبَآءَهُمْand their forefathersحَتّٰیuntilنَسُواthey forgotالذِّكْرَ ۚthe Messageوَ كَانُوْاand becameقَوْمًۢاa peopleبُوْرًا ruined فَقَدْSo verilyكَذَّبُوْكُمْthey deny youبِمَاin whatتَقُوْلُوْنَ ۙyou sayفَمَاso notتَسْتَطِیْعُوْنَyou are ableصَرْفًا(to) avertوَّ لَاand notنَصْرًا ۚ(to) helpوَ مَنْAnd whoeverیَّظْلِمْdoes wrongمِّنْكُمْamong youنُذِقْهُWe will make him tasteعَذَابًاa punishmentكَبِیْرًا great وَ مَاۤAnd notاَرْسَلْنَاWe sentقَبْلَكَbefore youمِنَanyالْمُرْسَلِیْنَMessengersاِلَّاۤbutاِنَّهُمْindeed theyلَیَاْكُلُوْنَ[surely] ateالطَّعَامَfoodوَ یَمْشُوْنَand walkedفِیinالْاَسْوَاقِ ؕthe marketsوَ جَعَلْنَاAnd We have madeبَعْضَكُمْsome of youلِبَعْضٍfor othersفِتْنَةً ؕa trialاَتَصْبِرُوْنَ ۚwill you have patienceوَ كَانَAnd isرَبُّكَyour Lordبَصِیْرًا۠All-Seer

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Translation of Verse 10-20

(25:10) Most blessed¹⁹ is He Who, if He wills, can grant you even better than what they propose: Gardens beneath which rivers flow, and stately mansions.

(25:11) Nay, the truth is that it is the Hour^20, to which they give the lie.²¹; We have kept a Blazing Fire ready for him who denies the Hour.

(25:12) When it sees²² them from a place afar, they will hear its raging and roaring,

(25:13) and when they are flung, chained together, into a narrow place in it, they will fervently call there for annihilation.

(25:14) (They will then be told): "Do not call for a single annihilation, but for many an annihilation."

(25:15) Ask them: "Is this state better or the Garden of Eternity which the God-fearing have been promised?" It shall be their recompense and the end-point of their journey;

(25:16) the Garden wherein whatever they desire will be fulfilled. In it they shall abide for ever. This is a promise whose fulfilment Your Lord has made incumbent on Himself.²³

(25:17) On the Day when He will muster together all the unbelievers as well as the deities that they worship beside Allah,²⁴ and He will ask them: "Was it you who caused these servants of Mine to stray away, or did they themselves stray away from the Right Path?"²⁵

(25:18) They will say: "Glory be to You! It did not behove us to take any other than You as our guardians, but You lavished the pleasures of life upon them and their forefathers until they forgot the Admonition and became doomed to destruction."²⁶

(25:19) Thus will those deities give the lie to all what you now say,²⁷ and you will not be able to avert your doom, nor obtain any succour. We shall cause whoever of you commits wrong²⁸ to taste an enormous chastisement.

(25:20) (O Muhammad), We never sent any Messengers before you but they ate food and walked about in the markets.²⁹ We made some of you a means to test each by the other³⁰ to see whether you remain patient.³¹ Your Lord is All-Seeing.³²

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Commentary

19. Once again the word tabaraka (for its earlier usage see verse 1 above) has been used and the context here indicates that it means: “vast resources and unlimited power”. Hence, were God to decide to confer a favor on someone, none could prevent Him from so doing.

20. The word sa‘ah means “time” or “hour” with the prefix “al”, it refers to ‘that particular moment in the future about which man has been forewarned. (Ibn Manzur, Lisan al- ‘Arab, q.v. SW ‘. — Ed.) The Quran repeatedly uses this word to denote the promised Hour of Resurrection everyone will be raised from the dead and will be gathered before ‘Almighty Who will judge them according to their beliefs and actions and Who will then either reward or punish them.

21. These objections were not raised because of any reasonable doubt they entertained about the authenticity of the Qur’an. Nor were they based on their conviction that certain freed-slaves had indeed vouchsafed the Qur’an to the Prophet (peace be on him). It was not that they did not believe in his Prophethood simply because he ate and walked about in the bazaars. It was also not the case that they were inclined to disbelieve him because they did not see an angel accompanying him or because he did not possess any treasure.

None of these represented the true reason behind their negative attitude. The true reason, however, was that they did not believe in the Hereafter and hence, they did not take the whole question of Truth and falsehood seriously. For when ‘one denies the Hereafter, there is no need to earnestly search for the Truth. No wonder, then, that the unbelievers resorted to absurd arguments as to deny the Truth of the Prophet’s Message. They had no concept of “after Death, the Life in which they would be made to appear before God and account for their deeds. Rather, they believed that after this ephemeral life they would simply die and their bodies would crumble to the same end. Thus, everyone, whether idol-worshipper or a true devotee of God, would be reduced to dust and nothing would matter after death. So what difference did belief or disbelief make?

The only criterion they accepted to distinguish between right and wrong was a person’s success or failure in this worldly life. Such worldly success or failure, they observed, was not inexorably contingent upon a person’s having faith and being possessed of good conduct. They saw, instead, that the atheists, the fire-worshippers, the followers of Jesus and Moses, the worshippers of idols and stars, were all subject, from time to time, to spells of fortune: and misfortune, of prosperity and adversity. They also observed that there was no religion whose followers were immune to misfortune or, conversely, whose deniers were uniformly condemned to misfortune. They also observed that the righteous and the wicked did not consistently meet with a good and evil end respectively. One person might enjoy the bounties of life and another might suffer for his or her misdeeds. One righteous person might be living a life of hardship while another might have attained notable prestige and esteem among his fellow men. Hence, as far as worldly success is concerned, those who disbelieve in the Hereafter are not sure as to which faith or moral code is right. Therefore, they neither pay much heed to nor take seriously a call to faith no matter how convincing its supporting arguments might be.

22. The statement: “When it [i.e. the Blazing Fire] sees them from a place afar” could be either metaphorical or literal. In a metaphorical sense it would mean something similar to: “The minarets of the mosque are observing you.” Literally, it would seem to suggest that the Fire will be invested with the ability to perceive. In other words, the Fire of Hell will not be bereft of consciousness like the fire of this world. Therefore, it will not burn indiscriminately, but rather burn only those who deserve to be burned.

23. The Qur’anic expression wa'dan mas'ulan means a promise whose fulfilment can be asked for.

At this point one may well ask: How can the promise of Paradise. and the threat of Hell be effective against those who deny the Day of Judgement, and who reject accountability. At first glance, the Qur’anic statement made here may appear irrelevant and out of one ponders on it a little, the logic of the statement would become obvious. If one were trying to convince an opponent about one's beliefs, one would use a certain line of argument. But if this were not the case and all one sought to do was ask others to consider a doctrine from the vantage-point of their own interests, even the most stubborn of its opponents are likely to pay attention to it. Here recourse is made to this second kind of reasoning.

The core of the statement runs something as follows: if there is no definite proof of Life after Death, then there is also no definite proof to refute it. At most, one can say that both the existence and non-existence of Life after Death lie within the range of possibilities. If a person who does not believe in the Hereafter were to die and become dust, just like the one who believes in the Hereafter, then both would, ultimately, end up the same. But, if what the Prophet (peace be on him) was saying was true, then the one who did not believe in the Hereafter was totally doomed.

Such a line of argument can easily make a dent in the stubbornness of the unbelievers. The, opening that it creates gradually develops into a vast chasm whereby the entire scenario of the Day of Resurrection - the bringing together of all mankind and their standing before God to account for their lives, and Heaven and Hell - is vividly portrayed as if it were an eyewitness account. (For more details see Tafhim al-Qur’an, Vol. VI, Hà Mim al-Sajdah 41:52, n. 69. See also al-Ahqaf 46:10.)

24. Here the word "deities" does not mean idols, as the discourse which follows would indicate. Rather, it means the angels, the Prophets, the martyrs and the pious persons whom the polytheists of different communities had set up as objects of worship. Apparently the expression wa md ta'budün refers to idols because in Arabic ma is generally used for non-rational beings whereas the word man is used for those who possess the faculty of reasoning. Since the comparison here is between choosing Allah or His creatures as deities, mã has been used instead of man because even the angels and the most pious, notwithstanding their worldly rank and status, obviously amount to nothing when compared with God.

25. We encounter this theme on numerous occasions in the Qur’an.

For example, it is said in Surah Saba': "On the Day when He will gather them all together and say to the angels: "Did these people worship you?" They will say: 'Glory be to You! You are our Protector not they; they in fact worshipped the jinns (i.e.. Satan]. Most of them believed in them" (34:40-1). Likewise, it is said in Surah al-Ma'idah: "And imagine when thereafter Allah will say. 'Jesus, son of Mary, did you say to people: "Take me and my mother for gods beside Allah?" and he will answer: "Glory to You! It was not for me to say what I had no right to, I said to them nothing except what You commanded me, that is: "Serve Allah, my Lord and your Lord" (5:115-17).

26. They were an ungrateful and mean people. God gave them the provisions necessary for life so that they would show gratitude to Him, but they became thankless and ignored all the good counsels given to them by the Prophets.

27. On the Day of Resurrection, the religion of the unbelievers will prove to be false. Their deities whom they are sure will intercede with God on their behalf will not do so; in fact, they will bear witness against them. These deities will seek their own acquittal and contend that the unbelievers themselves were responsible for their own errors. They will contend that they neither asked anyone to consider them as deities, nor required offerings to be made to them, nor had they promised anyone that they would intercede with God their behalf. Contrary to their fancies, the unbelievers have no assurance from any angel or saint in this world and they will not be able to produce any such promise on the Day of Resurrection. Rather, the deities they themselves have set up will deny such beliefs in the unbelievers' very own presence.

28. "Wrong" here means the wrong done to Reality and Truth - that is, the wrongfulness of disbelief and of associating others with God in His Divinity.

The context shows that it is those who did not believe in the Prophet (peace be on him) and took as their gods others than the One True God, and who denied the Hereafter that are declared to be guilty of committing a grave wrong.

29. This is a rejoinder to the objection made by the unbelievers of Makka who would ask what kind of Prophet is this who eats and walks about in the bazaars?

It may be recalled that the Makkan unbelievers not only knew about Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Moses and several other Prophets, but they also believed in their Prophet hood. Hence, why they are here being asked to explain why they object to Muhammad (peace be on him) on the grounds that he ate and walked about in the bazaars. For according to the Gospels, even Jesus whom the Christians had taken as the son of God (and whose image the Makkan unbelievers had placed in the Ka'bah), ate like any other mortal as also walked about the bazaars. (See Bible, Mark 2:15-17).

30. The Messenger and the believers are a means by which to test the unbelievers, and vice versa. The unbelievers persecuted the believers relentlessly, but in the end this stance only served to further the cause of Islam. For after the believers had successfully passed through the crucible of persecution, the Prophet (peace be on him) and his sincere followers would have been transmuted into pure, solid gold. As for those of his followers whose Faith had any element of insincerity, they would fail the test of adversity. In this way, only those who were sincere in their Faith, would remain with the Prophet (peace be on him). They would, thus, become a force against whom no power could stand its ground. It is evident that but for the fierce persecution to which the Prophet (peace be on him) and his followers were exposed, all kinds of people might have gathered around him. In such an eventuality, the community of Muslims would not have become as strong and powerful as it did.

On the other hand, the Prophet (peace be on him) and the believers also served as a test for the unbelievers. As we know, the Prophet (peace be on him) was, in the material sense of the term, an ordinary person among them who had suddenly been elevated to the rank of Prophet. This combined with the fact that the Prophet (peace be on him) was not backed by either a powerful army or abundant wealth or for that matter by any other extraordinary thing except the Word of God and his own noble character, was also significant. Likewise, was the fact that most of those who believed in the Prophet (peace be on him) during the early years of his mission were either poor, slaves, or people of tender age. These were the people whom God seemed virtually to have left without any mentionable support in the midst of a pack of wolves. Had the Prophet (peace be on him) been endowed with worldly power and glory, or had his followers easy access to abundant wealth, the rich and mighty of the world would have rushed to join hands with this powerful potentate and those sincere devotees of Truth would have been pushed behind the scenes.

31. Once the underlying wisdom behind making the unbelievers a test for the believers and vice versa is grasped, the believers should be patient and appreciate that the hardships to which they are exposed are a very useful way of achieving the lofty purpose for which they are working. They would then be ready to face tests of even greater magnitude.

32. This carries two meanings, and perhaps both are meant. First, that whatever God does, He does according to a considered plan rather than arbitrarily. Second, that God is well aware of the believers' sincerity and devotion in pursuing the difficult and arduous mission of Islam. God is also aware of the excesses to which the believers are subjected. The overall hostility characterizing the attitude of the unbelievers towards them is also fully in God's knowledge. Hence the believers should feel assured that they will receive full recognition and appreciation from God, whereas the unbelievers will not be able to escape punishment for their excesses