38. Sad Page 453 38. Sad بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِیْمِ صٓ Saad وَ الْقُرْاٰنِ By the Quran ذِی full (of) reminder الذِّكْرِؕ full (of) reminder بَلِ Nay الَّذِیْنَ those who كَفَرُوْا disbelieve فِیْ (are) in عِزَّةٍ self-glory وَّ شِقَاقٍ and opposition كَمْ How many اَهْلَكْنَا We destroyed مِنْ before them قَبْلِهِمْ before them مِّنْ of قَرْنٍ a generation فَنَادَوْا then they called out وَّ لَاتَ when there (was) no longer حِیْنَ time مَنَاصٍ (for) escape وَ عَجِبُوْۤا And they wonder اَنْ that جَآءَهُمْ has come to them مُّنْذِرٌ a warner مِّنْهُمْ ؗ from among themselves وَ قَالَ And said الْكٰفِرُوْنَ the disbelievers هٰذَا This سٰحِرٌ (is) a magician كَذَّابٌۖۚ a liar اَجَعَلَ Has he made الْاٰلِهَةَ the gods اِلٰهًا (into) one god وَّاحِدًا ۖۚ (into) one god اِنَّ Indeed هٰذَا this لَشَیْءٌ (is) certainly a thing عُجَابٌ curious وَ انْطَلَقَ And went forth الْمَلَاُ the chiefs مِنْهُمْ among them اَنِ that امْشُوْا Continue وَ اصْبِرُوْا and be patient عَلٰۤی over اٰلِهَتِكُمْ ۖۚ your gods اِنَّ Indeed هٰذَا this لَشَیْءٌ (is) certainly a thing یُّرَادُۖۚ intended مَا Not سَمِعْنَا we heard بِهٰذَا of this فِی in الْمِلَّةِ the religion الْاٰخِرَةِ ۖۚ the last اِنْ Not هٰذَاۤ (is) this اِلَّا but اخْتِلَاقٌۖۚ a fabrication ءَاُنْزِلَ Has been revealed عَلَیْهِ to him الذِّكْرُ the Message مِنْۢ from بَیْنِنَا ؕ among us بَلْ Nay هُمْ They فِیْ (are) in شَكٍّ doubt مِّنْ about ذِكْرِیْ ۚ My Message بَلْ Nay لَّمَّا not یَذُوْقُوْا they have tasted عَذَابِؕ My punishment اَمْ Or عِنْدَهُمْ have they خَزَآىِٕنُ (the) treasures رَحْمَةِ (of the) Mercy رَبِّكَ (of) your Lord الْعَزِیْزِ the All-Mighty الْوَهَّابِۚ the Bestower اَمْ Or لَهُمْ for them مُّلْكُ (is the) dominion السَّمٰوٰتِ (of) the heavens وَ الْاَرْضِ and the earth وَ مَا and whatever بَیْنَهُمَا ۫ (is) between them فَلْیَرْتَقُوْا Then let them ascend فِی by الْاَسْبَابِ the means جُنْدٌ Soldiers مَّا there هُنَالِكَ there مَهْزُوْمٌ (they will be) defeated مِّنَ among الْاَحْزَابِ the companies كَذَّبَتْ Denied قَبْلَهُمْ before them قَوْمُ (the) people نُوْحٍ (of) Nuh وَّ عَادٌ and Aad وَّ فِرْعَوْنُ and Firaun ذُو (the) owner الْاَوْتَادِۙ (of) the stakes وَ ثَمُوْدُ And Thamud وَ قَوْمُ and (the) people لُوْطٍ (of) Lut وَّ اَصْحٰبُ and (the) companions لْـَٔیْكَةِ ؕ (of) the wood اُولٰٓىِٕكَ Those الْاَحْزَابُ (were) the companies اِنْ Not كُلٌّ all (of them) اِلَّا but كَذَّبَ denied الرُّسُلَ the Messengers فَحَقَّ so was just عِقَابِ۠ My penalty
(38:1) Sad,1 and by the Qur'an full of exhortation!2
(38:2) Nay, but the unbelievers are steeped in arrogance and stubborn defiance.3
(38:3) How many a nation did We destroy before them! (When they approached their doom) they cried out (for deliverance), but the time for deliverance was already past.
(38:4) They wondered that a warner had come to them from among themselves,4and the deniers of the Truth said: “This is a sorcerer,5 and a big liar.
(38:5) Has he made the gods one single God? This is truly astounding.”
(38:6) And the elders among them went forth6 saying: “Go ahead and be steadfast in adhering to your deities.7 What is being said is with a design.”8
(38:7) We have not heard this in the religious community close to our time.9 This is nothing but a fabrication.
(38:8) Has this Exhortation been sent down among us only to him, to the exclusion of all others?” Nay, they are in doubt regarding My Exhortation,10 and are saying all this because they have not yet had any taste of My chastisement.
(38:9) Do they possess the treasures of your Lord, the Most Mighty, the Great Bestower?
(38:10) Or do they possess the dominion of the heavens and the earth and of all that is in between them? If so, let them ascend the heights of the realm of causation and see!11
(38:11) This is only a small army out of the several armies that will suffer defeat here.12
(38:12) Before them the people of Noah, Ad, and Pharaoh of the tent-pegs gave the lie (to the Messengers)13
(38:13) and so did Thamud and the people of Lot and the people of Aykah. These were all leagued together.
(38:14) Each of them gave the lie to Messengers and My decree of chastisement came upon them.
1. Like other abbreviated letters that feature in the Qur’an, it is hard to ascertain the exact meaning of the letter Sad that occurs at the surah’s beginning. Nonetheless, the opinion of Ibn ‘Abbas and Dahhak seems plausible that Sad here amounts to affirming the Prophet's truthfulness.
(Baghawi, Ma‘alim al-Tanzil, comments on Sarah Sad 38: 1; see also Ibn ‘Abbas, Tanwir al-Miqyas min Tafsir Ibn ‘Abbas, comments on Surah Sad 38: 1.) Thus, ص here symbolizes the following: Muhammad is truthful in his statement or Muhammad spoke the truth.
2. The Qur’an has been described as dhi al-Dhikr. This admits the following two meanings: (i) That the Qur’an is noble and majestic; and (ii) that the Qur’an is full of exhortation in so far as it reminds man of the forgotten truth, and rouses him to wake from his heedlessness.
3. Were we to accept the meaning of Sad as given by Ibn ‘Abbas and Dahhak, it would mean swearing by the glorious Qur’an, or the Qur’an overflowing with judicious exhortation and good counsel, that it bears testimony that whatever the Prophet (peace be on him) was teaching was true. As for those who are adamant in rejecting it, they are ‘steeped in arrogance and stubborn defiance’.
On the other hand, should the letter Sad be taken as one of those abbreviated letters whose meaning cannot be determined, the opening statement would mean the following: The unbelievers do not reject Islam because it is marred by any flaw or because the Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him) has failed to fully explain it. On the contrary, it is their foolish arrogance and obstinacy that accounts for their unbelief. This is borne out by the Qur’an itself which, being full of exhortation, has left out nothing that is needed to direct people to the truth.
4. This was the height of the Makkan unbelievers’ folly. When a person belonging to their own ethnic group, their nation and their community, one whom they knew perfectly well, was designated by God to warn them and direct them to the truth, they found it quite strange and bizarre.
One simply wonders at their way of looking at things. One would think, on the contrary, that it would have been strange and bizarre if some alien belonging to an altogether different species or a total stranger began asking them to affirm his Prophet hood. In such a scenario, these people would have been justified in branding this as strange. For how could a non-human serve as a guide to human beings when he has no appreciation of their situation, their emotional predilections and natural dispositions? Likewise, if a stranger suddenly appeared in their midst, how could they judge his veracity, how could they determine whether he was trustworthy or not?
5. The unbelievers branded the Prophet (peace be on him) a sorcerer in the sense that he had cast a spell over people so that they blindly followed him, and did so notwithstanding public criticism and social boycott. These believers were so convinced of the truth of their faith that for its sake they did not flinch from forsaking their near and dear ones, and even leaving their hearths and homes. In this respect, they willingly endured all manner of hardship ranging from loss of business to physical torment and ostracisation. (For further details, see al-Anbiya’ 21, n. 5, Towards Understanding the Qur'an, vol. V, pp. 250-2.)
6. The allusion here is to the Quraysh chiefs who left Abu Talib’s assembly on hearing the Prophet's response.
7. Reference is made here to the Prophet’s assertion that if the Makkans were to embrace Islam’s basic creedal statement, ‘There is none worthy of worship other than God’, both Arabs and non-Arabs would follow them.
8. The unbelievers were excessively biased against Islam’s basic message. Hence they suggested that the message ought not to be taken at its face value. Its true purpose, far from being altruistic, w' as simply to establish the Prophet’s hegemony.
9. The Makkan unbelievers contended that neither their own ancestors, nor the Christians and Jews of Arabia and neighboring countries, nor the Magians of Persia, Iraq and eastern Arabia ever preached that man should exclusively devote himself to the One True God as the sole Lord of the ‘universe. Indeed, they found it hard to believe that man should confine his devotion to just one God to the exclusion of those that were held dear by the Supreme God. They drew attention to the rampant idolatry and polytheism in their own land: how men and women zealously invoked a host of gods and goddesses, visiting their shrines, making offerings at altars and addressing their prayers to idols. They visited the so-called sacred precincts expecting that they would be granted children and abundant wherewithal for these idols had the power to help them. Given this, the Prophet’s insistence on uncompromising monotheism sounded as totally outlandish to them. It was beyond them to believe that none of these gods and goddesses had any share in God’s Godhead and that He alone was single-handedly the Lord of His entire realm.
10. In other words, God tells the Makkan unbelievers that they were in fact rejecting Him rather than rejecting the Prophet (peace be on him).
As far as the Prophet (peace be on him) is concerned, they had never entertained any doubt about his veracity and integrity. It is stressed that the skepticism being expressed by the Makkan unbelievers was on account of the ‘Exhortation’ that God had revealed. It is only when the Prophet (peace be on him) began to teach the Book embodying Exhortation that they began to cast aspersions on one whose veracity was once held as absolutely beyond every doubt. The same observation was made in surah al-An‘am 6: 33. (See Towards Understanding the Qur'an, vol. II, 6: 33, n. 21, pp. 226-7.)
11. This is a rejoinder to the Makkan unbelievers’ statement casting doubts about God’s Messenger: ‘Has this Exhortation been sent down among us only to him, to the exclusion of all others?’ In response to this God makes it plain that it is for Him and for none else to choose whomsoever He wants to appoint as His Prophet. Others can only make such decisions if they can scale to the heights of God’s Throne and thereby determine who should and who should not receive the revelation. This point is made at several places in the Qur’an in response to the Quraysh unbelievers’ query: why was Muhammad (peace be on him) rather than one from among the noted chiefs of the Quraysh designated as God’s Prophet? (See Bani Isra’il 17: 100 and al-Zukhruf 43: 31-2 below.)
12. The word ‘here’ in the verse refers to Makkah. It is being said that right in Makkah, where Islam’s opponents delivered such hostile nonsense, they will be worsted and will eat dust. The time is not far off when they will stand as sorry figures before the man whom they dismissed as too humble for Prophetic office.
13, Pharaoh has been called as one of the ‘tent-pegs’. This expression is being used either to denote that Pharaoh’s empire was firmly established .as though its pegs were deeply rooted into the earth, or to denote that he had a very large army and wherever that army was stationed the area became full of tents secured by pegs. It is also possible that the allusion _ here is to the fact that Pharaoh also used to punish those who angered him and did so by having pegs hammered into their bodies. Moreover, it is also possible that the pegs might allude to the pyramids that were deeply rooted in the earth, as are pegs.