Read the Quran
- By the winds that scatter the dust,
- and those that bear the burden [of the rain],
- and those speeding along with ease,
- and distributing the command of God at His behest!
- What you are promised is certainly true:
- the Judgement will surely come to pass—
- by the heaven full of tracks,
- surely you are deeply at variance [as to what to believe]—
- he is turned away from [the truth] who is destined to be so turned away.
- May the conjecturers perish,
- who flounder in the depths of ignorance.
- They ask, ‘When will the Day of Judgement come?’
- It will be the Day when they are tormented at the Fire.
- ‘Taste your trial. This is what you sought to hasten.’
- Surely the God-fearing will find themselves in the midst of gardens and springs.
- They shall receive what their Lord will bestow on them. They have done good works in the past,
- sleeping little in the night-time,
- praying at dawn for God’s pardon,
- and sharing their possessions with the beggars and the deprived.
- On the earth, and in yourselves,
- there are signs for firm believers. Do you not see then?
- In heaven is your sustenance, and also that which you are promised.
- By the Lord of the heaven and the earth, it is certainly the truth. It is as true as your ability to speak.
- Have you heard the story of Abraham’s honoured guests?
- When they came to him they said, ‘Peace!’ He answered, ‘Peace!’ [saying to himself]. ‘They are strangers.’
- Then he turned quickly to his household, and brought a fatted calf,
- and placed it before them. ‘Will you not eat?’ he said,
- beginning to be afraid of them. But they said, ‘Don’t be afraid’; and they gave him the good news of a son who would be endowed with knowledge.
- Then his wife came forward, crying and beating her brow. She said, ‘I am surely a barren, old woman.’
- ‘Such is the will of your Lord,’ they replied. ‘He is the Wise, the All Knowing.’
- Abraham asked, ‘What is your errand, O messengers?’
- They replied, ‘We have been sent to a sinful people,
- so that we may bring down upon them a shower of stones of clay,
- which are marked by your Lord for the punishment of those guilty of excesses.’
- We saved all the faithful in the town.
- We found in it only one household of true believers—
- and We left therein a sign for those who fear a painful punishment.
- There is another sign in Moses: We sent him to Pharaoh with clear authority.
- But he turned his back, he and his courtiers, and said, ‘This is a sorcerer or a madman.’
- Then We seized him and his army and cast them all into the sea: he himself [Pharaoh] was to blame.
- There is another sign in the [tribe of] ‘Ad, when We sent against them a life-destroying wind
- and it destroyed everything over which it passed and reduced it to dust.
- In the Thamud [there was another sign], when they were told, ‘Make the most of your lives for a while.’
- But they rebelled against the command of their Lord. So the thunderbolt overtook them while they looked on:
- they could not stand up again, nor could they defend themselves.
- [We destroyed] the people of Noah before them. They were certainly a sinful people.
- We built the universe with Our might, giving it its vast expanse.
- We have spread out the earth—how well We have spread it out—
- and We created pairs of all things so that you might reflect.
- Therefore hasten to God; truly, I am sent by Him to give you clear warning.
- Do not set up another god, along with God. I come from Him to warn you plainly.
- Likewise, there came no messenger to those before them, but they said, ‘He is a sorcerer or a madman.’
- Have they handed this down to one another? They are certainly a people who exceed all bounds,
- so ignore them—you are not to blame—
- but keep on exhorting them, for exhortation benefits the believers.
- I created the jinn and mankind only so that they might worship Me:
- I seek no sustenance from them, nor do I want them to feed Me—
- it is God who is the great Sustainer, the Mighty One, the Invincible.
- The wrongdoers will meet the same fate as their predecessors—let them not ask Me to hasten on [the punishment]—
- woe, then, to those who are bent on denying the truth, when the Day arrives which they have been promised.
51:1-9
A picture of the natural system of rainfall has been depicted in these verses. First strong winds blow. Then, they make the clouds drift. Thereafter, the clouds shower beneficial rain on one group, while they wreak destruction on another group in the shape of floods.
These events indicate that in this world of God, the Law of the ‘distribution of blessings’ is prevalent. Here some receive less and some more, some are granted boons, while others are deprived of them. This is a hint which shows how, in the world to come after death, human beings are going to fare. There, this principle of the ‘distribution of blessings’ will be applicable in a perfect manner, with perfect justice; everybody will receive only that to which he is entitled and will receive nothing that he did not deserve.
There are countless stars in the sky. All of them are revolving in their respective orbits. This wonderful system indicates a deep, inherent meaningfulness. Those who exercise their mental powers will find a lesson in it. But for those who do not, it will be a meaningless charade.
51:10-19
To have a clear understanding of things of importance, seriousness and sincerity are essential. Those who are not serious pay no attention to reasons and justifications. So they are unable to understand the matter at hand. They ridicule it and try to show that it is not worthy of serious consideration. It is not possible to convince such people in any way. They will accept the truth only when their wrong approach brings down upon them overwhelming punishment, from which there will be no escape.
Serious people behave quite differently from this, for their seriousness makes them cautious. And they have no trace of arrogance in them. The extreme intensity of their feelings makes them spend sleepless nights: their time is spent in remembering God. They do not consider their wealth the result of their hard work, but take it as a gift from God. That is why they think that others have as much right to a share in it as they themselves.
51:20-23
Almighty God has created this known world in such a manner that it has become the indicator of the coming unknown world. The material incidents taking shape in this world and the feelings latent in man give information, albeit indirectly about the events that will directly confront man after his death. Among these signs is the capacity to speak.
It has been mentioned in a tradition of the Prophet Muhammad, that whatever one receives in the Hereafter will be his own deeds which will be returned to him (‘Indeed, these are your deeds that are returned to you’). In other words, the world of the Hereafter is the double or duplicate of the present world. The capacity of a man to speak is the partial manifestation of this possibility. If a man’s voice is recorded on a tape and if this tape is then played, a voice like the original one may be heard, i.e. the voice of the tape is the double or duplicate of the original. In this way, the phenomenon of voice demonstrates to us on a partial level that event which is going to occur in the Hereafter on a full-scale level.
Literally ‘It is certain like your talking’. It implies that when one’s voice can be reproduced, it should be possible to reproduce one’s existence. Perfect reproduction of a part of a man’s existence may be experienced in this world. It can be imagined from this that reproduction of the whole existence of man is possible.
51:24-30
In these verses that scene has been described in which angels came to Abraham in order to give him the good news of his having children in his old age. Abraham was born in ancient Iraq. For a long time he preached to his people about the Unity of God and the Hereafter. But, except for his wife and nephew, Lot, nobody was ready to accept his word, until he reached old age.
Now, in order to ensure the continuance of his mission, the second alternative was that he should have children who should be properly brought up by him. There is a blood relationship between father and son, which is a powerful factor in keeping a son attached to his father and make him like-minded whatever the conditions.
Almighty God granted Abraham two sons in his old age. One was Isaac (Ishaq), through whom the preaching of the Unity of God continued among the Children of Israel. The second was Ishmael (Isma‘il), through whom a race was brought into being which was to support the Last of the Prophets in fulfilling his historic mission.
51:31-37
At that time Abraham was in Palestine. Nearby, around the Dead Sea there were the townships of Sodom and Gomorrah in which the contemporaries of Lot were settled. In spite of Lot’s preaching for a long time, they were not ready to give up a life vitiated by forgetfulness of God. So, at God’s behest, Lot and his companions departed. Then, the aforesaid angels destroyed the entire community by an earthquake, stormy winds and showers of pebbles.
The community of Lot was destroyed two thousand years ago, but their devastated habitat (south of the Dead Sea) exists even today to teach a lesson to those who have the inclination to learn from events.
51:38-46
The Pharaoh of Egypt called the miracles of Moses magical feats. He interpreted Moses’s firm belief (which indicated the latter’s being on the right path) as madness. This is known as covering up (talbis) and this covering up has always been the way of those people who are not ready to accept the Truth, in spite of its being supported by sound reasoning.
People displaying such arrogance in the face of the Truth never escape God’s scourge. Pharaoh was killed for this reason, and the communities of ‘Ad, Thamud, and Noah were also destroyed for this very reason. They were given some benefit in this world, it being the test period. Beyond this small benefit they were destined not to receive any other.
51:47-51
Literally ‘We are broadening the sky.’ This statement refers perhaps to that characteristic of the universe which has been only recently discovered, i.e. continuous expansion of the universe on all sides after the Big Bang. This expansion is proof of the fact that a Creator has created it, because this expansion means that it was initially in a contracted condition. According to the known laws governing matter, all the parts of the initial cosmic ball were attracted inwards. Then there was an explosion—the Big Bang—after which all matter started moving outwards. In view of this law, their movement towards the outside (or the Big Bang) could not have taken place without some external intervention. And once external intervention has been accepted, acceptance of God necessarily follows.
The system of our world is a highly meaningful one. This proves that the creation of the present world has been brought about with some high purpose. But we see that man has wrecked disorder on the earth. In the meaningful universe, this meaningless development is incongrous and calls for a world which is free of all evils to come into existence.
In the present world provision has already been made for this, i.e. all things in this world come in pairs—in matter, positive and negative particles, in plants male and female and among human beings, men and women. This is the quintessence of the universe: the prevalence of the law of compensating for the shortcomings of any given thing through its pair or complement. This duality is an indication of the possibility of the Hereafter. In other words, the world of Hereafter is the other part which makes up a pair with the present world and this combination makes our world complete.
51:52-55
If a serious man demands reasoning in support of any point at issue, he will concede to it if the argument presented is convincing. But those who are arrogant by nature, are never so persuaded. They will find some fresh excuse to reject the argument. Even if some proposition which cannot be countered is put forward, they will ignore it, saying that it is ‘magic’.
This is the attitude of those who have reached a high status in their community. Their consciousness of being great becomes an impediment to their acceptance of the Truth as asserted by others. If such people reject the call for Truth, the preacher should not be disheartened. He will find supporters among others who are free of any false sense of prestige.
51:56-60
God Himself possesses all kinds of powers. However, He has created the angels to effect the administration of His vast domain. But, the case of human beings is different. Human beings were not created to fulfill any administrative or other need of God. The sole purpose of their creation was their devotion and servitude (‘ibadah) to God. This implies bowing down without any reservation before God completely and dedicating oneself entirely to Him.
The substance of this devotion is deep inner realisation of God (ma‘rifah) (Tafsir ibn Kathir). In other words, it is required of man that God should be a discovery for him. He should recognise God without seeing him. This is essential to ma‘rifah. The shape which the life of a man takes as a result of this ma‘rifah is one of devotion and subservience.
A pail when being filled with water sinks in water the moment it is full. Similarly, when the time given to a man to perform his life’s work is over, he dies immediately. One who reforms himself before the overflowing of the pail may save himself, but one who remains careless and negligent till the last moment faces destruction.
If transgressors are not immediately seized upon, they should not imagine that they have been left free to do as they choose. They go free because it is not God’s way to catch hold of human beings in haste. It is certainly not because God has no plan ever to bring them to book.
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