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Az-Zumar (Az-Zumur) Section 3 - Qur’an, A Guidance Without Any Crookedness

  • Alike can never be the one whose heart is open to submit to God and who believes and follows the light from God and the one whose heart is hardened against Truth

  • The Qur’an is a guidance without any crookedness

Az-Zumar (Az-Zumur) Verses 22 – 31

أَفَمَن شَرَحَ ٱللَّهُ صَدْرَهُۥ لِلْإِسْلَـٰمِ فَهُوَ عَلَىٰ نُورٍ مِّن رَّبِّهِۦ فَوَيْلٌ لِّلْقَـٰسِيَةِ قُلُوبُهُم مِّن ذِكْرِ ٱللَّهِ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ فِى ضَلَـٰلٍ مُّبِينٍ

What! is he whose breast (heart) God hath opened for Islam then he followeth the Light from God (like unto the hardhearted one)? Nay! Woe unto those whose hearts are hard against the remembrance of God; those are in a clear error. (39:22)1

ٱللَّهُ نَزَّلَ أَحْسَنَ ٱلْحَدِيثِ كِتَـٰبًا مُّتَشَـٰبِهًا مَّثَانِىَ تَقْشَعِرُّ مِنْهُ جُلُودُ ٱلَّذِينَ يَخْشَوْنَ رَبَّهُمْ ثُمَّ تَلِينُ جُلُودُهُمْ وَقُلُوبُهُمْ إِلَىٰ ذِكْرِ ٱللَّهِ ذَٰلِكَ هُدَى ٱللَّهِ يَهْدِى بِهِۦ مَن يَشَآءُ وَمَن يُضْلِلِ ٱللَّهُ فَمَا لَهُۥ مِنْ هَادٍ

God hath sent down the best recital, a Book Consistent2(in its parts) with iteration, at which do shudder the skins of those who fear3their Lord, then get softened their skins and their hearts unto the remembrance of God; This is God’s guidance, guideth He with it whomsoever He willeth; and whomsoever alloweth God to stray, for him there is no guide. (39:23)4

أَفَمَن يَتَّقِى بِوَجْهِهِۦ سُوٓءَ ٱلْعَذَابِ يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَـٰمَةِ وَقِيلَ لِلظَّـٰلِمِينَ ذُوقُوا۟ مَا كُنتُمْ تَكْسِبُونَ

What! is he then who hath to guard himself with his own face against the torment of the chastisement on the Day of Judgment (like unto him who is secure from it)? And it will be said unto the unjust: “Taste ye what ye were earning!” (39:24)

كَذَّبَ ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ فَأَتَىٰهُمُ ٱلْعَذَابُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ

Those before them did belie (the apostles) so came there unto them the chastisement from whence they perceived5not. (39:25)6

فَأَذَاقَهُمُ ٱللَّهُ ٱلْخِزْىَ فِى ٱلْحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا وَلَعَذَابُ ٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ أَكْبَرُ لَوْ كَانُوا۟ يَعْلَمُونَ

Then did God make them taste the disgrace in the life of this world and certainly the chastisement of the hereafter is greater: did they but know. (39:26)7

وَلَقَدْ ضَرَبْنَا لِلنَّاسِ فِى هَـٰذَا ٱلْقُرْءَانِ مِن كُلِّ مَثَلٍ لَّعَلَّهُمْ يَتَذَكَّرُونَ

And indeed have We set forth for the people in this Qur’an examples of every sort that happly they may reflect. (39:27)

قُرْءَانًا عَرَبِيًّا غَيْرَ ذِى عِوَجٍ لَّعَلَّهُمْ يَتَّقُونَ

An Arabic Qur’an without any crookedness, that happly they may guard8themselves (against evil). (39:28)9

ضَرَبَ ٱللَّهُ مَثَلًا رَّجُلًا فِيهِ شُرَكَآءُ مُتَشَـٰكِسُونَ وَرَجُلًا سَلَمًا لِّرَجُلٍ هَلْ يَسْتَوِيَانِ مَثَلًا ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ بَلْ أَكْثَرُهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ

Setteth forth God the examples of the man in (the service of) associates quarrelling with each other, and of a man (devoted) wholly to a (single) man (Master). Can the two (such) ones be alike in condition? (No!) All Praise is God’s; Nay! most of them know not. (39:29)

إِنَّكَ مَيِّتٌ وَإِنَّهُم مَّيِّتُونَ

Verily thou shall (one day) die, and they (too) shall (one day) die. (39:30)

ثُمَّ إِنَّكُمْ يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَـٰمَةِ عِندَ رَبِّكُمْ تَخْتَصِمُونَ

Then verily ye on the Day of Judgment before your Lord will wrangle one with another. (39:31)

Commentary

Verse 22

It is said that this verse was revealed referring to the First Holy Imam Ali Ibn Abi Talib who was endued with the light of Islam and whose personal purity and spiritual excellence and that of the Holy Prophet was one and the same. Besides the Holy Prophet, Ali was the only one who never in his life bowed to any save God. About Ali the Holy Prophet had said: ‘I and Ali are of one and the same Light.’ This being the direct application of the revelation but indirectly and generally it could be applied to the faithful ones whose hearts have been enlightened with the truth. The Holy Prophet was once asked as to what was the sign or symptom of any heart having been lighted with faith? He said “The discordance of the desires for this world which is only a temporary stopping place and the love of the hereafter which is the permanent abode.”

The latter part of the verse refers to Abu-Lahab and his group. Just as every step towards the right direction towards the truth naturally and automatically enlightens one more and more, and takes the individual nearer and nearer to the Divine Light, every step on the opposite side, i.e., towards falsehood, effects the natural retrogression of the spirit and takes the individual farther and farther away from the truth and ultimately at a certain stage of the reversion from the right path the individual spirit automatically gets lost in the utter darkness in which none of his faculties could ever take any right step and the individual strays bewildered. On the other hand, those who proceed towards the truth, their march towards the divine light, gets naturally faster and faster and ultimately the individual gets totally lighted.

The Holy Prophet said: “Seek ye the fulfilment of your needs from the kind-hearted ones of my adherents, for God has endowed them with mercy and seek not any help from the hard-hearted ones for in those hearts has centred the wrath of God. God loves the kind-hearted ones who love others and guide them by preaching goodness to them and God loves not those who are negligent of their duties to Him and spend the nights in vain engagements and playful activities and while away their time in idleness and luxuries.

Verse 23

The Holy Qur’an was revealed in parts on various occasions during the wide span of 23 years. The greatest proof of the Holy Book being the revealed Word of God is in its uniformity in all its parts conforming to each other and constituting a perfect harmonious whole without the least contradiction or inconsistency anywhere in it, though the circumstances necessitating the revelations, were of varying nature and yet all through the vicissitudes, there is found a perfect uniformity. There is not only a mere conformity of its various parts but also another unique feature of some parts verifying the others. The word ‘Mathani’ stands for some parts being repeated when the matter is of special importance which needs to be repeatedly impressed upon the minds of the people viz. the Unity of God and some of God’s attributes, the accountability of man’s life on earth, the Day of Final Judgment, the marvels of the nature around and the Resurrection, the sure reward for goodness and the punishment for evil etc.

The Holy Qur’an was already given to the Holy Prophet. He was created with the knowledge of it.10 He was the First in the creation of the Lord. The Beneficent Lord Himself taught him the Qur’an.11 Apostles of God are sent into the world fully educated and duly conditioned for the purpose of their advent on earth. Jesus claims to have been given to him the Injeel (the Evangel) while he was yet in the cradle.12 The revelation of the Qur’an to the Holy Prophet was gradual, as the Lord deemed it to be delivered to the people in the order suiting the occasions of the demand.13 Even after the arrival of the Holy Prophet on earth, the Holy Qur’an was sent down to him as a whole.14 The present order is the divine arrangement effected by the command of the Holy Prophet himself, directly in his presence. Ignorant of these facts, some people mistake about the present arrangement of the Qur’an and believe in ‘Tahrif’, (i.e., the change in the arrangement).15

As regards God’s guiding whomsoever He pleases and leaving whomsoever He pleases, to stray.16 Said the Holy Prophet if anyone trembles, fearing God’s wrath against his sins, it would shed out his sins, off the individual's account as the dried leaves are dropped away from a tree. And also he said ‘On the Day of Judgment every eye would be terrified and awe-stricken save the eyes which will be happy and rejoicing. (1) which wept for fear of God, (2) which lowered itself, i.e., shut itself against seeing things forbidden by God, (3) which kept awake praying during night.’

Verse 25

Regarding the chastisement coming to the disbelievers and the evil doers from which they would not perceive.17

Verse 27

Matters spiritual, things abstract in nature and the factors of higher wisdom, would be conceived or understood easily by means of parables, metaphors and similitudes which are aptly used in the Holy Qur’an. Figurative language is used not only to teach matters of wisdom and higher knowledge, but also to treasure greater or higher secrets for the minds qualified to own them, with the necessary search for them at any time until the day of judgment.

Verse 29

The impracticability of serving two masters opposed to each other, (i.e., the falsehood of Polytheism) and the harmony, the love and the happiness naturally found in the service of one single master, (i.e., Monotheism), is depicted here.

Verse 30

All men good or bad, even the apostles of God, must die. None is exempt from the bodily death. There is life after death and it is then, and there, that every one good or bad would have to render account of his faith and deeds.

Verse 31

On the Day of Judgment, the disputers about the truth would realise their folly and meet the consequence of it.


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