070
The Message of the Quran
Muhammad Asad
AL-MA’ARIJ (THE WAYS OF ASCENT)
THE SEVENTIETH
SURAH
Total Verses: 44
Introduction
THUS CALLED after the word al-ma'arij appearing in
verse 3, this surah belongs to the middle of the
IN THE NAME OF
GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE:
(1) ONE who is minded to ask might ask
1
about the suffering which [in the hereafter] is bound to befall
(2) those who deny the truth. 2
[Know, then, that] nothing can ward it off,
(3) [since it will come] from God, unto
whom there are many ways of ascent: 3
(4) all the angels and all the
inspiration [ever granted to man] ascend unto Him 4
[daily,] in a day the length whereof is [like] fifty thousand years… 5
(5) Therefore, [O believer,] endure all
adversity with goodly patience:
(6) behold, men 6 look
upon that [reckoning] as something far away –
(7) but, We see it as near!
(8) [It will take place] on a Day when
the sky will be like molten lead,
(9) and the mountains will be like tufts
of wool,
(10) and [when] no friend will ask about
his friend,
(11) though they may be in one another's
sight: [for,] everyone who was lost in sin will on that Day but desire to
ransom himself from suffering at the price of his own children,
(12) and of his spouse, and of his
brother,
(13) and of all the kinsfolk who ever
sheltered him,
(14) and of whoever [else] lives on
earth, all of them - so that he could but save himself.
(15) But nay! Verily, all [that awaits
him] is a raging flame,
(16) tearing away his skin!
(17) It will claim all such as turn their
backs [on what is right], and turn away [from the truth],
(18) and amass [wealth] and thereupon
withhold [it from their fellow-men].
(19) VERILY, man is born with a restless
disposition. 7
(20) [As a rule,] whenever misfortune
touches him, he is filled with self-pity; 8
(21) and whenever good fortune comes to
him, he selfishly withholds it [from others].
(22) Not so, however, those who
consciously turn towards God in prayer. 9
(23) [and] who incessantly persevere in
their prayer
(24) and in whose possessions there is a
due share, acknowledged [by them],
(25) for such as ask [for help] and such
as are deprived [of what is good in life]; 10
(26) and who accept as true the [coming
of the] Day of Judgment;
(27) and who stand in dread of their
Sustainer's chastisement –
(28) for, behold, of their Sustainer's
chastisement none may ever feel [wholly] secure; 11
(29) and who are mindful of their
chastity, 12
(30) [not giving way to their desires]
with any but their spouses - that is, those whom they rightfully possess
[through wedlock] - : 13 for then, behold, they are free of all blame,
(31) whereas such as seek to go beyond
that [limit] are truly transgressors;
(32) and who are faithful to their
trusts and to their pledges:
(33) and who stand firm whenever they
bear witness;
(34) and who guard their prayers [from
all worldly intent].
(35) These it is who in the gardens [of
paradise] shall be honoured!
(36) WHAT, THEN, is amiss with such as
are bent on denying the truth, that they run about confusedly to and fro before
thee,
(37) [coming upon thee] from the right
and from the left, in crowds? 14
(38) Does every one of them hope to
enter [by this means] a garden of bliss? 15
(39) Never! For, behold, We have created
them out of something that they know [only too well]! 16
(40) But nay! I call to witness [Our
being] the Sustainer of all the points of sunrise and sunset: 17
verily, well able are We
(41) to replace them with [people]
better than they are; for there is nothing to prevent Us [from doing what We
will]. 18
(42) Hence, leave them to indulge in
idle talk and play [with words] 19 until they face that [Judgment] Day of theirs which they
have been promised –
(43) the Day when they shall come forth
in haste from their graves, as if racing towards a goal-post,
(44) with downcast eyes, with ignominy
overwhelming them: that Day which they were promised again and… 20
1 Lit.," An inquirer
inquired" or "might inquire".
2 In view of the fact that many of
"those who deny the truth" - and, by implication, do evil in
consequence of that deliberate denial - prosper in this world, a doubter might
well ask whether or when this state of affairs will really be reversed and the
values adjusted in accord with divine justice. An answer to the
"whether" is given in the second paragraph of verse 2; and to the
"when", elliptically, at the end of verse 4.
3 Lit., "He of the [many]
ascents": a metonymical phrase implying that there are many ways by which
man can "ascend" to a comprehension of God's existence, 'and thus to
spiritual "nearness" to Him - and that, therefore, it is up to each
human being to avail himself of any of the ways leading towards Him (cf. 76:3).
4 For my rendering of ruh as
"inspiration", see surah 16, note 2. The "ascent" of
the angels and of all inspiration may be understood in the same sense as the
frequently-occurring phrase "all things go back to God [as their
source]" (Razi).
5 The very concept of
"time" is meaningless in relation to God, who is timeless and
infinite: cf. note 63 on the last sentence of 22:47 - "in thy Sustainer's
sight a day is like a thousand years of your reckoning": in other words, a
day, or an aeon, or a thousand years, or fifty thousand years are alike to Him,
having an apparent reality only within the created world and none with
the Creator. And since in the hereafter time will cease to have a meaning for
man as well, it is irrelevant to ask as to "when" the evildoers will
be chastised and the righteous given their due.
6 Lit., "they".
7 Lit., "man has been created
restless (halu’an)" -that is, endowed with an inner
restlessness which may equally well drive him to fruitful achievement or
to chronic discontent and frustration. In other words, it is the
manner in which man utilizes this God-will endowment that determines whether it
shall have a positive or a negative character. The subsequent two verses (20
and 21) allude to the latter, while verses 22-25 show that only true spiritual
and moral consciousness can mould that inborn restlessness into a positive
force, and thus bring about inner stability and abiding contentment.
8 The participle jazu -
derived from the verb jazi’a - combines the concepts of "lacking
patience" and "lamenting over one's misfortune", and is
therefore the contrary of sabr (Jawhari).
9 This, I believe, is the meaning
of the expression al-musallin (lit., "the praying
ones"), which evidently does not relate here to the mere ritual of
prayer but, rather, as the next verse shows, to the attitude of mind and the
spiritual need underlying it. In this sense it connects with the statement in
verse 19 that "man is born with a restless disposition" which,
when rightly used, leads him towards conscious spiritual growth, as well as to
freedom from all self-pity and selfishness.
10 Sc., "but do not or cannot
beg": see Razi's comments on a similar phrase in 51:19, quoted in my
corresponding note 12.
11 This warning against pharisaic
self-righteousness implies that however "good" a person may be, there
is always a possibility of his or her having done a moral wrong (e.g., an
injury to a fellow-being) and then conveniently "forgotten" this sin.
Elliptically, this warning contains a call to increasing consciousness in
all one's doings - for, "temptation to evil (fitnah) does not
befall only those who are bent on denying the truth" (8:25), but may also
befall people who are otherwise righteous.
12 Lit., "who guard their
private parts". l3 See the identical passage in 23:5-7, as well as the
corresponding note 3, in which I have fully explained the reasons for my
rendering of the phrase aw ma malakat aymanuhum as "that is, those
whom they rightfully possess [through wedlock]". As regards this
interpretation, see al Razi's comments on 4:24, as well as one of the
alternative interpretations of that verse advanced by Tabari on the authority
of lbn Abbas and Mujahid.
14 This, again, connects with the
statement in verse 19, "man is born with a restless disposition (see note
7 above). People who do not want to see the truth of God's existence and
have, therefore, no solid basis on which to build their world-view, are, by the
same token, unable to conceive any definite standards of personal and social
ethics. Hence, whenever they are confronted with anyone's positive assertion of
faith, they "run about to and fro" in spiritual confusion, trying, in
order to justify themselves intellectually, to demolish the premises of that
faith by means of many-sided, contradictory arguments - an endeavour depicted
in the metaphor, "coming upon thee from the right and from the left";
and since they derive all their strength from a conformity with shallow
mass-opinions, they can do this only "in crowds".
15 I.e., "Do they hope to
achieve inner peace and fulfilment by 'disproving' another person’s
faith?"
16 Namely, out of "dust"
- i.e., out of the same primitive organic and inorganic substances as are found
in and on the earth: the implication being that only spiritual consciousness
and endeavour can raise man above the mere material form of his existence, and
thus enable him achieve the inner fulfilment metaphorically described here as
"a garden of bliss".
17 I.e., of all the variation,
throughout the solar year, of the points at which the sun "rises" and
"sets": thus stressing the fact that He is the Ultimate Cause of all
orbital movement in the universe and, hence, its Creator (cf. 37:5 and 55:17).
18 The implication is that it is not
His will to replace "those who are bent on denying the truth", in
this world, by believers, inasmuch as such a "replacement" would not
be in accord with His design of multiform human existence, in which faith is
always challenged and tested by unbelief, and vice versa.
19 I.e., their philosophizing about a
supposedly "uncreated" world and a hypothetical "self-
generation" of life, as well as their blatant "denial",
unsupported by any factual evidence, of a life after death or even of the
existence of God.
20 The concept of "again and again" - i.e., by a succession, through the ages, of prophetic revelations - is implied in the auxiliary verb kanuu, which usually connotes repetition and/or duration.