074
Muhammad Asad
AL-MUDDATHTHIR (THE ENFOLDED ONE)
THE SEVENTY-FOURTH
SURAH
Total Verses: 56
Introduction
AFTER the Prophet's
earliest revelation - consisting of the first five verses of surah 96 ("The Germ-Cell") - a
period elapsed during which he received no revelation at all. The length of
this break in revelation (fatrat al-wahy) cannot be established with certainty; it may have
been as little as six months or as much as three years. It was a time of
deepest distress for the Prophet: the absence of revelation almost led him to
believe that his earlier experience in the cave of Mount Hira
(see introductory note to surah 96) was
an illusion; and it was only due to the moral support of his wife Khadijah and her undaunted faith in his prophetic mission
that he did not entirely lose his courage and hope. At the end of this
intermission the Prophet had a vision of the Angel Gabriel, "sitting
between heaven and earth". Almost immediately afterwards, the present surah was revealed; and from then on, in
Muhammad's own words, "revelation became intense and continuous" (Bukhari, Bad' al-Wahy and Kitab at-Tafsir; also
Muslim). Although some verses of this surah
may have been revealed at a slightly later time, there is no doubt that all
of it belongs to the earliest part of the
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE:
(1) O THOU [in thy solitude] enfolded!
1
(2) Arise and warn!
(3) And thy Sustainer's greatness
glorify!
(4) And thine
inner self purify! 2
(5) And all defilement shun!
(6) And do not through giving seek
thyself to gain, 3
(7) but unto
thy Sustainer turn in patience.
(8) And [warn all men that] when the
trumpet-call [of resurrection] is sounded,
(9) that very
Day shall be a day of anguish,
(10) not of
ease, for all who [now] deny the truth! 4
(11) LEAVE Me
alone [to deal] with him whom I have created alone, 5
(12) and to
whom I have granted resources vast,
(13) and children as [love's] witnesses,
(14) and to
whose life I gave so wide a scope: 6
(15) and yet,
he greedily desires that I give yet more!
(16) Nay, verily, it is against Our messages that he knowingly, stubbornly sets himself
7
(17) [and so] I
shall constrain him to endure a painful uphill climb! 8
(18) Behold, [when Our
messages are conveyed to one who is bent on denying the truth,] he reflects and
meditates [as to how to disprove them] –
(19) and thus
he destroys himself, 9 the way he meditates:
(20) yea, he
destroys himself, the way he meditates!
(21) and then
he looks [around for new arguments],
(22) and then
he frowns and glares, 10
(23) and in the
end he turns his back [on Our message], and glories in his arrogance, 11
(24) and says,
"All this is mere spellbinding eloquence handed down [from olden times]!
12
(25) This is nothing but the word of
mortal man!"
(26) [Hence,] I shall cause him to
endure hell-fire [in the life to come]! 13
(27) And what could make thee conceive
what hell-fire is?
(28) It does not allow to live, and
neither leaves [to die],
(29) making
[all truth] visible to mortal man. 14
(30) Over it are nineteen [powers].
15
(31) For We have caused none but angelic
powers to lord over the fire [of hell]; 16 and
We have not caused their number to be aught but a trial for those who are bent
on denying the truth 17 - to the end that they who have been granted revelation
aforetime might be convinced [of the truth of this divine writ]; 18 and
that they who have attained to faith [in it] might grow yet more firm in their
faith; and that [both] they who have been granted the earlier revelation and
they who believe [in this one] might be freed of all doubt; and that they in
whose hearts is disease 19 and the who deny the truth outright might ask, "What
does [your] God mean by this parable?" 20 In
this way God lets go astray him that wills [to go astray], and guides aright
him that wills [to be guided]. 21 And none can comprehend thy Sustainers forces save Him
alone: and all this 22 is but a reminder to mortal man.
(32) NAY, but consider the moon! 23
(33) Consider the night when it departs,
(34) and the morn when it dawns!
(35) Verily, that [hell-fire) is Indeed
one of the great [forewarnings] –
(36) a warning
to mortal man –
(37) to
everyone of you, whether he chooses to come forward or to hang back! 24
(38) [On the Day of Judgment,] every
human being will be held in pledge for whatever [evil] he has wrought –
(39) save those
who shall have attained to righteousness: 25
(40) [dwelling]
In gardens [of paradise], they will inquire
(41) of those
who were lost in sin:
(42) "What has brought you into
hell-fire?"
(43) They will answer: "We were not
among those who prayed; 26
(44) and
neither did we feed the needy;
(45) and we
were wont to indulge in sinning together with all [the others] who indulged in
it;
(46) and the
Day of Judgment we were wont to call a lie –
(47) until certainty came upon us [in
death]."
(48) And so, of no benefit to them could
be the intercession of any that would intercede for them. 27
(49) WHAT, THEN, is amiss with them
28
that they turn away from all admonition
(50) as though they were terrified asses
(51) fleeing
from a lion?
(52) Yea, everyone
of them claims that he [himself] ought to have been given revelations unfolded!
29
(53) Nay, but they do not [believe in
and, hence, do not] fear the life to come.
(54) Nay, verily, this is an admonition
–
(55) and
whoever wills may take it to heart.
(56) But they [who do not believe in the
life to come] will not take it to heart unless God so wills: 30
[for] He is the Fount of all God-consciousness, and the Fount of all
forgiveness.
1 The
expression muddaththir (an abbreviated
form of mutadaththir) signifies
"one who is covered [with something]" or "enfolded [in
something]"; and all philologists point out that the verb dathara, from which the above participial
noun is derived, may equally well have a concrete or abstract connotation. Most
of the commentators understand the phrase "O thou enfolded one" in
its literal, concrete sense, and assume that it refers to the Prophet’s habit
of covering himself with a cloak or blanket when he felt that a revelation was
about to begin. Razi, however, notes that this
apostrophe may well have been used metaphorically, as an allusion to Muhammad's
intense desire for solitude before the beginning of his prophetic mission (cf.
introductory note to surah 96): and
this, according to Razi, would explain his being thus
addressed in connection with the subsequent call, "Arise and warn" -
i.e., "Give now up thy solitude, and stand up before all the world as a
preacher and warner."
2 Lit., "thy garments (thiyab) purify": but almost all the classical
commentators point out that the noun thawb and
its plural thiyab is often
metonymically applied to that which a garment encloses, i.e., a person's
"body" or, in a wider sense, his "self' or his
"heart", or even his "spiritual state" or
"conduct" (Taj al-Arus).
Thus, commenting on the above verse, Zamakhshari
draws the reader's attention to the well-known idiomatic phrases tahir ath-thiyab (lit.,
"one who is clean in his garments") and danis
ath-thiyab ("one who is filthy in his
garments"), and stresses their tropical significance of "free from
faults and vices" and "vicious and perfidious", respectively. Razi states with approval that "according to most of
the [earlier] commentators, the meaning [of this verse] is, 'purify thy heart
of all that is blameworthy' ".
3 Lit., "and do not bestow favours to obtain increase".
4 Since this is the earliest Qur'anic occurrence of the expression kafir
(the above surah having been
preceded only by the first five verses of surah
96), its use here - and, by implication, in the whole of the Qur'an - is obviously determined by the meaning which it
had in the speech of the Arabs before the advent of the Prophet
Muhammad: in other words, the term kafir cannot
be simply equated, as many Muslim theologians of post-classical times and
practically all Western translators of the Qur'an
have done, with "unbeliever" or "infidel" in the specific,
restricted sense of one who rejects the system of doctrine and law promulgated
in the Qur'an and amplified by the teachings of the
Prophet - but must have a wider, more general meaning. This meaning is easily
grasped when we bear in mind that the root verb of the participial noun kafir (and of the infinitive noun kufr) is kafara,
"he [or "it"] covered [a thing]": thus, in 57:20 the
tiller of the soil is called (without any pejorative implication) kafir, "one who covers", i.e., the
sown seed with earth, just as the night is spoken of as having "covered"
(kafara) the earth with darkness. In their
abstract sense, both the verb and the nouns derived from it have a connotation
of "concealing" something that exists or "denying"
something that is true. Hence, in the usage of the Qur'an
- with the exception of the one instance ((in 57:20) where this participial noun
signifies a "tiller of the soil" - a kafir
is "one who denies [or "refuses to acknowledge"] the
truth" in the widest, spiritual sense of this latter term: that is,
irrespective of whether it relates to a cognition of the supreme truth -
namely, the existence of God - or to a doctrine or ordinance enunciated in the
divine writ, or to a self-evident moral proposition, or to an acknowledgment
of, and therefore gratitude for, favours received.
(Regarding the expression alladhinakafaru, implying
conscious intent, see surah 2, note 6.)
5 Or: "…whom I alone have
created". The above sentence can be understood in either of these two
senses, depending on whether one relates the expression "alone" (wahid) to God - thus stressing His uniqueness as
Creator - or to this particular object of His creation, man, who begins and
ends his life in a state of utter loneliness (cf. 6:94 and 19:80 and 95). In
either case, our attention is drawn to the fact of man's inescapable dependence
on God. Beyond that, the phrase in question carries a further meaning, namely,
"Leave it to Me alone to decide what to do with him who forgets that I am
his Creator and Sustainer" - thus forbidding any human punishment
of "those who deny the truth".
6 Lit., "for whom I have
spread [all] out in a [wide] spread" - i.e., "whom I have endowed
with potentialities far beyond those open to other living beings".
7 Lit., "he is wont (kana)
to set himself". The noun anid, derived
from the verb anada, denotes "one
who opposes or rejects something that is true, knowing it to be
true" (Lisan al-Arab). The element of
human contrariness and stubbornness is implied in the use of the auxiliary verb
kana, which indicates here a permanently recurring phenomenon despite
its past-tense formulation. I am, therefore of the opinion that verses 18-25,
although ostensibly formulated in the past tense, must also be rendered in the
present tense.
8 In combination with the verb urhiquhu ("I shall constrain him to
endure"') the term sa’ud (lit.,
"ascent" or "climb"') has the tropical connotation of
something extremely difficult, painful or distressing. In the above context, it
is an allusion to the loss of all instinctive innocence - and, hence, to the
individual and social suffering - which unavoidably follows upon man's wilful neglect of moral and spiritual truths ("God's
messages") in this world, and bars his spiritual development in the life
to come.
9 The expression qutila reads, literally, "he has been
killed" or, as an imprecation, "may he be killed". Since a
literal rendering of this expression - whether conceived as a statement of fact
or an imprecation - would be meaningless here, many commentators (Tabari among them) understand it as signifying "he is
rejected from God's grace" (lu’ina), i.e.,
"killed" spiritually by his own action or attitude; hence my
rendering, "he destroys himself".
10 I.e., he becomes emotionally
involved because he suspects in his heart that his arguments are weak (Razi).
11 See 96:6-7.
12 The term sihr,
which usually denotes "sorcery" or "magic", primarily
signifies "the turning of something from its proper [or
"natural"] state of being into another state"; hence, it is
often applied to the fascination or enchantment caused by exceptional,
"spellbinding" eloquence (Taj al-Arus). In its pejorative sense - as used by
deniers of the truth to describe a divine message - it has also the connotation
of wilful deception" or
"delusion".
13 This is unquestionably the
earliest instance of the term saqar ("hell-fire"'),
one of the seven metaphorical names given in the Qur'an
to the concept of the suffering in the hereafter which man brings upon himself
by sinning and deliberately remaining blind and deaf, in this world, to
spiritual truths (cf. surah 15, note
33). The allegorical character of this and all other Qur'anic
descriptions of man's condition and destiny in the hereafter is clearly alluded
to in the subsequent verse as well as in verses 28 ff.
14 Most of the commentators
interpret the above elliptic phrase in the sense of "changing the
appearance of man" or "scorching the skin of man". The rendering
adopted by me, on the other hand, is based on the primary significance of the
verb laaa - "it appeared",
"it shone forth" or "it became visible". Hence, the primary
meaning of the intensive participial noun lawwah
is "that which makes [something] visible". In the above context,
it relates to the sinner's belated cognition of the truth, as well as to his
distressing insight into his own nature, his past failings and deliberate
wrongdoings, and the realization of his own responsibility for the suffering
that is now in store for him: a state neither of life nor of death (cf.
87:12-13).
15 Whereas most of the classical
commentators are of the opinion that the "nineteen"' are the angels that
act as keepers or guardians of hell, Razi advances
the view that we may have here a reference to the physical, intellectual and
emotional powers within man himself: powers which raise man potentially
far above any other creature, but which, if used wrongly, bring about a
deterioration of his whole personality and, hence, intense suffering in the
life to come. According to Razi, the philosophers (arbab al-hikmah) identify
these powers or faculties with, firstly, the seven organic functions of the
animal - and therefore also human - body (gravitation, cohesion, repulsion of
noxious foreign matter, absorption of beneficent external matter, assimilation
of nutrients, growth, and reproduction); secondly, the five
"external" or physical senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell and
taste); thirdly, the five "internal" or intellectual senses., defined
by Ibn Sina - on whom Razi apparently relies - as (1) perception of isolated
sense-images, (2) conscious apperception of ideas, (3) memory of sense-images,
(4) memory of conscious apperceptions, and (5) the ability to correlate
sense-images and higher apperceptions; and, lastly, the emotions of desire or
aversion (resp. fear or anger), which have their
roots in both the "external" and "internal"
sense-categories - thus bringing the total of the powers and faculties which
preside over man's spiritual fate to nineteen. In their aggregate, it is these
powers that confer upon man the ability to think conceptually, and place
him, in this respect, even above the angels (cf.
16 Since it is by virtue of his
powers of conscious perception and conceptual thinking that man can arrive at a
discriminating cognition of good and evil and, thus, rise to great spiritual
heights, these powers are described here as "angelic" (lit.,
"angels" - this being the earliest occurrence of the term malak in the history of Qur'anic
revelation). On the other hand, since a neglect or a deliberately wrong use of
these angelic powers is at the root of all sinning on the part of man and,
therefore, of his suffering in the hereafter, they are spoken of as "the
lords (ashab) of the fire [of hell]",
which complements the expression "over it"' in the preceding verse.
17 This is apparently an allusion
to the allegorical character of this passage, which "those who are bent on
denying the truth" are unwilling to recognize as such and, hence, fail to
grasp its real purport. By speculating on the reasons which allegedly induced
Muhammad - whom they regard as the "author" of the Qur'an - to lay ~tress on one particular number, they tend
to take the allegory in a literal sense, thus missing its point entirely.
18 Namely, by being enabled,
through an understanding of the above allegory, to appreciate the rational
approach of the Qur'an to all questions of faith. The
reference to "those who have been granted revelation aforetime is the
earliest statement outlining the principle of continuity in mankind’s religious
experience.
19 I.e., in this instance, the half-hearted ones who, despite their
ability to discern between right and wrong, incline towards unbelief.
20 Cf. the identical phrase in
21 Or: "God lets go astray
whomever He wills, and guides aright whomever He wills" (see surah 14, note 4). The stress on the
allegorical nature of the above passage, spoken of as a "parable" (mathal), has here the same purpose as in 2:26- namely,
to prevent the followers of the Qur'an from attaching
a literal meaning to its eschatological descriptions - a purpose that is
unmistakably expressed in the concluding sentence of this passage: "All
this is but a reminder to mortal man". (See also next note.)
22 Lit., "it" or
"these" - depending on whether the personal pronoun hiya is taken to denote a singular - in which
case it would refer to the feminine noun saqar,
"hell-fire" (Tabari, Zamakhshari, Baghawi, Ibn Kathir) - or a plural,
referring to what Razi pinpoints as "those [Qur'anic] verses dealing with these allegories (hadhihi 'l-mutashabihat)": hence
my compromise rendering "all this".
23 This is the earliest Qur'anic instance of the adjurative
particle wa used in the sense of a
solemn, oathlike assertion - a calling to witness, as
it were - meant (as in the expression "by God!") to give weight to a
subsequently stated truth or evidence of the truth: hence, I am rendering it
here and elsewhere as "consider". In the present case, the truth thus
to be stressed is the implied statement that just as the changing phases of the
moon and the alternation of night and day are the outcome of God-given, natural
laws, so, too, a sinner's suffering in the hereafter is but a natural
outcome of his deliberate wrongdoing in this world. (See also note 7 on
2:7.)
24 Lit., "any of you who
chooses. . .", etc.- i.e., irrespective of
whether one has chosen to follow or to disregard the divine call: implying that
even true believers may stumble into sinning, and hence need to be warned.
25 Lit., "those [or "the people"] on the right
hand" (ashab al-yamin),
an expression based on the tropical significance of yamin
as "righteous" or "righteousness" and consequently,
"blessedness". The above is probably the oldest Qur'anic incidence of this expression, which evidently
comprises all those whose conduct in life will have
earned them God’s forgiveness of whatever sins they may have committed.
26 In view of the fact that at the
time of the revelation of this very early surah
the canonical prayer (salah) had not yet
been made obligatory on the followers of the Qur'an,
it is reasonable to assume that in the above context this term is used in its
widest sense, namely, conscious belief in God.
27 Lit., "the intercession of
intercessors" - implying that there would be none
to intercede for them with God. As regards the much-misunderstood Islamic
concept of "intercession", see 10:3 - "there is none that could
intercede with Him unless He grants His leave therefor"
- and the corresponding note 7.
28 I.e., with so many people who
refuse to listen to the truth.
29 Lit., "everyone
of them wants to be given wide-open scriptures", or "scriptures
unfolded" (i.e., open to everyone's understanding): cf. 2:118 - "Why
does not God speak unto us, nor is a message conveyed to us?" - i.e., directly, without the intervention of a prophet. The
above is the earliest illustration of the "arrogance" or "false
pride" to which the Qur'an so often refers.
30 Namely, unless He bestows His
grace on them by making their minds and hearts receptive to the truth, so that
they are compelled - from within themselves, as it were - to make the right
choice. (See also note 11 on 81:28-29, as well as note 4 on 14:4.)