40. Sura al Mu’min
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
أَفَلَمْ
يَسِيرُوا
فِي
الْأَرْضِ
فَيَنظُرُوا
كَيْفَ
كَانَ
عَاقِبَةُ
الَّذِينَ
مِن
قَبْلِهِمْ
...
40: 82. Do they not travel through the earth and see what was the end of those before them?
... كَانُوا أَكْثَرَ مِنْهُمْ وَأَشَدَّ قُوَّةً وَآثَارًا فِي الْأَرْضِ...
They were more numerous than these and superior in strength and in the traces (they have left) in the land:
C4458. Cf. 9:69.
For any generation to take inordinate pride in its own single achievements in science or skill becomes ridiculous if we consider the broad stream of history.
- In the first place, men will find that a great deal of what they attribute to their own merits only became possible owing to the earlier work of their predecessors.
- Secondly, many of-their predecessors were more numerous and mightier in power than they, although the perspective of time may have reduced the apparent depth of their influence, and the monuments which they have left behind may have suffered from the destroying hand of Time.
- Thirdly, and most important of all, when they forgot Allah and His inexorable Law, nothing of their own handiwork profited them: they perished in the common ruin as all vanities must perish.
Cf. also 40:21 above, and n. 4387.
See how the recapitulation rounds off the argument.
... فَمَا أَغْنَى عَنْهُم مَّا كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ ﴿٨٢﴾
yet all that they accomplished was of no profit to them.
فَلَمَّا
جَاءتْهُمْ
رُسُلُهُم
بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ
فَرِحُوا
بِمَا
عِندَهُم
مِّنَ
الْعِلْمِ...
40: 83. For when their messengers came to them with Clear Signs, they exulted in such knowledge (and skill) as they had;
C4459. Arrogance and an exaggerated idea of Self were at the bottom of the Evil to which they succumbed.
... وَحَاقَ بِهِم مَّا كَانُوا بِهِ يَسْتَهْزِؤُون ﴿٨٣﴾
but that very (Wrath) at which they were wont to scoff hemmed them in.
C4460. Cf. 16:34.
Nothing could stop Justice of Allah punishing Evil. What they had ridiculed came as an inexorable fact. None of their grandeur or art or science or skill was of any use when they lost their souls!
فَلَمَّا
رَأَوْا
بَأْسَنَا
قَالُوا
آمَنَّا
بِاللَّهِ
وَحْدَهُ...
40: 84. But when they saw Our punishment, they said:
"We believe in Allah -- the One Allah --
... وَكَفَرْنَا بِمَا كُنَّا بِهِ مُشْرِكِينَ ﴿٨٤﴾
and we reject the partners we used to join with Him."
فَلَمْ
يَكُ
يَنفَعُهُمْ
إِيمَانُهُمْ
لَمَّا
رَأَوْا
بَأْسَنَا...
40: 85. But their professing the Faith when they (actually) saw Our Punishment was not going to profit them.
C4461. Again and again were they given chances, and again and again did they reject them. When it was too late, and in fact when it had no meaning, they offered to profess Faith. That was of no use.
Allah does not accept unmeaning things of that kind. He wants to train and purify our will. For their disobedience and rebellion they perished utterly.
... سُنَّتَ اللَّهِ الَّتِي قَدْ خَلَتْ فِي عِبَادِهِ...
(Such has been) Allah's way of dealing with His servants (from the most ancient times).
... وَخَسِرَ هُنَالِكَ الْكَافِرُونَ ﴿٨٥﴾
And even thus did the rejecters of Allah perish (utterly)!
Asad’s Version:
40:82 HAVE THEY, then, never journeyed about the earth and beheld what happened in the end to those [deniers of the truth] who lived before their time? More numerous were they, and greater in power than they are, and in the impact which they left on earth:
but all that they ever achieved was of no avail to them –
(40:83) for when their apostles came to them with all evidence of the truth, they arrogantly exulted in whatever knowledge they [already] possessed: 64 and [so, in the end,] they were overwhelmed by the very thing which they were wont to deride. 65
40:84 And then, when they [clearly] beheld Our punishment, 66 they said: "We have come to believe in the One God, and we have renounced all belief in that to which we were wont to ascribe a share in His divinity!" 67
40:85 But their attaining to faith after they had beheld Our punishment could not possibly benefit them 68 - such being the way of God that has always obtained for His creatures -: and so, then and there, lost were they who had denied the truth. 68
[[Asad’s notes - 64 I.e., they were fully satisfied with their own empirically or speculatively acquired or inherited knowledge; and so, in their arrogant conviction that man is "self-sufficient" and, therefore, not in need of any guidance by a Power beyond the reach of human perception, they rejected whatever ethical and spiritual truths were offered them by the prophets.
65 I.e„ the idea of God's existence and inescapable judgment: see 6:10 and the corresponding note 9.
66 I.e., the God-willed, catastrophic breakdown of their society and civilization in consequence of their persistent rejection of all spiritual values.
67 This evidently includes their past belief in man's supposedly "unlimited possibilities" and the illusory conviction that one day he would achieve "mastery over nature".
68 I.e., firstly, because this belated faith could not unmake a reality which had already come into being, and, secondly, because it could not contribute to their spiritual growth inasmuch as it was not an outcome of free choice but had been, rather, forced on them by the shock of an irreversible calamity.
69 The "way of God" (sunnat Allah) is the Qur'anic term for the totality of natural laws instituted by the Creator: in this case, the law that faith has no spiritual value unless it arises out of a genuine, inner enlightenment.]]