34. Surah Saba

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

وَيَوْمَ يَحْشُرُهُمْ جَمِيعًا ثُمَّ يَقُولُ لِلْمَلَائِكَةِ...

34: 40. One day He will gather them all together, and say to the angels,

C3850. Here we have the case of the worship of angels or supposed Powers of Allah, or supposed beneficent spirits that men turn to instead of worshipping the true God. In fact these are mere names to the false worshippers. It is not the Good that they worship but the Evil, which leads them astray.

... أَهَؤُلَاء إِيَّاكُمْ كَانُوا يَعْبُدُونَ ﴿٤٠﴾

"Was it you that these men used to worship?"

قَالُوا سُبْحَانَكَ أَنتَ وَلِيُّنَا مِن دُونِهِم...

34 : 41. They will say,

"Glory to thee! Our (tie) is with thee -- as Protector -- not with them.

C3851. Wali in Arabic may mean Friend either in the sense of Protector and Benefactor or in the sense of the Beloved.

The tie of benevolence, confidence, and friendship is implied, either active or passive.

The angels first proclaim their dependence on Allah and their need of His protection, and then disclaim any idea of their having protected or encouraged the false worshippers to worship beings other than Allah.

They go further, and suggest that when men pretended to worship angels, they worshipped, not angels, but Jinns.

See next note.

... بَلْ كَانُوا يَعْبُدُونَ الْجِنَّ...

Nay, but they worshipped the Jinns:

C3852. Jinns: see 6:100 and n. 929.

The false worshippers pretended to worship the bright and radiant angels of good, but in reality worshipped the dark and hidden forces of evil,-in the life around them.

They trusted and believed in such forces of evil, although such forces of evil had really no power.

... أَكْثَرُهُم بِهِم مُّؤْمِنُونَ ﴿٤١﴾

most of them believed in them."

Asad’s Version:

(34:40) And [as for those who now deny the truth,] one Day He will gather them all together, and will ask the angels, "Was it you that they were wont to worship?" 50

34:41 They will answer: "Limitless art Thou in Thy glory! Thou [alone] art close unto us, not they! 51 Nay, [when they thought that they were worshipping us,] they were but [blindly] worshipping forces concealed from their senses; most of them believed in them." 52

[[ Asad’s notes - 50 This allegorical "question" - allegorical, because God is omniscient and has no need to "ask" - implies that many of "those who deny the truth" of God's messages delude themselves into believing that they are, nevertheless, worshipping spiritual forces, here comprised in the term "angels".

5 1 Implying that they (the angels) would never have accepted that worship which is due to God alone.

52 In this instance, I believe, the term jinn has its primary meaning of "that which is concealed from [man's] senses" (see Appendix III), thus including all manner of unknown forces, both real and imaginary, believed to be inherent in what we describe as "nature". Hence, the answer of the angels implies that the sinners' alleged worship of them had never been more than a subconscious screen for their fear of the invisible forces of nature and, ultimately, of the yet deeper fear of the Unknown that fear which sooner or later engulfs all who refuse to believe in the existence of God and, hence, cannot see any meaning or purpose in human life. (See also the last sentence of 10:28

and the corresponding note 46.) ]]