41 Fussilat (Clearly Spelled Out/Expounded)
Mecca Period 61 [54 ayats]
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
فَإِن
يَصْبِرُوا
فَالنَّارُ
مَثْوًى
لَّهُمْ...
41:24. If, then, they have patience, the Fire will be a Home for them!
C4491. If they have patience: there is sarcasm in the meaning.
"Let them not be impatient: they will soon find a home in the Fire of Hell! If they ask for grace and forgiveness then, it will be too late."
...وَإِن يَسْتَعْتِبُوا فَمَا هُم مِّنَ الْمُعْتَبِينَ ﴿٢٤﴾
And if they beg to be received into favor, into favor will they not (then) be received.
وَقَيَّضْنَا
لَهُمْ
قُرَنَاء
فَزَيَّنُوا
...
41:25. And We have destined for them intimate companions (of like nature),
C4492. Just as the idea of happiness in heaven is expressed, not only by individual satisfaction, but by congenial society, so the idea of Punishment in hell is deepened by the fact that Evil will be made to meet evil: those who made sin fair-seeming in this life will be there to share in the regrets and mutual recriminations which will make life a burden. In fact, in these Ha-Mim verses, the idea of fit companionship for the Good and uncongenial company for the Evil, runs like a thread throughout.
... لَهُم مَّا بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمَا خَلْفَهُمْ...
Who made alluring to them what was before them and behind them;
C4493. They painted in glowing colours the pleasures of sin in the past and the pleasure of sin in the future, thus practicing a double deception, which will now be found out.
...وَحَقَّ عَلَيْهِمُ الْقَوْلُ فِي أُمَمٍ قَدْ خَلَتْ مِن قَبْلِهِم مِّنَ الْجِنِّ وَالْإِنسِ...
and the sentence among the previous generations of Jinns and men, who have passed away, is proved against them;
C4494. Jinns: see n. 929 to 6:100.
All spirits of wickedness and all men who submitted to them, in the past, were under one common sentence; and future generations who embrace evil will also join them. Cf. 6:128.
...إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا خَاسِرِينَ ﴿٢٥﴾
for they are utterly lost.
C4495. The echo here of verse 23 above completes the argument from another point of view.
Asad’s Version:
41:24 And then, [even] if they endure [their lot] in patience, the fire will still be their abode; 22 and if they pray to be allowed to make amends, they will not be allowed to do so: 23
(41:25) for [when they became oblivious of Us,] We assigned to them [their own evil impulses as their] other selves, 24 and these made appear goodly to them whatever lay open before them and whatever was beyond their ken. 25 And so, the sentence (of doom] will have fallen due upon them together with the [other sinful] communities of invisible beings 24 and humans that passed away before their time: verily, they
[all] will indeed be lost!
[[ Asad’s notes - 22 Sc., "unless God wills to reprieve them": see the last paragraph of 6:128 and the corresponding note 1 1 4 ; also the hadith quoted in note 1 on 40 : 1 2 .
23 Lit., "they will not be of those who are allowed to make amends": an allusion to the request of the doomed, on the Day of Judgment, to be granted a "second chance" on earth, and to God's refusal of this request (cf. 6:27-28 and 32:12).
24 Or: "soul-mates" (cf. 4:38). The verb qarana, from which the noun qarm is derived, signifies "he linked" or "intimately associated" or "yoked together [one thing with another]". Cf. 43:36 - "as for anyone who chooses to remain blind to the remembrance of the Most Gracious, to him We assign an [enduring] evil impulse [lit., "a satan"], to become his other self".
25 Lit,, "that which was between their hands and that which was behind them" : i.e., their own
Yuksel’s version:
41:24 If they wait, then the fire will be their destiny, and if they beg to be excused, they will not be excused.
41:25 We assigned to them companions who adorned their present and past actions. Thus, the retribution has been deserved by them the same as previous nations of Jinn and humans; all of them were losers.