21. Al-Anbiya, mecca 73
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
اقْتَرَبَ
لِلنَّاسِ
حِسَابُهُمْ
...
21: 1. Closer and closer to mankind comes their Reckoning:
C2662. Every minute sees them nearer to their doom, and yet they are sadly heedless, and even actively turn away from the Message that would save them.
... وَهُمْ فِي غَفْلَةٍ مَّعْرِضُونَ ﴿١﴾
yet they heed not and they turn away.
مَا
يَأْتِيهِم
مِّن
ذِكْرٍ مَّن
رَّبِّهِم
مُّحْدَثٍ
إِلَّا اسْتَمَعُوهُ
وَهُمْ يَلْعَبُونَ
﴿٢﴾
21: 2. Never comes (aught) to them of a renewed Message from their Lord, but they listen to it as in jest --
C2663. In each age, when the Message of Allah is renewed, the very people who should have known better and welcomed the renewal and the sweeping away of human cobwebs, either receive it with amused self-superiority, which later turns to active hostility, or with careless indifference.
لَاهِيَةً
قُلُوبُهُمْ...
21: 3. Their hearts toying as with trifles.
...وَأَسَرُّواْ النَّجْوَى الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُواْ ...
The wrongdoers conceal their private counsels, (saying),
C2664. Allah's Message is free and open, in the full light of day. His enemies plot against it in secrecy, lest their own false motives be exposed. Their jealousy prevents them from accepting a "man like themselves" as a teacher or warner or guide.
... هَلْ هَذَا إِلَّا بَشَرٌ مِّثْلُكُمْ...
"Is this (one) more than a man like yourselves?
...أَفَتَأْتُونَ السِّحْرَ وَأَنتُمْ تُبْصِرُونَ ﴿٣﴾
Will ye go to witchcraft with your eyes open?"
C2665. Literally, "in a state in which you (actually) see (that it is witchcraft)".
When Allah's Messenger is proved to be above them in moral worth, in true insight, in earnestness and power of eloquence, they accuse him of witchcraft, a word which may mean nothing, or perhaps some mysterious deceitful arts.
قَالَ
....
21: 4. Say:
C2666. Notice that in the usual Arabic texts (that is, according to the qira'ah of Hafs) the word qala is here and in 21:112 below, as well as in 23:112, spelt differently from the usual spelling of the word in other places (e.g. in 20:125-126).
Qul is the reading of the Basra Qira'ah, meaning, "Say thou" in the imperative. If we construe "he says", the pronoun refers to "this (one)" in the preceding verse, viz.: the Prophet.
But more than one Commentator understands the meaning in the imperative, and I agree with them. The point is merely one of verbal construction. The meaning is the same in either case.
See n. 2948 to 23:112. (R).
... رَبِّي يَعْلَمُ الْقَوْلَ فِي السَّمَاء وَالأَرْضِ...
"My Lord knoweth (every) word (spoken) in the heavens and the earth:
C2667. Every word, whether whispered in secret (as in 21:3 above) or spoken openly, is known to Allah. Let not the wrong-doers imagine that their secret plots are secret to the Knower of all things.
...وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ ﴿٤﴾
He is the One that heareth and knoweth (all things)."
بَلْ
قَالُواْ
أَضْغَاثُ
أَحْلاَمٍ...
21: 5. "Nay,"
they say, "(these are) medleys of dreams! --
...بَلِ افْتَرَاهُ بَلْ هُوَ شَاعِرٌ...
nay, he forged it! --
nay, he is (but) a poet!
C2668. The charges against Allah's inspired Messenger are heaped up,
"Magic!" says one: that means, "We don't understand it!" Says another, "Oh! but we know! he is a mere dreamer of confused dreams!" If the "dreams" fit in with real things and vital experiences, another will suggest, "Oh yes! why drag in supernatural agencies? he is clever enough to forge it himself!" Or another suggests, "He is a poet! Poets can invent things and say them in beautiful words!" Another interposes, "What we should like to see is miracles, like those we read of in stories of the Prophets of old!"
...فَلْيَأْتِنَا بِآيَةٍ كَمَا أُرْسِلَ الأَوَّلُونَ ﴿٥﴾
Let him then bring us a Sign like the ones that were sent to (prophets) of old!"
Other versions:
21:1
CLOSER DRAWS unto men their reckoning: and yet they remain stubbornly heedless [of its approach]. 1
(21:2) Whenever there comes unto them any new reminder from their Sustainer, they but listen to it with playful amusement, 2
(21:3)
Asad their hearts set on passing delights; yet they who are [thus] bent on wrongdoing conceal their innermost thoughts 3 [when they say to one another], "Is this [Muhammad] anything but a mortal like yourselves? Will you, then, yield to [his] spellbinding eloquence with your eyes open?" 4
Ali Their hearts toying as with trifles. The wrongdoers conceal their private counsels (saying) "Is this (one) more than a man like yourselves? Will ye go to witchcraft with your eyes open?" 2664 2665
21:4
Say: 5 "My Sustainer knows whatever is spoken in heaven and on earth; and He alone is all-
hearing, all-knowing."
[[ Asad’s notes -
1 Lit., "and yet in [their] heedlessness they are obstinate (mu'ridun)".
2 Lit., "while they are playing".
3 See next note.
4 As regards my occasional rendering of sihr (lit., "sorcery" or "magic") as "spellbinding eloquence", see 74:24, where this term occurs for the first time in the chronology of Qur'anic revelation. By rejecting the message of the Qur'an on the specious plea that Muhammad is but a human being endowed with "spellbinding eloquence", the opponents of the Qur'anic doctrine in reality "conceal their innermost thoughts": for, their rejection is due not so much to any pertinent criticism of this doctrine as, rather, to their instinctive, deep- set unwillingness to submit to the moral and spiritual discipline which an acceptance of the Prophet's call would entail.
5 According to the earliest scholars of Medina and Basrah, as well as some of the scholars of Kufah, this word is spelt qui, as an imperative ("Say"), whereas some of the Meccan scholars and the majority of those of Kufah read it as qala ("He [i.e., the Prophet] said"). In the earliest copies of the Qur'an the spelling was apparently confined, in this instance, to the consonants q-1: hence the possibility of reading it either as qui or as qala. However, as Tabari points out, both these readings have the same meaning and are, therefore, equally valid, "for, when God bade Muhammad to say this, he [undoubtedly] said it... Hence, in whichever way this word is read, the reader is correct (musib as-sawab) in his reading." Among the classical commentators, Baghawi and Baydawi explicitly use the spelling qui, while Zamakhshari's short remark that "it has also been read as qala" seems to indicate his own preference for the imperative qui.]]
[[ Ali’s note - 2665 Literally, "in a state in which you (actually) see (that it is witchcraft)". When Allah's Messenger is proved to be above them in moral worth, in true insight, in earnestness and power of eloquence, they accuse him of witchcraft, a word which may mean nothing, or perhaps some mysterious deceitful arts. (21.3) ]]
21:5
"Nay," they say, "[Muhammad propounds] the most involved and confusing of dreams!" 6 -
"Nay, but he has invented [all] this!" - "Nay, but he is [only] a poet!" - [and,] "Let him, then,
come unto us with a miracle, just as those [prophets] of old were sent [with miracles]!"
21:6
Not one of the communities that We destroyed in bygone times 7 would ever believe [their
prophets]: wilt these, then, [be more willing to] believe? 8
21:7
For [even] before thy time, [O Muhammad,] We never sent [as Our apostles] any but [mortal] men, whom We inspired - hence, [tell the deniers of the truth,] "If you do not know this, ask the followers of earlier revelation'" (21:8) and neither did We endow them with bodies that could dispense with food, 10 nor were they immortal.
[[ Asad’s notes -
6 Lit., "confusing medleys (ad, ghath) of dreams".
7 Lit., "before them".
8 The downfall of those communities of old - frequently referred to in the Qur'an - was invariably due to the fact that they had been resolved to ignore all spiritual truths which militated against their own, materialistic concept of life: is it, then (so the Qur'anic argument goes), reasonable to expect that the opponents of the Prophet Muhammad, who are similarly motivated, would be more willing to consider his message on its merits?
9 Lit., "followers of the reminder" - i.e., of the Bible, which in its original, uncorrupted form represented one of God's "reminders" to man.
10 Lit., "neither did We fashion them [i.e., those apostles] as bodies that ate no food", implying a denial of any supernatural quality in the prophets entrusted with God's message (cf 5:75, 13:38 and 25:20, as well as the corresponding notes). The above is an answer to the unbelievers' objection to Muhammad's prophethood expressed inverse 3 of this surah. ]]