28. Al-Qasas, (The Story)
Mecca Period 49
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
وَمَا
أُوتِيتُم مِّن
شَيْءٍ فَمَتَاعُ
الْحَيَاةِ
الدُّنْيَا
وَزِينَتُهَا...
28: 60. The (material) things which ye are given are but the conveniences of this life and the glitter thereof;
C3391. The good things of this life have their uses and serve their convenience. But they are fleeting and their value is infinitely lower than that of Truth and Justice and Spiritual Well-being, the gifts which come as it were from Allah. No wise soul will be absorbed in the one and neglect the other, or will hesitate for a moment if it comes to be a choice between them.
...وَمَا عِندَ اللَّهِ خَيْرٌ وَأَبْقَى...
but that which is with Allah is better and more enduring:
...أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ ﴿٦٠﴾
will ye not then be wise?
أَفَمَن
وَعَدْنَاهُ
وَعْدًا حَسَنًا...
28: 61. Are (these two) alike? --
one to whom We have made a goodly promise, and who is going to reach its (fulfillment),
C3392. The two classes of people are:
1. those who have faith in the goodly promise of Allah to the righteous, and who are doing everything in life to reach the fulfilment of that promise,
i.e., those who believe and work righteousness,
and
2. those who are ungrateful for such good things in this life as Allah has bestowed on them, by worshipping wealth or power or other symbols or idols of their fancy,
i.e., those who reject Faith and lead evil lives, for which they will have to answer in the Hereafter.
The two classes are poles asunder, and their future is described below.
...فَهُوَ لَاقِيهِ كَمَن مَّتَّعْنَاهُ مَتَاعَ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا...
and one to whom we have given the good things of this life,
...ثُمَّ هُوَ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ مِنَ الْمُحْضَرِينَ ﴿٦١﴾
but who, on the Day of Judgment, is to be among those brought up (for punishment)?
وَيَوْمَ
يُنَادِيهِمْ
فَيَقُولُ...
28: 62. That Day Allah will call to them, and say:
...أَيْنَ شُرَكَائِيَ الَّذِينَ كُنتُمْ تَزْعُمُونَ ﴿٦٢﴾
"Where are my 'partners'? -- whom ye imagined (to be such)?"
قَالَ
الَّذِينَ حَقَّ
عَلَيْهِمُ
الْقَوْلُ...
28: 63. Those against whom the charge will be proved, will say:
C3393. This and the next verse are concerned with the examination of those who neglected truth and righteousness and went after the worship of false gods. These were the "partners" they associated with Allah.
In so far as they were embodied in false or wicked leaders, the leaders will disown responsibility for them. 'We ourselves went wrong, and they followed our example, because it suited them: they worshipped, not us, but their own lusts.'
...رَبَّنَا هَؤُلَاء الَّذِينَ أَغْوَيْنَا أَغْوَيْنَاهُمْ كَمَا غَوَيْنَا ...
"Our Lord! these are the ones whom we led astray:
we led them astray, as we were astray ourselves:
...تَبَرَّأْنَا إِلَيْكَ...
we free ourselves (from them) in Thy presence!
...مَا كَانُوا إِيَّانَا يَعْبُدُونَ ﴿٦٣﴾
It was not us they worshipped."
C3394. Cf. 10:28.
False worship often names others, but really it is the worship of Self. The others whom they name will have nothing to do with them when the awful Penalty stands in the sight of both. Then each wrong-doer will have to look to his own case.
The wicked will then realise the gravity of the situation and wish that they had accepted the true guidance of Allah's Messengers.
وَقِيلَ
ادْعُوا شُرَكَاءكُمْ
فَدَعَوْهُمْ
فَلَمْ يَسْتَجِيبُوا
لَهُمْ وَرَأَوُا
الْعَذَابَ...
28: 64. It will be said (to them): "Call upon your 'partners' (for help)":
they will call upon them, but they will not listen to them; and they will see the Penalty (before them);
...لَوْ أَنَّهُمْ كَانُوا يَهْتَدُونَ ﴿٦٤﴾
(how they will wish) 'If only they had been open to guidance!'
وَيَوْمَ
يُنَادِيهِمْ
فَيَقُولُ
مَاذَا أَجَبْتُمُ
الْمُرْسَلِينَ
﴿٦٥﴾
28: 65. That Day (Allah) will call to them, and say: "What was the answer ye gave to the Messengers?"
C3395. Now we come to the examination of those who rejected or persecuted Allah's Messengers on the earth.
It may be the same men as those mentioned in 28:62-64, but this is a different count in the charge.
فَعَمِيَتْ
عَلَيْهِمُ
الْأَنبَاء
يَوْمَئِذٍ
فَهُمْ لَا
يَتَسَاءلُونَ
﴿٦٦﴾
28: 66. Then the (whole) story that day will seem obscure to them (like light to the blind) and they will not be able (even) to question each other.
C3396. In their utter confusion and despair their minds will be blank. The past will seem to them unreal, and the present unintelligible, and they will not even be able to consult each other, as every one's state will be the same.
Asad’s Version:
28:60 And [remember:] whatever you are given [now] is but for the [passing] enjoyment of life in this world, and for its embellishment - whereas that which is with God is [so much] better and more enduring. Will you not, then, use your reason?
(28:61) Is, then, he to whom We have given that goodly promise which he shall see fulfilled [on his resurrection] 62 comparable to one on whom We have bestowed [all] the enjoyments of this worldly life but who, on Resurrection Day, will find himself among those that shall be arraigned [before Us]? 63
28:62 For, on that Day He will call unto them, and will ask: "Where, now, are those [beings or powers] whom you imagined to have a share in My divinity?" 64
(28:63) [whereupon] they against whom the word [of truth] shall thus stand revealed 65 will exclaim: "O our Sustainer! Those whom we caused to err so grievously, we but caused to err as we ourselves had been erring. We [now] disavow them before Thee: it was not us that they worshipped! " 67
28:64 And [they] will be told: "Call [now] unto those [beings or powers] to whom you were wont to ascribe a share in God's divinity!" 68 - and they will call unto them [for help], but those [false objects of worship] will not respond to them: whereupon they will see the suffering [that awaits them the suffering which could have been avoided] if only they had allowed themselves to be guided! 69
28:65 And on that Day He will call unto them, and will ask: "How did you respond to My message- bearers?" 70 –
(28:66) but all arguments and excuses will by then have been erased from their minds, 71 and they will not [be able to] obtain any [helpful] answer from one another. 72
[[ Asad’s notes - .
63 Sc, "for having misused Our gifts and attributed them to powers other than Us".
64 Lit., "those partners of Mine whom you supposed [to exist]": see notes 15 and 16 on 6:22-23en with you!"
65 I.e., in the very fact of God's calling them to account (cf 27:82 and the corresponding note 73). As the sequence shows, the persons thus addressed are the "leaders of thought" supposed to have set the community's faulty standards of social behaviour and moral valuation; and since they are primarily responsible for the wrong direction which their followers have taken, they will be the first to suffer in the life to come.
66 I.e., "we did not lead them astray out of malice, but simply because we ourselves had been led astray by our predecessors" . This "answer" is, of course, evasive, but it is quoted here to show that man's attachment to false - but, nevertheless, almost deified - values and concepts based on stark materialism is, more often than not, a matter of "social continuity" : in other words, the validity of those materialistic pseudo-values is taken for granted simply because they are time- honoured, with every generation blindly subscribing to the views held by their forebears. In its deepest
sense, this passage - as so many similar ones throughout the Qur'an - points to the moral inadmissibility of accepting an ethical or intellectual proposition as true on no other grounds than that it was held to be true by earlier generations.
67 In other words, they were but wont to worship their own passions and desires projected onto extraneous beings. See in this connection 10:28 and the corresponding notes, especially note 46; also 34:41 and note 52.
68 Lit., "those (God-)partners of yours": see note 64 above.
69 For this rendering of the phrase law kanu yahtadun, see note 56 above.
70 This connects with the first sentence of verse 59, which has been explained in the
corresponding note 60. The present verse clearly implies that those sinners had not responded to the guidance offered them by God's apostles. As in many other instances in the Qur'an, God's "question" is but meant to stress a moral failure which by now has become obvious to man's self-accusing conscience.
71 Lit., "will on that Day have become obscured to them". The operative noun anba; which literally 6- denotes "tidings", has here the compound meaning of "arguments and excuses" (Tabari).
72 I.e., they will all be equally confused. For the above rendering of la yatasa'alun (lit., "they will not [be able to] ask one another"), see the explanations of this phrase advanced by Baghawi,Zamakhshari and Baydawi. ]]