57. Surah Al-Hadid (Iron)

Medina Period [94]

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:





 

مَا أَصَابَ مِن مُّصِيبَةٍ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَلَا فِي أَنفُسِكُمْ ...Shape1

57:22.   No misfortune can happen on earth or in your souls,

C5308. External disasters or misfortunes may strike people's eye or imagination, but there are worse crisis and misfortunes in the spiritual world, which are of equal or greater importance to man's future. All this happens according to the Will and Plan of Allah. Even where we are allowed the exercise of our own wills, the consequences that follow are in accordance with the laws and Plan decreed by Allah beforehand.

... إِلَّا فِي كِتَابٍ مِّن قَبْلِ أَن نَّبْرَأَهَا...

but is recorded in a decree before We bring it into existence:

C5309. For bara'a, 'to bring into existence', and other words denoting Allah's creative energy, see n. 120 to 2:117; n. 916 to 6:94; and n. 923 to 6:98.

إِنَّ ذَلِكَ عَلَى اللَّهِ يَسِيرٌ ﴿٢٢﴾

that is truly easy for Allah:

 

لِكَيْلَا تَأْسَوْا عَلَى مَا فَاتَكُمْ وَلَا تَفْرَحُوا بِمَا آتَاكُمْ...Shape2  

57: 23.   In order that ye may not despair over matters that pass you by, nor exult over favors bestowed upon you.

...وَاللَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ كُلَّ مُخْتَالٍ فَخُورٍ ﴿٢٣﴾

For Allah loveth not any vainglorious boaster --

C5310. In the external world, what people may consider misfortune or good fortune may both turn out to be illusory,-in Kipling's words, "both imposters just the same". The righteous man does not grumble if some one else has possessions, nor exult if he has them. He does not covet and he does not boast. If he has any advantages, he shares them with other people, as he considers them not due to his own merits, but as gifts of Allah. (R).

Asad’s Version:



57:22 NO CALAMITY can ever befall the earth, and neither your own selves, 35 unless it be [laid down] in Our decree before We bring it into being: verily, all this 36 is easy for God.


(57:23) [Know this,] so that you may not despair over whatever [good] has escaped you nor exult [unduly] over whatever [good] has come to you: 37 for, God does not love any of those who, out of self-conceit, act in a boastful manner 38 –


Yuksel’s Version

The Key of Happiness: Stoic Submission to God

57:22 No misfortune can happen on earth, or in yourselves, except it is decreed in a record, before We bring it about. This is easy for God to do.*

57:23 In order that you do not despair over anything that has passed you by, nor be exultant of anything He has bestowed upon you. God does not like those who are boastful, proud.



[[Asad’s notes - 35 I.e., "the earth or mankind as a whole, or any of you individually": an allusion to natural as well as man-made catastrophes, and to individual suffering through illness, moral or material deprivation, etc.


36 I.e., God's decreeing an event and bringing it into being.


37 Thus, the knowledge that whatever has happened had to happen - and could not have not happened - because, obviously, it had been willed by God in accordance with His unfathomable plan, ought to enable a true believer to react with conscious equanimity to whatever good or ill conies to him.


38 I.e., attributing their good fortune to their own merit or "luck". ]]