Sura-61 [As-Saff Medina 106]
The Quranic Text & Ali’s version:
يُسَبِّحُ
لِلَّهِ مَا
فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ
وَمَا فِي
الْأَرْضِ...
61:1. Whatever is in the heavens and on earth, doth declare the Praises and Glory of Allah --
C5449. See n. 5408 to 59:24, where I have explained the difference in signification between sabbaha andyusabbihu. The latter form is used here, to express an actual fact. 'Everything declares the Praises and Glory of Allah, because Allah's mercies extend to all His creatures: He sends His Revelation for the benefit of the ignorant and unlettered as well as for those who have learning in their midst, especially as the latter are apt, by the very weight of their ponderous learning, to miss the real point and spirit of Allah's Message.'
... الْمَلِكِ الْقُدُّوسِ الْعَزِيزِ الْحَكِيمِ ﴿١﴾
- the Sovereign,
- the Holy One,
- the Exalted in Might,
- the Wise.
C5450. See 59:23, and n. 5402.
Here we have two of the divine attributes repeated from 59:23 and two from the end of 59:24, implying a reminiscence of all the beautiful divine attributes mentioned in that passage.
هُوَ
الَّذِي بَعَثَ
فِي الْأُمِّيِّينَ
رَسُولًا
مِّنْهُمْ ...
61:2. It is He Who has sent amongst the Unlettered a messenger from among themselves,
C5451. The Unlettered: as applied to a people, it refers to the Arabs, in comparison with the People of the Book, who had a longer tradition of learning, but whose failure is referred to in verse 5 below. As applied to individuals, it means that Allah's Revelation is for the benefit of all men, whether they have worldly learning or not.
... يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِهِ ...
- to rehearse to them His Signs,
C5452. His Signs: Allah's wonderful Signs in His Creation and in His ordering of the world. It may include the Verses of the Quran, but they are more specifically referred to as "Book" in the next line but one.
... وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ ...
- to sanctify them,
- and to instruct them in Scripture and Wisdom --
Read again the attributes in the last verse.
Allah is full Sovereign, and therefore cares for all His subjects, including the meanest and most ignorant, and sends Hiss prophets or messengers to them.
He is the Holy One, and therefore purifies and sanctifies those who were steeped in superstition and wickedness.
He is Exalted in Power, and therefore He can confer all these blessings on the most unlikely people (verse 3), and no one can stay His hand.
He is wise, and therefore He instructs in wisdom, both through written Scriptures, and in other ways, e.g., by means of a knowledge of life and its laws, and an understanding of His wonderful universe.
... وَإِن كَانُوا مِن قَبْلُ لَفِي ضَلَالٍ مُّبِينٍ ﴿٢﴾
although they had been, before, in manifest error --
C5454. Previous ignorance or error is no bar to a person or nation receiving the blessings of Allah's revelation, provided such person or nation has the will to come to Allah and the capacity to bear His Message. For an instance of incapacity through arrogance, see verse 6 below.
وَآخَرِينَ
مِنْهُمْ لَمَّا
يَلْحَقُوا
بِهِمْ ...
61:3. As well as (to confer all these benefits upon) others of them, who have not already joined them:
C5455. Others of them: i.e., others than those among whom the holy Prophet came as a messenger. In other words his Message is for his Arab people and his non-Arab contemporaries as well as those who live in other ages, and have no personal contact with him or his Companions.
... وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ ﴿٣﴾
and He is Exalted in Might, Wise.
ذَلِكَ
فَضْلُ اللَّهِ
يُؤْتِيهِ مَن
يَشَاء...
61:4. Such is the Bounty of Allah, which He bestows on whom He will:
C5456. That is, according to His wise Will and Plan, and also as a result of His unbounded generosity to all.
... وَاللَّهُ ذُو الْفَضْلِ الْعَظِيمِ ﴿٤﴾
and Allah is the Lord of the highest bounty.
Asad’s version
REVEALED in the early part of the Medina period, this surah takes its name from verses 9- 10, which ordain the obligatory congregational prayer on Friday.
In The Name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace:
62:1 ALL THAT IS in the heavens and all that is on earth extols the limitless glory of God, the Sovereign Supreme, the Holy, the Almighty, the Wise !
62:2 He it is who has sent unto the unlettered people an apostle from among themselves, 1 to convey unto them His messages, and to cause them to grow in purity, and to impart unto them the divine writ as well as wisdom - whereas before that they were indeed, most obviously, lost in error -;
(62:3) and [to cause this message to spread] from them unto other people as soon as
they come into contact with them: 2 for He alone is almighty, truly wise!
62:4 Such is God's bounty: He grants it to anyone who is willing [to receive it]: 5 for God is limitless in His great bounty.
[[Asad’s notes - 1 The term "unlettered people" (ummiyun) denotes a nation or community who had not previously had a revealed scripture of their own (Razi).
The designation of the Prophet as a man "from among themselves" is meant, in this context, to stress the fact that he, too, was unlettered (ummi) in the primary sense of this word (cf 7:157 and 158)., and could not, therefore, have "invented" the message of the Qur'an or "derived" its ideas from earlier scriptures.
2 I.e., to cause the message of the Qur'an to reach people of other environments and of future times through the medium of the Arabs and their language: thus stressing the universality and timeless validity of all that has been revealed to Muhammad.
3 Or: "He grants it unto whomever He wills". Both these formulations are syntactically correct; but since the bounty of God referred to in this passage relates to the divine guidance granted to man through the medium of the revelation bestowed upon God's Apostle, the construction chosen by me seems to be more appropriate, expressing as it does the idea that the bounty of God's guidance is always available to one who sincerely desires it.
4 Connecting with the idea - implied in the preceding passage - that God's revelation is a sacred trust as well as a bounty, the discourse turns now to the problem of man's betrayal of this trust,exemplified
by the Jews of post-Biblical times. They had been entrusted by God with the task of carrying the message of His oneness and uniqueness to all the world: but they failed in this task inasmuch as they came to believe that they were "God's chosen people" because of their descent from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and that, therefore, the divine message was meant for them alone and not for people of other nations. Hence, too, they came to deny the possibility of prophethood being bestowed on anyone who did not belong
to the children of Israel (cf 2:90 and 94, and the corresponding notes 75 and 79), and so they summarily rejected the idea of Muhammad's prophethood despite the clear predictions of his advent in the Torah itself (see note 33 on 2:42). By thus corrupting the innermost purport of the divine writ bestowed on Moses, they themselves became unable to derive any real spiritual benefit from it, and to live up to its teachings. ]]