2. Surah Al Baqarah

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

كَيْفَ تَكْفُرُونَ بِاللَّهِ ...

2: 28. How can ye reject the faith in Allah?

C46. In the preceding verses Allah has used various arguments.

- He has recalled His goodness (2:21-22);

- resolved doubts (2:23);

- plainly set forth the penalty of wrong-doing (2:24);

- given glad tidings (2:25);

- shown how misunderstandings arise from a deliberate rejection of the light and breach of the Covenant (2:26-27).

Now (2:28-29) He pleads with His creatures and appeals to their own subjective feelings.

- He brought you into being.

- The mysteries of life and death are in His hands.

- When you die on this earth, that is not the end. You were of Him, and you must return to Him.

- Look around you and realize your own dignity; it is from Him.

The immeasurable depths of space above and around you may stagger you. They are part of His plan. What you have imagined as the seven firmaments (and any other scheme you may construct) bears witness to His design of order and perfection, for His knowledge (unlike yours) is all- comprehending.

And yet will you deliberately reject or obscure or deaden the faculty of Faith which has been put into you?

... وَكُنتُمْ أَمْوَاتاً فَأَحْيَاكُمْ ...

Seeing that ye were without life, and He gave you life;

... ثُمَّ يُمِيتُكُمْ ثُمَّ يُحْيِيكُمْ ثُمَّ إِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ ﴿٢٨﴾

then will He cause you to die, and will again bring you to life; and again to Him will ye return.

Asad’s Version:

2: 28 How can you reject the faith in God? Seeing that you were without life, and He gave you life, then will He cause you to die , and will again bring you to life; and again to Him will you return.

30. Ar-Rum (The Byzantines)

Mecca Period [6-7 years before Hijra]

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

يُخْرِجُ الْحَيَّ مِنَ الْمَيِّتِ وَيُخْرِجُ الْمَيِّتَ مِنَ الْحَيِّ...

30:19. It is He Who brings out the living from the dead, and brings out the dead from the living,

C3522. Cf. 10:31.

From dead matter Allah's creative act produces life and living matter, and even science has not yet been able to explain the mystery of life.

Life and living matter again seem to reach maturity and again die, as we see every day. No material thing seems to have perpetual life. But again we see the creative process of Allah constantly at work, and the cycle of life and death seems to go on.

... وَيُحْيِي الْأَرْضَ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَا...

and Who gives life to the earth after it is dead:

C3523. Cf. 2:164.

The earth itself, seemingly so inert, produces vegetable life at once from a single shower of rain, and in various ways sustains animal life.

Normally it seems to die in the winter in northern climates, and in a drought everywhere, and the spring revives it in all its glory.

Metaphorically many movements, institutions, organizations, seem to die and then to live again, all under the wonderful dispensation of Allah. So will our personality be revived when we die on this earth, in order to reap the fruit of this our probationary life.

... وَكَذَلِكَ تُخْرَجُونَ ﴿١٩﴾

and thus shall ye be brought out (from the dead).

C.181 (The running Commentary, in Rhythmic Prose)

Asad’s Version:

30:19 He (it is who] brings forth the living out of that which is dead, and brings forth the dead out of that which is alive, and gives life to the earth after it had been lifeless: and even thus will you be brought forth [from death to life].