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Bismillaahir Rahmaanir Raheem
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Translators: Ahmed Ali ● Amatul Rahman Omar ● Daryabadi ● Faridul Haque ● Hamid S. Aziz ● Maulana Mohammad Ali ● Pickthall ● Sarwar ● Shakir ● Yusuf Ali
Recitation by Mishary Al-Alfasy
Name
The Surah takes its name from the word
wal-mursalat in the first verse.
Period of Revelation
Its subject matter bears full evidence that it was revealed in the earliest
period at Makkah. If this Surah is read together with the two Surahs preceding
it, namely Al-Qiyamah and Ad-Dahr, and the two Surahs following it, namely An-Naba
and An-Naziat, it becomes obvious that all these Surahs are the Revelations of
the same period, and they deal with one and the same theme, which has been
impressed on the people of Makkah in different ways.
Theme and
Subject Matter
Its theme is to affirm the Resurrection and
Hereafter and to warn the people of the consequences which will ultimately
follow the denial and the affirmation of these truths.
In the first seven
verses, the system of winds has been presented as an evidence of the truth that
the Resurrection which is being foretold by the Qur'an and the Prophet Muhammad
(upon whom be Allah's peace and blessings) must come to pass. The reasoning is
that the power of All-Mighty Allah Who established this wonderful system on the
earth, cannot be helpless in bringing about the Resurrection, and the express
wisdom which underlies this system bears full evidence that the Hereafter must
appear, for no act of an All-Wise Creator can be vain and purposeless, and if
there was no Hereafter, it would mean that the whole of one's life was useless
and absurd.
The people of Makkah repeatedly asked, "Bring about the
Resurrection with which you threaten us; only then shall we believe in it."In
vv. 8-l5, their demand has been answered, saying:"Resurrection is no sport or
fun so that whenever a jester should ask for it, it should be brought forth
immediately. It is indeed the Day of Judgment to settle the account of all
mankind and of all its individuals. For it Allah has fixed a specific time it
will take place at its own time, and when it takes place with all its dreads and
horrors, it will confound those who are demanding it for fun today. Then their
cases will be decided only on the evidence of those Messengers whom these
deniers of the truth are repudiating with impunity. Then they will themselves
realize how they themselves are responsible for their dooms
In vv. 16-28
arguments have been given continuously for the occurrence and necessity of the
Resurrection and Hereafter. In these it has been stated that man's own history,
his own birth, and the structure of the earth on which he lives, bear the
testimony that the coming of Resurrection and the establishment of the Hereafter
are possible as well as the demand of Allah Almighty's wisdom. History tells us
that the nations which denied the Hereafter ultimately became corrupted and met
with destruction. This means that the Hereafter is a truth which if denied and
contradicted by a nation by its conduct and attitude, will cause it to meet the
same doom, which is met by a blind man who bushes headlong into an approaching
train. And it also means that in the kingdom of the universe only physical laws
are not at work but a moral law also is working in it, under which in this very
world the process of retribution is operating. But since in the present life of
the world retribution is not taking place in its complete and perfect form, the
moral law of the universe necessarily demands that there should come a time when
it should take its full course and all those good works and evil deeds, which
could not be rewarded here, or which escaped their due punishment should be
fully rewarded and punished. For this it is inevitable that there should be a
second life after death. If man only considers how he takes his birth in the
world, his intellect, provided it is sound intellect, cannot deny that for the
God Who began his creation from an insignificant sperm drop and developed him
into a perfect man, it certainly possible to create the same man once again.
After death the particles of man's body do not disappear but continue to exist
on the same earth on which he lived his whole life. It is from the resources and
treasures of this very earth that he is made and nourished and then into the
same treasures of the earth he is deposited. The God who caused him to emerge
from the treasures of the earth, in the first instance, can also cause him to
re-emerge from the same treasures after he has been restored to them at death.
If one only considers the powers of Allah, one cannot deny that He can do this;
and if one considers the wisdom of Allah, one also cannot deny that it is
certainly the very demand of His wisdom to call man to account for the right and
wrong use of the powers that He has granted him on the earth; it would rather be
against wisdom to let him off without rendering an account.
Then, in vv.
28-40, the fate of the deniers of the Hereafter has been depicted, and in vv.
41-45 of those who affirming faith in it in their worldly life, endeavored to
improve their Hereafter, and abstained from the evils of disbelief and thought,
morality and deed, conduct and character which might be helpful in man's worldly
life, but are certainly ruinous for his life hereafter.
In the end, the
deniers of the Hereafter and those who turn away from God-worship, have been
warned as if to say: "Enjoy your short-lived worldly pleasure as you may, but
your end will ultimately be disastrous." The discourse concludes with the
assertion that the one who fails to obtain guidance from Book like the Qur'an,
can have no ether source in the world to afford him Guidance.
1That is, sometimes the failure of winds causes the people to be alarmed at
the prospect of a famine, and they turn to Allah to repent of their sins:
sometimes they bring a lot of rain and the people turn to Allah in gratitude;
and sometimes their blowing violently causes dread in the hearts and the people
turn to Allah from fear of destruction.
In these verses initially the
order of rain-bringing winds has been stated, which is thus: first, winds start
blowing in succession; then they assume the proportions of a storm; then they
raise the clouds and spread them; then they split and separate them. After this,
instead of making mention of the rainfall, it is said that the winds infuse the
hearts with the remembrance of Allah, as an excuse or as a warning. That is, it
is an occasion when either because of fear man is compelled to remember Allah,
or else he confesses his errors and invokes Allah to protect and save him from
ruin and bless him with rain. If it has not rained for a long time, and the
people are thirsty for rain, even the most hardened disbeliever sometimes begins
to remember God when he. sees the winds blowing and the clouds advancing. The
drought's being mild and severe makes the difference. In case the drought is
mild, the common man who is not far from Allah, will remember Him, but others
will offer scientific explanations, saying that there was no cause for anxiety:
it did not rain because of such and such a cause and it would be weak-mindedness
to start praying to God on such an ordinary thing. However, if the drought is
unusually prolonged, and the whole country is faced with a calamitous situation,
even the confirmed disbelievers begin to remember God. If they feel shy to use
their tongue, in their hearts they feel penitent on their wrongdoing and
ingratitude and pray to God to cause rain throughout the country from the winds
which are raising the clouds. This is infusion of God's remembrance in the
hearts as an excuse. As for its infusion as a warning, it happens when the wind
develops into a cyclone and destroys settlement after settlement or it rains so
heavily as to cause a deluge, In such a state even a confirmed atheist starts
imploring God out of awe for Him, and then all scientific explanations of the
cyclone or deluge evaporate from his mind. Thus, after describing the blowing of
winds in their succession to say that they infuse the hearts with Allah's
remembrance as an excuse or as a warning, is meant to impress the truth that the
system working in the world keeps on reminding man that everything on the earth
has not been placed under his control but there is a Supreme Power above him,
which rules his destiny. That Power is so supreme and mighty that it can use the
elements for the sustenance and nourishment of man when it so wills and can use
the same elements for his destruction when it so wills.
After this the
same system of winds has been proffered as an argument to prove that the
Resurrection which is being promised to man, must come to pass. Now, let us see
how this system testifies to this truth.
Man generally is perplexed in
the case of Resurrection and the Hereafter at two questions. First: is the
occurrence of Resurrection possible? Second: what is its need and necessity? And
then being perplexed at these questions, he starts entertaining doubts whether
it will at all occur or not, or whether it was only a figment of the
imagination. In this connection, the Qur'an has at some places reasoned out and
proved its possibility, its necessity and occurrence from the system of the
universe, and at others adopted another mode of reasoning: oaths have been sworn
by some of the countless signs of God's Kingdom and it has been asserted that it
shall surely come to pass. This mode of reasoning contains arguments for its
possibility as well as arguments for its necessity and arguments for its
occurrence.
Here, adopting the same mode of reasoning only the system of
the circulation of winds and rainfall has been presented as a sign of the truth
that it is a regular system, which has been established by the design of an
All-Wise, All-Mighty Sovereign; it is not a chance occurrence, as a result of
which a system might have been generated in the atmosphere of the earth that
vapors should arise from the seas, winds should carry them and gather them into
clouds, then split and separate them into pieces and transport them to different
parts of the earth and then should cause them to fall as rain. This system has
not been devised accidentally by some blind and deaf Nature, but it is a
well-considered and well-designed plan, which is functioning regularly according
to a law. That is why it never so happens that the heat of the sun should
produce ice on the surface of the sea instead of vapors, but the sun always
raises only vapors from the sea. It never so happens that the monsoons should
blow in the reverse order and suppress vapors into the sea but they always raise
them up into the atmosphere. It never so happens that the formation of clouds
should cease, or the winds should stop to carry them to dry lands or the falling
of rain on the earth should discontinue. The same law has been at work since
millions and millions of years under which this system is functioning. Had it
not been so our coming into existence on the earth and survival here would not
be possible.
In this system one fords a clear purpose and the working of
regular law. One can clearly see that on the earth the life of man, animal and
vegetation deeply relates to the winds and rainfall, and this arrangement
testifies that water has been provided to bring animate life into existence and
keep it alive precisely according to their requirements and a law. This purpose
and regularity is not found only in this aspect but in the entire system of the
universe, and man's whole scientific progress is based on it. About every thing
man tries to find out what is its purpose and on what principle it works Then as
he goes on gaining insight into the purposes of the creation of different things
and the principles on which they work, he goes on devising new and ever new
methods of their use and making new inventions for the progress of his
civilization. Had there been no such concept in the mind of man naturally that
the world is a meaningful world and everything in it is working on a principle,
he would never have entertained the question about anything as to what was its
purpose and how it could be put to use.
Now, when this world and
everything in it has meaning, and if there is a law working in this world and in
everything it contains, and if it has been functioning with the same purpose and
regularity since millions and millions of years, then a stubborn person only
could refuse to accept that an all-knowing, All-Mighty God has made it, and
about that God it would be foolish to assume that although He could make and
cause it to function but cannot break it, and after breaking it, cannot
reconstruct it in any other form if He so wills, The concept about matter that
it is imperishable was the chief support of the ignorant atheist of the past,
but the progress of knowledge has proved it also false. Now it is an
acknowledged scientific fact that matter can change into energy and energy into
matter. Therefore, it is perfectly according to knowledge and reason that this
material world will last only as long as the Living and Eternal God sustains it.
As soon as He wills to change it into energy, He can change it by a simple
Command and His one Command is enough to re-create it into any other material
form and shape He wills.
This much then about the possibility of the
Resurrection, which cannot now be rejected by any scientific and rational
argument. As for the question that it must take place so that man is rewarded
for his good works and punished for his evil deeds, the person who acknowledges
man's moral responsibility and also believes that rewarding the good services
and punishing the crimes is the necessary demand of this moral responsibility,
cannot but admit that there must be the Hereafter. There is no law or government
in the world, which can punish every crime and reward every good act. To say
that the prick of the conscience is a sufficient punishment for the culprit and
the satisfaction of the conscience is sufficient reward for the doer of good is
no more than meaningless philosophizing. The question is: How and when did the
conscience of the person who killed an innocent man and then himself died in an
accident immediately after it reprove him? And when did the conscience of the
man who went to fight for the sake of truth and justice and fell a victim to a
bomb blast suddenly, have the satisfaction that he had laid down his life for a
good cause? Thus, the truth is that the pretenses invented to avoid the belief
in the Hereafter are all meaningless. Man's intellect wants, his nature
requires, that there should be justice, but in the present life of the world it
is not possible to have full and perfect justice. Justice can be had only in the
Hereafter and only under the judgment and command of the All-Knowing, Omnipotent
God. Denial of the necessity of the Hereafter is, in fact, denial of the
necessity of justice.
Intellect can go only so far as to convince man
that the Hereafter is possible and it should come about. As for the truth that
it will surely come about, the "knowledge" of it can be obtained only through
Revelation, and Revelation has given us the news that "that which you are being
promised must happen". We cannot attain this knowledge by intellectual
reasoning; however, we can attain the certainty of its being true on the basis
that the thing of which we are being informed by Revelation is both possible and
necessary.
2Another meaning can be; "That which you are being threatened
with," i. e. the Resurrection and Hereafter.
3Here an oath has been
sworn by five things on the inevitability of the Resurrection:
(1) "Those
which are sent forth in succession, or for a good cause;"
(2) "those
which blow violently and tempestuously
(3) "those which disperse and
scatter;"
(4) "those which split and separate;" and
(5) "those
which inspire the remembrance." As these words only describe the characteristics
and it has not been specified what thing or things they qualify, this has given
rise to a difference of opinion among the commentators as to whether these are
the qualities of one particular thing or of different things and what the thing
or things are. One group of them says that all the five qualify the winds; the
second group says that all the five imply the angels; the third group says that
the first three imply the winds and the remaining two the angels; the fourth
says that the first two imply the winds and the other three the angels; another
group has opined that the first quality implies the angels of mercy, the second
the angels of punishment and the remaining three imply the verses of the Qur'an.
In our opinion, the first thing worthy of consideration is that when five
characteristic have been mentioned continuously in one and the same context and
there is no indication to show as to what has been qualified up to a certain
point and where from has the qualification of another thing begun, it cannot be
correct, on the basis of a baseless conjecture, to understand that in these
verses oaths have been sworn by two or three different things. Rather in this
case the continuity of the subject by itself requires that the whole passage be
regarded as related to the characteristics of one and the same thing. Secondly,
wherever in the Qur'an an oath bas been sworn by a certain thing or, things in
order to convince the doubters or deniers of an unseen truth, there the oath
stands for an argument or reasoning which is meant to tell that the thing or
things point to the truth's being right and correct. For this purpose obviously
it cannot be correct to present one imperceptible thing as an argument for
another imperceptible thing; for, only a perceptible thing can be presented as
an argument for an imperceptible thing. Hence in our opinion the correct
explanation is that it implies the winds and the explanation of the people who
interpret the five things to mean the angels cannot; be acceptable, for the
angels are as imperceptible as is the occurrence of the Resurrection.
Now, let us consider as to how these different states of winds point to the
occurrence of the Resurrection. One of the most important factor which has made
animal and vegetable life possible on the earth is the air. The relationship its
qualities bear with every kind of life testify that there is an all-powerful,
All-Wise Creator, Who willed to create life on this earth and for this purpose
created here a thing whose qualities exactly and precisely correspond to the
requirements of the existence of living beings. Then, He did not only wrap up
the earth in the air and left it alone, but by His power and wisdom
characterized this air with countless different states, which are being
regulated since millions and millions of years in such a way that they cause the
change of seasons and weather sometimes it is close and sometimes a soft breeze
blows sometimes it is hot and sometimes cold; sometimes it brings clouds and
sometimes it drives away clouds; sometimes it causes pleasant gusts to blow and
sometimes disastrous windstorms; sometimes it brings beneficial rains and
sometimes there is drought; in short, there are different 'kinds of winds which
blow in their own time, and every kind serves one or the other purpose. This
arrangement is the proof of a dominant Power, for which neither it can be
impossible to bring life into existence, nor to obliterate it, nor to re-create
it after having annihilated it. Likewise, this arrangement is also a proof of a
supreme wisdom about which only a foolish man could think that all this was
being done for fun, without any higher object in view. As against this wonderful
system man is so helpless that he can neither cause a favorable wind to blow for
himself, nor can prevent a disastrous cyclone from blowing on himself. However
shameless, obstinate and stubborn he may be, the wind does at one time or
another remind him that a Mighty Sovereign is ruling over him, Who can turn this
principal means of his life into a cause of blessing for him or into a cause of
ruin for him whenever He so likes, and man does not have the power to prevent or
avert any of His decisions. (For further explanation, see E.N. 7 of Al-Jathiyah,
E.N.'s 1 to 4 of Adh-Dhariyat).
4That is, when they lose their light and
lustre.
5"When the heaven is rent asunder": when the system and
discipline of the heavens under which every star and planet is established and
moving in its orbit and everything in the universe is adhering to the bounds set
for it, is broken.
6At several places in the Qur'an it has been stated
that when the case of mankind will be presented before Allah on the Day of
Resurrection, the Messenger of every nation will be called upon to testify that
he had conveyed Allah's Messages intact to his people. This will be Allah's
first and major argument against the culprits and the wicked people to prove
that they were themselves responsible for their wrong attitude and conduct in
life, for there had been no negligence on the part of Allah to show guidance and
administer warnings . For instance, see AI-A`raf: 172, 173 and E.N.'s 134, 135,
Az-Zumar: 69 and E.N. 80, Al-Mulk:8 and E.N. 14.
7"Deniers of Truth":
those people who took the news of the coming of Resurrection as a lie, and spent
their lives in the world under the delusion that the time would never come when
they would have to present themselves before their God and render an account of
their deeds.
8This is an argument from history for the Hereafter, It
means; "Consider your own history in the world. Whichever nations denied the
Hereafter and took this worldly life to be real life and based their moral
attitude on the results appearing here regarding them as the criterion of good
and evil, ultimately went to their doom without exception This is a proof of the
fact that the Hereafter is an actual reality overlooking and ignoring which
causes the same kind of harm to a person which is caused when he chooses to
close his eyes to the hard facts of life. (For further explanation, see E.N. 12
of Yunus, E.N. 86 of An-Naml, E.N. 8 of Ar-Rum, E.N. 25 of Saba).
9That
is, "This is a permanent law with Us. Just as denial of the Hereafter has proved
disastrous for the nations of the past so it will always prove disastrous also
for the nations of the future. No nation has been an exception to it before nor
will any be so in the future."
10This sentence in the present context
means: "The fate they have met or will meet in the world, is not their real
punishment; their real doom will descend on them on the Day of Decision. The
punishment here is only in the nature of a person's being arrested when he
commits one crime after the other fearlessly and is not inclined to mend and
change his ways. The court where his test is to be decided and he is to be
punished for all his misdeeds, will not be established in this world but in the
Hereafter, and that indeed will be the actual Day of his ruin and disaster."
(For further explanation, see E.N.'s 5, 6 of Al-A`raf, E.N.,105 of H ud).
11"A secure place": the mother's womb in which the child is so firmly lodged
as soon as it has been conceived and where such arrangements are made for its
security and nourishment that abortion cannot take place unless there is a
disaster, and even for artificial abortion extraordinary devices have to be
adopted, which are both risky and harmful in spite of modern developments in
medical science.
12The words qadar im-malum do not only mean that the
term is appointed and fixed but they also contain the sense that it is known to
Allah alone. About no child can man know by any means how many months, days,
hours, minutes and seconds it will remain in the mothers womb and what will be
its exact and precise time of birth. Allah alone has fixed a specific term for
every child and He alone knows it.
13This is an express argument for the
possibility of the life-after-death What is meant to be said is: "When We had
the power to shape and develop you into a perfect and complete man from
insignificant sperm-drop, how shall We be helpless to re-create you in some
other way ? Our this creation in consequence of which you exist as a living
being, is a proof that We are excellent Possessors of power; We cannot be so
helpless as to be unable to re-create you after having created you in the first
instance.
14This sentence here gives the meaning that in spite of the
express argument for the possibility of life-after-death, the people who are
denying it, may mock it as they may and look down upon its believers as people
of antiquated ideas and whims, but when the Day comes which they are denying
today, they will themselves know that it is a Day of their own ruin and
disaster.
15This is yet another argument for the possibility and
reasonableness of the Hereafter. It is this very earth which since millions and
millions of years has been sustaining and providing for countless different
kinds of creatures. Every kind of vegetation and every kind of animal and man
are living on it, To meet the requirements of all immeasurable treasures of
provisions of different kinds are corning out of its belly. Then it is on this
very earth that countless members of all kinds of creatures die every day, but
there exists a wonderful arrangement in that the dead bodies of all creatures
are deposited in the same earth, and it again becomes ready for sustaining life
and providing home to the new members of every species. This earth has not been
shaped like a smooth-surfaced ball either, but here and there on it there have
been set high mountains and mountain-ranges, which play an important role in
causing the change of seasons and rainfall, the birth of rivers creation of
fertile valleys, growth of trees which supply timber, and provisions of a
variety of minerals and stones. Then in the interior of this very earth, sweet
water has been stored and on its surface rivers of sweet water have been
arranged and from the saline waters of the sea also vapors of pure water are
raised and caused to fall as rain from the sky. Is not all this an argument to
prove that an All-Powerful Sovereign has created all this and He is not only
All-Powerful but AII-Knowing and All-Wise as well'? Now, if this earth has been
thus equipped and provisioned only by His power and wisdom, why should an
intelligent man trod it difficult to understand that the same Sovereign by His
power can wind up this world and create another world on a new pattern, and the
demand of His wisdom is that he should create another world after it so that He
may call man to account for the deeds he has done in this world?
16Here,
this sentence signifies that the people who deny the coming of the Hereafter and
regard it as impossible and irrational in spite of seeing these manifest signs
of Allah's power and wisdom, may remain lost in their vain imaginations if they
so like. But the Day when all this takes place against their expectations, they
will realize that they have earned ruin on account of their own folly.
17After giving proofs of the coming of the Hereafter, now it is being stated how
the deniers will be dealt with when it has actually taken place.
18"Shadow": shadow of smoke; "three branches": because when a big smoke arises
it is divided into several parts at the top.
19That is, each spark will
be like a castle, and when these huge sparks will rise and burst and fly about
in all directions it will seem as though they were yellow camels running and
jumping about ceaselessly.
20This will be their ultimate state at the
time they will be entering Hell. Before this in the plain of Resurrection they
will be offering all sorts of excuses, blaming others for their errors and
proving their own selves to be innocent, abusing their leaders and guides who
led them astray; so much so that some of them will even disown their crimes
shamelessly, as has been stated at several places in the Qur'an. But when their
being criminals will have been established by every kind of evidence, and when
their own hands and feet and limbs will have borne witness against them to prove
their guilt fully, and when after fulfilling all requirements of justice rightly
and truly, the sentence will be passed on them, they will be dumbfounded and no
room will be left for them to offer any excuse. To refuse an opportunity or
permission to offer an excuse, does not mean that judgment will be passed
against them without giving them a chance for self-defense, but it means that
their guilt and crime will be proved to the hilt and they will not be able to
offer any excuse after it.
21That is, "In the world you used every kind
of deception and trick in self-interest. Now, if you have any trick to escape My
punishment, you may use it to defeat Me and My plan."
22As this world
has been used here in contrast to the "deniers'; the righteous here implies the
people who refrained from denying the Hereafter and accepted it and passed their
life in the world with the belief that in 'the Hereafter they would have to
render an account of their word and deed and their conduct and character.
23Here this sentence means that one of their afflictions. as mentioned
above, will be that they will be standing as culprits in the plain of
Resurrection, their crimes will have been proved and established openly and they
will not be in a position even to open their mouths to put forward a plea in
self defense, and shall ultimately become fuel of Hell. Their other affliction,
and by far the worse will be that they will see the same believers enjoying
themselves in Paradise, whom they had been opposing and resisting and mocking
throughout their lives as foolish, narrow-minded, mean and old fashioned people.
24In conclusion, these words are being addressed not only to the
disbelievers of Makkah but to all disbelievers of the world.
25"For a
while": in their brief life of the world.
26"Bowing before Allah": does
not only imply worshiping Him but also means believing in the Messenger sent by
Allah and in the Book revealed by Him and following and obeying His Commands.
27That is, the greatest Message that could distinguish the Truth from
falsehood for man and show him right guidance, has been sent down in the shape
of the Qur'an. if a person does not believe even after reading it or hearing it
read, what else after this can show him the correct guidance?