Read the Quran
- By the setting star,
- your companion has neither strayed nor is he misguided,
- nor does he speak out of his own desire.
- It [the Quran] is nothing but revelation sent down to him.
- He was taught by [an angel] who is mighty in power,
- and endowed with wisdom; who in time manifested himself;
- standing poised at the highest point on the horizon,
- then came down close
- until he was two bow-lengths away or even closer
- and revealed to God’s servant what he revealed.
- The heart [of the Prophet] did not misconstrue what he saw.
- Will you then dispute with him as to what he saw?
- And certainly he saw him descend a second time:
- by the lote-tree of the farthest limit, beyond which none may pass
- by the Garden of [Eternal] Repose,
- when the lote tree was covered in mystic splendour.
- His sight did not waver nor was it unduly bold.
- He saw some of the greatest signs of his Lord.
- Have you really considered al-Lat and al-‘Uzza,
- and the third one, Manat? —
- ‘What! For you the males and for Him the females?’
- That indeed is an unfair division—
- these are nothing but names which you yourselves have devised, you and your forefathers. God has sent down no authority for them. They follow nothing but conjecture and what their own selves desire, even though guidance has already come to them from their Lord!
- Shall man have whatever he craves?
- But it is to God that the Hereafter and this world belong.
- There may be countless angels in heaven, but their intercession will be of no avail until God has given permission to those whom he chooses and accepts.
- Those who do not believe in the life to come call the angels by female names.
- They have no knowledge to base this on. They merely indulge in guess-work which can never replace the truth.
- So ignore those who turn away from Our revelation and seek nothing but the life of this world.
- That is the ultimate extent of their knowledge. Surely your Lord knows best those who stray from His path and He knows best those who follow His guidance.
- Everything in the heavens and on the earth belongs to God and so He will requite those who do evil in accordance with their deeds and will reward those left with that which is best, for those who do good.
- As for those who refrain from committing grave sins and indecent acts, though they may commit minor offences, your Lord is unstinting in His forgiveness. He knows you when He brings you out of the earth, and when you were embryos in the wombs of your mothers; so do not make claims to be pure. He knows best who is truly righteous.
- Have you [Prophet] considered the man who turned away,
- who at first gave a little, then later held back?
- Has he knowledge of the unseen, so that he sees?
- Has he not been made acquainted with what was written in the scriptures of Moses?
- And with Abraham who kept his word:
- that no soul shall bear the burden of another;
- and that man shall have only that for which he strives;
- and that [the fruit of] his striving shall soon be seen;
- and in the end he will be repaid for it in full;
- that all things in the end shall return to God;
- that it is He who brings laughter and tears;
- that it is He who causes death and gives life;
- and that He Himself created the two sexes: male and female,
- from an ejected drop of sperm;
- and that He will bring about the Second Creation;
- that it is He who gives wealth and possessions;
- that He is the Lord of Sirius.
- It was He who totally destroyed the former ‘Ad
- and Thamud tribes,
- and before them the people of Noah who were even more unjust and insolent;
- and He overthrew the subverted cities [of Sodom and Gomorrah]
- and then covered them from sight forever.
- On which then of your Lord’s signs do you cast doubt?
- This is a warning just like those of former times.
- The Hour that was to come draws ever nearer.
- None but God can avert it.
- Do you then find these tidings strange?
- Why do you laugh rather than weep?
- Will you remain proudly heedless?
- Prostrate yourselves before God, and worship Him alone!
53:1
The setting of the stars is a symbol which hints at the stable and flawless system governing the revolution of stars. This is an indication that the spiritual system established with the help of revelation and prophethood should also be flawless.
53:2-13
The experience of the Prophet with the angels and his being taught the revelation have been explained in the above verses. For corroborating the reality of these events the statement of the Quran is enough. The Quran’s miraculous discourse proves that it is the Book of God. And every statement of that book which is established as God’s Book shall have to be accepted as authentic.
53:14-20
Al-Lat, al-‘Uzza and Manat were the deities of ancient Arabia. Al-Lat was located in Taif, al-‘Uzza in Nakhla near Makkah and Manat in Qudayd near Madinah. These three, according to the popular belief of those days, were the daughters of god, and so they were worshipped. A belief of this kind was undoubtedly a baseless supposition. It is a contradiction in itself. These polytheists used to consider it a degrading thing to have daughters. So, God wanted them to ask themselves if He, who was the Creator of sons and daughters, were to create children for Himself, would He have created daughters for Himself?
53:21-24
Explaining the query in verse 24, ‘Does man get all that he wants?’ Shah Abdul Qadir Dehlavi writes, ‘What does one get by worshipping deities? One gets whatever is given by God.’
53:25-28
Making deities of stone and worshipping them, calling the angels ‘daughters of God,’ hoping to enter Paradise on the basis of recommendations—all these are non-serious beliefs. Non-serious beliefs are the product of minds that have no fear of God’s wrath. Fear of God puts a stop to pointless talk: the mind of one who has no such fear will become a babel of useless chatter.
53:29
There is no use arguing with those who do not fear God. Such individuals never pay attention to reason and rationality. So, they are not ready to accept the word of Truth. There is only one possible way to deal with them and that is to shun them. However, Almighty God knows the inner condition of everybody and according to that He will deal with each one.
53:30-31
The universe with its extremely stable system makes manifest the fact that its Creator and Lord is extremely powerful. This suffices to make it clear that He will sooner or later seize hold of man and when He does so, there will be no escaping His grasp.
53:32
Man has been created with human weaknesses. So, it is not required that he be as pure as the angels. Almighty God has given full guidance to man as to what he should do and what he should not. However, man may be pardoned in the case of lesser offences (lamam), i.e. indulging in some mischief because of fleeting emotion, on the condition that he should immediately realise his lapse and, being ashamed of it, seek pardon of his Lord.
53:33-35
There are many who become inclined towards the Truth, but only to a certain extent. Then the compulsions of their interests become too strong for them and they revert to their original position. In order to justify and explain their wrong behaviour, such people devise different types of engaging ‘beliefs’. But this only increases their guilt because this amounts to adding insult to injury.
53:36-42
The sum and substance of the reality revealed by Almighty God through His prophets is that every man has to receive the reward befitting his deeds. Nobody can save himself from the fate attending his deeds and nobody else can be his saviour. There is nobody more foolish in this world of God than those who are not affected by this prophetic warning.
53:43-49
Every event in this world arises from supernatural causes and nobody but God is capable of causing them to occur. Happiness and sorrow, life and death, the pro-creative system, riches and poverty—all these are the feats of a superpower. Ancient man used to consider the stars as the determining factors in life, while in the present age natural law is considered to govern all happenings. But the fact is that there is a Cause over and above these causes and factors and that is God, the Lord of the universe. Then, how is it legitimate for a man to make anything other than Him the centre of his attention?
53:50-55
A nation makes superb progress and surpasses other nations. It is apparently impossible for it to be overpowered. Thereafter, certain factors come into play and that nation is destroyed or faces decline and fades into oblivion. This indicates that there is a Super Power over human beings that decides about the future of nations. If even such events of history do not impart a lesson to a human being, what will?
53:56-62
The history of the prophets as related in the Quran shows that the denial of Truth and its fatal result are as close to each other as two fingers of the same hand. If a man has the ability to comprehend, as soon as he indulges in denial of the Truth and becomes arrogant, he will sense that God’s wrath is about to descend on him; he will consequently give up the way of arrogance and adopt the way of obedience. But man is so intoxicated that he is unable to see things which are right in front of him.
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