| | Al-muntakhab fi tafsir al-Qur'an al-Karim rendition of Surah The Forgiver, The Forgiving One(Ghafir)
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| 40:1 | | H. (Ha) M. (Meem) the Surah opens with these introductory letters from the Arabic Alphabet to draw attention to the miracle of the Quran though written in the people's tongue cannot he emulated |
| 40:2 | | This is a disclosure of knowledge, wisdom and guidance proceeding from Allah, AL-Aziz (the Almighty) And AL-Alim (the Omniscient), in the form of a Book |
| 40:3 | | Who gives up claim to requital for a violation of a religious or a moral principle, Who accepts penitence of those who in lowliest plight repentant stood, Who also justly strikes at the root or foundation tending to the utter destruction, Who has the rightful claim to Omnipotence; No Ilah there is but He; He is the end and the purpose for which all are destined |
| 40:4 | | No one contends with opposing argument against Allah's signs and revelations and seem resolved to dispute the truth but those who deny Him and refuse to acknowledge His authority, and so let not their prosperous commercial travels befool your mind. O Muhammad nor delude your judgement |
| 40:5 | | In order of time there were the people of Nuh (Noah) who declared Our message to be false followed by those who confederated their wits against the truth and each of them lied schemes for their Messenger to reduce him into impotence and they contended with opposing argument to confute the truth; and there I cast them down from a position of prosperity and power and brought them to ruin and how unbearable was the retribution |
| 40:6 | | Thus was Allah's word proclaimed beforehand against those who denied His Authority, realized in actual experience; that they were born to be the inmates of Hell fire |
| 40:7 | | Those angels who Carry the Supreme Throne and those around it in heaven's realm praise Allah and extol His glorious attributes and acknowledge His Godhead, His supremacy and Omnipotence and invoke His forgiveness for those who believed with hearts impressed with the image of religious and spiritual virtues, They express their invocation, thus: "O Allah, our Creator, Your mercy is extended to the wide circle of the all, and Omniscience is claimed as your own; O Allah, forgive those who in lowliest plight repentant stood and adhered to Your path of righteousness, and ensure them immunity from the dreadful conflagration of Hell fire" |
| 40:8 | | "O Allah, our Creator, and admit them into the blissful gardens of Eden of promise to them and to those of their parents, their partners in marriage and their progeny who lifted to You their inward sight, You are AL-Aziz And AL- Hakim, (the Source of wisdom and wise mysterious dispensations," |
| 40:9 | | "And free them from the censures of the evil consequences of their deeds in life and make them void; for he whom You do not censure for his evil deeds then, You will have conferred Your mercy on him, and this is indeed triumph supreme." |
| 40:10 | | Those who denied Allah and refused to acknowledge His Authority shall be called upon Hereafter to listen to the proclamation: "Allah hatred to you is far greater than your present natural aversions and antipathies among yourselves; aversions actuated now by the status quo which you face resolutely, you brought upon yourselves by the evil incitation in life to counsel deaf to Allah's message." |
| 40:11 | | They shall say: " O Allah, our Creator, twice did you deprive us of animate existence by death and twice did you bring us into being and caused us to exist, and now we confess our sins and confess to the charge, but is there a way out of this agony and torment? " |
| 40:12 | | They are told: "This is, in requital of the way you conducted yourselves in life; when Allah alone was invoked you rejected the idea as groundless fiction and you fixed your attention on the negative aspect of your belief, and when other objects of worship were added to Him portraying a corporate deity you accepted the idea, and the thought sweetly crept into your study of imagination. But judgment and judicial decision rest in His hands; He is the Unique Whose attributes belong to the highest regions of thought and reality; the Unique Who is eminently entitled to the designation: The Supreme |
| 40:13 | | He is it Who exhibits to you His signs, His marvels and revelations and sends down to you from His realm His divine influence and efficacious grace free and unmerited, and from the floor of the vault of heaven rainfall*, the intermediary agent or instrument of sustaining life and providing livelihood; but no one reflects except those who lift to Him their inward sight *see v.164c2 - v5,c45and commentar |
| 40:14 | | Therefore dedicate the heart of your purpose solemnly to Allah and reverence Him exclusively albeit this be hateful to those who devote their purpose to a corporate deity and refuse to acknowledge Allah's Oneness; Uniqueness and Authority |
| 40:15 | | He is Allah Who has the rightful claim to the position of supremacy and the highest power and authority; He is it Who occupies the glorious Throne and sends the Spirit at will on whom of His servants He wills and induces him to caution all against the Day when all shall assemble for Judgment |
| 40:16 | | The Day when they are fully exposed within and without and none of their aspects or secrets bearing reference to the way they conducted themselves in life, is but to Allah fully disclosed. There and then to whom belong the domination and the supreme controlling power and absolute and independent authority but to Allah, AL-Wahid and AL-Gahhar the One and only and the All Powering |
| 40:17 | | In that Day-of Judgement- shall every soul be requited with what is commensurate with its qualities and its deeds. Judgement, then, is an expression of absolute justice and vindication of right by assignment of reward or punishment; and Allah is indeed swift in putting the law in execution |
| 40:18 | | Caution them O Muhammad; against the approaching Day of Resurrection when the hearts sink, choking the breath, the tongue and the utterance, connoting extreme fear disabling them to put their thoughts into words; there and then shall they find no friend nor an intercessor whose mediation is accepted |
| 40:19 | | Allah knows the Obliquity of the eye and what the bosoms conceal of thoughts and feelings |
| 40:20 | | And Allah exercises His Authority in the maintenance and the vindication of right and He requites each according to his deserts whereas those whom they invoke besides Him are incapable of administering right or justice; indeed Allah is AL-Sami (with unlimited audition), and AL-Bassir (the Vigilant Who sees all things) |
| 40:21 | | Have they not journeyed through the land and looked with their minds' eyes to see what was the end of those who preceded them, who were far mightier and whose diligence never wearied, They left more material indicating prosecution with activity anal perseverance; but Allah seized them with a calamity and reduced them into a useless form in requital of their iniquities, and no tutelary did they have to protect them from Him |
| 40:22 | | A penalty imposed on them in the train of their malicious refusal of the clear evidence of His Omnipotence and Authority presented to them by their Messengers, and in conscience did He seize them with a calamity and reduce them into a useless form; He is indeed Omnipotent, He punishes severely |
| 40:23 | | To this effect I may example My Omnipotence and Authority by a brief account of Mussa (Moses) whom We sent equipped with Signs, serving to demonstrate divine power ant authorit |
| 40:24 | | He was sent to I'haraoh, Haman and Qaroon who called him a necromancer skilled in magic and a great liar |
| 40:25 | | And when he presented them with tile truth from heaven's realm, the truth evincing both the truth of his mission and that of his message, they decided to take vengeance on those whom they considered deluded wretches, and so they proclaimed: "Slay the progeny of those who fell with him into line and spare their women". But the plan devised by those who refuse to acknowledge Allah attains no end |
| 40:26 | | And Pharaoh added "Allow me to kill Mussa and let him invoke Allah, his Creators to deliver him out of my hands; I fear he might induce you to change religions or cause dissension and discord to spring in thc land." |
| 40:27 | | Mussa said: "I have committed myself to Allah, my Creator, and your Creator, counter to every one who is unjustly extravagant in his account of himself and refuses, with inordinate self-esteem, to acknowledge the Day of Judgment." |
| 40:28 | | And there said a man of pharaonic parents, whose heart had been impressed with the image of religious and spiritual virtues but had hidden his faith: Will you slay a man just because he says "The One object of supreme adoration and the end and the purpose for which I am destined is Allah, my Creator. And he has already bought you clear evidence demonstrating Allah's Omnipotence and Authority and brings you to your senses! And if he happens to be lying and conveying a false impression he will only much hurt himself and his interest and the fault will be at his own door But if what he says is in conformity with truth and in agreement with reality then you shall be wed to some of the calamities he has promised you anal you will have brought suffering upon yourselves". Allah certainly does not guide to His path of righteousness any one who goes beyond just and prescribed limits and lies in his teeth |
| 40:29 | | "O my people" he added " today you have the sovereignty the dominion and the authority and you have acquired supremacy and pre-eminence and you are the mighty ones yet, but who would save us from Allah if we come within the measure of His wrath? "Pharaoh said: '' I only expose you to harmonious influences and what seems to me appropriate and befitting ,nor do I guide you but to the path of righteousness " |
| 40:30 | | Then said he whose heart had been touched with the divine hand :"O people :I have an uneasy sense of the probability of a misfortune which might befall you on an unlucky day, the like of the day of those who confederated their wits against their Messengers" |
| 40:31 | | "like the manner of acting of the people of Nuh, and those of 'Ad, the 'Adites, and Thamud, -the Thamudites - and those who succeeded them whose disposition denoted indifference and unconcern, yet Allah means no injustice to His servants." |
| 40:32 | | "O people", he added, "I fear for you the Day of discourse and interchange of thoughts and words." |
| 40:33 | | "The Day you shall turn your backs and in vain try to flee, for you have no tutelary to protect you from Allah; and he whom Allah does not guide to His path of righteousness shall find no one to guide him thereto. " |
| 40:34 | | "And before Mussa, came Yusuf (Joseph) who was sent to you with clear evidence of Allah's Omnipotence and Authority, but you remained in a state of uncertainty as to the truth and reality of what he presented to you. And when he died you claimed that never shall Allah send after him another Messenger; thus does Allah neglect him who is extravagant in his account of himself, who is doubtful of the truth and He leaves him to wander from His path of righteousness." |
| 40:35 | | Those who contend with opposing argument against Our signs and seem resolved to dispute the truth of Our revelations without being furnished with proof, occasion Allah's strong disgust as well as the strong repugnance of those whose hearts have been impressed with the image of religious and spiritual virtues; Such objectionable disposition does Allah imprint on the heart of every extravagant in his account of himself, shackled with tyranny |
| 40:36 | | And Pharaoh said to his grand vizier: "O Haman: erect for me a lofty building soaring skyward; I may find the means of attaining my objective, " |
| 40:37 | | The means to get to the heaven's realm where I may meet and converse with the Allah of Mussa to prove my point that Mussa, as I think, is indeed a liar. "And thus was Pharaoh enticed by his deeds of evil and iniquity alluring his mind's eyes and inducing him to hug his irreverent conviction to his heart and was swayed from the path of righteousness, The plan devised by Pharaoh attained no end but only a ruthless destiny |
| 40:38 | | Then said he whose heart had been touched with the divine hand: "O people: follow me and keep up with my train of thoughts; I will lead you to the path of righteousness" |
| 40:39 | | "O people" he added, "life here is but an evanescent and ephemeral enjoyment, whereas the Hereafter is indeed the settled eternal abode." |
| 40:40 | | He who willfully violates a religious or a moral principle shall not be requited but with the like thereof, and he or she whose deeds are imprinted with wisdom and piety shall he welcomed into gardens of bliss and surpassing beauty wherein they are provided for without measure |
| 40:41 | | "O people" he said, "how is it that I invite you to the deliverance from sin and the admission to eternal bliss and you invite me to the fire of Hell!" |
| 40:42 | | "In effect you present me with inducement to deny Allah and incorporate with Him other deities of whom I have no mental apprehension and to know them, is simply to acquire abundance of empty and unprofitable knowledge, whereas I invite you to AL-Aziz (the Olmighty) and AL-Ghaffar (the Forgiving.)" |
| 40:43 | | "Indeed, the object of worship you ask me to reverence, and make obeisance to has no assertion of any right here or Hereafter, and our return shall be due to Allah. And those who are extravagant in their accounts of themselves are the inmates of the fire of Hell." |
| 40:44 | | "One day you shall recall to the mind all that I have expressed to you in words, and as for me, I commit my purpose to Allah. He is indeed the vigilant who keeps a watchful eye upon His creation and upon the way they conduct themselves in life |
| 40:45 | | In consequence did Allah ensure him immunity from the evil consequences of their cunning and their skilful deceit, whereas these people headed by Pharaoh were beset on all sides with torturing punishment |
| 40:46 | | Exposed to the fire shall their souls be, morning and evening, (the interim between death and Resurrection) and when a point in the course of time is marked by the Eventful Hour of Judgement, the command is issued thus: "Enter Pharaoh and his people into the pit of Hell and submit them to the maximum punishment." |
| 40:47 | | There and then shall all the inmates of Hell interchange altercating words and hold angry discourse and thus say the weak who lacked strength of purpose and will to those who were extravagant in their accounts of themselves "We were your followers: are you now going to carry on our behalf a share of this burdensome infernal afflictions?" |
| 40:48 | | And there shall say those who were extravagant in their accounts of themselves "we are now all within it Allah has already judged between His servants, bad men and angels." |
| 40:49 | | And there shall the inmates of Hell say to the sentinels who keep guard: "Would you invoke Allah your Creator to ease our anguish and torture just for one day!" |
| 40:50 | | "Did your Messengers," shall say the sentinels, "not present to you clear signs and expounded revelations demonstrating Allah's Omnipotence and Authority His Oneness and Uniqueness, His Omnipresence and Omniscience?" "Indeed they did" they, shall say then the sentinels shall say, "you may invoke Allah as long as you want; it is only that invocations voiced by those who deny Him is as vain as it attains no end |
| 40:51 | | Indeed and as a matter of certainty, We will make victory Sit on Our Messengers helm and on the helm of those whose hearts have been impressed with the image of religious and spiritual virtues, both here and, on the Day when the Messengers, the actions , the faculties and the senses are called as witnesses |
| 40:52 | | The day when of no avail shall be an excuse or a plea in justification of deeds of iniquity advanced by the wrongful of actions. They have come within the measure of Allah's curse, and the worst of it is their destined abode and their heritage in hell |
| 40:53 | | In order of time, We sent to Mussa the spirit of truth guiding into all truth and We made Bani-Israel (the Children of Israel) the inheritors of the Book |
| 40:54 | | Guiding into all truth and an admonition apprehended by those who open their hearts' ears and their minds' eyes and lift to Allah their inward sight |
| 40:55 | | Therefore, be patient O Muhammad and bear with them their faults and limitations; the promise of Allah, your Creator, is the truth personified. Invoke Allah's forgiveness for any instance where you went short of a standard or showed apprehension, and praise Allah, your Creator, in acknowledgement of His Divine favours and extol His glorious attributes evening and morning |
| 40:56 | | Those who contend with opposing arguments against Allah's signs and seem resolved to dispute the truth of His revelations without being endowed with authority, simply vent their feelings overflowing with the sense of pride and inordinate self-esteem but attaining no end. Therefore, commit yourself O Muhammad, to Allah counter to their falsehood. He is AL-Sami’ (with unlimited audition), and AL-Bassir (the vigilant who sees all things) |
| 40:57 | | In effect the creation* of the heavens and the earth and bringing them into being involve a far greater work than that involved in the creation of mankind and bringing them into being, but most people are not aware of this fact |
| 40:58 | | Nor does the one who lacks intellectual and spiritual perception compare with him who perceives the truth mentally and lifts to Allah his inward sight, nor do those whose hearts are impressed with the image of religious and spiritual virtues and their deeds with wisdom and piety compare with those whose works are tinted with evil. How little do you people reflect |
| 40:59 | | As to the predetermined Eventful Hour of Judgement, It shall unquestionably come to pass but most people refuse to give credence to the statement and they hold the event as untrue |
| 40:60 | | "Invoke Me," says Allah, your Creator, "I respond to your invocation." "Meanwhile those who are too proud to pay reverence to Me and do not display adoration with appropriate acts and rites, shall take up their abode in Hell, plunged into infamy and humiliation." |
| 40:61 | | Allah is He Who designated for you a period of darkness -the night- to take your natural repose and recuperate, and a period filled with light. the day- to have a clear perception of things and acquire experience of the activities of human existences. Indeed Allah's efficacious grace abounds in people but most of them show no gratitude |
| 40:62 | | This is Allah, your Creator, Who created all things and brought them into being and caused them to exist. there is no Ilah but Him yet how strongly deluded they are that they believe a lie |
| 40:63 | | Thus in like manner were deluded those who came before you, who refused to acknowledge Our Revelations and Authority; they befooled their minds and their judgement of the truth so as to cause what is false to be accepted as true |
| 40:64 | | Allah is He Who set for you the earth at creation in the order of a settled habitation where you establish your abode and made the heaven, with its regions, spheres, celestial bodies and realms of space, a construction of imposing magnitude. He gave you form and He shaped you and how shapely He fashioned you and He provided you with victuals of the various good and wholesome kinds of provisions; this is Allah, your Creator, blessed be He and praise be to Him Who has the glorious attributes, the Creator of the universe |
| 40:65 | | He is the Eternal; there is no Ilah but Him, therefore invoke Him paying reverence, devoting your religious observance with appropriate acts and rites exclusively to Him. Praise be to Allah the Creator of the universe, in acknowledgement of His divine favours |
| 40:66 | | Say to them, O Muhammad: "I have been forbidden to pay reverence to those whom you Invoke besides Him ever since I acquired the divine knowledge featured in the clear signs and the expounded revelations, and there I have been commanded to submit to Him, Creator of the universe |
| 40:67 | | He is it Who raised you, by special creation from dust, then He made you evolve from a constituent part of emitted fluid, then from a clinging organism, then He disburdens the wombs of you as a new born babe. You grow to maturity, then you are carried through the stealing steps of age to advanced life. And among you is he who encounters death earlier, and you are destined to live on to a predetermined age that you may hopefully reflect |
| 40:68 | | It is He who gives life and inspirits the property of animate existence, and He occasions death and deprives of animate existence, and when He determines to bring anything into being, He simply says: "Be" and it is |
| 40:69 | | Have you not seen O Muhammad those who contend with opposing arguments against Allah's signs and seem resolved to dispute the truth of His revelations, how they turn a deaf ear and refuse to listen but to their own conception; an imagination proceeding from their deviating senses |
| 40:70 | | These and such persons of future generations and of times past together with the present, who refuse to acknowledge the Book -the Quran- and the spirit of truth We conferred on Our Messengers who were sent before to guide people into all truth, shall come to know and experience the fatal consequence of their denial of Allah's Authority |
| 40:71 | | When in time they shall bear the yoke and be dragged in chains |
| 40:72 | | Plunged into boilers and from thence into Hell where they suffer torment |
| 40:73 | | There and then they shall be asked: "Where are those whom you incorporated with Allah and invoked in accession To Him?" |
| 40:74 | | They shall say: "They have vanished away." And they add, " in effect it is quite evident that we conceived the absent to be present and we reverenced and entertained imagination." And thus does Allah neglect those infidels who deserve ill |
| 40:75 | | This train of evils you people drew after yourselves is in requital of the pleasure you unjustly derived from the early religion of sensuous character and because of your insolence to make people the instrument of your evil ambition |
| 40:76 | | Now enter into the gates of Hell. the kingdom of eternal suffering, where you bewail your lot. Evil indeed is the abode of those who are extravagant in their accounts of themselves |
| 40:77 | | Therefore in patience O Muhammad you possess your soul; the promise of Allah, your Creator, is the absolute truth. We either show you, in your life time, some part of the retributive punishment We have promised them, or cause you to die before you witness this punishment, then to Us they are destined to return |
| 40:78 | | Before you O Muhammad We sent Messengers to their people, some of whom We mentioned and narrated to you their stories and some we did not relate to you their account, nor was it ever in the power of any Messenger to display an act of a miraculous nature but through Allah's instrumentality and authorization. And when His command comes to pass, here or Hereafter. judgement is conducted in equity and justice. There and then shall the loss fall on those given to intentional assertion of what is false |
| 40:79 | | Allah is He Who domesticated for you cattle to hold as property and rear them to ride on some and some would serve as food |
| 40:80 | | This is besides other benefits you advantage yourselves of and to effect what your emotions are directed to its attainment, and upon their backs and on board ships you are carried |
| 40:81 | | And other signs, revelations and marvels does He exhibit to you displaying His Omnipotence and Authority; so which of His signs will you deny |
| 40:82 | | Have they not journeyed through the land and looked with their minds' eyes to see the fatal consequence of those who preceded them, who were mightier by force of numbers and far mightier in power and their diligence never wearied! They left more material indicating prosecution with activity and perseverance. Yet all the advantages they availed themselves of did not afford them help nor did they serve their purpose |
| 40:83 | | And when their Messengers brought them the clear and plain revelations guiding out of darkness and superstition of later times and out of want of spiritual and intellectual sight into illumination and enlightenment, they rejected the good counsel. They favoured what enriched their bosoms of worldly knowledge which satisfied their desires and made them rejoice beyond a common joy. And so, on all sides are they beset by the same material and immaterial things they had turned in to ridicule |
| 40:84 | | And when they encountered and experienced Our severe punishment, it was only then that they declared: "We believe in Allah alone, and we deny all the deities which we incorporated with Him." |
| 40:85 | | But their submission to Allah, then and their acknowledgment of His Godhead when they saw His severe punishment befalling them precluded forgiveness; a mode of action adopted by Allah and has long been pursued. The loss, then, falls on those who deny Him |
