Surah Ad-Dukhaan (44): Read Online and Download - English Translation

Commentary

وَإِنِّي عُذْتُ بِرَ‌بِّي وَرَ‌بِّكُمْ أَن تَرْ‌جُمُونِ "And I have sought refuge with my Lord and your Lord, lest you stone me to death. (44:20) " The word rajm means 'to stone to death'. Another meaning of the word is 'to revile or to make a verbal assault or to heap up insults'. Both senses are possible here, but it seems more likely that the word is used here in the sense of stoning to death, because Fir'aun's people must have been threatening Prophet Musa (علیہ السلام) with death.

وَاتْرُ‌كِ الْبَحْرَ‌ رَ‌هْوًا "And leave the sea in the state of stillness; (44:24) " The word rahwan means 'to be still/calm/motionless'. When Prophet Musa (علیہ السلام) and his companions crossed the sea, Musa ill naturally desired for the sea to go back to its original state. So he wanted to strike it with his staff so that it would form a barrier between them and Fir'aun to prevent him from reaching them. But Allah commanded him to leave it as it was, quiet and divided, and gave him the glad tidings that they were a host to be drowned, and he should not fear either being overtaken by Fir'aun or drowning in the sea. When Fir'aun, with his host, will reach the middle of the dry path, Allah will cause the water to flow and they will drown. (Ibn Kathir).

وَأَوْرَ‌ثْنَاهَا قَوْمًا آخَرِ‌ينَ And We made other people inherit all this." (44:28) In Surah Shu'ara', it is explicitly stated that 'other people' refers to the Children of Israel. It is objected that there is no historical evidence to show that the Children of Israel ever settled again in Egypt. This objection has been rebutted in Surah Shu` ara'.

Weeping of the Sky and the Earth

فَمَا بَكَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ السَّمَاءُ وَالْأَرْ‌ضُ "So, neither the sky and earth wept over them... (44:29) ". This means they did not perform any righteous deeds on earth which would weep for them when they died, nor did any of their righteous deeds ascend through the gates of heaven, so that the sky would weep on their death. There are several ahadith which confirm that when a righteous person dies, the heaven and earth weep. Hafiz Abu Ya` la reports on the authority of Sayyidna Anas ؓ that the Prophet of Allah ﷺ said: "For every person there are two gates in the heaven/sky. Through one of them his sustenance descends, and through the other his deeds and his conversation ascend. When he dies, the gates remember him and weep. Then the Prophet ﷺ recited the following verse as an evidence of his statement: فَمَا بَكَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ السَّمَاءُ وَالْأَرْ‌ضُ So, neither the sky and earth wept over them...(44:29) ". Similar reports are narrated on the authority of Sayyidna Ibn ` Abbas (Ibn Kathir). Sayyidna Shuraih Ibn ` Ubaid al-Hadrami ؓ narrates that the Holy Prophet ﷺ said: "If a believer dies away from home where there is no one to weep for him, the heaven and earth weep for him." On this occasion too, the Holy Prophet ﷺ recited the same verse (29), adding that neither the sky nor the earth weeps for a non-believer. (Ibn Jarir). Sayyidna ‘Ali ؓ also upholds that the heaven and earth weep for a righteous person. (Ibn Kathir).

Some scholars interpret the verse metaphorically, not literally. They say that the sky and the earth do not really weep, in the primary sense of the word. The verse purports to say that their existence is so insignificant that when they were wiped out, it did not cause grief to anyone. In the light of the above narratives, the real weeping of the heaven and earth in this context appears to be preferable. If the literal or primary sense of an expression is possible, there is no need to interpret it metaphorically or figuratively. The narratives quoted above support our argument - that the verse must be interpreted in its basic sense, and not in the figurative sense. It may be objected that neither the heaven nor the earth has any sense so that they would weep in the primary sense in which we understand it. Its rebuttal is simple: Obviously, every member of the universe has some sense, to a higher or lower degree, as attested by the Qur'an وَإِن مِّن شَيْءٍ إِلَّا يُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِهِ...And there is not a single thing that does not extol His purity and praise, but you do not understand their extolling... (17:44) ". Gradually, contemporary science - through its research and experiment - is now reaching the same conclusion. Of course, it is not necessary for the heavens and the earth to be weeping in the same way as human beings do. The way of their weeping would surely be different from humans but we are unaware of its reality.

وَلَقَدِ اخْتَرْ‌نَاهُمْ عَلَىٰ عِلْمٍ عَلَى الْعَالَمِينَ And We chose them, with knowledge above all the worlds. (44:32)," This does not imply that the Children of Israel are superior to the Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ ، because the verse means that the Children of Israel were given superiority over all the people of their time. This is just like the Qur'an has described the merit of Sayyidah Maryam (علیہا السلام) as being superior to the نِسَاءِ الْعَالَمِينَ "women of the worlds (3:42) which means that she was superior to the women of her time." It is also possible that the Children of Israel have some sort of superiority to all the people of all times and ages from a particular angle, but collectively the Ummah of the Final Messenger ﷺ holds the highest status. (See Ibn Kathir and other sources for details.)

عَلَى الْعَالَمِينَ "with knowledge" means that every work of Allah has wisdom. Thus wisdom underlying Allah's knowledge dictated that they be granted superiority, and they were granted accordingly.

وَآتَيْنَاهُم مِّنَ الْآيَاتِ مَا فِيهِ بَلَاءٌ مُّبِينٌ And We gave them the clear signs in which there was a manifest blessing. (44:33) " The word 'signs' refers to the miracles of the staff, the shining hand and others. The word 1 bala' has two senses: (1) blessing; and (2) trial. Here both senses are possible. (Qurtubi).

Commentary

فَأْتُوا بِآبَائِنَا إِن كُنتُمْ صَادِقِينَ "Bring our fathers, if you are true (in your belief in resurrection" ) (44:36) ". Allah did not give an answer to this argument of theirs, because it was too obvious to need explanation, for the resurrection will happen on the Day of Judgment, not in this world. Allah will bring back to life all human beings in the Hereafter. Life and death in this world are bound by specific natural laws and wisdom. If Allah is not bringing back to life those who died long ago at this time, it does not necessarily imply that He will not be able to give life after death in the Hereafter. The following statement embodies their false/absurd reasoning: In logical terminology, it may be said that the negation of a particular thing does not necessarily imply the negation of a general thing. (Bayan-ul-Qur an)

The Story of Tubba'

أَهُمْ خَيْرٌ‌ أَمْ قَوْمُ تُبَّعٍ "Are they better or the people of Tubba? (44:37) ". The people of Tubba` have been referred to twice in the Qur'an. Here and in Surah Qaf. In both places only their name has been mentioned without recounting their chronicle. Therefore, the commentators have discussed extensively about the people of Tubba' , trying to identify them and their history. Tubba' is not the name of a particular individual, but is said to be the royal title of the kings of Himyar in Yemen. The Kings of Yemen were only known by this title when held sway over Himyar, Arabia, Syria, ` Iraq and parts of Africa for a long time; western part of Yemen was their capital. Therefore, the plural of Tubba' is Tababi'ah, and the kings are called Tababi` ah of Yemen. It is not clear which of the Tababi` ah is referred to here. Hafiz Ibn Kathir's research and conclusion would appear to be most plausible. His conclusion is that Tubba' here refers to Tubba' Ausat (Middle Tubba`) whose name was As` ad Abu Kuraib Ibn Ma` dikarab Yamani. This King ruled at least seven hundred years before the advent of the Holy Prophet of Allah ﷺ . Among the Himyari Kings, he ruled the longest. During his rule, he went on a journey of conquest invading many regions and annexing them to his domain until he reached Samarqand, expanding his kingdom. According to Muhammad Ibn Ishaq's narration, during his conquests once he passed by the area of Madinah and intended to attack it. The inhabitants of Madinah adopted the attitude that during the day they used to resist his attacks and during the night they entertained him. He felt embarrassed and abandoned the intention of fighting. During this period, two Jewish Rabbis warned him that that was the place of migration of the Final Prophet of Allah ﷺ ، and that he would never be able to prevail over that city. He was thus persuaded and left Madinah and went away with the two Rabbis to Yemen. The Rabbis invited him to embrace the Mosaic religion, and he did accept it. As a result, his people were also influenced by him and they too embraced the Mosaic religion. However, after his death they went astray and reverted to idolatry and fire-worship. This brought down on them the Divine wrath, the details of which are available in Surah Saba'. (Condensed from Tafsir Ibn Kathir: vol. 4 /p 144). This incident shows that the Tubba` mentioned here had himself embraced Islam, but his people later went astray. On both occasions the Qur'an has made reference to the 'people of Tubba', and not to Tubba' himself . This is supported by the narratives of Sayyidna Sahl Ibn Sa'd and Ibn ` Abbas ؓ which are recorded by Ibn Abi Hatim, Imam Ahmad, Tabarani and others that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: لا تسبّو تبّعافانّہ، قد کان اسلم "Do not revile Tubba', because he had embraced Islam." (ibidem).

مَا خَلَقْنَاهُمَا إِلَّا بِالْحَقِّ وَلَـٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ‌هُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ "We did not create them but with true purpose, yet most of them do not know. (44:39) " In other words, every wise and thinking person should realise that there is a purpose and objective for creating this universe. The heavens and the earth and everything created in them manifest many realities. Examples are: (1) the manifestation of Divine power; (2) the possibility of the Hereafter. Obviously, the Supreme Creator Who drew out such huge bodies from the realm of non-existence into the realm of existence surely has the power to destroy them and re-create them; (3) the need for retribution (reward/punishment). If there is no retribution in the Hereafter, the very existence of the universe would be rendered purposeless or its purpose would be defeated. The wisdom underlying the creation of the universe is to make it dar-ul-imtihan (the domain of test-n-trial) and the Hereafter is the domain of reward and punishment. Otherwise, the outcome of both good and bad will necessarily be the same. This is far from Divine wisdom, or not in keeping with Divine wisdom; and (4) urging the thinking people to obey Allah and thank Him for having granted man this entire universe or creation as His great blessing