Tafseer 23

Al Salam alaikum wa Rahmat Allah wa Barakatoh

{أرأيت من اتخذ إلهه هواه أفأنت تكون عليه وكيلاً}

Meaning:  Have you (O Muhammad Salla Allah alaihi wa Sallam) seen him who has taken as his ilah (god) his own vain desire?  Would you then be a Wakil (a disposer of his affairs or a watcher) over him?

{أم تحسب أن أكترهم يسمعون أو يعقلون إن هم إلا كالأنعام بل هم أضل سبيلاً}

Or do you think that most of them hear or understand?  They are only like cattle – nay, they are even farther astray from the Path (i.e. even worse than cattle).

{ألم تر إلى ربك كيف مد الظل ولو شاء لجعله ساكنًا ثم جعلنا الشمس عليه دليلاً}

Have you not seen how your Lord spread the shadow?  If He willed, He would have made it still – but We have made the sun its guide (i.e. after the sunrise, the shadow shrinks and vanishes at midnoon and then again appears in the afternoon with the decline of the sun, and had there been no sunlight, there would have been no shadow).

{ثم قبضناه إلينا قبضًا يسيرًا}

Then We withdraw it to Us – a gradual concealed withdrawal.

{وهو الذي جعل لكم الليل لباسًا والنوم سباتًا وجعل النهار نشورًا}

And it is He Who makes the night a covering for you, and the sleep (as) a repose, and makes the day Nushur (i.e. getting up and going about here and there for daily work, after one's sleep at night or like resurrection after one's death).

{وهو الذي أرسل الرياح بشرًا بين يدي رحمته وأنزلنا من السماء ماءً طهورًا}

And it is He Who sends the winds as heralds of glad tidings, going before His Mercy (rain); and We send down pure water from the sky,

{لنحيي به بلدةً ميتًا ونسقيه مما خلقنا أنعامًا وأناسي كثيرًا}

That We may give life thereby to a dead land, and We give or drink thereof many of the cattle and men that We have created.

{ولقد صرفناه بينهم ليذكروا فأبى أكثر الناس إلا كفورًا}

And indeed We have distributed it (rain or water) amongst them in order that they may remember the Grace of Allah, but most men (refuse to accept the Truth or Faith and) accept nothing but disbelief or ingratitude.

{ولو شئنا لبعثنا في كل قرية نذيرًا}

And had We willed, We would have raised a warner in every town.

{فلا تطع الكافرين وجاهدهم به جهادًا كبيرًا}

So obey not the disbelievers, but strive against them (by preaching) with the utmost endeavour with it (the Qur'an).

{وهو الذي مرج البحرين هذا عذب فرات وهذا ملح أجاج وجعل بينهما برزخًا وحجرًا محجورًا}

And it is He Who has let free the two seas (kinds of water), this is palatable and sweet, and that is salt and bitter; and He has set a barrier and a complete partition between them.

{وهو الذي خلق من الماء بشرًا فجعله نسبًا وصهرًا وكان ربك قديرًا}

And it is He Who has created man from water, and has appointed for him kindred by blood, and kindred by marriage.  And your Lord is Ever All-Powerful to do what He wills.

{ويعبدون من دون الله ما لا ينفعهم ولا يضرهم وكان الكافر على ربه ظهيرًا}

And they (disbelievers, polytheists) worship besides Allah, that which can neither profit them nor harm them; and the disbeliever is ever a helper (of Satan) against his Lord.

{وما أرسلناك إلا مبشرًا ونذيرًا}

And We have sent you (O Muhammad Salla Allah alaihi wa Sallam) only as a bearer of glad tidings and a warner.

{قل ما أسألكم عليه من أجر إلا من شاء أن يتخذ إلى ربه سبيلاً}

Say:  "No reward do I ask of you for this (that which I have brought from my Lord and its preaching), except that whosoever wills, may take a Path to his Lord."

{وتوكل على الحي الذي لا يموت وسبح بحمده وكفى به بذنوب عباده خبيرًا}

And put your trust (O Muhammad Salla Allah alaihi wa Sallam) in the Ever Living One Who dies not, and glorify His praises, and Sufficient is He as the All-Knower of the sins of His slaves.

سورة الفرقان 43 - 58

The Source:

Interpretation of the Meanings of The Noble Qur'an In The English Language

 A Summarized Version of At-Tabari, Al-Qurtubi and Ibn Kathir with comments from Sahih Al-Bukhari.

Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan

Dr. Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din Al-Hilali

DARUSSALAM