Gems from the Holy Qur’an
From the translation by Muhammad Asad (Leopold Weiss)
About the translator:
Muhammad Asad, Leopold Weiss, was born of Jewish parents in Livow, Austria (later Poland) in 1900, and at the age of 22 made his first visit to the Middle East. He later became an outstanding foreign correspondent for the Franfurter Zeitung, and after years of devoted study became one of the leading Muslim scholars of our age. His translation of the Holy Qur'an is one of the most lucid and well-referenced works in this category, dedicated to “li-qawmin yatafakkaroon” (people who think). Forwarded by Dr Ismat Kamal.
Chapter 89, Al-Fajr (The Daybreak), Verses 27-30
[But unto the righteous God will say,] “O thou human being that hast attained to inner peace! Return thou unto thy Sustainer, well-pleased [and] pleasing [Him]: enter, then, together with my [other true] servants – yea, enter thou My paradise!
Chapter 90, Al-Balad (The Land), Verses 4-20
Verily, we have created man into [a life of] pain, toil and trial.
Does he, then, think that no one has power over him? Have we not given him two eyes, and a tongue, and a pair of lips, and shown him the two highways [of good and evil]?
But he would not try to ascend the steep uphill road….
And what could make thee conceive what it is, the steep uphill road?
[It is] the freeing of one’s neck [from the burden of sin], or of feeding, upon a day of [one’s own] hunger, of an orphan near of kin, or of a needy [stranger] lying in the dust – and being, withal, of those who have attained to faith, and who enjoin upon one another patience in adversity, and enjoin upon one another compassion.
Such as they that have attained to righteousness; whereas those who are bent on denying the truth of Our messages – they are such as have lost themselves in evil, [with] fire closing in upon them.
Chapter 91, Ash-Shams (The Sun), Verses 1-10
Consider the sun and its radiant brightness, and the moon as it reflects the sun! [ 1 ]
Consider the day as it reveals the world, and the night as it veils it darkly!
Consider the human self, and how it is formed in accordance with what it is meant to be, and how it is imbued with moral failings as well as with consciousness of God!
To a happy state shall indeed attain he who causes this [self] to grow in purity, and truly lost is he who buries it in darkness.
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Translator’s Notes
[ 1 ] Literally, “as it follows it”, i.e., the sun. According to the great philologist Al-Farraa, who lived in the second century after the hijrah, “ the meaning is that the moon derives its light from the sun” (quoted by Raazii).
This is also RaaGhib’s interpretation of the above phrase.
