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 93, Ad-Duhaa (The Bright Morning Hours), Verses 1-11 (Complete Surah)
[ 1 ] Consider the bright morning hours, [ 2 ]
Thy Sustainer has not forsaken thee, nor does he scorn thee: for, indeed the life to come will be better for thee than this the earlier part [ of thy life]!
And, indeed in time will thy Sustainer grant thee [what thy heart desires], and thou shalt be well-pleased.
Has He not found thee an orphan, and given thee shelter? [ 3 ]
And found thee lost on thy way, and guided thee?
And found thee in want, and given thee sufficiency?
Therefore, the orphan shalt thou never wrong, and him that seeks [thy] help shalt thou never chide, and of thy Sustainer’s blessings shalt thou ever speak. [ 4 ].
______________________
Translator’s Notes
[ 1 ] It is said that after Surah 89 (Al Fajr) was revealed, some time elapsed during which the Prophet did not receive any revelation, and that his opponents in Mecca taunted him on this score, saying, “Thy God has forsaken and scorned thee!” whereupon the present surah was revealed. Whether or not we accept this somewhat doubtful story, there is every reason to assume that that surah as such, although in the first instance addressed to the Prophet, has a far wider purport: it concerns – and is meant to console – every faithful man and woman suffering from the sorrows and bitter hardships which so often afflict the good and the innocent, and which sometimes cause even the righteous to question God’s transcendental justice.
[ 2 ] The expression “bright morning hours” apparently symbolizes the few and widely-spaced periods of happiness in human life, as contrasted with the greater length of “the night when it grows still and dark”, i.e., the extended periods of sorrow and suffering that, as a rule, overshadow man’s existence in this world. The further implication is that, as sure as morning follows night, God’s mercy is bound to lighten every suffering, either in this world or in the life to come – for God has “willed upon Himself the law of grace and mercy” (Chapter 6, verse 12 and verse 54).
[ 3 ] Possibly an illusion to the fact that the Prophet was born a few months after his father’s death, and that his mother died when he was only six years old. Apart from this, however, every human being is an “orphan” in one sense or another, inasmuch as everyone is “created in a lonely state” (ref. Chapter 6, Verse 94), and “will appear before Him on Resurrection Day in a lonely state” (Chapter 19, Verse 95).
[ 4 ] That is to say, “rather than of thy suffering”.
