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 110, An- Nasr (Succor), Verses 1-3 (Complete Surah)
When God’s succor comes, and victory, and thou seest people enter God’s religion [ 1 ] in hosts, extol thy Sustainer’s limitless glory, and praise Him, and seek His forgiveness: for, behold, He is ever an acceptor of repentence. [2]
Chapter 111, Al-Masad (The Twisted Strands), Verses 1-5 (Complete Surah)
Doomed are the hands of him of the glowing countenance, [ 3 ] and doomed is he!
What will his wealth avail him, and all that he has gained?
[In the life to come] he shall have to endure a fire fiercely glowing, together with his wife, that carrier of evil tales, [who bears] around her neck a rope of twisted strands.
Chapter 112, Al-Ikhlas (The Declaration of [God’s] Perfection), Verses 1-4 (Complete Surah)
Say: “He is the One God:
“God the Eternal, the Uncaused Cause of all that Exists” [ 4 ]
“He begets not, and neither is He begotten;
“And there is nothing that could be compared with Him.”
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Translator’s Notes
[ 1 ] I.e., the religion of self-surrender to God: ref. Ch. 3, Verse 19 – “the only [true] religion in the sight of God is [man’s] self-surrender unto Him”.
[ 2 ] Implying that that even if people should embrace the true religion in great numbers, a believer ought not to grow self-complacent but should, rather, become more humble and more conscious of his own failings.
[ 3 ] The real name of the uncle of the Prophet was ‘Abd al-‘Uzza. He was popularly known as Abu Lahab (lit., “he of the flame”).
[ 4 ] This rendering gives no more than an approximate meaning of the term as-samad, which occurs in the Qur’an only once, and is applied to God alone. It comprises the concepts of Primary Cause and eternal, independent Being, combined with the idea that everything existing or conceivable goes back to Him as its source and is, therefore, dependent on Him for its beginning as well as its continued existence.
