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 75, verses 1 – 15
Nay! I call to witness the Day of Resurrection!
But Nay! I call to witness the accusing voice of man’s own conscience!
Does man think that We cannot [resurrect him and] bring his bones together again? Yea indeed, We are able to make whole his very finger-tips!
None the less, man chooses to deny what lies ahead of him, asking [derisively], When is that resurrection day to be?
But [on that Day,] when the eyesight by fear is confounded, and the moon is darkened, and the sun and the moon are brought together [ 1 ] - on that Day, the journey’s end will be!
Man will be apprised, on that Day, of what he has done and what he has left undone: nay, but man shall against himself be an eye-witness, even though he may veil himself in excuses.
Chapter 75, verses 20 – 40
Nay, but [most of] you love this fleeting life, and give no thought to the life to come [and to Judgment Day]!
Some faces will on that Day be bright with happiness, looking up to their Sustainer; and some faces will on that Day be overcast with despair, knowing that a crushing calamity is about to befall them.
Nay, but when [the last breath] comes up to the throat [of a dying man], and people ask, “Is there any wizard [that could save him]? – the while he [himself] knows that this is the parting, and is enwrapped in the pangs of death -: at that time towards thy Sustainer does he feel impelled to turn!
[Useless, though, will be his repentance:] for [as long as he was alive] he did not accept the truth, nor did he pray [for enlightenment], but on the contrary, he gave the lie to the truth and turned away [from it], and then he went arrogantly back to what he had come from.
[And yet, O man, thine end comes hourly] nearer unto thee, and nearer – and ever nearer unto thee, and nearer!]
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Translator’s Notes:
[ 1 ] I.e., in their loss of light, or in the moon’s colliding with the sun.
