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 16, Verse 112
And God propounds [to you] a parable: Imagine a town which was [once] secure and at ease, with its sustenance coming to it abundantly from all quarters, and which thereupon blasphemously refused to show gratitude for God’s blessings: and therefore God caused it to taste the all-embracing misery of hunger and fear in result of all [the evil] that its people had so persistently wrought [ 1 ].
Chapter 16, Verse 114-117
And so, partake of all the lawful, good things which God has provided for you as sustenance, and render thanks unto God for His blessings, if it is [truly] Him that you worship.
He has forbidden to you only carrion, and blood, and the flesh of swine, and that over which any name other than God’s has been invoked; but if one is driven [to it] by necessity – neither coveting it nor exceeding his immediate need – verily, God is much forgiving, a dispenser of grace.
Hence, do not utter falsehoods by letting your tongues determine [at your discretion], “This is lawful and that is forbidden”, thus attributing your own lying inventions to God: for, behold, they who attribute their own lying inventions to God will never attain to a happy state! A brief enjoyment [may be theirs in this world] – but grievous suffering awaits them [in the life to come]!
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Translator’s Notes
[ 1 ] This parable is meant to show that deliberate ingratitude for the manifold blessings which God bestows upon man – in other words, a deliberate refusal to submit to His guidance – is bound, in the long run and in the context of aggregate social life, to have disastrous consequences not only in the hereafter but in this world as well, inasmuch as no society may expect to live in security and ease unless it conforms to the ethical and social standards inherent in the concept of man’s “bond with God”.
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