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).
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!]
________
Translator’s Notes:
[ 1 ] I.e., in their loss of light, or in the moon’s
colliding with the sun.
