Surah 46. Al-Ahqaf, Ayah 26
| وَلَقَدْ مَكَّنَّاهُمْ فِيمَا إِنْ مَكَّنَّاكُمْ فِيهِ وَجَعَلْنَا لَهُمْ سَمْعًا وَأَبْصَارًا وَأَفْئِدَةً فَمَا أَغْنَىٰ عَنْهُمْ سَمْعُهُمْ وَلَا أَبْصَارُهُمْ وَلَا أَفْئِدَتُهُمْ مِنْ شَيْءٍ إِذْ كَانُوا يَجْحَدُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ وَحَاقَ بِهِمْ مَا كَانُوا بِهِ يَسْتَهْزِئُونَ |
| Transliteration | : | wa- la- qad makkannaa -hum fe maa 'in makkannaa -kum fe -hi wa- jacalnaa la- -hum samc(an) wa- abs.aar(an) wa- af'idah fa- maa aghnaa can -hum samc -hum wa- laa abs.aar -hum wa- laa af'idah -hum min shay' 'idh kaano yajh.adon bi- 'aayaat 'allaah wa- h.aaqa bi- -him maa kaano bi- -hi yastahzi'on |
| Pickthall | : | And verily We bad empowered them with that where with We have not empowered you, and had assigned them ears and eyes and hearts; but their ears and eyes and hearts availed them naught since they denied the revelations of Allah; and what they used to mock befell them. |
| Asad | : | And yet, We had established them securely in a manner in which We have never established you, people of later times;]29 and We had endowed them with hearing, and sight, and [knowledgeable] hearts:30 but neither their hearing, nor their sight, nor their hearts were of the least avail to them, seeing that they went on rejecting God's messages; and [in the end] they were overwhelmed31 by the very thing which they had been wont to deride. |
| Malik | : | We had established them much better than We have established you, O Qureysh of Makkah, and endowed them with the faculties of hearing, seeing, and intellect. Yet their faculties of hearing, sight and intellect avail them nothing since they denied the revelations of Allah; and they were completely hemmed in by the same thing that they used to mock at. |
| Yusuf Ali | : | And We had firmly established them in a (prosperity and) power which We have not given to you (ye Quraish!) and We had endowed them with (faculties of) hearing seeing heart and intellect: but of no profit to them were their (faculties of) hearing sight and heart and intellect when they went on rejecting the Signs of Allah; and they were (completely) encircled by that which they used to mock at! 4804 4805 4806 |
Note - 29This relates in the first instance to the pagan
contemporaries of the Prophet, but applies to later
generations as well. - The tribe of 'Ad were the
unchallenged lords in the vast region in which they lived
(cf. 89:8 - "the like of whom has never been reared in
all the land"). Moreover, the social conditions of their
time were so simple and so free of the many uncertainties
and dangers which beset people of higher civilizations
that they could be regarded as more "securely
established" on earth than people of later, more complex
times.
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Note - 30I.e., intellect and feeling, both of which are comprised
in the noun fu'ad.
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Note - 31Lit.. "enfolded".
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Note - 4804The 'Ad and their successors the Thamud were more richly
endowed with the faculties of the arts, sciences, and
culture than ever were the Quraish before Islam. "Hearing
and seeing" refer to the experimental faculties; the word
"heart" in Arabic includes intellect, or the rational
faculties, as well as the instruments of feeling and
emotion, the aesthetic faculties. The Second 'Ad, or
Thamud, have left interesting traces of their
architecture in the country round the Hijr: see n. 1043
to vii. 73, and notes 2002- 2003 to xv. 80-82.
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Note - 4805The highest talents and faculties of this world are
useless in the next world if we reject the laws of Allah
and thus become outlaws in the Hereafter.
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Note - 4806See n. 4770 to xlv. 33. They used to mock at Allah's
Signs, but those were the very things which hemmed them
in, and showed that they had more power and effectiveness
than anything else.
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This relates in the first instance to the pagan contemporaries of the Prophet, but applies to later generations as well. - The tribe of 'Ad were the unchallenged lords in the vast region in which they lived (cf. 89:8 - "the like of whom has never been reared in all the land"). Moreover, the social conditions of their time were so simple and so free of the many uncertainties and dangers which beset people of higher civilizations that they could be regarded as more "securely established" on earth than people of later, more complex times. |
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The 'Ad and their successors the Thamud were more richly endowed with the faculties of the arts, sciences, and culture than ever were the Quraish before Islam. "Hearing and seeing" refer to the experimental faculties; the word "heart" in Arabic includes intellect, or the rational faculties, as well as the instruments of feeling and emotion, the aesthetic faculties. The Second 'Ad, or Thamud, have left interesting traces of their architecture in the country round the Hijr: see n. 1043 to vii. 73, and notes 2002- 2003 to xv. 80-82. |
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The highest talents and faculties of this world are useless in the next world if we reject the laws of Allah and thus become outlaws in the Hereafter. |
