Tazkirul Quran · Tafsir · in English
Al-Ma'arij 70:36–44
70:36–39Page 569
فَمَالِ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ قِبَلَكَ مُهۡطِعِينَ ٣٦
So what is [the matter] with those who disbelieve, hastening [from] before you, [O Muḥammad],
عَنِ ٱلۡيَمِينِ وَعَنِ ٱلشِّمَالِ عِزِينَ ٣٧
[To sit] on [your] right and [your] left in separate groups?1
أَيَطۡمَعُ كُلُّ ٱمۡرِيٕٖ مِّنۡهُمۡ أَن يُدۡخَلَ جَنَّةَ نَعِيمٖ ٣٨
Does every person among them aspire to enter a garden of pleasure?
كـَلَّآۖ إِنَّا خَلَقۡنَٰهُم مِّمَّا يَعۡلَمُونَ ٣٩
No! Indeed, We have created them from that which they know.1
Those who stand by Untruth, feel that their high status is in jeopardy when the open and clear call to the Truth is delivered to them. In order to suppress this call, they try to smother it. Their unreasonable behaviour will take them straight to Hell, but with their false optimism, they go on thinking that they are fast approaching Paradise.
70:40Page 570
فَلَآ أُقۡسِمُ بِرَبِّ ٱلۡمَشَٰرِقِ وَٱلۡمَغَٰرِبِ إِنَّا لَقَٰدِرُونَ ٤٠
So I swear by the Lord of [all] risings and settings1 that indeed We are able
The periodic change in the places where the sun rises and sets on the earth’s horizon is due to that unique feature of the earth known as the axial tilt. This plus the fact that the sun is at one of the foci of the earth’s elliptical orbit, and not at its centre, is responsible for the changing of the seasons. In the absence of such factors the earth would have been less useful to man.
70:41–44Page 570
عَلَىٰٓ أَن نُّبَدِّلَ خَيۡرٗا مِّنۡهُمۡ وَمَا نَحۡنُ بِمَسۡبُوقِينَ ٤١
To replace them with better than them; and We are not to be outdone.
فَذَرۡهُمۡ يَخُوضُواْ وَيَلۡعَبُواْ حَتَّىٰ يُلَٰقُواْ يَوۡمَهُمُ ٱلَّذِي يُوعَدُونَ ٤٢
So leave them to converse vainly and amuse themselves until they meet their Day which they are promised -
يَوۡمَ يَخۡرُجُونَ مِنَ ٱلۡأَجۡدَاثِ سِرَاعٗا كَأَنَّهُمۡ إِلَىٰ نُصُبٖ يُوفِضُونَ ٤٣
The Day they will emerge from the graves rapidly as if they were, toward an erected idol, hastening.1
خَٰشِعَةً أَبۡصَٰرُهُمۡ تَرۡهَقُهُمۡ ذِلَّةٞۚ ذَٰلِكَ ٱلۡيَوۡمُ ٱلَّذِي كَانُواْ يُوعَدُونَ ٤٤
Their eyes humbled, humiliation will cover them. That is the Day which they had been promised.
In this world when there is the example of an inferior thing being improved upon, the occurrence of similar other events is quite within the realm of the possible. Those who, in spite of such clear signs, do not learn any lessons are undoubtedly frivolous people. Such people learn lessons only when they are compelled to do so.
Text: through the Quran Foundation. The ayahs: Quran Foundation. Sources and licences