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 his conversion to Islam travelled and
worked throughout the Muslim world, from North Africa
to as far east as Afghanistan, India and Pakistan.
After years of devoted study he 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” (For people
who think).
Chapter 37, verse 11
And now ask those [who deny the truth] to enlighten
thee: Were they more difficult to create than all
those [untold marvels] that We have created? –
for, behold, them have We created out of [mere]
clay commingled with water! [ 1 ]
Chapter 38, verse 27
And [thus it is:] We have not created heaven and
earth and all that is in between them without meaning
and purpose, as is the surmise of those who are
bent on denying the truth: but then, woe from the
fire [of hell] unto all who are bent on denying
the truth!
Chapter 38, verse 29
[All this We have expounded in this] blessed divine
writ which We have revealed unto thee, [O Muhammad,]
so that men may ponder over its messages, and that
those who are endowed with insight may take them
to heart.
Chapter 38, verses 45 - 47
And call to mind Our servants Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob, [all of them] endowed with inner strength
and vision: for, verily, we purified them by means
of a thought most pure: the remembrance of the life
to come. And, behold, in Our sight they were indeed
among the elect, the truly good!
Chapter 38, verses 65 - 66
Say [O Muhammad]: “I am only a warner; and
there is no deity whatever save God, the One, who
holds absolute sway over all that exists, the Sustainer
of the heavens and the earth and all that is between
them, the Almighty, the All-Forgiving!”
Chapter 38, verses 86 – 88
Say [O Prophet]: “No reward whatever do I
ask of you for this [message]; and I am not one
of those who claim to be what they are not. This
[divine writ], behold, is no less than a reminder
to all the worlds – and you will most certainly
grasp its purport after a lapse of time.
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Translator’s Notes
[ 1 ] I.e., out of primitive substances existing
in their elementary forms in and on earth –
substances which are as nothing when compared with
the complexity of “the heavens and the earth
and all that is between them”: hence, man’s
individual resurrection is as nothing compared with
the creation of the multiform universe.
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