وَالْعَادِيَاتِ ضَبْحًا
OH, the chargers that run panting, (1)
فَالْمُورِيَاتِ قَدْحًا
sparks of fire striking, (2)
فَالْمُغِيرَاتِ صُبْحًا
rushing to assault at morn, (3)
فَأَثَرْنَ بِهِ نَقْعًا
thereby raising clouds of dust, (4)
فَوَسَطْنَ بِهِ جَمْعًا
thereby storming [blindly] into any host! (5)
إِنَّ الْإِنْسَانَ لِرَبِّهِ لَكَنُودٌ
VERILY, towards his Sustainer man is most ungrateful (6)
وَإِنَّهُ عَلَىٰ ذَٰلِكَ لَشَهِيدٌ
and to this, behold, he [himself] bears witness indeed: (7)
وَإِنَّهُ لِحُبِّ الْخَيْرِ لَشَدِيدٌ
for, verily, to the love of wealth is he most ardently devoted. (8)
أَفَلَا يَعْلَمُ إِذَا بُعْثِرَ مَا فِي الْقُبُورِ
But does he not know that [on the Last Day,] when all that is in the graves is raised and brought out, (9)
وَحُصِّلَ مَا فِي الصُّدُورِ
and all that is [hidden] in men's hearts is bared (10)
إِنَّ رَبَّهُمْ بِهِمْ يَوْمَئِذٍ لَخَبِيرٌ
that on that Day their Sustainer [will show that He] has always been fully aware of them? (11)
- thereby storming [blindly] into any host!2
- 2 I.e., blinded by clouds of dust and not knowing whether their assault aims at friend or foe. The metaphoric image developed in the above five verses is closely connected with the sequence, although this connection has never been brought out by the classical commentators. The term al-adiyat undoubtedly denotes the war-horses, or chargers, employed by the Arabs from time immemorial down to the Middle Ages (the feminine gender of this term being due to the fact that, as a rule, they preferred mares to stallions). But whereas the conventional explanation is based on the assumption that "the chargers" symbolize here the believers' fight in God's cause (jihad) and, therefore, represent something highly commendable, it takes no account whatever of the discrepancy between so positive an imagery and the condemnation expressed in verses 6 ff., not to speak of the fact that such a conventional interpretation does not provide any logical link between the two parts of the surah. But since such a link must exist, and since verses 6-11 are undoubtedly condemnatory, we must conclude that the first five verses, too, have the same or at least, a similar - character. This character becomes at once obvious if we dissociate ourselves from the preconceived notion that the imagery of "the chargers" is used here in a laudatory sense. In fact, the opposite is the case. Beyond any doubt, "the chargers" symbolize the erring human soul or self - a soul devoid of all spiritual direction, obsessed and ridden by all manner of wrong, selfish desires, madly, unseeingly rushing onwards, unchecked by conscience or reason, blinded by the dust-clouds of confused and confusing appetites, storming into insoluble situations and, thus, into its own spiritual destruction.
- And penetrate forthwith into the midst (of the foe) en masse;-6245
- 6245 The forces of evil mass themselves for strength, but their massing itself may become a means of their speedy undoing.
-
And penetrate forthwith into the midst (of the foe) en masse;-
— Abdullah Yusuf Ali -
Cleaving, as one, the centre (of the foe),
— Marmaduke Pickthall -
Then rush thereby upon an assembly:
— M. Habib Shakir -
Penetrating forthwith as one into the midst (of the foe);
— Taqiuddin Hilali and M. Mohsin Khan -
And cleaving their way therein into the host,
— Abdul-Majid Daryabadi -
dividing the gathering.
— Hasan Qaribullah and Ahmed Darwish -
penetrating a host,
— Ayub Khan -
And thus penetrate into the centre of the enemy ranks.
— Sher Ali -
thereby storming [blindly] into any host!
— Muhammad Asad -
cleaving there with a host!
— Arthur Arberry -
and penetrate deep into a host.
— Abu'l Ala Maududi