يس
O THOU human being! (1)
وَالْقُرْآنِ الْحَكِيمِ
Consider this Qur'ān full of wisdom: (2)
إِنَّكَ لَمِنَ الْمُرْسَلِينَ
verily, thou art indeed one of God's message-bearers, (3)
عَلَىٰ صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ
pursuing a straight way (4)
تَنْزِيلَ الْعَزِيزِ الرَّحِيمِ
by [virtue of] what is being bestowed from on high by the Almighty, the Dispenser of Grace, (5)
لِتُنْذِرَ قَوْمًا مَا أُنْذِرَ آبَاؤُهُمْ فَهُمْ غَافِلُونَ
[bestowed upon thee] so that thou mayest warn people whose forefathers had not been warned, and who therefore are unaware [of the meaning of right and wrong]. (6)
لَقَدْ حَقَّ الْقَوْلُ عَلَىٰ أَكْثَرِهِمْ فَهُمْ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ
Indeed, the word [of God's condemnation] is bound to come true against most of them: for they will not believe. (7)
إِنَّا جَعَلْنَا فِي أَعْنَاقِهِمْ أَغْلَالًا فَهِيَ إِلَى الْأَذْقَانِ فَهُمْ مُقْمَحُونَ
Behold, around their necks We have put shackles, reaching up to their chins, so that their heads are forced up; (8)
وَجَعَلْنَا مِنْ بَيْنِ أَيْدِيهِمْ سَدًّا وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِمْ سَدًّا فَأَغْشَيْنَاهُمْ فَهُمْ لَا يُبْصِرُونَ
and We have set a barrier before them and a barrier behind them, and We have enshrouded them in veils so that they cannot see: (9)
وَسَوَاءٌ عَلَيْهِمْ أَأَنْذَرْتَهُمْ أَمْ لَمْ تُنْذِرْهُمْ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ
thus, it is all one to them whether thou warnest them or dost not warn them: they will not believe. (10)
إِنَّمَا تُنْذِرُ مَنِ اتَّبَعَ الذِّكْرَ وَخَشِيَ الرَّحْمَٰنَ بِالْغَيْبِ فَبَشِّرْهُ بِمَغْفِرَةٍ وَأَجْرٍ كَرِيمٍ
Thou canst [truly] warn only him who is willing to take the reminder to heart, and who stands in awe of the Most Gracious although He is beyond the reach of human perception: unto such, then, give the glad tiding of [God's] forgiveness and of a most excellent reward! (11)
إِنَّا نَحْنُ نُحْيِي الْمَوْتَىٰ وَنَكْتُبُ مَا قَدَّمُوا وَآثَارَهُمْ وَكُلَّ شَيْءٍ أَحْصَيْنَاهُ فِي إِمَامٍ مُبِينٍ
Verily, We shall indeed bring the dead back to life; and We shall record whatever [deeds] they have sent ahead, and the traces [of good and evil] which they have left behind: for of all things do We take account in a record clear. (12)
- O THOU human being!1
- 1 Whereas some of the classical commentators incline to the view that the letters y-s (pronounced ya sin) with which this surah opens belong to the category of the mysterious letter-symbols (al-muqatta'at) introducing a number of Qur'anic chapters (see Appendix II), 'Abd Allah ibn Abbas states that they actually represent two distinct words, namely the exclamatory particle ya ("O") and sin, which in the dialect of the tribe of Tayy' is synonymous with insan ("human being" or "man"): hence, similar to the two syllables ta ha in surah 20, ya sin denotes "O thou human being!" This interpretation has been accepted by 'Ikrimah, Ad-Dahhak, Al-Hasan al-Basri, Sa'id ibn Jubayr, and other early Qur'an-commentators (see Tabari, Baghawi, Zamakhshari, Baydawi, Ibn Kathir, etc.). According to Zamakhshari, it would seem that the syllable sin is an abbreviation of unaysin, the diminutive form of insan used by the Tayy' in exclamations. (It is to be borne in mind that in classical Arabic a diminutive is often expressive of no more than endearment: e.g., ya bunayya, which does not necessarily signify "O my little son" but, rather, "my dear son" irrespective of the son's age.) On the whole, we may safely assume that the words ya sin apostrophize the Prophet Muhammad, who is explicitly addressed in the sequence, and are meant to stress - as the Qur'an so often does - the fact of his and all other apostles' humanness.
- Ya Sin.3943
- 3943 Some Commentators take Ya to be the vocative article, and Sin to be the abbreviation of Insan, Sin being the only "Firm Letter" in the word. In that case it would be an address to man. "O man!" But "man" in this connection is understood to mean the Leader of man, the noblest of mankind, Muhammad, the Prophet of Allah. For this Surah deals mainly with the Prophet and his Message. But no dogmatic assertion can be made about the Abbreviated Letters, for which see Appendix I, following S. 2. Ya Sin is usually treated as a title of the Prophet.
-
Ya Sin.
— Abdullah Yusuf Ali -
Ya Sin.
— Marmaduke Pickthall -
Ya Seen.
— M. Habib Shakir -
Ya-Sin. [These letters are one of the miracles of the Qur'an, and none but Allah (Alone) knows their meanings.]
— Taqiuddin Hilali and M. Mohsin Khan -
Ya-Sin.
— Abdul-Majid Daryabadi -
YaSeen.
— Hasan Qaribullah and Ahmed Darwish -
Ya Sin (Y.S.).
— Ayub Khan -
Y? S?n.
— Sher Ali -
O THOU human being!
— Muhammad Asad -
Ya Sin
— Arthur Arberry -
Ya'. Sin.{{1}}
— Abu'l Ala Maududi