وَالشَّمْسِ وَضُحَاهَا
CONSIDER the sun and its radiant brightness, (1)
وَالْقَمَرِ إِذَا تَلَاهَا
and the moon as it reflects the sun! (2)
وَالنَّهَارِ إِذَا جَلَّاهَا
Consider the day as it reveals the world, (3)
وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا يَغْشَاهَا
and the night as it veils it darkly! (4)
وَالسَّمَاءِ وَمَا بَنَاهَا
Consider the sky and its wondrous make, (5)
وَالْأَرْضِ وَمَا طَحَاهَا
and the earth and all its expanse! (6)
وَنَفْسٍ وَمَا سَوَّاهَا
Consider the human self, and how it is formed in accordance with what it is meant to be, (7)
فَأَلْهَمَهَا فُجُورَهَا وَتَقْوَاهَا
and how it is imbued with moral failings as well as with consciousness of God! (8)
قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَنْ زَكَّاهَا
To a happy state shall indeed attain he who causes this [self] to grow in purity, (9)
وَقَدْ خَابَ مَنْ دَسَّاهَا
and truly lost is he who buries it [in darkness]. (10)
كَذَّبَتْ ثَمُودُ بِطَغْوَاهَا
TO [THIS] TRUTH gave the lie, in their overweening arrogance, [the tribe of] Thamūd, (11)
إِذِ انْبَعَثَ أَشْقَاهَا
when that most hapless wretch from among them rushed forward [to commit his evil deed], (12)
فَقَالَ لَهُمْ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ نَاقَةَ اللَّهِ وَسُقْيَاهَا
although God's apostle had told them, "It is a she-camel belonging to God, so let her drink [and do her no harm]!" (13)
فَكَذَّبُوهُ فَعَقَرُوهَا فَدَمْدَمَ عَلَيْهِمْ رَبُّهُمْ بِذَنْبِهِمْ فَسَوَّاهَا
But they gave him the lie, and cruelly slaughtered her – whereupon their Sustainer visited them with utter destruction for this their sin, destroying them all alike: (14)
وَلَا يَخَافُ عُقْبَاهَا
for none [of them] had any fear of what might befall them. (15)
- and the moon as it reflects the sun!1
- 1 Lit., "as it follows it (talaha)", i.e., the sun. According to the great philologist Al-Farra, who lived in the second century after the hijrah, "the meaning is that the moon derives its light from the sun" (quoted by Razi). This is also Raghib's interpretation of the above phrase.
- By the Moon6148 as she follows him;
- 6148 The first pair is the glorious sun, the source of our light and physical life, and the moon which follows or acts as second to the sun for illuminating our world. The moon, when she is in the sky with the sun, is pale and inconspicuous; in the sun's absence she shines with reflected light and may metaphorically be called the sun's vicegerent. So with Revelation and the great Prophets who brought it; and the minor Teachers who derive their light reflected, or perhaps doubly reflected, from the original source.
-
By the Moon as she follows him;
— Abdullah Yusuf Ali -
And the moon when she followeth him,
— Marmaduke Pickthall -
And the moon when it follows the sun,
— M. Habib Shakir -
And by the moon as it follows it (the sun);
— Taqiuddin Hilali and M. Mohsin Khan -
By the moon, when she followeth him,
— Abdul-Majid Daryabadi -
by the moon, which follows it,
— Hasan Qaribullah and Ahmed Darwish -
by the moon when she follows him,
— Ayub Khan -
And by the moon when it follows the sun,
— Sher Ali -
and the moon as it reflects the sun!
— Muhammad Asad -
and by the moon when she follows him,
— Arthur Arberry -
and by the moon as it follows it;
— Abu'l Ala Maududi