وَالتِّينِ وَالزَّيْتُونِ
CONSIDER the fig and the olive, (1)
وَطُورِ سِينِينَ
and Mount Sinai, (2)
وَهَٰذَا الْبَلَدِ الْأَمِينِ
and this land secure! (3)
لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الْإِنْسَانَ فِي أَحْسَنِ تَقْوِيمٍ
Verily, We create man in the best conformation, (4)
ثُمَّ رَدَدْنَاهُ أَسْفَلَ سَافِلِينَ
and thereafter We reduce him to the lowest of low ?– (5)
إِلَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ فَلَهُمْ أَجْرٌ غَيْرُ مَمْنُونٍ
excepting only such as attain to faith and do good works: and theirs shall be a reward unending! (6)
فَمَا يُكَذِّبُكَ بَعْدُ بِالدِّينِ
What, then, [O man,] could henceforth cause thee to give the lie to this moral law? (7)
أَلَيْسَ اللَّهُ بِأَحْكَمِ الْحَاكِمِينَ
Is not God the most just of judges? (8)
- By the Fig6194 and the Olive,6195
- 6194 The substantive proposition is in verse 4-8, and it is clinched by an appeal to four sacred symbols. viz., the Fig, the Olive, Mount Sinai, and the sacred City of Makkah. About the precise interpretation of the first two symbols, and especially of the symbol of the Fig, there is much difference of opinion. If we take the Fig literally to refer to the fruit or the tree, it can stand as a symbol of man's destiny in many ways. Under cultivation it can be one of the finest, most delicious, and most wholesome fruits in existence: in its wild state, it is nothing but tiny seeds, and is insipid, and often full of worms and maggots. So man at his best has a noble destiny: at his worst, he is "the lowest of the low". Christ is said to have cursed a fig tree for having only leaves, and not producing fruit (Matt. 21:18-29), enforcing the same lesson. There is also a parable of the fig tree in Matt. 24:32-35. See also the parable of the good and evil figs in Jeremiah, 24:1-10. But see n. 6198 below.
- 6195 For the sacred symbolism of the Olive, see n. 2880 to 23:20, and notes 3000-3002 to 24:35, where the parable of Allah's Light includes a reference to the Olive. But it is possible that the Olive here refers to the Mount of Olives, just outside the walls of the City of Jerusalem (see n. 5038 to 52:2), for this is the scene in the Gospel story (Matt. 24:3-4) of Christ's description of the Judgement to come.
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By the Fig and the Olive,
— Abdullah Yusuf Ali -
By the fig and the olive,
— Marmaduke Pickthall -
I swear by the fig and the olive,
— M. Habib Shakir -
By the fig, and the olive,
— Taqiuddin Hilali and M. Mohsin Khan -
By the fig, by the olive,
— Abdul-Majid Daryabadi -
By the fig and the olive!
— Hasan Qaribullah and Ahmed Darwish -
By the Fig and the Olive,
— Ayub Khan -
By the Fig and the Olive,
— Sher Ali -
CONSIDER the fig and the olive,
— Muhammad Asad -
By the fig and the olive
— Arthur Arberry -
By the fig and the olive;{{1}}
— Abu'l Ala Maududi