‘ABASA (He Frowned)
In the Name of God,1 the Gracious, the Merciful 2
1 He frowned and turned away,
2 Because there came to him the blind man.
3 But what could tell you but that perhaps he might grow,
4 Or that he might receive admonition, and the teaching might profit him?
5 As to one who regards himself as self-sufficient,
6 To him you attend;
7 Though it is no blame to you if he does not grow not.
8 But as to him who came to you striving earnestly,
9 And with fear,
10 Of him were you unmindful.
11 By no means! For it is indeed a message of instruction:
12 Therefore let who so will, keep it in remembrance.
13 In scrolls3 held in honour,
14 Exalted, kept pure and holy,
15 By the hands of scribes,4
16 Honourable and pious and just.
17 Woe to man! What has made him reject God?
18 From what stuff has he created him?
19 From a sperm drop he has created him, and then shapes him in due proportions;
20 Then he makes his path smooth for him;
21 Then he causes him to die, and puts him in his grave;
22 Then, when it is his will, he will raise him up again.
23 By no means has he fulfilled what God has commanded him.
24 Then let man look at his food,
25 For we pour forth water in abundance,
26 And we split the earth in fragments,
27 And produce in it grain,
28 And grapes and nutritious plants,
29 And olives and dates,
30 And enclosed gardens, dense with lofty trees,
31 And fruits and fodder,
32 For use and convenience to you and your cattle.
33 At length, when there comes the deafening noise,
34 That day shall a man flee from his own brother,
35 And from his mother and his father,
36 And from his wife and his children.
37 Each one of them, that day, will have enough concern to make him indifferent to the others.
38 Some faces that day will be beaming,
39 Laughing, rejoicing.
40 And other faces that day will be dust stained.
41 Blackness will cover them:
42 Such will be the rejecters of God, the doers of iniquity.
- God, in Arabic allah, referring to the one true God, as opposed to an idol or “god.” It is the Arabic equivalent of elohim and eloah (Hebrew), alaha (Syriac), and theos (Greek), all of which accurately translate into English as “God.” This translation choice is consistent with respected English Quran translations including those of A. Yusuf Ali (original edition), S.H. Nasr (Study Quran), T.B. Irving, and T. Itani (Clear Quran). ↩︎
- the Gracious, the Merciful, the highlighting of God’s grace and mercy predates the Quran, coming down from the many hundreds of references in the Taurat, Zabur, and Injil. A few samples follow:
Taurat, Exodus 34:6 — …YAHWEH, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth.
Zabur 145:8 — YAHWEH is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great loving kindness.
Taurat, Joel 2:13 — Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to YAHWEH your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.
Taurat, Yunus 4:2 — …I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you relent of doing harm.”
Injil, 1 Timothy 1:2 — …Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and AL-MASIH ‘ISA our Lord.
Injil, Hebrews 4:16 — Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace for help in time of need. ↩︎ - 80:13 scrolls, Arabic suhuf. Compare Surah 87:19 for the “scrolls of Ibrahim and Musa.” ↩︎
- 80:15 This is a testimony to the extreme care which the scribes of the previous books gave to preserving the text, “pure and holy” for generations to come. ↩︎