Tafheem-ul-Quran - Abul Ala Maududi

Ayah by Ayah

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Tafheem-ul-Quran - Abul Ala Maududi translation for Surah Al-'Ankabut — Ayah 38

29:38
وَعَادٗا وَثَمُودَاْ وَقَد تَّبَيَّنَ لَكُم مِّن مَّسَٰكِنِهِمۡۖ وَزَيَّنَ لَهُمُ ٱلشَّيۡطَٰنُ أَعۡمَٰلَهُمۡ فَصَدَّهُمۡ عَنِ ٱلسَّبِيلِ وَكَانُواْ مُسۡتَبۡصِرِينَ ٣٨
And We destroyed Ad and Thamud, whose dwellings you have observed.1 Satan had embellished their deeds for them and had turned them away from the Right Path although they were a people of clear perception.2
Footnotes
  • [1] The Arabic word used isayat(singularayah). Ayahmeans ‘sign’ or ‘proof’. It is also used to denote the unit of text in the Qur’an,like ‘verse’ in poetry or ‘sentence’ in prose.Each such unit isconsidered a ‘sign’from God.
  • [2] Every Arab was acquainted with the lands where these two nations had lived. The whole of southern Arabia now known as Ahqaf, Yaman and Hadramaut, was the land of Aad in the ancient times, and the Arabs knew it. The whole area in the north of the Hijaz, from Rabigh to Aqabah and from Madinah and Khaiber to Taima and Tabuk. still abounds with Thamudic monuments, which must have been more prominent than they are today in the time when the Quran was being revealed.
  • [3] That is, “They were not ignorant and foolish people, but were the most civilized people of their own times. They performed and carried out their worldly duties and chores very carefully and intelligently. Therefore, it cannot be said that Satan deluded them and pulled them on to his way by artifice and deception. Nay, they adopted the way shown by Satan with open eyes and with full understanding because it promised great pleasures and advantages; and they abandoned the way presented by the prophets because it appeared to be colorless, tasteless and troublesome due to moral restrictions.”
  • [4] The Arabic word used is Qur’anwhich literally means ‘recital’ or ‘recitation’.