Tafheem-ul-Quran - Abul Ala Maududi

Ayah by Ayah

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Tafheem-ul-Quran - Abul Ala Maududi translation for Surah Fussilat — Ayah 16

41:16
فَأَرۡسَلۡنَا عَلَيۡهِمۡ رِيحٗا صَرۡصَرٗا فِيٓ أَيَّامٖ نَّحِسَاتٖ لِّنُذِيقَهُمۡ عَذَابَ ٱلۡخِزۡيِ فِي ٱلۡحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنۡيَاۖ وَلَعَذَابُ ٱلۡأٓخِرَةِ أَخۡزَىٰۖ وَهُمۡ لَا يُنصَرُونَ ١٦
whereupon We sent upon them a fierce wind on inauspicious days1 that We might make them taste a degrading chastisement in the life of this world.2 And surely the chastisement of the Hereafter is even more degrading. There will be none to help them there.
Footnotes
  • [1] “Evil days” does not mean that the days in themselves were evil or ill-omened, and the torrent came because the people of Aad met with those evil or ill-omened days. If this were the meaning and there were some ill omen in the days themselves, the torment would have visited all the nations of the world. The correct meaning, therefore, is that since in those days God’s torment descended on this nation, the days were evil or ill-omened for the people of Aad. It is not correct to argue on the basis of the verse that some days are ill-omened and some auspicious.
  • [2] The lexicographers have disputed the meaning of the words rih-an sarsaran, which have been used for the stormy wind. Some say that they imply an intensely hot wind, others say that they imply an extremely cold wind, and some others say that they imply a wind which produces a great noise when it blows. In any case, they all agree that the words are used for a severe storm.
  • [3] Frequently the Qur’an addresses the events of the Hereafter in past tense; this grammatical shift should be pondered upon by the reader.
  • [4] The Arabic pronoun can mean ‘He’ for God or ‘it’ for the Qur’an or Islam.