47.

Sura Muhammad (the Prophet)

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Those who reject God and hinder others from His Path, God will
render their actions vain. Those who believe and do good deeds and believe
which is revealed to Mohammad (SA) is Truth from their Lord, God will
remove from them their ills and improve their state or condition (whether
external, or of the heart and mind). That is because those who reject God
follow falsehood, while those who believe follow the Truth from their Lord:
Thus God sets forth spiritual lessons by parables and similitudes from things
that happen in the outer world. When you fight the disbelievers in the
battlefield, strike at their necks and when you have firmly subdued them bind
a bond firmly on them. Thereafter (your victory) show either your generosity
release of the prisoners) or collect from them ranson (before releasing them).
If God willed. He could have punished them (without you).But (thus it is
ordained) that He may try some of you by means of others and those who fight
in the way of God, He render not their action in vain. He will guide them and
improve their state and will admit them to the Gardens which He has
announced for them. O you who believe! If you aid God in His Cause, He will
aid you in return. But those who reject God, for them is destruction and He
will make their actions vain. That is because they are averse to that which God
has revealed. Have they not travelled in the land to see the nature of the
consequence for those who were before them? God wiped them out. Similar
fate awaits those who reject God. That is because God is the Protector of those
who believe, but those who reject God have no protector. Surely, those who
believe and do righteous deeds, God will admit them in Gardens beneath
which rivers flow. Those who reject God and enjoy the luxuries of this world,
for them shall be fire as their permanent abode. How many cities with more
power than your city which has driven you out, have We destroyed for their
sins? There was no one to help them. Is one who is on a clear path from his
Lord better than the one to whom this evil conduct seems pleasing or such
who follow their own lusts? The righteous are promised Gardens therein are
rivers with pure and fresh waters. There are also rivers of milk whose taste
remain constant and those of wine which brings joy to those who drink from it
and also there are rivers of pure and clear honey. Apart from all these, there
are all kinds of fruits in those Gardens and Grace from their Lord. Can there
be any comparison of people in such Bliss with those shall dwell in Fire for
ever and will be given boiling water to drink? Among them are some who
listen to you. But when they go out from you they ask foolish questions from
the ones with knowledge as what it was he (Prophet SA) was saying? These
are the men whose hearts God has sealed, and who follow their own lust. But
to those who receive Guidance, God increases the light of Guidance for them,
and bestows on them their piety and restraint from evil. They have only to
wait for the Day. That will come on them suddenly. Know, therefore, that there
is no god but God, and those who believe – men and women – ask for
forgiveness of their faults. For God knows how you move about and how you
dwell in your homes.
 Those who believe say: Why is not a Sura sent down for us? But when
a decisive Sura is revealed and war is mentioned therein, you will see those in
whose heart is disease (Hypocrities), look at you as if they are fainting to
death. If they were loyal to God and when a matter is finally determined,
obedience to the decree would have been better for them if they were true to
God. If you were given the command, would you then spread corruption in the
land and severe your ties of kindship? Such are the men whom God has
deprived of His Grace. He has made them deaf and blinded their sight. Do
they not seek to earnestly understand the Qur-an, or are their hearts locked up?
Such men are entirely in the hands of Evil. They follow its suggestions, and
their hopes are built on its deceptions. With no courage to oppose God’s Cause
openly, they secretly intrigue with God’s enemies, and say that they will
follow them part of the way, and by remaining partly in the other camp, they
will be far more useful as spies and half-hearted doubters than by going over
altogether. If they think that this game will be successful, they are mistaken
All the inner secrets and motives of their hearts are known to God. Then how
will it be with them when the angels gather them, smiting their faces and their
backs! That will be because they followed that which angered God, and hated
that which pleased Him. Therefore, He had made their actions vain.

Do those in whose hearts is a disease deem that God will not bring to
light their secret hates? If We so willed, We could have pointed out these
persons (Hypocrites) to you to know them. But surely you will know them by
the tone of their speech. And God knows all that you do. We shall test you to
know who among you strive their utmost and persevere in patience and try
their reported reputation for courage and constancy (which has to be brought
to the test of facts and experience). Those who reject God, hinder men from
the Path of God, and resist the Apostle, after Guidance has been clearly shown
to them, will not injure God but they themselves make their deeds vain. Verily,
God will not forgive them. O you who believe! Obey God and His Apostle and
make not vain your deeds. Be not weary and faint-hearted, and cry for peace.
For God is with you, and will never put you in loss for your good deeds. The
life of this world is but a sport and a pastime. And if you believe and ward off
evil, He will give you your wages, and will not ask of you your worldly
wealth. If He were to ask you for all of them, and press you, you would
covetously withhold, and He would bring out all your ill-feeling. Behold! You
are those who are called to spend in the way of your Lord. Yet among you
there are some who hoard. They only hoard from their souls. God is the Rich,
and you are poor. If you turn away from Him, He will exchange you for some
other folk, and they will not be the likes of you.