Gems from the Holy Qur’an
From the translation by Muhammad Asad (Leopold Weiss)
About the translator:
Muhammad Asad, Leopold Weiss, was born of Jewish parents in Livow, Austria (later Poland) in 1900, and at the age of 22 made his first visit to the Middle East. He later became an outstanding foreign correspondent for the Franfurter Zeitung, and after years of devoted study became one of the leading Muslim scholars of our age. His translation of the Holy Qur'an is one of the most lucid and well-referenced works in this category, dedicated to “li-qawmin yatafakkaroon” (people who think). Forwarded by Dr Ismat Kamal.
Chapter 22, Verse 78
And strive hard in God’s cause with all the striving that is due to Him: it is He who has elected you [to carry His message], and has laid no hardship on you in [anything that pertains to] religion, [ 1 ] [and made you follow] the creed of your forefather Abraham. [ 2 ]
It is He who has named you – in bygone times as in this [divine writ] – “those who have surrendered themselves to God”, [ 3 ] so that the Apostle might bear witness to the truth before you, and that you might bear witness to it before all mankind.
Thus, be constant in prayer, and render the purifying dues, and hold fast unto God. He is your Lord Supreme: and how excellent is this Lord Supreme, and how excellent is this Giver of Succor!
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Translator’s Notes
[ 1 ] The absence of any “hardship” in the religion of Islam is due to several factors: (1) it is free of any dogma or mystical proposition which might make the Qur’anic doctrine difficult to understand or might even conflict with man’s innate reason; (2) it avoids all complicated ritual or system of taboos which would impose undue restrictions on man’s everyday life; (3) it rejects all self-mortification and exaggerated asceticism, which must unavoidably conflict with man’s true nature; and (4) it takes fully into account that “man has been created weak” (Chapter 4, Verse 28).
[ 2 ] Abraham is designated here “as your forefather” not only because he was, in fact, an ancestor of the Prophet Mohammad – to whose followers this passage is addressed – but also because he is the prototype (and thus, the spiritual “forefather” of all who consciously “surrender themselves to God”.
[ 3 ] The term Muslim signifies “one who surrenders himself to God”; correspondingly, Islam denotes “self-surrender to God”. Both these terms are applied in the Qur’an to all who believe in the One God and affirm this belief by an unequivocal acceptance of His revealed messages. Since the Qur’an represents the final and most universal of these divine revelations, the believers are called upon, in the sequence, to follow the guidance of its Apostle and thus to become an example for all mankind.
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