Aurangzaib Yousufzai – August 2017
Thematic Quranic Translation Series Installment 19
(In English Language)
Does the term “Ka’bah” mean “House of God? Does “Masjid al-Haraam” signify “Ka’bah”?
(An Extension of Translation Installment 13)
All Related Verses Rationally Re-translated
PRELUDE
In reply to questions, some more Verses related to the above Theme are presented under this chain of Theme based academic and rational translations. This most advanced work calls for discarding all the old and prevalent traditional interpretations on the subject which have proved illogical and inconsistent with the context. Please go through this work while simultaneously comparing it with the prevalent older versions.
Verses: 5:94-97
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَيَبْلُوَنَّكُمُ اللَّـهُ بِشَيْءٍ مِّنَ الصَّيْدِ تَنَالُهُ أَيْدِيكُمْ وَرِمَاحُكُمْ لِيَعْلَمَ اللَّـهُ مَن يَخَافُهُ بِالْغَيْبِ ۚ فَمَنِ اعْتَدَىٰ بَعْدَ ذَٰلِكَ فَلَهُ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ ﴿٩٤﴾ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَقْتُلُوا الصَّيْدَ وَأَنتُمْ حُرُمٌ ۚ وَمَن قَتَلَهُ مِنكُم مُّتَعَمِّدًا فَجَزَاءٌ مِّثْلُ مَا قَتَلَ مِنَ النَّعَمِ يَحْكُمُ بِهِ ذَوَا عَدْلٍ مِّنكُمْ هَدْيًا بَالِغَ الْكَعْبَةِ أَوْ كَفَّارَةٌ طَعَامُ مَسَاكِينَ أَوْ عَدْلُ ذَٰلِكَ صِيَامًا لِّيَذُوقَ وَبَالَ أَمْرِهِ ۗ عَفَا اللَّـهُ عَمَّا سَلَفَ ۚ وَمَنْ عَادَ فَيَنتَقِمُ اللَّـهُ مِنْهُ ۗ وَاللَّـهُ عَزِيزٌ ذُو انتِقَامٍ ﴿٩٥﴾أُحِلَّ لَكُمْ صَيْدُ الْبَحْرِ وَطَعَامُهُ مَتَاعًا لَّكُمْ وَلِلسَّيَّارَةِ ۖ وَحُرِّمَ عَلَيْكُمْ صَيْدُ الْبَرِّ مَا دُمْتُمْ حُرُمًا ۗ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّـهَ الَّذِي إِلَيْهِ تُحْشَرُونَ ﴿٩٦﴾ جَعَلَ اللَّـهُ الْكَعْبَةَ الْبَيْتَ الْحَرَامَ قِيَامًا لِّلنَّاسِ وَالشَّهْرَ الْحَرَامَ وَالْهَدْيَ وَالْقَلَائِدَ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ لِتَعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّـهَ يَعْلَمُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ وَأَنَّ اللَّـهَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ ﴿٩٧﴾
5:94 O YOU who have attained to faith! Most certainly God will try you (لَيَبْلُوَنَّكُمُ) by means of the prisoners who may come within the reach of your military might, so that God might mark out those who fear Him with respect to the future reprisals. And as for him who, after all this, transgresses the bounds of what is right, grievous suffering awaits him!(94)
5:95 O you who have attained to faith and peace! Humiliate no prisoners by mistreating them with cruelty and mercilessness (لَا تَقْتُلُوا الصَّيْدَ) while you are already prohibited to act in this way (وَأَنتُمْ حُرُمٌ ). And whoever of you exercises cruelty intentionally ( قَتَلَهُ مِنكُم مُّتَعَمِّدًا), he is going to suffer as much as he has deprived the prisoners of their rights to privileges (مَا قَتَلَ مِنَ النَّعَمِ). Two jurists from amongst you would decide upon this sentence. This principle of good conduct (هَدْيًا) embodies a great status & significance (بَالِغَ الْكَعْبَةِ). An alternate punishment will be to make the guilty one to provide for sustenance for the needy ones, or as a substitute to that (عَدْلُ ذَٰلِكَ), he may pass through a strict training in the discipline of piety and abstinence (صِيَامًا), in order that he taste the full gravity of his deeds. God has forgiven the past. But whoever re-incurs such excesses now, God will inflict His retribution on him: for God is almighty, an avenger of evil.(95)
5:96 Allowed to you is a captive who is a rich and prominent one (صَيْدُ الْبَحْرِ), whose resources (وَطَعَامُهُ) may provide for and facilitate your operations (مَتَاعًا لَّكُمْ وَلِلسَّيَّارَةِ ). Unlawful is for you to keep a captive who may be pious, noble and honest in character (صَيْدُ الْبَرِّ) as long as you are forbidden to do so (حُرُمًا ). Hence, be conscious of God, unto whom you shall be gathered for accountability. (96)
5:97 God has bestowed (جَعَلَ اللَّـهُ) an exalted status (الْكَعْبَةَ) upon His venerable Center of Guidance (الْبَيْتَ الْحَرَامَ) which provides all mankind overall stability (قِيَامًا لِّلنَّاسِ) in their lives, whether it is with regard to the times of the state of prohibitive conditions (وَالشَّهْرَ الْحَرَامَ) imposed by treaties, the active pursuit of precious values of noble character and conduct (الْهَدْيَ), or the performance of those other responsibilities that you are liable to shoulder and fulfill (وَالْقَلَائِدَ). This is to make you realize that God is aware of all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth, and that God’s knowledge encompasses everything.(97)
Important words in parenthesis defined here-under:-
صَيْدُ الْبَحْرِ: ب ح ر: Ba-Ha-Ra : Slit, cut, divide lengthwise, split, enlarge or make wide, man of great wealth, abundance and generosity; ocean, sea, a large expanse of water, a great river, etc.
صیدالبر: ب ر ر= Ba-Ra-Ra = Being pious, kind, good, gentle, affectionate, beneficent, just, righteous, virtuous, honest, true, veracious, sweet of speech, merciful
Sinlessly performing something
Recompensing, rewarding for obedience, accepting and/or approving
Driving or calling sheep/goats
Verifying or proving an oath true
One who overcomes, overcoming someone with good actions or speech
Overcoming an adversary or overcoming by evil
Talking too much, confused clamor, noise, crying out, talking in anger or confusion, talking unprofitably
Ampleness, largeness or extensiveness
Land or elevated ground open to view, out of doors or exposed to view
Wheat, grain/s of wheat or coarsely ground flour
Obedience
Good, sweet or pleasant word expression or saying
Of, belonging to or relating to the land and or the desert/waste
External, outward, apparent or public
A truly and honestly executed sale
صید : : captured, caught, trapped, usually in game hunting ۔
الْكَعْبَةَ: : Something of high veneration; eminence/nobility/glory, anything elevated.
الْبَيْتَ الْحَرَامَ: : The Center/Institution/House enjoying great respect.
الشَّهْرَ الْحَرَامَ: : A situation of prohibitive conditions imposed under some treaty or covenant.
الْهَدْيَ:: Beautiful principles of character and conduct.
الْقَلَائِدَ:: Q L D : Lane's Lexicon on 5:2 - prefects or the like with offices of administration, permanent badge (of favour), authority, mode of order-giving, impose upon a thing.
Management.
Drown, to seize, close upon, cover.
Key, phrase: "I threw to him the keys of the affairs" meaning "I committed to him disposal/management of the affairs", treasure, repository/store-room/treasury/magazine, the place of the suspended thing (e.g. neck, belt), a chief upon whom are imposed the affairs of the people.
Verses: 9:19-20, 28
Verses: 9:19-20
أَجَعَلْتُمْ سِقَايَةَ الْحَاجِّ وَعِمَارَةَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ كَمَنْ آمَنَ بِاللَّـهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَجَاهَدَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّـهِ ۚ لَا يَسْتَوُونَ عِندَ اللَّـهِ ۗ وَاللَّـهُ لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ ﴿١٩﴾ اللذین اٰمنو و ھاجروا و جاھدُوا فی سبیل اللٰہ باموالھم و انفُسھم، اعظمُ درجۃ عند اللٰہ۔ و اُولٰئک ھم الفآئزون۔(20)
9:19 Do you, perchance, regard satisfying of ideological thirst of the contenders to the faith (سِقَايَةَ الْحَاجِّ) and the administering of the venerable Center of Submission (وَعِمَارَةَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ), as being equal to the work of one who believed in God and the Last Day and then struggled out in the field in God's cause? Nay, both of these roles are not equal in the sight of God. And God does not grace with His guidance people who misjudge and disregard the MERIT (الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ).
9:20 Those who believed, and who have forsaken the domain of evil and have striven hard in God's cause with their possessions and their lives have the highest rank in the sight of God; and it is they who are the successful ones.
Verse: 9:28
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِنَّمَا الْمُشْرِكُونَ نَجَسٌ فَلَا يَقْرَبُوا الْمَسْجِدَ الْحَرَامَ بَعْدَ عَامِهِمْ هَـٰذَا ۚ وَإِنْ خِفْتُمْ عَيْلَةً فَسَوْفَ يُغْنِيكُمُ اللَّـهُ مِن فَضْلِهِ إِن شَاءَ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّـهَ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌ ﴿٢٨﴾
9:28 O YOU who have attained to faith and peace! Those who ascribe divinity to aught beside God are deprived of spiritual purity (نَجَسٌ): and so it is only appropriate they shall not come into close contact (فَلَا يَقْرَبُوا) with the Inviolable Center of Command (الْمَسْجِدَ الْحَرَامَ) after exposing this particular mindset of them (عَامِهِمْ هَـٰذَا ). And should you fear a probable shortage of manpower (عَيْلَةً), then know that in time God will enrich you out of His blessings, if He so willed: for, verily, God is all-knowing, wise!
عيْلَةً : Destitution; ؛to bcome in want>
Chapter Al-Asraa
Verse: 17:1
سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي أَسْرَىٰ بِعَبْدِهِ لَيْلًا مِّنَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ إِلَى الْمَسْجِدِ الْأَقْصَى الَّذِي بَارَكْنَا حَوْلَهُ لِنُرِيَهُ مِنْ آيَاتِنَا ۚ إِنَّهُ هُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ
17:1 LIMITLESS in His glory Who, in the dominance of utter darkness, commanded His obedient servant to migrate from the “ forbidden” Center of Submission, to that Distant Center of Submission whose environment We had already blessed with favorable abundance, in order that We may show him Our signs. Verily, He alone is all-hearing, all-seeing.
[أَسْرَىٰ ] : : Travel during night, to depart, ; to make anyone to travel, repair to an upland; highest point; summit; rivulet; fountain,; stream; chief of the nation.
Verse: 14:37
رَّبَّنَا إِنِّي أَسْكَنتُ مِن ذُرِّيَّتِي بِوَادٍ غَيْرِ ذِي زَرْعٍ عِندَ بَيْتِكَ الْمُحَرَّمِ رَبَّنَا لِيُقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ فَاجْعَلْ أَفْئِدَةً مِّنَ النَّاسِ تَهْوِي إِلَيْهِمْ وَارْزُقْهُم مِّنَ الثَّمَرَاتِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَشْكُرُونَ ﴿٣٧﴾
14:37 "O our Sustainer! Behold, I have settled some of my offspring among a people (ِبوَاد) whose minds have not been prepared to sow the seed (غَيْرِ ذِي زَرْعٍ) of divine guidance, close to your venerable Ideological Centre (عِندَ بَيْتِكَ الْمُحَرَّمِ), so that, O our Sustainer, they might devote themselves to the pursuit of your commandments (لِيُقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ): cause Thou, therefore, people's minds to incline towards their sacred mission and grant them the desired results, so that their efforts may bear fruit”.