Hud 11:121 · Hud · Arabic, translation, recitation

Other English translations

Abdel Haleem (Oxford)+

"Say to those who do not believe, ‘Do whatever you can: we too are doing what we can,’"

Pickthall (classic)+

"And say unto those who believe not: Act according to your power. Lo! We (too) are acting."

Yusuf Ali (classic)+

"Say to those who do not believe: "Do what ever ye can: We shall do our part;"

Tafsīr · classical commentary

Ibn Kathir

Abridged English, public domain

Allah, the Exalted, commands His Messenger to say to those who disbelieve in what he has come ...

اعْمَلُواْ عَلَى مَكَانَتِكُمْ

(Act according to your ability) This means upon your path and your way.

إِنَّا عَامِلُونَ

(We are acting (in our way). This means that we are upon our path and our way (Islam).

وَانْتَظِرُواْ إِنَّا مُنتَظِرُونَ

(And you wait ! We (too) are waiting.) This means,

فَسَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ مَن تَكُونُ لَهُ عَـقِبَةُ الدَّارِ إِنَّهُ لاَ يُفْلِحُ الظَّـلِمُونَ

(And you will come to know for which of us will be the (happy) end in the Hereafter. Certainly the wrongdoers will not be successful.)6:135 Verily, Allah fulfilled His promise to His Messenger , helped him and aided him. He made His Word uppermost (victorious), and the word of those who disbelieved lowly and disgraced. Allah is truly the Most Mighty, Most Wise.

Tafsir Saʿdi

English translation, public domain

О Мухаммад! Посредством таких откровений Мы вселяем в тебя уверенность и помогаем тебе проявлять должное терпение, подобно остальным твердым духом посланникам. Примеры, достойные для подражания, всегда побуждают людей действовать и стремиться опередить остальных, а свидетельства и многочисленные сторонники делают истину еще более убедительной. В этой суре тебе открылась истина, в которой абсолютно невозможно усомниться. Знание этого является частицей истинного знания, которое является величайшим достоинством человеческой души. А наряду с этим ниспосланное тебе откровение являются увещеванием и напоминанием для верующих. Они выслушивают увещевания и отказываются от совершения грехов, вспоминают о богоугодных поступках и совершают их.

Difference: Blameworthy and Praiseworthy

When it was said in the fifth verse (118) - ` had your Lord willed, He would have made all the people a single community' - the sense is that had it been the will of Allah, He would have made all human beings accept Islam by force. All of them would have then become nothing but Muslims without any difference remaining between them. But, such are the dictates of His wisdom that, in this world, Allah Ta` ala does not compel anyone to do something. Instead, He has entrusted man with a kind of choice under which he could do whatever good or bad he wishes to do. Then, human temperaments differ, ways differ and deeds differ. The outcome is that there always will be some people who would keep at loggerheads against the true faith - of course, with the exception of those whom Allah Ta` ala has blessed with His mercy, that is, those who have been following the noble prophets.

This tells us that ` difference' at this place means hostility and op-position to the true faith and the teachings of prophets. The difference based on Ijtihad, which is inevitable among religious authorities and jurists of Islam, an ongoing process since the period of the Sahabah, is not included under this purview, nor is it contrary to Divine mercy. In fact, it is the very dictate of Allah's wisdom and mercy. Those who have declared the differences among Mujtahid Imams to be counter to Mercy in terms of this verse, have done something which is itself counter to the context of this verse as well as counter to the consistent practice of the Sahabah and Tabi` in.

واللہُ سُبحَانہ و تعالیٰ اَعلم

And Allah is Pure and High and He knows everything best.