Texts of Islam

The Meaning of the Glorious Qur'ân,: 43. az-Zukhruf...

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This is the 43rd chapter (surah) of the Quran, "Az-Zukhruf" (The Embellishment), in M.M. Pickthall's early 20th-century English translation — a work in the classical Islamic scriptural tradition presented as direct divine speech addressed to the Prophet Muhammad and his contemporaries. The surah's central argument is the absolute oneness and sovereignty of God (Allah), attacking the Meccan polytheists for attributing daughters and female angels to God while prizing sons, and for blindly following ancestral religious custom rather than the revealed message. It marshals the stories of Abraham rejecting his people's idolatry and Moses confronting Pharaoh as historical precedents showing that messengers are always mocked and rejected, yet God ultimately vindicates them and destroys their opponents. A notably distinctive section reframes Jesus explicitly as a mortal slave and prophet — not divine — who himself proclaimed Allah as his Lord, using this to rebuke those who raise Jesus as a counterargument to Islamic monotheism. The surah contrasts the fleeting material rewards available to the wicked in this life (gold roofs, silver doors) with the eternal garden awaiting the faithful, and eternal torment awaiting the guilty, framing worldly wealth as spiritually trivial. It closes by reassuring Muhammad to hold firm to revelation and bear patiently with disbelievers, as God sees and records everything and judgment is certain.

The Meaning of the Glorious Qur'ân,: 43. az-Zukhruf...

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