Texts of Islam

The Meaning of the Glorious Qur'ân,: 76. ad-Dahr: The Man

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This is Surah 76 (Ad-Dahr, "The Man") from the Quran, presented in M.M. Pickthall's early 20th-century English translation — a landmark effort notable for being produced by a native English speaker who converted to Islam and aimed for reverent, archaic prose rather than literalism. The surah opens with a rhetorical question about human pre-existence, then asserts that God created humans specifically to test them, having endowed them with hearing and knowledge. The central moral argument is a contrast between the fates of the grateful righteous and the disbelievers: the righteous are described in vivid, sensory detail enjoying Paradise — silk, silver goblets, shade, fruit, and a spring called Salsabil — as a reward for feeding the poor, orphans, and prisoners while expecting nothing in return. A distinctive theological claim appears in verses 29–30: though the surah calls human choice meaningful ("whosoever will may choose a way unto his Lord"), it immediately subordinates that will entirely to God's ("Yet ye will not, unless Allah willeth"), a compact statement of divine sovereignty over human volition. The surah closes with a direct address to the Prophet, instructing patient submission, regular worship, and indifference to disbelievers, and frames the entire text as divine revelation sent down as an admonishment.

The Meaning of the Glorious Qur'ân,: 76. ad-Dahr: The Man

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