Al-Qur'an Surah Ya-Sin Verse 31

Mufti Taqi Usmani

Did they not see how many generations We have destroyed before them who will not come back to them?

Dr. Mustafa Khattab, the Clear Quran

Have the deniers not considered how many peoples We destroyed before them who never came back to life again?

Ruwwad Translation Center

Do they not see how many generations We destroyed before them who will never come back to them?

A. J. Arberry

What, have they not seen how many generations We have destroyed before them, and that it is not unto them that they return?

Abdul Haleem

Do they not see how many generations We have destroyed before them, none of whom will ever come back to them?

Abdul Majid Daryabadi

Behold they not how many We have destroyed before them of the generations! verily Unto them they shall not return.

Abdullah Yusuf Ali

See they not how many generations before them we destroyed? Not to them will they return;

Abul Ala Maududi

Have they not seen how many nations before them did We destroy? Thereafter they never came back to them.

Ahmed Ali

Have they not seen how many generations have We destroyed before them who will not return again?

Ahmed Raza Khan

Have they not seen how many generations We destroyed before them, which will not return to them?

Ali Quli Qarai

Have they not regarded how many generations We have destroyed before them who will not come back to them?

Ali Ünal

Have they not considered how many a generation We have destroyed before them; they never return to them (nor to their life of the world).

Amatul Rahman Omar

Have they not seen how many generations We have ruined before them, and that those (generations) never come back to them (after their ruination)?

English Literal

Do they not see/understand how many We destroyed before them from the generations/peoples of eras/centuries, that they, to them they do not return?

Faridul Haque

Have they not seen how many generations We destroyed before them, which will not return to them?

Hamid S. Aziz

Alas for the servants! There comes not to them a messenger but they mock at him.

Hilali & Khan

Do they not see how many of the generations We have destroyed before them? Verily, they will not return to them.

Maulana Mohammad Ali

Alas for the servants! Never does a messenger come to them but they mock him.

Mohammad Habib Shakir

Do they not consider how many of the generations have We destroyed before them, because they do not turn to them?

Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall

Have they not seen how many generations We destroyed before them, which indeed returned not unto them;

Muhammad Sarwar

Have they not seen how many generations, living before them, had We destroyed and they cannot ever come back to them?

Qaribullah & Darwish

Have they not seen how many generations We destroyed before them? They shall never return to them,

Safi-ur-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri

Do they not see how many of the generations We have destroyed before them Verily, they will not return to them.

Wahiduddin Khan

Do they not see how many generations We have destroyed before them? Never shall they return to them.

Talal Itani

Have they not considered how many generations We destroyed before them; and that unto them they will not return?

Tafsir jalalayn

Have they -- that is, those inhabitants of Mecca who said to the Prophet, `You have not been sent [by God]!' [Q. 13;43] -- not seen, [not] come to know (the interrogative is meant [rhetorically] as an affirmative) how many (kam here is predicative [as opposed to interrogative], in other words [it is to be understood as] kathran, `many'; it is operated by the statement that comes next [below] and it comments on the operative clause for the statement that preceded it); the meaning then is as follows; indeed, many, generations, communities, We have destroyed before them, [how] that they, the ones destroyed, never return?, to those deniers [who are now alive]? So will they not learn from their example? (from annahum, `[how] that they', to the end [of the verse] is a substitution for the preceding clause [kam ahlakn qablahum mina'l-qurni], bearing in mind the aforementioned general meaning).

Tafseer Ibn Kathir

Do they not see how many of the generations We have destroyed before them? Verily, they will not return to them.

meaning, `do you not learn a lesson from those whom Allah destroyed before you of those who disbelieved in the Messengers? They came to this world only once, and will not return to it.'

It is not as many of those ignorant and immoral people claim that
إِنْ هِيَ إِلاَّ حَيَاتُنَا الدُّنْيَا نَمُوتُ وَنَحْيَا
("There is nothing but our life of this world! We die and we live!") (23;37). This was the belief in the cycle of reincarnation; in their ignorance they believed that they would come back to this world as they had been before. But Allah refuted their false belief and said;
أَلَمْ يَرَوْا كَمْ أَهْلَكْنَا قَبْلَهُم مِّنْ الْقُرُونِ أَنَّهُمْ إِلَيْهِمْ لَا يَرْجِعُونَ
(Do they not see how many of the generations We have destroyed before them Verily, they will not return to them).

Allah's saying;

وَإِن كُلٌّ لَّمَّا جَمِيعٌ لَّدَيْنَا مُحْضَرُونَ