Al-Qur'an Surah Az-Zukhruf Verse 45

Mufti Taqi Usmani

Ask Our messengers whom We sent before you whether We had appointed gods to be worshipped besides RaHmān.

Dr. Mustafa Khattab, the Clear Quran

Ask ˹the followers of˺ the messengers that We already sent before you if We ˹ever˺ appointed ˹other˺ gods to be worshipped besides the Most Compassionate.

Ruwwad Translation Center

Ask those of Our messengers whom We sent before you: Did We appoint gods to be worshiped besides the Most Compassionate?

A. J. Arberry

Ask those of Our Messengers We sent before thee: Have We appointed, apart from the All-merciful, gods to be served?

Abdul Haleem

Ask the prophets We sent before you: ‘Did We ever appoint any gods to be worshipped besides the Lord of Mercy?’

Abdul Majid Daryabadi

And ask thou Our apostles whom We sent before thee: appointed We gods, beside the Compassionate, to be worshipped?

Abdullah Yusuf Ali

And question thou our messengers whom We sent before thee; did We appoint any deities other than (Allah) Most Gracious, to be worshipped?

Abul Ala Maududi

Ask all Our Messengers whom We sent before you whether We had appointed any deities beside the Merciful One to be worshipped.

Ahmed Ali

Inquire of apostles We had sent before you if We appointed gods to be worshipped other than Ar-Rahman.

Ahmed Raza Khan

And ask them – did any of the Noble Messengers We sent before you, appoint any other Gods except the Most Gracious, whom they used to worship?

Ali Quli Qarai

Ask those of Our apostles We have sent before you: Did We set up any gods to be worshipped besides the All-beneficent?

Ali Ünal

And ask (their true followers about) those of Our Messengers whom We sent before you: Did We ever enable deities to be worshipped apart from the All-Merciful?

Amatul Rahman Omar

And ask those of Our Messenger whom We sent before you whether We (ever) appointed any deities to be worshipped apart from the Most Gracious (God).

English Literal

And ask/question whom We sent from before you from Our messengers, did We make/create from other than the merciful gods (that) they are being worshipped?

Faridul Haque

And ask them - did any of the Noble Messengers We sent before you, appoint any other Gods except the Most Gracious, whom they used to worship?

Hamid S. Aziz

And ask those of Our messengers whom We sent before you: Did We ever appoint gods to be worshipped besides the Beneficent?

Hilali & Khan

And ask (O Muhammad SAW) those of Our Messengers whom We sent before you: "Did We ever appoint aliha (gods) to be worshipped besides the Most Beneficent (Allah)?"

Maulana Mohammad Ali

And surely it is a reminder for thee and thy people, and you will be questioned.

Mohammad Habib Shakir

And ask those of Our apostles whom We sent before you: Did We ever appoint gods to be worshipped besides the Beneficent Allah?

Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall

And ask those of Our messengers whom We sent before thee: Did We ever appoint gods to be worshipped beside the Beneficent?

Muhammad Sarwar

You can ask Our Messengers whom We sent before you if We had commanded them to worship other gods besides the Beneficent God?"

Qaribullah & Darwish

Ask Our Messengers whom We sent before you if We have ever made gods, other than the Merciful, to be worshipped.

Safi-ur-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri

And ask whom We sent before you of Our Messengers: "Did We ever appoint gods to be worshipped besides the Most Gracious"

Wahiduddin Khan

Ask those of Our messengers whom We sent before you, "Did We ever appoint gods to be worshipped besides the Beneficent One?"

Talal Itani

Ask those of Our messengers We sent before you: “Did We appoint gods besides the Most Gracious to be worshiped?”

Tafsir jalalayn

And ask those of Our messengers whom We sent before you; Did We [ever] appoint, besides the Compassionate One, that is to say, [any] other than Him, gods to be worshipped? It is said that this is to be understood literally, in other words, that God gathered for him all the messengers on the Night [of the] Journey; but it is also said that this meant [that he should ask] any communities belonging to either of the two Peoples of the Scripture. According to one of the two opinions, he never asked [anyone] since the point of this command to ask is to affirm to the idolaters of Quraysh that no messenger or scripture ever came from God with the command to worship [any] other than God.

Tafseer Ibn Kathir

And ask whom We sent before you of Our Messengers;"Did We ever appoint gods to be worshipped besides the Most Gracious?"

means, `all the Messengers called their people to the same as that to which you are calling mankind, namely the worship of Allah Alone with no partner or associate, and they forbade the worship of idols and false gods.'

This is like the Ayah;

وَلَقَدْ بَعَثْنَا فِى كُلِّ أُمَّةٍ رَّسُولاً أَنِ اعْبُدُواْ اللَّهَ وَاجْتَنِبُواْ الْطَّـغُوتَ

And verily, We have sent among every Ummah (nation) a Messenger (proclaiming);"Worship Allah, and avoid all false deities." (16;36)

Mujahid said that Abdullah bin Mas`ud recited it;
وَاسْأَلْ الَّذِينَ أَرْسَلْنَا إِ لَيْهِمْ قَبْلِكَ مِن رُّسُلِنَا
(And ask those whom We sent before you of Our Messengers).

This was narrated by Qatadah, Ad-Dahhak and As-Suddi from Ibn Mas`ud, may Allah be pleased with him.

Yet this appears to be an explanation rather than an alternate version of recitation. And Allah knows best