Al-Qur'an Surah Al-Jathiyah Verse 24

Mufti Taqi Usmani

And they say, “There is no life but our worldly life. We die and live, and nothing destroys us except time.” They have no knowledge about that; they do nothing but make conjectures.

Dr. Mustafa Khattab, the Clear Quran

And they argue, “There is nothing beyond our worldly life. We die; others are born. And nothing destroys us but ˹the passage of˺ time.” Yet they have no knowledge ˹in support˺ of this ˹claim˺. They only speculate.

Ruwwad Translation Center

And they say, “There is nothing but our life of this world: we die and we live, and nothing causes us to die except time.” They have no knowledge of that; they only speculate.

A. J. Arberry

They say, 'There is nothing but our present life; we die, and we live, and nothing but Time destroys us.' Of that they have no knowledge; they merely conjecture.

Abdul Haleem

They say, ‘There is only our life in this world: we die, we live, nothing but time destroys us.’ They have no knowledge of this; they only follow guesswork. Their only argument,

Abdul Majid Daryabadi

And they say: there is no naught but our life of the world; die and we live; and naught destroyeth us save Time. And they have no knowledge thereof: they do but guess.

Abdullah Yusuf Ali

And they say; "What is there but our life in this world? We shall die and we live, and nothing but time can destroy us." But of that they have no knowledge; they merely conjecture;

Abul Ala Maududi

They say: “There is no life other than our present worldly life: herein we live and we die, and it is only (the passage of) time that destroys us. Yet the fact is that they know nothing about this and are only conjecturing.

Ahmed Ali

Yet they say: "There is nothing but the life of this world. We die and we live, and only time annihilates us." Yet they have no knowledge of this: They only speculate.

Ahmed Raza Khan

And they said, “There is nothing except our life of this world – we die and we live – and nothing destroys us except the passage of time”; and they do not have any knowledge of it; they only make guesses.

Ali Quli Qarai

They say, ‘There is nothing but the life of this world: we live and we die, and nothing but time destroys us.’ But they do not have any knowledge of that, and they only make conjectures.

Ali Ünal

And they say: "There is nothing but only our life in this world. Some of us die while others continue to live; and nothing causes us to perish but Time (the processes of decline and decay)." But they have no (sure and true) knowledge about this (the real nature and meaning of life and death, and the life after it). They merely follow their conjectures.

Amatul Rahman Omar

They say, `We have only this our present life (to live). We (people of one generation) die and we (people of a new generation from among us) come to life again (here in this very world). It is (the passage of) time alone that deals us death. But they have no real knowledge whatsoever about the matter (- the Hereafter). They merely make conjectures.

English Literal

And they said: "It is not except our life the present/worldly life, we die and we live, and nothing makes us die/destroys us except the long time." And (there is) no knowledge with that for them, that truly they are except assuming/supposing .

Faridul Haque

And they said, “There is nothing except our life of this world - we die and we live - and nothing destroys us except the passage of time”; and they do not have any knowledge of it; they only make guesses.

Hamid S. Aziz

And they say, "There is nothing but our life in this world; we live and die and nothing destroys us but time", and they have no knowledge of that; they only conjecture.

Hilali & Khan

And they say: "There is nothing but our life of this world, we die and we live and nothing destroys us except Ad-Dahr (the time). And they have no knowledge of it, they only conjecture.

Maulana Mohammad Ali

Seest thou him who takes his desire for his god, and Allah leaves him in error knowingly, and seals his hearing and his heart and puts a covering on his sight? Who can then guide him after Allah? Will you not mind?

Mohammad Habib Shakir

And they say: There is nothing but our life in this world; we live and die and nothing destroys us but time, and they have no knowledge of that; they only conjecture.

Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall

And they say: There is naught but our life of the world; we die and we live, and naught destroyeth us save time; when they have no knowledge whatsoever of (all) that; they do but guess.

Muhammad Sarwar

They have said, "The only life is this worldly life and here we shall live and die. It is only time which will destroy us" They have no knowledge about this. It is only their guesswork.

Qaribullah & Darwish

They say: 'There is nothing except this life, we die and we live, it is only time that destroys us' Surely, of this they have no knowledge, they are just guessing.

Safi-ur-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri

And they say: "There is nothing but our life of this world, we die and we live and nothing destroys us except Ad-Dahr (time). And they have no knowledge of it, they only presume.

Wahiduddin Khan

They say, "There is nothing but our life in this world: we die, we live, nothing but time destroys us." They have no knowledge of this; they only follow conjecture.

Talal Itani

And they say, “There is nothing but this our present life; we die and we live, and nothing destroys us except time.” But they have no knowledge of that; they are only guessing.

Tafsir jalalayn

And they, those who deny the Resurrection, say, `There is only, that is to say, [the only] life [is], our life, the one that is, in this world. We die and we live, that is to say, some die, while others are given life by [virtue of] being born, and nothing but time, that is, [nothing but] the passage of time, destroys us'. God, exalted be He, says; Of that, saying, they have no knowledge; they are only making conjectures.

Tafseer Ibn Kathir

The Conviction of the Disbelievers, Their Argument and the Refutation of it

Allah mentions here the creed of Ad-Dahriyyah and the Arab idolators who embraced their creed, denying Resurrection,

وَقَالُوا مَا هِيَ إِلاَّ حَيَاتُنَا الدُّنْيَا نَمُوتُ وَنَحْيَا

And they say;"There is nothing but our life of this world, we die and we live...."

They say that there is only this life, some people die while others are born to life, without Resurrection or Judgement.

This was the creed of Arab idolators who used to deny Resurrection, in addition to, the creed of the atheist philosophers among them who denied the creation and Resurrection.

This was also the statement of atheist philosophers who deny the Creator and think that the world will return to its original form once every thirty--six thousand years, when everything will restart its life--cycle again! They claim that this cycle was repeated for infinity, thus contradicting the sound reason and the divine revelation.

They said,

وَمَا يُهْلِكُنَا إِلاَّ الدَّهْرُ

and nothing destroys us except Ad-Dahr (time).

Allah the Exalted said in reply,

وَمَا لَهُم بِذَلِكَ مِنْ عِلْمٍ إِنْ هُمْ إِلاَّ يَظُنُّونَ



And they have no knowledge of it, they only presume.

they speculate and guess!

As for the Hadith recorded by the two collectors of the Sahih, and Abu Dawud and An-Nasa'i, from Abu Hurayrah that the Messenger of Allah said,

يَقُولُ تَعَالَى

يُوْذِينِي ابْنُ ادَمَ يَسُبُّ الدَّهْرَ وَأَنَا الدَّهْرُ بِيَدِيَ الاَْمْرُ أُقَلِّبُ لَيْلَهُ وَنَهَارَه

Allah the Exalted says,

"The Son of `Adam annoys Me when he curses Ad-Dahr (time), while I am Ad-Dahr. In My Hand are all matters; I cause the alternation of his days and nights."

In another narration;

لَاا تَسُبُّوا الدَّهْرَ فَإِنَّ اللهَ تَعَالَى هُوَ الدَّهْر

Do not curse Ad-Dahr (time), for Allah is Ad-Dahr.

Ash-Shafi`i, Abu Ubaydah and several other Imams of Tafsir explained the meaning of the Prophet's statement,
لَاا تَسُبُّوا الدَّهْرَ فَإِنَّ اللهَ تَعَالَى هُوَ الدَّهْر
(Do not abuse Ad-Dahr (time), for Allah is Ad-Dahr.) They said,

"During the time of Jahiliyyah, when an affliction, a calamity or a disaster struck them, the Arabs used to say,

`Woe to Ad-Dahr (time)!'

So they used to blame such incidents on Ad-Dahr, cursing Ad-Dahr in the process. Surely, it is Allah the Exalted and Most Honored Who causes these (and all) things to happen. This is why when they cursed Ad-Dahr, it was as if they were cursing Allah Himself, since truthfully, He causes all incidents to happen. Therefore, abusing Ad-Dahr was prohibited due to this consideration, for it was Allah Whom they meant by abusing Ad-Dahr, which -- as we said-- they accused of causing (distressful) incidents."

This is the best explanation for this subject, and it is the desired meaning. Allah knows best.

We should mention that Ibn Hazm and those of the Zahiriyyah like him made an error when they used this Hadith to include Ad-Dahr among Allah's most beautiful Names.

Allah's statement