Verse. 1344

٩ - ٱلتَّوْبَة

9 - At-Tawba

اَفَمَنْ اَسَّـسَ بُنْيَانَہٗ عَلٰي تَقْوٰى مِنَ اللہِ وَرِضْوَانٍ خَيْرٌ اَمْ مَّنْ اَسَّـسَ بُنْيَانَہٗ عَلٰي شَفَا جُرُفٍ ھَارٍ فَانْہَارَ بِہٖ فِيْ نَارِ جَہَنَّمَ۝۰ۭ وَاللہُ لَا يَہْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظّٰلِــمِيْنَ۝۱۰۹
Afaman assasa bunyanahu AAala taqwa mina Allahi waridwanin khayrun am man assasa bunyanahu AAala shafa jurufin harin fainhara bihi fee nari jahannama waAllahu la yahdee alqawma alththalimeena

English

Ahmed Ali

Is the man who lays the foundations of his sanctum on his allegiance to God and the wish to seek His favour, better, or he who lays the foundations of his building on the edge of a bank eroded by water, which will collapse with him into the fire of Hell? But God does not guide the people who are wilfully unjust.

109

Tafseer

'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī

تفسير : (is he who founded his building) is he who builds its foundation (upon duty to allah) upon obedience and remembrance of allah (and his good pleasure) they built the will of their lord's good pleasure, i.e. the mosque of quba' (better; or he who founded his building) or he who builds its foundation, i.e. the mosque of opposition (on the brink of a crumbling, overhanging precipice) without a base (so that it toppled with him) the one who build it (into the fire of hell? allah guideth not wrong-doing folk) allah neither forgives the hypocrites nor saves them.

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī

تفسير : is he who founded his building upon fear of god and, in hope of, beatitude, from him, better, or he who founded his building upon the brink, the edge, of a bank, an overhang, that is crumbling, about to collapse (read juruf or jurf) so that it toppled with him, so that it collapsed [taking] with it the one who built it, into the fire of hell?: [this is] an excellent similitude for building upon that which constitutes the opposite of fear of god and [for] what it leads to; the interrogative is meant as an affirmative: in other words, the former is the better, which is the likeness of the [building of the] mosque of qubā’, while the latter is the likeness of the mosque of ‘harm’ (masjid al-dirār). and god guides not the evildoing folk.