Verse. 1589

١١ - هُود

11 - Houd

فَلَوْلَا كَانَ مِنَ الْقُرُوْنِ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ اُولُوْا بَقِيَّۃٍ يَّنْہَوْنَ عَنِ الْفَسَادِ فِي الْاَرْضِ اِلَّا قَلِيْلًا مِّمَّنْ اَنْجَيْنَا مِنْہُمْ۝۰ۚ وَاتَّبَعَ الَّذِيْنَ ظَلَمُوْا مَاۗ اُتْرِفُوْا فِيْہِ وَكَانُوْا مُجْرِمِيْنَ۝۱۱۶
Falawla kana mina alqurooni min qablikum oloo baqiyyatin yanhawna AAani alfasadi fee alardi illa qaleelan mimman anjayna minhum waittabaAAa allatheena thalamoo ma otrifoo feehi wakanoo mujrimeena

English

Ahmed Ali

If only there had been men endued with virtue in the ages before you, who could preserve men from doing evil in the world, other than the few We saved from among them. Those who were wicked followed that which made them dissolute, and became sinners.

116

Tafseer

'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī

تفسير : (if only there had been among the generations before you) he says: there were not among the nations before you believing (men possessing a remnant (of good sense) to warn (their people) from corruption in the earth) warning them against disbelief, idolatry, idol worship and all kinds of transgressions, (as did a few of those whom we saved from them) from among the believers! (the wrong-doers followed) the idolaters engaged in (that by which they were made sapless) the comfort and wealth which they were given in this world, (and were guilty) idolaters.

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī

تفسير : if only there had been among the generations, past communities, before you men possessing a remnant [of good sense], men of religion and virtue, forbidding corruption in the earth (this [statement] is intended to be a negation, in other words, ‘there never were such [men] among them’), except, but, a few of those whom (mimman: min is explicative) we delivered from among them, did forbid [corruption] and were thus delivered. but those who did wrong, through corruption and neglecting to forbid, followed that by which they were made profligate, and were sinners.