Verse 17:59
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Verse 1759
Transliteration Wa ma manaAAana an nursila bialayati illa an kaththaba biha alawwaloona, ?
Yusuf Ali And We refrain from sending the signs, only because the men of former generations treated them as false.
This translation implies that God initially sent Signs / miracles to convert people and had an intention to send more signs but He disappointed to learn that His signs did not work as expected. So, He stopped sending them.
Now see translation below
Reformist Group The rejection of previous people did not stop Us from sending the signs.
Endnote (Page 206) Traditional translations render the meaning of "Ma" as a relative pronoun rather than a negative particle, "What stopped us from sending?."
Source https//www.irshadmanji.com/PDFS/ReformistTranslation.pdfNow look at word to word translation
http//corpus.quran.com/wordbyword.jsp?chapter=17&verse=59(17591)
wa m
And not
CONJ ? prefixed conjunction wa (and)
NEG ? negative particleHere ?Ma? is negative particle (NOT).
It seems that Yusuf Ali has considered it Relative Pronoun (WHAT).
So, if we take ?ma? as negative particle, it seems that Allah SWT did not refrained from sending the signs, despite the men of former generations treated them as false and
If we take ?ma? as Relative Pronoun, it seems that Allah SWT did refrained from sending the signs, because the men of former generations treated them as false.
Will some Native Arabic Scholar throw some light here?
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Please determine the Suject of Verb and estimate the elided Object of verb , the meanings and perception would become evident.
Know it that the retraining fact for Us that We might send to the Messenger unprecedented demonstrative signs was but the reality that the earlier people had publicly contradicted the unprecedented demonstrative signs.
And We gave the people of Sa'mued the she-camel, an eye opener sign; then/for reason they did unjust with her.
Moreover, We do not send the unprecedented demonstrative signs except for consideration of terrorizing. -
Salaam Wazir,
As per my understanding 1759 is self explanatory. Please take a look at its other part same words has been used. And when the words are same with same pattern then of-course there cannot be a different meaning.
1759
Hope this may help understand it better inshaAllah.
May Allah increase us in knowledge and guide us to His true path pr
mmKhan -
As per my understanding 1759 is self explanatory. Please take a look at its other part same words has been used. And when the words are same with same pattern then of-course there cannot be a different meaning.
So, which meaning is correct?
Allah SWT did not refrained from sending the signs, despite the men of former generations treated them as false.
OR
Allah SWT did refrained from sending the signs, because the men of former generations treated them as false.
I appreciate your response.
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Salaam brother,
I understand that whenever ILLA is used after MA, then MA will be translated in negative way, like NO, NOT, NOTHING, etc.
Allah SWT did refrained from sending the signs, because the men of former generations treated them as false.
Where is the translation of MA in the above translation? It has to be And NOTHING prevented us....., inshaAllah as per my understanding.
Please take a look at other translations http//corpus.quran.com/translation.jsp?chapter=17&verse=59
May Allah increase us in knowledge and guide us to His true path pr
mmKhan -
Salaam brother,
I understand that whenever ILLA is used after MA, then MA will be translated in negative way, like NO, NOT, NOTHING, etc.
Where is the translation of MA in the above translation? It has to be And NOTHING prevented us....., inshaAllah as per my understanding.Please take a look at other translations http//corpus.quran.com/translation.jsp?chapter=17&verse=59
May Allah increase us in knowledge and guide us to His true path pr
mmKhanAll seven translation are patently incorrect since they all do not care that the Verb is transitive which needs an Object, and the following Prepositional Phrase is not the object.
Further some convert the Perfect Verb into Imperfect Verb; while others make "Na" First Person Plural Noun as the Subject of Verb while it is the First Object of the Verb. -
Salam
Answer from an other forum about this questionWith respect, the QXP rendition of 1759 is grossly inaccurate and misleading.
The restriction particle 'illa' (except) is present and seals the interpretation along with the negative particle 'ma' in wama (not). ?And nothing stopped us ?EXCEPT?.
If I say 'nothing' stopped me 'EXCEPT' that XYZ denied them, I am affirming my actions of restraint. Therefore in 1759, God is clearly giving the reason why he stopped something. There is absolutely no way out of this.
The Quran could have clearly said that we have not stopped sending signs - full stop! To say that the signs would continue despite XYZ (people of old) denying them is with respect, a misrepresentation of the context.
?illa? does not mean ?even though? as the QXP renders it ? This is a complete opposite meaning of the Arabic text.
For example, Lailla ha illa huwa (31 does not mean - No Deity even though God. It means 'except' God
and
the negative particle 'ma' needs to be read with the restriction particle 'illa' (except), to derive the full meaning of overall 'restraint' given the context of the verse.
As I'm sure you will appreciate, natives derive the full meaning of a sentence and not by a conscious breakdown of individual syntax and part scrutiny of synctactics. It is what is meant by the overall sentence which is important.
Another way of reading this would be that 'we did not stop X Y Z' EXCEPT 'illa' (the reason we did) because ancients denied this.
This is similar to 'There is No God' except . The reason for the exception (illa) is stated i.e. that 'Allah' exists. If we just read 'No God' without the exception (illa), then the sentence would be understood as 'There is no God' . Understanding the 'exception' (illa) is important.
My theological contention would also be that If such 'signs' were to continue, then why were they not given to Prophet Muhammad when the disbelievers kept asking for it? (16109, 137, 3183, 20133, 2950-1)
peace