Surah Ya-Sin 36:31
سُورَةُ يسٓ · Meccan · Verse 31 of 83
أَلَمْ يَرَوْا۟ كَمْ أَهْلَكْنَا قَبْلَهُم مِّنَ ٱلْقُرُونِ أَنَّهُمْ إِلَيْهِمْ لَا يَرْجِعُونَ
Translation
Do they not see how many generations We have destroyed before them, none of whom will ever come back to them?
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'Have they not seen how many generations We destroyed before them, that they do not return to them?' al-Saadi and Ibn Kathir note the plain, sobering evidence: the graveyards of history are full of the once-mighty, and not one of them comes back. The past is a settled fact anyone can read. Ask yourself: I live with a quiet sense of exception, that the mortality and downfall that took everyone before me will somehow negotiate with me. This verse points at the long line of the vanished and asks why I assume I'm outside it. Every generation thought itself permanent. What am I building as if I, uniquely, will not have to hand it back?
Grounded in classical tafsir: al-Saadi, Ibn Kathir, Ibn Ashur.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Ya-Sin 36:31 is discussed in 2 study guides on Maani. Each guide gathers the key verses, Arabic words and lessons of one Quranic topic.
Reflect on this verse
Open Surah Ya-Sin 36:31 in Maani to reflect on it through the Five Lenses: its wording, its context, what it means for you, its connections across the Quran and its lessons, grounded in classical tafsir.