Surah Ya-Sin 36:75
سُورَةُ يسٓ · Meccan · Verse 75 of 83
لَا يَسْتَطِيعُونَ نَصْرَهُمْ وَهُمْ لَهُمْ جُندٌۭ مُّحْضَرُونَ
Translation
though these could not do so even if they called a whole army of them together!
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'They cannot help them, though they are for them an army brought forward.' Ibn Ashur draws out the bitter irony of the reversal: the false gods cannot defend their worshippers, instead, the worshippers become an army defending their gods, expending themselves guarding what was supposed to guard them. The rescuer becomes the rescued's burden. Ask yourself: this is the strange servitude of every false attachment, I end up defending, maintaining, and exhausting myself for the very things I hoped would carry me. The status I chase now demands I protect it; the image I built now enslaves me to its upkeep. What am I pouring my energy into guarding, under the illusion that it is guarding me?
Grounded in classical tafsir: Ibn Ashur, al-Biqa'i, al-Saadi.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Ya-Sin 36:75 is discussed in 6 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 36:75 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.