Surah Hud Ayat 117 in Arabic Text
English Translation
Here you can read various translations of verse 117
And your Lord would not have destroyed the cities unjustly while their people were reformers.
Nor would thy Lord be the One to destroy communities for a single wrong-doing, if its members were likely to mend.
And your Lord is not such as would wrongfully destroy human habitations while their inhabitants are righteous.
And your Lord would never destroy the towns wrongfully, while their people were right-doers.
In truth thy Lord destroyed not the townships tyrannously while their folk were doing right.
And in no way would your Lord indeed cause towns to perish with injustice (while) their population are righteous-doers.
Your Lord would not destroy any town without cause if its people were acting righteously.
آپ کا رب ایسا نہیں کہ کسی بستی کو ﻇلم سے ہلاک کر دے اور وہاں کے لوگ نیکو کار ہوں
Quran 11 Verse 117 Explanation
For those looking for commentary to help with the understanding of Surah Hud ayat 117, we’ve provided two Tafseer works below. The first is the tafseer of Abul Ala Maududi, the second is of Ibn Kathir.
Ala-Maududi
(11:117) And your Lord is not such as would wrongfully destroy human habitations while their inhabitants are righteous.[115]
115. In this passage, the real cause of the fall of the communities mentioned in (Surah Hud, Ayat 25-99) has been pointed out in a very instructive manner. In reviewing their history Allah declares that the cause of the downfall of not only these but of all the former communities was this: When Allah bestowed His favors on them, they abused these favors and were so intoxicated with their own prosperity that they began to make mischief in the land. By and by, their collective conscience became so corrupt that no righteous persons were left among them to forbid evil and, if a few were left, their voice was so weak that they could not prevent them from causing mischief. As a result of this, evil became so strong and prevalent among them as to warrant the scourge of Allah. Otherwise Allah bears no enmity against His servants that He should destroy them without any just cause, while they were performing righteous works. This has been mentioned here for impressing the following three things.
First, it is imperative that there should be some persons who should invite the people to virtue and forbid evil. For Allah approves virtue only and tolerates evil for its sake so long as there is any potential good left in them. But when a community has no righteous persons left in it and contains only wicked ones, or even if there be some such righteous persons in it as are so weak that nobody pays any heed to them, and the community as a whole rushes headlong towards moral degradation, then Allah’s scourge becomes its inevitable doom.
Second, a community, which tolerates everything and everyone except those few who invite it to righteous deeds seals its own doom and invites its destruction.
Third, it is clear from this passage that the destiny of a community is determined by the influence the righteous people can wield in it. If it contains such a number of good persons as may be able to eradicate evil and mischief and establish virtue and righteousness, a general scourge is withheld from it so as to afford an opportunity to them for carrying on their work of reform. On the other hand, if the number of the righteous persons in it remains too small to carry on the reform work, and the community does not tolerate them at all and does not allow them to perform their reform work, then that community incurs its own destruction, for thus it proves itself to be a worthless community which has no justification for its existence. For further explanation, See (Surah Adh-Dhariyat, ayat 36) note 34.
Ibn-Kathir
The tafsir of Surah Hud verse 117 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Hud ayat 116 which provides the complete commentary from verse 116 through 117.
Quick navigation links
