The Quran

112

Preface

وَضَرَبَ اللَّهُ مَثَلًا قَريَةً كانَت آمِنَةً مُطمَئِنَّةً يَأتيها رِزقُها رَغَدًا مِن كُلِّ مَكانٍ فَكَفَرَت بِأَنعُمِ اللَّهِ فَأَذاقَهَا اللَّهُ لِباسَ الجوعِ وَالخَوفِ بِما كانوا يَصنَعونَ

Yusuf Ali

God sets forth a Parable: a city enjoying security¹ and quiet, abundantly supplied with sustenance from every place: Yet was it ungrateful for the favours of God. so God made it taste of hunger and terror (in extremes) (closing in on it) like a garment² (from every side), because of the (evil) which (its people) wrought.

The reference may be to any of the cities or populations in ancient or modern times, which were favoured with security and other blessings from God, but which rebelled from God’s Law and tasted the inevitable penalty, even in the midst of their iniquities. Some commentators see here a reference to the city of Mecca under Pagan control. See next note.
There is a double metaphor: (1) the tasting of hunger and terror after the abundant supplies and the full security which it had enjoyed; and (2) the complete enfolding of the city as with a garment, by these two scourges, hunger and a state of subjective alarm. If the reference is to Mecca shortly before its fall to the Muslims, the “hunger” was the seven years’ severe famine which afflicted it, and the alarm was the constant fear in the minds of the Pagans that their day was done. Peace and prosperity were restored after the re-entry of the Prophet.