The Quran

Preface

اعلَموا أَنَّمَا الحَياةُ الدُّنيا لَعِبٌ وَلَهوٌ وَزينَةٌ وَتَفاخُرٌ بَينَكُم وَتَكاثُرٌ فِي الأَموالِ وَالأَولادِ ۖ كَمَثَلِ غَيثٍ أَعجَبَ الكُفّارَ نَباتُهُ ثُمَّ يَهيجُ فَتَراهُ مُصفَرًّا ثُمَّ يَكونُ حُطامًا ۖ وَفِي الآخِرَةِ عَذابٌ شَديدٌ وَمَغفِرَةٌ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَرِضوانٌ ۚ وَمَا الحَياةُ الدُّنيا إِلّا مَتاعُ الغُرورِ

Yusuf Ali

Know ye (all), that the life of this world is but play and amusement,¹ pomp and mutual boasting and multiplying, (in rivalry) among yourselves, riches and children. Here is a similitude:² How rain and the growth which it brings forth, delight (the hearts of) the tillers;³ soon it withers; thou wilt see it grow yellow; then it becomes dry and crumbles away. But in the Hereafter is a Penalty severe (for the devotees of wrong). And Forgiveness from God and (His) Good Pleasure (for the devotees of God). And what is the life of this world, but goods and chattels of deception?⁴

Cf. 6:32, and n. 855. In the present passage the idea is further amplified. In this life people not only play and amuse themselves and each other, but they show off, and boast, and pile up riches and manpower and influence, in rivalry with each other.
Cf. 39:21, and n. 4273. Here the Parable is meant to teach a slightly different lesson. God’s mercies are free and open to all, like His rain. But how do men make use of them? The good men take the real spiritual harvest and store the spiritual grain. The men who are in love with the ephemeral are delighted with the green of the tares and the grass; but such things give no real nourishment; they soon wither, become dry, and crumble to pieces, like the worldly pleasures and pomps, boastings and tumults, possessions and friends.
Kuffar is here used in the unusual sense of ’tillers or husbandmen', because they sow the seed and cover it up with soil. But the ordinary meaning, 'Rejectors of Truth' is not absent. The allegory refers to such men.
Cf. 3:185, and n. 492. Many of the attractive vanities of this world are but nets set by the Evil One to deceive men. The only thing real and lasting is the Good Life lived in the Light of God.