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Sura 68
Aya 13
13
عُتُلٍّ بَعدَ ذٰلِكَ زَنيمٍ

Muhammad Asad

[or] one who is cruel, by greed possessed,1 and, in addition to all this, utterly useless [to his fellow-men].2
  • The term utul - derived from the verb 'atala, "he dragged [someone or something] in a rough and cruel manner" - is used to describe a person combining within himself the attributes of cruelty and greed; hence the composite rendering adopted by me.
  • The commentators give the most divergent interpretations to the term zanim, which is evidently derived from the noun zanamah, denoting either of the two wattles, or fleshy skin protuberances, hanging below the ears of a goat. Since these wattles do not seem to have any physiological function, the term zanim has come to signify "someone [or "something"] not needed" (Taj al-'Arus): in other words, redundant or useless. It is, therefore, logical to assume that in the above context this term describes a person who is entirely useless in the social sense.