Verses 7–12
The previous set of verses described how the faithless reject the divine message and try to repudiate the signs of God by recourse to falsehood, before indicating that not only were these deniers incapable of thwarting God’s plans, but that also they would not be forgotten or overlooked. On the contrary, they were the target of this call in order that they might be distinguished from others, God’s word might become due against them, and they would be chastised.
Following this, the discourse returns to the topic raised in the very first verse of this chapter, namely the sending down of the Book and the divine call for the forgiveness of some and the acceptance of their repentance and the punishment of others. It discusses how people fall into two groups based on their response to this divine call: One group—those who repent to God, follow His way, and their righteous forebears, spouses, and children—are those for whom the angels who carry and circle the Divine Throne pray for forgiveness, while the other group—those who deny God’s oneness—are those who will be detested and punished.
Commentary
الَّذِينَ يَحْمِلُونَ الْعَرْشَ وَمَنْ حَوْلَهُ يُسَبِّحُونَ بِحَمْدِ رَبِّهِمْ وَيُؤْمِنُونَ بِهِ وَيَسْتَغْفِرُونَ لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا رَبَّنَا وَسِعْتَ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ رَحْمَةً وَعِلْمًا فَاغْفِرْ لِلَّذِينَ تَابُوا وَاتَّبَعُوا سَبِيلَكَ وَقِهِمْ عَذَابَ الْجَحِيمِ ٧
(40:7) Those who bear the Throne and those around it celebrate the praise of their Lord and have faith in Him, and they plead for forgiveness for the faithful: Our Lord! You encompass all things in mercy and knowledge. So forgive those who repent and follow Your way and save them from the punishment of hell.
One might ask why God does not identify who the bearers of His Throne are in this verse? And why does He not explicitly say anywhere else that they are angels? However, the fact Those who bear the Throne is joined to the phrase and those around it suggests that they are of the same species as one another. Now, elsewhere, we read, And you will see the angels surrounding the Throne… (). Therefore, those who carry the Throne must also be angels.
We have already discussed the meaning of the Throne, in part eight of this work.
Those who bear the Throne and those around it: Meaning the angels who carry the Throne, from whence God’s commands emerge and His ordinances to direct the affairs of the world are issued. The angels who are around the Throne are the angels brought-near (al-malāʾika al-muqarrabūn).
…celebrate the praise of their Lord: Meaning they glorify Him while at the same time praising Him, so as well as divesting Him of all that does not befit His divinity, such as the existence of a partner or an equal, they also praise Him for His actions and His governance.
…and have faith in Him: What does it mean for them to have faith (īmān) in Him while they are carrying or circling the Throne, which represents His sovereignty over the cosmos, in order to receive His commands and to extol Him above every defect and praise Him for all that He does? It means that they believe in His absolute oneness in lordship and divinity. By mentioning the throne, and attributing God’s glorification and praise and faith in Him to the angels, the Qur’an refutes the claim of the idolaters that the highest angels are God’s partners in His lordship and divinity whom they take as deities and lords worthy of worship and reverence in their own right.
…and they plead for forgiveness for the faithful: They ask God to forgive those who believe.
…Our Lord! You encompass all things in mercy and knowledge: This relates the supplication of the angels in seeking forgiveness for the faithful; they begin by praising Him for the breadth of His mercy and knowledge. They mention His mercy and join it to His knowledge because it is through His mercy that He blesses all who are in need, so mercy is the origin of every blessing that emanates from Him. However, it is through His knowledge that He knows the need of each and every needy person that is prepared to receive His mercy.
…So forgive those who repent and follow Your way and save them from the punishment of hell: This builds on their praise of the breadth of His mercy and knowledge. The meaning of ‘way’ (sabīl) here is the path that has been laid out of them through religion, namely Islam, and their following it (ittibāʿ) means bringing their actions into alignment with it. In this context, repentance (tawba) means returning to Him with their faith. Therefore, this passage as a whole means: Forgive those who return to You believing in Your oneness and walk upon your path, which is Islam, and protect them from the punishment of hell. And this is, in fact, the utmost purpose and goal of divine forgiveness.
رَبَّنَا وَأَدْخِلْهُمْ جَنَّاتِ عَدْنٍ الَّتِي وَعَدْتَهُمْ وَمَنْ صَلَحَ مِنْ آبَائِهِمْ وَأَزْوَاجِهِمْ وَذُرِّيَّاتِهِمْ ۚ إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ ٨
(40:8) Our Lord! Admit them into the Gardens of Eden, which You have promised them, along with whoever is worthy among their forebears, their spouses and their descendants. Indeed You are the All-mighty, the All-wise.
The phrase Our Lord! is repeated here to invoke sympathy, and You have promised them means He has promised them through the words of His prophets and messengers and in their scriptures.
…along with whoever is worthy among their forebears, their spouses and their descendants: Grammatically, this sentence is joined to the pronoun them in the phrase Admit them… and worthy means worthy of entering paradise. In other words, And admit to the Gardens of Eden with them whoever is worthy of entering paradise among their forebears, their spouses, and their descendants.
From the context, it is evident that this plea for forgiveness is offered on behalf of all the faithful believers. It is also evident that they are also divided into two groups; those who repent and follow the way of God and to whom God has promised paradise and those who are worthy of entering paradise. According to the angels, then, the first group are those who are followed, and the second are those who follow them.
Therefore, this verse is of a similar meaning to the verse: The faithful and their descendants who followed them in faith We will make their descendants join them, and We will not stint anything from the reward of their deeds (). However, the present verse is broader in scope and more inclusive because it mentions their forbears and their spouses, while the verse in Sūrah al-Ṭūr only mentions descendants. At the same time, the present verse says that whoever is worthy will join them in paradise, which is broader in scope than Sūrah al-Ṭūr, which makes this conditional upon faith (īmān).
Indeed You are the All-mighty, the All-wise: This explains the rationale for the angels supplication, beginning with So forgive those who repent… until the end of their plea (in other words, why God should do any of these things). At first glance, one might think it would have made more sense for the angels to say Indeed you are the Oft-forgiving, the Most merciful. However, they say You are the All-mighty, the All-wise instead because of the attributes of God they praise at the outset of their supplication: Our Lord! You encompass all things in mercy and knowledge. God’s all-encompassing mercy entails His limitless generosity; He can give whatever He wants to whomever He wants and withhold whatever He wants from whomever He wants. This is the meaning of might (ʿizza, from which derives al-ʿAzīz or the All-mighty), because might denotes the power to give and to withhold. At the same time, His knowledge encompassing all things means that it penetrates all dimensions of His actions, such that He is not ignorant or unaware about any aspect of them. This entails that whatever He does will be done in the best possible way, and that is the definition of wisdom (ḥikma, from which derives al-Ḥakīm or the All-wise).
Therefore, when the angels say Indeed You are the All-mighty, the All-wise they are, in fact, appealing to God’s all-encompassing mercy and knowledge, which they invoke at the outset of their supplication as a prelude to asking their needs from Him, which is that He forgive the faithful and admit them to paradise.
وَقِهِمُ السَّيِّئَاتِ ۚ وَمَنْ تَقِ السَّيِّئَاتِ يَوْمَئِذٍ فَقَدْ رَحِمْتَهُ ۚ وَذَٰلِكَ هُوَ الْفَوْزُ الْعَظِيمُ ٩
(40:9) Save them from the evils; and whomever You save from the ills that day, You will have had mercy upon him, and that is the great success.
It appears that the them the angels are asking God to save refers both to those who repent and to those who are worthy.
The meaning of the evils (sayyiʾāt), according to some, is the consequences of their sins, meaning their just desserts. The reason why these consequences are called evils is because the recompense of evil is evil, as per the verse: The requital of evil is an evil like it ().
Others have said that the meaning of evils is the sins and acts of disobedience themselves, while there is an implicit possessive construct at work in the sentence, which has the meaning of the recompense of the evils or the punishment of the evils.
This verse appears to be one of the passages in the Qur’an that indicates people are recompensed with their own actions, whether good or evil, something which God repeats on a number of occasions. For example: O faithless ones! Do not make any excuses today. You are only being requited for what you used to do ().
In any case, the evils that the angels ask God to protect the penitent and the worthy from are, ultimately, the terrors and hardships that will confront them on the Day of Resurrection rather than the punishment of hell itself. Therefore, there is no repetition when they also ask God in an earlier verse and save them from the punishment of hell ().
Some have suggested that the meaning of the evils are the evil deeds as they exist in this world and that day refers to this world. Hence, the verse as a whole means: Protect them from falling into sin and committing misdeeds in this work by granting them success from You. However, the context of the verse strongly suggests that the meaning of that day is the Day of Resurrection, as previously the angels have asked God to save them from the punishment of hell and admit them into the Gardens of Eden. Therefore, the correct reading of this verse is that evils refers to the terrors and trials people will experience on the Day of Resurrection.
From these verses that relate the supplication of the angels to God on behalf of the faithful, the following becomes clear:
First, that the proper etiquette of supplication (duʿāʾ) is to begin by praising and glorifying God, followed by asking Him for ones needs, and then invoking the Beautiful Names of His most relevant for ones request to intercede on your behalf.
Second, that one should ask for forgiveness before one asks for paradise, as occurs on many occasions in God’s speech when they are mentioned together. Upon reflection, this makes sense because in order for someone to receive a blessing they must have made themselves ready to receive it and removed any barriers to it.
Some have said that the passage So forgive those who repent… () shows that, when God spares someone punishment upon their repenting, this is done as a favour from Him as, were it necessary for God to spare the penitent person from punishment there would be no need to request this, because God would have done it anyway without doubt.
However, just because an action will definitely emanate from God, this does not in any way preclude someone from asking Him for it or seeking it from Him. This principle is clearly demonstrated in the passage that follows the angels plea for forgiveness on behalf of the penitent, when they say, Our Lord! Admit them into the Gardens of Eden, which You have promised them. Notice that they are asking God to grant the penitent paradise while simultaneously acknowledging that God has already promised this to them, with the knowledge that God’s promise will always be enacted, for God does not break His promises. Even more explicit than this verse is the verse quoting the words of the faithful: Our Lord, give us what You have promised us through Your apostles, and do not disgrace us on the Day of Resurrection. Indeed You do not break Your promise ().
The acceptance of repentance is something that God has made obligatory upon Himself to do, and He has made it His duty to the penitent to forgive them: repentance by Allah is only for those who commit evil out of ignorance, then repent promptly. It is such whose repentance Allah will accept… (). In fact, what asking God for something that He has imposed upon Himself, such as asking forgiveness for the penitent, really signifies is turning to Him in order to see that promise fulfilled and to show ones longing for the success that God’s generosity brings.
Equally, just because God does something as an act of grace (faḍl), this does not entail that the act was not necessary in of itself. After all, all of God’s gifts are acts of grace, whether they were definitely going to emanate from Him or not. This is because, even when an act necessarily emanates from Him, He is not compelled in this by some external agents influence upon Him, as He is the Agent that acts upon all other things and is not acted upon by anything else. In fact, He is the one who made the act necessary for Himself in the first place. Therefore, a necessary act is to be understood as a fixed divine decree (qaḍāʾ ḥatm) to perform some action or to pour out some gift on His servants. In this case, God is only acting in accordance with His will for His own self as an act of grace, not because He has been enjoined to do this by another being. Therefore, the act, while being necessary, is nevertheless a manifestation of His grace. Of course, were it not a necessary act in the first place, then its being an act of grace would be self-evident.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا يُنَادَوْنَ لَمَقْتُ اللَّهِ أَكْبَرُ مِنْ مَقْتِكُمْ أَنْفُسَكُمْ إِذْ تُدْعَوْنَ إِلَى الْإِيمَانِ فَتَكْفُرُونَ ١٠
(40:10) Indeed it will be proclaimed to the faithless: “Surely Allah’s outrage is greater than your outrage towards yourselves, as you were invited to faith, but you disbelieved.”
‘Outrage’ (maqt) is the most intense form of hatred. Having discussed the faithful and some of what lies in store for them in the hereafter on account of their faith, the conversation now returns to the disbelievers and some of what awaits them because of their denial.
The apparent meaning of this verse and the verse that follows it is that the proclamation directed to the faithless will take place in the hereafter but before they enter hellfire, where they will taste the punishment for their denial. There, it will become apparent to them that their denial in this world when they were called towards faith by the prophets was an outrage and an act of pure self-hatred, because this act has led them to suffer eternal devastation.
So they hear a proclamation from God, in which they are told: I swear that God’s outrage and fury towards you is greater than your outrage with yourselves and your own self-loathing, for you were called to faith before by the prophets, but you disbelieved.
قَالُوا رَبَّنَا أَمَتَّنَا اثْنَتَيْنِ وَأَحْيَيْتَنَا اثْنَتَيْنِ فَاعْتَرَفْنَا بِذُنُوبِنَا فَهَلْ إِلَىٰ خُرُوجٍ مِنْ سَبِيلٍ ١١
(40:11) They will say, “Our Lord! Twice did You make us die, and twice did You give us life. We admit our sins. Is there any way out?”
The context of this verse and the one preceding it suggests that they will say this after they have heard the aforementioned proclamation by God. What is more, they will be saying this while they are in hellfire, as evinced by their plea: Is there any way out?
Before making this request, the disbelievers first confess their own guilt, which is a form of begging and pleading with God to be saved from punishment, but it is too late for them. This is because when they were in this world, they were sceptical about the Resurrection and returning to God, so they denied it and forgot about the Day of Reckoning. And, because they forgot about the Day of Reckoning, they immersed themselves in all manner of sins and iniquities, as forgetting the Hereafter is the key to all sinfulness and error, as God said to David: Indeed those who stray from the way of Allah there is a severe punishment for them because of their forgetting the Day of Reckoning ().
Then, God caused them to die once and to die again and gave them life once then gave them life again. This dispelled their doubts about the Resurrection and the return to God because they had seen life after death with their own eyes and experienced the afterlife first-hand, whereas previously they had believed that death was the end of all things and would say that There is nothing but our life of this world, and we shall not be resurrected ().
In short, their doubts have been dispelled because they now have complete certainty about the afterlife, but their sins and misdeeds still remain. Therefore, they plead with God to spare them from punishment by offering confessions. Sometimes, they confess because they now have certainty, as God relates: Were you to see when the guilty hang their heads before their Lord, “Our Lord! We have seen and heard. Send us back so that we may act righteously. Indeed we are convinced” (). Other times, they confess their sins as we see in the present verse; previously, they had thought they were free to do as they pleased and to take whatever they wanted and that there would never be any accounting or reckoning or, indeed, any sins to answer for.
That is why they say, We admit our sins after Twice did You make us die, and twice did You give us life, because the confession of their sins follows from their newfound certainty about the reality of the Resurrection, which led them to realize that they had been astray from God’s path in this world and immersed in error and sinfulness.
When they say, Twice did You make us die, and twice did You give us life, this means—according to some—their dying in this world, then their returning to life in Barzakh, then their second death in Barzakh, followed by their returning to life to be judged on the Day of Resurrection. Therefore, the verse is referring to God causing them to die at the end of their life in this world, then causing them to die after their life in Barzakh, as well as God giving them life in Barzakh and God giving them life on the Day of Resurrection. And without Barzakh, the reference to dying twice would not make any sense, because both dying and being brought to life depend on the occurrence of a prior opposite state.
But, if this is the case, why do they not refer to the life of this world and say, and three times did you give us life, insofar as they were given life after the death of non-existence through the imparting of a spirit to their physical form? The answer to this is that they are explaining how they became convinced about the Resurrection, which was through coming back to life in Barzakh and then again on the Day of Judgment. By contrast, their being given life in this world did not lead them to become convinced about the Resurrection, as they were in doubt about the Resurrection so long as they were alive in this world.
Based on the above explanation, it is easy to see why the following is incorrect: Some argue that if and twice did You give us life referred to Barzakh and the Hereafter (as opposed to this world and the Hereafter), they should have said, you caused us to die twice and gave us life three times, as the purpose of this is nothing other than to describe the course of their existence, which consists of two deaths and three lives.
The answer to this argument is that this is not their intention at all. On the contrary, they are explaining how they came to be convinced about the Resurrection, and their worldly life is not part of that story.
Some have said that the first death refers to the embryo before the spirit has entered the body, and the first life refers to the human being after this has happened. Then, the second death refers to the death of this world, and the second life begins with the Resurrection on the Day of Judgment. This corresponds to the verse: How can you be unfaithful to Allah? You were lifeless and He gave you life, then He will make you die, and then He shall bring you to life… ().
However, when it is pointed out to them that you cannot say that God caused them to die prior to the spirit entering the body, because this would imply a prior state of being alive, they resort to all manner of intellectual gymnastics to prop up this reading. For those interested in reading more about this, let them refer to Tafsīr al-kashshāf and its commentaries.
In any case, as we have already established, the disbelievers mention dying and being returned to life in order to explain how they came to be convinced of the Resurrection, and their worldly life and any state of death that could be said to have come before it have no relevance to this.
Others have argued that the first life is their life in this world and the second life is their life in the grave, while the first death is in this world and the second is in the grave, and this verse does not speak about the life that follows the Resurrection. This reading is to be rejected on the basis of what has already been said, namely that the life of this world has nothing to do with the purpose of the verse, therefore there is no need to include it, while the life that follows the Resurrection is directly relevant to it.
Others still have said that the meaning of the two lives refers to the afterlife and the life before it. They further argue that the afterlife is divided into two stages: the life in the grave and the life that follows the Resurrection, and that, therefore, even though the verse does not explicitly mention it, the verse includes the three lives (of this world, the grave, and the Resurrection) and the two deaths altogether.
However, this reading is to be rejected for the same reasons as the previous two, in addition to the fact that the verse explicitly refers to the second death that takes place in the grave and, so, does pay attention to the two stages of the afterlife. Therefore, the two lives and two deaths refer to specific instances, rather than species, of each.
Others have argued that the first life refers to the souls in the World of Pre-existence (ʿālam al-dharr), followed by death, followed by life in this world, followed by death in this world, followed by life in the Hereafter. However, this reading is to be rejected on the same basis as those above.
Some have argued that the number two here signifies repetition, as with the verse: Look again, once more (), in other words the verse means: You have caused us to die and brought us to life time and again.
However, this would only make sense if the disbelievers had said, Two deaths did You make us die, two lives did You give us life—using the dual form for deaths and lives—or used the phrase again (karratayn). However, the verse uses the number two (ithnatayn) as an adjective, suggesting that this is to be taken literally, as in the verse: Do not worship two Allahs ().
As for their saying, Is there any way out?, this is a supplication and a plea in the form of a question. The fact that they say any way (in Arabic, both khurūj and sabīl are indefinite) shows that they are so desperate that they will accept any means of escape, no matter what it entails. This is because they have done their utmost and exhausted all other possibilities for escape, so they know that they have no hope of salvation except through God.
ذَٰلِكُمْ بِأَنَّهُ إِذَا دُعِيَ اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ كَفَرْتُمْ ۖ وَإِنْ يُشْرَكْ بِهِ تُؤْمِنُوا ۚ فَالْحُكْمُ لِلَّهِ الْعَلِيِّ الْكَبِيرِ ١٢
(40:12) This is because, when Allah was invoked alone, you would disbelieve, but if partners were ascribed to Him you would believe. So the Judgment belongs to Allah, the All-exalted, the All-great.
This is a rebuke delivered to the disbelievers on the Day of Resurrection, although it is also possible that it could be delivered to them in this world in order to dissuade them from associating partners with God.
This refers to the tribulation they will face in the Hereafter. The phrase but if partners were ascribed to him… suggests that this is something they did continuously. This context of this verse is that it offers an explanation for their obstinate rejection of the truth and their hostility towards monotheism. They disbelieve in anything that even remotely suggests God’s unity, while believing anything that supports idolatry. They do not observe any of their duties towards God, nor do they show Him any respect, therefore God denies them His mercy and shows them no leniency in His verdict against them.
It is in this way that the first part of the verse relates to its coda and leads up to it: So the Judgment belongs to Allah, the All-exalted, the All-great. It is as if to say: You cut yourselves off from God and denied everything He wanted you to believe in, while simultaneously believing in everything He detested. So, now, He will cut you off from His mercy and judge you without leniency.
Therefore, the verse is similar in its meaning to They have forgotten Allah, so He has forgotten them (), while the sentence So the Judgment belongs to Allah, the All-exalted, the All-great has a meaning specific to this context, even if it could be taken as a general statement in of itself. However, in this context, it delivers a warning to the disbelievers and emphasizes this warning by invoking the two divine names of the All-exalted, the All-great.