Verses 34–59
So far, the sūrah has warned the audience of punishment in this world and punishment in the Hereafter. Then it provided them an example of worldly punishment in the form of Pharaoh and his people when Moses brought them a message from his Lord and they denied him, causing God to drown them and wipe them out.
Now the discourse turns to the punishment of the Hereafter. First, it deals with people’s denial of the Resurrection and their claim that there is no life after death, adducing proofs for the Resurrection. Then, it reveals some details about the punishment that awaits the guilty in the Hereafter, and some details about the everlasting rewards that await the Godwary. And with that, the sūrah concludes as it began, by mentioning that the Book was sent down to remind people and commanding the Prophet to wait.
Commentary
إِنَّ هَٰؤُلَاءِ لَيَقُولُونَ ٣٤ إِنْ هِيَ إِلَّا مَوْتَتُنَا الْأُولَىٰ وَمَا نَحْنُ بِمُنْشَرِينَ ٣٥
(44:34–35) Indeed these ones say, “It will be just our first death, and we shall not be brought forth.
This goes back to the previous discussion when God said: Rather they play around in doubt (). These ones refers to the Quraysh and the other Arab idolaters who deny the Resurrection with them. When they say It will be just our first death, they mean to negate any life after death which, logically, means that there will be no resurrection either. This is why next they say: and we shall not be brought forth, that is, resurrected. In Kashshāf, it is said: “God shall bring forth the dead, and that is their resurrection.”
And when they say It will be just our first death, “it” refers to their fate and ultimate end. In other words: “Our ultimate fate and the end of our existence will only be our first death, whereat we will cease to exist. We will never live again after that.”
It is said: When they say it is their first death, this does not imply they believe that there will be a second one. It is possible for something to be the first without there being any other after it.
There is, however, another interpretation offered by Zamakhsharī in Kashshāf. He says:
If you said: This discussion is about the afterlife, not death. Shouldn’t it read: “It will just be our first life, and we shall not be brought forth”, just as they say: There is nothing but our life of this world, and we shall not be resurrected ()? What does it mean when God says: It will be just our first death? And what does it being first means? It is as though they have been promised a second death for them to reject it and affirm only the first one.
Author’s comment: It means—and God grants success in hitting the mark—that they were told: “You will die a death which shall be followed by a life, just as death preceded your life now. That is God’s saying: …you were lifeless and He gave you life, then He will make you die, and then He shall bring you to life… (). In response, they said: “It will be just our first death.” By this, they meant that the only death that shall follow life is the first death, not the second one, so this description which you give to death—namely that life follows it—only applies to the first death. So there is no difference in meaning between this and their saying, “There is nothing but our life of this world.”
Perhaps there is a third interpretation for these words. Namely, that they said “It will be just our first death” after hearing the verse 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?” () When he commented on this verse, we said that the first death was the death that came after the life of this world, while the second death was the death at the end of life in barzakh. So when they say “It will be just our first death”, they are actually denying the second death that accompanies the life in barzakh, which is life after death. This is because they see the death of the human being as the end of his existence and the utter annihilation of his being.
A fourth interpretation is that the word first is not actually part of their own speech, but God explaining what they mean. Instead, the verse reads: Indeed these ones say “It will be just our death”, the first… meaning: “These people deny the afterlife and say: ‘It will be just our death’ by which they mean the first of the two deaths We mentioned in Our words: ‘Our Lord! Twice did You make us die….’”
These four interpretations differ in their proximity to what we understand; the third is the nearest, followed by the fourth and the first.
فَأْتُوا بِآبَائِنَا إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ ٣٦
(44:36) Bring our fathers back, should you be truthful.”
This is the remainder of what the disbelievers said. They address it to the Prophet and those who believe in him because they were telling them about the Resurrection and Afterlife, so the disbelievers argued against life after death by saying: “Bring our fathers back, should you be truthful.” In other words: “Let Him resurrect our deceased forefathers by your supplications or any means you choose that we might know the veracity of your claims that the dead will live again and that death is not the end of our existence.”
أَهُمْ خَيْرٌ أَمْ قَوْمُ تُبَّعٍ وَالَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ ۚ أَهْلَكْنَاهُمْ ۖ إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا مُجْرِمِينَ٣٧
(44:37) Are they better, or the people of Tubbaʿ, and those who were before them? We destroyed them; indeed they were guilty.
This is a threat to destroy them as He destroyed the people of Tubbaʿ and other communities who came before them.
Tubbaʿ was a king of Ḥimyar in Yemen. According to what has been said, his name was Asʿad Abū Karb or Saʿd Abū Karb. We shall look at some accounts about him in the discussion of narrations, below. There is a hint here that Tubbaʿ himself was spared destruction.
وَمَا خَلَقْنَا السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَا لَاعِبِينَ ٣٨ مَا خَلَقْنَاهُمَا إِلَّا بِالْحَقِّ وَلَٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ ٣٩
(44:38–39) We did not create the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them for play. We did not create them except with truth; but most of them do not know.
Between them (baynahumā) is in the dual because it refers to the two categories of the heavens and the earth, which is why the plural is not employed here. The bāʾ in with truth (bi al-ḥaqq) is to signify concomitance, meaning: “We did not create them except that they were surrounded by the truth.” Some commentators have suggested its meaning is causal, meaning: “We did not create them except for any reason except that of the truth, which is faith, obedience, resurrection and recompense.” Clearly this meaning is far-fetched.
The implication of these two verses is a rational proof to affirm the Resurrection. To set it out fully: If there was nothing subsistent or enduring beyond this physical world, and God was continually bringing things into and out of existence again and again—giving life to this person and causing that one to die, then giving life to another, and so on and so forth—then everything He did would be mere pointless play. But it is impossible to ascribe play to God because all His actions are directed towards a proper goal. This means there must be another world that endures beyond this one to which all things journey. This fleeting, material world we live in is merely a stepping stone on the way to that higher world, which is the life of the Hereafter.
We have discussed this argument in detail in our commentary on verse sixteen of Sūrat al-Anbiyāʾ and verse twenty-seven of Sūrah Ṣād, to which those interested can refer.
…but most of them do not know: This rebukes them for their ignorance.
إِنَّ يَوْمَ الْفَصْلِ مِيقَاتُهُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ ٤٠
(44:40) Indeed the Day of Separation is the tryst for them all.
This expounds a description of the day whose existence the above argument proved, namely the Day of Resurrection in which people will stand before the Lord of the Worlds.
God calls it the Day of Separation (yawm al-faṣl) because on that day He will separate truth from falsehood, the people of truth from the people of falsehood, and the Godwary from the guilty. Either that, or because it is the day of His decisive judgement (al-qaḍāʾ al-faṣl).
…the tryst for them all means that it is an appointed time for all people, or the time when the aforementioned people—the peoples of Tubbaʿ, those of Pharaoh, the Quraysh and others—will meet.
يَوْمَ لَا يُغْنِي مَوْلًى عَنْ مَوْلًى شَيْئًا وَلَا هُمْ يُنْصَرُونَ ٤١
(44:41) The day when a mawlā will not avail a mawlā in any way, nor will they be helped,
This explains the Day of Separation. Mawlā means either one companion who has the right to involve himself in the affairs of another; it refers to both the one who takes charge of the affairs and the one whose affairs are taken charge of. In this verse, the first instance of mawlā refers to the former meaning and the second instance to the latter. So, first of all, the verse negates that a mawlā availing his mawlā in any way on that day. Secondly, it says that they will not be helped. The difference between these two meanings is that “to avail someone” is when the one who avails can act unilaterally, such that the person he avails has no role in the matter. On the other hand, “to help someone” means when the person being helped has some means at his disposal that (albeit that are insufficient for the task), and the person helping him is complementing these with his own (so that together they are sufficient for the task).
The reason no one will be able to avail or help another on that day is because those means of recourse that were effective in this world will be rendered impotent on the Day of Resurrection. God says: all their means of recourse will be cut off (). And He says: Then We shall set them apart from one another ().
إِلَّا مَنْ رَحِمَ اللَّهُ ۚ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الرَّحِيمُ ٤٢
(44:42) except for him on whom God has mercy. Indeed He is the All-mighty, the All-merciful.
This exception follows the pronoun they at the end of the previous verse; nor will they be helped. This verse is one of the evidences for intercession (shafāʿah) on the Day of Resurrection, and we have discussed intercession at length in the first part of this work.
This is assuming that they at the end of the above verse refers to people in general, which is the apparent meaning of the verse.
However, if it actually refers to the faithless as some say, then this is a discontinuous exception and the meaning becomes: “But those on whom God has mercy, namely the Godwary, they have no need of a master to avail them or a helper to help them.”
As for some of them who consider it possible that the exception is continuous with mawlā, this is obviously false based on what we have said above. This is because, as we said, “availing” only applies to a person who has no means of salvation at his disposal. Someone in this condition has no one to avail him without exception because intercession is a form of help (nuṣrah) that still requires the recipient to have some means of salvation, namely a religion that God is satisfied with, as we have discussed in our study of intercession. However, it can also be interpreted in another way, as we shall see when we discuss the narration of Shaḥḥām.
Indeed He is the All-mighty means He is the One who overcomes all others but cannot be overcome Himself, so there is no one who can stop Him from punishing those whom He desires to punish. …the All-merciful means that He pours out goodness upon whomsoever He wishes. The relation of these Divine Names to the content of this verse is obvious.
إِنَّ شَجَرَتَ الزَّقُّومِ ٤٣ طَعَامُ الْأَثِيمِ ٤٤
(44:43–44) Indeed the tree of Zaqqūm will be the food of the sinful.
We have already discussed the tree of Zaqqūm in our commentary on Sūrah al-Ṣāffāt. The sinful (athīm) is one in whom sin (ithm) inheres, whether through sinning continuously or through sinning abundantly. These eight verses describe the condition of the inhabitants of hell.
كَالْمُهْلِ يَغْلِي فِي الْبُطُونِ ٤٥ كَغَلْيِ الْحَمِيمِ ٤٦
(44:45–46) Like molten copper, it will boil in the bellies like boiling water.
Molten copper (muhl) is the melted form of copper, although it could refer to other metals such as lead too. The meaning of boil is obvious, and boiling water (ḥamīm) means water of extreme temperature. Like molten copper is a second predicate for the particle indeed (inna) in the previous verse, whereas the food of the sinful is the first predicate. It will boil in the bellies like boiling water is the third predicate. The meaning of this sentence is apparent.
خُذُوهُ فَاعْتِلُوهُ إِلَىٰ سَوَاءِ الْجَحِيمِ ٤٧
(44:47) “Seize him and drag him to the midst of hell,
“To drag” (iʿtilāʾ) means to shake and push violently, and the midst of hell is its middle. This is addressed to the angels responsible for hellfire. In other words, the verse means: “We will tell the angels: ‘Take the sinner and drag him to the middle of hellfire so that it surrounds him!’” Elsewhere, God says: and indeed hell besieges the faithless ().
ثُمَّ صُبُّوا فَوْقَ رَأْسِهِ مِنْ عَذَابِ الْحَمِيمِ ٤٨
(44:48) then pour over his head the punishment of boiling water.”
The meaning of punishment here is that which is used to punish, and it is added to boiling water here to clarify what kind of punishment is meant. So the verse means: “Then pour the boiling water that is used for punishment over his head.”
ذُقْ إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْعَزِيزُ الْكَرِيمُ ٤٩
(44:49) “Taste! Indeed you are the mighty and noble!”
This is addressed to the sinner as he suffers one punishment after another. He is called “mighty” and “noble”, despite his obvious humiliation and abasement, mockingly to intensify the punishment, because in this world he saw himself as being inherently mighty and noble. This is apparent from God’s saying: I do not think the Hour will ever set in, and in case I am returned to my Lord, I will indeed have the best with Him ().
إِنَّ هَٰذَا مَا كُنْتُمْ بِهِ تَمْتَرُونَ ٥٠
(44:50) “This is indeed what you used to doubt!”
The verse continues from the previous one; as well as emphasizing its meaning, it also makes apparent their error in this world for doubting the reality of punishments they are themselves directly experiencing on that day! That is why God invokes the sense of taste for their experience of punishment, as this recalls the intense feelings of pain and pleasure experienced in their fullest sense.
Perhaps, as well, this could be read as a new segment of speech that is directed towards the faithless who are listening to the Qur’an after describing what their condition will be on the Day of Resurrection. This is potentially supported by the phrase what you used to doubt because the plural you is employed here while, in the previous verse, the command taste! employed the singular.
إِنَّ الْمُتَّقِينَ فِي مَقَامٍ أَمِينٍ ٥١
(44:51) Indeed the Godwary will be in a secure station,
A station (maqām) is where one stands firmly, which is why it is also interpreted to mean a place of residence (iqāmah). Secure (amīn) is an adjective derived from “safety” (amn), which carries the meaning of not being afflicted by hurt. So this verse means: “On the Day of Resurrection, the Godwary will stand firm in a location safe from any harm.”
From this we can see that attributing safety to a place by describing it as secure is a figurative attribution.
فِي جَنَّاتٍ وَعُيُونٍ ٥٢
(44:52) in gardens and springs,
This explains the above phrase in a secure station. The verse says they will be in springs in the sense that they will be surrounded by them and the fact that they exist throughout the gardens that actually contain the Godwary. The plural form of gardens is used here to show either that there are many different varieties of garden, or that each of the Godwary shall have their own garden or gardens.
يَلْبَسُونَ مِنْ سُنْدُسٍ وَإِسْتَبْرَقٍ مُتَقَابِلِينَ ٥٣
(44:53) dressed in fine silk and brocade, sitting face to face.
Both the Arabic words for fine silk (sundus) and brocade (istabraq) are Arabicized forms of Persian words.
Sitting face to face with one another because of their affability, because there is no evil or hurt from any of them as they are in a secure station.
كَذَٰلِكَ وَزَوَّجْنَاهُمْ بِحُورٍ عِينٍ ٥٤
(44:54) So shall it be, and We shall wed them to black-eyed houris.
In other words, it shall be as we have described it. Wed them to black-eyed houris means that we shall make them partners to them, because making one a partner (qarīn) is the original sense of wed (tazwīj) in Arabic. The word “houri” in English is a contraction of ḥūr al-ʿīn. The first part, ḥūr, is the plural of hawrāʾ, which means to have eyes whose black and white portions are intense in their colour, or to have a black eyeball. The second part, ʿīn is the plural of ʿaynāʾ which means to have large eyes. The apparent meaning of this verse is that the houris are not the same as the women of this world who enter paradise.
يَدْعُونَ فِيهَا بِكُلِّ فَاكِهَةٍ آمِنِينَ ٥٥
(44:55) There they will call for every fruit, in safety.
In other words they are safe from any ill-effects of the fruit.
لَا يَذُوقُونَ فِيهَا الْمَوْتَ إِلَّا الْمَوْتَةَ الْأُولَىٰ ۖ وَوَقَاهُمْ عَذَابَ الْجَحِيمِ ٥٦
(44:56) There they will not taste death except the first death, and He will guard them from the punishment of hell.
This means that they live in paradise with eternal life and they shall never suffer death again.
A problem raised about this verse is that it says they will not taste death except the first death. The exception here implies that they will experience the first death while amongst gardens and springs. Of course, the intended meaning is precisely the opposite of this. Another reading is that the first death refers to death in this world, which has already passed for the People of Paradise. Now, it is impossible for something that has passed to return in the future, so what does it mean when God says they will not taste any death in future except the first death?
But there is yet another problem with this verse that commentators have not addressed, namely that God has already said: Our Lord! Twice did You make us die, and twice did You give us life (). So between the life of this world and the Hour is not one but two deaths: the death in which a person moves from this world into barzakh, and the death in which the person moves from barzakh into the Hereafter. It appears that the first death in the present verse refers to the death people experience in this world when they journey to barzakh. So even if we resolve the problem with the exception except the first death in some way, what are we going to do about the second death that is not excepted from this statement? And what is the difference between them while they are two deaths that the Godwary will taste before they enter the eternal paradise?
I would answer the first problem by saying that this exception is discontinuous (munqatiʿ), meaning: “However, they have tasted the first death in this world and it has passed.” This leaves the generality of the statement there they will not taste death intact.
But if we assume that this exception is not discontinuous, then we must read “except” (illā) as meaning “other than” (siwā), and the phrase except the first death is a permutation (badal) of death (from they will not taste death), which means no exception is actually being made. Instead, the verse means: “There they will not taste death, or any death besides the first death.” As for the first death, they have already experienced it and it is impossible for it to come back and be experienced again. And this interpretation is more fitting.
I could offer some alternate explanations, but these are unnecessary. You know well that nothing from these two explanations explains why it is called the first death, but we have discussed some explanations for this in our commentary on It will be just our first death ().
As for the second problem, one could offer the second response we have just given above, namely that there are two deaths, the first of which transfers the human being from this world to barzakh and the second death transfers him from barzakh to the Hereafter. So, if except (illā) in except the first death actually means other than (siwā) and this phrase is a permutation of death in they will not taste death, the verse is laid out to negate a death besides the first death, namely the second death which is the death in barzakh; this means there is no death in paradise of the Hereafter, whether the death of this world because it has already happened, nor any other kind of death, which is the death of barzakh. This also explains why one death is called the first.
…and He will guard them from the punishment of hell. “To guard” (wiqāyah) means to protect something from anything that would cause it harm or distress, so this means He will protect them from the punishment of hell. He mentions guarding them against hell’s punishment at the same time as saying they will not suffer death to make sure that this covers all forms of hurt. In other words, they are protected from being moved from one abode to another, and from the creation of paradise to another creation, which is death; and they are protected from being moved from a state of happiness to a state of misery, which is the punishment of hell.
فَضْلًا مِنْ رَبِّكَ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ هُوَ الْفَوْزُ الْعَظِيمُ ٥٧
(44:57) a grace from your Lord. That is the great success.
A grace from your Lord is a circumstantial qualifier for all the blessings and nobility mentioned above. It could also be read as an absolute object (mafʿūl muṭlaq), or a purposive object. In any case, it means that this is an act of divine generosity which is not something that God’s servants could earn; there is nothing they could do to make them deserving of this from Him or force Him to reward them. For God is not subject to anyone’s authority or judgement. This is only a promise to God’s servant, and God keeps His promise. And we have explored the full meaning of this in our previous discussions.
That is the great success: Success (fawz) means attaining one’s goal. It is a great success because this is the ultimate source of happiness for the human being.
فَإِنَّمَا يَسَّرْنَاهُ بِلِسَانِكَ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَذَكَّرُونَ ٥٨
(44:58) Indeed We have made it simple in your tongue, so that they may take admonition.
This verse is a corollary of everything that has been said above, from the beginning of the sūrah until this point, and a summary thereof. To “make simple” means to make easy. It—the thing that has been made simple—refers to the Book, and your tongue means the language of the Prophet, which is Arabic. So the verse means: “We have only made the Qur’an easy”—meaning understanding its goals—“in Arabic in order that they”—meaning your people—“might take admonition.” So this verse is very close in its meaning to what God says elsewhere: We have made it an Arabic Qur’an so that you may apply reason ().
It is said: By making the Book simple in the Prophet’s tongue, it means by having him speak it upon his tongue, whilst he is illiterate and unable to read and write, as a sign of the veracity of his claim to be a prophet. But this is very far from the context of this summing-up.
فَارْتَقِبْ إِنَّهُمْ مُرْتَقِبُونَ ٥٩
(44:59) So wait! Indeed they are waiting.
This reads as though it is, like the verse before, a corollary of what has been said in this sūrah. Together, they mean: “We made it simple in Arabic that they might take admonition but they did not, rather they play around in doubt and await a punishment which cannot be averted by the deniers. So await their punishment, they too are awaiting it.”
God says they are waiting as a form of derision. One of the nonsensical interpretations of this verse is that it is a command for the Prophet to leave them alone that was abrogated by the Sword Verse.
Examining Narrations
- In Majmaʿ al-Bayān, about the words: Are they better, or the people of Tubbaʿ (), it is narrated from Sahl b. Sāʿid, from the Prophet:
Do not revile Tubbaʿ, for he had submitted to God.
Author’s comments: A tradition to the same effect is narrated in al-Durr al-Manthūr, from Ibn ʿAbbās; and also from Ibn ʿAsākir, from Ibn ʿAṭāʾ b. Abī Rabāḥ, from the Prophet.
- Also about these words, it is narrated from al-Walīd b. Ṣabīḥ, from Abū ʿAbd Allāh:
Tubbaʿ told the Aws and Khazraj tribes: “Come here until this Prophet comes out. Surely were I to see him, I would serve him and come out with him too.”
- In al-Durr al-Manthūr, it is related by Abū Naʿīm in al-Dalāʾil, from ʿAbd Allāh b. Salām:
Tubbaʿ did not die before believing in the Prophet when the Jews of Yathrib informed him about him.
Author’s comments: There are many traditions about Tubbaʿ, including some which say that he was the first king to cover the Kaʿbah with a cloth.
- In al-Kāfī, in a chain of narrators via Zayd al-Shaḥḥām:
While we were on the road on the eve of Friday, Abū ʿAbd Allāh said: “Recite, for indeed the eve of Friday is a recitation.”
I recited the verses: Indeed the Day of Separation is the tryst for them all, the day when a mawlā will not avail a mawlā in any way, nor will they be helped, except for him on whom God has mercy. Indeed He is the All-mighty, the All-merciful ().
Then he said: “By God, it is we whom God has excepted, for it is we who would avail them.”
Author’s comments: He is alluding to intercession and has joined the exception to the first mawlā in the verse.
- Tafsīr al-Qummī says:
Indeed the tree of Zaqqūm will be the food of the sinful. This was revealed about Abū Jahl b. Hishām, and the words like molten copper means copper that has been melted. Like molten copper it will boil in the bellies, boiling like boiling water () is water which is hot to the utmost extreme.
Author’s comments: There are narrations from Sunni sources which affirm that these verses were revealed about Abū Jahl.