Verses 15–38
The first verse [in this set] completes the demonstration of God’s knowledge and power from His creation of the heavens, the earth and the wonders they contain that was begun in the previous verses. This, in its entirety, the Qur’an calls the first creation. God asks: Were We exhausted by the first creation? And from this we extract the argument that the one who has the power to produce the first creation has the power to produce a second new creation and to have knowledge of it. This is because these two creations are alike; if He has the power to produce one, He has the power to produce the other; when He decides on a matter, He just says to it: “Be!” and it is.
From this, he turns to say that they are in doubt about the new creation despite the similarity of the two. Then he speaks about the first creation of the human being, how He knows the contents of his heart and how he has observers watching his every deed. After this, He describes how the agony of death brings the truth, followed by the Resurrection, followed by his admittance to heaven or hell. Then, again, God speaks about what became of past generations who denied the divine messengers; they were annihilated for having invited God’s wrath, and they were more powerful than the people of Mecca. So whoever destroyed those past generations is surely able to destroy the present one.
Commentary
أَفَعَيِينَا بِالْخَلْقِ الْأَوَّلِ ۚ بَلْ هُمْ فِي لَبْسٍ مِنْ خَلْقٍ جَدِيدٍ ١٥
(50:15) Were We exhausted by the first creation? Rather they are in doubt about a new creation.
According to Rāghib, “Exhaustion” (ʿayy) means being unable to accomplish some speech or action. One says: “such-and-such exhausted me” or “I became exhausted with such-and-such” when one cannot accomplish it. The first creation is the creation of the current natural order, including the human being in his worldly existence. There is no basis for restricting the first creation to the creation of the heavens and earth alone, as Fakhr al-Rāzī inclines towards in his Tafsīr al-Kabīr, nor for restricting it to the creation of just the human being, as some other commentators have been inclined today. This is because the new creation encompasses the heavens, the earth and the human being altogether, as God says: The day the earth is transformed into another earth and the heavens [as well], and they are presented before God, the One, the All-paramount (). The new creation will be the creation of a second world, namely the creation of the Hereafter. And the question posed at the beginning of this verse is for rhetorical effect.
In short, the verse means: “Were we unable to accomplish the first creation such that you would think us incapable of accomplishing the second?” In other words, we did not tire in the first creation which was originating the world, so we will not tire in the second creation which is bringing the world back.
But if we take ʿayy to signify exhaustion in the sense of tiredness, as some scholars have inclined towards, then this would mean: “Did we tire on account of the first creation such that it would be difficult for us to effect the new one?” This is like when a human being or any animal engages in strenuous work and becomes physically tired as result. They cannot do anything else afterwards; they cannot even repeat the work they have just done because it too is strenuous, even if they can do it the first time.
There is no problem with reading the verse with this meaning in mind, though it has been said that using ʿayy in the first sense is more eloquent Arabic. This is because it suggests the impossibility of accomplishing the action rather than its mere difficulty; the former is meant by the verse because the polytheists argued that the Resurrection was impossible rather than difficult.
Rather they are in doubt (labs) about a new creation—labs here means “confusion” (iltibās), and a new creation (khalq jadīd) means making their existence in this world into another kind of existence, with its own order that is beyond the cosmic order that governs this world. This is because this new creation is supposed to be everlasting (bāqī) rather than transitory (fānī), and life without death. In this world, if the human being is felicitous, he shall have enjoyment unmixed with pain, and if he is wretched then he shall have pain unmixed with enjoyment. This is while the cosmic order that governs our present existence does not operate in this fashion.
In other words, God says: “Our knowledge and power were not exhausted when We first created this world, with its heavens and its earth and everything they contain, or when We ordered it in the best possible way. Therefore We are not unable to make this creation anew and replace it with a new order, for there is no doubting Our power nor any confusion. Rather it is they, the polytheists, who are in doubt, which is why they cannot believe in a new creation.”
وَلَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الْإِنْسَانَ وَنَعْلَمُ مَا تُوَسْوِسُ بِهِ نَفْسُهُ ۖ وَنَحْنُ أَقْرَبُ إِلَيْهِ مِنْ حَبْلِ الْوَرِيدِ ١٦
(50:16) Certainly We have created man and We know to what his soul tempts him (mā tawaswis bihi nafsuhu), and We are nearer to him than his jugular vein.
Al-Rāghib says:
“Waswasah means a wicked thought. Its etymological origin is waswās which is the sound of jewellery clinking or faint whispering.”
When God says He has created man, He means his gradually changing existence, creation after creation, and not merely his original formation as a human being, even if the past tense verb is used here. He says: Certainly We have created man but the human being, like all creatures, has a certain allotted share of being, and just as he needs the generosity of his Lord just to exist in the first place, he also needs it to continue existing.
On the other hand, the conjunction and We know to what his soul tempts him is in the present continuous to signify its continuity from certainly We have created man, which carries the meaning of continuity even though it is grammatically in the past tense. The same is true of the phrase and We are nearer to him than his jugular vein, which signifies a fixed and unchanging reality conterminal with the human being’s existence.
This verse has a connection with the evidence presented above for God’s knowledge and power found in the first creation, especially the verses Have they not then observed the heavens above them…? (), and Rather they are in doubt about a new creation (), as this verse also occurs in the context of demonstrating God’s power through the creation of the human being. Moreover, it illustrates His knowledge of him both through the mediation of the angels and in a direct and unmediated form:
Certainly We have created man (wa la qad khalaqna al-insān)—where the lām is for emphasis—demonstrates His power by affirming His creation. Meanwhile, and We know to what his soul tempts him refers to the subtlest and most hidden form of knowledge, namely the knowledge of man’s innermost thoughts. This demonstrates the all-encompassing reach of God’s knowledge. It is as if to say: We know his outer reality and his inner one. We even know what His soul whispers to him, including the doubts he has about the Resurrection: “How will the human being be brought back when he has been reduced to dust and nothing visible of him remains?”
In the phrase what his soul tempts him to (mā tawaswis bihi nafsuhu), it is has become clear that mā is a relative noun (ism mawṣūl), while the pronoun in bihi refers to the human being and the bāʾ is either instrumental or causal. The act of waswasah is ascribed to the soul (nafs) rather than Satan, even if it can also be his action, because the current discourse is intended to demonstrate that God’s knowledge encompasses every facet of the human being, even the secret thoughts that lurk in the deepest recesses of his soul.
…and We are nearer to him than his jugular vein (ḥabl al-warīd)—the warīd refers to the veins spread throughout the human body. It is said that it specifically refers to the jugular vein located in the neck. In any case, it is called a ḥabl (lit. “thread”) because of its similarity to one, and the possessive construct ḥabl al-warīd is expository (bayāniyyah).
This means that we are nearer to the human being than the veins that spread throughout his body and into limbs, so how can we not know everything about him and his soul? This is a simple comparison which is easy for everyone to understand. However, the truth of God’s nearness to us is much more exalted than this; it is He, after all, who made it a soul and bestowed its powers upon it. It is He who mediates between the soul and itself and between it and all of its powers and actions. So God is closer to the human being than everything; He is even closer to him than even the contents of his own soul. But this concept is not easy for most minds to assimilate, so God instead illustrated His nearness by saying: We are nearer to him than his jugular vein. This is similar in meaning to the verse: God intervenes between a man and his heart ().
Commentators have found many other ways of understanding this verse which we have seen fit to omit. Interested readers can refer to their works.
إِذْ يَتَلَقَّى الْمُتَلَقِّيَانِ عَنِ الْيَمِينِ وَعَنِ الشِّمَالِ قَعِيدٌ ١٧
(50:17) When the twin recorders record (yatalaqqā), seated on the right hand and on the left
Talaqqī means to take note; based on the context, the two recorders (mutalaqqiyān) are the angels to whom the human being is entrusted and who keep record of his deeds.
…seated on the right hand and on the left means on the right and left of the human being.
The adverbial (ẓarf) when appears to be connected to an implicit clause whose meaning is “And mention when the twin records record….” This is intended to once again demonstrate God’s knowledge of man’s actions, this time by way of each person’s record of deeds that is recorded by the angels, in addition to God’s own direct knowledge of all things that He knows without mediation.
It is said that the adverbial when is connected to the previous verse nearer to him…, meaning: “We are nearer to him than his jugular vein when the two angels note down his deeds in writing.” However, the first reading is more befitting to the tone of the verse, as the central purpose is to explain God’s nearness to the human being and his knowledge of him. Everything else is mentioned for this purpose. Especially when we consider the verse that follows this one, the context suggests that both routes of knowledge—direct and via the recording angels—are intended to be considered separately.
It is said that the adverbial when is actually explanatory (taʿlīliyyah), as it explains how God obtains the knowledge of the human being which is suggested by the previous verse We are nearer to him than his jugular vein. However it does not accord with the general style of the Qur’an to argue that God has knowledge of something because His angels have knowledge of it, or because they have preserved it and written it down.
…seated on the right hand and on the left is supposed to illustrate the position of these angels in relation to the human being; the right side and the left side represent the two sides of good and evil. So each angel records a certain kind of action.
مَا يَلْفِظُ مِنْ قَوْلٍ إِلَّا لَدَيْهِ رَقِيبٌ عَتِيدٌ ١٨
(50:18) he says no word (lafẓ) but that there is a ready observer beside him
Lafẓ literally means “to spit” but is used for speech (takallum) because of the similarity between the two acts. An “observer” (raqīb) means one who watches over him, and “ready” (ʿatīd) means prepared to fulfil his duty.
This verse describes the way in which the recording angels observe what the human being says. Taken after the previous verse—When the twin recorders record…—this is a case of mentioning the specific after the general to show a special concern for it.
وَجَاءَتْ سَكْرَةُ الْمَوْتِ بِالْحَقِّ ۖ ذَٰلِكَ مَا كُنْتَ مِنْهُ تَحِيدُ ١٩
(50:19) Then the drunkenness of death brings the truth: “This is what you used to shun!”
“To shun” (ḥīd) means to face away or to turn and run; the “drunkenness” (sakrah) of death refers to what the human being experiences as his soul is wrenched away, in that he is completely focused on himself and disconnected from others. In this sense he is like one intoxicated who does not know what he is saying or what is being said to him.
The drunkenness of death is said to bring the truth because this shows that even death is within the Divine Decree (al-qaḍāʾ al-ilāhī) and has a necessary role to play in the cosmic order. We can also grasp this from the verse, whose meaning we have already discussed: Every soul shall taste death, and We will test you with good and ill by way of test, and to Us you will be brought back (). This means that death—which is merely moving from one abode to the next—is true, just as the Resurrection is true and just as heaven and hell are true. There are other opinions about what it means for death to bring the truth, but we do not see any value in mentioning them here.
“This is what you used to shun!” alludes to the fact that the human being is naturally averse to dying. This is because God has made the life of this world seem decorous to them, so that each person’s attachment to worldly ornaments will be a trial and a test for them. God says: Indeed We have made whatever is on the earth an adornment for it that We may test them which of them is best in conduct. And indeed We will turn whatever is on it into a barren plain ().
وَنُفِخَ فِي الصُّورِ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ يَوْمُ الْوَعِيدِ ٢٠
(50:20) Then the Trumpet will be blown: “This is the threatened day.”
The blowing of the trumpet represents the second journey towards the realm of eternal life after the first journey, which was death. There are two blowings of the trumpet; the first one causes everything to pass away, and the second signals the beginning of the Hour. What is meant here is either the second blowing or both of them together.
The threatened day is the Day of Resurrection when God will carry out his threat of punishment for the sinners amongst His servants.
وَجَاءَتْ كُلُّ نَفْسٍ مَعَهَا سَائِقٌ وَشَهِيدٌ ٢١
(50:21) Then every soul will come accompanied by a driver and a witness
A driver (sāʾiq) is one who urges cattle forward along a trail from behind them, as opposed to a “leader” (qāʾid) who leads them from in front.
Then every soul will come—meaning they will come and stand before God for judgement, as shown by the verse: that day he shall be driven toward your Lord (). In other words, every soul will stand before Him, accompanied by a driver urging it forward and a witness that testifies to its deeds. God does not explicitly state that they are angels or the recorders of deeds. However, the context of the preceding verses gives us the impression that these are angels, and we will discuss the narrations in this regard below.
By the same token, He does not say that only the aforementioned witness will be testifying to the soul’s deeds. In fact there are verses which say there will be many witnesses on the Day of Judgement, which suggests this will not be the only one. The same can be said of the following verses which describe how the human being will be accused and show that there will be more than just a driver and a witness with him on that day.
لَقَدْ كُنْتَ فِي غَفْلَةٍ مِنْ هَٰذَا فَكَشَفْنَا عَنْكَ غِطَاءَكَ فَبَصَرُكَ الْيَوْمَ حَدِيدٌ ٢٢
(50:22) You were certainly oblivious of this. We have removed your veil from you, and so your sight is acute today.
That this statement appears in the midst of verses describing the Day of Resurrection indicates that it is one of the things that will be spoken on that day. The speaker is God and the one spoken to is the human being mentioned in the previous verse: Then every soul will come…. Therefore, this statement is addressed to each and every human being. However, its rebuking tone might suggest that this is specifically addressed to those who deny the Resurrection. Moreover, all of these verses appear in the context of refuting those who deny the Resurrection, as represented by the words, above: What! When we are dead and have become dust? That is a far-fetched return! ()
This means that which the human being sees visibly on that day; namely that all his means are cut-off, that all things are futile and that everything must now return to the Almighty. In this world, the human being clung to whatever apparent means he had at his disposal, but his reliance on them rendered him oblivious to this reality, until God lifted the veil from his eyes and the truth became clear to him. Now he does not merely know it as an idea, but perceives it directly as a fact.
That is why God says You were certainly oblivious… in this world. The Arabic says fī ghaflah, which literally means “in unawareness”, as if this unawareness surrounded the human being entirely. …of this that you now see with your own eyes. Even if your sight was acute in this world, your dependence on worldly means distracted you and rendered you unaware. But We have removed your veil from you and so your sight…—meaning the sight and perception of the heart—…is acute…—meaning penetrating; you see now what you did not see in this world—…today—on the Day of Judgement.
From this verse it becomes clear, firstly, that the Day of Resurrection is a day on which the veil of ignorance is lifted from the human being, allowing him to see things as they really are. There are many other verses in a similar vein, for instance: all command that day will belong to God () and “To whom does the sovereignty belong today?” “To God, the One, the All-paramount!” ()
Secondly, this verse shows that whatever the human being witnesses on the Day of Resurrection already exists ready for him while he is in this world. However, in this world he is unaware of it; he only becomes aware of it on the Day of Resurrection, the day on which the veil is lifted and the human being sees what is beyond it. This is because we can only say someone is “unaware” (ghāfil) of something that is real and already existing, and the image of a veil obstructing his sight implies that there is something hidden behind it. Moreover, it only makes a difference if someone’s sight is not acute if there is something visibly there that he fails to perceive.
One of the most nonsensical interpretations of this verse is that God is addressing His Prophet in it, with the meaning: “Before you were sent as a messenger, you were unaware of that which we reveal to you. But we have lifted the veil from your eyes and now you see clearly; you see the revelation or the angel of revelation and receive it.” This reading does not fit with the verse at all, nor do any of the words in the verse indicate such a meaning.
وَقَالَ قَرِينُهُ هَٰذَا مَا لَدَيَّ عَتِيدٌ ٢٣
(50:23) Then his companion will say, “This is what is ready with me”
The tone of this verse suggests that this companion (qarīn) is the angel appointed over him. If the driver is speaking, then this refers to the human being that is present with him. If it is the witness, then this refers to the deeds to which he testifies, namely: “these are his deeds ready with me.”
It is said that his companion (qarīn) means the devil who accompanies him and tempts him, in which case this refers to “this person whose affairs I have taken control of is ready to enter hell.”
أَلْقِيَا فِي جَهَنَّمَ كُلَّ كَفَّارٍ عَنِيدٍ ٢٤ مَنَّاعٍ لِلْخَيْرِ مُعْتَدٍ مُرِيبٍ ٢٥
(50:24–25) “The two of you cast every obdurate disbeliever (kaffār ʿanīd) into hell; hinderer of all good, transgressor (mutʿadī), and skeptic (murīb)…”
Kaffār is the noun of magnification (ism al-mubālaghah) for kufr (“ingratitude” or “disbelief”); ʿanīd means someone who is obstinately opposed to the truth and persists in this obstinacy; muʿtadī means someone who oversteps the bounds or misses the truth; murīb is someone who is in doubt or who causes doubt in the matter of the Resurrection.
There is an element of interconnectedness between these five qualities; when a person disbelieves in an extreme way by rejecting every truth he encounters, this engenders obstinacy towards the truth, and when someone is persistently obstinate, they hinder most kinds of goodness as there is nothing good save in the truth and on its side. This in turn leads someone to overstep the bounds of truth into falsehood and causes the human being to exceed the limits of divine servanthood (ʿubūdiyyah) and enter the realms of arrogance and rebellion. He in turn causes people to doubt what he rejects from the true religion.
It is God who is the speaker of these words on the Day of Resurrection; the context would suggest that he is addressing them to the two angels—the driver and the witness—although some commentators have allowed the possibility that it could be directed to two of the angels who are custodians of hell.
الَّذِي جَعَلَ مَعَ اللَّهِ إِلَٰهًا آخَرَ فَأَلْقِيَاهُ فِي الْعَذَابِ الشَّدِيدِ ٢٦
(50:26) “…who has set up another god along with God! So the two of you cast him into the severe punishment.”
Rather than simply say “idolater” (mushrik) for brevity (ījāz), God opts to speak at length (iṭnāb), saying Who has set up…. This is to emphasize that this attribute is the gravest of all sins and the mother of all misdeeds—the source of all the vices enumerated above: faithlessness, obstinacy, hindering good, transgression and scepticism.
So the two of you cast him… is repeated to emphasise the command, implying that idolatry (shirk) has made this even more severe, which is why God says …cast him into the severe punishment.
قَالَ قَرِينُهُ رَبَّنَا مَا أَطْغَيْتُهُ وَلَٰكِنْ كَانَ فِي ضَلَالٍ بَعِيدٍ ٢٧
(50:27) His companion will say, “Our Lord! I did not make him a rebel, but he was in extreme error.”
This companion (qarīn) is undoubtedly the devil assigned to accompany each human being. On many occasions throughout the Qur’an, God speaks about there being a companion from the devils who accompanies every human being and whispers to him to try and lead him astray. For example, we read: Whoever turns a blind eye to the remembrance of the All-beneficent, We assign him a devil who remains his companion. Indeed they bar them from the way while they suppose that they are guided. When he comes to Us, he will say, “I wish there had been between me and you the distance between east and west! What an evil companion!” ()
So in the present verse we are told that this devil who accompanies him will say: Our Lord…! acknowledging God’s Lordship both over him and the human being he is with because they are wrangling before him; I did not make him a rebel…—I did not compel him to rebel against you—…but he was in extreme error—he was ready and willing to accept what I told him of his own free will, so I am not responsible for his sins. And we have already discussed the quarrelling of the wrongdoers and their spouses in our commentary on the verses beginning: Muster the wrongdoers and their mates and what they used to worship… ().
قَالَ لَا تَخْتَصِمُوا لَدَيَّ وَقَدْ قَدَّمْتُ إِلَيْكُمْ بِالْوَعِيدِ ٢٨
(50:28) He will say, “Do not wrangle in My presence, for I had already sent ahead the warning to you....”
Again, the speaker in this verse is God who addresses them. It is as if He is addressing all of the rebellious idolaters and their companions at once, and then this devolves into particular addresses to each person and his companions, as when we would say: “Let not the two of you wrangle in My presence….”
I had already sent ahead the warning to you is a circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl) for the subject (fāʿil) of the verb Do not wrangle… (lā takhtaṣimū), while the warning (bi al-waʿīd) is the object (mafʿūl) of the verb sent ahead (qaddamtu) and the bāʾ is connective (waṣlah).
In other words: “Do not wrangle in my presence as it will not benefit you in the slightest; I have already conveyed my warning to those who associate partners with Me and do wrong.” The warning he sent in advance is like his words to Iblīs: Said He, “Begone! Whoever of them follows you, indeed the hell shall be your requital, an ample reward” () and “Had We wished We would have given every soul its guidance, but My word became due: ‘Surely I will fill hell with all the [guilty] jinn and humans’” ().
مَا يُبَدَّلُ الْقَوْلُ لَدَيَّ وَمَا أَنَا بِظَلَّامٍ لِلْعَبِيدِ ٢٩
(50:29) “The word is unalterable with Me, and I am not tyrannical to the servants.”
The surrounding verses suggest that this verse is separate from the one before it and serves as a response to an implied question, namely: “Suppose you have given this warning afore, will you not change it or forgo?” God replies: The word is unalterable with Me…—“the word” (al-qawl) means anything He has definitively decreed, and He has decreed that whoever dies upon disbelief must enter hell. This decree is the warning that God gave to Iblīs and those who follow him.
Having clarified that this verse is separate from the one before it and that to alter the word means to alter God’s definitive decree, with Me is semantically connected to unalterable. This is what the context suggests. However, some commentators have given different interpretations of this sentence’s syntax and meaning, and many convoluted possibilities that do not add anything to the discussion save obscurity. For this reason we have seen fit to omit them.
…and I am not tyrannical (ẓullām) to the servants complements the meaning of the previous sentence, namely: “There is no alteration to My word—you will be punished without doubt. But I am not treating My servants unjustly in doing this; I sent a warning ahead to them. So they have no excuse for their actions.”
From another angle, this also means that there is no injustice in God requiting his servants with punishment; they are only requited with the deeds that they sent ahead for themselves. Their punishment is merely their deeds being returned to them, as we read in the verse: O faithless ones! Do not make any excuses today. You are only being requited with what you used to do ().
The word ẓullām is a noun of magnification, hence saying “I am not tyrannical” negates egregious acts of injustice from God. However, this does not imply that God can commit minor injustices, as if God were unjust in any aspect of the recompense (jazāʾ), this would constitute a terrible injustice, because of how many instances that injustice would affect. Remember, God addresses every single wrongdoer who associated partners with Him along with his companion, and these are many in number; so, if He was unjust in any way, he would have been tyrannical (ẓullām) by quantity alone.
يَوْمَ نَقُولُ لِجَهَنَّمَ هَلِ امْتَلَأْتِ وَتَقُولُ هَلْ مِنْ مَزِيدٍ ٣٠
(50:30) The day when We shall say to hell, “Are you full?” It will say, “Is there any more?"
In this verse, God appears to speak to hell and hell to answer Him. Commentators have disagreed about the nature of this exchange, with some saying that the question and response allegorize the situation (al-khiṭāb wa al-jawāb bi lisān al-ḥāl). However, were this the case it would not only apply to God; everyone who saw hell would ask whether it was full and it would respond: “Is there any more?” So there would be no apparent reason to say that God alone was addressing hell.
They have also suggested than in reality the words are addressed to the custodians of hell and the response is theirs also, and if these are ascribed to hell then this goes against the apparent meaning of the verse without any evidence to permit this.
Another suggestion is that the question and answer are actually as the verse describes them and there is no reason to suppose that they need be otherwise; God has told us that He will inspire people’s hands, feet and skin to speak, along with other seemingly inanimate objects. This is apposite, and we have already discussed in Sūrah Fuṣṣilat that all beings have some degree of knowledge and awareness.
Are you full? is a rhetorical question, as is Is there any more? and perhaps this exchange takes place to show that God’s might and punishment do not fall short of encompassing the wrongdoers and giving them their just desserts, as God says elsewhere: indeed hell besieges the faithless ().
Some have objected that this contradicts God’s explicit statement elsewhere: I will surely fill hell with you and all of those who follow you. () It can be said that “to fill” (imtilāʾ) means something has been filled to capacity, as when we describe a place as “filled with people.” However, this exchange could take place before all of hell’s inhabitants have entered it.
It is said that the rhetorical question Is there any more? is meant to imply the negative, namely: “No more! There is no room for any more than you have cast in so far, for I am full!” In which case this exchange alludes to God’s decree in the verse: Surely I will fill hell with the jinn and humans (). In this case, when God says Are you full? this invokes the meaning of the same verse: But My word became due: “Surely I will fill…” and hell’s response is an affirmation of that.
This interpretation might be supported if we read the word in the previous verse (the word is unalterable with Me) as referring to the word in But My word became due: “Surely I will fill hell with the jinn and humans.”
وَأُزْلِفَتِ الْجَنَّةُ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ غَيْرَ بَعِيدٍ ٣١
(50:31) And paradise will be brought near (uzlifat) for the Godwary, not distant (ghayr baʿīd)
Now God begins to describe the condition of the Godwary on the Day of Resurrection. Izlāf means to bring something close; ghayr baʿīd is said to be an adjective for an implicit adverb, namely: “in a place that is not distant.”
So this means: on that Day paradise will be brought near to the Godwary while they are in a place that is not far away; in other words it will be right in front of them and they will have no difficulty entering it.
هَٰذَا مَا تُوعَدُونَ لِكُلِّ أَوَّابٍ حَفِيظٍ ٣٢
(50:32) “This is what you were promised. For every penitent (awwāb) and dutiful one (ḥafīẓ)”
This refers to the rewards they were promised beforehand; awwāb is derived from awb (“to return”) and someone who returns to God abundantly through repentance and obedience; ḥafīẓ is someone who constantly observes the prohibitions God has enjoined upon him. The sentence For every penitent and dutiful one is either a second predicate (meaning: “…this is for every penitent and dutiful one”) or a circumstantial qualifier.
مَنْ خَشِيَ الرَّحْمَٰنَ بِالْغَيْبِ وَجَاءَ بِقَلْبٍ مُنِيبٍ ٣٣
(50:33) “who fears the All-beneficent in the unseen and comes with a penitent (munīb) heart”
This is an exposition (bayān) of every penitent and dutiful one. Fearing God “in the unseen” (bi al-ghayb) means fearing His punishment while it is hidden and not visible. Munīb is from inābah, meaning to return; coming to God with a penitent heart (qalb munīb) means to have spent one’s life turning to God such that you come to Him with a heart enveloped with this quality.
ادْخُلُوهَا بِسَلَامٍ ۖ ذَٰلِكَ يَوْمُ الْخُلُودِ ٣٤
(50:34) “Enter it in peace! This is the day of immortality.”
This is what will be said to the Godwary: Enter it in peace means to enter it in good health and security from every evil or harmful thing, or with God and His angels invoking peace upon you. This is the day of immortality is a glad tiding the Godwary are given.
لَهُمْ مَا يَشَاءُونَ فِيهَا وَلَدَيْنَا مَزِيدٌ ٣٥
(50:35) They will have whatever they wish in it, and with Us there is yet more.
It is possible that in it (fī hā) is connected to they wish. Alternatively, it could be connected to an implicit circumstantial qualifier (hāl maḥdhūf) for the relative noun (“whatever”—mā), which would render the meaning: “While what they wish is in it.” Another possibility is that it is connected to an implicit pronoun that refers to this relative noun, meaning: “They will have whatever they wish while it is there.” However, the first of the three is more appropriate for God’s boundlessness.
In short, this means that while the inhabitants of paradise are in paradise, they shall have whatever they desire, no matter what it is, without limit or exception. So they shall have whatever they wish for or desire were they to wish for it.
And with Us there is yet more—meaning, based on the context, that we have even more than that for them. They already have everything they could possibly want, meaning whatever objects or goals they could potentially conceive of, so yet more means something so tremendous in its perfection that they cannot even think of it.
It is said that yet more should be understood as yet more of whatever things they desire. So if they desire provision, for instance, they are given more than they desire, and something better and more wonderful than it. It has been related from some commentators that a cloud will pass over them and ask: “What do you desire?” Then it will rain down upon them. There is nothing they desire save that it rains upon them. However, this unnecessarily restricts the meaning of the verse. The apparent meaning of the phrase they will have whatever they wish in it already indicates that they have everything they could possibly desire, not that they are given it. Therefore yet more must be something beyond what they could possibly desire.
It is said: This means that their good deeds will be multiplied tenfold. However, this too unnecessarily restricts the meaning.
وَكَمْ أَهْلَكْنَا قَبْلَهُمْ مِنْ قَرْنٍ هُمْ أَشَدُّ مِنْهُمْ بَطْشًا فَنَقَّبُوا فِي الْبِلَادِ هَلْ مِنْ مَحِيصٍ ٣٦
(50:36) How many generations We have destroyed before them, who were stronger than these insomuch that they ransacked the towns?! Is there any escape?
This verse appends the above argument from God’s creation of the human being, His knowledge of him and his journey toward his Creator with a threat and a warning. This is similar to what we saw at the beginning of the sūrah when God made an argument for the Resurrection and followed it with a threat: The people of Noah denied before them, and the inhabitants of Rass and Thamūd… ().
It means: We have destroyed many people before the idolaters of this generation, and these past generations were stronger than them such that they ravaged the land, conquered towns and ruled over them, so is there any refuge or escape from God’s punishment and destruction?
إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَذِكْرَىٰ لِمَنْ كَانَ لَهُ قَلْبٌ أَوْ أَلْقَى السَّمْعَ وَهُوَ شَهِيدٌ ٣٧
(50:37) There is indeed an admonition in that for one who has a heart or gives ear, being attentive.
The heart (qalb) is what the human being reasons with (yaʿqul bih) to discern truth from falsehood, good from evil and benefit from harm; so if the human being does not reflect and does not use it to discern, then it is as if he has no heart as it has no effect on his existence. So its existence or non-existence are the same for him. To “give ear” (ilqāʾ al-samʿ) means to listen, as if your hearing was something you gave to the person you are listening to and which he took hold of, and “being attentive” (shahīd) means someone who is present and an onlooker.
This means that the realities we have recounted to you and the stories of these perished nations contain lessons for those who reflect, search for the truth and choose that which is good and beneficial to them, or for those who will listen to true speech and not allow themselves to be distracted—who are not just physically but also mentally present and comprehend what they hear.
The juxtaposition of one who has a heart and one who gives ear is because someone who believes in the truth is one of two persons. He is either an intelligent person who is capable of grasping the truth—someone who ponders, sees what the truth is and then willingly acknowledges it—or he is someone who cannot ponder in this way to discern what is true, good and beneficial independently; he must listen to what someone else says and follows it. However someone who neither has a heart nor listens attentively to the message and warning he is being given is wilfully ignorant (jāhil mutaʿannit) who has neither heart nor hearing: And they will say, “Had we listened or applied reason, we would not have been among inmates of the Blaze” ().
وَلَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَا فِي سِتَّةِ أَيَّامٍ وَمَا مَسَّنَا مِنْ لُغُوبٍ ٣٨
(50:38) Certainly We created the heavens and the earth, and whatever is between them, in six days, and any fatigue (lughūb) did not touch Us.
Lughūb means toil and planting. The meaning of this verse is clear.
Examining Narrations
- In al-Tawḥīd it is narrated from ʿAmr b. Shimr, from Jābir b. Yazīd:
I asked Abū Jaʿfar [Imām al-Bāqir] about the verse Were We exhausted by the first creation? Rather they are in doubt about a new creation.
He said: “O Jābir! The interpretation (taʾwīl) of that is when God annihilates this creation and this world, and the inhabitants of paradise are in paradise and the inmates of hell are in hell, God will create a world that is other than this world. He will produce a new creation without male and female, and they will worship Him and declare His unity, and He will create a new earth that is not this one to carry them, and heavens that are not these heavens to shade them. Perhaps you think that God has only created this one world, or your think that God has not created any people except you! Oh yes, God has created a million worlds and a million Adams. You are just in the last of them, and those are the Adamites.”
Author’s comments: The first section of this tradition is narrated in Khiṣāl from Muḥammad b. Muslim from him. Perhaps when the Imām says that this is the interpretation of the verse, he means that it is something that applies to it.
- In Jawāmiʿ al-Jāmiʿ, it is narrated from the Prophet:
The writer of good deeds is on a man’s right side while the writer of evil deeds is on his left, but the one on the right has authority over the one on the left. So when a person does a good deed, the one on the right records it as ten, but when he does a bad deed the one on the right says to his companion on the left: “Give him seven hours [before you record it], for he may glorify God or repent.”
Author’s comments: Other narrations to this effect have been transmitted, with some saying six hours instead of seven.
- In Nahj al-Balāghah:
Then every soul will come accompanied by a driver and a witness ()—a driver who drives it towards its mustering and a witness who testifies to its deeds.
- In Majmaʿ al-Bayān, it is narrated by Abū al-Qāsim al-Hasakānī, in a chain from al-Aʿmash, who narrates from Abū al-Mutawakkil al-Tājir from Abū al-Saʿīd al-Khudrī that God’s Messenger said:
On the Day of Resurrection, God will tell me and ʿAlī: “Cast those who hated you into hellfire and admit to paradise those who loved you. That is the meaning of the verse: ‘The two of you cast every obdurate disbeliever into hell’” ().
Author’s comments: Shaykh al-Ṭūsī narrates it in his Amālī with a chain from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī from the Prophet.
- In al-Durr al-Manthūr it is narrated by Ibn Abī al-Dunyā in Dhikr al-Mawt, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Abū Naʿīm in his Ḥilyah from Jābir b. ʿAbd Allāh:
I heard God’s Messenger say: “The son of Adam is indeed unaware of what was created for him. When God wanted to create him, He told the angel: ‘Write down his provision. Write down his effects. Write down his term, whether felicitous or wretched.’ Then that angel ascended and God dispatched another angel to protect him and then that angel ascended. Then God entrusted him to two angels who write down his good deeds and evil ones, and when death comes to him, those two angels ascend also, and the angel of death comes to take his soul. Then when he places him into his grave, he returns the soul to his body and the two angels of the grave come to him, test him and depart. Then when the Hour sets in, the angel of good deeds and the angel of bad deeds come to him and they open the two books hung around his neck. They come with him—one as the driver and one as the witness.”
Then God’s Messenger said: “Your coming is a grave affair. You cannot imagine it. So seek help with God the Almighty.”
- In Tafsīr al-Qummī about the verse The day when We shall say to hell, “Are you full?” It will say, “Is there any more?” ():
God asks this question because He promised to fill hellfire; He fills it and then asks: “Are you full?” It says: “Is there any more?” as a rhetorical question, meaning: “There is no more!”
Author’s comments: This assumes that the rhetorical question is meant to suggest the negative.
- In al-Durr al-Manthūr, it is narrated by Aḥmad, Bukhārī, Muslim, Tirmidhī, Nasāʾī, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Mardawayh, Bayhaqī in his al-Asmāʾ wa al-Ṣifāt, from Anas:
God’s Messenger said: “People will be thrown into hell and it will ask: ‘Is there any more?’ until the Almighty places his foot in it and hell contracts saying: ‘Enough! Enough! By your Might!’ But there will always be room in paradise, even if God were to create another race and lodge them all in the palaces of paradise.”
Author’s comments: God placing his foot in hellfire and it calling out: “Enough! Enough!” is narrated in many Sunni traditions.
- In Tafsīr al-Qummī about the verse: They will have whatever they wish in it, and with Us there is yet more ():
This refers to God’s abundant mercy.
- In al-Durr al-Manthūr, it is narrated by al-Bazzāaz, Ibn Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Ibn Mardawayh, Lālkāʾī in his Sunnah and Bayhaqī in his al-Baʿth wa al-Nushūr, from Anas about the verse and with Us there is yet more:
God will make Himself appear to them.
- In al-Kāfī, it is narrated from “some of our companions”—with a gap in the chain (marfūʿ)—from Hishām b. al-Ḥakam who said:
Abū al-Ḥasan Mūsā b. Jaʿfar [Imām al-Kāẓim] told me: “O Hishām! God says in His Book: There is indeed an admonition in that for one who has a heart (), meaning an intellect (ʿaql).”
- In al-Durr al-Manthūr it is narrated by Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī in his Tārīkh, from ʿAwwām b. Hawbash:
I asked Abū Mujliz about a man who sits with his legs crossed.
He said: “There is no problem with that; it was only the Jews who disliked it. They claimed that God created the heavens and the earth in six days and then rested on the Sabbath sitting in that way. Then God sent down the verse: Certainly We created the heavens and the earth, and whatever is between them, in six days, and any fatigue did not touch Us ().”
Author’s comments: The same meaning is narrated from Ḍaḥḥāk and Qatādah, and Mufīd narrates this same meaning in Rawḍat al-Wāʿiẓīn in a weak narration. It was in the Torah that the creation of everything was originally allotted to six days of the week and, even if the Qur’an repeats this trope, it does not suggest that these refer to the six days of the week.
It is on the basis of these narrations that some say this verse was revealed in Medina. However, just because it refutes the beliefs of the Jews, this does not necessitate that it is of Medinan provenance as there are many Meccan verses that speak about the Jews, such as verses in Sūrah al-Aʿrāf and other places.