Surah Ghafir 40:38-50 - Quran Translation Commentary

40. “Whosoever does an evil deed, he will be repaid the like thereof, and whosoever does a righteous deed, whether male or female, and a believer, such people will enter the Paradise, where they will be given nourishment without measure.”

41. “And O my people! how is it that I invite you to salvation and you invite me to the Fire?⁶²

42. “You invite me to deny Allah and set up with Him partners, of whom I have no knowledge (of their being partners)⁶³ while I invite you to the Mighty, the Forgiver.⁶⁴

43. “Indeed he whom you call me to invoke is not worthy either in this world nor in the Hereafter,⁶⁵ and our return will be to Allah and the transgressor ⁶⁶ will be the people of the Fire.

44. “So you will remember what I say to you.⁶⁷ I entrust my affair to Allah. ⁶⁸ Verily Allah is Seer of His slaves.”

45. So Allah saved ⁶⁹ him from the evils which they plotted and a dreadful punishment encompassed Firaun’s people.⁷⁰

46. The Fire; they are exposed to it morning and evening; and on the Doomsday (it will be said): “Let the people of Firaun be subjected to stern punishment.”⁷¹

47. And when they will be wrangling in the Hell, the weak ones will say to the proud: We have been your followers, will you now ward off from us a part of our punishment?”

48. Those who were proud, will say: ‘All of us are now in Hell. Surely, Allah has already given His judgment about His slaves.’⁷²

49. And those in the Fire will say to the guards of Hell: ‘Pray to your Lord to relieve our punishment for one day.

50. They will say: “Did not your messengers come to you with clear arguments?” They will say: “Yes.” They will say: “Then you pray.”⁷³ But vain shall be the prayers of the disbelievers.⁷⁴

Commentary

61. The believing man did not rest merely with expressing the truth in the court of Firaun, but he also came out before the people of his community and presented the message of truth to them.

62. How simple and appealing to heart was the message of this believing man. In his soulful voice he presented the message of the Hereafter before his community and told them that every person should first try to make provision for his own salvation in the next world.

63. That is: When there is none in my knowledge as a partner of Allah, do you want me to accept it without any proof? From this statement of the man who was a believer, it appears that the nation of Firaun was polytheistic and used to worship false gods and goddesses.

64. That is: I call upon you to accept that God who is the Greatest Being and who has everyone under His control; and He is also so kind to His slaves that if they give up their evil acts, He will forgive them and accept their repentance.

65. That is: It is futile to invoke the imagined partners of Allah for relieving you of your distress, for they neither hear your invocation nor can they relieve you of your troubles. Nor will they be able to recommend you for salvation in the Hereafter.

66. This has been explained in Note No.47

67. That is: On the Day of Resurrection you will feel sorry as to why you did not listen to the gentleman who was inviting you to believe in Allah and to save yourselves from the punishment in the Hereafter. Whoever would not heed the advice of the missionaries of truth will remember on the Day of Judgment that such and such a person was inviting them to accept the message of truth but they did not listen to his advice.

68. If Firaun wants to punish me for my truthfulness or if the community wants to subject me hardships, I do not care, I have put my trust in Allah. He will help me reach my destiny: success.

69. These tyrants could not do any harm to him. He had surrendered himself to Allah, who kept him safe from the evils of these wrongdoers.

Generally in presenting message of truth dangers seem to beset the path of the missionary, but if he is not afraid of these dangers and presents the message of truth putting his trust in Allah, then the dangers appear to be false, and only those troubles confront him which were decreed by Allah.

70. That is: When the time of the appearance of the result came, Firaun and his people were encompassed by the Divine punishment and the people of faith were completely saved from it.

71. In this ayah two punishments have been mentioned for the people of Firaun: one is that which they receive morning and evening and the second which they will receive in the Hereafter. The first punishment is being given to their spirits in the world of Barzakh, and that is the punishment of fire. As for the second punishment, it is the punishment in the second world when they will be revived and they will be tasting it with their bodies and spirits. This punishment will be much more severe than that of the world of Barzakh.

By morning and evening are meant the morning and evening of the world of Barzakh, and idiomatically morning and evening are used to connote permanently. For example in Surah Maryam in the ayah No.62, it is stated that the people of Paradise will get, their food morning and evening. The words ‘Aal-e-Firaun’ include Firaun, his wrongdoing family, which were ruling Egypt, his army and his followers. From this verse and other ayah of the Quran it is clearly proved that in the world of Barzakh the spirits of disbelievers receive punishment, as can be seen in the Surah Anfal: “And if you could only see when the angels take the souls of disbelievers, smiting their faces and their backs, and (saying): “Taste the punishment of burning!”’ -(Surah Al-Anfal -50).

We do not see any signs of punishment on the bodies of the dead. It is this state which has been termed as the punishment of the grave in the hadith. But indulging in the wordy discussion people deny the punishment of the grave and say that it is not proved by Quran, although the punishment in the world of Barzakh is proved from Quran. And in the hadith it has been termed as the punishment of the grave because by looking at the grave man’s mind at once can turn to the world of Barzakh, and psychologically grave is a place which inspires serious thinking.

The punishment of the grave does not mean that the body which has been interred into the grave is subjected to punishment because the physical body decays and mixes with the dust, and those who are drowned in the rivers or the sea, their bodies are eaten by the fishes, and they have no graves.The army of Firaun was also drowned in the ocean and the graves of them have also not taken place. But Quran says that they receive punishment morning and evening. Similarly the dead whose graves are not made and they are cremated, will they escape the punishment of the grave ? The answer to all these questions is that the punishment is inflicted on the souls and not on the dead bodies, and this happens in the world of Barzakh, whether a person’s grave is made

A hadith says: “Ibn Umar narrates that the Prophet, Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam, stated: ‘When a man dies, he is shown his final destination morning and evening; if he is of the Paradise, he is shown a glimpse of the paradise, and if he is of the Hell he is shown a glimpse of the Hell; and then he is told that his final destination in the Hereafter is that.” -(Muslim. Kitabut Taubah, Bukhari Kitabuz zuhd). And in various traditions this prayer of the Prophet has been narrated: “I seek refuge in you from the punishment of the grave.” -(Bukhari Kitabud Dawat).

Allama Ibn Katheer, explaining the said ayat, states: “Their souls are exposed to fire morning and evening, and this act continues till the Day of Resurrection. Then when the Day of Judgment will occur, their souls will enter the Hellfire with their bodies. That is why it is said: “such punishment as will be more severe in being painful and greater in penalty. And this ayah is a great basis for the argument which the Sunnis present in support of their claim of there being punishment in the grave.” - (Tafseer Ibn Katheer Vol.4 p.8l ).

It is not correct to think that the statement of the ayah that the people of Firaun will be shown the Fire does not necessarily mean that it is not punishment. If that be true then what is the sense in subjecting them to this act morning and evening? Supposing that they are presented merely before the fire and are not made to burn in the fire, even then they will be suffering from this torture and that will also be a form of punishment, although according to the meaning of the Arabic idiom presenting before the fire means burning in the fire. Accordingly the author of Kashshaf has given the same meaning for it: “Exposure to fire or presenting before the fire means burning in fire. It is said that Imam had exposed the prisoners to the sword (or presented them before the sword), when he had subjected them to death (by being beheaded)” ( Tafseer Kashshaf Vol.3Page 430).

As for the question: Why the punishment before the reckoning, it has been answered in Surah Zumar note No.60. On this occasion that note should also be kept in view.

72. By the proud is meant those religious chiefs and leaders who were astray themselves and were also misleading others in the matter of beliefs, and acts. And by the weak people are meant those persons who were under their influence and were their followers. These people will quarrel with their leaders and religious chiefs in the Hell and would say that they were put in the Hell for following them, and that they should at least remove a part of their punishment to give them some relief. The proud people will reply that they themselves were receiving punishment, how could they reduce their punishment, and Allah has already given His judgment and subjected them to internal punishment. Thus they will express their helplessness. Quran is placing before the world this helplessness in this life itself, so that everyone should realise his own responsibility and may not go after the stray and misguided religious leaders.

73. In the Hell the disbelievers will receive punishment continuously without break. There will not be a single moment when they will be able to take a breath of satisfaction. Therefore, they will request the angels, who will be working as guards of the Hell, to pray to Allah to reduce their punishment at least by one day. But they will receive a hopeless answer. They will give the excuse that the Divine messengers had ingly conveyed to them the message of Allah, but they still persisted to disbelieve, and no recommendation can be made in support of the disbelievers, therefore, they should themselves pray to God.

74. That is: Whatever prayer these disbelievers may make to Allah, it will not be answered.