Tafheem ul Quran

Surah 32 As-Sajdah, Ayat 12-13

وَلَوۡ تَرٰٓى اِذِ الۡمُجۡرِمُوۡنَ نَاكِسُوۡا رُءُوۡسِهِمۡ عِنۡدَ رَبِّهِمۡ رَبَّنَاۤ اَبۡصَرۡنَا وَسَمِعۡنَا فَارۡجِعۡنَا نَعۡمَلۡ صَالِحًـا اِنَّا مُوۡقِنُوۡنَ‏  ﴿32:12﴾ وَ لَوۡ شِئۡنَا لَاٰتَيۡنَا كُلَّ نَفۡسٍ هُدٰٮهَا وَلٰـكِنۡ حَقَّ الۡقَوۡلُ مِنِّىۡ لَاَمۡلَئَنَّ جَهَنَّمَ مِنَ الۡجِنَّةِ وَالنَّاسِ اَجۡمَعِيۡنَ‏ ﴿32:13﴾

(32:12) Would22 that you could see the guilty standing before their Lord with their heads downcast, (saying to Him): “Our Lord, we have now seen and heard, so send us back (to the world) that we might act righteously. For now we have come to have firm faith.” (32:13) (They will be told): “If We had so willed, We could have bestowed guidance on every person.23 But the Word from Me that I will fill Hell with men and jinn,24 all together, has been fulfilled.

Notes

22. This will be the scene when after returning to its Lord the human ‘ego’ will be standing before Him to render an account of its deeds.

23. That is, “Had it been Our will to give guidance to the people after having made them observe and experience the reality, We would not have brought you here after making you undergo this hard test in the world. We could have given you such guidance even before. But We had a different scheme for you from the very beginning. We wanted to test you by keeping the reality hidden from your eyes and senses in order to see whether you could recognize it by your intellect after perceiving its signs in the universe and in your own selves or not, whether you could take advantage of the help that We provided to you through Our Prophets and Our Books to recognize the reality or not, and whether after knowing the reality, you could attain such control over your self or not that you should free yourselves from the service of your desires and lusts and believe in the reality and mend your ways and attitudes accordingly. You have failed in this test. Now setting the same test once again will be useless. If the second test is set in a condition when you remember everything that you have seen and heard here, it will be no test at all. And if, like before, you are given re-birth in the world, while you do not remember anything and the reality is kept hidden from you, and you are set the test once again as before the result will not be, any different.” (For further explanation, see (Surah Al-Baqarah: Ayat 210), (Surah Al-Anaam: Ayats 7-9, 27-28, 158), (Surah Yunus: Ayat 19), (Surah Al-Muminun: Ayats 99-100).

24. The allusion is to what Allah had said, addressing Satan, at the creation of Adam: In (Ayats 69-88 of Surah Suad) the whole story of that time has been related. When Satan refused to prostrate himself before Adam and asked for respite till Resurrection in order to seduce mankind, Allah had replied: “The truth is this, and the truth only I speak, that I shall fill Hell with you and all those who follow you from among mankind.”

The word ajmain (all together) here does not mean that all jinns and all men will be cast into Hell, but it means that the satans and the men who follow them, will be cast into Hell all together.