Tafheem ul Quran

Surah 32 As-Sajdah, Ayat 12-22

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﴾ فَذُوۡقُوۡا بِمَا نَسِيۡتُمۡ لِقَآءَ يَوۡمِكُمۡ هٰذَا​ ۚ اِنَّا نَسِيۡنٰكُمۡ​ وَذُوۡقُوۡا عَذَابَ الۡخُلۡدِ بِمَا كُنۡتُمۡ تَعۡمَلُوۡنَ‏ ﴿32:14﴾ اِنَّمَا يُؤۡمِنُ بِاٰيٰتِنَا الَّذِيۡنَ اِذَا ذُكِّرُوۡا بِهَا خَرُّوۡا سُجَّدًا وَّسَبَّحُوۡا بِحَمۡدِ رَبِّهِمۡ وَهُمۡ لَا يَسۡتَكۡبِرُوۡنَ۩‏ ﴿32:15﴾ تَتَجَافٰى جُنُوۡبُهُمۡ عَنِ الۡمَضَاجِعِ يَدۡعُوۡنَ رَبَّهُمۡ خَوۡفًا وَّطَمَعًا وَّمِمَّا رَزَقۡنٰهُمۡ يُنۡفِقُوۡنَ‏ ﴿32:16﴾ فَلَا تَعۡلَمُ نَفۡسٌ مَّاۤ اُخۡفِىَ لَهُمۡ مِّنۡ قُرَّةِ اَعۡيُنٍ​ۚ جَزَآءًۢ بِمَا كَانُوۡا يَعۡمَلُوۡنَ‏ ﴿32:17﴾ اَفَمَنۡ كَانَ مُؤۡمِنًا كَمَنۡ كَانَ فَاسِقًا​ ؕ لَا يَسۡتَوٗنَ‏ ﴿32:18﴾ اَمَّا الَّذِيۡنَ اٰمَنُوۡا وَعَمِلُوا الصّٰلِحٰتِ فَلَهُمۡ جَنّٰتُ الۡمَاۡوٰى نُزُلًاۢ بِمَا كَانُوۡا يَعۡمَلُوۡنَ‏ ﴿32:19﴾ وَاَمَّا الَّذِيۡنَ فَسَقُوۡا فَمَاۡوٰٮهُمُ النَّارُ​ؕ كُلَّمَاۤ اَرَادُوۡۤا اَنۡ يَّخۡرُجُوۡا مِنۡهَاۤ اُعِيۡدُوۡا فِيۡهَا وَ قِيۡلَ لَهُمۡ ذُوۡقُوۡا عَذَابَ النَّارِ الَّذِىۡ كُنۡتُمۡ بِهٖ تُكَذِّبُوۡنَ‏ ﴿32:20﴾ وَلَنـُذِيۡقَنَّهُمۡ مِّنَ الۡعَذَابِ الۡاَدۡنٰى دُوۡنَ الۡعَذَابِ الۡاَكۡبَرِ لَعَلَّهُمۡ يَرۡجِعُوۡنَ‏ ﴿32:21﴾ وَمَنۡ اَظۡلَمُ مِمَّنۡ ذُكِّرَ بِاٰيٰتِ رَبِّهٖ ثُمَّ اَعۡرَضَ عَنۡهَا​ؕ اِنَّا مِنَ الۡمُجۡرِمِيۡنَ مُنۡتَقِمُوۡنَ‏ ﴿32:22﴾

(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. (32:14) So taste the chastisement on account of your forgetting the encounter of this Day.25 We, too, have forgotten you. Taste the eternal chastisement as a requital for your misdeeds.” (32:15) None believes in Our Signs except those who, when they are given good counsel through Our verses, fall down prostrate and celebrate the praise of their Lord and do not wax proud.26 (32:16) Their sides forsake their beds, and they call upon their Lord in fear and hope,27 and expend (in charity) out of the sustenance We have granted them.28 (32:17) No one knows what delights of the eyes are kept hidden for them as a reward for their deeds.29 (32:18) Would a true believer be like him who was an evil-doer?30 Surely they are not equal.31 (32:19) As for those who believe and act righteously, theirs shall be Gardens to dwell in,32 a hospitality to reward them for their deeds. (32:20) As for the evil-doers, their refuge shall be the Fire. Every time they want to escape from it they shall be driven back and shall be told: “Taste the chastisement of the Fire which you used to reject as a lie.” (32:21) We shall certainly have them taste some chastisement in this world in addition to the greater chastisement (of the Hereafter); perhaps they will retract (from their transgression).33 (32:22) And who is more unjust than he who is given good counsel through the Signs of his Lord and yet he turns away from them?34 Surely We will exact full retribution from such criminals.

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.

25. That is, “You became so absorbed in pleasure-seeking in the world that you totally forgot that you had to meet your Lord on this Day.”

26. In other words, they do not regard it as below their dignity to give up their false notions and believe in Allah’s revelations and adopt His service and obedience. Their conceit does not hinder them from accepting the truth and obeying their Lord.

27. That is, they worship their Lord instead of enjoying sensuous pleasures at night. They are not like the worldworshipers, who seek entertainments in music and dancing, drinking and merry-making, in the night in order to get relief from the day’s fatigue and labor and toil. Instead, when they are free from their day’s work and duties, they devote themselves to the adoration of their Lord, spend their nights in His remembrance, tremble out of fear of Him, and pin all their hopes on Him. “Who forsake their beds” does not mean that they do not sleep at all at night, but that they spend a part of the night in Allah’s worship.

28. In the original, rizq means lawful provisions. Unlawful provisions have nowhere been called rizq by Allah. The verse therefore means: They spend from whatever little or much of pure provisions We have given to them; they do not overspend and do not grab unlawful wealth in order to meet their expenses.

29. Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhi and Imam Ahmad have in different ways cited on the authority of Abu Hurairah that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “Allah says: I have made ready for My righteous servants that which has neither been seen by the eye, nor heard by the ear, nor ever conceived by any man.” The same thing has been reported with a little difference in wording by Abu Said Khudri, Mughirah bin Shubah and Sahl bin Saad asSaidi from the Prophet (peace be upon him) and related with authentic links by Muslim. Ahmed, Ibn Jarir and Tirmidhi.

30. Here mumin (believer) and fasiq (sinner) have been used as two contrasting terms. Mumin is he who believes in Allah as his Lord and the One and only deity and adopts obedience of the law which Allah has sent down through His Prophets. Contrary to this, fasiq is he who adopts the attitude of fisq (disobedience, rebellion, independence and obedience to others than Allah).

31. That is, “They can neither have the same way of thinking and life in the world nor can they be treated alike by God in the Hereafter.”

32. That is, “The Gardens will not merely be a means of entertainment for them, but the same will be their dwellingplaces in which they will live for ever.”

33. “The greater punishment” is the torment of the Hereafter, which will be imposed on the guilty ones in consequence of disbelief and disobedience. “Nearer punishment”, in contrast, implies those calamities which afflict man even in this world, e.g., diseases in the life of individuals, deaths of the near and dear ones, serious accidents, losses, failures, etc. and storms, earthquakes, floods, epidemics, famines, riots, wars and many other disasters, in collective life, which affect hundreds of thousands of the people simultaneously. The reason given for sending these calamities is that the people should take heed even before they are involved in the “greater torment” and give up the attitude and way of life in consequence of which they will have to suffer the greater torment ultimately. In other words, it means this: Allah has not kept man in perfect security in the world so that he may live in full peace, and become involved in the misunderstanding that there is no power above him, which can cause him harm. But Allah has so arranged things that He sends disasters and calamities on individuals as well as on nations and countries from time to time, which give man the feeling that he is helpless and that there is about him an All- Powerful Sovereign Who is ruling His universal kingdom. These calamities remind each individual and groups and nation that there is another Power above them Who is controlling their destinies. Everything has not been placed at man’s disposal. The real Power is in the hand of the Sovereign. When a calamity from Him descends on man, you can neither avert it by any artifice, nor can escape from it by invoking a jinn, or a spirit, or a god or goddess, or a prophet or saint. Considered in this light, these calamities are not mere calamities but warnings of God, which are sent to make man conscious of the reality and to remove his misunderstandings. If man learns a lesson from these and corrects his belief and conduct here in the world, he will not have to face the greater torment of God in the Hereafter.

34. “The signs of his Lord” include all kinds of the signs. A perusal of all the Quranic verses in this regard shows that these signs are of the following six kinds:

(1) The signs which are found in everything from the earth to the heavens.

(2) The sign which are found in man’s own creation and in his constitution and body.

(3) The signs which are found in man’s intuition, his unconscious and subconscious mind and in his moral concepts.

(4) The signs which are found in the continuous experience of human history.

(5) The signs which are found in the coming down of the earthly and heavenly calamities on man.

(6) And, over and above all these, the revelations which Allah sent through His Prophets so that man may be made conscious in a rational way of those realities, which are pointed out by all the above-mentioned signs.

All these signs proclaim consistently and clearly: “O man, you are neither without God, nor the servant of many gods, but your God is only One God: no other way of life is correct for you except the way of His service and obedience. You have not been left to live a free and independent and irresponsible life in this world, but you have to appear before yow God and render an account of your deeds after your life-activity here has come to an end, and be rewarded or punished accordingly. Therefore, it is in yow own interest that you should follow the guidance which your God has sent through His Prophets and His Books for your instruction and desist from an independent way of lift.” Now, obviously, the man who has been warned in so many different ways, for whose admonition countless different signs have been provided, and who has been blessed with the eyes to see and the ears to hear and the mind to think, and yet he closes his eyes to all these signs, and closes his ears to the admonitions of his well-wishers, and uses his mind for inventing stupid and blind philosophies only can be a wretched and wicked person. He only deserves to be given full punishment for rebellion when he appears before his God after the expiry of the period of test in the world.