The Poets (Al-Shu‘ara’)
Verses 90-104 GROUP_954 26.90-104
90
وَأُزْلِفَتِ الْجَنَّةُ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ
When Paradise shall be brought near to the God-fearing
91
وَبُرِّزَتِ الْجَحِيمُ لِلْغَاوِينَ
and Hell shall be revealed to the misguided,
92
وَقِيلَ لَهُمْ أَيْنَ مَا كُنتُمْ تَعْبُدُونَ
they will be asked, ‘Where are those whom you worshipped
93
مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ هَلْ يَنصُرُونَكُمْ أَوْ يَنتَصِرُونَ
besides God? Can they help you or even help themselves?’
94
فَكُبْكِبُوا فِيهَا هُمْ وَالْغَاوُونَ
Then they will be thrown headlong into Hell, both they and the misguided ones,
95
وَجُنُودُ إِبْلِيسَ أَجْمَعُونَ
and Satan’s legions, all together.
96
قَالُوا وَهُمْ فِيهَا يَخْتَصِمُونَ
They will dispute between themselves therein, and will say,
97
تَاللَّهِ إِن كُنَّا لَفِي ضَلَالٍ مُّبِينٍ
‘We were clearly misguided
98
إِذْ نُسَوِّيكُم بِرَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ
when we made you equal with the Lord of the Universe.
99
وَمَا أَضَلَّنَا إِلَّا الْمُجْرِمُونَ
It was the evildoers who led us astray,
100
فَمَا لَنَا مِن شَافِعِينَ
and we have no intercessors now,
101
وَلَا صَدِيقٍ حَمِيمٍ
and no sincere friend.
102
فَلَوْ أَنَّ لَنَا كَرَّةً فَنَكُونَ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ
If we could only return to the world and be among the believers.’
103
إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لَآيَةً وَمَا كَانَ أَكْثَرُهُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ
There is certainly a sign in that, but most of them would not believe:
104
وَإِنَّ رَبَّكَ لَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الرَّحِيمُ
surely, your Lord is the Mighty One, the Merciful.
Commentary
(a) A man’s heaven and hell are not far away from him. Only a curtain intervenes between them. When Doomsday removes that curtain, every man will see that he was standing just on the edge of his heaven or hell, though the negligent man considered it something very distant. There were false leaders (mujrimun), who enjoyed an elevated position in the society of their times. They did not accept the call for Truth simply because, thereafter, their greatness would be finished. Their false pride prevented them from accepting the Truth. As a result, their followers likewise did not consider the call for Truth worth responding to. Equating the leaders with the Lord of the Universe means giving the same status to their utterances as to those of the Lord of the Universe. The Quranic commentator, Ibn Kathir, portrays them as carrying out the orders of their leaders ‘as the orders of the Lord of the Universe are carried out.’ Those who accepted the pronouncements of their leaders as if they were God’s commandments in the world, will themselves, in the Hereafter, call those leaders blameworthy, but it will be of no avail. The place where one was required to recognise and differentiate between the falsifiers and the men of Truth was the world and not the Hereafter.