Have you not seen that Allah created the heavens and the earth in conformity with the truth? If He wills, He can annihilate you and bring a new creation. [Q 14:19]
And that is not difficult for Allah. [Q 14:20]
They will all appear before Allah. The weak will say to those who were arrogant, ‘Indeed, we were your followers. So can you protect us from Allah’s torment at all?’ They will say, ‘Had Allah guided us, we would have guided you. It makes no difference whether we are impatient or patient, there will be no escape for us.’ [Q 14:21]
Satan will say when the matter will have been decided, ‘Indeed, Allah promised you a truthful promise and I too promised you and I broke my promise. I had no authority over you, but that I called you, and you obeyed me. So do not blame me but blame yourselves. I cannot help you, nor can you help me. I deny your worship of me besides Allah in the past. Indeed, for the wrongdoers, there will be severe torment. [Q 14:22]
Relationship with the Previous Part
The previous section mentions that the deeds of the disbelievers will be fruitless because they disbelieved in Allah, Exalted be He. Verily, Allah will never make the deeds of the truthful believers in His Oneness fruitless. It does not befit His wisdom to do so, as He the Creator of the heavens and the earth for a wise and truthful purpose.
Tafsir
Have you not seen that Allah created the heavens and the earth in conformity with the truth? If He wills, He can annihilate you and bring a new creation. [Q 14:19]
And that is not difficult for Allah. [Q 14:20]
The ayat move from discussing matters related to belief, disbelief, the messengers, and their enemies to speak about the creation of the heavens and the earth. Such a change is a typical style of discourse in the Quran.
O people, Allah, Exalted be He, created the heavens and the earth. Their creation is greater than creating man. He created them for a wise and truthful purpose. The One, who can create such an amazing creation, can annihilate you if you disobey His commandments and then create a new creation that is different from you. Verily, doing so is not difficult for Allah, the Omnipotent.
They will all appear before Allah. The weak will say to those who were arrogant, ‘Indeed, we were your followers. So can you protect us from Allah’s torment at all?’ They will say, ‘Had Allah guided us, we would have guided you. It makes no difference whether we are impatient or patient, there will be no escape for us.’ [Q 14:21]
On the Day of Judgment, all people will come out from their graves and appear before Allah. Then, Allah, Exalted be He, will call them to account for what they did in the worldly life.
The ayah used the expression ‘come out and appear’ though people cannot be concealed from Allah whether they come out and appear or not. That is because in the worldly life people used to hide when committing sins believing that Allah could not see them. However, in the Hereafter, they cannot hide and will appear before Allah.
The weak followers will say to the arrogant and powerful leaders, ‘Indeed, we used to follow and imitate you in the worldly life. We obeyed your commands so we disbelieved in Allah’s Oneness and His messengers. Can you now protect us from Allah’s severe torment at all, just as used to promise us?’
The arrogant leaders will completely reject protecting them. They will say to their followers, ‘Had Allah guided us to follow the path of guidance and salvation, we would have guided you to follow it. We were not destined to follow the path of salvation. Thus, we deserve the torment prepared for the disbelievers.’
Then the arrogant disbelievers will declare their despair of being saved from the torment. They will say, ‘We shall not be saved from the torment we are suffering. It will make no difference whether we are impatient or patient. There will be no scape for us, as we used to be disbelieving wrongdoers.’
Abdur-Rahman Zayd bin Asslam said, ‘The people of Hellfire will say to one another, ‘The people of Paradise entered Paradise by weeping and earnestly praying to Allah. So let us weep and earnestly pray to Allah.’ Then they wept and earnestly prayed to Allah. Then when they felt that doing so would not avail them, they will say to one another, ‘The people of Paradise entered Paradise by being patient. So let us be patient.’ Thus, they became greatly patient, but it did not avail them. Thereupon, they will say, ‘[It makes no difference whether we are impatient or patient, there will be no escape for us.] [Tafsir al-Tabari]
After mentioning the dialogue that will take place between the arrogant leaders and their followers, the ayah mentions the dialogue that will take place between Satan and his followers.
Satan will say when the matter will have been decided, ‘Indeed, Allah promised you a truthful promise and I too promised you and I broke my promise. I had no authority over you, but that I called you, and you obeyed me. So do not blame me but blame yourselves. I cannot help you, nor can you help me. I deny your worship of me besides Allah in the past. Indeed, for the wrongdoers, there will be severe torment. [Q 14:22]
Allah, Exalted be He, will judge between people on the Day of Judgment. Then people of Paradise will enter Paradise and people of Hellfire will enter Hellfire. After that, Satan will address his followers from among the children of Adam.
He will say, ‘Indeed, Allah promised you a truthful promise that there will be reckoning and recompense on the Day of Judgment, and I too promised you that there would be no reckoning and nor recompense on the Day of Judgment. I broke my promise to you since it was a lie. I had no authority over you, but I called you to obey me and follow my path, and you obeyed me and followed my path. Thus, do not blame me, but blame yourselves because you willingly followed me. It is your fault, not mine since you disobey the command of Allah, your Lord. He called you to worship and obey Him and gave you clear evidence. I cannot help you nor avail you at all. I cannot save you from the torment you are suffering. Likewise, you cannot help me nor avail me at all. You cannot save me from the torment I am suffering. I deny your worship of me besides Allah in the worldly life by obeying my commands. Indeed, the disbelieving wrongdoers will suffer severe torment.’
On the Day of Judgment, Satan will confront his followers with facts that will make them speechless. [Tafsir Fath al-Qadir, by Imam Muhammad al-Shawkani]
First, Satan will make clear to them that his promises in the worldly life were false, while the promise of Allah was truthful. He will also break his promises to them.
Second, Satan will inform his followers that they willingly obeyed his commands and follow his path.
Third, Satan will make clear to his follower that his role was only calling them to follow his path and he had no authority over them.
Fourth, Satan will explicitly inform his followers that they should blame themselves because they unhesitatingly obeyed his commands, and not blame him.
Fifth, Satan will be unable to help his followers and they will be unable to help him.
Sixth, Satan will emphatically inform his followers that he denies their worship of him besides Allah in the worldly life.
Seventh, Satan will affirm that his followers were wrongdoers as they disobeyed Allah and obeyed him.
Learned Lessons From Surah Ibrahim Ayah: 19-22
• Allah, the Omnipotent, created the heavens and the earth for a truthful and wise purpose. He is able to resurrect people for reckoning on the Day of Judgment. Allah is able to create things and He is able to annihilate them. Nothing is difficult for Allah, the Almighty.
• There will be disputes, argumentation, and blame between the arrogant leaders and their weak followers on the Day of Judgment when they all enter Hellfire.
• The arrogant leaders will be unable to avail their followers let alone avail themselves. They all will try to escape from the torment of Allah, but there will be no escape for them.
• The arrogant leaders will acknowledge that they were misguided in the worldly life.
• On the Day of Judgment, Satan will deny his role in misguiding the children of Adam in the worldly life. He will tell his followers that he had no authority over them, and that he only called them to disobey Allah, and that they willingly obeyed His commands.
• People must not obey Satan. Allah clearly informs people in the Quran that Hellfire will be the final abode of Satan and his followers.
No comments:
Post a Comment