Overview (Verses 18 - 24)

The Greatest Losers

The sūrah moves on to confront those who deny the validity of the Qur’ān and who blatantly lie against God and the Prophet alleging that the Qur’ān is fabricated. The confrontation starts with a scene from the Day of Judgement when the liars are brought to account before their Lord. Here, everything that can be described as lies against God is included: their allegation that God did not reveal the Qur’ān, their association of partners with Him and their claims that Lordship of this earth, which is an attribute of God’s, belongs to them. When they are brought before their Lord on the Day of Judgement all their allegations are publicized so that everyone witnesses their fabrications and falsehood. On the other side stand the believers, happy, reassured, awaiting their fine reward. The two groups are compared to someone who is blind and deaf, and another who is in full possession of his seeing and hearing faculties.

To invent any lie is to commit a terrible crime against truth and against the person concerned. How much more terrible the crime becomes then when the lies are fabricated against God? The culprits then “shall be brought before their Lord, and witnesses shall say: ‘These are they who lied against their Lord.’” (Verse 18) It is a scene where their crime is publicized and they are disgraced. They are singularly pointed out and everyone is made aware that their lies were ‘against their Lord’. The scene carries an air of defamation, and is followed by a suitably appropriate curse: “God’s curse is on the wrongdoers.” (Verse 18)

This curse is invoked by the witnesses, who are the angels, the messengers and the believers, or probably, all mankind. Thus, humiliation awaits them on that vast stage where they are brought to account. Or, perhaps, it is God’s final decision in their case along with the humiliation and the disgrace which they are made to endure in front of all people. In this case it should be read not as an invocation, but as a statement of fact: “God’s curse is on the wrongdoers.” The wrongdoers are those who associate partners with God and who fabricate lies against Him in order to debar others from His path.

“And seek to make it crooked.” (Verse 19) They do not wish to act with honesty and sincerity. They do not like to behave in a straightforward manner. They prefer crookedness and deviousness. The pronoun ‘it’ used here refers to either the path of God or to life generally. The truth about them is emphasized, for they are those ‘who deny the life to come.’ The Arabic expression here is much more emphatic, so that the enormity of their crime is portrayed in sharp relief.

Those who ascribe partners to God (limitless is He in His glory) are the wrongdoers who, indeed, wish all life to be crooked. For they deliberately take themselves away from the straightforward and honest path of Islam. Submission to any deity other than God can only bring about crookedness in every aspect of human existence. When people submit themselves to deities other than God Almighty, they bring humiliation into their own lives, whereas God wants them to enjoy dignity. They perpetrate injustice and oppression while God wants life to be based on justice and fair play. They also waste their own efforts as they try to make their own deities look big and blow up their images so that they can fill the place which belongs to God alone.

These people, cursed and turned away as they are, can never “be immune from punishment on earth.” (Verse 20) God is always able to punish them in this life, if He so wishes. “Nor have they any friends to protect them” or to support them against God. It is, however, His will to defer their punishment to the future life, so that they will endure torment in this world and in the world to come. “Their suffering shall be doubled.” (Verse 20) They have wasted their senses, and lived as if they were dispossessed of their faculties of hearing and seeing: “They could not bear to hear, and they used not to see.” (Verse 20)

“These are the ones who have lost their own souls.” (Verse 21) This is indeed the most terrible loss. For he who has lost his own soul cannot benefit from anything he gains in its place. These people have wasted their lives. They could not appreciate their dignity which is best fulfilled by lifting themselves above submission to anyone other than God. They incurred their loss when they denied the hereafter and fabricated lies against their Lord with the expectation that they would never meet Him. In the life to come they will find that they have lost their souls.

“That which they used to invent shall fail them.” (Verse 21) Their fabrications will go amiss. They cannot find the lies they invented against God. They will all disappear. “Most certainly, it is they who in the life to come shall be the greatest losers.” (Verse 22) What loss can be greater than theirs when they have lost their own souls both in this life and in the life to come?

Contrasted with their situation is that of those who believe and maintain good and proper action. These are reassured, have total trust in their Lord, undisturbed by any doubt or worry: “Those who believe and do righteous deeds and humble themselves before their Lord are destined for Paradise, and there shall they abide.” (Verse 23) The Arabic expression used for ‘humbling themselves’ also denotes submission, trust and reassurance. It depicts a believer’s relationship with his Lord which is one of complete satisfaction, security and freedom from all worry.

We have finally a very vivid image of each of the two groups. The first is like a person who cannot see because he is blind, and cannot hear because he is deaf. He does not put his senses and faculties to their ultimate use, serving his mind, so that he can think, reason and contemplate. He is indeed deprived of all his senses and faculties. The other group are like a person who sees and hears and is, therefore, rightly guided by his senses. “The case of the two parties is like that of the one who is blind and deaf and the one who sees and hears.” (Verse 24) This image is then followed by a rhetorical question: “Can the two be deemed equal? Will you not take heed?” (Verse 24) The whole issue does not require more than taking heed. It is a simple, straightforward issue.