Source: Ibn Kathir
The Angels will disown Their Worshippers on the Day of Resurrection
Allah tells us that on the Day of Resurrection, He will rebuke the idolators before all of creation. He will ask the angels whom the idolators used to worship, claiming that their idols were in the form of these angels and that they could bring them nearer to Allah.
He will ask the angels:
(Was it you that these people used to worship) meaning, `did you command them to worship you' Allah says in Surat Al-Furqan:
(Was it you who misled these My servants or did they (themselves) stray from the (right) path) (25:17).
And He will say to `Isa, peace be upon him: (Did you say unto men: "Worship me and my mother as two gods besides Allah,' He will say: "Glory be to You! It was not for me to say what I had no right (to say).'') (5:116).
Similarly, the angels will say:
(Glorified be You!) meaning, exalted and sanctified be You above the notion that there could be any god besides You.
(You are our Protector instead of them.) means, we are Your servants and we disown these people before You.
(Nay, but they used to worship the Jinn;) meaning, the Shayatin, because they are the ones who made idol worship attractive to them and who misguided them.
most of them were believers in them.
This is like the Ayah:
(They invoke nothing but females besides Him, and they invoke nothing but Shaytan, a persistent rebel! Allah cursed him) (4:117-118).
Allah says:
(So Today, none of you can profit or harm one another.) means, `none of those idols and rivals whom you hoped would benefit you, will be of any avail to you, those whom you worshipped in the hope that they would help you at times of stress and calamity. Today they will have no power either to benefit you or to harm you.'
(And We shall say to those who did wrong:) -- meaning the idolators --
("Taste the torment of the Fire which you used to deny.'') meaning, this will be said to them by way of rebuke.
The Saying of the Disbelievers about the Prophets, and its refutation
Allah tells us that the disbeliever deserve to be severely punished by Him, because when His clear Verses were recited to them, and they heard them fresh from the lips of His Messenger , they said:
(They say: "This is naught but a man who wishes to hinder you from that which your fathers used to worship.'') meaning, that the religion of their fathers was the truth and that what the Messenger brought to them was false -- may the curse of Allah be upon them and their fathers!
(And they say: "This is nothing but an invented lie.'') referring to the Qur'an.
(And those who disbelieve say of the truth when it has come to them: "This is nothing but evident magic!'')
(And We had not given them Scriptures that they could study, nor sent to them before you any warner) meaning, Allah did not reveal any Book to the Arabs before the Qur'an, and He did not send any Prophet to them before Muhammad . They used to wish for that and say, `if only a warner comes to us or a Book is revealed to us, we would be more guided than others,' but when Allah blessed them with that, they disbelieved him and stubbornly rejected him.
(And those before them denied;) meaning, other nations.
(these have not received even a tenth of what We had granted to those (of old);) Ibn `Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said, "Of the power of this world.'' This was also the view of Qatadah, As-Suddi and Ibn Zayd.
This is like the Ayat:
(And indeed We had firmly established them with that wherewith We have not established you! And We had assigned them the hearing, seeing, and hearts; but their hearing, seeing, and their hearts availed them nothing since they used to deny the Ayat of Allah, and they were completely encircled by that which they used to mock at!) (46: 26)
(Have they not traveled through the earth and seen what was the end of those before them They were more in number than them and mightier in strength) (40:82).
but that did not protect them from the punishment of Allah, and Allah destroyed them because they denied His Messengers.
Allah says:
(yet they denied My Messengers. Then how (terrible) was My denial!) meaning, `how severe was My wrath and how great was My avenging of My Messengers.'
Refutation of Their Accusation that the Prophet was Insane
Allah says: `Say, O Muhammad, to these disbelievers who claim that you are crazy,'
(I exhort you to one (thing) only,) meaning, I am only telling you to one thing, and that is:
(that you stand up for Allah s sake in pairs and singly, and reflect, there is no madness in your companion.) meaning, `stand sincerely before Allah, without being influenced by your own desires or tribal feelings, and ask one another, is Muhammad crazy Advise one another,'
(and reflect) means, let each person look within himself concerning the matter of Muhammad , and ask other people about him if he is still confused, then let him think about the matter. Allah says:
(that you stand up for Allah's sake in pairs and singly, and reflect, there is no madness in your companion.) This meaning was stated by Mujahid, Muhammad bin Ka`b, As-Suddi, Qatadah and others. This is what is meant by the Ayah.
(He is only a warner to you in face of a severe torment.)
Al-Bukhari recorded that Ibn `Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, commented on this Ayah: "One day, the Prophet climbed up As-Safa' and shouted, (O people!) The Quraysh gathered around him, and said, `What is the matter with you' He said, (What do you think If I told you that the enemy were approaching and will reach us in the morning or in the evening, would you believe me) They said, `Of course.' He said:
(I am a warner to you in the face of a severe punishment.) Abu Lahab said, `May you perish! You have called us together only to tell us this'
Then Allah revealed:
(Perish the two hands of Abu Lahab and perish he!) (111:1)
We have already discussed this in our Tafsir of the Ayah:
(And warn your tribe of near kindred) (26:214).
I do not ask for any Reward for conveying the Message
Allah commands His Messenger to say to the idolators:
(Whatever wage I might have asked of you is yours.) meaning, `I do not want anything for conveying the Message of Allah to you, advising you and telling you to worship Allah.'
(My wage is from Allah only,) means, rather I will seek the reward for that with Alla0h.
(and He is a Witness over all things.) means, He knows all things, and He knows everything about me and the manner in which I am conveying the Message to you, and He knows all about you.
(Say: "Verily, my Lord sends down the truth, the All-Knower of the Unseen.'')
This is like the Ayah:
(He sends the Revelation by His command to any of His servants He wills) (40:15). meaning, He sends the angel to whomsoever He wills of His servants among the people on earth, and He is the All-Knower of the Unseen; nothing whatsoever is hidden from Him in the heavens or on earth.
(Say: "The truth has come, and the falsehood can neither create anything nor resurrect.'') means, truth and the great Law have come from Allah, and falsehood has gone and has perished and vanished.
This is like the Ayah:
(Nay, We fling the truth against the falsehood, so it destroys it, and behold, it is vanished) (21:18).
When the Messenger of Allah entered Al-Masjid Al-Haram on the day of the conquest of Makkah, and found those idols standing around the Ka`bah, he started to hit the idols with his bow, reciting,
(And say: "The truth has come and the falsehood has vanished. Surely, the falsehood is ever bound to vanish.'') (17:81), and:
(Say: "The truth has come, and the falsehood can neither create anything nor resurrect.'') This was recorded by Al-Bukhari, Muslim, At-Tirmidhi and An-Nasa'i.
(Say: "If (even) I go astray, I shall stray only to my own loss. But if I remain guided, it is because of the Revelation of my Lord to me...'') means, all good comes from Allah, and in what Allah sends down of revelation and clear truth there is guidance and wisdom. So whoever goes astray, does so by himself, as `Abdullah bin Mas`ud, may Allah be pleased with him, said when he was asked about some issue. He said, "I will say what I think, and if it is correct, then it is from Allah, and if it is wrong, then it is from me and from the Shaytan, and Allah and His Messenger have nothing to do with it.''
(Truly, He is All-Hearer, Ever Near.) means, He hears all the words of His servants, and He is always near to respond to them when they call on Him. An-Nasa recorded the Hadith of Abu Musa which also appears in the Two Sahihs:
(You are not calling upon one who is deaf or absent; you are calling upon One Who is All-Hearer, Ever Near and Responsive.)
Here Allah says: `if only you could see, O Muhammad, when these deniers are terrified on the Day of Resurrection, and they have no way of escape and nowhere to run to and no refuge.'
(and they will be seized from a near place.) means, they will not even be given the slightest chance of escape, but they will be seized from the first instant. Al-Hasan Al-Basri said: "When they come forth from their graves.''
(And they will say: "We do believe (now);'') means, on the Day of Resurrection, they will say, `we believe in Allah and His angels, Books and Messengers.'
This is like the Ayah:
(And if you only could see when the criminals shall hang their heads before their Lord (saying): "Our Lord! We have now seen and heard, so send us back that we will do righteous good deeds. Verily, we now believe with certainty.'') (32:12)
Allah says:
(but how could they receive from a place so far off) meaning, how could they attain faith now that they are so far removed from the place where it could be accepted from them, and they have entered the realm of the Hereafter which is the realm of reward and punishment, not the realm of trial and testing If they had believed in this world, that would have been good for them, but now they have entered the Hereafter, there is no way that their faith can be accepted, just as there is no way a person can get a thing if he is far away from it.
Mujahid said:
(but how could they At-Tanawush?) means, How could they attain that? Az-Zuhri said, They will wish to attain faith when they have reached the Hereafter and are cut off from this world. Al-Hasan Al-Basri said, They will seek something when they have no way of attaining it, they will seek faith from a distant place.
(Indeed they did disbelieve before, ) means, how can they attain faith in the Hereafter when in this world they disbelieved in the truth and denied the Messengers?
(and they (used to) conjecture about the Unseen from a far place. ) Malik narrated from Zayd bin Aslam that he said:
(and they (used to) conjecture about the Unseen,) means, "By guessing.'' as Allah says,
guessing at the Unseen )18:22(.
Sometimes they said he was a poet, sometimes they said he was a soothsayer, or a sorcerer, or a mad man, or other baseless comments. They denied the idea of resurrection and said:
(we do not think it but as a conjecture, and we have no firm convincing belief.) (45:32).
Qatadah and Mujahid said, "Their belief that there would be no resurrection, no Paradise and no Hell was based on mere conjecture.''
(And a barrier will be set between them and that which they desire,) Al-Hasan Al-Basri, Ad-Dahhak and others, `This means faith.'' As-Suddi said:
(And a barrier will be set between them and that which they desire, ) means "Repentance.'' This was also the view of Ibn Jarir, may Allah have mercy on him.
Mujahid said:
(And a barrier will be set between them and that which they desire,) means, "This world and its wealth, luxuries and people.'' Something similar was narrated from Ibn `Umar, Ibn `Abbas and Ar-Rabi` bin Anas, may Allah be pleased with him. It is also the opinion of Al-Bukhari and the Group. The correct view is that there is no contradiction between the two views, for a barrier will be set between them and what they desire in this world, and what they seek in the Hereafter will be denied from them.
(as was done in the past with the people of their kind.) means, as happened to the nations of the past who disbelieved in the Messengers; when the punishment of Allah came upon them, they wished that they had believed, but this was not accepted from them.
(So, when they saw Our punishment, they said: "We believe in Allah Alone and reject (all) that we used to associate with Him as (His) partners. "Then their faith could not avail them when they saw Our punishment. (Like) this has been the way of Allah in dealing with His servants. And there the disbelievers lost utterly.) (40:84-85).
(Verily, they have been in grave doubt.) means, in this world they had doubts, so their faith will not be accepted from them when they behold the punishment with their own eyes. Qata0dah said, Beware of doubt. For whoever dies doubting, will be raised doubting? and whoever dies believing, with certainty will be raised believing with certainty.
This is the end of the Tafsir of Surah Saba'. Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, is the Guide to the right way.
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