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ʾa-lam takun ʾāyātī tutlā ʿalaykum fa-kuntum bihā tukadhdhibūna
‘Was it not that My signs were recited to you but you would deny them?’
— Ali Quli Qarai
23Al-Mu’minūnالمؤمنونVerse 105 of 118
The Believers23. Al-Mu’minūnالمؤمنون
Al Mu’minūn
The Believers
MeccanVerse 105 of 118
Surah al-Mu’minun - Verses 104-105
104. “The Fire will burn their faces, and they are glum therein (with the.ir lips displaced).”
105. “ (They will be told:) Were not My Signs recited to you, then you used to belie them?”
The fire burns the faces of the inhabitants of the Hell continuously and without any respite.21 The unbelievers suffer both physically
(“The Fire will burn their faces...”)
and spiritually in their painful punishment and the verse mentions a part of them. It says:
“The Fire will burn their faces, and they are glum therein (with their lips displaced).”
The Qur’anic word /talfahu/ is derived from the word ‘lafh’ and originally means the blow of a sword. Since the effect of a flame or the intense light of the sun, when they hit the human face, is like that of a sword, so this word is used as an allusion to this meaning. The word /kalih’/ is derived from the word /kuluh/ means to become grim-faced or to grimace. Many commentators have interpreted the word in this way, because when the skin of the face feels the heat of fire, it becomes contorted in such a way that the lips would remain open.
We have already mentioned that the Divine punishment in the Hereafter, and even in this world, proportionately reflects the sins committed. It is not such that any kind of punishment would be inflicted upon any kind of wrongdoer. In this verse, the burning inflicted upon faces by the flames of Hell will be so severe that these faces will be contorted and their lips will peel back as a punishment for those whose scales are light and are unbelievers.
When we reflect that most of them are those who had sneered derisively when they heard the Divine verses recited to them and who sometimes smiled in mockery at them, the proportionality of this punishment to their deeds becomes evident. Those who are righteous and love Allah are vastly different to those whose balance is light. They have always shed tears and supplicated to Him (s.w.t.) as if they were people who had committed great sins. The following narration provides an excellent insight into such a noble personality:
’Isma‘i said:
“One moonlit night I was in Mecca. When I was circumambulating the Sacred House, a sad yet beautiful voice gently touched my ears. I looked for the person who possessed the voice and my eyes fell upon a tall, handsome youth whose face showed the signs of goodness.
With the curtain of the Sacred House in his hand, he was supplicating to Allah in the following way:
“O’ my Master and my Lord! The eyes of Your servants are now closed by sleep and the stars of the sky (one by one) are going toward the west, (so the eyes can no longer perceive them). You, Allah, the Alive, the Eternal, neither slumber nor does sleep overtake You.
Now at this time, in the depths of the night, kings have the gates of their palaces closed and have assigned guardians to watch them, and friends are visiting each other in privacy.The only door opened to the supplicants is the door of Your House.
Now I have come, a wrongdoer and needful, to the door of Your House. I have come hoping that You, The Merciful, will shower me with blessings. O The Generous, I have come begging Your grace.”
Then the young man started reciting these lines of poetry:
O The One Who, in the darkness of the night, answers the prayers of those who are driven by necessities.
O The One Who removes and obliterates pains, disasters and sufferings.
Your guests are sleeping around Your House and will get up,
But Your eyes of generosity will never ever be overcome by sleep,
O The Eternal! If Your generosity and benevolence were only desired by the honorable ones around Your Throne,
Then to whose house must wrongdoers go and whose forgiveness should they desire?”
Then he turned his head toward the heavens and continued:
“My Lord, my Master! If I have worshipped You out of knowledge and awareness, praise will be to You and I am indebted to Your grace. And if I have committed sins out of ignorance, You have presented Your argument to me without any shortcomings...”
Then he again turned his head toward the heavens and said in a loud voice:
“O my Master and my Lord! Impure is the world in which there is no remembrance of You. Without Your pardon, the Hereafter is not pleasant. Without worshipping You, the days of life have no value. Impure are those hearts that show no affection for You. Blessings are unpleasant if there is none of Your forgiveness...”
’Isma‘i said:
“The young man continued and recited some more astonishing and interesting poems in this content and he continued supplication until he fainted and fell on the ground.I went up to him and stared at his face.
I looked at him carefully and I recognized him, he was Hadrat Zayn ul-‘Aabidin, Ali ibn al-Hussein, Imam Sajjad (as). I put his head on my lap and wept uncontrollably for his condition. One of my teardrops fell on his face and he opened his eyes and said:
‘Who is it that has distracted me from remembering my Lord?’”
I said:
“My master, it is me, ’Isma‘i. Why do you cry so much and why are you so restless? You are from the household of the Prophet (S). Has not the verse of purification been sent down concerning you?
Has not Allah said about you:
‘...Allah’s wish is but to remove uncleanness far from you, O People of the Household, and to purify you with a thorough purification’? 22
The Imam sat up and said:
“O ’Isma‘i! How far! How far! Allah has created Paradise for those who obey Him, even if that person is an Ethiopian slave. He has also created Hell for those who disobey Him, even if that person is one of the nobles of the tribe of Quraysh. Have not you read the Holy Qur’an and have not you heard this verse:
‘And when the Trumpet is blown there will be no relationship between them that day, nor will they ask of one another’.” 23
’Isma‘i said:
“When I saw that this was the case, I went away and left him alone.” 24
Some Traditions
1. The Prophet (S) said:
“Two (kinds of) eyes are saved from the Fire of Hell: one eye that weeps inside the night out of fear of Allah, and another that does not sleep in the way of Allah.” 25
2. The Prophet (S) said:
“One who sheds tears out of fear of Allah will not be burnt by the Fire as milked milk does not return to the udder.” 26
3. Zayd ibn Suhan asked Imam Ali (as):
“Who is the best of people in the sight of Allah?
The Imam said:
“Whoever fears Allah and is acquainted with piety and austerity more than others and behaves abstinently more than others do.” 27
4. The Prophet (S) said:
“He who is the best among mankind in the sight of Allah is the one who fears Allah the most.” 28
5. Imam Ali (as) said:
“When Allah gathers all of mankind together (in the gathering-place), a crier will speak in a loud voice among them:
’O‘ mankind! Today he is the favorite of Allah who had feared Allah the most.’” 29
6. Imam Ali ibn al-Hussayn (as) said:
“The top and source of any knowledge is the fear of Allah.” 30
7. The Prophet (S) said:
“If you fear Allah as He deserves to be feared of, you will obtain a kind of knowledge where every thing will become clear to you and you will no longer be ignorant, and if you know Allah as He deserves to be known, you can move mountains by your prayers.” 31
8. Imam Sadiq (as) said:
“It is suitable for the believer to fear Allah to such an extent that it would be as if he were about to fall into Hell, and trust Allah to such an extent as if he were one of the people of Paradise.”
The next verse mentions part of Allah’s conversation with the unbelievers and He, addressing them scornfully, inquire them, as the verse says:
“ (They will be told:) Were not My Signs recited to you, then you used to belie them?”
It implies that even though Allah sent them enough signs and reasons through His prophets and gave them a strong argument they continued in their denial and rejection. With regard to the Arabic verbs /tutla/, translated here as ‘recited’ and ‘tukazzibun/, translated here as ‘you used to belie’, both of which are in the future tense in the Arabic text, it makes the fact clear that the Divine verses were recited to them continually and they also continually denied them.
Footnotes