Al Mu’minūn

قَالُوا رَبَّنَا غَلَبَتْ عَلَيْنَا شِقْوَتُنَا وَكُنَّا قَوْماً ضَآلّـِينَ

رَبَّنَآ أَخْرِجْنَا مِنْهَا فَإِنْ عُدْنَا فَإِنَّا ظَالِمُونَ

قَالَ اخْسَئُوا فِيهَا وَلاَ تُكَلّـِمُونِ

106. “They will say: ‘Our Lord! Our adversity conquered us, and we were a people gone astray.”
107. “Our Lord! bring us forth out of it! Then if we return (to evil) then verily we shall be unjust.”
108. “He will say: ‘Be you driven into it, and speak not to Me.”

Consciences of men will be awakened on the Resurrection Day and wrongdoers will confess their sins, but they will be humiliated and Allah will speak to them in the harsh terms. It was mentioned in the previous verse that Allah would address them with reproach:

“Were not My Signs recited to you, then you used to belie them?”

In this verse they will confess it and as the verse says:

“They will say: ‘Our Lord! Our adversity conquered us, and we were a people gone astray.”

The Arabic word /šiqwah/ and /šiqawat/ (misfortune) is the opposite of felicity and means the trouble, punishment and calamity prepared for a person. In other words, the wrongdoer will be overwhelmed by evils and disasters, while felicity, on the other hand, means the blessings and goodness in store for the person who does good. In both cases, adversity and felicity, are only the consequences of our intentions, words, and deeds. The belief that felicity and adversity are realities in themselves with which someone is born is only a product of our imagination which goes against the call of all apostles and the efforts of all the great divine guides and teachers of mankind.

It is an idea proffered for those who want to avoid their responsibilities and a means whereby they can justify their evil actions or justify their ignorance. The Hellish wrongdoers in the core of their being indeed confess that they are aware of Allah’s ultimatum and that they were an erring people, but they themselves had prepared the ground for their misfortune. In the next verse, they try to use their confession to attract Allah’s blessings, so they immediately say implying that He would return them back to the world so that they do righteous deeds and that if they commit wrong again they are oppressors.

The verse says:

“Our Lord! bring us forth out of it! Then if we return (to evil) then verily we shall be unjust.”

They make this request as if they were not aware of the fact that the Hereafter was a place where they would be confronted by the results of their wrongdoings. Because they would not be able to return to the world, they could no longer act in it and thus they could not rectify their sinful deeds. Thus in the third verse, Allah gives them a firm answer, this verse says:

“He will say: ‘Be you driven into it, and speak not to Me.”

The Arabic phrase /ikhsa’u/ (Be you driven into it) is an imperative verb meaning ‘go away.’ It is usually used to chase away a dog, and when it is told to a human being, it indicates the person’s disgrace and that he deserves punishment.