Ṣād

وَقَالُوا مَا لَنَا لاَ نَرَي رِجَالاً كُنَّا نَعُدُّهُم مِنَ الأَشْرَارِ

أَتَّخَذْنَاهُمْ سِخْرِيّاً أَمْ زَاغَتْ عَنْهُمُ الأَبْصَارُ

إِنَّ ذَلِكَ لَحَقٌّ تَخَاصُمُ أَهْلِ النَّارِ

62. “And they say: ‘What has happened to us that we do not see the men whom we counted among the wicked ones?’”

63. “Did we take them (wrongly) for a laughing-stock or have our eyes missed them?”

64. “Verily the disputing of the inhabitants of the Fire is a Fact.”

In Hereafter everybody seeks for an accomplice in crime in order to put his sin on his shoulder. These verses continues the discussions of the people of Hell, which were referred to in the former verses, and states one of their other debates which denotes to a deep tiresome regret of theirs that causes them a spiritual torture. It implies that when the chiefs of astray look around them in Hell they ask this question, as the verse says:

Yes, when persons such as Bujahl, Bulahab and the like see that there is no sign of the existence of the persons like ‘Ammar-i-Yasir, Khabab, Sahab, and Bilal in Hell, they come to themselves and will ask each other: ‘Then, what happened to such people?’ We counted them as a group of vicious people, some mischief-mongers in the earth, and the wicked ones who used to try to confuse the calmness of the society and to destroy the honour of our ancestors. It seems that we were wrong.

Some Islamic narrations indicate that once a group of the Shi‘ites came to Ahl-ul-Bayt (as) and complained that there were a group who called them Rafidi and considered them worse than idolaters and pagans. Imam (as) made an oath that the Shi‘ites will be involved in their intercession and those people will seek them in Hell, and then he recited this verse, saying:

In the next verse the Qur’an says:

Yes, they will say that they took these great men, who were of the personality, for laughing, and used to wrongly call them some wicked people; and sometimes they even came lower than this and considered them as some despised persons. But it became known that their carnal desires, ignorance, and pride had put a curtain over their eyes so that they could not see that they were some near-stationed persons with Allah and now Paradise is their abode.

Some other Islamic commentators have suggested another probability for the commentary of the above verse. They have said the issue of mockery points to the situation of this world and the sentence:

refers to the situation of the Hell. That is, their eyes can not see them in the midst of flames of fire and smoke. But, of course, the first meaning seems more proper. This point is notable that one of the lacks of understanding the facts is not to take the issues earnest and mocking the facts. The fact must always be dealt with an earnest decision so that the fact can be made clear. As a conclusion to the debates between the people of Hell, and an emphasis on what was said, the third verse says:

The people of Hell are involved in enmity and quarrel in this world, too, and the status of quarrelsomeness and disputation predominate them. Every day they make quarrel with a person, and in Hereafter, where the inner things manifest, whatever they had in their inside will appear and they will dispute in Hell with each other. The friends of yesterday will be the enemies of today, and the followers of yesterday become the opponents of today. It is only the line of faith and monotheism which is the line of unity and sincerity both in this world and the next.

It is interesting that the inhabitants of Paradise are sitting on the thrones, busy speaking friendly, as the verses of the Qur’an denote, while the inhabitants of Hell are disputing and quarrelling. That itself is a great merit, and this is a painful punishment.

Footnotes

1. 13. The commentary books of Atyab-ul-Bayan, Nur-uth-Thaqalayn, and kanz-ud-Daqayiq.