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ʾa-fa-man ʾassasa bunyānahū ʿalā taqwā mina llāhi wa-riḍwānin khayrun ʾam man ʾassasa bunyānahū ʿalā shafā jurufin hārin fa-nhāra bihī fī nāri jahanamma wa-llāhu lā yahdī l-qawma ẓ-ẓālimīna
Is he who founds his building on Godwariness and [the pursuit of Allah’s] pleasure better-off or he who founds his building on the brink of a collapsing bank which collapses with him into the fire of hell? Allah does not guide the wrongdoing lot.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah At-Tawbah – Verse 109
109 . “Is he, therefore, better who has laid his foundation on fear of Allah and (His) good pleasure, or he who has laid his foundation on the brink of a crumbling hollowed bank that tumbles with him into the Fire of Hell? And Allah does not guide the unjust people.”
After explaining the story of the mosque of dissension, the Qur’ān compares between those two groups: a group who built Qubā Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque, and the group who built the mosque of dissension. The foundation of the work of the first group was on piety and the pleasure of Allah, while the result of the work of the second group was blazing Fire and falling into Hell. The basis of the work of the first group is piety and obtaining the pleasure of Allah, and they have no other aim from it. Are these people better or the second group whose basis of work is upon the brink of a crumbling hollowed bank?
They will fall into the Fire of Hell by the building they have built. In other words, the building, which they have established, is at the edge of the precipice of the Fire of Hell which will suddenly ruins into it. The verse says: