Surah Al-Mu'minun, Ayah 111

Allah's Response and Rejection of the Disbelievers

This is the response of Allah to the disbelievers when they ask Him to bring them out of the Fire and send them back to this world. He will say:

اخْسَئُواْ فِيهَا

(Remain you in it with ignominy!) meaning, abide therein, humiliated, despised and scorned.

وَلاَ تُكَلِّمُونِ

(And speak you not to Me!) means, `do not ask for this again, for I will not respond to you. Al-`Awfi reported from Ibn `Abbas concerning this Ayah,

اخْسَئُواْ فِيهَا وَلاَ تُكَلِّمُونِ

(Remain you in it with ignominy! And speak you not to Me!) "These are the words of Ar-Rahman when silencing them." Ibn Abi Hatim recorded that `Abdullah bin `Amr said, "The people of Hell will call on Malik for forty years, and he will not answer them. Then he will respond and tell them that they are to abide therein. By Allah, their cries will mean nothing to Malik or to the Lord of Malik. Then they will call on their Lord and will say,

وَلَا تُكَلِّمُونِ (Do not speak to Me - 23:108). According to Hasan al-Basri (رح) these will be the last words of the people who are cast in hell and in reply Allah will say, "Do not speak to Me." After this they will not be able to speak like human beings, but will make animal sounds to each other. Baihaqi and others have quoted Muhammad Ibn Ka` b as saying that the Qur'an mentions five requests made by the people condemned to hell. Out of the five, replies were furnished to four, but in reply to the fifth Allah commanded them not to speak to Him. Thus these are the last words to be uttered by them after which they will not be able to speak. (Mazhari)

During the life of this world, when the realities of the Hereafter were still hidden, there were still some servants of God who had recognised God in all His Majesty and perfection. In spite of hearing the call for Truth in a purely abstract form, supported only by rational arguments, they believed in it. But they had to pay the price for believing in an alien Truth in that they became the subject of ridicule in their immediate surroundings. Despite this, they did not break off this attachment. Such steadfastness in thinking is the greatest form of patience and the reward for this is paradise in the life hereafter.