Surah An-Nahl, Ayah 29

The Condition of the Disbeliever during and after Death

Allah informs us of the state of the idolators who are doing wrong to themselves when death approaches and the angels come to seize their evil souls.

فَأَلْقَوُاْ السَّلَمَ

(Then, they will (falsely) submit) meaning, they will make it appear as if they used to listen and obey by saying,

مَا كُنَّا نَعْمَلُ مِن سُوءٍ

(We did not do any evil.) Similarly, on the Day of Resurrection, they will say,

وَاللَّهِ رَبِّنَا مَا كُنَّا مُشْرِكِينَ

(By Allah, our Lord, we were not idolators.) 6:23

يَوْمَ يَبْعَثُهُمُ اللَّهِ جَمِيعاً فَيَحْلِفُونَ لَهُ كَمَا يَحْلِفُونَ لَكُمْ

(On the Day when Allah will resurrect them all together; then they will swear to Him as they swear to you.) 58:18 Allah says, rejecting what they say,

Commentary

It will be recalled that, after describing the blessings of Allah and proving that He was unique in the creation of the universe, the text made a pointed reference to how the polytheists chose to stick to their own ways of error. In the present verses, the text describes how they, not content with their own straying, tried that others should also go astray like them. The punishment they would get for doing that has also been stated here. Earlier to that (24), there is a question about the Qur’ an, and the addressees of the question, at this place, are the polytheists. It is their haughty and ignorant answer which has been mentioned here along with a warning of consequences for this attitude. Then, after five verses (30), the same question has been addressed to believers who fear Allah which is followed by their answer, and where a promise of reward for it has been mentioned.

Arrogance is the worst crime. God will pardon every wrongdoing of man, but He will not pardon arrogance. Haughtiness expresses itself in two ways. One is that which commonly prevails among God’s subjects. An individual, for example, finds himself better endowed with power, wealth, property and other goods as compared to others and so he starts behaving haughtily towards them. The other more serious type of haughtiness is that which is directed against God’s envoy, who works towards the general call of truth. The true servant of God responds to the call of God’s religion. But those who have attained a high status on the basis of false religion feel that they are adversely affected by this call and that by the standards of true religion, their worth is severely diminished. So they flare up over this and ignore the preacher of Truth in their arrogance. A man behaves haughtily with someone, because he thinks that the other person cannot harm him. But when the angels of death approach and reduce him to helplessness, he will then realise that he had not been dealing with a man but with God. One man can be stronger than another, but who can be stronger than God? When God’s angels take things under their control, then every man will surrender. But a true subject of God is one who surrenders to God before this.