ﲀ ﲁ ﲂ ﲃ ﲄ ﲅ ﲆ ﲇ ﲈ ﲉ ﲊ ﲋ ﲌ ﲍ ﲎ ﲏ
[They will be told], "That is because, when Allah was called upon alone, you disbelieved; but if others were associated with Him, you believed. So the judgement is with Allah, the Most High, the Grand."
Tafsir
Verse range: 40:12
"That is..." and what follows occurs without an answer regarding the exit—whether by negation or affirmation. If the interrogation were taken at its literal face value, and the intent was to request an exit—similar to "So return us [to the world] that we might do righteousness" and the like—it would have been said to them: "Remain despised therein" or something similar. So it is said.
It is permitted that they requested a return in order to act in accordance with that acknowledgement, yet with an exclusion of that possibility and a sensing of despair regarding it. The answer is to cause them to despair by explaining that they had been persistent in polytheism (shirk), and thus they were recompensed with a continuation of the punishment and eternity in the Fire, as His Exalted wisdom necessitates. This is an answer that denies any way to exit in the most eloquent manner, and I see no harm in this interpretation; it is likely the most immediate.
The meaning is: That which you are in, of torment, is "because when Allah was called upon alone"—that is, worshipped, Glorified is He, in the worldly life, being unified and alone. It is in the accusative case as a state (hal), interpreted as an indefinite derived term, or "alone" (wahdah) is used as an absolute object (maf‘ul mutlaq) for an implied verb, similar to "And Allah has caused you to grow from the earth a [progressive] growth." The entire sentence is also a state, where the pronoun was omitted and the verbal noun was put in its place, and concerning this, there is other detailed discourse in the Wafdah, some of which has already preceded.
"You disbelieved"—by His Oneness, Exalted is He; that is, you denied and rejected that. "And if others were associated with Him, you believed"—that is, you submitted and acknowledged the polytheism. In the use of "when" (idha) and the past tense form in the first conditional clause, and "if" (in) and the present tense form in the second, there is that which is not hidden regarding the indication of their wretched state. Since it is thus: "The judgment belongs to Allah," Who does not judge except with truth, and does not decree except by what wisdom necessitates—the Most High, the All-Great.
[He is] the One characterized by the utmost knowledge and the furthest limits of grandeur; there is nothing like unto Him in His Essence, His attributes, or His actions. Therefore, His severity intensified against those who associated partners with Him, and His wisdom necessitated their eternity in the Fire; thus, there is never any way for them to exit it, since you were polytheists.
The argument of the Haruriyya (Kharijites) using this verse for their corrupt claim is utterly baseless. It suffices in refuting them to cite His, the Exalted’s, saying: "Then send an arbitrator from his people and an arbitrator from her people," and His, the Exalted’s, saying: "As judged by two just men among you."
