Tafsir of Ash-Shura 42:45

"And you will see them being exposed to it" (i.e., to the Fire, which is indicated by the mention of the punishment). The sentence is like the preceding one.

"Humbled": abased and diminished.

"Out of humiliation": meaning, because of the humiliation [they feel] due to the magnitude of what has befallen them. The min (from) is causal and relates to khashi'in (humbled); it, and what follows it, is a state (hal).

It is permissible for the prepositional phrase to relate to His saying, "they look," and a pause is made at "humbled."

"With a furtive glance": The first [interpretation] is more apparent. Tarf is a verbal noun meaning "to move one's eye," hence the phrase "a blink (tarfat) of the eye." The meaning of khafi (furtive/hidden) is "weak." The min is for inception, meaning their looking originates from a weak movement of their eyelids, performed stealthily, just as you see the condemned person looking at the sword. This is how the observer looks at things they detest; they are unable to open their eyelids wide toward them and fill their eyes with them, as they would do when looking at a warrior. It is also permissible for min to be in the sense of bi (with). According to Ibn Abbas, khafi means "humiliated," and the tarf is directed upon it by the eyelid. It is also said: They will be resurrected blind, so they will not look except with their hearts, and that is the looking of one with a furtive glance; this, however, is a forced interpretation.

The two previous sentences—namely, "You will see the wrongdoers..." and "They are being exposed..."—are conjoined to "And whoever Allah lets go astray." The original sequence of the speech is: When the wrongdoers see the punishment, they say, while being exposed to it, "humbled..." Then, "And you will see them" was used as an address to everyone capable of vision, and to contemplate their state, as an augmentation of the horror; it is as if He is showing them [the believers] what those [the wrongdoers] are in, so that they may take heed and rejoice. From this, it appears it is an address to the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and his followers.

"And those who believed will say, 'Indeed, the losers...'": meaning they are those who have lost their own souls and their families by exposing themselves to eternal punishment, or based on what passed in Surah Az-Zumar. It shifted from "they are" to the nominal clause "the losers" to record against them the most complete form of loss, for the intent is that they are those who are perfect in the attribute of loss and characterized by its reality.

"On the Day of Resurrection": relates to "lost," and the saying occurs in this world. It is also permissible for it to relate to "will say." The past tense is used to signify the certainty of its occurrence—that is, they will say it when they see them in that state. In Al-Kashf, the manifest [view] is that it is a saying on the Day of Resurrection, like the loss itself, falling under the category of competition (tanazu') between the two verbs. The author of Al-Kashshaf preferred, through his phrasing, that it relates to "loss" alone, because the original construction of "And those who believed will say, 'Indeed, the losers...'" is "Indeed, the losers [are the ones who have lost...]," just as the original in "And you will see the wrongdoers" is "And the wrongdoers, when they saw...". Then, "And those who believed will say" was stated in the same manner as "And you will see..." was stated.

Just as the vision is a vision of this world—[a means of] presenting the punishment that is to exist in the Hereafter for the sake of causing horror—so too is the saying, as if He has made the believers observe their state and hear what the believers say about them. He responded with the second-person address in the vision and the third-person in the saying because the witnessing of the punishment is more intense in inducing horror; thus, the punishment was made as if it were near and witnessed. They [the believers] were singled out for the address to bring the situation to mind for the sake of greater rejoicing. That meaning does not exist in "loss" because it is a rational matter, and sensory things are stronger, especially when they are the causes of the loss. Thus, it was brought according to the original form of the third person, and it was shifted from the present tense to the past because it is a statement issued according to the exigency of the situation, which has been realized and occurred—whether it was spoken or not. It was attributed to the believers to indicate the aforementioned rejoicing and their exultation in their salvation from what those people are in. Otherwise, the saying and the seeing [could apply] to anyone capable of saying and seeing.

Making it a state (hal), as Al-Tibi did, means: "And you will see them, while the statement of the believers in this world has been fulfilled regarding them: 'Indeed, the losers...'", is in the style of the poet's saying: "If we were to trace our lineage, no ignoble woman would have borne me." The objection to this is that such [an interpretation] is only resorted to when the literal meaning is impossible, and here, a construction based on competition (tanazu') is possible; therefore, there is no impossibility. Furthermore, on that assumption, it does not appear that it is a statement made there [on the Day of Judgment] except by external evidence. This is contrary to what Jarallah mentioned regarding His saying, "And I had already warned you with the threat," [interpreting it] as "And it has been confirmed to you that I warned," because the wording clearly indicates that.

I say: By my life, he [the author] has pushed deep into the meanings of these momentous verses and brought forth what scholars of understanding find excellent. So, let it be understood.

And His saying, "Unquestionably, the wrongdoers are in an abiding punishment," is either part of the completion of the believers' speech, in which case the same considerations of the original structure and the point of the shift apply, or it is a new sentence of information from Him [Allah] as a confirmation of that.