Tafsir of Al-An'am 6:62

(Then they are returned) is a conjunction to "He takes you in sleep" (tawaffathu), and the pronoun, as has been said, refers to all [the servants] signified by the singular [in the preceding verse]; this is the secret behind coming with it in the manner of shifting (iltifat), using the singular at first and the plural at the end, for the act of taking (tawaffi) occurs individually, while the return (radd) occurs collectively.

Some scholars have argued that this contains a shift from address to third-person reference, and from the Speaker to the third person, because the return is more appropriate for the third-person referent, without doubt. Even if the return is not literally so, because they never leave the grasp of His command, Glorified be He, for even the blink of an eye. The Imam [al-Razi] reported the view that the pronoun refers to the Messengers, meaning they die just as the children of Adam die. However, the first [interpretation] is the one held by the majority of exegetes.

The meaning is: "Then they are returned" after the resurrection and the gathering, or from the Barzakh (to Allah), meaning to His decree and His recompense, or to the place of presentation and questioning, (their True Master), meaning their Possessor who manages their affairs absolutely. This does not contradict His saying, "And the disbelievers have no master" (mawla), because mawla there carries the meaning of "helper." (The True), meaning the Just, or the manifestation of the Truth, or the One who is true to His promise.

The Proof of Islam [al-Ghazali]—may God sanctify his secret—stated that "the True" (al-Haqq) is the opposite of "the False" (al-Batil). Everything one informs about is either absolutely false, absolutely true, or true in one aspect and false in another. That which is impossible by its own essence is absolutely false. That which is necessary by its own essence is absolutely true. That which is possible by its own essence but necessary by another is true in one aspect and false in another; from the perspective of its own essence, it has no existence, so it is false, but from the perspective of another, it derives existence, so it is true from the aspect that reaches the giver of existence. Therefore, the meaning of "the Absolute True" is the real existence by its own essence from which every truth is derived, and that is none other than Allah the Exalted. This is the intent of the one who says the True is that which is fixed, remaining, and has no annihilation.

In al-Tafsir al-Kabir, it is stated that the terms "Master" (mawla) and "Protector" (wali) are derived from "proximity" (qurb), and He, Glorified be He, is the Near One. "Master" is also applied to the one who emancipates, which is like an indication that He—Majestic is His state—emancipated them from punishment, which is the meaning of His saying, "My mercy has preceded My wrath." Furthermore, He attributed Himself to the servants, and He did not attribute them [as masters] to Himself, and that is the extremity of mercy. Also, He, Majestic is His name, said: "their True Master." The meaning is that in the world, they were under the disposal of false masters, which are the self, desire, and anger, as He, the Exalted, said: "Have you seen him who takes his desire as his god?" So, when a human dies, he is liberated from the disposal of false masters and passes to the disposal of the True Master. End quote, and it is as you see.

It has been claimed that this verse is among the most indicative of evidence that a human being is not merely this physical structure, for its explicit phrasing points to the occurrence of death for the servant and indicates that after death he is returned to Allah the Exalted. Since the deceased, in his state of being dead, cannot be returned to Allah—because that return is not one of place or direction, for He is exalted above both—it must be interpreted as his being subservient to the command of Allah and obedient to His decree. Unless he is alive, this meaning cannot be correctly applied to him. Thus, it is established that death and life have occurred here; as for death, it is the portion of the body, so life remains the portion of the soul. Since He, the Exalted, said, "they are returned," and it is established that the one returned is the soul, it is proven that the human is nothing but it. This is the objective. Similarly, it implies that the soul exists before its attachment to the body, because a return from this world to the Presence of Majesty would only occur if it existed as such. An analogy is His saying, "Return to your Lord," and His saying, "Then to Him is your return." The implication here is not hidden, so contemplate it.

It has been recited as (al-Haqq) in the accusative case, as a predicate of praise, and it is permitted that it be a description of an implicit cognate object, meaning "the true return," in which case it would not refer to Allah the Exalted; but the first is more manifest.

(Unquestionably, the judgment is His) on that day, in form and meaning, not for any other in any way. This is used as proof that obedience does not necessitate reward, nor does disobedience necessitate punishment, for if that were established, the obedient one would have a claim—a judgment—upon Allah the Exalted, which is the receipt of reward, and that contradicts the exclusivity indicated by the verse.

(And He is the swiftest of reckoners) who reckons all creation by Himself in the swiftest and shortest time. It follows from this that one reckoning does not occupy Him from another, nor one affair from another. In the hadith, it is mentioned that He, the Exalted, reckons everyone in the time it takes to milk a ewe; in some reports, in the time of half a day. Some have gone to the view that He does not reckon creation Himself, but rather commands the angels—peace be upon them—and each one of them reckons one of the servants. Others argue that He only reckons the believers Himself, while the angels reckon the disbelievers, because if He were to reckon them, He would have to speak to them, and that is invalid due to His saying regarding them: "And He will not speak to them." The former group responded to this by saying that it means He will not speak to them in a way that benefits them. For the literal meanings of the verses—including what preceded in this Surah: "And the Day We gather them all, then say to those who associated partners: 'Where are your partners whom you used to claim?'" and His saying, "If you could see when they were stationed before their Lord... 'Is this not the truth?' They will say: 'Yes, by our Lord.' He will say: 'Then taste the punishment for what you used to disbelieve'"—all indicate His speaking to them on that Day.

Furthermore, the manner of that reckoning is something the human intellect cannot encompass in detail through the path of logic at all. We have nothing but to believe in it, while delegating the how and the details to the Knower of the Unseen and the Witnessed. The philosophers claimed that the frequency and repetition of actions cause the emergence of ingrained habits, and that each of those actions must have an effect in the acquisition of that habit; rather, every part of a single action must have an effect in some way. In that case, it is said that the actions issuing from the hand are the influence in the acquisition of the specific habit, and similarly the actions issuing from the leg. Thus, the hands and feet become witnesses against the human, in the sense that those psychic effects were only acquired in the essences of the souls by means of these actions issuing from these limbs; so that issuing functioned as a witnessing of the acquisition of those effects in the essences of the soul. As for the reckoning, the intent is to discern what remains of input and output. Since every atom of deeds has a good or bad effect according to the goodness or badness of the deed, and since there is no doubt that those deeds were varied, some were inevitably opposed by others. After the occurrence of opposition, there remains in the soul a specific amount of virtuous character and another amount of base character. When the body dies, the amount of that becomes apparent, and it only occurs at the indivisible instant, which is the instant in which the soul's attachment to the body is severed. He expressed this state as the "swiftness of reckoning." Some of those who related this claimed it was an application of Prophetic wisdom to philosophical wisdom, but I say: "I went out at sunrise and I went out at sunset; how far is the difference between east and west!"