Tafsir of Hud 11:102-104

Surah Hud (11:102-104)

And thus was the taking of your Lord...

Issue 1: Recitation Variants

• 'Asim and al-Jahdari recited: {إِذْ * أَخَذَ الْقُرَى} (idh akhadha al-qurā) with a single alif (implying a shorter pronunciation of the verb form).
• The rest of the reciters recited it with two alifs (implying the standard form of the past tense verb).

Issue 2: The Nature of Divine Taking (Punishment)

Allah (SWT) informed the Prophet (PBUH) about the fate of previous nations who opposed the messengers and were destroyed. He clarified that they wronged themselves, leading to their worldly punishment. Following this, He states: {وَكَذَلِكَ أَخْذُ رَبِّكَ إِذَا أَخَذَ الْقُرَى وَهِيَ ظَالِمَةٌ} (And thus is the taking of your Lord when He takes the towns while they are unjust).

• This shows that His punishment is not limited to past nations; the manner of taking all the unjust will be the same.
• The pronoun in {وَهِيَ ظَالِمَةٌ} (while they are unjust) refers to the towns, but in reality, it refers to their inhabitants.
• This is similar to His saying: {وَكَمْ قَصَمْنَا مِنْ قَرْيَةٍ كَانَتْ ظَالِمَةً} (And how many a town We destroyed while it was unjust) (Al-Anbiya: 11), and {وَكَمْ أَهْلَكْنَا مِنْ قَرْيَةٍ بَطِرَتْ مَعِيشَتَهَا} (And how many a town We destroyed that was insolent in its livelihood) (Al-Qasas: 58).

Issue 3: Description of the Punishment

After explaining the manner of taking past nations, and establishing that all the unjust are taken in this way, Allah reinforces this by saying: {إِنَّ أَخْذَهُ أَلِيمٌ شَدِيدٌ} (Indeed, His taking is painful and severe).

• He describes this taking as both painful (alīm) and severe (shadīd).
• In this world, nothing is more distressing than pain, and nothing is more intense than the severity of pain in this world and the Hereafter, in perception and intellect, except the severity of pain itself.

Issue 4: Implication for the Unjust

This verse indicates that anyone who commits an injustice must hasten to correct it through repentance and return to Allah, lest they fall into the taking described as painful and severe.

• One should not assume these rulings are exclusive to past nations. Since Allah recounted their history and then said, {وَكَذَلِكَ أَخْذُ رَبِّكَ...}, it implies that whoever shares their wrongful actions must also share in that painful and severe taking.

Issue 5: The Sign for the Fearful

Allah then says: {إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لَآيَةً لِمَنْ خَافَ عَذَابَ الْآخِرَةِ} (Indeed, in that is a sign for whoever fears the punishment of the Hereafter).

• Al-Qaffal's View: He argued that since these people were punished in this world for denying the Prophets and committing Shirk (polytheism)—the world being the realm of action—it is even more fitting that they be punished in the Hereafter, the realm of recompense.
• Critique of Al-Qaffal: Many commentators relied on this view, but it is weak. According to Al-Qaffal's logic, the appearance of worldly destruction serves as proof for the truth of the Resurrection and the Gathering. However, the apparent meaning of the verse suggests that knowing the Hereafter is true is the prerequisite for drawing a lesson from the worldly destruction. This contradicts Al-Qaffal, who makes the worldly punishment the basis for believing in the Hereafter.

• The Sounder View (Al-Razi's Position): Belief in the Hereafter depends on knowing that the Creator of the heavens and earth is an Active Willer (fā'il mukhtār), not merely a necessary cause (mūjib bi-dhātih).
  • If a person does not know that the God of the universe is an Active Willer, capable of all possibilities, and that all events in the cosmos occur only by His decree and creation, they cannot take heed from the destruction of past nations.
  • Those who claim the world's existence is due to necessary causes (not an active will) attribute events like floods, fire, sinking, transformation, and cries to the conjunctions and alignments of the stars. If this were true, these events would not prove the Prophets' truthfulness.
  • However, the one who believes in the Hereafter must believe that the Divine Being is an Active Willer, fully aware of all particulars. This belief necessitates the certainty that these tremendous events occurred because the Divine Being willed and created them, and they were not due to stellar conjunctions.
  • Only then can one benefit from hearing these stories and use them as proof for the Prophets' veracity. Thus, the statement {إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لَآيَةً لِمَنْ خَافَ عَذَابَ الْآخِرَةِ} is confirmed.

Issue 6: The Day of Gathering

Allah then states: {ذَلِكَ يَوْمٌ مَجْمُوعٌ لَهُ النَّاسُ وَذَلِكَ يَوْمٌ مَشْهُودٌ} (That is the Day when mankind will be gathered, and that is the Day that will be witnessed).

Allah describes the Hereafter with two attributes:

1. {يَوْمٌ مَجْمُوعٌ لَهُ النَّاسُ} (A Day when mankind will be gathered): Meaning all creation, the first and the last, will be assembled on that Day.
2. {وَذَلِكَ يَوْمٌ مَشْهُودٌ} (And that is a Day that will be witnessed):
   • Ibn Abbas (RA) said: The righteous and the wicked will witness it.
   • Others said: The inhabitants of heaven and earth will witness it.
   • The meaning of mashhūd (witnessed) is presence (hudūr). The purpose of mentioning this is to address the thought that perhaps, when people are gathered, each person will only know their own fate. Allah clarifies that through the reckoning and questioning, these events will become known to everyone.

Issue 7: The Delay of the Hour

Allah continues: {وَمَا نُؤَخِّرُهُ إِلَّا لِأَجَلٍ مَعْدُودٍ} (And We do not delay it except for a determined term).

• This means the delay of the Hereafter and the termination of this world are contingent upon a numbered term (ajal ma'dūd).
• Everything that has a number is finite. Everything finite must eventually cease.
• Therefore, the delay of the Hereafter must end at a time when Allah will certainly establish the Resurrection and the world will be ruined. Everything that is coming is near.

{يَوْمَ يَأْتِ لَا تَكَلَّمُ نَفْسٌ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِهِ فَمِنْهُمْ شَقِيٌّ وَسَعِيدٌ * فَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ شَقُوا فَفِي النَّارِ لَهُمْ فِيهَا زَفِيرٌ وَشَهِيقٌ * خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا مَا دَامَتِ السَّمَاوَاتُ وَالْأَرْضُ إِلَّا مَا شَاءَ رَبُّكَ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ فَعَّالٌ لِمَا يُرِيدُ * وَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ سُعِدُوا فَفِي الْجَنَّةِ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا مَا دَامَتِ السَّمَاوَاتُ وَالْأَرْضُ إِلَّا مَا شَاءَ رَبُّكَ عَطَاءً غَيْرَ مَجْذُوذٍ}

(105) The Day it comes, no soul will speak except by His permission. And among them will be the wretched and the fortunate.

(106) As for those who are wretched, they will be in the Fire; for them therein will be sighing and loud groaning.

(107) Abiding therein as long as the heavens and the earth endure, except what your Lord wills. Indeed, your Lord is the Doer of what He wills.

(108) And as for those who are fortunate, they will be in Paradise, abiding therein as long as the heavens and the earth endure, except what your Lord wills—a gift uninterrupted.